Posted in Whathaveyou on December 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
A couple days’ escape to Joshua Tree just as winter starts to wane sounds pretty god damn good right now. And that’s nothing against San Francisco, mind you — there’s an Amoeba Music there, so however otherwise expensive lodging may be, it’s worth it — but a bit of desert rock in its native habitat feels like a win, and with more bands to be announced, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023 in California makes an enticing prospect. Daydream-worthy.
Traveling from the East Coast will be Weedeater, the particularly sludgy Witchpit, Cosmic Reaper and The Atomic Bitchwax, Duel make the trip from Texas, Hippie Death Cult come down from Portland, Oregon, and Brant Bjork and Nebula represent California itself, so already the two-dayers (which will swap lineups from one night to the next) are varied in geography and style, and one would expect no less at this point. It ain’t Heavy Psych Sounds‘ first rodeo. The label/booking empire also recently announced two fests in Italy and if past is prologue, one expects plenty more to come as well spread throughout 2023.
We live in a golden age. Peak riffs.
From the PR wire:
*** HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA *** first confirmed bands
Heavy Psych Sounds together with Plastic Cactus Productions and Subliminal SF presents the 2023 edition of the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA !!!
The HPS Fest California will be taking place 25th and 26th of March, 2023 at the Thee Parkside (open air) in San Francisco and Hi Desert Cultural Center in Joshua Tree !!!
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST – CALIFORNIA @ Thee Parkside, San Francisco @ Hi Desert Cultural Center, Joshua Tree
March 25th and 26th 2023
FIRST CONFIRMED BANDS
WEEDEATER BRANT BJORK NEBULA THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX DUEL HIPPIE DEATH CULT COSMIC REAPER WITCHPIT
+ more TBA
In January we will unveil the full line up and single day line up.
Same line up will play both cities in different days !!!
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 24th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Someone’s gonna need a new band photo now that he’s got a band. Still fresh off the release earlier this month of the second album, Usurper of the Universe (review here), through Forbidden Place Records, San Francisco’s SÖNUS have announced a new lineup. Or maybe I should say a lineup at all, since it was formerly a solo-project wielded at the behest of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, songwriter, etc. David Wachsman. As of today, right now, here, this sentence, SÖNUS are a four-piece, and not to point out the obvious, but it seems highly unlikely Wachsman would bother forming a band if the intention was not to bring SÖNUS to a stage as a live act sometime in the presumably near future.
It’s cool watching projects take shape. This may have been Wachsman‘s plan all along, and I’ve no doubt SÖNUS as a unit will benefit from playing live as nearly every band does, but it’s important to consider as well that additional members will invariably have an effect on the studio dynamic as well. He wasn’t entirely alone on Usurper of the Universe — you can see the credits for the album below — and through layering, the recording lacked nothing for a full sound, but when you put someone new in a group, that group is inevitably changed as a result. I’ll be interested to find out how SÖNUS‘s next work plays out and what differences will result from the shift in construction. I assume we have some time before we get there.
In the meantime, the clip for “Nuclear God,” which opens Usurper of the Universe, is full of suitably apocalyptic imagery. There’s kids getting under their desks for a nuclear bomb drill — which my mother did and still remembers — clips from They Live, Dr. Strangelove, the public domain (obviously) and other choice sources, and plenty of mushroom clouds to spare as Wachsman, speaking for Planet Earth itself, lets humanity know just how the world feels about them. I won’t spoil it for you.
Physical versions of Usurper of the Universe will be out April 20 — because duh — and you’ll find more from Wachsman after the video below about the new lineup.
Enjoy:
SÖNUS, “Nuclear God” video premiere
The CDs and Cassettes should be available on 4/20, naturally (barring any plant delays or shipping mishaps).
About the new members:
Seated atop the drum throne is Colin Drake Jaramillo, my best friend and fellow archaeologist- we’ve travelled the world together for years working on Archaeological sites, I was his best man in his wedding, and now I’m delighted to welcome him aboard and confident knowing he has my back on the Drums.
Filling out the rhythm section, on the Bass, we welcome groove master and bringer of thunder, Dave Reno.
Sharing (and shredding) Guitar duties with me is the venerable Vishwam Aggarwal. And with that, SÖNUS is a one-man-band no longer! I am beyond-delighted to welcome these talented people to the group, and to hear what they bring to these songs. We are working hard to bring our brand of sensational space rock to you as soon as we can!
