Posted in Whathaveyou on May 18th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
A little while ago, Indrayudh Shome dropped me a line and asked if I might know of any good labels to get behind the latest Queen Elephantine album, Kala (review here). It should say something about the kind of enthusiasm the band’s creative breadth inspires that Shome‘s search resulted in not one but four separate regional and format homes for Kala, which is their fifth outing. They are: a domestic US LP release from Cimmerian Shade, a CD through Italy’s Argonauta Records, a tape through Tartarus and download through Atypeek Music. Kudos to Queen Elephantine for getting the album out there and then really getting the album out there.
If you’re in the Providence area, they share the stage June 4 with Doomriders and Churchburn at AS220. Not trying to tell you your business, just letting you know.
Announcement comes courtesy of Argonauta:
ARGONAUTA RECORDS new signing: QUEEN ELEPHANTINE
Providence based cosmonauts QUEEN ELEPHANTINE inked a deal with ARGONAUTA Records for a worldwide CD release of their fifth opus “kala” next fall.
With a fluid lineup and various experiments in approach over the course of their four albums, Queen Elephantine is a nebulous worship of heavy mood and time. The group formed in 2006 in Hong Kong but has always been a shapeshifter. At the end of 2007 it moved base to New York and is currently based in Providence.
The fifth album “kala” will be released October 21st, 2016 and will see a partnership between different labels for each format:
CD – Argonauta Records (Italy) LP – Cimmerian Shade Records (US) Cassette – Tartarus Records (Netherlands) Digital – Atypeek Music (France)
Recorded by I. Sims, Mixed by Indrayudh Shome. Mastered by Billy Anderson. Art by Adrian Dexter.
1. Quartered 2. Quartz 3. Ox 4. Onyx 5. Deep Blue 6. Throne of the Void in the Hundred Petal Lotus
indrayudh shome: guitar ian sims: drumset mat becker: bass srinivas reddy: guitar derek fukumori: percussion samer ghadry: guitar, synth nathanael totushek: drumset + percussion on 2,4,6 nick disalvo: mellotron on 1,2, 3 michael scott isley: percussion on 2,4
Kala is the fifth full-length from Providence, Rhode Island-based experimentalists Queen Elephantine, who continue to dwell far outside of genre confines and on a plane of their own making in psychedelic ritual, drone, doom, jazz and seemingly whatever else might occur to them at any given moment. The follow-up to 2013’s Scarab (review here) brings six new tracks for a 48-minute, single-LP voyage, and finds much of the personnel from the last time out returned. At the center as always is Indrayudh Shome, whose guitar explorations form the basis from which much of the proceedings is fleshed out, and returning from Scarab are drummer/percussionists Ian Sims and Nathanael Totushek, bassist Matt Becker, and guitarist Srinivas Reddy (who played tanpura on the prior record).
In addition to these, Derek Fukumori and Michael Scott Isley contribute percussion, Samer Ghadry plays guitar and synth, Danny Quinn is credited for/as “surgeon pepper” (presumably as opposed to doctor or sergeant), and Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo handles Mellotron on the first three tracks. Someone new to the band might expect based on the amount of people involved that Queen Elephantine specialize in lush textures and construct layer upon layer of wash, but that’s never been their way. Songs like second cut “Quartz” and “Onyx” build to a head, but many of Kala‘s strongest impressions come in its minimalist moments, a few voices chanting quietly as the tension mounts in “Quartz” or filling the open spaces of 10-minute drone-doom finale “Throne of the Void in the Hundred Petal Lotus,” or the subtle movement underscoring the instrumental “Ox,” which offers a lurching apex only after an extended peripatetic wandering that ultimately proves no less integral to the affect of both.
