Insistent jazzjabs of snare, twisty ’90s guitar and bouncing bass lead the way into the opening title-track of Plastic Woods‘ 2021 album, Dragonfruit. Released through Spinda Records, Gato Encerrado Records, Discos Macarras, The Braves Records and Violence in the Veins, it was offered as the Andalusian three-piece’s second full-length behind 2019’s Icarus, solidifying and consciously aligning around a sound aware of its home region’s penchant for blending classic progressive rock and heavy psychedelia, but not beholden to it, working in elements of punk, doom, boogie rock, Spanish folk and flamenco guitar and vocals, a sound rife with quirk but remarkably sure of itself, and able to pivot from fleet-stepping prog to crusher riffing at will. And that’s just the first two minutes.

Guitarist/vocalist Jesús de la Torre Sánchez — also the transverse flute on 10-minute closer “Sulayr” — bassist Antonio Pérez Muriel, who holds together jams like “The Calling” and “Dreamland” with class and flash, and drummer/percussionist Javier Rubio Arrabal, whose fluidity of play allows many of the shifts between styles to be done with apparent ease, are joined by a range of guests throughout. “Dragonfruit” itself has violin from Irene Veredas, as does relatively brief acoustic piece “Storm,” while Miguel Ángel Robles Urquiza adds trumpet and Carlos Mesa García plays sax on “Dreamland,” and by then — that’s track three — the band have already run through the Mellotron-laced prog of “The Calling,” with its laid back verse and sunny, folkish chorus, lighter ’90s swing and lush midsection stopping post-flute on its bassline at four minutes in, beginning the jam that will solidify across the next two minutes, with horns, and synth, and manipulated drums, into speedier guitar that resolves in a boogieing finish. A slide whistle of feedback gives over to the standalone vocal at the beginning of “Dreamland.”

With additional flamenco guitar, palmas and jaleos from Antonio Campos del Pino and piano/synth from Isaac Pascual Godoy, Dragonfruit comes across as even more complex and with the way “The Calling” engages funk behind its vocal melody like Blind Melon and Porcupine Tree finding common ground in Iberian folk and flute. At their speediest, in the title-track or the penultimate “Close to the Void,” which returns to the opener’s dirtied-up tonality and rhythmic urgency, Plastic Woods can be dizzying, but it’s important to remember that the breadth in terms of arrangements and aesthetic here means they’re rarely doing the same thing twice on an LP that runs six songs and 32 minutes.

The violin-laced ’70s folk-rock of “Storm” is a departure from “Dreamland” prior, with that song’s foray into Beatles stomp and Primus bounce, trumpet and sax, and noodly stretchout. And “Storm” gives over to “Close to the Void,” which is a shoving rager until it hits its big stoner rock slowdown into one of the best riffs Graveyard forgot to write on their second album, while “Sulayr” puts the flute up front early and builds into a flamenco verse, saving its heavier riffing for after the midpoint of its 10:17, though even that is less of a payoff than was “Close to the Void,” but having already done that thing, Plastic Woods resolve “Sulayr” in funky horns and a jazzy comedown, falling to silence to let an acoustic flamenco guitar kick in and begin the instrumental procession that will lead the band through the end of the record.

Drums, flute, bass, eventually join, but it’s still the acoustic guitar at the center of that last divergence, and it’s telling that Plastic Woods end with that longer and broader cut rather than something ‘just’ raucous and loud, showing ambition in a way that leads one to believe they’re cognizant of the styles they’re twisting together into one thing, and the changeable nature of that formula. From “Close to the Void” toying with doom to “Dragonfruit” panning the flourish lead lines of its verse, to the pairing of voice and violin on “Storm,” Dragonfruit accomplishes a sense of scope without giving up the songs beneath the arrangements or making the arrangements themselves the point of the thing. That is, “Dragonfruit” would still be a song without the horns. They enhance it, but their being there is clearly not the only reason the song was written, and whoever else is involved in a given track, the core trio shine through the production and mix from Jesús Gómez Moreno and Guillermo Ruiz Ravira at Green Cross Studio in Málaga (Mario G. Alberni at Kadifornia Mastering mastered).

In the vocals of Sánchez, Muriel‘s creativity and fun in the low end, and Arrabal‘s ready-for-it drumming, Plastic Woods seem to overflow with forward potential, whether that manifests in riffier or more folk-informed fare or — most likely — finds some space within and between the two, playing up the differences sometimes and at other points drawing lines from one to the other to find commonalities, much as they do here. I won’t try to predict where their music will go, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they had more keyboard next time out, but the confidence and boldness with which they so energetically present Dragonfruit speaks to a desire to progress, to grow as a band, and to continue to carve out their place in the ever-busy Spanish underground.

