Doubt very much I’ll be giving away any state secrets when I say I ran the announcement below through a translation matrix. Usually with that kind of thing, I might try to approximate, or reach out to the band/label/whoever and ask them for a translation so my ignorant, only-speaks-English ass can get hip to the news, but this time around, I kind of love what came back from the thing. It fits Deep Space Destructors so well, it’s kind of otherworldly, a communiqué piped in from the Finnish band’s own Northern cosmos. The kind of thing one might expect from a group who releases songs like “Journey to the Space Mountain” or “An Ode to Indifferent Universe.”

The band’s most recent release, 2015’s Spring Break from Space (review here), was named for a tour they were going on last year, and it shares its title as well with Deep Space Destructors‘ upcoming run next month as well, though there’s a “2016” added too. The Oulu-based swirlers will be out with Boar starting April 8, though there’s also a hometown gig April 1 to lead off the whole affair. “As a base for!”

That announcement, in all its glory, can be found with the tour dates below. Enjoy it, because language is fricking awesome:

Deep Space Destructors & Boar, Spring Break from Space 2016

Oulu bad-ass Boar and Deep Space Destructors are leaving Europe to deceive the local population psychedelic kohkauksellaan. However, Hullusega cosmos karavan does not run without petrol, so a tour of the countdown starts from Oulu, as a base for! Come and support the bands tour and enjoy the audio-visual tykityksestä! It offers new songs, fresh merchiä and everything thingy on both bands!

1.4.2016 Tukikohta, Oulu
8.4.2016, Rock Bar, Örebro, Sweden
9.4.2016 KB18, Copenhagen, Denmark
10.4.2016 Weinstube Pizzini, Bamberg, Germany
11.4.2016 AKK, Karlsruhe, Germany
12.4.2016 Le Midlands, Lille, France
13.4.2016 Worm, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Jani Pitkänen – vocals, bass
Petri Lassila – guitars, backing vocals
Markus Pitkänen – drums

https://www.facebook.com/deepspacedestructors
https://deepspacedestructors.bandcamp.com/
https://boar.bandcamp.com/

Deep Space Destructors, Spring Break from Space (2015)

If you listen to the tracks on the Bandcamp stream below and find yourself wondering why Oulu, Finland-based trio Deep Space Destructors might have gone with Spring Break from Space (review here) as the title of their latest two-track EP, I agree, it’s a little misleading. After all, if you listen to those songs, it becomes clear rather quickly that the three-piece are not at all on a break from space and that, rather, they’re way deep in it. “Spring Break from Space” was the name of the tour they went on this past Spring, so the idea is they’re normally in space, but they took a break to come to earth and do some shows. Make sense?

Now that I’ve done my good deed for the day in explaining that, I’ll turn it over to the announcement that Spring Break from Space is available now on vinyl through Sapphire Records and Space Rock Productions, pressed up in limited numbers. Behold:

Deep Space Destructors “Spring Break From Space”

The first vinyl release of the finnish Space Rock Trios …

Deep Space Destructors are a space rock trio fro Oulu, Finland. The band has previously released two excellent albums on CD.

This music was originally released as limited edition of 30 cassettes by Deep Space Destructors for Spring Break From Space Tour 2015.

With the release DSD dives towards innerspace, shamanistic rhythms and to the mystic realms of consciousness. What is the space mountain and will you discover it? Spring Break

From Space includes two songs recorded live at DSD’s Rehearsal Vortex, with vocals, percussions and analog synths added afterwards. — Space Rock Productions / Scott Heller

Limited Edition 270 copies total: 110x black – 160x yellow/red
This is the black 10″-vinyl edition – hand numbered

Side Space:
Journey To The Space Mountain (7:52)
Side Void:
Where Space Ends Time Begins (11:10)

Band:

Jani Pitkänen – vocals, bass
Petri Lassila – guitar, backing vocals
Markus Pitkänen – drums

Spring Break From Space EP now available as 10″ vinyl through Space Rock Productions and Sapphire Records!