That’s not to say the tradeoffs in volume that play out patiently across the album’s span are ineffective, just that it’s more about the conversation going on between the members of the band — whoever happens to be on a given track at any point — than about the particular moment when it “gets heavy.” Recorded by Sims over the course of two days last April, produced and mixed by Shome with mastering by Billy Anderson, even the most active moments on Kala retain a raw, live feel, and even down to the progression of song titles, from “Quartered” to “Quartz,” from “Ox” to “Onyx” with “Deep Blue” and “Throne in the Void of the Hundred Petal Lotus,” there is a mindfulness of approach that resonates strongly throughout, and that bleeds into the depth of the initial roll in “Quartered” as much as the feedback-soaked dissonance of its later reaches, the songs drawn together by their contemplative spirit as much as the tones and rhythms through which that spirit is conveyed.
Most of those rhythms, incidentally, are crawlingly slow. Queen Elephantine have never been in much of a rush, and Kala builds on the meditative aspects of its predecessor, so that even a more upbeat stretch like the opening of “Quartz” retains them. “Quartz” might be the most straightforward inclusion here, with something of a hook in its repeated lines, “I say I’m old, I’m losing reality, I didn’t want anymore/Lust in bloom, Doomed is the pharisee, Submit matter and mind,” over a nodding bass progression and its structure that starts at a (relative) rush, drops to a quiet stretch and then builds back up, but “Ox,” which follows, makes a strong case in its midsection bombast and transitions so deftly executed as to be almost hidden despite drastic changes in volume and intensity. At its loudest, “Ox” lumbers and plods, but the current of mellotron in its final crescendo, as well as a healthy dose of guitar noise, keep it from being so easily tagged as doom.
Bass proves to be the element holding “Onyx” together as well, though it’s the drums and a consistent drone line bled over from the end of “Ox” that begin the track. Before the hissing vocals arise, an angular back and forth between the guitar and bass seems to be jabbing one instrument against the other, but as the guitar moves (temporarily) elsewhere, the low end holds steady under verses and a psychedelic lead. Even the drums start to freak out eventually, but that bassline holds until the song itself seems to come apart leaving just another drone to lead into the penultimate “Deep Blue,” the first half of which pushes toward a peak with drawling drone-singing forward in the mix but nonetheless obscure and a blown-out distortion in focus that seems to drown out the crash cymbal. At about three minutes in, the emergent cacophony ends abruptly and “Deep Blue” roots itself in its central figure to play eerie whispers and eerier falsetto off each other before a drone once again provides the shift into “Throne of the Void in the Hundred Petal Lotus,” which in its linear course, patient execution and holding onto that drone provides a fitting summary of Kala‘s accomplishments to that point.
Less harsh than some of the other cuts, its slower beginning turns toward a grander ending after about five and a half minutes and continues to thrust outward from there until finally the pieces seem to rumble apart, bells chime, amps feed back, and that underlying drone that has been present for much (not all) of the album caps it on a long fade. Wherever they’ve gone soncially over the course of their now-decade-long tenure — and they go a few places here that don’t have a name yet — Queen Elephantine‘s work has always been distinguished by its raw-form creativity, by the sheer will for experimentation that drives it. Kala pushes Queen Elephantine deeper into volume as a spiritual or cerebral expression, and proves just as immersive a journey for the listener as one imagines it was for the artist, but even more than that, it reinforces just how woefully underappreciated they continue to be.
Posted in Reviews on January 21st, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Before they issued their second album in 2014, Bordeaux heavy psychedelic rock trio Mars Red Sky offered up a short collection of tracks in 2013 called Be My Guide (review here) that, along with a prior 2012 split/collaboration with countrymen Year of No Light, helped to serve as a transition between where they started out on their 2011 self-titled debut (review here) and where that sophomore outing would ultimately take them. When it arrived, Stranded in Arcadia (review here) was nothing short of revelatory in its sound, leapfrogging the warm-toned fuzz of its predecessor and pushing further into psych and more adventurous songwriting without giving up the soulful melodic fragility of the debut or the heft provided by the guitar of Julien Pras and the bass of Jimmy Kinast.
