Posted in Whathaveyou on October 14th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Both largely based in Berlin, Kadavar and Elder have united to present Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light. The two bands were in the studio together earlier this year and apparently it went well enough that they managed to put together an entire full-length, which will see release through Kadavar‘s own Robotor Records imprint. First single is out Oct. 22.
As it happens, earlier this year I interviewed members of both bands. I talked to Lupus Lindemann of Kadavar in January to coincide with the trio’s streaming performances and releases, and spoke to Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo in June for his Delving instrumental side-project. The latter mentioned this was in the works off the record, and gave some clue as to the possible direction the material was taking. He talked mostly about the open creative process with which they were working, how open-minded the Kadavar guys were as songwriters, and so on. Sounded like it might be a pretty special thing.
It also seems worth mentioning that, at least as per the picture above, Elder bassist Jack Donovan — the lone-remaining Massachusetts-based contingent in the band — didn’t take part here, most likely due to travel restrictions. If you’ll recall, Spring was a shitshow.
Fresh off the PR wire:
KADAVAR & ELDER WILL BE RELEASING AN ALBUM TOGETHER
“ELDOVAR – A STORY OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT”
As some attentive eyes might have noticed already, KADAVAR teamed up with their friends in Elder, in Spring 2021 to write and record music together.
What started as an idea to just jam and play music in times of social and creative isolation became an trip on its own and after three months of composing, editing and rewriting parts and lyrics, as well as going through countless hours of jam sessions, they accomplished to put together an album that they called „ELDOVAR, A Story Of Darkness & Light“.
We can’t wait to share more details with you very soon.
Stay tuned for pre-order start and first single on October 22
Amsterdam classic heavy rockers Splinter release their debut album, Filthy Pleasures, Sept. 3 through Robotor Records. The band played their first show in Oct. 2019 and at that point had already offered up a few hints of what was to be their trajectory on early singles like Hurt b/w Brand New Future (discussed here) or the subsequent pairings of Bitter Sounds b/w Robothell and Hold My Leash b/w Take No More, pressed to a series of 7″ vinyls ahead of appearing as more than half of the 10 tracks here. And the pleasures throughout the 33-minute release? Well, just because they’re filthy doesn’t mean they can’t be fun. Whether it’s the penultimate “Hurt” bringing bruiser energy to side B — despite the vocal harmonies; trust me, it makes sense by the time you get there — or “Hold My Leash” with its unambiguous advocacy of strangulation play and sundry other kink earlier on, Filthy Pleasures feels intended in part to pick up where vocalist Douwe Truijens and guitarist Sander Bus left off in Death Alley, but with Birth of Joy organist Gertjan Gutman making major contributions on Hammond throughout and drummer Barry van Esbroek (ex-Vanderbuyst) propelling the entirety or near enough to it, the place Splinter inhabit owes aesthetic debt to the heavy ’70s and the heavy ’10s alike, but creates its own vitality from the moment “Robothell” opens to the very last cacophony of “Brand New Future.”
Because it needs to be said, I’ll say it: Mk. II-era Deep Purple. There. Glad we got that out of the way. I’m sorry, but you put a Hammond in a rock band and set to careening as Splinter do on “Robothell,” and someone’s bound to bring up the classic British rockers, and it’s one more element that Splinter seems content to toy with, with Truijens perhaps nodding at Ian Gillan with the half-screamed wail he pushes out at the beginning of “Hurt” (the end of “Read My Mind” comes close as well). Since the band ticked the cowbell/woodblock box first thing — literally — I had been waiting for such a shout, and they save it for late, but that works well with the two-sided trajectory of Filthy Pleasures as a whole, the tracklisting dividing into even, purposeful five-song halves, each suited to its own purpose while working in conversation with the other, the sub-three-minute burst of “Robothell” clearly intended to set a tone for the uptempo, catchy, electric and melodic heavy rock and roll that is so central to Splinter‘s intention all the while. “Bitter Sounds” builds on this with a strong hook, handclaps, starts and stops and a babe-it’s-a-cold-world-but-you’re-so-hot danceable swagger that is only pushed further in “Hold My Leash,” as the following “Splintermission” finds the keys working alone for a two-minute stretch, working up from soundtracky minimalism to nearer-to-church-but-for-the-scratch fare as a lead-in for the softer guitar at the outset of “Plastic Rose.”
