SoftSun is the three-piece of bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen, guitarist Gary Arce and drummer Dan Joeright, all of whom come to the new project with pedigree. Joeright was in Aboleth and Earth Moon Earth, and has recorded some of Arce‘s other projects in recent years, whether it’s desert rock progenitors Yawning Man, which Arce co-founded in the 1980s or Big Scenic Nowhere, and Arce played guitar on three of the songs on the 2022 solo debut from Isaksen (who also fronts Oslo’s Superlynx), Distorted Chants (review here), and six of the eight total on this year’s follow-up, Dissolve (review here), so nobody is a stranger to each other here. If one were to view Daylight in the Dark, the first SoftSun full-length, as following the thread of the two Isaksen solo records in tightening the collaboration with Arce with Joeright producing (Aaron Farinelli co-engineered) and drumming, that’s a fair enough contextual read on how the band might’ve happened, if not necessarily the actual story of the six-song/41-minute record, which lives up to the adage of being broader than the sum of its parts.

For those who know Arce‘s oeuvre in Yawning Man, Yawning Sons, Yawning Balch, Ten East, Dark Tooth Encounter, and so on, he’s on form throughout Daylight in the Dark, harnessing tonal expanse and a sense of improvised instrumental exploration set to the steady grooves of Joeright; very much the daylight to the encompassing low end wrought in Isaksen‘s basslines, which in turn become the ‘dark’ being referenced in the title. What’s not accounted for in that admittedly simple math are Isaksen‘s vocals, which through Superlynx and into her solo work carry an ethereal reverb like a resonant calling card. Her performance on vocals here is emotive and fragile — on “Continents” she asks for a shifting of tectonic plates with particular longing, and the bleaker “Exit Wounds” is greeted with due brooding — and balanced dynamically in the mix to be more forward at times while buried elsewhere within the morass of effects and psychedelic-leaning fluidity.

This is all well and good, but what’s most surprising about Daylight in the Dark ends up being how heavy it is. Opener “Unholy Waters,” “Daylight in the Dark” and “Exit Wounds” appear in succession before side A closes with “Continents,” and through all of them, the upward float of Arce‘s guitar — which is as staple an element as you get; it’s what he does, and oftentimes even his repeated riffs are structured airy leads — is answered decisively with the low breadth of Isaksen‘s tone. On “Exit Wounds,” the bass is outright doomed, and even “Continents,” which is a bit more gentle in pushing the vocals forward and gives a little more of a verse/chorus feel than, say, the title-track, which also has a structure but feels as much about ambience as it reaches simultaneously upward and down tonally in exactly this fashion. That dynamic would seem to put Joeright in the middle of the proceedings in the holding-it-all-together role, but that’s not really the case. It’s not like Daylight in the Dark is a collection of disparate jams. These are composed songs — when the title-track seems to take off right as it hits the midpoint, it’s not an accident — and however nebulous their outward face might be, the chemistry and persona behind them is purposeful and something that has developed over several years.

That gives SoftSun something of an advantage going into a first record, but hearing Daylight in the Dark in comparison to Isaksen‘s Dissolve — which is probably the closest analogue; released the same year with at least two-thirds the same personnel working from a similar foundation of influence — it feels like Isaksen and Arce, in company with Joeright, have organically arrived at a next stage of working together, and that’s the band itself. What might be most encouraging about that is the sense of refresh they give to each other’s sounds. From Mario Lalli to Billy Cordell and plenty of others besides, Arce has played with more than a handful of bassists over the last 30-plus years. Isaksen‘s low end complements his guitar like none of them. It comes from a different place — yes, literally, from Norway, but I’m talking stylistically — and feels more rooted in metal and, as noted, doom, while both instrument and vocals are treated with echo and whatever else such that even the violent implications of a song like the penultimate “Dragged Across the Desert Floor” becomes a gorgeously languid roll with the blend of daylight, dark, and groove that comprises it.

Not only that, but the bass seems to be a feature in Joeright‘s mix for these songs more than it often is in Arce‘s work. One might be tempted to compare SoftSun and the Arce-inclusive one-off Zun album from 2016, Burial Sunrise (review here) — or at least the half of it that Sera Timms (Black Math Horseman) sang on —  but in that too, the bass shines in righteous differentiation. Daylight in the Dark is richer for the depth, and even as the eponymous “Soft Sun” closes as the longest inclusion at over 11 minutes long, what’s being reinforced — expanded on, even, with keyboard-esque sounds that emerge in the early going and meld with the guitar if they were ever there in the first place — is the distinct impression that the album makes separate either from any of these three artists’ previous work.

Sound like hyperbole, I know. I’m not saying that Isaksen‘s voice and bass or Arce‘s guitar aren’t recognizable in the slow immersion of “Soft Sun,” but that like the album that precedes it, the finale emphasizes how much the two bring to the band’s sound and how well their styles play off of each other. The result — and I’m not trying to downplay Joeright‘s contributions, either on drums or in the recording process; clearly he’s essential personnel — is that SoftSun occupies a new niche branched off from all three respective discographies, and the only remaining question I’m left with is what the future will bring. Could be SoftSun is a one-shot deal and Isaksen, Arce and Joeright will go their separate ways, or Daulight in the Dark could very easily be the beginning of a longer-term aural progression, putting a different spin on heavy post-rock and desert-hued psych and growing as the band — live shows? — moves forward. This debut, a first showing of who SoftSun are and what they might become over time, leaves one hopeful.

SoftSun, Daylight in the Dark (2024)

SoftSun, “Unholy Waters” official video

SoftSun on Facebook

SoftSun on Instagram

SoftSun on Bandcamp

SoftSun on Spotify

Ripple Music on Facebook

Ripple Music on Instagram

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

Welcome back to the Fall 2024 Quarterly Review, which started yesterday and will continue through next Friday. This week and next week, my life is pretty much cutting up pizza for the kid, Hungarian homework, and this. I could do worse.