As Be My Guide ultimately served to pave the way for Stranded in Arcadia, so too does Providence work in direct conversation with the full-length it precedes. If anything, more efficiently so. The title of the closing track “Sapphire Vessel” ties to the lyrics of “Apex III” from the forthcoming Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul), and Providence acts as a showcase for another significant forward step the band — Pras, Kinast and drummer Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau — has taken in what’s become one of underground heavy’s most exciting creative progressions. Comprised of three tracks and pressed up via Listenable Records, it is a brief glimpse of things to come, but offers plenty of substance as more than just a supplemental outing, giving the band space on its second side to flesh out experimentalist tendencies and bring some of their on-stage openness of form to a studio release in a way they haven’t done before.
Helming the recording of “Shot in Providence” is Gabriel Zander, returning to the producer role he held on Stranded in Arcadia, which was recorded when the band was in Brazil. Providence was tracked in Bordeaux, but there are of course traits continued from the one into the next. The track starts dreamy and coated in wah before unveiling the chugging riff that will serve as its core and jamming outward from there en route to its first verse, Pras arriving at about the minute mark to setup the hook with themes of alienation, repetitions of “I was shot in Providence” that will recur in each subsequent verse, and hard rhymes with that line atop that bouncing riff, which Gazeau meets head-on with tom runs and a hi-hat that seems to carry the load as far as time-keeping goes.
Just before 2:40, they abruptly shift back to the intro and top it with a chorus before quickly turning again back into the next verse, making the same change again and fleshing out a lead before stopping after five minutes in and gracefully unfolding a spacier verse of far-off guitar and vocals, building to an explosive heavier push — you’ll know it when Kinast comes back in — that serves as the beginning song’s peak. They’re content to ride that groove for a few measures, and rightly so, but soon enough they pull back on the pacing and open up to Stranded in Arcadia-style largesse that’s as forceful as it is righteous. A languid chorus finishes out in residual tones and echo that cap side A of the vinyl, leaving side B to pick up with “The Homesick Deaf,” which was recorded live in Bordeaux in May 2014 and is comprised of ambient and field recordings by Julia Al Abed, who was a guest at the show, which was dubbed “Into the Mars Red Sound.”
Beach sounds, birds, laughing children, quiet, emergent swells of guitar, a gradual drum/bass progression, and finally sirens and shouting would seem to make up the bulk of the four-and-a-half-minute “The Homesick Deaf,” though to be quiet honest I’m not sure of the exact moment when that ends and when “Sapphire Vessel” begins. Pras enters over a spacious guitar part for a verse, but the real course for the track seems to be set when the acoustics and electrics start to weave together, the former vigorously strummed alongside struck low-end piano, the latter patterning out wispy lead-line melancholia in multiple layers. Cello enters. The result is beautiful.
“Sapphire Vessel” moves forward patiently but with purpose, building along the way but never losing its evocative, wistful feel, and eventually it arrives at a point where a chorus shows up, and other elements begin to work their way out. The guitars go and come again, the piano seems to step back, and finally the song ends in a fashion that seems ready to shift right to the Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul) intro, “Alien Grounds.” The CD version of Providence includes four live bonus tracks recorded in the late hours of 2015 culled from prior releases, but the crux of the EP’s accomplishment is to step ahead from where Mars Red Sky were on Stranded in Arcadia and into where they’re going with Apex III. It shows that even the ground between the two can be a gorgeous, vibrant and expansive place.
[In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll note that I will be hosting the band at the first-ever The Obelisk All-Dayer in August at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, and that they’re being paid for that appearance. I think if you look at the review links above, there’s sufficient argument to be made that I’d be writing about this EP even if that were not the case.]
Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 15th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
I could tell you how much I’m looking forward to the new Mars Red Sky EP, Providence, and subsequent LP, Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul), but honestly, I don’t think you’d believe me. The earlier, shorter offering is out in a week on Listenable Records, with the band’s third album and follow-up to 2014’s excellent Stranded in Arcadia (review here) to follow in March. I’m not even gonna lie to you: I’ve already heard both. I just can’t wait for them to come out because they’re that god damned good.