A title-track by any other name, “Plastic Rose” nestles into a mellower groove than did the full-boar launch salvo, but its more crafted feel and focus on melody is foreshadow ahead of what side B unfurls, with “Read My Mind” complementing the pace of “Robothell” but even through that working with a shifted vocal arrangement, a gruff verse offset by one of Filthy Pleasures‘ most resonant hooks, cleanly, clearly delivered. “Something Else” adjusts the balance from guitar to organ and backs the straightforward structure of the song before — Splinter aren’t in a hurry on these shorter cuts in a compositional sense, but they do execute with a fitting urgency, proto-punk in its root like 1975 deciding that ’69-’74 just weren’t quite fast enough — but the shift in “Take No More,” an early whistle and more immediately-arriving vocal harmonies, clever verse structure and sans-drum emergent swirl is a marked departure from everything that precedes, which is all the more highlighted by the face-punch of “Hurt” that follows. But if “Plastic Rose” and “Take No More” demonstrate how quiet Splinter can or are willing to get at this point and “Hurt” is an apex in the cardiovascular sense, the methods are united through the quality of the underlying writing and the melodies that pervade. For as rough and tumble as “Hurt,” or “Hold My Leash” for that matter, get, Splinter remain conscious of bringing the listener into the song via melodic. “Something sweet,” they might put it.
Fair enough. “Brand New Future” rounds out after “Hurt” not so much to bring Filthy Pleasures back to ground as to push it over the edge. By its halfway point, it’s touched on psychedelia, but the foundation they’re working from is more raw and I’ll allow the context of members’ past outfits in drawing that line; hearing it because you expect to hear it, etc. However, coming through plainly throughout these tracks is that whatever aspects or mission parameters Splinter might have inherited, this is a new band beginning its own exploration of sound. A mix, then, of past, present and future that draws from all of them, and does so with a clarity of vision that comes across as so very, very ready for the stage. A stage. Any stage. The cliché designation for that vibe is “hungry.” Fine. I wouldn’t be surprised though if Splinter have other kinds of gluttony in mind.
“Plastic Rose,” with its love-story lyrics and zombie-themed video, premieres below. Some comment from Truijens follows, as well as the Filthy Pleasures preorder link.
Please enjoy:
Splinter, “Plastic Rose” video premiere
Douwe Truijens on “Plastic Rose”:
The video shows the shattering of dreams and the illusion of perfection, a utopian pretend that will sooner or later be dismantled. It’s about the unavoidable and irreversible killing of innocence – which, as we can see, can bear great entertainment value in and of itself. In fact, it’s a strong driving force in life, as both the illusion and its shattering are the filthy pleasures that force us through the night.
Play with honey and your fingers will get sticky, no matter how hard you try to avoid that. “Plastic Rose” is about the swirl of lust, pretention, masks on and off, and eventual satisfaction and fulfillment. All that wrapped in a song that is as catchy and sweet as the game of love itself.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 23rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
First, good for Polymoon. The Tampere heavy psych outfit brought a bit of sunshine to the outright shit year that was 2020 with their Svart-delivered debut, Caterpillars of Creation (review here), and though they’ve hardly been able to get out to do shows to support it, they’ve already gotten some momentum on their side thanks to word of mouth, taking part in Roadburn Redux, and so on. Their aligning with Kadavar‘s Robotor Records label is a cool next step.
Second, on the label’s side, it shows the imprint is forward thinking, by which I mean clearly envisioning growing a roster over time of adventurous bands looking to make an impact on the international underground. The first signing, Splinter, gave a similar message, but Kadavar and Death Alley (from whence Splinter in part come) also toured together, so there was a prior relationship to build from. This feels more like a label snagging a band on a business level. And it’s good business, because that Polymoon record was killer.
All things Robotor will be celebrated early September in Berlin as Kadavar, Splinter and Polymoon get together for a two-night showcase/fest that, well, sounds like a good old time. Details and ticket preorders came through the PR wire along with the Polymoon announcement:
POLYMOON sign on Robotor // Robotor Label Fest
We are absolutely thrilled to welcome POLYMOON to Robotor Records. Their debut album surprised us with it’s unique formula of zeitgeisty psychedelia and didn’t only land on many top lists in 2020, but also has been among our personal favorites. We’re excited for what’s next in Polymoon’s musical journey and you should be as well!
We are excited to announce our first label festival this summer in Berlin! On September 3-4 we will celebrate live music and DJ sets outside at Zukunft am Ostkreuz with our bands Kadavar, Splinter and Polymoon and DJs Robin Banks and Psycho Jones! Polymoon will head over all the way from Tampere for their first ever central European show to present their highly acclaimed debut „Caterpillars Of Creation” and Splinter (former members of Death Alley, Birth Of Joy) will celebrate the release of their debut album „Filthy Pleasures”. Your local heroes of Kadavar will accompany their label mates both nights. Due to common corona restrictions, tickets will be very limited. Don’t miss this early opportunity to get your well deserved and long awaited dose of live music!!!