There’s good stuff in this one though, and a lot of it, today and really throughout. I hope you find something you think is cool, tomorrow or the next day if not today.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

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Pia Isa, Dissolve

Pia Isaksen, also of Superlynx, offers a follow-up to 2022’s solo debut as Pia Isa, Distorted Chants (review here), and with songs like “Into the Fire” and “Dissolve,” a heavy-meditative take on grunge is imagined, with Isaksen‘s lumbering bass leading the way with a low rumble behind often quietly delivered vocals, and Ole Teigen‘s drums placed deep in a three-dimensional mix, and spaciousness added to the bulk of the proceedings through Gary Arce‘s signature floating guitar tone; the Yawning Man founder guests on guitar for six of the eight tracks, and is a not insignificant presence in complement and contrast to some of the more morose elements and rhythmic churning, as in “New Light.” But Isaksen is no stranger to crafting material heavy in ambience and mood as much as tone, and Dissolve feels like a deep-dive into experimentalism that pays off in the songs themselves. As Isaksen and Arce get ready to unveil their new collaborative project SoftSun, nothing here makes me look forward to that less.

Pia Isa on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Sun and Sail Club, Shipwrecked

I don’t know where the lines between genres are supposed to be anymore and I’m done pretending to care. If Sun and Sail Club had Barney from Napalm Death singing lead, you’d call them grindcore. It’s Tony Adolescents, making his second appearance with Sun and Sail Club after 2015’s The Great White Dope (review here), alongside founding guitarist Bob Balch (also Fu Manchu, Big Scenic Nowhere, etc.), bassist Scott Reeder (ex-Kyuss, Goatsnake, The Obsessed, etc.) and drummer Scott Reeder (Fu Manchu) for another mostly-blistering round of heavy punk, full in its charge and crossover punk-metal defiance, in “The Color of War” and the early-C.O.C.-esque “Drag the River,” which follows. Oh, and Balch gets a little surf in there too in “Tastes Like Blood” and the wistful bookending intro and outro. Borders on goth for a moment there, but it works. In the Balchian oeuvre — somewhere on the opposite side of the spectrum from where Slower now reside — Sun and Sail Club found itself as a project with The Great White Dope. Shipwrecked is correspondingly more aware of what the band wants their music to do as a result, and so able to hit more directly.

Sun and Sail Club on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Vitskär Süden, Vessel

The third album from Los Angeles-based heavy progressive rockers Vitskär Süden, Vessel is quick to establish ambition as a central element. That is to say, in the depth of their arrangements vocally and instrumentally, in their ability to set and vary a mood, and in being able to convey a sense of experimentalism in a four-minute track with a hook like “R’lyeh,” Vitskär Süden come across as cognizant of trying new ideas in their material and bringing these to fruition in the finished products of the songs. The material feels built around specific parts, some rhythmic, some melodic, in “Through Tunnels They Move” it might be Inxs, maybe the piano and strings in “Hidden by the Day,” and so on, and that it isn’t always the same thing adds to the character brought by guitarist/synthesist Julian Goldberger, bassist/vocalist Martin Garner, guitarist TJ Webber and drummer Christopher Martin as the songs coalesce and challenge the band’s own conceptions of their work as much as the listener’s. It is cinematic in both its sprawl and dramatic intent, and I won’t spoil the ending but yes of course it goes gospel.

Vitskär Süden on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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Daevar, Amber Eyes

German murk-doomers Daevar keep affairs dark on their second long-player, Amber Eyes, as the trio of bassist/vocalist Pardis Latifi, guitarist Caspar Orfgren and drummer Moritz Ermen Bausch explore nodding patience and grim atmospherics across the six included cuts, and Windhand are still an influence, but “Pay to Pray” has a rolling, Acid King-style fluidity and the guitar takes to someplace more decisively evil, and Electric Wizardly, so you figure it out, because what it sounds like to me is Daevar beginning to step out from any single influence and to more comfortably find their own, often hypnotic niche, meeting the post-metallic feel of “Caliban and the Witch” with layered vocal harmonies before the megaplod finish. The title-track is faster and represents the grungier intentions, and if that’s the start of side B, then “Lizards” and “Grey in Grey” could only be called a plunge from there. The finale in particular is consuming in a way that reminds of Undersmile, which isn’t a complement I would lightly give.

Daevar on Facebook

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Endless Floods, Rites Futurs

Have you ever heard Endless Floods and not wanted more? Me neither. The French art-doom four-piece made a single out of the eight-minute “Décennie” from their fourth full-length, Rites Futurs, and as that song works its way into a minimalist drone progression worthy of Earth before offering stark reassurance in intertwining human voices before exploding, gloriously, into a guitar solo the size of any number of partially undersea volcanoes, there is little that feels beyond the band’s creative reach. Volume is a part of what makes the material so affecting, with a progressive metal-style fullness of tone and voices treated to become part of what’s creating the sense of space. In its quiet reaches and surges of worshipful sounds — the choir on “Forge,” for example — Rites Futurs is somehow dystopian, but it’s not an empty world “after” humans. There’s life in these songs, in the way the title-track builds into its post-punk shove and then just into this undulation of noise is twice as universe-devouring for the acoustic guitar that emerges by itself on the other side. Underrated band.

Endless Floods on Facebook

Breathe Plastic store

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Black on High, Echoes Through Time

Dark heavy rock with a metallic underpinning that seems to come forward in “She Was a Witch” more than, say, opener “Alleyway Ecstasy,” from Black on High‘s debut, Echoes Through Time, notably brings elements from the likes of Mastodon and Alice in Chains together with songs that don’t just retain their immediacy but build upward from the leadoff, so that “Take These Pills” in the penultimate spot of the tracklisting becomes a punk rock apex for a trajectory the Dallas-based four-piece with members of Gypsy Sun Revival and Turbid North set forth on “I Feel Lethal,” and the drop into lower gears for the closing title-track seems to hit that much harder as a return. It’s like the meme where the riff comes back but heavier and Vince McMahon or whoever is laser-eye stoked, except it’s set up across the whole album and not actually so simple as that, and Echoes Through Time ends up being more about the journey than the destination. Fine. It’s a high level of craft for being a first record, and it feels like the beginning of an evolution for a longer term.