I was fortunate enough to see Plastic Woods play the pre-show at SonicBlast Fest (review here) last week. I knew nothing about them going into that experience and was a bit blown away as the set unfolded and the band were able to pull off the kinds of changes one hears them making throughout Dragonfruit, including bringing out the additional flamenco guitar twice during what was still only like 40 minutes but was an evening’s worth of getting-schooled. Young band, killer sound, will to grow and just enough weird in what they do to make it really unpredictable — you can pretty much sign me up for that anytime.

No clue if Plastic Woods are working on new material or another record or what, but I knew I wanted to write about this one after seeing them. Some things are worth talking about.

Thanks as always for reading. Hope you enjoy.

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This week is it for The Pecan and camp. There’s like two-plus weeks left before school starts, but we figured a couple weeks of actual break at the end wouldn’t be the worst. Today’s the last day of the last camp. Made it through the fucking summer. It was touch and go there for a minute, as I think you know.

The Patient Mrs. has lined up a few ‘fun week’ activities next week. Day trips and so on. I’m going to do my best to write as much as I can — same as always — but I’m also not going to miss summer with my five year old because I’m never going to have another, and even when she’s six next year, that’s a big difference. Who knows what she’ll be like by then?

But this week was bug camp and bug camp was two hours a day, so having a bit of a time crunch was what it was. I did my best. I think I forgot to put a post up one day and another day had four, but whatever. I feel like the one thing this site isn’t hurting for is content.

Mostly in addition to camp, which is at the arboretum, which is always nice and about 10 minutes away, this week was about comedown from being away last weekend. SonicBlast was a hoot. Great people, lovely time, I saw Greenleaf and Dozer again. I saw Acid King play “Mind’s Eye,” Ruff Majik do “Hillbilly Fight Song,” on and on. But tiring too. You come home tired, then there’s all the back-home stuff to do. By Monday afternoon I was pretty frazzled. Leftover adrenaline.

But I got there, I guess is what matters. And I’ll note that right now, this week, I’m not at my lowest of lows, and that seems worth appreciating. Wow, it’s almost like I benefitted somehow from blowing my brains out with music and being told my work is important for four days. No kidding. The insight around here never stops.

Have a great and safe weekend. Don’t forget to hydrate, sunblock. Watch your head. All that stuff.

FRM.

The Obelisk Collective on Facebook

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

If you work in an office, or you ever have, or you’ve ever spoken to someone who has or does or whatever — which is everybody, is what I’m saying — then you’ll probably have a good idea of why I cringe at saying “happy Friday” as though the end of a workweek’s slog is a holiday even with the next week peering just over the horizon beyond the next 48 hours of not-your-boss time. Nonetheless, we’re at the end of this week, hitting 50 records covered in this Quarterly Review, and while I’ll spend a decent portion of the upcoming weekend working on wrapping it up on Monday and Tuesday, I’m grateful for the ability to breathe a bit in doing that more than I have throughout this week.

I’ll say as much in closing out the week as well, but thanks for reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Black Helium, UM

It’s just too cool for the planet. Earth needs to step up its game if it wants to be able handle what London’s Black Helium are dishing out across their five-song third record, UM, from the sprawl and heavy hippie rock of “Another Heaven” to the utter doom that rises to prominence in that 12-minute-ish cut and the oblivion-bound boogie, blowout, and bonfire that is 15:47 closer “The Keys to Red Skeleton’s House (Open the Door)” on the other end, never mind the u-shaped kosmiche march of “I Saw God,” the shorter, stranger, organ-led centerpiece “Dungeon Head” or the motorik “Summer of Hair” that’s so teeth-grindingly tense by the time it’s done you can feel it in your toes. These are but glimpses of the substance that comprises the 45-minute out-there-out-there-out-there stretch of UM, which by the way is also a party? And you’re invited? I think? Yeah, you can go, but the rest of these fools gotta get right if they want to hang with the likes of “I Saw God,” because Black Helium do it weird for the weirdos and the planet might be round but that duddn’t mean it’s not also square. Good thing Black Helium remembered to bring the launch codes. Fire it up. We’re outta here and off to better, trippier, meltier places. Fortunately they’re able to steer the ship as well as set its controls to the heart of the sun.