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 11th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Berlin heavy rock three-piece Kadavar will play a series of weekender shows later this summer in their native Germany. One can hardly say the trio didn’t make the most of their time in lockdown, between their two livestreams — both released as live albums afterward — and later-2020’s The Isolation Tapes (review here), which found them ahead of the game in conveying a sense of pandemic-loneliness now broadly heard in a variety of acts while pushing their own sound to new places in terms of atmosphere and influence, as well as working with their own label, Robotor Records, for the first time.
This year, they also released a split 7″ with Lucifer, again through Robotor, and have set about adding to the label’s roster by bringing in Dutch outfit Splinter. As parts of the planet — and isn’t it astounding how many of these parts are rich and white? what a coincidence — take initial steps toward life post-pandemic, removing lockdown regulations, and so on, Kadavar have now announced a couple of weekender live shows in Germany, presumably tentative steps toward broader touring. Under general circumstances, the band spends a goodly portion of any given year on the road. That they’re getting out at all felt noteworthy to me at this point, regardless of the amount of territory they’re covering.
It’s been long enough that I’m not even going to try to remember what plans they had that were canceled — Australia? — but in the alternate reality that happened and is still happening, they’ve persevered admirably. I hope this shows and many more go off without a hitch.
As seen on socials:
Kadavar – German Live Dates
This feels a little weird but here we go.
We are back: 14.08. Augsburg – Sommer am Kiez 15.08. Lindau – @clubvaudeville 28.08. Vilshofen – Zauberberg Passau 30.08. Hannover – KOMMRAUS Hannover 09.09. München – Backstage München 10.09. Dortmund – JunkYard 11.09. Bremen – Hellseatic
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 28th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Amsterdam heavy rockers Splinter have been steadily offering up singles for the last year-plus en route to this eventual signing with the Kadavar-run Robotor Records. They’ve got three to their credit as of now — the last of them was issued as a would’ve-been-Roadburn-exclusive; they were set to play in 2020 — and six songs accordingly that either will or won’t be featured on their impending debut album. When that’s coming, I don’t know beyond the “later this year” it says below, but the band make a fitting first signing for Robotor, given their connection to former Kadavar tourmates Death Alley and general remember-when-it-was-just-rock-and-roll-and-that-was-dangerous-enough vibe. With their to-date unabashed poppier aspects, I’ll be interested to hear where the record goes.
You can see their “Bitter Sounds” video at the bottom of the post, and comment from the label and band follows:
Robotor Records signs Splinter
We’re beyond thrilled to announce our first signing on ROBOTOR RECORDS – ladies and gentlemen, welcome Splinter to our roster!
Lupus comments: “A really exciting moment in our short label history. We have a long friendship with Douwe and Sander and KADAVAR have toured all over Europe with their previous band DEATH ALLEY. Together with Gertjan from BIRTH OF JOY and Barry, they have now founded the super rock n roll band SPLINTER. It is our honor to work with them!”
The Amsterdam based group will release a full-length album on ROBOTOR RECORDS later this year and we welcome you to follow their socials and stay tuned for more info to be revealed very soon!
Douwe adds: “It’s an absolute thrill that SPLINTER’s first feat of arms is presented to you all by the cool and fresh ROBOTOR RECORDS. These guys have this (successful) sense of doing things your own way – a DIY spirit that also runs through SPLINTER’s veins. We’ve been hanging out with KADAVAR a lot over the past years, so we’re very excited to seal the friendship even further with this collaboration. And after being kept in the doghouse for so long, our imminent release now tastes extra extra sweet. It’s time to let the rubber band snap, and make it stick!”
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 29th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Kadavar and Lucifer will cover Fleetwood Mac and Dust, respectively, on a new split single to be released in March. Kadavarare set to take on “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown),” while Lucifer will cover “Pull Away/So Many Times.” You might recall in the recent video interview with Kadavar‘s Lupus Lindemann, he mentioned this 7″ was happening, and indeed, it will be out through Kadavar‘s own Robotor Records imprint, as well as Lucifer‘s Riding Reaper Records. Seems a worthy cause for all to get behind.