The video below for “Shot in Providence” follows suit from other Mars Red Sky clips in the past — the drone-buzzing “The Light Beyond” is an exception — found footage spliced together in trippy time to the song itself, but this one also has lyrics set to it too, and since Providence and Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul) feed one into the next lyrically, that’s something you’ll want to check out ahead of the long-player. I’ll have a Providence review up next week, so keep an eye out for that, but if you’d like to get lost in “Shot in Providence” in the meantime, which is something I heartily recommend doing, the video is a good way to go.
Mars Red Sky are on tour throughout the next couple months in Europe, and you can find all their current dates under the clip below. Enjoy:
Mars Red Sky, “Shot in Providence” official video
“Shot In Providence” From “Providence EP” – Out January 22th 2016 on Listenable Rds / Recorded and mixed by Gabriel Zander & Jacob Dennis. Vidéo : Geoffrey Torres – Jimmy Kinast / Grading by Colin Manierka
Mars Red Sky on tour: 28/01 BORDEAUX (33) Rock et Chanson 10/02 SAN SEBASTIAN (SP) Dabadaba 11/02 GIJON (SP) Sala Acapulco (Casino de Asturias) 12/02 SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA (SP) Sala Sonar 13/02 MADRID (SP) Sala Fun House 14/02 ZARAGOZA (SP) La Ley Seca 20/02 BOURGES (18) Le 22 26/02 NIORT (79) Le Camji 01/03 LEIPZIG (DE) WERK2-Kulturfabrik 02/03 HAMBURG (DE) Hafenklang 03/03 BRUSSELS (BE) VK concerts 04/03 PARIS (FR) Le Divan du Monde 05/03 ROTTERDAM (NL) Baroeg Open Air 06/03 BERLIN (DE) Lido Berlin 08/03 STUTTGART (DE) Universum 09/03 LINZ (AT) Stadtwerstatt 10/03 VIENNA (AT) ARENA WIEN 11/03 LJUBLJANA (SI) Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture 12/03 MUNICH (DE) Under The Black Moon Festival 14/03 LAUSANNE (CH) Le Romandie – Lausanne 15/03 PRATTELN (CH) Konzertfabrik Z7 Bleibt 16/03 WIESBADEN (DE) Schlachthof Wiesbaden 17/03 ARLON (BE) L’Entrepôt À Arlon 18/03 EINDHOVEN (NL) Tuchthuis 19/03 HANNOVER (DE) Faust Gold 29/03 RENNES (35) L’Ubu 30/03 ROUBAIX (59) La Cave aux Poètes 31/03 ANGERS (49) Le Chabada – Angers (club et salle de concerts) 01/04 LORIENT (56) MAPL / Le Manège / Les Studios – Lorient 02/04 NANTES (44) Metalorgie Festival 05/04 STRASBOURG (67) La Laiterie Artefact 06/04 LYON (69) Marché Gare 07/04 DRAGUIGNAN (83) Bucéphale 08/04 BARCELONA (SP) Sala Plataforma 09/04 MONTPELLIER (34) Le Black Sheep 10/04 CLERMONT FD (63) Coopérative de Mai 12/04 TOURS (37) Le Temps Machine 16/04 LE MANS (72) Salle Jean Carmet 17/04 DUNKERQUE (59) Les 4Ecluses
!!! 2016 !!! January 22h : Providence EP (10′ vinyl + CD with Bonus live)/ February 29th : New Album “APEX III (Praise For The Burning Soul)” on Listenable records
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 2nd, 2015 by JJ Koczan
In addition to extensive tours of the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe between Feb. and March, Bordeaux trio have two releases planned for early 2016, and the first of them, a three-song EP called Providence, is available now for preorder ahead of a Jan. 28 issue via Listenable Records. They’ll follow that with their third full-length about a month later as they’re on the road, and there’s more road whathaveyou in the works for later in the year, but for today, let’s keep it to the preorder and the fact that, in addition to being the first new material to come from them after 2014’s stellar sophomore LP, Stranded in Arcadia (review here), Providence has the further distinction of featuring recordings from their special “Into the Mars Red Sound” show from 2014 on the track “Sapphire Vessel,” which is the band’s most experimental studio offering to-date and a harbinger of much expansiveness to come.