Black Helium on Facebook

Riot Season Records store

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Seismic, The Time Machine

A demo recording of a single, 29-minute track that’s slated to appear on Seismic‘s debut full-length based around the works of H.G. Wells sometime later this year — yeah, it’s safe to say there’s a bit of context that goes along with understanding where the Philadelphia instrumentalist trio/live-foursome are coming from on “The Time Machine.” Nonetheless, the reach of the song itself — which moves from its hypnotic beginning at about five minutes in to a solo-topped stretch that then gives over to thud-thud-thud pounding heft before embarking on an adventure 30,000 leagues under the drone, only to rise and riff again, doom. the. fuck. on., and recede to minimalist meditation before resolving in mystique-bent distortion and lumber — is significant, and more than enough to stand on its own considering that in this apparently-demo version, its sound is grippingly full. As to what else might be in store for the above-mentioned LP or when it might land, I have no idea and won’t speculate — I’m just going by what they say about it — but I know enough at this point in my life to understand that when a band comes along and hits you with a half-hour sledgehammering to the frontal cortex as a sign of things to come, it’s going to be worth keeping track of what they do next. If you haven’t heard “The Time Machine” yet, consider this a heads up to their heads up.

Seismic on Facebook

Seismic linktree

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These Beasts, Cares, Wills, Wants

Something of an awaited first long-player from Chicago’s These Beasts, who crush the Sanford Parker-produced Cares, Wills, Wants with modern edge and fluidity moving between heavier rock and sludge metal, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Chris Roo, bassist/vocalist Todd Fabian and drummer Keith Anderson scratching a similar itch in intensity and aggression as did L.A. sludgecore pummelers -(16)- late last year, but with their own shimmer in the guitar on “Nervous Fingers,” post-Baroness melody in “Cocaine Footprints,” and tonal heft worthy of Floor on the likes of “Blind Eyes” and the more purely caustic noise rock of “Ten Dollars and Zero Effort.” “Code Name” dizzies at the outset, while “Trap Door” closes and tops out at over seven minutes, perhaps taking its title from the moment when, as it enters its final minute, the bottom drops out and the listener is eaten alive. Beautifully destructive, it’s also somehow what I wish post-hardcore had been in the 2000s, ripping and gnarling on “Southpaw” while still having space among the righteously maddening, Neurot-tribal percussion work to welcome former Pelican guitarist Dallas Thomas for a guest spot. Next wave of artsy Chicago heavy noise? Sign me up. And I don’t know if that’s Roo or Fabian with the harsh scream, but it’s a good one. You can hear the mucus trying to save the throat from itself. Vocal cords, right down the trap door.

These Beasts on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records store

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Ajeeb, Refractions

Comprised of Cucho Segura on guitar and vocals, Sara Gdm on bass and drummer Rafa Pacheco, Ajeeb are the first band from the Canary Islands to be written about here, and their second album — issued through no fewer than 10 record labels, some of which are linked below — is the 11-song/42-minute Refractions, reminding in heavy fashion that the roots of grunge were in noisy punk all along. There’s some kick behind songs like “Far Enough” and “Mold,” and the later “Stuck for Decades” reminds of grainy festival videos where moshing was just people running into each other — whereas on “Mustard Surfing” someone might get punched in the head — but the listening experience goes deeper the further in you get, with side B offering a more dug-in take with the even-more-grunge “Slow-Vakia” building on “Oh Well” two songs earlier and leading into the low-end shovefest “Stuck for Decades,” which you think is going to let you breathe and then doesn’t, the noisier “Double Somersault” and closer/longest song “Tail Chasing” (5:13) taking the blink-and-it’s-over quiet part in “Amnesia” and building it out over a dynamic finish. The more you listen, the more you’re gonna hear, of course, but on the most basic level, the adaptable nature of their sound results in a markedly individual take. It’s the kind of thing 10 labels might want to release.

Ajeeb on Facebook

Spinda Records website

Clever Eagle Records website

The Ghost is Clear Records website

Violence in the Veins website

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OAK, Disintegrate

One might be tempted to think of Porto-based funeral doomers OAK as a side-project for guitarist/vocalist Guilherme Henriques, bassist Lucas Ferrand and drummer Pedro Soares, the first two of whom play currently and the latter formerly of also-on-Season–of–Mist extreme metallers Gaerea, but that does nothing to take away from the substance of the single-song full-length Disintegrate, which plies its heft in emotionality, ambience and tone alike. Throughout 44 minutes, the three-piece run an album’s worth of a gamut in terms of tempo, volume, ebbs and flows, staying grim all the while but allowing for the existence of beauty in that darkness, no less at some of the most willfully grueling moments. The rise and fall around 20 minutes in, going from double-kick-infused metallurgy to minimal standalone guitar and rebuilding toward death-growl-topped nod some six minutes later, is worth the price of admission alone, but the tortured ending, with flourish either of lead guitar or keys behind the shouted layers before moving into tremolo payoff and the quieter contemplation that post-scripts, shouldn’t be missed either. Like any offering of such extremity, Disintegrate won’t be for everyone, but it makes even the air you breathe feel heavier as it draws you into the melancholic shade it casts.

