Posted in Whathaveyou on March 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
All three of these bands had releases out in 2024. In the case of London heavypunkers Thee Alcoholics, they had two. Poland’s Sunnata released Chasing Shadows (review here) and Scottish psychfreaks The Cosmic Dead proffered Infinite Peaks (review here) last Spring, and both have set about supporting the records ever since. The three bands join the lineup for Nijmegen’s Sonic Whip Festival alongside a righteous host of acts from various genres, from Frankie and the Witch Fingers‘ heady garage-psych-punk to Temple Fang‘s farthest-out soulful prog, to Orsak:Oslo‘s Scandidrone and Osees‘ how-do-they-do-it-oh-yeah-cocaine-and-ADHD chicanery, among others.
Two days, all killer. Elder, Slomosa and The Devil and the Almighty Blues sharing the stage with Graveyard. Khan and Dutch prog-boogie upstarts Heath holding it down next to Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol and Lord Buffalo. Whether it’s those two from the US, Khan from Australia or others from around Europe, there’s 23 acts on this bill and each one brings something different to the proceedings than the others. Yeah, there are elements shared — it’s a genre-based heavy fest; not a new concept — but if you get a sense of personality looking at the assembled names of the final Sonic Whip 2025 lineup below, I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
There have been a few ‘Live at Sonic Whip’-type releases the past few years as well. If anybody wanted to get that The Devil and the Almighty Blues set on tape, I’m pretty sure a live album from those guys would make the world a better place. See also everybody.
From social media:
LINE-UP SONIC WHIP 2025 COMPLETE
With the addition of the exploratory Scottish spacerockers The Cosmic Dead, ritualistic Polish doomsters SUNNATA and raunchy noise UK five piece Thee Alcoholics the line-up for this year is now complete. Three killer bands next to twenty other amazing acts making the 2025 edition surely one not to be missed!
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 27th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
If this week has felt like little more than catching up with fest announcements and doing-myself-a-favor heavy psych reviews, yeah, I think you’ve basically got the picture of what’s been going on. Of course the holidays are a factor, but even in the quietest of weeks — and this and next are the quietest weeks, traditionally, though the music industry used to shut down from December through February when it ruled the world and anyone could afford an off-season — there’s stuff happening for me to be behind on, and so here we are with Sonic Whip 2025 in Nijmegen bringing on Slomosa, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Help and The Janitors.
Going by the results so far to the Year-End Poll, people are ready for Slomosa to have as busy a year as they apparently will in 2025, and Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol‘s European Not-Vacation has been teased for a few months. That they’d be anchoring club shows at fests makes sense; it’s how things are done these days and I honestly don’t know how much time they’ve spent in Europe at this point. And Khan coming from Australia is incredible, no less because the Melbourne, Australia, psychcrushers are also slated to appear at Hoflärm 2025 in August, which means they could be in Europe for much of the summer. That would be a hell of a trip.
All that’s very exciting, but The Janitors are my real lesson here, as I hadn’t heard them before and they’ve been around for a long time and the record they put out this year, An Error Has Occurred, streaming below, rules. Enjoy it along with this from social media:
NEW NAMES SONIC WHIP 2025
All ready and set for the holidays? We for sure are, but not before adding some truly fine gems to the Sonic Whip 2025 line-up; Slomosa, The Janitors, Help, Khan and Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol!
Slomosa can’t wait to make their appearance again with their hard hitting Norwegian tundra rock. As are The Janitors who will conjure their heavy fuzzed out drones, a truly Swedish psychedelic aural wormhole, cool and mega-trippy. Which is nothing like Help, these guys from Portland bring throat-shredding, veins-bulging, shirt-soaking hardcore noise punk. The Aussies from Khan on the other hand deliver evocative, hazy psychedelica with intricate stoner riffs. And last but not least Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol. This trio from Texas create the most brilliant doom sludge pop psych combination you propably will hear this year… It’s big, it’s dumb, it’s fucking rifftastic!