SÖNUS are: David Wachsman: guitar/vocals Vishwam Aggarwal: guitar Dave Reno: bass Colin Drake Jaramillo: drums
SÖNUS on ‘Usurper of the Universe’: David Wachsman (Composition/Lyrics/Rhythm Guitar/Lead Guitar/Bass/Synths/Vocals/General Mania and Questionable Sanity) with; Tyler Hovestadt (Tracks 3 & 6: Additional Synths, Piano, and SFX; Track 5: Drums), Eduardo Salazar (Drums, except for track 5), and Jaymi McGinn (backing vocals on track 6)
Posted in Reviews on February 22nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Let’s talk about Acid King. I know it says ‘review’ up there, and that’s all well and good, but in this case, that’s really just me needing to categorize a thing. I remember Acid King getting announced for Roadburn 2011 in Tilburg, the Netherlands. I remember the poster art that’s now the cover for Roadburn Records/Burning World Records‘ Live at Roadburn 2011 live album. I remember that they played the same day as Wovenhand. I remember being stoked to see them, not for the first time, but on the Main Stage of the 013 venue. It was the biggest stage I’d ever seen them play on, and the way the San Francisco trio filled that room with sound — it was smaller then, you’ll recall — was incredible. It was like Lori S.‘s fuzz swallowed Tilburg. The whole town. Not even just the Roadburn part. I’m pretty sure they were feeling the rumble over by the university.
Some sets stay with you over time. I’d seen Acid King before and I’ve seen them again since, but on that stage, with that sound system, and with that crew, it was something special. I could say the same of Colour Haze in 2009, Ufomammut in 2011 or Sleep in 2012, among countless others (one should note that Dead Meadow‘s 2011 set has already been released, and so has Ufomammut‘s, and Godflesh‘s; it was quite a year). But even on Live at Roadburn 2011, you can hear it when Lori intones, “Tell all the people/That I’m on my way,” the sense is that, yeah, she means all the people. You want to run out and let the world know. I don’t know what chain is being broken on “Silent Circle,” taken as is the opening title-track from 1999’s ultra-classic, seriously-I-mean-it’s-one-of-the-best-heavy-rock-records-of-all-time-and-if-you-don’t-agree-there’s-a-good-chance-I’ll-think-less-of-you-as-a-person Busse Woods (discussed here, discussed here, discussed here), but clearly it doesn’t stand a chance against the rattling force of Acid King on that stage. Pushed ahead by then-drummer Joey Osbourne and underscored by the low end of Mark Lamb‘s basslines, Acid King‘s sound was engrossing in the extreme. You could stand there and nod, and you could stand there and nod.
As a live album, it runs a tidy-enough 47 minutes. The show begins with a simple “Alright,” and then a pause presumably while the steam engines that powered their Orange stacks that day got going. “Busse Woods,” again, is the opener, followed by the hooky “2 Wheel Nation,” which led off 2005’s III (discussed here), which it’s worth noting was the band’s latest record at the time, already six years old. That tradeoff, Busse Woods into III, plays out again with “Silent Circle” and “On to Everafter,” and in the closing duo of “Electric Machine” and “Sunshine and Sorrow,” but the ride along the way is sweet, thick and for the most part molasses slow, emphasizing just how much Acid King are able to make a riff roll in a way that’s not only been hugely influential over a generation of heavy rock and then some, but in a way that despite the best efforts of many is still utterly the band’s own.
I watched some of the set from the side of the stage — traditionally, at the Roadburns I’ve been fortunate enough to attend, I’ve given myself one band to do that for; I don’t want to be in the way, but just once for something special — and I watched from the back of the house. When they were done, you could hear the crunch of the plastic beer cups on the floor as people filed out, no doubt to grab some munten tokens and purchase their next round, and as I remember it, things felt quiet. That might honestly be me projecting in hindsight, but I kind of stood there for a while, stupefied, exhausted from travel but very much alive despite having been chewed up and spit out by what I’d just seen and heard. These 11 years later, and especially given the events (and in terms of concerts, lack thereof) over the last two years, hearing Acid King‘s Live at Roadburn 2011 feels like something precious.
And yeah, that might be true of any number of live albums that happened to be made at a show you attended. It’s always cooler when you can say you were there. But god damn. Consider the unveiling of “Coming Down From Outer Space.” What would eventually show up on 2015’s Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere (review here, discussed here) — which came out on Svart Records, no less — was aired in the midst of the show, right between “On to Everafter” and “Electric Machine.” There was no grand announcement, no “Here’s a new one” or anything like that. Just feedback and then the riff that would in no small part define that album, itself a landmark that continues to hold up. Immediately catchy, immediately spaced out to suit the title, “Coming Down From Outer Space” here only leaves me wondering why Live at Roadburn 2011 is the first Acid King live outing, and sits easily among the already-then-familiar cuts from III and Busse Woods. And even for being unfamiliar at the time, that it heralded more to come from the band was a joy and a relief to witness.