OAK on Facebook

Season of Mist store

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Ultra Void, Mother of Doom

“Are we cursed?” “Is this living?” “Are we dying?” These are the questions asked after the on-rhythm sampled orgasmic moaning abates on the slow-undulating title-track of Ultra Void‘s Mother of Doom. Billed as an EP, the five-songer skirts the line of full-length consideration at 31 minutes — all the more for its molten flow as punctuated by the programmed drums — and finds the Brooklynite outfit revamped as a solo-project for Jihef Garnero, who moves from that leadoff to let the big riff do most of the talking in the stoned-metal “Sic Mundus Creatus Est” and the raw self-jam of the nine-minute “Måntår,” which holds back its vocals for later and is duly hypnotic for it. Shorter and more rocking, “Squares & Circles” maintains the weirdo vibe just the same, and at just three and a half minutes, “Special K” closes out in similar fashion with perhaps more swing in the rhythm. With those last two songs offsetting the down-the-life-drain spirit of the first three, Mother of Doom seems experimental in its construction — Garnero feeling his way into this new incarnation of the band and perhaps also recording and mixing himself in this context — but the disillusion comes through as organic, and whether we’re living or dying (spoiler: dying), that gives these songs the decisive “ugh” with which they seem to view the world around them.

Ultra Void on Facebook

Ultra Void on Bandcamp

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Aktopasa, Journey to the Pink Planet

Italian trio Aktopasa — also stylized as Akṭōpasa, if you’re in a fancy mood — seem to revel in the breakout moments on their second long-player and Argonauta label debut, Journey to the Pink Planet, as heard in the crescendo nod and boogie, respectively, of post-intro opener “Calima” (10:27) and closer “Foreign Lane” (10:45), the album’s two longest tracks and purposefully-placed bookends around the other songs. Elsewhere, the Venice-based almost-entirely-instrumentalists drift early in “It’s Not the Reason” — which actually features the record’s only vocals near its own end, contributed by Mattia Filippetto — and tick boxes around the tenets of heavy psychedelic microgenre, from the post-Colour Haze floating intimacy at the start of “Agarthi” to the fuzzy and fluid jam that branches out from it and the subsequent “Sirdarja” with its tabla and either sitar or guitar-as-sitar outset and warm-toned, semi-improv-sounding jazzier conclusion. From “Alif” (the intro) into “Calima” and “Lunar Eclipse,” the intent is to hypnotize and carry the listener through, and Aktopasa do so effectively, giving the chemistry between guitarist Lorenzo Barutta, bassist Silvio Tozzato and drummer Marco Sebastiano Alessi a suitably natural showcase and finding peace in the process, at least sonically-speaking, that’s then fleshed out over the remainder. A record to breathe with.

Aktopasa on Facebook

Argonauta Records store

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Troll Teeth, Underground Vol. 1

There’s heavy metal somewhere factored into the sound of Philadelphia’s Troll Teeth, but where it resides changes. The band — who here work as a four-piece for the first time — unveil their Underground Vol. 1 EP with four songs, and each one has a different take. In “Cher Ami,” the question is what would’ve happened if Queens of the Stone Age were in the NWOBHM. In “Expired,” it’s whether or not the howling of the two guitars will actually melt the chug that offsets it. It doesn’t, but it comes close to overwhelming in the process. On “Broken Toy” it’s can something be desert rock because of the drums alone, and in the six-minute closer “Garden of Pillars” it’s Alice in Chains with a (more) doomly reimagining and greater melodic reach in vocals as compared to the other three songs, but filled out with a metallic shred that I guess is a luxury of having two guitars on a record when you haven’t done so before. Blink and you’ll miss its 17-minute runtime, but Troll Teeth have four LPs out through Electric Talon, including 2022’s Hanged, Drawn, & Quartered, so there’s plenty more to dig into should you be so inclined. Still, if the idea behind Underground Vol. 1 was to scope out whether the band works as constructed here, the concept is proven. Yes, it works. Now go write more songs.