Limited 100 copies on black vinyl:
www.sapphirerecords.de/Deep-Space-Destructors-Spring-Break-From-Space-black

Limited 150 copies on transparent yellow with red marble:
www.sapphirerecords.de/epages/61252611.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61252611/Products/%2ALP10DSDc

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Deep-Space-Destructors/137326709697944
http://deepspacedestructors.bandcamp.com/

Deep Space Destructors, Spring Break from Space (2015)

Next week, Finnish spacedudes Deep Space Destructors launch a quick tour they’re calling “Spring Break from Space,” and they’ll be bringing a limited-edition cassette EP — 30 copies only — with them to mark the occasion. Also called Spring Break from Space, the EP contains two rehearsal-room jams recorded live and then fleshed out with synth, vocals and percussion to extra spacey effect. Both cuts, “Journey to the Space Mountain” and “Where Space Ends Time” — yes, they’re working on a theme, and yes, that theme is “space” — offer marked swirl as a result, bassist/vocalist Jani Pitkänen, guitarist/backing vocalist Petri Lassila and drummer Markus Pitkänen pushing classically Hawkwindian jams past the thermosphere and into zero-grav floatation.

I’d say that’s nothing new for the Oulu three-piece, whose three full-lengths to date —  2012’s I (review here), 2013’s II (review here) and 2014’s III (review here) — have likewise thrust beyond the limits of convention, but where a song like the 15-minute “An Ode to Indifferent Universe” from III was certainly jam-based, it was more structured than either “Journey to the Space Mountain” or “Where Space Ends Time,” clearer and less awash in effects. “Journey to the Space Mountain” makes a hook of its title line, but still blasts pretty far out, a foundational bassline and drum progression setting a bed for a guitar-led freakout that persists over a long midsection jam before the track resumes its charted course with a stop and layered recitation of a couple lines about — wait for it — space.

It’s fun to kid around that a band with space in their name would release an EP with space both in its title and in the titles of each of its two tracks, but the jams hold up. “Where Space Ends Time” starts with a slower march, minimal in percussion but picking up speed as it approaches the end of its first minute. When the bass kicks in, Deep Space Destructors are underway. Various washes of effects make their way in and out of the jam’s early going, sampled, spoken vocals appear and disappear with a pervasive experimental feel that builds as the track progresses, hypnotic and saturated. There are vocals later, echoing in the second half over a sort of ambient melody given tension by that same bassline, and while it’s easy to forget, the band are actually leading the song somewhere. An apex of “Where Space Ends Time” is signaled by crashing drums, but it’s short, and the track cuts out soon, ending cold as though you’ve just been pushed out the airlock.

There are five shows on Deep Space Destructors‘ upcoming tour, and they’re only making 30 copies of the Spring Break from Space tape, so I’m not sure how available it will wind up being to the worldwide cosmos-faring public. All the more reason I’m glad to be able to stream it in full today. You’ll find the tracks on the player below, followed by tour info and some words about the making of the new release.

Please enjoy:

Psychedelic space rockers Deep Space Destructors made a limited cassette release of 30 copies for the upcoming Spring Break From Space 2015 tour.

With the new material DSD dives towards innerspace, shamanistic rhythms and to the mystic realms of consciousness. What is the space mountain and will you discover it?

The cassette includes two songs recorded live at Rehearsal Vortex, with vocals, percussions and analog synths added afterwards. The cassette contains:

Space (A-side): 01. Journey To The Space Mountain (8:16)
Void (B-side): 02: Where Space Ends Time Begins (11:33)

The tour starts on April 1st from Oulu which is also the release date for the cassette. The songs will also be available for pay what you want digital download through bandcamp:
http://deepspacedestructors.bandcamp.com/

Spring Break From Space 2015 tour with
Boar (https://boar.bandcamp.com/) and Tuliterä (https://soundcloud.com/tulitera):

April 1st Tukikohta, Oulu, Finland
April 2nd Varjobaari, Tampere, Finland
April 3rd Lepakkomies, Helsinki, Finland
April 4th Depo, Riga, Latvia
April 5th Rockstars, Tallinn, Estonia