That’s not all, daytickets are available now as well at a reduced price, available until January 12th. Snag these while they are still hot. The new year will also bring more cool names including the second headliner!
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 25th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
A lot to like in the batch of new names added to Sonic Whip in the Netherlands this coming May. The 2025 Nijmegen edition of the festival has announced Dutch upstarts Heath will play — reasonable — and brought on Graveyard, who immediately go to the top of the bill and are playing for the first time — and punctuated noise rock masters Whores., the ambient Orsak:Oslo, as well as Utrecht heavy punkers Rats and Daggers and Los Angeles’ own Frankie and the Witch Fingers for those who’d dare a little fun while they have a good time.
As Lord Buffalo are also added, I can’t help but wonder if the Austin-based outfit won’t do a tour around this appearance, and if so, I believe that’s their first European jaunt. Don’t quote me on that, I could be wrong. Either way, I’ll try to keep an eye for dates and, if they’re going to make a run of it, with whom.
The announcement was short and sweet, the lineup is righteous and by all accounts I’ve heard, Sonic Whip is an amazing time. Barring some never-gonna-happen fiscal miracle, I won’t be there to see it, but if you get to go, enjoy. Tickets are available. Here’s what they had to say on socials:
NEW NAMES SONIC WHIP 2025
We’re thrilled to announce Graveyard for Sonic Whip 2025! The appearance of the Swedish band will mark their debut at our festival. Judging by their blistering performances lately they are on fire! Also present on 16 & 17 May; US garage psychrockers Frankie And The Witch Fingers, noise-punk-sludge juggernauts Whores., Norwegian atmospheric kraut-jazz-psychrockers Orsak:Oslo, cinematic & melancholic rockers Lord Buffalo from the US, Dutch psych revelation Heath and upcoming sonic punkrockers of Rats and Daggers.
The line-up is shaping up nicely with Elder, The Devil and the Almighty Blues, Temple Fang and Karkara being announced earlier on and there’s still more to follow! Keep your eyes peeled.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 25th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The Nijmegen-based Sonic Whip Festival has unveiled the first five acts for its 2025 edition. Elder are all over the place — here, Desertfest in London, Berlin and Oslo, plus club shows — and The Devil and the Almighty Blues will be making the rounds. If you’ve never seen them, just know that they deliver a lot of both devilry and blues from the stage. It’s early to get a sense of the full shape of the thing, but with Temple Fang, Karkara and Den Der Hale rounding out, Sonic Whip 2025 presents a varied face within the realms of that which is heavy and psychedelic. I look forward to finding out who else is taking part, as the Spring European touring circuit begins to take shape months before the year has even started.
Also, as Burning World Records recently announced it was restructuring business to lean more into the distro side of things rather than new releases — fair enough — it specifically noted that the label would continue to release live outings captured at Sonic Whip, so it’ll be fun to see what if anything emerges from next May’s fest. For those of us who’ve never been, such things are only fuel for daydreams.
From the PR wire:
FIRST NAMES SONIC WHIP 2025 AND START TICKETSALE
Two days full of roaring guitars with steaming bass lines, pounding drums and other sonic, psychedelic excesses. That’s what you can expect during Sonic Whip 2025 on Friday 16 May and Saturday 17 May.
We are delighted to share the first few names; Elder, The Devil And The Almighty Blues, Temple Fang, Karkara and Den Der Hale will hit the stage for next year’s edition. There are many more artists to be announced. Join us on this sonic journey, because it’s going to be a killer party again!
A limited amount of early bird weekend tickets is available now. Get yours when you can. Day tickets will be available on a later date.
Legend has it that a long time ago, thousands of years ago, before even the founding of the Kingdom of New Jersey itself, there was a man who attempted a two-week, 100-album Quarterly Review. He truly believed and was known to say to his goodlady wife, “Sure, I can do 100 releases in 10 days. That should be fine,” but lo, the gods did smite him for his hubris.