But, like I say, one thing at a time. Now, this:
PROVIDENCE EP Vinyl – 10′ – 500 Copies Limited – January 2016
– Providence EP vinyl / 10′ / 500 copies only – Comes with a poster + goodies
Music by Mars Red Sky: Julien Pras, Jimmy Kinast, Mathieu Gazeau. Lyrics by Julien Pras.
Produced by Gabriel Zander & Mars Red Sky. Recorded by Gabriel Zander with Jacob Dennis at Cryogène studios, Bègles, FR. Shot In Providence was Mixed by Gabriel Zander at Superfuzz studios, Rio De Janeiro BR. Additional Recording and production on Sapphire Vessel by Pierre Fillon at Antirouilles studios, Talence & by Julien Pras at Mad Reed studios, Bordeaux, France. Sapphire Vessel was mixed by Mars Red Sky at Mad Reed. Mastering by Pierre Etchandy.
Guests on Sapphire Vessel: Elisa Dignac: Cello Helen Ferguson: Vocals Joséphine, Louve & Willow: Choir girls Zachary: Cymbal
The Homesick Deaf was engineered and recorded live by Pierre Fillion at Barbey, Bordeaux, FR on May 15, 2014 and is an extract from the live event “Into The Mars Red Sound” featuring acousmatic and field recordings created and performed by Julia Al Abed.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 21st, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Okay, so Mars Red Sky are running a contest through their Thee Facebooks page whereby if you guess the vinyl color and configuration — platter size, 10″ or 12″ — of their upcoming Providence EP, you can win a copy. Fine. So what’s the thing? The thing is this contest is also how they’ve announced the EP to start with, as well as their third album, second for Listenable Records, to which the short release will act as a lead-in. They’ve unveiled the front and back vinyl cover for Providence, which also contains the tracklisting, and let loose the information that, like 2014’s Stranded in Arcadia (review here), the upcoming LP was recorded by Gabriel Zander at Estúdio Superfuzz in Brazil, presumably back in May when they toured South America for the second (maybe third?) time.
Whether or not they did the EP in the same session, I can’t be sure, but that return-to-Brazil tidbit should be particularly encouraging to anyone who heard the last album, which though it wound up being recorded as it was because the Bordeaux trio were denied US visas — their original plan having been to record in the California desert — was a stretch of pure heavy bliss that not only made the most of its situation, but was a significant step forward from the warm riffy bounce and resounding melodies of their 2011 self-titled debut (review here). Providence will also precede the next long-player in a similar fashion that 2013’s Be My Guide EP (review here) showed where Mars Red Sky were heading after the first record, so it’s even more worth keeping an eye out for it.
Cover art (in progress) by Carlos Olmo that ties into their video for “The Light Beyond” from Stranded in Arcadia, and the rather informative contest rules follow below. For what it’s worth, I’m going with a blue-green-black splatter (like the ray on the cover) 10″ record. We’ll see if I’m right or wrong.
More to come, hopefully sooner than later:
READY TO PLAY ? this is a preview of next artwork (work in progress) by Carlos Olmo. Before the next album (out in march on Listenable records & recorded by Gabriel Zander), we’ll release a EP limited / 500 copies vinyls early february 2016! We hope you guys like the cover below! The one (or 2) who will find the color we already chose for the wax and the size of the vinyl will get that plate for free 1 month before the release (mid of january!). Maybe the people get close to the answer will get something too (goodies?) or not! Be careful, this game is stupid, no strict real rules but we hope we’ll have a winner!!!
Answer in 3 or 4 days!