Deep Space Destructors on Thee Facebooks

Deep Space Destructors on Bandcamp

Finnish four-piece Renate/Cordate (also stylized lowercase as renate/cordate) were last heard from with their early 2013 self-titled debut full-length (review here), which was a solidly constructed and smooth sounding execution of heavy psychedelia. Reminiscent at times of My Sleeping Karma‘s ultra-fluid push, it showed the then-instrumental outfit had room to grow but already a decent idea of what they were going for tonally and in terms of process. A good start, in other words. Twenty-one months later, they return with Growth, which the respected purveyor Breathe Plastic Records will release on tape in December, their sophomore outing comprised of four mostly extended tracks that come from a different enough stylistic base that I had to double-check and make sure I was listening to the same band the first time I put it on. With only one of the four cuts under 10 minutes long, Renate/Cordate have blown out their expansion to a cosmic degree, churning opener “Evolve, Submit” around Ufomammut-style repetition and following a psychedelic doom path of deep-echoing vocals around what seems a chaos swirl of massive tonality, hypnotic and deep. Working with Niko Lehdontie of countrymen psychedelonauts and Svart Records inductees Domovoyd to add extra effects to the wash, Renate/Cordate — the same lineup as last time of guitarists Ville and Samuli (the latter also vocals), bassist Aki and drummer Antti-Pekka — present such a stylistic turn that I’m tempted to think of Growth as a debut and of the self-titled as a demo for how much more solidified and clear-headed in their purpose the band seems to be. At very least, you could say the album is aptly-named.

And if the shift in sound is jarring, it’s bound to be less so for anyone who didn’t hear Renate/Cordate‘s debut and for whom Growth marks their first exposure to their work. It is an expansive 43 minutes, still perhaps vinyl-ready, though they’d more likely get rid of third track “Laudanum” and dedicate the whole of side B to the 17-minute closer “Mother” for ease of time. Side A, then, would be the back-to-back 10-minute post-doom wallops of “Evolve, Submit” and “Humankind (Not My Kind),” which quickly announce the band’s new direction in their sprawl and atmospheric take. The record is a big jump from where they were last year, and clearly a purposeful one, but not all of the elements from Renate/Cordate, the album, are gone. One can still hear the airy ringing of Russian Circles-style post-rock guitar presiding over the mix as the opener rolls past its third minute and into the first of Growth‘s encompassing space-doom nods. Heavy crashing leads to a quiet break of minimalist guitar — one of their most Ufomammut moments — and “Evolve, Submit” explodes again into cascades of echoing riffs that set a lot of the atmospheric course for what follows, rounding out with a long fade of feedback into dreamy synth that pushes forward into the quiet guitar opening of “Humankind (Not My Kind),” which is more about the tradeoffs than was “Evolve, Submit,” but no less ably conceived. An extended subdued intro builds for the first three and a half minutes before pushing into its first heavier section. The lull has the effect of drawing a listener further in, and should Renate/Cordate continue in this direction — after the difference between their first two albums, I wouldn’t speculate as to where they might go on a third — I wouldn’t be surprised to find them toying more with that feeling of stillness and the juxtaposition against pummeling riffs, but even here, they’re able to transition easily from light to heavy and heavy to light, as they do on “Humankind (Not My Kind),” taking the song all the way down to silence before rebuilding their way to the tone-wash apex that ends out.