Troll Teeth on Facebook

Electric Talon Records store

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Finis Hominis, Sordidum Est

Lead track “Jukai” hasn’t exploded yet before Finis Hominis‘ Sordidum Est EP has unveiled the caustic nature of its bite in scathing feedback, and what ensues from there gives little letup in the oppressive, extreme sludge brutality, which makes even the minute-long “Cavum Nigrum” sample-topped drone interlude claustrophobic, never mind the assault that takes place — fast first, then slow, then crying, then slow, then dead — on nine-minute capper “Lorem Ipsum.” The bass hum that begins centerpiece “Improportionatus” is a thread throughout that 7:58 piece, the foundation on which the rest of the song resides, the indecipherable-even-if-they-were-in-English growls and throat-tearing shouts perfectly suited to the heft of the nastiness surrounding. “Jukai” has some swing in the middle but hearing it is still like trying to inhale concrete, and “Sinne Floribus” is even meaner and rawer, the Brazilian trio resolving in a devastating and noise-caked, visceral regardless of pace or crash, united in its alienated feel and aural punishment. And it’s their first EP! Jesus. Unless they’re actually as unhinged as they at times sound — possible, but difficult — I wouldn’t at all expect it to be their last. A band like this doesn’t happen unless the people behind it feel like it needs to, and most likely it does.

Finis Hominis on Facebook

Abraxas Produtora on Instagram

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Space Shepherds, Losing Time Finding Space

With its title maybe referring to the communion among players and the music they’re making in the moment of its own heavy psych jams, Losing Time Finding Space is the second studio full-length from Belfast instrumentalist unit Space Shepherds. The improvised-sounding troupe seem to have a lineup no less fluid than the material they unfurl, but the keyboard in “Ending the Beginning (Pt. 1)” gives a cinematic ambience to the midsection, and the fact that they even included an intro and interlude — both under two minutes long — next to tracks the shortest of which is 12:57 shows a sense of humor and personality to go along with all that out-there cosmic exploratory seeking. Together comprising a title-track, “Losing Time…” (17:34) and “…Finding Space” (13:27) are unsurprisingly an album unto themselves, and being split like “Ending the Beginning” speaks perhaps of a 2LP edition to come, or at very least is emblematic of the mindset with which they’re approaching their work. That is to say, as they move forward with these kinds of mellow-lysergic jams, they’re not unmindful either of the listener’s involvement in the experience or the prospect of realizing them in the physical as well as digital realms. For now, an hour’s worth of longform psychedelic immersion will do nicely, thank you very much.

Space Shepherds on Facebook

Space Shepherds on Bandcamp

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One does not envy either Canary Islands trio Ajeeb or Spinda Records, which sent the announcement below, the process of coordinating a release across 10 record labels. It’s hard enough with one, two, involved, and the advantage of having a bunch covering different locales is, duh, wider distribution for the artist, but the tradeoff of who gets what when and when a record is coming out, my goodness. If even one person is an asshole — and I don’t know most of these labels personally, but my inclination is to assume that people passionate enough about underground music to help release it generally aren’t assholes — the whole thing could derail.

Nonetheless, Ajeeb‘s second full-length, Refractions — not to be confused with the Lowrider album of the same name — is part of a strong upcoming year for Spinda (not that I’ve seen the schedule or anything) and will see release with a firm March 29 arrival date. There’s no new audio as of now, but you can hear the band’s punk and noise rock-informed take on heavy with the stream of their debut LP, Toss and Turn, which came out in 2020, on the player at the bottom of this post.

Signing announcement follows:

***SPINDA RECORDS – NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT***

Today is a good day! We are so happy to share with y’all that Canary Island alt-rock and shoegaze power trio AJEEB is joining our family. We’ve been following them since the very beginning and there’s no better way to do this than with a new album.

‘Refractions’ will be out on March 29, 2023 via Spinda Records in collaboration with Violence In The Veins, Quebranta Records, Noizeland Records, Hey Boy Hey Girl, Bandera Records, Naife, Hombre Montaña, Clever Eagle Records (US) and The Ghost Is Clear Records (US).

First single (+ pre-order) is about to come out, so keep an eye on these guys.

Photo: Daniel Fleitas

Ajeeb are:
Cucho Segura: Guitar + Vocals
Sara Gdm: Bass
Rafa Pacheco: Drums

http://facebook.com/ajeebmusic
https://www.instagram.com/ajeebmusicband/
https://soundcloud.com/ajeebmusicband
https://ajeebmusicband.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SpindaRecords
https://www.instagram.com/spindarecords
https://spindarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.spindarecords.com/

Ajeeb, Toss and Turn (2020)

A record at least three years in the making, Finland’s Gangrened will release their full-length debut, Deadly Algorithm, this Friday through a host of labels including Kohina Records, Domestic System, Noizeland Records, Odio Sonoro, Quebranta Records, Trepanation Recordings, Burial Records and Violence in the Veins. A follow-up to their 2014 We Are Nothing EP (review here), it is a five-song/42-minute run that paints a dark picture of the time and place we’ve come to inhabit. Not so much post- as simply apocalyptic, though plenty dystopian either way in its multifaceted atmospheric sludge onslaught. Pick your societal teardown, I guess, but know that Deadly Algorithm feels more like that teardown happening than its aftermath.

