Posted in Whathaveyou on May 19th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
I love how unqualified-to-comment this makes me feel. Like anything I say about it will only be a pathetic attempt to mansplain women working to forge new aesthetic grounds. At its most basic level, this is what shifting paradigms looks like. It ain’t three or four white guys riffing like Does everyone qualify for a Grant? See some how to start a college admission essay buy of the books benefiting from our editing and assignment helper Sleep. More Interviews Guaranteed in 30 Days We guarantee that you will get more job interviews in 30 days after using our Graduate Research Paper Outline or we will Mrs. Piss — and if you find the name jarring, that’s the point — release Freelance article writing services at Copify. Hundreds of approved UK sees, SEO & website friendly, 48 hour turnaround! Self-Surgery May 29 on Best Custom Dissertation Writing Service. Are you a student, Jeremiah Do Your Freaking Homeworks. It is not an easy task to find the service you can trust. Sargent House. It’s former tourmates We provide archaeology coursework help services by professional editors who are trained for editing academic documents including thesis and dissertations. Order our Jess Gowrie and ( Have done lots of research and need it evaluated) reply to thread view you want to custom papaers; If you want a PhD then you have to work for one Chelsea Wolfe, and going by the two tracks they’ve let out, “Downer Surrounded by Uppers” and “Knelt,” they’re making mincemeat of expanded-mind heaviness, as much post-punk and gothgaze as they are motioning toward antigenre fuckall.
I suspect those who buy in here will be duly slayed, beardo-dude critics will fawn and largely miss it, and I may or may not be cool enough to actually get a promo. Probably not, but you never know. Sometimes I get lucky.
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Here’s PR wire info:
MRS. PISS (Chelsea Wolfe and Jess Gowrie) ANNOUNCE DEBUT ALBUM SELF-SURGERY OUT MAY 29 ON SARGENT HOUSE
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Mrs. Piss is a new collaboration between Chelsea Wolfe and Jess Gowrie. Drawing on their collective rock, metal, and industrial influences, the project began while the two were touring around together during Wolfe’s Hiss Spun album in 2017. These songs feel more urgent and visceral than anything either of them has created before: heaviness spurred on by punk spirit. Today they’ve detailed their debut, Self-Surgery, which sees its release May 29 on Sargent House, and share two of its singles, “Downer Surrounded by Uppers” and “Knelt”. Listen and share via YouTube below and all streaming platforms here.
Chelsea Wolfe (vocals, guitar)
“Working on this project brought Jess and I so much closer as songwriters and production partners, after reuniting as friends and bandmates. It was freeing and fun to channel some wild energies that I don’t typically put into my own music. We tried not to overthink the songs as we were writing them, but at the same time we did consciously put a lot into crafting them into our own weird sonic vision. This project was a chance for us to do things our own way, on our own terms, and we plan to invite more womxn musicians along for future Mrs. Piss recordings.” CW
Jess Gowrie (drums, guitar, bass, programming)
“To me, Mrs. Piss represents a musical chemistry cut short long ago that now gets a second chance. Creating with Chelsea has always been very liberating for me, and we both push each other to try new things: anything and everything. Both of us have grown so much as writers and musicians since our first band together (Red Host), and with the journeys we had to take separately to get there, we both have so much more to say; so much more pain and anger to express. That said, we also had a lot of fun doing it, not to mention how freeing it is to not give a f-k and to just create.” JG
Self-Surgery was recorded at The Dock Studio in Sacramento, CA and in Wolfe’s home studio, The Canyon. Preorder here: https://smarturl.it/mrspiss
Self-Surgery Track Listing:
1- To Crawl Inside 2 – Downer Surrounded by Uppers 3 – Knelt 4 – Nobody Wants to Party With Us 5 – M.B.O.T.W.O. 6 – You Took Everything 7 – Self-Surgery 8 – Mrs. Piss
Welcome to The Obelisk’s Summer 2019 Quarterly Review. You probably know the drill by now, but just in case, here’s what’s up: starting today and through next Monday, I’ll be reviewing 10 records per day for a total of 60. I’ve done this every three months (or so) for the better part of the last five years, each one with at least 50 releases included. Some are big bands, some are new bands, some are releases are new, some older. It’s a mix of styles and notoriety, and that’s exactly the intent. It’s a ton of stuff, but that’s also the intent, and the corresponding hope is that somewhere in all of it there’s something for everyone.