Black on High on Facebook

Black on High on Bandcamp

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Anomalos Kosmos, Live at 102 FM

Greek experimentalist two-piece Anomalos Kosmos may or may not evoke a Grails-y impression with their ’70s-prog-informed soundtrack-style instrumentals, but the thing is, with Live at 102 FM, they seem at least to be making it up as they go along. Sure, looping this or that layer to fill out the sound helps, as “Flow + Improv 1” proves readily in its first half, then again in its second, but what makes it jazz is that the exploration is happening for the creator and the consumer at the same time. It gets weird, and weirder, and “The + Improv 2” throws down a swinging groove for a bit after that vocal sample in the last couple minutes, but even if part of “Me Orizeis” is plotted as opposed to being 100 percent made up like they just walked into the room and that noise happened, it represents a vibrant and encompassing process that can’t help but feel organic as it’s recorded live. The band’s 2022 debut, Mornin Loopaz (review here) was both more restless and more concept-based. I like that I have no idea how Anomalos Kosmos might follow this.

Anomalos Kosmos on Facebook

Anomalos Kosmos on Bandcamp

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Mountainwolf, Dust on a New Moon

Maybe it won’t come as a shocker that a live record with takes on the band’s songs that are upwards of 14, 17, 19, 23 minutes long is expansive? Maryland’s Mountainwolf offer seven tracks across Dust on a New Moon, which were recorded live at some point, somewhere, ever, maybe at New Year’s? I don’t want to speculate. In any case, what happens over the course of the ‘evening with’ is Mountainwolf plunge into an Appalachian vision of Earthless-style instrumental epicness. East Coast groove set to a more Pacific ideology; I guess at a certain point jams is jams. Mountainwolf have plenty of those, and while it’s not at all their first live release, Dust on a New Moon unfolds the sludgy crash of “Edging” and the bassy jabs of “Heroin x 1991” with purpose in each twist of turn captured. I assume the show is a little different every night as a given song might go here or there, but it sounds like a show worth seeing, to say the very least of it.

Mountainwolf on Facebook

Mountainwolf on Bandcamp

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The Giraffes, Cigarette

The Giraffes don’t have to be out there burnin’ barns, but Cigarette is indeed incendiary in “Pipes” and “Limping Horse,” and that’s barely a fraction of the business the long-running New York outfit get done in short order across their eighth album’s 34 minutes. NYC has had its share of underheralded heavy rock bands and so fair enough for The Giraffes being part of a longstanding tradition, but the moody vibe in “Lazarus,” the eerie modernity cast in “Baby Pictures,” and the citified twang in “Dead Bird” — which is fair enough to consider Americana since it’s about drug addiction — or the way “The Shot” has a kind of punctuated strut that is so much the band’s own, it’s worth reiterating that The Giraffes have earned far more plaudits than they’ve ever received for their recorded work, and as “Pipes” and “Million Year Old Song” bring a bluesy tinge to the madcap groove, I don’t know Cigarette will change that or if the band would even want it to if it did, but they’re an institution in New York’s underground and LPs like this are why.

The Giraffes on Facebook

The Giraffes on Bandcamp

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Filthy Hippies, Share the Pill

While the drift of psychedelia ranges further back, there’s something about even the most shimmering of moments on Filthy Hippies‘ Share the Pill that’s much more ’97 than ’67, more Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine adding a current of noise to the mellow-heavy groove, maybe. That’s all well and good but doesn’t account for the universe-tearing “Good Time” or the spacey post-punk of “Catatonic” (though maybe it does, in the case of the latter) or the dub-psych roll “Stolen From Heaven” that bridges the two halves of the record, so take it for what it is. The stylistic truth of Filthy Hippies is more complex than the superficial trappings of drug rock might lead one to believe, and it’s not without its challenging aspects, even though the material in pieces like “Candy Floss” or the tambourine-insistent “Dreaming of Water” veers readily into poppish frequencies. There doesn’t seem to be a ton that’s off limits, but it feels rooted in heavy groove just the same and that sits well next to the flashes of the brighter contrast.

Filthy Hippies on Facebook

Mongrel Records website

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There’s a chant-like quality to Gary Arce‘s guitar on the first SoftSun single from their upcoming debut album, Daylight in the Dark, and if “Unholy Water” is representative in any way of the scope of the rest of the LP — as one would hope, considering it’s also the first song the project has ever released — that will be just fine for how fluidly Pia Isaksen‘s vocals rest alongside.

Isaksen, also of Superlynx and adjacent solo work, and Arce, also of Yawning Man and numerous orbital projects, are joined in SoftSun by drummer/engineer Dan Joeright, also of Earth Moon Earth, who gives shape to the flow on “Unholy Water,” and while it should come as no surprise to anybody familiar with any of the trio’s work elsewhere that atmosphere is a central focus, it is, and it works. You know who they are. They know who they are. Everybody vibes accordingly.

As previously announced, it’s Ripple Music handling the release, and I look forward to exhausting my metaphors for languid, liquefied groove sometime between now and Nov. 8 when Daylight in the Dark comes out. Until that happens, here’s this from the PR wire:

SOFTSUN (with Yawning Man, Pia Isa members) to release debut album “Daylight in the Dark” on Ripple Music; first track streaming!

SoftSun, the new dronegaze and post-rock trio formed by Gary Arce (Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson) on guitar, Pia Isaksen (Pia Isa) on bass and vocals and Dan Joeright (Earth Moon Earth) on drums, announce the release of their debut album “Daylight in the Dark” this November 8th through Ripple Music.