His punishment? That very same Quarterly Review.
Like the best of mythology, the lesson here is don’t be a dumbass and do things like 100-record Quarterly Reviews. Clearly this is a lesson I haven’t learned. Welcome to the next two weeks. Sorry for the typos. Let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
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Nebula, Livewired in Europe
A busy 2023 continued on from a busy 2022 for SoCal heavy rockers Nebula as they supported their seventh album, Transmission From Mothership Earth (review here), and as filthy as was founding guitarist Eddie Glass‘ fuzz on that record, the nine-track (12 on the CD) Livewired in Europe pushes even further into the rawer stoner punk that’s always been at root in their sound. They hit Europe twice in 2023, in Spring and Fall, and in the lumbering sway of “Giant,” the drawl of “Messiah,” the Luciferian wink of that song and “Man’s Best Friend” earlier in the set, and the righteous urgency of what’s listed in the promo as “Down the Mother Fuckin’ Highway” or the shred-charged roll of “Warzone Speedwolf” in the bonus cuts, with bassist Ranch Sironi backing Glass on vocals and Mike Amster wailing away on drums — he’s the glue that never sounds stuck — they document the mania of post-rebirth Nebula as chaotic and forceful in kind, which is precisely what one would most hope for at the start of the gig. It’s not their first live outing, and hopefully it’s not the last either.
The self-recording/self-releasing Kamil Ziółkowski offers his second solo LP with The Land, following in short order from last Fall’s In Roundness (review here) and the two-songer issued a month after. At six songs and 35 minutes, The Land further distinguishes Mountain of Misery stylistically from Ziółkowski‘s main outfit, Spaceslug. Yes, the two bands share a penchant for textured tones and depth of mix (Haldor Grunberg at Satanic Audio mixed and mastered), and the slow-delivered melodic ‘gaze-style vocals are recognizable, but “The ’90s” puts Nirvana through this somewhat murky, hypnotic filter, and before its shimmering drone caps the album, on closer “Back Again,” the multi-instrumentalist/vocalist reminds a bit of Eddie Vedder. Seekers of nod will find plenty in “Awesome Burn” and the slightly harder-hitting “High Above the Mount” — desert rock in its second half, but on another planet’s desert — while the succession of “Path of Sound” and “Come on Down” feel specifically set to more post-rocking objectives; the plot and riffs likewise thickened. Most of all, it sounds like Mountain of Misery is digging in for a longer-term songwriting exploration, and quickly, and The Land only makes me more excited to find out where it’s headed.
The named-for-their-names trio Page Williams Turner is comprised of electronicist/mixer Michael Page (Sky Burial, many others), drummer/percussionist Robert Williams (of the harshly brilliant Nightstick) and saxophonist Nik Turner (formerly Hawkwind, et al), and the single piece broken into two sides on their Opposite Records self-titled debut is a duly experimentalist, mic-up-and-go extreme take on free psychedelic jazz, drone, industrial noisemaking, and time-what-is-time-signature manipulation. “Rorrim I” is drawn cinematically into an unstable wormhole circa its 14th minute, and teases serenity before the listener is eaten by a giant spider in some kind of unknowable ritual, and while “Rorrim II” feels less manic on average, its cycles, ebbs and flows remain wildly unpredictable. That’s the point, of course. If the combination of personnel and/or elements seems really, really weird on paper, you’re on the right track. This kind of thing will never be for everybody, but those who can get on its level will find it transportive. If that’s you, safe travels.