It is a challenging album, and feels purposeful in that. It is not haphazard, but in its spaciousness there is room for the unplanned and the unexpected, the turns it makes throughout its two sides are not as telegraphed as, say, Amenra, and being born out of Finnish noise rock somewhere along the path of its roots, the scope is different, but there’s calculation happening just the same, and even the four-minute “Intro” that leads into “Triptaani” (9:21) and “Hologrammi” (6:45) serves a pointed function in establishing the world in which Deadly Algorithm is taking place. That world should be plenty recognizable, from the anxiousness of decay to capitalist infiltration of social structures to becoming the Orwellian product via social media false celebrity.

These issues are addressed in the lyrics one way or the other, and if you happen to speak Finnish, you’re one up on me, but amid the urgent chug that takes hold quickly in “Triptaani” and the shouts that break through the morass of tone surrounding, the point gets across. The range is broad, however, and as Gangrened embark on this wanton delivery of heft, the ambience set by “Intro” never entirely dissipates. The spaciousness of the mix is such that when “Triptaani” breaks in its second half to set up its lurching conclusion, it feels natural rather than shoehorned in for dynamic effect, and the post-metallic squibbly lead guitar over top of the massive ending is like a melodic lifeline in the chaos.

“Hologrammi” offers little letup. Its rhythm is more of a march, but the shorter runtime carries with it a more forward attack, and the song’s abiding pummel becomes a defining characteristic. There’s tension between parts, shouts interwoven with obscure spoken passages, but the roll is steady until a wash of synth or sample or something else takes hold at around five and a half minutes in, fading gradually but consuming the song just the same and leaving its final crashes to play out with an especially desolate feel, wrapping side A with a rumble en route to the closing duo of “Kungingatar” (11:43) and “Triangeli” (10:23).

True, the second side of Deadly Algorithm is two songs instead of three. True, it’s about two minutes longer than side A. But it feels like Gangrened are pushing well beyond a point of no return even as the integrated intro of “Kuningatar” leads the way into the unfolding of the song itself, building up over its first three minutes to an eventual breakout. Its title translating to “queen” in English, “Kuningatar” is both intense and spacious, its tempo thrust insistent but with echoes reaching out as it heads toward a momentary bass-led midsection break. Airy lead guitar seems to top the bulk of the second half of the track in various forms, but the underlying pummel and drive is never really lost, even as the band crash out at the end and let the drums start “Triangeli” in a way that comes across as purposefully direct, one into the next. That is, whether they were or not, these two songs sound made to be positioned together, such is the ease of the transition between them. Side B is all the more of a monolith for that.

As to what horrors Gangrened unleash in the final statement of their immersive debut, those are noisier, more feedback-laced, slower unraveling and ultimately more unhinged. Again, purposefully. If “Trangeli” (“triangle”) is somehow the culmination of where Deadly Algorithm has been leading all along, its brutality feels earned, to say the least, but like the album from which it results, there is more depth to the finale than simple bludgeoning. It might seem silly to call Gangrened “mindful” on an aesthetic level, with the sort of new-new-agey connotation of the word, but the band is to be commended for not losing sight of their expressive goal even when that goal seems to be ripping the album apart at the end. The final minute-plus of “Trangeli” is dedicated to some final shouts and then residual noise on a long fade, and the atmospheric point that began to be made in “Intro” is highlighted in the album’s last moments — a sense of completion resonant in more than just the gut-wrenching lumber the band have been throwing around all the while.

There is plenty of that, to be sure, but Deadly Algorithm portrays the insidiousness of the age in which we live through its mood and overarching disaffection as well. Even in its critique, it is of its era. One could go on about the forces that would be required for a worldwide shift to, well, anything, but frankly, to do so is overwhelming and sad. That the impulse is there at all should be taken as testament to the thought-provoking nature of Gangrened‘s work across the record’s still-accessible, still-fluid 42-minute span, and though they present their arguments forcefully, they are doing more than screaming into the abyss. As a debut, their doing so is especially notable.

Full album is streaming below ahead of the release Friday.