SoftSun is the result of a divine collaboration between very unique and visionary musicians. Pia Isaksen and Gary Arce along with Dan Joeright come from opposite sides of the world. Vocalist and bass player Pia Isaksen grew up in Norway, while Gary Arce and drummer Dan Joeright are based in the Southern California Mojave desert.

The environments they occupy are evident in the beautifully heavy yet ethereal sound of this band. Arce’s dreamscaping cinematic guitar work gives a stark contrast of balance to the heavy melodic bass driven compositions. Pia’s voice, ethereal in nature, levitates the sound and brings a dreamlike shoegaze quality to the songs. Cocteau Twins, True Widow, Yawning Man, Diiv would be appropriate reference points for this unique approach to songwriting.

Debut album “Daylight in the Dark”
Out November 8th on Ripple Music (LP/CD/digital)

TRACKLIST:
1. Unholy Waters
2. Daylight in the Dark
3. Exit Wounds
4. Continents
5. Dragged Across the Desert Floor
6. Soft Sun

SoftSun was formed in 2023 by Gary Arce, Pia Isaksen and Dan Joeright after Arce and Isaksen had been wanting to make music together for several years. It all started in 2020 when Arce played guitar on the first album by Isaksen’s solo project Pia Isa. Discovering how perfect their musical expressions fit together they knew they really wanted to create more music together. With Arce’s unique and beautiful guitar melodies and sounds, Isaksen’s heavy bass and haunting vocals combined with Joeright’s perfectly patient drumming, SoftSun delivers heavy mellow and dreamy music with its own sound.

After a few years of collaborating on two of Pia’s albums from opposite sides of the planet (Moss in Norway and Yucca Valley in California) and becoming good friends, Gary and Pia finally met in person in late 2023. They instantly became inseparable and started planning their musical project.

The first SoftSun songs were written by Pia in Moss and sent to with Gary who wrote guitar melodies for them in Yucca Valley before Pia then got on the plane to California in January 2024. During three weeks they wrote more songs and got together with drummer and studio owner Dan Joeright who turned out to be a perfect fit for the band. After only three practices and two and a half days in Gatos Trail Recording Studio, the trio recorded their first album live. The vocals were done by Pia back in Norway before. Dan then mixed the album. On Pia’s next trip to California six weeks later, the trio booked another studio session and recorded a few more songs. The result is their debut album “Daylight in the Dark”, to be released in November 2024 through Californian independent label Ripple Music.

The album was engineered by Dan Joeright and Aaron Farinelli at Gatos Trail Recording Studio, mixed by Dan Joeright and mastered by Kent Stump. Artwork and layout by Pia Isaksen.

SOFTSUN line-up
Gary Arce – Guitars
Pia Isaksen – Bass and vocals
Dan Joeright – Drums

Photo by @aaronfarinelli

https://www.facebook.com/people/SoftSun/61557870166741/
https://www.instagram.com/softsunofficial/
https://softsunband.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0koex03KctujRuxwz8bNhu

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

SoftSun, Daylight in the Dark (2024)

SoftSun, “Unholy Waters” official video

Equal parts moody and melodic, the new Pia Isa single bodes well for Dissolve, which is the second solo-ish full-length from Norwegian heavy singer-songwriter Pia Isaksen, also bassist and vocalist for Superlynx, and since it’s the title-track of the album as the first piece unveiled, somehow that’s so much the better. If you have headphones, I’d say that might be your best bet to let some of the psychedelic nuance of the guitar — and bass! — and the intricacy of the layers of her voice shine through, as well as the post-grunge moodiness, though that’s certainly resonant through speakers as well. Her first record under the Pia Isa banner, Distorted Chants (review here), came out in 2022, also on Argonauta, and worked in similar textures, but it seems likely that “Dissolve” was chosen to represent Dissolve as the lead single in part because you can hear growth in terms of arrangement and flourish elements along with the core fluid groove and melody. Sounds cool, in other words.

Also kind of sad, but this too is part of the thing. There’s a mention for it below, but in addition to having put out her Burning Time EP (review here) earlier this year, Isaksen also recently announced the advent of SoftSun, building on her prior collaboration with guitarist Gary Arce (Yawning Man, etc.), who appeared on “Trauma” (video premiere here) from Distorted Chants, as well as drummer Dan Joeright, who doubles as producer at Gatos Trail Recording Studio in Yucca Valley, California. No idea when anything’s coming out from that three-piece, but don’t forget Superlynx had their own LP, 4 10 (review here), out just this past Fall. So, you know, plenty going on one way or the other, if you’re looking to keep up.

Speaking of keeping up, this news came through like last week and I’m still getting caught up. Recall that at no point in the last 15-plus years did I say I was any good at this.

From the PR wire:

Heavy Psych Dronegazer PIA ISA Unveil “Dissolve” Full Album Details; First Single Out Now

Norwegian psychedelic drone rocker PIA ISA, also known as a member of Superlynx, is set to release a new full-length album titled ‘Dissolve’ on June 28th via Argonauta Records on vinyl.

“The new album feels like a further walk on the path I started with my first solo album but with a few different turns. This time I worked more with layers of vocal harmonies and gave my old dark sounding acoustic nylon guitar some space among the heavy distorted guitars. I am super stoked to have Gary Arce once again laying his stunning guitar tones on most of the songs and about Ole Teigen’s brilliant drums and sound work. Dissolvement is a recurring theme on the album, but so is the idea of reassembling the pieces back together in new and different ways.” – says Pia.

Today is also the day Pia Isa presents the title track in the form of a lyric video, now available.