The spoken intro welcoming the listener to “the greatest and last show of your lives” at the head of the chugging “Mortician Magician” is a little over the top considering the straightforward vibe of much of what follows on the 10 tracks of 2023’s The Hex of Penn’s Woods from Pennsylvania-based heavy rockers Almost Honest, but whether it’s the banjo early or the cowbell later in “Haunted Hunter,” the post-Fu Manchu riffing and gang shouts of “Alien Spiders,” “Ballad of a Mayfly”‘s whistling, the organ in “Amish Hex” (video premiere here), the harmonies of “Colony of Fire,” a bit of sax on “Where the Quakers Dwell,” that quirk in the opener, the funk wrought throughout by Garrett Spangler‘s bass and Quinten Spangler‘s drumming, the metal-rooted intertwining of Shayne Reed and David Kopp‘s guitars or the structural solidity beneath all of it, the band give aural character to coincide with the regionalist themes based on their Pennsylvania Dutch, foothill-Appalachian surroundings, and they dare to make their third album’s 44 minutes fun in addition to thoughtful in its craft.
Based in Western Massachusetts, Buzzard is the solo-project of Christopher Thomas Elliott, and the title of his debut album, Doom Folk, describes his particular intention. As the 12-song/44-minute outing unfolds from the eponymous “Buzzard” at its outset (even that feels like a Sabbathian dogwhistle), the blend of acoustic and electric guitar forms the heart of the arrangements, but more than that, it’s doom and folk, stylistically, that are coming together. What makes it work is that Elliott avoids the trap of 2010s-ish neo-folk posturing as a songwriter, and while there’s a ready supply of apocalyptic mood in the lyrical storytelling and abundant amplified distortion put to dynamic use, the folk he’s speaking to is more traditional. Not lacking intricacy in their percussion, arrangements or melodies, you could nonetheless learn these songs and sing them. “Death Metal in America” alone makes it worth the price of admission, let alone the stellar “Lucifer Rise,” but the sweet foreboding and build of the subsequent “Harvester of Souls” gets even closer to Buzzard‘s intention in bringing together the two sides to manifest a kind of heavy that is immediately and impressively its own. Doom Folk on.
Mt. Echo begin their third full-length primed for resonance with the expansive, patiently wrought “Veil of Unhunger,” leading with their longest track (immediate points) as a way of bringing the listener into the record’s mostly instrumental course with a shimmer of post-rock and later-emerging density of tone. The Nijmegen trio’s follow-up to 2022’s Electric Empire (review here) plays out across a breadth that extends beyond the 44-minute runtime and does more in its pieces than flow smoothly between its loud/quiet tradeoffs. “Round and Round Goes the Crown” brings a guest appearance from Oh Hazar guitarist/vocalist Stefan Kollee that pushes the band into a kind of darker, thoroughly Dutch heavy prog, but even that shift is made smoother by the spoken part on “Brutiful Your Heart” just before, and not necessarily out of line with how “Set at Rest” answers the opener, or the rumble, nod and wash that cap with “If I May.” The overarching sense of growth is palpable, but the songs express more atmospherically than just the band pushing themselves.
They’re probably to raw and dug into Satanic cultistry to agree, but with Per “Hellbutcher” Gustavsson (Nifelheim) on vocals, guitarists Beelzeebubth (Mystifier, etc.) and Nikolas “Sprits” Moutafis (Mirror, etc.), bassist Taneli Jarva (Impaled Nazarene, etc.) and drummer Tasos Danazoglou (Mirror, ex-Electric Wizard, etc.) in the lineup for second LP God Damned You to Hell, it’s probably safe to call Friends of Hell a supergroup. Such considerations ultimately have little to do with how the rolling proto-NWOBHM triumphs of “Bringer of Evil” and “Arcane Macabre” play out, but it explains the current of extremity in their purposes that comes through at the start with the title-track and the severity that surrounds in the layering of “Ave Satanatas” as they journey into the underworld to finish with the eight-minute “All the Colors of the Dark.” You’re either going to buy the backpatch or shrug and not get it, and that seems like it’s probably fine with them.