Good luck, and enjoy:

“Deadly Algorithm” title, cover and concept verses about a subject that was used in the previous release “We are nothing”. how the world economic elites manipulate mass population. In this case, sneaking up, orienting the development of new technologies like algorithms of artificial intelligence for massive data and attention extraction. Persuasive technology to keep users as long as possible connected. Unfortunately, in the rising attention extraction digital economy, and data extraction also, that the new technologies are at the right moment immersed in, a human is worth more when we are depressed, outraged, polarized, and addicted. Parallel to this, is growing a massive surveillance by governments and big companies with the purpose of basically implement what seemed a dystopia till a little while ago: Living in the “1984” novel of George Orwell, or even worse. . . “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product”.

Deadly Algorithm has been recorded in different sessions between June 2018 and February 2019 by Sami Nortunen at Ylistaro (Finland) and also at Tonehaven studio by Tom Brooke in June/July 2020. Deadly Algorithm has been mixed and mastered during July-September 2020 at Tonehaven studio by Tom Brooke.

Players:
Jon Imbernon – Guitars and effects
Joakim Udd – Electric bass and bass synth
Lassi Männikkö – Drums
Mikko Mannistö – Vocals and effects.

Gangrened on Thee Facebooks

Gangrened on Instagram

Gangrened on Bandcamp

Gangrened website

Violence in the Veins on Thee Facebooks

Kohina Records on Thee Facebooks

Odio Sonoro on Thee Facebooks

Burial Records on Thee Facebooks

Domestic System on Thee Facebooks

Noizeland Records on Thee Facebooks

Quebranta Records on Thee Facebooks

Trepanation Records on Thee Facebooks

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: Jon Imbernon of Gangrened

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

Well, let’s say first my guitar playing: it has been a progression, listening lots of different music. trying, testing things on guitar. Getting to have a deeper knowledge of things and mind openness. I am not talking only about playing heavy, I am also into silence, or noise or really deep experimentation. How we (Gangrened) came with our coming record? Well, at some point I decided to drop, or blend, most of my whole musical background into what we were doing, seemed more interesting and challenging. Made sense also cause was a lot of slow, raw, minimal and heavy things all together anyway.

Describe your first musical memory.

Being in the car with my mother and her boyfriend in 1986 and they bought me for surprise the tape of Europe of The Final Countdown that was a hit on that moment and I was into.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Touring Europe with a band much more known than my band, on that tour, and playing in medium capacity venues and most of the audience being there for us and actually getting good feedback most of the nights. In this same tour, driving 11 hours after sleeping less than one hour and playing an amazing gig in a boat venue in Paris. Also, promote and witness some specific absolutely mind-blowing gigs for either 5, 100 or 200 people, and sharing the feeling with the audience, and in a specific and funny case, the venue manager, once I got a discount in the rent because the absolutely mind-blowing gig the guy witnessed, true story. Well, also the guy did know I wasn’t making it for the profit, so I guess his heart melted or something.

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

Well, for example some days ago having some political discussion, for a while of it I felt like that.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Well, I hope it leads to something better, always. I told to a friend some days ago, in both society and music, progression is what will make things interesting, either as creative evolution and artistic expression or making a society fairer. You have to risk and push forward to change things. And as what goes for rock music, it’s fine there are bands playing the same record after 15 years but if music would be only that we would be still with Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.

How do you define success?

Simplest and more accurate definition I think would be to be happy and satisfied with what you do.

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

Well, certain disappointments, maybe people that disappoints you and that I wish they hadn´t.

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

I would like to do some five-minute songs again, I have one cooking heh. But yeah, now the only Gangrened songs that I can come with of that length is a cover or the intro of our coming record.

No, seriously, I would like to compose some musical piece in which all is guitars, even for percussion, developing a way in which you use the electric guitar in a percussive and musical way at same time. Only electric guitar, as is the instrument I play and domain.

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

I would say it is the poetic delight of the senses and the intellect. Then that’s why depending of your intellect you enjoy this art, or that art, or none.

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

Guess. that, at least, things get normalized with this damn pandemic, and for everyone in the world.

https://www.facebook.com/Gangrened
https://www.instagram.com/gangrened_band/
https://gangrened.bandcamp.com/
http://www.gangrened.org/
https://www.facebook.com/violenceintheveins/
https://www.facebook.com/kohinarecords/
https://www.facebook.com/Odio-Sonoro-255423944500267/
https://www.facebook.com/Burial-Records-100574988598784/
https://www.facebook.com/domestic.system.01/
https://www.facebook.com/NoizelandRecords/
https://www.facebook.com/QuebrantaRecords/
https://www.facebook.com/TrepRec/

Gangrened, Deadly Algorithm (2021)

Noise and doom converge throughout Deadly Algorithm, the awaited full-length debut from Finnish atmospheric crushers Gangrened. The follow-up to their 2014 EP, We Are Nothing (review here), is set to issue on April 9 through an entire squadron of record labels, among them Trepanation Records and Odio Sonoro, and though art and a tracklisting don’t appear here, you can check out copious descriptive info on the record below. If you’d like me to save you the trouble, it is fucking massive and fucking heavy. Yes, the lyrics are in Finnish. Rest assured, they get the point across in any language.