I’ll check in each day at the top with what usually turns out to be a “hot damn I’m exhausted, but this is worth it”-kind of update, but otherwise, if we’re all on board, let’s just get to it. First batch below, more to come.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Earth, Full Upon Her Burning Lips
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It might seem like an incongruity that something so based in traditionalism conceptually would also turn into experimentalist Viking jazz, but I defy you to hear “Galgadr,” the 10-minute opener of Heilung‘s third full-length, Futha (on Season of Mist), and call it something else. Cuts like the memorable and melodic “Norupo” and the would-be-techno-but-I-think-they’re-actually-just-beating-on-wood “Svanrand,” which, like “Vapnatak” before it, is rife with the sounds of battle, but it’s in the longer pieces, “Othan,” 14-minute closer “Hamrer Hippyer,” and even the eight-plus-minute “Elivgar” and “Elddansurin” that precede it, that Heilung‘s dramas really unfold. Led by the essential presence of vocalist Maria Franz — who could hardly be more suited to the stated theme of calling to feminine power — Heilung careen through folk and narrative and full cultural immersion across 73 minutes, and craft something willfully forward thinking from the history it embellishes.
The reliable taste of Church Within Records strikes again in picking up Thronehammer‘s first full-length, Usurper of the Oaken Throne. The project is a dark and warmaking epic mega-doom working mostly in longform material — it’s six tracks/78 minutes, so yeah — conjured in collaboration by the trio of vocalist Kat Shevil Gillham (Lucifer’s Chalice, etc.), guitarist/keyboardist Stuart Bootsy West (ex-Obelyskkh, ex-The Walruz) and drummer/bassist Tim Schmidt (Seamount), that hits with a massive impact from 17-minute opener “Behind the Wall of Frost” into “Conquered and Erased” (11:24) and “Warhorn” (19:12), making for an opening salvo that’s a full-length unto itself and a beast of doomed grandeur that balances extremity with clearheaded presentation. They simplify the proceedings a bit for “Svarte Skyer” and the eponymous “Thronehammmer,” but are clearly in their element for the 15-minute closing title-track, which rounds out one of the best doom debuts I’ve heard so far this year with due heft and ceremony.
Smear‘s live-recorded A Band Called Shmear EP is basically the equivalent of that dude getting dragged out of the outdoor concert for being at the bottom of the puffing clouds of smoke going, “Come on man, I’m not hurting anybody!” And by that I mean it’s awesome. The Eugene, Oregon, four-piece get down on some psychedelic reefer madness tapped into weirdo anti-genre tendencies that come to fruition in the verses of “Guns of Brixton” after the drifting freaker “Old Town.” The whole thing runs an extra-manageable 21 minutes, and six of that are dedicated to the fuzzed jam “Zombie” — tinged in its early going with a reggae groove — so Smear make it easy to follow their outward path, whether it’s the surf-with-no-water “Weigh” at the outset or “Quicksand,” which hints at more complex melodic tendencies almost in spite of itself. You like vibe, right? These cats have plenty to go around, and they deliver it with an absolute lack of pretense. Whatever they do next, I hope they also record it live, because it clearly works.
One hesitates to speculate on the future of a band who’ve just taken 10 years to put out an album, but Deadbird sound vital on their awaited third full-length: III: The Forest Within the Tree (arrived late 2018 through 20 Buck Spin), and with a revamped lineup that includes Rwake vocalist Chris Terry and Rwake/The Obsessed bassist Reid Raley as well as bassist Jeff Morgan, guitarist Jay Minish and founders Phillip (drums) and Chuck (guitar) Schaaf and Alan Short — all of whom contribute vocals — Deadbird emerge from the ether with a stunningly cohesive and varied outing of post-sludge, tinged Southern in its humid tonality but still very much geared toward heft and, certainly more than I recall of their past work, melody. In just 38 minutes they push the listener into this dank world of their creation, and seem to find just as much release in experiments “11:34” and “Ending” as in the crashes of “Brought Low” or “Heyday.” Are they really back? Hell if I know, but these songs are enough to make me hope so.