Not to be confused with France’s Red Sun Atacama, Italian prog-heavy psych instrumentalists Red Sun mark their 10th anniversary with the release of their third album, From Sunset to Dawn, and run a thread of doom through the keyboardy “The Sunset Turns Purple” and “The Shape of Night” on side A to manifest ‘sunset’ while side B unfolds with airier guitar in “The Coldness of the New Moon” and “Towards the End of Darkness” en route to the raga-leaning “The New Sun,” but as much as there is to be said for the power of suggestion and narrative titling, it’s the music itself that realizes the progression described in the name of the album. With a clear influence from My Sleeping Karma in “The Coldness of the New Moon” and the blend of organic hand-percussion and digitized melody in “The New Sun,” Red Sun immerse the listener in the procession from the intro “Where Once Was Light” (mirrored by “Intempesto” at the start of side B) onward, with each song serving as a chapter in the linear concept and story.
Cinematic enough in sheer sound and the corresponding intensity of mood to warrant the visual collaboration with Kai Lietzke that accompanies the audio release, the collaboration between Hamburg electronic experimentalist Peter Wolff (Downfall of Gaia) and vocalist Jens Borgaard (Knifefight!, solo) moves between minimalist soundscaping and more consuming, weighted purposes. Moments like the beginning of “Transmit” might leave one waiting for when the Katatonia song is going to kick in, but Wolff & Borgaard engage on their own level as each of the nine pieces follows its own poetic course, able to be caustic like the culmination of “Observe” or to bring the penultimate “Extol” to silence gradually before “Reaper” bursts to life with clearly intentional contrast. I heard this or that streaming service is making a Blade Runner 2099 tv series. Sounds like a terrible idea, but it might just be watchable if Wolff & Borgaard get to do the score with a similar evocations of software and soul.
The Portland, Oregon, two-piece of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Benjamin Caragol (ex-Burials) and drummer Ben Stoller (currently also Simple Forms, Dark Numbers, ex-Vanishing Kids) do much to ingratiate themselves both to the crowded underground of which their hometown is an epicenter, and to the broader sphere of heavy-progressivism in modern doom and sludge. Across the five tracks of their self-released for now debut full-length, Glacial Erratic, the pair offer a panacea of heavy sounds, angular in the urgency of “Toeing the Line,” which opens, or the later thud of “Selective Memory” (the latter of which also appeared on their 2020 self-titled EP), which seem more kin to Baroness or Elder crashes and twists of “A Distant Light” or the interplay of ambience, roll, and sharpness of execution that’s been held in reserve for the nine-minute “Wounds at the Stem” as they leave off. Melody, particularly in Caragol‘s vocals, is crucial in tying the material together, and part of what gives Semuta such apparent potential, but they seem already to have figured out a lot about who they want to be musically. All of which is to say don’t be surprised when this one shows up on the list of 2024’s best debut albums come December.
Posted in audiObelisk on February 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
It doesn’t take long on Live @ Club Void Effenaar 23-3-23 before you’re in the room. You can hear voices in the crowd as Dutch instrumental improvisationalists DUNDDW begin to unfold their set, soon enough to be joined by Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (Øresund Space Collective, Doctors of Space, Black Moon Circle, solo work, etc.) expanding the trio as a four-piece with a guest spot on synth after about 12 minutes in, some comment and a chuckle as things mellow and space way, way out thereafter in the jam’s dreamier midsection, and so on.
The LP-length single-song set is out today as an independent release from DUNDDW, for whom it follows a 2023 split with Kombynat Robotron (review here) and their 2022 debut, Flux (review here), and the occasion that brought Heller from Portugal to the Netherlands was Black Moon Circle touring to support their 2023 LP, the expansive Leave the Ghost Behind (review here). Held weekly in the smaller room at the legendary Effenaar in Eindhoven (and no, it’s not just legendary because I saw Motorpsycho there one time, though that’d be enough in my head), ‘Club Void’ is a series of shows put together by the venue’s Robert Schaeffer as well as Paul van Berlo of the Into the Void Festival (also Loud Noise Booking) and Peter van Elderen, formerly the vocalist of Peter Pan Speedrock. All of these are endorsements that, existentially speaking, are good to have.