Pia about the single: “The first single Dissolve is the title track and I guess it tries to capture the feeling of falling apart but also holding on to the pieces of your- self for when the time comes that you feel able to start putting them back together. Knowing that they won’t fit the same way they used to, but maybe a different way could be even better. Musically I wanted the song to catch a heavy sad feeling but also a lot of hopefulness.“

“Dissolve” album tracklisting and cover art are as follows:
Side A:
1. Transform
2. Into the Fire
3. Dissolve
4. One Above Ten Below
Side B:
5. New Light
6. Emerald
7. Tide
8. Drown or Float

On the new album Pia has worked more with layers of vocal harmonies and has given an old dark sounding nylon acoustic guitar more space in her massive distorted soundscape. In addition to singing she plays bass, riff guitars and minimalistic guitar leads while Gary Arce (Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson, Big Scenic Nowhere, Ten East etc) plays additional guitar melodies on six of the album’s eight songs. The drums are played by Ole Teigen (Superlynx etc) who also record- ed, mixed and produced the album with Pia co producing at Crowtown Recordings.

Pia’s lyrics are always personal and honest. She wrote Dissolve at a time where a lot of major things in her own life, but also in the world, changed, were uncertain and seemed to dissolve. Dissolvement is a recurring theme in the songs, but so is the idea of moulding things back together in a new form. As Pia often writes what she needs to hear herself, and needs to tell herself, in her lyrics she wonders if there are others out there needing to hear similar things. On this album she is trying to create hope that no matter how scary major changes and the unknown is it can also be an opportunity for new and better ways and ideas.

In addition to her solo project Pia has spent a decade playing bass and doing vocals in heavy psych band Superlynx and recently started the new project SoftSun with Gary Arce and Dan Joeright (Earth Moon Earth, The Rentals etc).

For more info:
https://linktr.ee/piaisa_distortedchants

http://www.facebook.com/piaisamusic
http://www.instagram.com/piaisamusic
https://piaisa.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/argonuatarecords
www.instagram.com/argonautarecords
www.argonautarecords.com

Pia Isa, “Dissolve” lyric video

Today is Wednesday, the day we hit and pass the halfway mark for this week, which is a quarter of the way through the entirety of this 100-release Quarterly Review. Do you need to know that? Not really, but it’s useful for me to keep track of how much I’m doing sometimes, which is why I count in the first place. 100 records isn’t nothing, you know. Or 10 for that matter. Or one. I don’t know.

A little more variety here, which is always good, but I’ve got momentum behind me after yesterday and I don’t want to delay diving in, so off we go.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

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Saturnalia Temple, Paradigm Call

For the band’s fourth album, Paradigm Call, founding Saturnalia Temple guitarist/vocalist Tommie Eriksson leads the newcomer rhythm section of drummer Pelle Åhman and bassist Gottfrid Åhman through eight abyss-plundering tracks across 48 minutes of roiling tonal mud distinguished by its aural stickiness and Eriksson‘s readily identifiable vocal gurgle. The methodology hasn’t changed much since 2020’s Gravity (review here) in terms of downward pull, but the title-track’s solo is sharp enough to cut through the mire, and while it’s no less harsh for doing so, “Among the Ruins” explores a faster tempo while staying in line with the all-brown psychedelic swirl around it, brought to fruition in the backwards-sounding loops of closer “Kaivalya” after the declarative thud of side B standout “Empty Chalice.” They just keep finding new depths. It’s impressive. Also a little horrifying.

Saturnalia Temple on Facebook

Listenable Records website

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Dool, The Shape of Fluidity

It’s easy to respect a band so unwilling to be boxed by genre, and Rotterdam’s Dool put the righteous aural outsiderness that’s typified their sound since 2017’s Here Now There Then (review here) to meta-level use on their third long-player for Prophecy Productions, The Shape of Fluidity. Darkly progressive, rich in atmosphere, broad in range and mix, heavy-but-not-beholden-to-tone in presentation, encompassing but sneaky-catchy in pieces like opener “Venus in Flames,” the flowing title-track, and the in-fact-quite-heavy “Hermagorgon,” the record harnesses declarations and triumphs around guitarist/vocalist Raven van Dorst‘s stated lyrical thematic around gender-nonbinaryism, turning struggle and confusion into clarity of expressive purpose in the breakout “Self-Dissect” and resolving with furious culmination in “The Hand of Creation” with due boldness. Given some of the hateful, violent rhetoric around gender-everything in the modern age, the bravery of Dool — Van Dorst alongside guitarists Nick Polak and Omar Iskandr, bassist JB van der Wal and drummer Vincent Kreyder — in confronting that head-on with these narratives is admirable, but it’s still the songs themselves that make The Shape of Fluidity one of 2024’s best albums.

Dool on Facebook

Prophecy Productions website

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Abrams, Blue City

After releasing 2022’s In the Dark (review here) on Small Stone, Denver heavy rockers Abrams align to Blues Funeral Recordings for their fifth album in a productive, also-touring nine years, the 10-track/42-minute Blue City. Production by Kurt Ballou (High on Fire, Converge, etc.) at GodCity Studio assures no lack of impact as “Fire Waltz” reaffirms the tonal density of the riffs that the Zach Amster-led four-piece nonetheless made dance in opener “Tomorrow,” while the rolling “Death Om” and the momentary skyward ascent in “Etherol” — a shimmering preface to the chug-underscored mellowness of “Narc” later — lay out some of the dynamic that’s emerged in their sound along with the rampant post-hardcore melodies that come through in Amster and Graham Zander‘s guitars, capable either of meting out hard-landing riffs to coincide with the bass of Taylor Iversen (also vocals) and Ryan DeWitt‘s drumming, or unfurling sections of float like those noted above en route to tying it all together with the closing “Blue City.” Relatively short runtimes and straightforward-feeling structures mask the stylistic nuance of the actual material — nothing new there for Abrams; they’re largely undervalued — and the band continue to reside in between-microgenre spaces as they await the coming of history which will inevitably prove they were right all along.