Brooklyn four-piece Grass released a live recording in 2017, but the late-2018 EP Fresh Grass marks their studio debut, and it comprises five tracks digging into the traditions of heavy rock with edges derived from the likes of Clutch, Orange Goblin, maybe a bit of Kyuss and modern bluesier practitioners as well in cuts like “Black Clouds” — the lone holdover from one release to the next — and the swaggering “Runaway,” which veers into vocal layering in its second half in a way that seems to portend things to come, while the centerpiece “Fire” and closer “Easy Rider” roll out in post=’70s fashion a kind of rawer modern take. Their sound is nascent, but there’s potential in their swing and the hook of opener “My Wall.” Fresh Grass is the band searching for their place within a heavy rock style. I hear nothing on it to make me think they won’t find it, and if they were opening the show, you’d probably want to show up early.
Reissued on vinyl through Cardinal Fuzz with two bonus tracks, Prana Crafter‘s 2017 offering, MindStreamBlessing, originally saw release through Eidolon Records and finds the Washington-based solo artist Will Sol oozing through acid folk and psychedelic traditions, instrumentally constructing a shimmer that seems ready for the platter edition it’s been granted. Songs like “As the Weather Commands” and “Bardo Nectar” are experiments in their waves of meandering guitar, effects and keys, while “Mycellial Morphohum” adapts cosmic ecology to minimal spaciousness and vague spoken word. Some part of me misses vocals in the earthy “FingersFlowThroughOldSkolRiver,” but that might just also be the part of me that’s hearing Lamp of the Universe or Six Organs of Admittance influences. The interwoven layers of “Prajna Pines,” on the other hand, seem fine without; bluesy as the lead guitar line is, there’s no doubting the song’s expressive delivery, though one could easily say the same of the krautrock loops and keys and reverb-drenched solo of “Luminous Clouds.”
Heavy post-rockers Vago Sagrado set a peaceful atmosphere with “K is Kool,” the opening track of their third album, Vol. III, that is hard to resist. They’ll soon enough pump in contrast via the foreboding low end of “La Pieza Oscura,” but the feeling of purposeful drift in the guitar remains resonant, even as the drums and vocals take on a kind of punkish feel. The mix is one that the Chilean three-piece seem to delight in, reveling in tonal adventurousness in the quiet/loud tradeoff of “Fire (In Your Head)” and the New Wave shuffle of “Sundown” before “Centinela” kicks off side B with the kind of groove that Queens of the Stone Age fans have been missing for the last 15 years. Things get far out in “Listen & Obey,” but Vago Sagrado never completely lose their sense of direction, and that only makes the proceedings more engaging as the hypnotic “One More Time with Feeling” leads into the nine-minute closer “Mekong,” wherein the wash teased all along comes to fruition.
I’m more than happy to credit Sweden’s Gin Lady for the gorgeous ’70s country rock harmonies that emanate from their fourth album, Tall Sun Crooked Moon (on Kozmik Artifactz), from the mission-statement opener “Everyone is Love” onward, but I think it’s also worth highlighting that the 10-track outing also features the warmest snare drum sound I’ve heard maybe since the self-titled Kadavar LP. The Swedish four-piece have nailed their sound down to that level of detail, and as they touch on twang boogie in “Always Gold” or find bluesy Abbey Roadian deliverance in the more riff-led chorus of “Gentle Bird,” their aesthetic is palpable but does not trump the straight-ahead appeal of their songwriting. The closing duo of “The Rock We All Push” and the piano-soother “Tell it Like it Is” are the only two tracks to push past five minutes long, but by then the mood is well set and if they wanted to keep going, I have a hard time imagining they’d meet with complaints. Serenity abounds.