Providence EP tracklisting: A1. Shot in Providence B1. The Homesick Deaf B2. Sapphire Vessel
We’re on the downhill swing of this edition of the Quarterly Review, so it’s time to get into some extremes, I think. Today, between death-doom lurch, drone-as-fuck exploring, gritty aggression and a whole lot more, we pretty much get there. I’m not saying it’s one end of the universe to another, but definitely a little all-over-the-place, which is just what one might need when staring down the fourth round of 10 reviews in a row in a week’s time. Feeling good though, so let’s do it.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Kamchatka, Long Road Made of Gold
It would really be something if Swedish blues rockers Kamchatka released six albums over the course of the last decade and didn’t know what they were doing by now. Fortunately, that’s not the case with Long Road Made of Gold (Despotz Records), their sixth, as the Verberg three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Thomas Juneor Andersson, bassist Per Wiberg (see also: Spiritual Beggars, Candlemass, Opeth, etc.) and drummer Tobias Strandvik modernize classic heavy rock with equal comfort in including a banjo on “Take Me Back Home” and progressive-style harmonies on “Rain.” They seem to get bluesier as they go, with later cuts “Mirror,” “Slowly Drifting Away,” “Long Road” and “To You” rounding out the album with Clutch-style bounce, but the prevailing impact of Long Road Made of Gold is one of unflinching class, the chemistry of its players – not to mention Wiberg’s bass tone – ringing through loud and clear from the material as Kamchatka make their way down that long road to their inevitable next outing.
I said as much when the Tokyo duo released their 2013 debut EP (review here) as well, but their first long-player Iron Scorn (on At War with False Noise) only confirms it: Legion of Andromeda are fucked. Theirs is a doomed-out death metal given further inhumanity by programmed drums and the blown-out growls of vocalist -R-, while guitarist/programmer –M- holds down grime-encrusted chug and dirge riffing. Perhaps most fucked of all is the fact that Iron Scorn uses essentially the same drum progression across its seven tracks/44 minutes, varying in tempo but holding firm to the double-kick and bell-hit timekeeping for the duration. The effect this has not only ties the material together – as it would have to – but also makes the listener feel like they’ve entered into some no-light-can-escape alternate universe in which all there is is that thud, the distortion and the growls. Not a headphone record, unless you were looking to start psychotherapy anyhow, its extremity is prevalent enough to feel like a physical force holding you down.
Relentlessly creative and geographically amorphous drone warriors Queen Elephantine compile eight tracks from eight years of their perpetual exploration for Omen on Atypeek Music, which launches with its titular cut, the oldest of the bunch, from 2007. It’s a gritty rolling groove that, even as nascent and riff-noddy as it is, still has underpinnings that might clue the listener in to what’s to come (especially in hindsight) and comes accompanied by the sludgy “The Sea Goat,” a rawer take recorded the same year in Hong Kong. Newest on Omen is the blissfully percussed “Morning Three” and an 18-minute live version of “Search for the Deathless State” from 2010’s Kailash full-length. Lineups, intent and breadth of sound vary widely, but even into the reaches of “1,000 Years” (2012, Providence, RI) and “Shamanic Procession” (2009, New York), Queen Elephantine remain unflinching in their experimentalism and the results here are likewise immersive. Vastly underrated, their work remains a world waiting to be explored.
Consuming undulations of tectonic riffing. Two of them, actually. Watchtower’s Radiant Moon EP serves as their debut on Magnetic Eye, and like their fellow-Melbourne-resident labelmates in Horsehunter, the four-piece Watchtower slam heavy-est riffs into the listener’s cerebral cortex with little concern for lasting aftereffects, all in worship of nod and volume itself. Where the two acts differ is in Watchtower’s overarching sense of grit, harsh vocals pervading both “Radiant Moon” (9:03) itself and the accompanying “Living Heads” (7:09), standalone vocalist Nico Guijt growing through the tonal fray wrought by guitarist Robbie Ingram and bassist Ben Robertson, Joel McGann’s drums pushing the emergent roll forward on “Living Heads,” a High on Fire-style startoff hitting the brakes on tempo to plod over any and all in its path. I’m trying to tell you it’s fucking heavy. Is that getting through? Watchtower had a live single out before Radiant Moon, but I’d be eager to hear what they come up with for a full-length, whether they might shift elsewhere at some point or revel in pure onslaught. Now taking bets.