But DUNDDW have been pretty well encouraged since their outset bringing bassist Huibert der Weduwen and drummer Peter Dragt of Bismut together with Mt. Echo‘s Gerben Elburg on guitar for pointedly exploratory purposes, and the flow they conjure throughout Live @ Club Void Effenaar 23-3-23 presents a vivid picture of why for listeners who haven’t had the chance to actually see them. The cosmic adventure is mellow in spirit on the whole, but communal in a way that feels active, and inviting in tone and groove. Dropping nearly to silence at times, it represents well the conversation happening on stage as the sounds were being made, while allowing the audience and the LP-listener space to put themselves in the moment. In the initial build-up, DUNDDW work their way into a voluminous build, guitar signaling volume changes as they ooze past nine minutes, and when Dr. Space hops on board after (or maybe during) the ensuing wash a short time later, the proceedings get duly hyperspatial.
They drift and reorient, finding a new path with the four of them on the stage, and gradually the float becomes more driving, pushing into intense space rock before noising out behind the waves of Heller‘s synth with Dragt‘s crash and tom fills marking the end of that movement circa 26:30 and the beginning of the final cycle of ebbs and flows, more solidified in their purpose than they were only minutes before, but clearly having learned from the second part of the jam. Keep an ear out for bells, which you might just hear in that last stretch if they, it, or anything actually exists, and know that DUNDDW save their most fervent push for the crescendo, and that the experience of getting there is as much the point as the big finish and ringout itself.
Live @ Club Void Effenaar 23-3-23 isn’t intended to be some grand statement. At its heart, it’s a bootleg-style outing that captures one night among many DUNDDW went on stage and did what they do. This, coupled with the Heller collaboration that stands it out among other gigs, is the appeal. It would be ridiculous if DUNDDW did some hyper-produced live record. They might as well go to a studio and jam out an new LP if they’re going to spend the time and money. But here, they express the sense of journey from one end of this massive piece to the other, while also conveying their root ethic of commitment to organically capturing the creative moment as it happens. For that, Live @ Club Void Effenaar 23-3-23 offers resonance even beyond that of its echoing final tones.
Again, it’s out today, so by all means, dig in below and enjoy. Some PR wire-type info follows:
Friday, February 23rd, we (Dutch improv instrumental spacerock band DUNDDW) will digitally release a 40 minute jam we played last year at Club Void in The Netherlands. Around 17 minutes in Dr. Space – aka Scott Heller from Øresund Space Collective, Black Moon Circle a.o. – joins in on the jam.
Says DUNDDW: ” We really felt the flow during this jam. It builds up in three waves, with Dr. Space joining in about halfway through with some great synths, bells and spacy genius.”
Says Dr. Space: “I’ve been friends with the guys in Bismut, and DUNDDW invited me to jam with them and it was fun. Sure we will do it again. Great guys.”
DUNDDW is a 100% improvising, instrumental spacerock/krautrock trio from The Netherlands, with members from Bismut and Mt. Echo. Their first full length album Flux was released in November 2022. In June 2023 they released a split vinyl LP with German krautrock band Kombynat Robotron. February 2024 marks the release of a live jam they played in 2023, with Dr. Space joining in.
DUNDDW = Peter Dragt – Drums Huibert der Weduwen – Bass Gerben Elburg – Guitars
This Friday, Oct. 20, marks the release of the third Bismut album, Ausdauer (premiere streaming above). A five-tracker being issued through Lay Bare Recordings in the band’s native Netherlands and Spinda Records in Spain, its title translates as ‘endurance’ and in that could be speaking to any number of subjects, from the instrumentalist trio of guitarist Nik Linders, bassist Huibert der Weduwen and drummer Peter Dragt having done the recordings themselves, live, which surely requires more than a bit of stamina, to processing the years since 2020’s Retrocausality (review here), to the war in Europe, now spread to Israel and Palestine. Surely there are no shortage of hardships and tasks and slogs to endure, but from the slow swing in the finishing moments of “Mendalir” through the shoving insistence of closer “Euphoria,” Bismut find places for themselves between ideas of structured heavy rock and more open, at least partially improvised rock-as-jazz jamming, between crunch and stretch, atmosphere and impact.