Abrams on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings website

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Pia Isa, Burning Time

Superlynx bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen made her solo debut under the Pia Isa moniker with 2022’s Distorted Chants (review here), and in addition to announcing the SoftSun collaboration she’ll undertake alongside Yawning Man‘s Gary Arce (who also appeared on her record), in 2024, she offers the three-song Burning Time EP, with a cover of Radiohead‘s “Burn the Witch” backed by two originals, “Treasure” and “Nothing Can Turn it Back.” With drumming by her Superlynx bandmate Ole Teigen (who also recorded), “Burn the Witch” becomes a lumbering forward march, ethereal in melody but not necessarily cultish, while “Treasure” digs into repetitive plod led by the low end and “Nothing Can Turn it Black” brings the guitar forward but is most striking in the break that brings the dual-layered vocals forward near the midpoint. The songs are leftovers from the LP, but if you liked the LP, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Pia Isa on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Wretched Kingdom, Wretched Kingdom

A late-2023 initial public offering from Houston’s Wretched Kingdom, their self-titled EP presents a somewhat less outwardly joyous take on the notion of “Texas desert rock” than that offered by, as an example, Austin’s High Desert Queen, but the metallic riffing that underscores “Dreamcrusher” goes farther back in its foundations than whatever similarity to Kyuss one might find in the vocals or speedier riffy shove of “Smoke and Mirrors.” Sharp-cornered in tone, opener “Torn and Frayed” gets underway with metered purpose as well, and while the more open-feeling “Too Close to the Sun” begins similar to “You Can’t Save Me” — the strut that ensues in the latter distinguishes — the push in its second half comes after riding a steady groove into a duly bluesy solo. There’s nothing in the material to take you out of the flow between the six component cuts, and even closer “Deviation” tells you it’s about to do something different as it works from its mellower outset into a rigorous payoff. With the understanding that most first-EPs of this nature are demos by another name and (as here) more professional sound, Wretched Kingdom‘s Wretched Kingdom asks little in terms of indulgence and rewards generously when encountered at higher volumes. Asking more would be ridiculous.

Wretched Kingdom on Facebook

Wretched Kingdom on Bandcamp

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Lake Lake, Proxy Joy

Like earlier Clutch born out of shenanigans-prone punk, Youngstown, Ohio’s Lake Lake are tight within the swinging context of a song like “The Boy Who Bit Me,” which is the second of the self-released Proxy Joy‘s six inclusions. Brash in tone and the gutted-out shouty vocals, offsetting its harder shoving moments with groovy back-throttles in songs that could still largely be called straightforward, the quirk and throaty delivery of “Blue Jerk” and the bluesier-minded “Viking Vietnam” paying off the tension in the verses of “Comfort Keepers” and the build toward that leadoff’s chorus want nothing for personality or chemistry, and as casual as the style is on paper, the arrangements are coordinated and as “Heavy Lord” finds a more melodic vocal and “Coyote” — the longest song here at 5:01 — leaves on a brash highlight note, the party they’re having is by no means unconsidered. But it is a party, and those who have dancing shoes would be well advised to keep them on hand, just in case.

Lake Lake on Facebook

Lake Lake on Bandcamp

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Gnarwhal, Altered States

Modern in the angularity of its riffing, spacious in the echoes of its tones and vocals, and encompassing enough in sound to be called progressive within a heavy context, Altered States follows Canadian four-piece Gnarwhal‘s 2023 self-titled debut full-length with four songs that effectively bring together atmosphere and impact in the six-minute “The War Nothing More” — big build in the second half leading to more immediate, on-beat finish serving as a ready instance of same — with twists that feel derived of the MastoBaroness school rhythmically and up-front vocal melodies that give cohesion to the darker vibe of “From Her Hands” after displaying a grungier blowout in “Tides.” The terrain through which they ebb and flow, amass and release tension, soar and crash, etc., is familiar if somewhat intangible, and that becomes an asset as the concluding “Altered States” channels the energy coursing through its verses in the first half into the airy payoff solo that ends. I didn’t hear the full-length last year. Listening to what Gnarwhal are doing in these tracks in terms of breadth and crunch, I feel like I missed out. You might also consider being prepared to want to hear more upon engaging.

Gnarwhal on Facebook

Gnarwhal on Bandcamp

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Bongfoot, Help! The Humans..

Help the humans? No. Help! The Humans…, and here as in so many of life’s contexts, punctuation matters. Digging into a heavy, character-filled and charging punkish sound they call “Appalachian thrash,” Boone, North Carolina, three-piece Bongfoot are suitably over-the-top as they explore what it means to be American in the current age, couching discussions of wealth inequality, climate crisis, corporatocracy, capitalist exploitation, the insecurity at root in toxic masculinity and more besides. With clever, hooky lyrics that are a total blast despite being tragic in the subject matter and a pace of execution well outside what one might think is bong metal going in because of the band’s name, Bongfoot vigorously kick ass from opener “End Times” through the galloping end of “Amazon Death Factory/Spacefoot” and the untitled mountain ramble that follows as an outro. Along the way, they intermittently toy with country twang, doom, and hardcore punk, and offer a prayer to the titular volcano of “Krakatoa” to save at least the rest of the world if not humanity. It’s quite a time to be alive. Listening, that is. As for the real-world version of the real world, it’s less fun and more existentially and financially draining, which makes Help! The Humans… all the more a win for its defiance and charm. Even with the bonus tracks, I’ll take more of this anytime they’re ready with it.

Bongfoot on Facebook

Bongfoot on Bandcamp

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Thomas Greenwood & The Talismans, Ateş

It’s interesting, because you can’t really say that Thomas Greenwood and the Talismans‘ second LP, Ateş isn’t neo-psychedelia, but the eight tracks and 38 minutes of the record itself warrant enunciating what that means. Where much of 2020s-era neo-psych is actually space rock with thicker tones (shh! it’s a secret!), what Greenwood — AKA Thomas Mascheroni, also of Bergamo, Italy’s Humulus) brings to sounds like the swaying, organ-laced “Sleepwalker” and the resonant spaciousness in the soloing of “Mystic Sunday Morning” is more kin to the neo-psych movement that began in the 1990s, which itself was a reinterpretation of the genre’s pop-rock origins in the 1960s. Is this nitpicking? Not when you hear the title-track infusing its Middle Eastern-leaning groove with a heroic dose of wah or the friendly shimmer of “I Do Not” that feels extrapolated from garage rock but is most definitely not that thing and the post-Beatles bop of “Sunhouse.” It’s an individual (if inherently familiar) take that unifies the varied arrangements of the acidic “When We Die” and the cosmic vibe of “All the Lines” (okay, so there’s a little bit of space boogie too), resolving in the Doors-y lumber of “Crack” to broaden the scope even further and blur past timelines into an optimistic future.