Understand, as a fan of the band, I want this release to do well because I believe strongly in what Acid King do and I want them — or Lori S., who is now the sole remaining founder and has a different lineup in place — to continue doing it, but I can’t and won’t try to separate this live record from my experience of it, and if nobody buys it and it’s a huge flop or whatever, I’m still happy it got made because damnit, I want it for myself. You either get Acid King or you don’t. They’re either pioneers who helped shape the sound of modern heavy or they’re not, and if you think not, I seriously doubt any ranting and raving from me about how great their Roadburn 2011 was is going to change your mind. But know this — if you don’t appreciate this band, everything we as listeners get from them, it’s your loss. As a member of the human species. Your loss.
Good talk. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a preorder to wait on.
Acid King, “Electric Machine” Live at Roadburn 2011
San Francisco-based mostly-solo-project SÖNUS will release their second album, Usurper of the Universe, on Feb. 5 through Forbidden Place Records. Thus it is that multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and co-producer David Wachsman and drummer Eddie Salazar follow-up late 2020’s well-received Worlds Undreamed Of and arrive at a form of sometimes-psychedelic heavy rock that at points signals a metallic underpinning, as in Wachsman‘s gutted-out vocal delivery on “The Golden Path.” All told, the collection amasses six tracks for a deceptively-sharp 35 minutes, working from a masterplan on Wachsman‘s part that — particularly as he crowns himself as the titular usurper of the universe in the track that shares the album’s name — brings to mind mid-’90s Monster Magnet, though that doesn’t account necessarily for the spaced-out penultimate instrumental “Amáranthine,” so take it for what it’s worth. Grains of salt the size of asteroids making tidal waves of dug-in riffs when they crash into tonal oceans undulating the grand universal nod. Or some such.
“Pay Me Your Mind” (video premiering below) is the second single from Usurper of the Universe behind the hooky prior-alluded title-cut, and it serves as the middle piece of what might be side A’s three-song salvo, with opener “Nuclear God” laying out the foundation in its thick riffing and lines like “You know the whole damn thing feels like a sick joke/The human race has all gone insane/Nothing left to do but take a big toke/And dive into the right side of my brain.” Soon enough, “Usurper of the Universe” will follow by standing astride the throne of god having slain titans, and that may well be a reference out of sci-fi/fantasy — closer “Tanelorn,” for example, draws from the work of Michael Moorcock; Blind Guardian also wrote a song about “Tanelorn” one time that was pretty darn catchy, though they and SÖNUS are by no means the only two to visit that continuity — and while I don’t know where/if Wachsman might have a vinyl split in mind, the three shorter opening tracks hit an especially resonant mania on “Pay Me Your Mind.”
It’s a rocker, to be sure, and with its repetitions of the title and verses like “Now you’re looking to your leaders for some hope to survive/As they stare into the blazing sun/Well you’ve been pulling all nighters at the charnel house/And now your nose is starting to run,” the relevance is unquestionable and the spirit of delivery is heavy punk. This too could be likened to Monster Magnet if you really want, but Wachsman and Salazar bring an energy of their own to it, including in the furious guitar solo that underscores much of the second half of the song, where the overwhelming repeating lines become so purposefully overwhelming. In the parlance of our times, “it do be like that,” and one can hardly argue with Wachsman when, at the end, he says “There ain’t shit.” That “Usurper of the Universe” opens with a bong rip and synth from Tyler Hovestadt (who appears throughout the album and drums on “Amáranthine”) before its grandiose riff kicks in feels like, well, of course. That, in itself, is a kind of social critique.
There is a shift between “Usurper of the Universe” and “The Golden Path,” which opens up with a layer of hard-strummed guitar and a forward, space-rock-derived progression met with barked vocals that are contrasted and complemented in kind by “Amáranthine” subsequent, which lets “Tanelorn” close out on a shorter linear build that moves into a wash of guitar, synth and vocal melody that fades into the album’s finish, leaving the resonant impression of Usurper of the Universe as a clean, considered and mindful execution, bordering on the progressive at its most over-the-top, but not in the end pretentious enough to be off-putting. It feels like SÖNUS and Wachsman are doing the initial explorations of world-building, and the overarching atmosphere of Usurper of the Universe may well lead to further development of storytelling in lyrics/music to come. Maybe, maybe not. When you’ve taken over the universe, you can pretty much do what you will. I look forward accordingly to see where Wachsman and company go next.