Retrocausality and their 2018 debut, Schwerpunkt (review here), functioned along similar lines, and a return from esteemed engineer Pieter Kloos (7Zuma7, 35007, The Devil’s Blood, so many more) on mixing and mastering further assures sonic consistency, but while Bismut highlight a sun-reflecting shimmer in the early soloing of “Mendalir” — the first of many of Linders‘ leads that feels exploratory on solid footing — something they’ve never done is to forget about their audience. The live experience — sorry to say I haven’t seen the band — may be central to what Bismut do generally, not the least since they record that way, but they’re still writing songs. Ausdauer isn’t a collection of jams. “Mendalir” coalesces around a riff out of progressive metal delivered with all due force, and moves fleetly through its turn-laced midsection into its final roll and comedown with a sense of plot that makes it that much easier to follow, the opening of “Fuan” — also the shortest cut at 5:55 — sounding like a raw noise rock riff from 1994, because of course.
There are some spacey effects worked in, but “Fuan” builds itself around a grounded-feeling procession that comes to a maddeningly tense head at about the halfway mark before unfolding itself again ahead of a dreamier-echoing solo and a clear turn to improv and percussion from which they make a smooth return a short while later. Effects top a chugging finish like something later Karma to Burn might’ve called an indulgence (it’s not, really) and momentum carries into centerpiece “Despotisme” with a swagger that seems to know what’s coming when the full tonality of the riff kicks in, which is a for-the-stage bounce soon met by an adventure into solo-topped tripping, chug and build and shred and go all sort of slamming together and the math somehow working. Again, the shift from structure to not is discernible — or at least one can be interpreted — but it’s the later ambience/drone of “Despotisme” complementing that relative rush that is affecting, a final note held out perhaps in consideration for the liberal order as the band reinforce the atmospheric thread that’s been subtly woven through Ausdauer from the progressively brooding opening moments of “Mendalir” onward.
Its last echoes fading, “Despotisme” gives over to Dragt‘s drums to start “Mašta,” cycling through a riff with off-the-cuff-sounding flourish before winding through a tense ‘verse’ that even when the guitar disappears holds its anxiety in the low end before they dig into head-down jazzy runs, never actually holding still or even coming close to it, but bringing the song down to near-silence before they gradually raise the volume, coming back up at around six minutes in and hitting decisively into a heavier thrust of riff with the snare punctuating, bass rumbling and guitar spacious in the lead as the bass does some of the melodic work in its place. Stylistically, “Mašta” might be post-post-rock because it’s actually willing to have fun, but its psychedelia is earthly however broad the guitar tone might be, and between that and the organic chemistry of the rhythm section — der Weduwen and Dragt also double in DUNDDW; and indeed, if you had a heavy instrumental psych band, you might want them in it as well — Bismut set up their bookending finale to burst to life over the end of “”Mašta,” an immediate mathiness twisting about 45 seconds in to denser riffing recalling earlier Karma to Burn-ism without actually beings so religiously straightforward.
To wit, “Euphoria” funks out at around 1:30 before returning to its bouncing starts and stops, then moves into a wash of noise before a grand mellowing moves past the halfway mark with quiet brooding in the bass and sparse guitar. You know they’re going to bring it back around. Bismut know they’re going to bring it around. But before they do, the band put themselves in conversation with the likes of early ’00s European instrumentalists and adventurers, Dutch outfits like the already-noted (if parenthetically) 35007 or Astrosoniq, or even Monkey3 from Switzerland; bands whose tenures are marked by a distinctive growth along a charted course. With the caveat of living in a universe of infinite possibility, one would not expect Bismut after Ausdauer to go thrash metal after Ausdauer, but where they reside between heavy rock, jamming, heavy psych and prog, there is plenty of room for them to continue to grow and explore as they’re plainly committed to doing or they wouldn’t improvise at all, let alone on the finished product of an album.