Lucifer released their aptly-titled third album, Lucifer III, last year through Century Media, so I don’t know if putting this out through Riding Reaper means they’ve parted ways with that label or what. Lindemann discusses the amicable split with Nuclear Blast Records in that interview, and it makes for a good story about how Robotor came to be in time to release the audio from their two livestreams and last year’s The Isolation Tapes (review here) studio album. If you get the chance. If not, I won’t be offended.
No preorders yet, but let’s assume that’s coming, as well as audio of one or the other if not both tracks:
Lucifer X Kadavar Split 7″
We’ve got a brand new collaboration to announce: Kadavar and Lucifer are teaming up for a limited split 7“. Both bands dug through their records and chose a classic track to cover. KADAVAR recorded a version of “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown) by Fleetwood Mac and on LUCIFER‘s side, you´ll hear “Pull Away / So Many Times” by Dust. Limited to 1500 total with 5 different color options, Robotor Records and Riding Reaper Records will sell 750 records each through their web stores starting March 2021! We´re stoked for this project and will share more info very soon!
Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 18th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I’ll be honest. It felt a little weird on Xmas Day 2020 when, sitting around my wife’s sister’s living room with family, I loaded up the Kadavar live stream on my phone and watched the Berlin trio kick out jams on after presents were opened. But hey, it was that kind of year.
Established as forerunner of German, and really, greater European heavy rock and roll, Kadavar peaceably severed ties with Nuclear Blast in 2020 and announced the formation of their own imprint, Robotor Records. As early adopters of the live-stream format that’s become so common in the COVID-19 era, the band would have Studio Live Session Vol. I on their Bandcamp page before most acts even figured out how to go live on Facebook through their phones, taking the momentum they had from an interrupted tour and translating it to that setting. The Xmas show, some nine months later, was all the more welcome.
In November, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann, bassist Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup and drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt issued The Isolation Tapes (review here), which singled itself out from their past offerings not just by being their first self-release, but adopting a sound fitting to the moment of its creation during pandemic lockdown. Germany, as Lindemann explains in the interview below, is currently under another round of closure until at least the beginning of March, so one finds the lonely spirit of some of this material striking in their relevance, even as Lindemann talks of writing a dirty rock record to follow-up. Given the restlessness and anxiety of existing in this stretch of time, you get where he’s coming from there too.
And not to harp on it, but that was part of what made the second livestream, the Xmas show, so refreshing as well; the feeling coming through that Kadavar, who under normal circumstances would’ve spent a significant portion of 2020 on tour, were no less anxious to play than their audience was to listen and watch. I don’t know how the rest of the living room felt, but I was definitely on board.
I’d never interviewed Lindemann before, so I’m glad to report he wasn’t a jerk. We talked about The Isolation Tapes, about the first and second streams, leaving Nuclear Blast and starting a label, writing new songs, the Leipzig-based Re-Generation Festival they were putting together that was of course postponed, flat earth and other conspiracy theories (no, he’s not a believer), and much more.
Hope you enjoy.
Kadavar, Interview with Lupus Lindemann, Jan. 14, 2021
Posted in Reviews on December 8th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
When the various histories of 2020 are written, they may or may not deign to include a sentence about the struggle of creativity for survival amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. And even if they do, that sentence will very likely leave out the persistence and the urgency with which that struggle has been met. German trio Kadavar, who in addition to touring consistently the world over would’ve this year hosted their own outdoor festival for the first time, were early adopters of the streaming model, resulting in the Studio Live Session Vol. I digital outing that they now follow up with The Isolation Tapes on their own nascent Robotor Records imprint through Pelagic Records. Like so much of 2020 has been, The Isolation Tapes feels like a step outside the normal progression of time, and in Kadavar‘s case, of sound as well. It was just Fall 2019 that the band — guitarist/vocalist Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann, bassist Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup and drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt — offered up For the Dead Travel Fast (review here). Their fifth full-length and fourth through Nuclear Blast, it continued the trio’s exploration of moodier vibes and blends of classic heavy rock and metal that the prior Rough Times (review here) introduced in 2017.
Their sound and delivery has always been a mercurial thing. Together now for a decade, Kadavar began their evolution as arguably the best vintage-styled act of the 2010s, and their 2012 self-titled debut (discussed here) and 2013 sophomore outing, Abra Kadavar (review here), remain a standard other acts strive meet. Already there was progression from one record to the next, but 2015’s Berlin (review here) was a departure point, boldly modernizing Kadavar‘s production style and aesthetic while staying loyal to the songwriting that’s always underpinned their efforts. Running 10 tracks and 44 minutes, The Isolation Tapes reads as another such pivot in approach in some ways, but in others it is resoundingly consistent. It is easily the most atmospheric release the band has ever done, and yes, that includes things like the occasional sprawling album-closer and their “The White Ring” collaboration with Aqua Nebula Oscillator in 2012. Its spaciousness is born in part from synth contributions from all three members and a dynamic that ranges between minimalism and restlessly bouncing rock and roll, but it’s also a reaction toward structure itself, as the band demonstrates plainly by positioning the 6:19 longest track “The Lonely Child” as the opener (immediate points).