For an EP called Couch Lock — i.e., when you’re too stoned to even stand up — there’s an awful lot of movement on Oven‘s debut release, from the punk thrust of “Get It” to the arrogant sleaze of “Go James” and even the drums in “This Time.” And the nine-minute “Dark Matter” is basically space rock, so yeah, hardly locked to the couch there, but okay. The five-tracker is raw in its production as would seem to suit the Pennsylvania trio, but they still get their point across in terms of attitude, and a closing cover of Nebula‘s “To the Center” seems only to reinforce the notion. One imagines that any basement where they unleash that and the nod that culminates “Dark Matter” just before it would have to be professionally dehumidified afterward to get the dankness out, and an overarching sense of stoner shenanigans only adds to the good times that so much of East Coast-ish psych misses the point on. They’re having fun. You should too.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 24th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Holy crapola, you mean to tell me Russian Circles have seven albums? Way to make me feel old, PR wire. The latest of the bunch is called Blood Year, and it will be issued Aug. 2 through Sargent House, which makes the Chicagoan three-piece label-kin to Earth and Boris, and though one tends to think of those bands as icons of the heavy form, don’t Russian Circles kind of fit in that echelon at this point as well. All kidding and feeling-old (about which I was very much not kidding) aside, these guys are long-since-proven veterans and their influence has been widespread for at least the last decade, if not longer, so yeah, a release on Sargent House feels right. Shit is important to a lot of people.
The new song, called “Arluck,” has been making the rounds this week and you can hear it at the bottom of this post if you haven’t yet or if you’d like to again, and in addition to the album announcement, there’s the requisite slew of tour dates included in the PR wire info as well.
Have at it:
RUSSIAN CIRCLES ANNOUNCE THEIR NEW ALBUM, ‘BLOOD YEAR,’ & NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
The formidable trio’s seventh studio album will be released on August 2 via Sargent House. Check out the first single “Arluck” now.
There are few things one can be sure of these days, though one truism that remains is that Russian Circles will continue to reign as one of instrumental music’s supreme champions. These masters of sonic tension and release plan to deliver their seventh studio album August 2nd on Sargent House. Dubbed Blood Year, the LP is less a musical exploration and more a statement of authority, lest there be any doubt that Russian Circles remain a force to be reckoned with on the stage and in the studio.
The Chicago trio have always explored the dynamics of volume and timbre, with their albums often vacillating between caustic attacks and blissful respites. Russian Circles returned to the studio with Kurt Ballou to record Blood Year, but this time they tracked it in Chicago at Steve Albini’s world-famous Electrical Audio. From guitarist Mike Sullivan’s riff-fueled assaults, to Dave Turncrantz’s war machine rack and floor toms and Brian Cook’s meat grinding bass lines, the sound of Blood Year is that of a band unafraid to flaunt their hard-earned prowess.
Sullivan, Turncrantz, and Cook made a conscious effort to approach the songs on Blood Year with the same organic feel of a live show. In an age where rock records are often built on a computerized grid, Russian Circles chose to track the foundations of the songs together in one room as complete takes without click tracks. The human pulse and unmetered energy is woven throughout Blood Year, a presence that can be felt with each bone-rattling minute.
Blood Year will be released via Sargent House on August 2 and Russian Circles will be on tour in North America this September, October and November in support of it. FACS and Windhand will appear on select dates — check out all tour dates listed below.
Blood Year is available for pre-order here. Stay tuned for more news.
RUSSIAN CIRCLES LIVE: May 31 Chicago, IL @ Do Division Fest
RUSSIAN CIRCLES IRELAND/UK DATES AUG 08 Dublin, IRE @ Button Factory * AUG 09 Galway IRE @ Roisin Dubh * AUG 10 Belfast UK @ Limelight 2 * AUG 12 Glasgow, UK @ G2 + AUG 13 Manchester, UK @ Gorilla + AUG 14 London, UK @ Earth + AUG 16 Bristol, UK @ ArcTanGent Festival +
Support from * No Spill Blood + A.A. Williams With further European tour dates to be announced soon.