The shorter “Laudanum” follows and is more immediate in its riffing though ultimately just as spacious as the rest of what surrounds, even finding room in its six minutes for a jammy midsection break that boasts some especially satisfying guitar work holding the tension until the heavier tones reemerge and thrust into a louder and louder burst of noise. If there are vocals — and there might well be — they are buried deep enough in the mix that they’re indistinguishable from a sample. All you get is a vague human presence, and it works to the song’s advantage, cutting out right before the thrust of the final echoing solo, deconstructed along with everything else to bring about the 16:53 concluding statement, “Mother.” Begun on a foundation of bass and drums backed by swirl and ambient noise, “Mother” unfurls essentially as a combination of everything else Renate/Cordate do on the album structurally, bridging the gap between a loud/quiet interplay and an extended linear build by simply doing both. Before its first four minutes are through, it has built up and peaked and moved to an ethereal, almost jazzy peacefulness, but the crushing reignites several minutes later, only to once again fall back past seven minutes in. This is the key transition, since the band uses this stillness as the starting point for the trip to to Growth‘s last crescendo. The turn happens right around the 12:30 mark, but by then, it’s less about payoff than just going where the band takes you, and that winds up being Renate/Cordate‘s greatest success with their second album. They’ve accomplished this change in style, which is all well and good, but they’ve managed to hold onto the immersive nature of what they did on their self-titled as well, and that only makes the ending of “Mother” more consuming and thus more satisfying. Yes, it’s wildly heavy, and yes, it’s a suitable ending, but what leaves an even more resonant impression is the ability of the band to retain their control over their sound even at its most unbridled. If they do wind up staying on this path, or if they don’t, that can only serve them well as they continue to progress.

[PLEASE NOTE: I’ve been given permission by Renate/Cordate to host a full stream of Growth for your listening pleasure. I hope you’ll give it a shot on the player below and enjoy.]

[mp3player width=480 height=360 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=renate-cordate-growth.xml]

Renate/Cordate on Thee Facebooks

Renate/Cordate on Bandcamp

Breathe Plastic Records

Finnish instrumentalists Renate/Cordate have sent along an update on the progress of the follow-up to earlier-2013’s self-titled debut (review here). They’re set to record the bulk of the album at the end of the month and will be working with members of Domovoyd on adding noise and ambience thereafter. Hard to say what the final result will be, but the group has posted a practice video for the song “Humankind (Not My Kind)” that was recorded live in their rehearsal space, so at least there’s some way to get a feel for the texture of the new material, incomplete though it may be. Ranging from heavy psych to post-metal atmospherics, Renate/Cordate was hardly light on mood, and it seems like the band have kept that ethic going into their sophomore effort.

The biggest change you’ll notice immediately is the inclusion of vocals. Drenched in echo and somewhat sparse, they’re still more than showed up last time out, so I guess Renate/Cordate are continuing to refine what they want their sound to be and where they want to go with their psychedelic progression. Get a feel for how it went down in the jam room with the clip below:

Renate/Cordate, “Humankind (Not My Kind)” Rehearsal Footage

The video was filmed in our rehearsal place/studio and audio was also recorded at the same time. This song has been on our live setlist for quite some time, and therefore we decided to give everyone a sample of the new stuff we’ve been writing. Here you go!

The new album will be recorded at the last weekend of 2013, and after that vocals and additional noise will be recorded ASAP. Niko from Domovoyd will be giving his personal touch on the album by adding noise/ambience/etc, and he has been joining us on stage now for quite some time. The plan is to release the album on vinyl in 2014.

Renate/Cordate on Thee Facebooks

Renate/Cordate on Bandcamp

What makes the self-titled, self-released debut EP from Oulu instrumental four-piece Renate/Cordate intriguing isn’t so much that it’s breaking new ground nearly as much as it’s setting up a fluidity between several familiar styles. The four-song, 28-minute release follows a 2010 demo from the Finnish group, and finds them fleshing out flowing heavy psychedelia that can alternately be traced back to instrumentalists like Pelican, earlier Red Sparowes and Russian Circles, with rougher traces of heavy psychedelia à la My Sleeping Karma or even elements at work from Isis-style post metal, but it’s all very well balanced so that Renate/Cordate don’t seem overly adherent to one school of method or another. I wouldn’t call Renate/Cordate revolutionary, but it’s clear the band — bassist Aki, guitarists Ville and Samuli (who’s also credited with vocals, though I’ve heard none on the release) and drummer Antti-Pekka — are in the process of establishing an individual style for themselves, and that comes across in both the hypnotic droning moments of third cut “Conjuring Power” or the post-metal ambience in the midsection of “Calumet.” The results are noble in kind to the mission, and though it’s short, I’m more inclined to think of Renate/Cordate as a full-length, both for the flow it demonstrates between its tracks and for the subtle stylistic turns that each piece represents. In fact, I’d gladly argue that Renate/Cordate makes a better album than an EP, because where an EP is generally geared toward giving a band rein to make an initial statement, feel out a shift in aesthetic or provide listeners with a sample of what they do, Renate/Cordate feels complete in its ideas and gives a much richer impression than a phrase like “self-titled, self-released debut EP” used above might imply. Ultimately, it’s a minute distinction between one or the other in terms of how you actually listen to the release, but hopefully it gives some impression of the overarching effectiveness the band displays in terms of feeding one song into the next and tying the whole work together as one cohesive expression.