April 9 is the release date, and since audio is starting to come out from the record, I assume preorders will begin in short order through one or 50 of the imprints involved. Keep an eye on the ol’ social media and hope, somewhat ironically, that the algorithm lets you find the information with ease.

The band sent this through the PR wire:

GANGRENED releases “Deadly Algorithm” on 9th April through different labels across Europe

Gangrened returns with their first full length finally after a hiatus that started precisely right after a bunch of dates around Finland with Bongzilla in 2015. The process of composing and recording has been extremely long but this circumstance unexpectedly has contributed to extend the palette of sounds included in the album to an extend that it became the rendering of a wide 20+ years musical background into the record showing a more restless creative flow than the average in these genres. Making it, this way, an album that is deeper than ever before and goes beyond the genres the band fitted just right in in previous releases. This is not a straight up sludge record, not at all. heaviness is there, but in many ways and along genres like noise rock, drone, noise no-wave, psyched out sounds or even ambient, converging through the record. The album process was finalized (mixed and mastered) by Tom Brooke (Oranssi Pazuzu, Hebosagil, Throat) in summer of 2020 at Tonehaven studios close to Jyväskylä in Finland.

“Deadly Algorithm” kicks off with “Harrbåda” as a quiet intro, where chords as beautiful as dark are dropped through the song. Then comes “Triptaani”, with its kind of Unsane-ish mean riffing blending heavyness and noise rock at the beginning of the song to end really atmospheric, intense and filthy at same time. “Hologrammi” is an old song from first Gangrened´s release that deserved to be taken back and get the right studio treatment. Next is “Kuningatar”, after an epic intro definitely goes into an acid trip through heaviness, darkness and psyched out and noisy sounds. Last is “Triangeli”, with its heavy repetitive and obsessive bass line/riff, and maybe the most eclectic song of the album, heaviness gets into noise-no wave territory with a bass synth under, for ending the song, and the album, fading into pure ambient sounds.

Vocals deserve a separate mention, all lyrics are in Finnish and the output of putting a vampire-like goth musical background to work on the vocals for this record has been extremely interesting and creative, do not expect dry regular growling cause there is no much of that, better expect for example, to hear things like how a really raw vocal line can have a a little bit hip-hop oriented and be laid down over a obsessive heavy riffing, like happens in “Triangeli” or the really mind bending sounding vocals in the middle part of “Kuningatar”, for example.

“Deadly Algorithm” title, cover and concept verses about a subject that was used in the previous release “We are nothing”. how the world economic elites manipulate mass population. In this case, sneaking up, orienting the development of new technologies like algorithms of artificial intelligence for massive data and attention extraction. Persuasive technology to keep users as long as possible connected. Unfortunately, in the rising attention extraction digital economy, and data extraction also, that the new technologies are at the right moment immersed in, a human is worth more when we are depressed, outraged, polarized, and addicted. Parallel to this, is growing a massive surveillance by governments and big companies with the purpose of basically implement what seemed a dystopia till a little while ago: Living in the “1984” novel of George Orwell, or even worse. . . “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product”.

“Deadly Algorithm” is coming out the next 9th April in one single LP through the following labels: Violence In The Veins (Spain), Kohina Records (Finland) Odio Sonoro (Spain), Burial Records (Spain), Domestic System (Spain), Noizeland Records (Spain) and Quebranta Records (Spain). The CD edition will come out through Trepanation records from U.K.

LPs will be black (200 copies) and transparent (100 copies), CDs will be a 6 pannels digipack (50 copies). Soon we will publish info about pre-orders.

https://www.facebook.com/Gangrened
https://www.instagram.com/gangrened_band/
https://gangrened.bandcamp.com/
http://www.gangrened.org/
https://www.facebook.com/violenceintheveins/
https://www.facebook.com/kohinarecords/
https://www.facebook.com/Odio-Sonoro-255423944500267/
https://www.facebook.com/Burial-Records-100574988598784/
https://www.facebook.com/domestic.system.01/
https://www.facebook.com/NoizelandRecords/
https://www.facebook.com/QuebrantaRecords/
https://www.facebook.com/TrepRec/

Gangrened, Deadly Algorithm (2021)

Gangrened, We are Nothing (2014)