You’ll find suitably spastic video for “Pay Me Your Mind” below.
Please enjoy:
SÖNUS, “Pay Me Your Mind” video premiere
David Wachsman on “Pay Me Your Mind”:
Written in December of 2020, “Pay Me Your Mind” is my ’70s proto-punk-inspired rebuke of the utter insanity of our times- from ineffectual to downright stupid, corrupt politicians and world leaders; bloated, propped up systems teetering on the verge of collapse; the world’s climate in total upheaval; people in the throes of complete mental and economic despair; chaos, death, and violence are a blasé everyday occurrence as a nation grows ever-more desensitized to the brutality it abides in its own culture; an unending plague combined with utterly batshit conspiracy theories perpetuated by social media conglomerates who evade responsibility and propagate relentless stupidity.
Now, a little over a year after the January 6th insurrection, I feel the song is more relevant than ever. Accompanying it is an absolutely brutal and intense visual interpretation from Darksprite Videos that I believe perfectly captures the chaotic energy and the themes of the song wrapped together with references to some of the horror movies I love that helped keep me sane over the past couple years.
From The album “Usurper of the Universe” coming February 5th from SÖNUS and Forbidden Place Records. Music and Lyrics by David Wachsman, with Eddie Salazar on Drums. Produced by David Wachsman, with Tyler Hovestadt. Mixed and Mastered by Simon Jameson at Black Art Audio. Video made by Darksprite videos: https://www.instagram.com/darkspritevideos/
SÖNUS on ‘Usurper of the Universe’: David Wachsman (Composition/Lyrics/Rhythm Guitar/Lead Guitar/Bass/Synths/Vocals/General Mania and Questionable Sanity) with; Tyler Hovestadt (Tracks 3 & 6: Additional Synths, Piano, and SFX; Track 5: Drums), Eduardo Salazar (Drums, except for track 5), and Jaymi McGinn (backing vocals on track 6)
Posted in Reviews on October 4th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Hope you had a good weekend. Hope your bank account survived Bandcamp Friday. I gotta admit, I hit it a little hard, made four $10-plus purchases. A certain rainforest-named mega-corporate everything-distro site has me out of the habit of thinking of paying for shipping, but that comes back to bite you. And if there’s a tape or a CD and the download costs $7 and the tape costs $10 and comes with the download too, what would you have me do? Throw another five or six bucks in there for shipping and that adds up. Still, for a good cause, which is of course supporting bands nd labels who make and promote killer stuff. I don’t mind that.
We’ve arrived at the next to last day of the Fall 2021 Quarterly Review. It’s a cool one, I hope you’ll agree. If not, maybe tomorrow.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
Hour of 13, Black Magick Rites
The history of Hour of 13, 14 years on from their self-titled debut (discussed here) is complex and full of comings and goings. With Black Magick Rites — which was posted for a day in Nov. 2020 and then removed from the public sphere until this Shadow Kingdom release — founding multi-instrumentalist Chad Davis takes over vocal duties as well, charting the way forward for the band as a complete solo-project with seven songs and 43 minutes of lower-fi classic-style doom that bears in its title track some semblance of garage mentality but avoids most of the modern trappings such a designation implies. Satan features heavily, as one would expect. “House of Death” leans on its chorus hard, but opener “His Majesty of the Wood” and the eight-minute “Within the Pentagram,” as well as the payoff of closer “The Mystical Hall of Dreams” seem to show where the long-tumultuous outfit could be headed melodically and in grimly grandiose style if Davis — also of The Crooked Whispers, The Sabbathian, countless others in a variety of styles — wills it. Here’s hoping.
Graceful death. 30 years later, one might expect no less from Finnish funeral doom progenitors than that, and it’s exactly what they bring to the six-song/48-minute Companion. “Calla” sets the tempo for what follows at a dirge march with keyboard adding melodies to the procession as “The Intertwined” continues the slow roll, with drums and piano taking over in the midsection before the full brunt is borne again. “The March of the Four” follows with church organ running alongside the drawn-out guitar movement, each hit of the kick drum somehow forlorn beneath the overlaid growls. At least superficially, this is the Skepticism one imagines: slow, mournful, beauty-in-darkness, making dirty sounds but emerging without a stain on their formalwear. Closer “The Swan and the Raven” is a triumph in this, a revelry-that-isn’t, and “Passage” and even gives the tempo a relative kick, but that and the consuming drama of “The Inevitable” feel within the band’s aesthetic wheelhouse. Or their mortuary, anyhow. Honestly, they know what they’re doing, they’ve done it for a long time, and they don’t release records that often, so there’s an element of novelty just to the fact that the album exists, but if you put on Companion and listen to it, they also sound like they’re taking an entire genre to school. A genre they helped define, no less.