Thomas Greenwood and The Talismans on Facebook

Subsound Records website

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Djiin, Mirrors

As direct as some of its push is and as immediate as “Fish” is opening the album right into the first verse, the course that harp-laced French heavy progressive rockers Djiin take on their third album, Mirrors, ultimately more varied, winding and satisfying as its five-track run gives over to the nine-minute “Mirrors” and uses its time to explore more pointedly atmospheric reaches before a weighted crescendo that precedes the somehow-fluidity in the off-time early stretch of centerpiece “In the Aura of My Own Sadness,” its verses topped with spoken word and offset by note-for-note melodic conversation between the vocals and guitar. Rest assured, they build “In the Aura of My Own Sadness” to its own crushing end, while taking a more decisively psychedelic approach to get there, and thereby set up “Blind” with its trades from open-spaces held to pattern by the drums and a pair of nigh-on-caustic noise rock onslaughts before 13-minute capstone “Iron Monsters” unfolds a full instrumental linear movement before getting even heavier, as if to underscore the notion that Djiin can go wherever the hell they want and make it work as a song. Point taken.

Djiin on Facebook

Klonosphere Records website

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There’s only one snippet posted on Instagram, and I couldn’t even manage to embed that properly — for what it’s worth, the track is called “Daylight in the Dark” — but SoftSun is a new trio featuring guitarist Gary Arce of Yawning Man, Big Scenic Nowhere, Zun, Ten East and copious others on the branches of one of desert rock’s broadest-reaching family trees, bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen, aka Pia Isa for her solo work, of Norwegian atmospheric heavy nodders Superlynx, and drummer/recording engineer Dan Joeright, who in addition to playing in Earth Moon Earth runs the helm at Gatos Trail Recording Studio, where Yawning Man, Blasting Rod, The Freeks, Behold the Monolith and many more have recorded.

The roots of the collab would seem to be Arce‘s appearance on Pia Isa‘s 2022 album, Distorted Chants (review here), but either way, SoftSun have already been picked up to release their yet-untitled debut LP through Ripple Music sometime in the next however long, and if you do chase down that brief glimpse of “Daylight in the Dark” (which I’d suggest as your next stop), you’ll likely understand quickly why that’s something to look forward to.

Some background and label comment, from socials:

Says Ripple Music: Stoked to be bringing you this amazingly cool project! Please welcome SoftSun to the Ripple family!!

SoftSun is, left to right:

Dan Joeright (drums) who also plays in cosmic rock collective Earth Moon Earth, is a former member of The Rentals and has toured with many bands including Sasquatch and Ed Mundell. He is also the owner of the amazing Gatos Trail – Recording Studio in Yucca Valley where SoftSun record their music, and does the recording and mixing.

Pia Isaksen (bass/vocals) from Moss, Norway has played and written music most of her life and has spent a decade in heavy psych band Superlynx. She also has a dronegazey solo project called PIA ISA, and will release her second solo album this year.

Gary Arce (guitar) from La Quinta, California, known from Yawning Man, FATSO JETSON, Ten East, Dark Tooth Encounter, Big Scenic Nowhere, Yawning Balch etc. Since playing in the desert as young punk kid he has developed a unique style of playing and is known to create the most beautiful and dreamy sounds and melodies that sound like no one else. And he can never get enough foot pedals.

Photo by @aaronfarinelli

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557870166741
https://www.instagram.com/softsunofficial/

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

SoftSun, “Daylight in the Dark” snippet

 

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Oslo-based multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Pia Isaksen, also frontwoman for the melodic nodders Superlynx, released her debut solo album as Pia Isa, Distorted Chants (review here), in March 2022 through Argonauta Records. “Trauma,” with a video premiering below, is a fitting representation of it, for the weight of the chug in Isaksen‘s guitar and bass, the floating guest lead guitar of desert rock progenitor Gary Arce from Yawning Man, Yawning Sons, Big Scenic Nowhere, et al, the drums of Superlynx bandmate Ole Teigen, and the overarching focus on atmosphere. Too heavy to be post-rock, not quite doom, Distorted Chants found Isaksen able to find an expressive niche of her own, something apart from singer-songwriterism, but built on that foundation and fleshed out accordingly into a fuller sound.

I’ve started (mentally anyhow) putting together my year-end list of the best debut albums, and I assure you that Distorted Chants will be on it. Songs, performance, craft, it’s all locked in as Isaksen brings together pandemic-born material with a sensibility that avoids so many of the male-gaze-centered traps set for women artists in contemporary heavy music — it is not especially witchy despite its mindful ambience, in other words; the intent feels more ‘be itself’ than ‘play to style’ —  and that is refreshing both in terms of sonic persona and the realization of the material itself. The sound and the album are hers — bolstered in this case by the almost-goth guitar work of Arce — and the abiding feel from the music is personal, emotional in voice and style of play, while carrying not insignificant tonal weight from the first lurching riff of “Trauma” onward through the somewhat-brief-seeming sub-four-minute run. You could easily say the same of the whole record.

What’s invariably a sign of our times, “trauma” itself has become something of a buzzword. The very notion of a person’s mental and physical self being altered by some event or infliction is the defining aspect of the 2020s thus far — remember that plague? as Isaksen puts it, “Like magma traveling underneath the skin,” before she reminds: “The body does not forget” — and Distorted Chants is of this moment. She is not by any means the only artist to explore outside the confines of a ‘main project’ in the post-pandemic era, but turmoil and, indeed, trauma, become fluid movement through heavy haze in her hands and the density in the sound of “Trauma” is as much welcoming as it is consuming. There’s some distance from the experience, necessary for any artist to frame anything as a creative work, but Isaksen effectively creates the space for the song’s ideas to flourish, and they do.