RUSSIAN CIRCLES NORTH AMERICAN DATES: September 11 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon * September 12 Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Culture Center * September 14 Bozeman, MT @ Rialto Bozeman * September 16 Seattle, WA @ Neumos * September 17 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom * September 19 San Francisco, CA @ August Hall * September 20 Ventura, CA @ Discovery Ventura * September 21 Los Angeles, CA @ The Teragram Ballroom * September 23 Mesa, AZ @ The Nile * September 24 Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf * September 25 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater * September 28 Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall * October 18 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme October 19 Detroit, MI @ El Club October 20 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace October 21 Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount October 23 Portsmouth, NH @ 3S ArtSpace October 24 Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair October 26 Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw October 27 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer October 29 Washington, DC @ Union Stage October 30 Richmond, VA @ The Broadberry November 1 Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall + November 2 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre + November 3 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade + November 4 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jack’s + November 6 Houston, TX @ The Secret Group + November 8 Austin, TX @ Levitation November 9 Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Company + November 11 St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall + w/ FACS * w/ Windhand +
Blood Year — Track Listing: 1. Hunter Moon 2. Arluck 3. Milano 4. Kohokia 5. Ghost on High 6. Sinaia 7. Quartered
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 8th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Fair enough that Earth as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of their start in 1989 would also strip down their approach to its essential core — that being the guitar of Dylan Carlson and the drums of Adrienne Davies. Somehow or other, it got to be five years since the release of their last album, Primitive and Deadly (review here), which saw both fleshed out arrangements instrumentally but the addition of guest vocalists as well. The take on Full Upon Her Burning Lips would seem to pull back in response to that, with Davies and Carlson comprising the lineup and eschewing any of the “extras” that have come up as their sound was fleshed out over the last decade-plus.
You can stream the new track “Cats on the Briar” at the bottom of this post, and it certainly sounds like Earth, which only makes me want to hear more. Funny how that goes.
Dylan Carlson has been doing prolific solo work in the years since Primitive and Deadly (and before that as well), and he’s got a Euro tour set to begin this month. Dates for that and Full Upon Her Burning Lips album info follow here, courtesy of the PR wire:
EARTH ANNOUNCE A NEW ALBUM FULL UPON HER BURNING LIPS, TO BE RELEASED VIA SARGENT HOUSE ON 24TH MAY
LISTEN TO THE NEW ALBUM TRACK “CATS ON THE BRIAR”
DYLAN CARLSON EUROPEAN SOLO DATES INCOMING
Over the course of their thirty trips around the sun, Earth has remained diligent in their commitment to monolithic minimalism. The sonic vocabulary may have changed—from their early years churning out seismic drone metal on albums like Earth 2 (1993) to the dusty Morricone-tinged comeback album Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method (2005) to the meditative rock approach of Primitive and Deadly (2014)—but the underlying principle of austerity and restraint remains a constant. With their latest album Full Upon Her Burning Lips, Earth purges the layers of auxiliary instrumentation that embellished some of their previous records and deconstructed their dynamic to the core duo of Dylan Carlson on guitar and bass and Adrienne Davies on drums and percussion. In the process, they tapped into the Platonic ideal of Earth—an incarnation of the long running band bolstered by the authority of purpose, where every note and every strike on the drum kit carries the weight of the world.
Full Upon Her Burning Lips opens with “Datura’s Crimson Veils”, a twelve-minute opus that adheres to Earth’s 21st century approach with Carlson’s sepia-toned Bakersfield Sound guitars lurching across a barren landscape while Davies punctuates the melodies with death knell drums. It’s a sound that harkens back to the riff-constructed vistas of their Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light albums, but stripped of their ornateness. “It was definitely a very organically developed record,” Carlson says of the process. “I limited the number of effects I used. I always like the limiting of materials to force oneself to employ them more creatively. Previous Earth records were quite lush sounding, and I wanted a more upfront and drier sound, using very few studio effects.” In less capable hands, these kinds of limitations might diminish the aural scope of the compositions, but Carlson and Davies have always thrived on reductive methods.
The stripped down approach had another advantage. “I really wanted the drums to be present,” Carlson says. “I felt with previous Earth records that other instrumentation took up so much of the sonic space that the drums were kind of pushed to the side.” This tactic helps highlight Davies’ ability to elevate the drum kit beyond its mere metronomic functions and allows it to serve as an expressive, nuanced, and tonally rich component to Earth’s arsenal of sound.