Long-running Swedish doom traditionalists Count Raven are in immediate conversation with their own classic era with the album title The Sixth Storm serving as a reference to their 1990 debut, Storm Warning. Indeed, it is their sixth full-length, and it makes up for the decade-plus it’s been since they were last heard from with a 73-minute, all-in nine-track assemblage of oldschool Sabbathian doom metal, tinged with classic heavy rock and a broader vision that picks up where 2009’s Mammons War left off in epics like “The Nephilims” and “Oden,” the latter the album’s apex ahead of the Ozzy-ish piano/keyboard ballad “Goodbye” following on from the earlier “Heaven’s Door.” Some contemplation of mortality perhaps from founding guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Dan “Fodde” Fondelius to go with the more socially themed “The Giver and the Taker,” “Baltic Storm,” opener “Blood Pope” or even “Oden,” which bases itself around Christianity’s destruction of pagan culture. Fair enough. Classic doom spearheaded by a guy who’s been at it for more than three decades. No revolution in style, but if you’d begrudge Count Raven their first album in 12 years, why?
Something for everyone in Owl Cave‘s Broken Speech, at least so long as your vision of “everyone” just includes fans of various extreme metallic styles. The Parisian one-man outfit’s debut release arrives as a single 43-minute track, led off by the sample “your silence speaks volumes.” What unfolds from there is a linear progression of movements through which S. — the lone party responsible for the guitar, bass, drum programming and other sampling, as there are obscure bits that might be manipulated voices and so on — weaves progressive black metal, doom, industrial churn, noise rock and other genre elements together with a willful sense of experimentalism and uniting heft. Some stretches are abrasive, some are nearly empty, some guitar-led, some more percussive, but even at its most raging, “Broken Speech” holds to its overarching atmosphere, grim as it is, and that allows it to ponder with scorn and melancholy alike before finishing out with a cacophony of blasts and wash leading to a last residual drone.
Sharply executed, uptempo heavy/desert-style rock in the Californian tradition as filtered through a European legacy of bands that spans no less an amount of time, Zeup‘s second EP, Blind, is an in-and-out kind of affair. Four songs, 17 minutes. They’re not looking to take up too much of your day. But the energy they bring to that time, whether it’s the swinging bassline in “Belief” or the initial jolt of “Illusions,” the rolling catchiness of “Who You Are” or the closing title-track’s more Sabbath-spirited stomp, is organic, full, and sincere. In terms of style, the Copenhagen three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Jakob Bach, bassist/backing vocalist Morten Rold and drummer Morten Barth aren’t trying to get away with convincing anybody they invented heavy rock and roll, but the stamp they put on their own songs is welcome right up to the capper solo on “Blind” itself. Familiar, but crisp and refreshing like cold beer on a hot day, if that’s your thing.
A drift calls you forward as Dark Bird‘s fourth album (amid many short releases and experimentalist whathaveyous), Out of Line, begins with “And it All Ends Well” and its title-track, the Toronto-based Roan Bateman pushing outward melodically before adding more fuzz to the shroom-folk of “Stranger,” an underlying sense of march telling of the made-in-dark-times spirit that so much of the record seems to actively work against. “Down With Love” is a dream given shimmer in its strum and no less ethereal when the maybe-programmed drums start, and “Undone” is the bummed-out-with-self ’90s-lysergic harmony that you never heard at the time but should have. So it goes en route to the buzzing finale “This is It,” with “Minefied” echoing “Out of Line” with a vibe like Masters of Reality at their most ethereal, “With You” making a late highlight of its underlying organ drone and the vocals that top it in the second half, and “The Ghost” somehow turning Western blues despite, no, not at all doing that thing. 43 minutes of a world I’d rather live in.