Entirely instrumental and rich in its blends of keys, guitar, foreboding drones and triumphant crash, “The Lonely Child” seems to draw on U2 guitar shimmer and classic krautrock synthesizer progressivism in kind, and in so doing, it throws wide the doors of Kadavar‘s sound. From there, they can, and mostly do, go anywhere. With recording by Bartelt, The Isolation Sessions is at once the most vintage-sounding album Kadavar have done in more than half a decade, and the most forward thinking, nodding throughout toward The Beatles circa Abbey Road, David Bowie, smooth ’70s blues and soulful progressive heavy rock. “I Fly Among the Stars” offers mellow drift underscored by warm-sounding drums and given a hook through echoing melodies met by floating slide guitar and a deceptively catchy chorus. Songs come and go with abiding melancholy throughout, but side A picks up with the quirkier bass-bouncing “Unnaturally Strange (?)” and uses that weirdo tempo momentum in the post-Queens of the Stone Age push that emerges from the quiet start of “(I Won’t Leave You) Rosi.” That stretch of about two and a half minutes in the song’s total 5:15 comes to the noisy, crashing finish it deserves, and that’s a rarity on The Isolation Tapes that’s met by the subdued build of side A closer “The World is Standing Still.”
Beginning drumless, the end of the album’s first half comes to a head in its own second with lead and rhythm guitars intertwining over subtly tense keys for a quick and classy payoff before once again receding and giving way for “Eternal Light (We Will Be OK)” to open side B with echoing sounds of children and a wash of melodic synth and vocals, moving gradually into a proggier foray that in tone and mood mirrors “The Lonely Child” at the outset, if quicker and busier in its galloping drums, itching as it seems to be to get to its own apex. The first of two shorter pieces, “Peculiareality (!)” (1:51) follows with a McCartneyan organ line, choral melodies and a mounting echo that seems to underscore the drifting-away vibe. “Everything is Changing,” which picks up the key-bounce theme from the song prior and sets it to more straightforward use, has at least three layers of synth happening atop the drums, but is neither overwrought or falling over itself in the mix. This is a testament to Kadavar as a band, of course, but also to the strength of the chorus, which is among the most resonant throughout The Isolation Tapes, the simple core message of the song’s title working with a grounding effect for the point of view of the listener.
Once again, melancholy is the preeminent spirit, but “Everything is Changing” moves all the while, where “The Flat Earth Theory,” which follows, seems to come to a purposeful halt. Mournful organ, gorgeously harmonized vocals and sweet keyboard notes find Lindemann wondering how anyone can believe the earth isn’t round, and the feel is that this question too is a stand-in for wondering how humanity got to such a place in general where one might be hunkered down in quarantine because of a pandemic raging outside, conspiracy theories abounding and so on. Valid question, but the piece — the second of the shorter ones on side B at 1:50 — doesn’t dwell, and instead transitions smoothly into the finale “Black Spring Rising,” with vocals courtesy of German singer-songwriter Ilgen-Nur Borali and lyrics by Rosa Merino Claros. Another departure? In some ways, but also consistent with the rest of what surrounds in general atmosphere and melodic resonance. Kadavar aren’t playing tricks at that point in the album, and The Isolation Tapes itself is enough of a curve that one doesn’t get the sense they’re looking to play to some idea of novelty.
Rather, the LP as a whole stands as a statement of the moment it was created amid the terror of this past Spring and Summer. As to what the future will bring on any level, either sound-wise for the band or anything else, one wouldn’t dare predict. But in addition to meeting its goal of speaking to the strange otherworldly feel that so much of the last 11 months has brought, The Isolation Tapes also reaffirms the strength of Kadavar‘s songwriting and the fact that they can bend aesthetic to their will at will. And that they, yes, will, as they see fit. Response has been mixed as it invariably will be for a group of their profile, but whether it’s a one-off or these impulses bleed into their “normal” aesthetic, Kadavar are only richer stylistically for having done this work. Whatever comes next will come.
Kadavar, The Isolation Tapes (2020)
Kadavar, “Eternal Light (We Will Be OK)” official video