The use of multiple vocalists gives Roman trio Ape Skull’s ‘70s fetishism a particularly proggy air. Fly Camel Fly is their second full-length for Heavy Psych Sounds behind a 2013 self-titled, and the boogie of “My Way” and “Early Morning,” the solo-topped groove of “Fly Camel Fly,” and the raw Hendrixology of “A is for Ape” position it as a classic rocker through and through. Vocalist/drummer Giuliano Padroni, bassist/vocalist Pierpaolo Pastorelli and guitarist/vocalist Fulvio Cartacci get down to shuffling business quick and stay that way for the 39-minute duration, the Mountainous “Heavy Santa Ana Wind” missing only the complement of a sappy, over-the-top ballad to complete its vintage believability. Even without, the triumvirate stand tall, fuzzy and swinging on Fly Camel Fly, the cowbell of “Tree Stomp” calling to mind the earthy chaos of Blue Cheer without direct mimicry. A quick listen that builds and holds its momentum, but one that holds up too on subsequent visits.
Mad-as-hell trio Hordes have had a slew of releases out over the last eight years or so – EPs, splits, full-lengths with extended tracks – but their experimental take on noise rock topped with Godfleshy shouts arrives satisfyingly stripped down on their latest self-titled five-track EP, recorded in 2013 and pressed newly to tape and CD (also digital). “Eyes Dulled Blind” dials back some of the pummeling after the bruises left by “Cold War Echo,” guitarist/vocalist Alex Hudson at the fore in the JK Broadrick tradition. Centerpiece “Summer” starts with a slow and peaceful ruse before shifting into brash and blown-out punk – Chris Martinez’s hi-hat forward in the mix to further the abrasion – and finally settles into a middle-ground between the two (mind you, the song is four minutes long), and bassist Jon Howard opens “Life Crusher,” which unfolds quickly into the most oppressive push here, while a churning atmosphere pervades the more echo-laden closer “Fall” to reinforce Hordes’ experimentalist claims and steady balance between tonal weight and noise-caked aggression.
There’s a theatrical element underlying Welsh rockers Dead Shed Jokers’ second, self-titled full-length (on Pity My Brain Records). That’s not to say its eight songs are in some way insincere, just that the five-piece of vocalist Hywel Davies, guitarists Nicky Bryant and Kristian Evans, bassist Luke Cook and drummer Ashley Jones know there’s a show going on. Davies is in the lead throughout and proves a consummate frontman presence across opener “Dafydd’s Song,” the stomping “Memoirs of Mr. Bryant” and the swinging “Rapture Riddles,” Dead Shed Jokers’ penultimate cut before the cabaret closer “Exit Stage Left (Applause),” but the instrumental backing is up to its own task, and a clear-headed production gives the entire affair a professional sensibility. They veer into and out of heavy rock tropes fluidly, but maintain a tonal fullness wherever they might be headed, and Cook’s bass late in “Made in Vietnam” seems to carry a record’s worth of weight in just its few measures at the forefront before Davies returns for the next round of proclamations.
Berlin’s These Hands Conspire aren’t through the two-minute instrumental “Intro” before they’re showing off the heft of tone that pervades their metallized debut album, Sword of Korhan, but as they demonstrate throughout the following seven tracks and the total 45-minute runtime, there’s plenty to go around. Vocalist Felix delivers an especially noteworthy performance over the dual-guitars of Tom and Stefan, the bass of Paul and Sascha’s drums, but heavy metal storytelling – the sci-fi narrative seems to be a battle in space – is just as much a part of the record’s progressive flow, longer cuts like “Praise to Nova Rider,” “The Beast Cometh,” which directly follows, and “Ambush at Antarox IV” feeding one into the next sonically and thematically. The penultimate title-track brings swinging apex to an ambitious first outing, but the foreboding, winding guitar echoes of “Outro” hint at more of the tale to be told. Could be that Sword of Korhan is just the beginning of a much longer engagement.