I didn’t expect Arce, who plays on three of the album’s tracks, to appear in the clip, but sure enough he’s in there with Isaksen and Teigen, so right on. The more the merrier. And for what my saying so is worth, if you don’t support free talk therapy for all who want it, fuck off. Whatever else trauma is, it’s real for a lot of people.

Enjoy the clip, followed by a quote from Isaksen and

Pia Isa, “Trauma (feat. Gary Arce)” video premiere

Pia Isa on “Trauma:

“I am thrilled to finally have the vinyl out and to celebrate it with the music video for the song Trauma. This is one of the most personal and heavy tracks on the album, graced with gorgeous guitar melodies by Gary Arce coming in over the massive riff guitars and Ole Teigen´s slow heavy drums. The song is dealing with difficult matter, where trauma is symbolised visually by smoke, lava and a volcanic outburst in the video. I tried to find a hopeful and empowering view on it and to me personally this is an example of how therapeutic music can really be and how it can transport you into a different mindset.”

Pia Isa is the solo project of bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen from Norwegian heavy psych/doom band Superlynx. She is now gearing up for the release of her debut solo album “Distorted Chants”, which features Ole Teigen (Superlynx) on drums and a guest appearance by guitarist Gary Arce (Yawning Man, Big Scenic Nowhere) on three of the songs.

Having played and written music for most of her life a solo album has been brewing in Pia’s mind for a long time. Finally everything has aligned for her first one to materialize and “Distorted Chants” was the result of that. As much as she loves playing with Superlynx (formed 2013) and other people her ideas for this album seemed more right to work through on her own.

Pia Isa, Distorted Chants (2022)

Pia Isa on Facebook

Pia Isa on Instagram

Pia Isa on Bandcamp

Argonauta Records website

Argonauta Records on Facebook

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Pia Isaksen of Superlynx & Pia Isa

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I create and play music with my band Superlynx and solo project PIA ISA. I am trying create and do things I love and that I find meaningful. I discovered that music was my thing when I was a kid and started playing piano when I was eight. A year later I started inventing little melodies and songs myself and it felt like a very exciting and almost magic thing. I started playing guitar when I was 13 and listened to a lot of music. The town I grew up in, called Moss, had a great music scene at the time and so many bands, so there were people to play with and places to practice. I moved to Oslo in my early twenties and played in a couple of bands there which later led on to forming Superlynx in 2013. Then I started my solo project last year after having thought about it for years and finally found time for it.

Describe your first musical memory.

The first memory that comes to mind is sitting on the floor in the living room as a maybe three or four year old with my mom, singing songs together from a children’s songbook. I was very excited about singing and learning songs. I also remember the first time I felt moved by music and tears suddenly came rolling just because it was so beautiful. I think I was around eight and a Grieg record was playing in the house.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

This is a tough question and it seems impossible to choose one. There are so many special moments to look back on, from gigs I have played – especially with Superlynx – to being in the audience at amazing gigs, to moments of connecting musically with other people and memorable creative times. One gig that comes to mind was in Berlin in July 2019 when Superlynx supported Weedeater in a packed venue in 40 ° C and everyone up front was dancing during our set. The heat was a challenge but there was such a special lovely energy in the room and we had so much fun that hot summer night with new and old friends. Playing live the very night Oslo opened again after covid lockdown last year was also something to remember. And finally making my solo album and then having someone whose music I have been a fan of for a long time, Gary Arce from Yawning Man, etc., play on it also stands out. Seeing Sleep in Oslo in 2012 with a group of friends was also very special. One of them, a very good friend of mine, passed away shortly after and I am grateful we got to make this last great memory. Sorry, this question brings up many things. I will stop here.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I always assume that people are kind and honest. That has led to disappointment more than once and I think I have become a little less naive as I have gotten older.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

To different things for different people. I guess also to more insight and to a broader “toolbox” for your ideas and what you want to express.

How do you define success?

Doing what you love, what is important to you and what makes you happy. When it comes to music I think it is something like creative fulfillment and when the music, words, performance, mood and sound just feel right all together. The feeling of having created a work you can fully stand behind and feel happy with. And if someone else connects to it and gets some meaning, comfort, good times, a needed escape or maybe even help dealing with things through it that is a wonderful thing. Like so much music has done for me. It wouldn’t hurt to sell a lot of records and tour the world but being able to do what you love and having good people around is pretty successful I would say.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

On a selfish level a lot of things. Violence, sexism, racism, sickness, injustice, the climate crisis etc. It would have been easier to not have seen or experienced any of it. But in the bigger picture I don’t think it is a very good solution to look away from the truth and pretend these problems don’t exist.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

More music of course, and I would also like to do some more collaborations. It would also be exciting to do some music for moving images or a film some time. And I wish to do more graphic art of my own that I have many ideas for and that I hope will be possible to realize sometime in the future.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Connection, catharsis, escape, deeper understanding of life, transcendence, hope. To express and communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings from our very inner core in a way that nothing else can, on more and on deeper levels. To help understand ourselves, each other and the world better and it definitely connects us and makes life more interesting.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I am looking so much forward to summer which is finally beginning to kick in here, and to daily swims in the ocean when the sea gets warm enough. It is getting there. To me this is one of the very best things in life.

www.facebook.com/piaisamusic
www.instagram.com/piaisamusic
www.piaisa.bandcamp.com

www.argonautarecords.com
www.facebook.com/argonautarecords

https://www.facebook.com/superlynxovdoom
https://www.instagram.com/superlynxdoom/
https://superlynx.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/darkessencerecords
https://www.darkessencerecords.no/
https://karismarecords.bandcamp.com/

Pia Isa, Distorted Chants (2022)

Superlynx, Electric Temple (2021)