Perhaps as one might expect, repetition and tonal weight are go-to elements of Renate/Cordate‘s approach. Riffs get pretty big when the band wants them to, but it’s important to remember that it’s the dynamic and the smoothness which with Renate/Cordate turn from loud to quiet and execute their builds that stands the EP out among its many peers working under similar influence. Beginning with “The Climb,” they commence a patient groove as a bed for the aptly-named progression that ensues. Aki‘s bass is an immediate standout factor, rich and warm in its tone, and Antti-Pekka‘s subdued ride work keeps a sense of movement to the quiet initial moment while the guitars slowly come more and more to prominence. A stop at 2:30 drops out everything but the bass, and an effects whistle after three minutes in hints at the impact to come — almost like a bomb dropping. The build-up happens in tense measures from there and at 4:48, the track explodes to its apex, hitting a peak that rounds out in chugging, churning riffs marked out by a wash of cymbals and an ever-faster pulse that continues to rise — or climb, as it were — until there’s about 20 seconds left in the seven-minute piece and it finally, inevitably must subside, feedback leading straight into “Calumet,” the march of which is more immediate in its motion. In the background, a subtle swirl plays out behind to add heavy psychedelic flourish to layered wah guitar. Another, less telegraphed, full-toned heavy section takes hold after roughly a minute and a half — all the tracks hover on either side of seven minutes long — and breaks gradually to atmospheric jamming. Here too, it’s not like the band has stopped, but as the rhythm section holds together and develops the relatively straightforward line that acted as the center of the song since its start, both Ville and Samuli are given room to play out in serene, proggy explorations. It becomes hypnotic quickly, and is the kind of thing Ufomammut might counter with a grand cosmic bludgeoning. Renate/Cordate don’t get quite that far, but a quick switch to heavier lines gives breadth to the listening experience and highlights the fact that just because they can be patient doesn’t mean they always will.

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There’s a touch of space-rock theatricality to “Spacy Phantasy,” the third of the four extended cuts on Finnish heavy psych rockers Deep Space Destructors‘ second self-released album, II, but even that is mitigated by the warmth of tone in the band’s low end, provided by bassist Jani Pitkänen. Pitkänen also handles vocals where and when they pop up throughout the aptly-titled sophomore outing, backed by guitarist Pete and drummer Markus Pitkänen as well, and the band ranges in that regard from the guttural psychedelic chanting of the chugging second half of opener “Beneath the Black Star” to the echoing Finnish-language incantations toward the end of closer “Sykli.” By and large, the songs are jam-based but not without structure to their parts, and II‘s flow is open and easy accordingly.

So what we have is a four-track/38-minute European heavy psych record with jam-minded songwriting and warm, thick tonality in the guitars and bass propelled by organic grooves and classic rocking rhythms. Hardly new terrain in the grand scheme of the current wave of Euro acts, but the Pitkänens and Pete have also shown significant development since the release of their first album, I (review here), last year, branching out stylistically here and there while presenting a more complex songwriting modus all around, as demonstrated on “Beneath the Black Star,” which is genuinely plotted however jammed-out its parts may sound. This move toward premeditation works to the Oulu trio’s favor almost as much as the Markus Räisänen cover art, the rich blues and intricate design of which effectively mirror the band’s engrossing style. As “Beneath the Black Star” stomps to its finish and album highlight “Deserted Planet 2078” opens with a jazzy bassline from Jani and Pete‘s open strumming,Markus’ drums answer back with natural-sounding thud, marking the launch of a gradual progression that plays out over the course of the track.