Maybe it doesn’t need to be said, since if it weren’t the case, they wouldn’t have paired at all, but Enos and Mangoo pair well. The UK chimp-obsessed space metallers – that’s Enos, on side A – and the Finnish modernized classic heavy rock outfit – that’s Mangoo, on side B – don’t ask much of the listener across their Son of a Gun/The Grey Belly split (on H42 Records) beyond a little over 10 minutes of time and a willingness to follow a groove. “Son of a Gun” finds Enos blending particularly well with Mangoo’s methodology via the inclusion of organ in their swinging but still forward-directed movement, and after that, it’s an easy mesh to flip the platter and find Mangoo’s “The Grey Belly” waiting, its own keys playing a huge role in carrying across the ‘70s-via-‘90s vibe the band projects so well. Flourishes of percussion in the former seem to complement the progressive guitar work in the latter, and whichever side happens to be spinning, it all works out just fine.
Born in 2007 as Spice and the RJ Band and rechristened Band of Spice in 2010 prior to their third album, Feel Like Coming Home, the Swedish unit boasting vocalist Christian “Spice” Sjöstrand (founding vocalist of Spiritual Beggars, also Mushroom River Band, currently also in Kayser) release their fourth full-length half a decade later in the form of Economic Dancers on Scarlet Records. It’s a straightforward heavy rocker in the organ-laced European tradition that Spice helped create, with some shades of quirk in the intro to “The Joe” and the arena-ready backing vocals of “In My Blood,” but mostly cutting its teeth on modernized ‘70s jams like “On the Run,” “Down by the Liquor Store” and “True Will,” though the six-minute centerpiece “You Will Call” touches on more psychedelic fare and is backed immediately by two metallers in “You Can’t Stop” and “Fly Away,” so it’s not by any means one-sided, even if at times the mix makes it feel like the 11 tracks are a showcase for the singer whose name is on the marquee.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 4th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Over the last eight or nine years, and whether they were based at the time in New York, Hong Kong or Rhode Island, Queen Elephantine have had a lineup as fluid and shifting as their output itself, but they’ve never lost sight of the experimental drive that seems to be at the core of what they do. I’m not sure that was ever the case so much as on their last full-length, 2013’s Scarab (review here), a churning blend of drone, tonal heft and ambition, but if it tells you anything about the general ethic under which they work, their new release, Omen, is billed as an EP and it’s 70 minutes long. That’s how it goes.
Omen, which is a digital-only outing fostered by French label Atypeek Music, collects previously unreleased tracks from the bulk of Queen Elephantine‘s tenure: 2007 up through 2013 — presumably the Scarab sessions — and features throughout its course no fewer than 14 players. It has live stuff, it has drones, it has an abrasive side that will test the limits of endurance, but the ability to bring all these things together is what makes Queen Elephantine who they are in whatever form they might take.
The release announcement came in like such:
new Queen Elephantine EP
Available through most digital outlets via Atypeek Music (France).
With a fluid lineup and various experiments in approach, QUEEN ELEPHANTINE is a nebulous worship of heavy mood and time. OMEN is the new collection of old artifacts from the masters of dark psychedelia.
The retrospective 70-minute “EP” is a haze-filled collage, a faded time-caravan travelling through the collective’s 2007 roots in Hong Kong to more recent American pieces.
Remastered by Mell Dettmer (Sunn 0))) & Boris), Omen weaves a vein through the dynamic body’s numerous players and instruments, through the dirtiest sludge and cleanest drone meditation alike, illuminating the living, unifying force at the core of Queen Elephantine.
With only the rare relief to be found, OMEN is a grueling, gutting, soul-sapping experience. Enjoy.
released 01 June 2015
Brett Zweiman, Rajkishen Narayanan, Marc Gaetani, Indrayudh Shome, Daniel Quinn, Michael Scott Isley, J. Alexander Buck, Samer Ghadry, Ian Sims, Derek Fukumori, Nathanael Totushek, Mat Becker, Chris Dialogue, Andrew Jude Riotto