I’m not saying they don’t still have growing to do or work ahead of them in carving out their own approach from the elements their self-released debut album, Death Can Change, puts to work across its nine songs, but I am definitely saying that the Toledo, Ohio, duo of M.A. Snyder and Mike Mullholand, who’ve dubbed their project Hope Hole, are starting out in an admirable place. Throughout a vinyl-ready 37 minutes that makes a centerpiece of the roughed up The Cure cover “Kyoto Song,” the two-piece bridge sludged nod, classic heavy rock, progressive doom ambience, stonerly awareness — see “Cisneros’ Lament” — and a healthy dose of organ to result in a genre-blender sound that both chases individuality and manifests it in rudimentary form, perhaps arriving at some more melodic cohesion in the of-its-era closer “Burning Lungs” after rougher-edged processions, but even there not necessarily accounting for the full scope of the rest of the songs enough to be a full summary. The songs are there, though, and as Hope Hole continue to chase these demons, that will be the foundation of their progress.
Newcastle, UK, weirdo solo-outfit Smote released the two-part Drommon concurrent to March 2021’s Bodkin (review here), with tapes sold out from Base Materialism, and Rocket Recordings now steps in for a vinyl issue with two additional tracks splitting up the two-part title-cut, each piece of which runs just on either side of 16 minutes long. Drones and acid folk instrumentation, acoustics, sitars, electrified swirl — all of these come together in purposeful passion to create the textures of “Dommon (Part 1)” and “Drommon (Part 2),” and though it feels more directed with the complementary “Hauberk” and “Poleyn” included, the album’s experimental heart is well intact. Smote will make a stage debut next month, apparently as a four-piece around founder Daniel Foggin, so how that might play into the future of Smote as a full band in the studio remains to be seen. Drommon serves as argument heavily in favor of finding out.
East Coast dudes playing West Coast noise, it may well be that Gristmill deserve points right off the bat on their debut long-player, Heavy Everything, both for the title and for avoiding the trap of sounding like Unsane that defines so, so, so much of Atlantic Seaboard noise rock. They’re too aggro in their delivery to be straight-up doom, but the slower crawl of guitar in “Remains Nameless” and “Glass Door” adds depth to the pounding delivered by the initial salvo of “Mitch,” “Mute” and “Irony,” but the punch of the bass throughout is unmistakable, and though I can’t help be reminded in listening about that time Seattle’s Akimbo went and wrote a record based in my beloved Garden State, the drawn-out roll of “Stone Rodeo” and final nod-into-chug in “Loon” show readiness to encompass something beyond the raw scathe in their work. Yeah, if they wanted to put out like six or seven albums that sound just like this over the next 15 or so years, I’d probably be on board for that for the meanness and more of this debut.
This is a satisfying meat grinder in which to plunge one’s face for about an hour. A Buschemi-chipper. A powdering-of-bone that begins with the lurching of longest track (immediate points) “The Masque” — beginning with an acid-test sample, no less — and moving through “Gleancrawler” and the faster-for-a-while-but-still-probably-slower-than-you’re-thinking title-track, having just consumed half an hour of your life and a little of your soul. Hyperbole? Of course. But these are extreme sounds and extreme times, so fuck it. Melbourne duo Ivory Primarch, throughout As All Life Burns, demonstrate precious little regard for whatever standard of decency one might apply, and the deathly, fetid “Keeper of Secrets” and the keyboard-laced “Aetherbeast” — seeming to answer back to the opener — are self-aware enough to be willful in that, not to mention the fact that they top off with the noise-drone of “Aftermath,” as if to survey the devastation they just wrought, mangled and duly bludgeoned. Nothing sounds cruel enough? Try this.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 9th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Couple cool tunes for your switched-on ears, that’s all. It’s a seven-minute seven-inch bringing two new tracks from the Cali/Minnesota-based four-piece Black Satori, but with the backing of Echodelick Records — see also: Lammping, Chino Burga, Mike Vest, etc. — diving in was an all the more enticing prospect, and I don’t regret it. With ’60s garage jangle and original-era blues-rock fuzz, psychedelia and purposefully stripped-down structure, there’s a lot being delivered in “Electric Kiss” than is being asked of the listener. Same holds true of “3 Minutes,” which, yes, is three minutes long (3:20, actually) and shifts to artsier rock with jazzy drums and howling guitar noise in the verse but but offsets this with a classic, near-rockabilly churn that’s answered later through a make-it-sing solo.
Black Satori released their debut album, Lucy Lane, in Jan. 2020. It was about 26 minutes long with four tracks on it, only one of them under six minutes on its own, and that song, “Comet Overdrive,” was a freakout instrumental. Clearly I have some digging back to do, but preliminary investigations find it to be delightfully jammed out. I guess if you need me, I’ll be on Bandcamp. Big change. Ha.