Tonally, “Deserted Planet 2078” isn’t so much fuzzy as it is covered in hair, and the progressive vocal treatment in its initial verse strike as a surprise the band puts to good use in giving the impression that, although they’re still a relatively new band — having formed in 2011 — they have a clear idea of where in the niche they want to reside. For what it’s worth, Deep Space Destructors write long songs that don’t feel long. Working in movements as much as parts, “Deserted Planet 2078” locks into a ride-it-out bridge groove before stepping back into the initial verse line in the second half, and then — as Markus switches to a faster push on his ride cymbal — launches into the space rocking that will only become more prevalent as “Spacy Phantasy” takes hold. In short, it’s the jam. But even here, the band hasn’t lost their sense of direction, and the jam is leading somewhere rather than plateauing and holding steady. Just before seven minutes in, “Deserted Planet 2078” comes to a halt and introduces a classic rock riff that it essentially pounds on for the next minute and half to end the song. There was little to presage its arrival, but with the shifts in rhythm around it and the repetitive cycling, some riffs are their own excuse for being. With the open vibes the band has on offer, it’s not like it seems out of place, even leading into the echoing reaches that open “Spacy Phantasy.”

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Titled simply I, the self-released debut EP from Finnish trio Deep Space Destructors captures their warm, still-nascent classic heavy rock interpretations with just an edge of the “deep space” from which they take two-thirds of their name. I is made up of four engaging cuts – three available via digital means and an untitled bonus track exclusive to the limited-to-100-copies CD – that roll through stonerly pacing and grooves without forgetting to add a little more than that. Influences prominent throughout the current European scene (as much as one can distill the output of an entire continent into one generalized grouping) from early kraut rock and the more modern fuzz of Witch show up on “Without Warning,” “Black Star Rising” and “The End Times,” and as I gives a general impression of what Deep Space Destructors have managed to accomplish in their first year of being a band – they formed early in 2011 with the lineup of vocalist/bassist Jani Pitkänen, first-name-only guitarist/backing vocalist Pete and drummer/backing vocalist Markus Pitkänen – it seems to accomplish everything it sets out to do. The recording is low, in terms of volume, but whether it’s the fuzz intro of “Without Warning” (it’s really hard to type those words and not follow them with “a wizard walks by”) or the layered pastoral solo late into “Black Star Rising,” I makes a strong case for turning it up, especially as that solo leads to an Asteroid-style riff-out, where you can’t tell if it’s guitars or organs or both or something just made of hairy distortion and groove. Really, it doesn’t matter what it is (it’s guitar), because the point is it’s put to good use. Deep Space Destructors are a recent enough act to be influenced by the newer school of Eurofuzz, but not so far behind as to miss its still formative period.

The basic result of that is that when they turn the atmosphere a little darker for the beginning movement of “The End Times” – the title indicative of the purpose in that atmospheric shift – it’s not so much derivative of someone else as it is Deep Space Destructors putting their own spin on what’s become over the last couple years an established sound. It’s more than some do, less than others, but they make it work, and their classic influence serves them well across the EP’s 26 minutes, starting off raucously but working quickly to introduce a range of effects and moods. The call in the verse call and response reminds a bit of The Kings of Frog Island, but Jani has a more straightforward answer to it, higher in the mix and overall drier in terms of reverb and/or cavernous echo. That serves to separate it from what Pete and or Markus are doing vocally, but Jani is forward enough to dominate the guitar and his own bass, and that has an odd effect on the song. He doesn’t sound too loud, but compared to the tonal fuzz surrounding and Markus’ swaggering drums, the vocals just sound like they could use more effects of their own as well as to come down a bit in volume. It’s less of an issue in the more riff-rocking opening of “Black Star Rising,” but by the time the guitars drop out for the verse, the situation is largely the same as in the opener, though the 7:44 runtime of the second track allows for much more to play out stylistically, and Deep Space Destructors are well-suited to both the multi-vocal build before the four-minute mark and the subdued progressive jam that ensues afterwards, Jani’s bass offering choice runs to coincide with the vocals and relaxed strum of Pete’s guitar.

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