After twisting itself in various sailing knots for the better part of its nine minutes — “Mendalir” (8:59) and “Euphoria” (9:09) bookend as the two longest songs — “Euphoria” caps with a predictable-but-satisfying stop that feels like it’s underlining the purpose behind so much of the material before it, emphasizing the natural meld between songwriting and instrumentalist conversation in their sound and the way Bismut are able to pull the different sides together in a malleable, engaging blend. Whether one might lose oneself in the fluidity of their play, nod to the riffs as they roll by, dwell in its open spaces or grit teeth in its builds, Ausdauer accounts for a range of experiences and, in part through its scope, serves as a defining effort on the part of Bismut to-date. They don’t sound like they’re done finding new reaches and/or refining their approach, but in terms of methodology, they have very obviously learned from their first two LPs and put those lessons to use here.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Believe me, I understand that Europe is not exactly lacking in instrumental psych bands. Free-range and free-jazz trios roam in the wilds Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK even, Italy, Scandinavia, on and on. We know this. What I’m saying is that Nijmegen’s Bismut are on something of a different trip. Yeah, when you read about it, you’re going to hear ‘instrumental psych’ and think, “okay, this is one of those post-Earthless or maybe post-Colour Haze jam bands” and know what you’re getting. And by the way, if that was what Bismut were doing, fine. I love that shit.
But Bismut are more progressive in their sound on their third LP behind 2020’s Retrocausality (review here) and their 2018 debut, Schwerpunkt (review here). I can hear Tool and Karma to Burn both in opening track “Mendalir” and the subsequent “Faun” backs that up with surprisingly earthy riffing. However much Bismut‘s beginnings may have been in improv, these are composed pieces. There’s genuine crunch in the tone on “Despotisme” and the closer “Euphoria,” and “Masta” spaces out a bit, but as much as a band without vocals could, Bismut sound like they’re trying to capture an audience. A live crowd. And these songs sound like they were written for the stage, which they may well have been.
So yeah, I’ve heard it and it’s not worth pretending otherwise. I’m currently slated to stream [title redacted] on Oct. 18 ahead of its Oct. 20 release (don’t tell the internet, but the day between is my birthday). Mark your calendars for that. It feels far in the future with September between here and there, but it’ll come eventually.
The PR wire sent words. I made theM blue and put them here because it is important to see the narrative an artist/band/anybody is telling you about their own work:
BISMUT – NEW LP – RELEASE DATE 20th OCTOBER 2023
Hailing from the city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, Bismut is a dynamic heavy psych trio that has been carving their unique path since forming in 2016. Drawing influences from an eclectic blend of genres including progressive rock, doom, metal, stoner, heavy psych, and classic hard rock, their music is an intense and mesmerizing fusion that transcends traditional boundaries. Their distinctive sound has earned them a dedicated fanbase, and their performances on stages across Europe have solidified their reputation as a force to be reckoned with.
New album [title redacted] marks the triumphant return of the band, following the success of their sold-out (on vinyl) previous releases, Schwerpunkt in 2018, and Retrocausality in 2020, released via Lay Bare Recordings. This album promises to be a sonic journey that delves even deeper into the band’s diverse influences while pushing their sound to new heights. From thunderous, doom-laden riffs to mind-bending psychedelic explorations, the album seamlessly weaves together a tapestry of textures that will resonate with long-time fans and newcomers alike.
[Title redacted] is a joint effort between the band’s current Dutch label Lay Bare Recordings and the Spanish label Spinda Records. This collaboration brings together a diverse range of expertise, amplifying the album’s potential for international recognition and success. The partnership aims to introduce the band’s electrifying sound to a wider global audience, leveraging the strengths of both labels in their respective regions.