The new single is limited to 200 copies on 7″. Here’s info from the PR wire:
BLACK SATORI – Electric Kiss / 3 Minutes 7″ – Echodelick Records
Vinyl Release : August 6th, 2021
Black Satori is an eclectic rock band playing krautrock, stoner rock, psychedelic garage rock with confinement vocals, vintage vibes, and heavy space rock. They are a four-piece band with two guitars, expansive reverb, delicious fuzz tones, driving bass lines, steady drumming, and dual vocals that are energized and catchy. The band combines improvisational in-the-moment music with structured songwriting and vocals. Their music is about opening the door of perception and touches on political themes, contemplative musings, and storytelling.
Black Satori’s latest offering to be released in early November 2021 is the 7″ vinyl titled Electric Kiss from Echodelick Records. It features two new songs ‘Electric Kiss’ and ‘3 Minutes’. ‘Electric Kiss” is an early Jimi Hendrix rock styled psychedelic rock song with a catchy chorus. It is all about the tingly joy of meeting a new lover. The guitars are excited with vintage fuzz and echo, the vocals have an upbeat sing along chorus with exuberant backing vocals. The combination of vintage tones and contemporary rock is infectious with cosmic flair and popular appeal. ‘3 Minutes’ is a dystopian flower power punk song with powerful bass lines and far-out guitar effects. It stays true to the band’s desire for dark underground psych rock with lyrics about drones, political lies and how “hate will lose to love.” The charged guitar riffs, wonderful bass lines and stop and pop drumming are a rhythmic delight that will have the listener moving.
Black Satori started in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2018 and now is partially located in San Francisco. Guitarist Joseph Holbrook started the band as a project for a course in audio recording and engineering. His longtime collaborator Michael Stubbe was recruited for drums and vocals. Nathan Rose joined the party on guitar and vocals after responding to a Craigslist ad following the departure from his band Cosmic Dream. Later the talented Alex Lode, who is a skilled guitarist, joined the band on bass. Black Satori set out to make psychedelic rock music that combined all the various branches of the contemporary rock and classic psychedelic rock genres. They all connected with a love of bands like Black Angels, Pink Floyd, King Gizzard, and various heavy metal music.
The band quickly hit the stage with their original music and opened for bands like Acid Mothers Temple, The Well, and Acid Dad. They released their first singles in 2019 on limited CD-R followed by Black Satori Live at the 7th St Entry which quickly sold out. They became known for their ability to perform on stage with the ethos of responding to the energy of the audience and leaving space for improvisation for inspired live performances.
Their first studio album Lucy Lane was released in 2020 and featured energized psychedelic rock with classic blues, punk, surf and experimental krautrock. This album features their first single and music video for ‘Listless’ a surfy song with open skies reverb, soaring guitar solos and California vocals. The opener ‘Another Dimension’ is an 8-minute song with a krautrock backend and punk verse chorus opening. The album was well received especially in Europe and hit the airways on underground radio and podcasts.
Music By Black Satori Mastered By Arlen Thompson Mixed by Joe Holbrook Artwork by Joe Holbrook and Heart Of The Sun Light Shows Design and Layout By Nathan Rose Recorded at Essential Sessions Produced by Black Satori Engineered by Joe Holbrook and Brad Matala
Black Satori Is: Nathan Rose – Guitar Joe Holbrook – Guitar & Vocals Alex Lode – Bass Michael Stubbe – Drums & Vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Last September, Hour of 13 founding multi-instrumentalist and spearhead Chad Davislet slip the info that the band’s fourth record would be released through Shadow Kingdom Records and titled Black Magick Rites. The new song “His Majesty of the Wood” also went up at that point. That announcement apparently was preface to a 24-hour limited digital release of the album on Nov. 1 — shame on me for missing it — and it seems likely that it’ll be Sept. 2021 before the album sees broader release, as Davis said, through Shadow Kingdom. Or maybe they’ll wait for Halloween. Why the hell not? It’s been nine years since 2012’s 333 (discussed here). You mean to tell me they’re gonna rush it now?
In addition to the LP sneak-peak, Davis also released the Deathly Nights EP under the Hour of 13 moniker last Fall. You can stream that as well as “His Majesty of the Wood” below, following this info from the PR wire:
HOUR OF 13 sign with SHADOW KINGDOM for long-awaited new album
Shadow Kingdom Records announces the signing of the legendary Hour of 13 for the release of their long-awaited fourth album, Black Magick Rites, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
By now, Hour of 13 should require little introduction. For the better part of two decades, mainman Chad Davis has pursued a unique and intensely personal iteration of traditional doom metal. Along the way and over the course of three albums and numerous EPs, Hour of 13 have built a formidable discography that’s amassed a fanatic following awaiting each spooky ‘n’ somber offering Davis and his rotating cast of cohorts creates. And while he’s released records for a variety of labels over the years, in between a couple breakups, Davis brings Hour of 13 back to Shadow Kingdom, who released the band’s self-titled debut album in 2007 long before the hype started.
Hour of 13’s first full-length offering in over eight years, Black Magick Rites was available digitally on November 1st, 2020 for only 24 hours. Just as uniquely, Black Magick Rites also marks the first Hour of 13 album where he handles not only all instruments, but also all vocals. Indeed, Davis’ vocals evoke an ancient nostalgia, of doom metal before it was “doom metal” – of the days when bands like Black Sabbath, Pagan Altar, and Witchfinder General simply followed their respective muses wherever it took them. And for Davis, Black Magick Rites sees him taking his Hour of 13 muse toward a rougher, more rock ‘n’ roll expression and yet tinged with an emotive melancholy that resonates deeply within the soul. No, no flavor-of-the-week “occult rock” cliches here, for Davis still prizes blue-collared authenticity in his doom, but he likewise never lets it hamper his immediately recognizable songwriting, which here ever so subtly inches closer to classic deathrock territory (think the likes of early Christian Death and Voodoo Church). Naturally, with a title like Black Magick Rites, an indulgence in occultism is expected, and you can literally feel the fingers of the black beyond reaching out to you across every electric minute of this 44-minute monolith.
Despite those isolated breakups, Hour of 13 continue to get better with age. Perfectly titled as any record in their enviable discography, Black Magick Rites is the sweet sound of salvation…through damnation.
Release date, cover art, tracklisting, and preorder info to be announced shortly. For more info, consult the links below.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 7th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Yeah, I knew this announcement was coming. Didn’t know when, but yes. I tried to drop hints about new Josiah in writing about the UK band’s forthcoming reissue on Heavy Psych Sounds, but I didn’t want to inadvertently give anything away. And you should note that Acid King bringing Jason Landrian aboard as part of an expanded lineup for this release kind of makes that band combined with Black Cobra, since Rafa Martinez, who drums in the latter, plays bass in the former. I do not expect the liner notes to be easy to write. I need to talk to Josiah‘s Mat Bethanourt this week and get on it before I start holding up vinyl pressing. Again. Which I probably already am.
I’m not going to try to sell you on the thing — that’s not my job — but I know a couple other of the NINE — oh my god — releases coming out as part of PostWax Vol. II, and there’s not what you’d call a “filler” in the bunch.
This came down the PR wire. Nine volumes. Oof…:
ACID KING and JOSIAH to release new music as part of PostWax Vol. II series; Blues Funeral Recordings launches Kickstarter for exclusive vinyl subscription!
Blues Funeral Recordings have revealed stoner metal pillars ACID KING and cult heavy psych rockers JOSIAH will join the second volume of their groundbreaking PostWax vinyl subscription series. The label launched a Kickstarter on April 1st to sign up subscribers for the 9-volume project.
The PostWax series presents exclusive limited edition records from some of the best stoner rock, doom and heavy psych bands on the planet. Benefiting from a spectacular Kickstarter success in 2018, PostWax Year One debuted monster releases to subscribers first — including Elder’s “The Gold & Silver Sessions” and the seminal comeback album “Refractions” from Lowrider — which were subsequently released in standard retail versions to the public several months later.
Announced on the PostWax Vol. II series are Bay Area legends ACID KING, who are joining forces with Jason Landrian (Black Cobra) and Bryce Shelton (Nik Turner’s Hawkwind, Bädr Vogu, High Tone Son of a Bitch) for a mind-altering soundtrack-inspired sonic journey created exclusively for this project.
PostWax Vol. II will also mark the blistering return of Britain’s the fuzz-fueled power trio JOSIAH, who are making the most of the Blues Funeral collaboration to present their first studio album in over a decade, the followup to their 2009 Eletrohasch release ‘Procession’. Fans of heavy-psych meets straight ahead riff-rock should take notice!
PostWax Vol. II will unfold as a series of 9 deluxe releases on gorgeous vinyl, with every record set to include at least one exclusive track that only those who join PostWax will ever receive. Blues Funeral also invited each band to contribute one or more riffs to a “share pool” that every other band in the series can dip into and to integrate into what they’re doing, in order to create more connectivity and shared DNA across all the releases in the series.