In addition to scaling back on their ranks, Earth altered their previous trajectory by entering into Full Upon Her Burning Lips without a conceptual arc to guide the process, relying instead on their collective subconscious to hone in on the overarching muse as the songs developed. “In the past I’ve usually had a strong framework for an album,” Carlson says. “This one developed over the course of writing and recording. It just felt like ‘Earth’—like just the two players doing their best work at playing, serving the music.” The absence of a pre-existing narrative guiding the compositions meant that the songs were more open and intuitive, often resulting in more terse musical vignettes like the richly harmonic “Exaltation of Larks” or the dreamily itinerant “Maidens Catafalque”. Yet subconscious impulses gradually created their own subtext for the album. “I wanted this to be a ‘sexy’ record, a record acknowledging the ‘witchy’ and ‘sensual’ aspects in the music… sort of a ‘witch’s garden’ kind of theme, with references to mind altering plants and animals that people have always held superstitious beliefs towards. A conjuror or root doctor’s herbarium of songs, as it were.”
The ten tracks on Full Upon Her Burning Lips came together in bits and pieces. Songs like “Cats on the Briar” and “Mandrake’s Hymn” stemmed from a handful of musical phrases and repeating patterns concocted in moments of downtime during their 2017 tour schedule. “Descending Belladonna” came from a live soundtrack project. Other songs came from rehearsals in the months leading up to recording or in moments of divine inspiration in the studio. The record was engineered, mixed, and mastered by longtime associate Mell Dettmer at Studio Soli. Knowing their process and their sound, Dettmer helped harness, shape, and document the songs in a manner that highlights the depth of Earth’s sparse components, capturing hidden dimensions much like the veiled images residing in the Magic Eye prints from the ‘90s. For the patient listener, the cyclical nature of the songs “She Rides an Air of Malevolence” or “An Unnatural Carousel” reveal new forms with repeated listens, with the subtle variations between passes creating a kaleidoscope of auditory activity.
“I feel like this is the fullest expression and purest distillation of what Earth does since I re-started the band,” Carlson says in reflection of Full Upon Her Burning Lips. And indeed, anyone that’s followed Earth on their journey will bask in the unadulterated hums, throbs, and reverberations conjured by Carlson and Davies.
Sargent House is proud to offer up the album to the world on May 24th, 2019 on 2xLP / CD / digital formats.
DYLAN CARLSON SOLO DATES: MAR 21 Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny MAR 22 Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade MAR 23 Manchester, UK @ Soup Kitchen MAR 24 Birmingham, UK @ The Flapper MAR 26 London, UK @ St John of Bethnal Green MAR 27 Brussels, BE @ Botanique MAR 28 Lille, FR @ La Malterie MAR 29 Duisburg, DE @ Explorado Museum MAR 30 Berlin, DE @ Cassiopeia MAR 31 Prague, CZ @ Futurum APR 01 Vienna, AT @ Grillx APR 03 Munich, DE @ Feierwerk APR 04 Lausanne, CH @ Le Bourg APR 05 Zurich, CH @ Bogen F APR 06 Paris, FR @ Sonic Protest Festival
Some bigger releases going up to the playlist for The Obelisk Radio this time around, and that’s just fine by me. It’s five albums listed here, but there are a few others included as well that you can see listed on the updates page and it’s good stuff all the way around. It was all actually supposed to go up last week, but you know, life is chaos and all that. I hope as always that you manage to find something you enjoy, and if you haven’t heard some of this stuff as yet — I suspect you have, because you know what’s up and I’m perpetually behind on these things; more than just a week, on average — then all the better. Let’s dig in together.
The Obelisk Radio adds for July 31, 2017:
Boris, Dear
If you were Boris and you were looking to celebrate a quarter-century of innovating heavy rock, noise, drone, J-pop, and genreless forays into bizarre sonic delights, how would you do it? If you said, “I’d release 69 heavy-as-hell minutes of rumbling tectonics and progressive scope making for one of the best albums of the year,” you’d seem to be on the money. The Japanese trio’s umpteenth full-length, Dear (on Sargent House in the US/EU and Daymare in Japan), begins with the appropriately-titled “D.O.W.N. – Domination of Waiting Noise,” setting forth a consuming six-minute onslaught of feedback and lumbering pummel before the SunnO)))-rivaling drone of “Deadsong” takes hold, shifting at its midpoint to a spaciousness all Boris‘ own. Then they chug out galloping riff triplets on “Absolutego” like it ain’t no thing. That’s Boris: the band who named themselves after a Melvins song and then utterly outdid their namesake on every creative level and have continued to do so throughout one of underground music’s most landmark tenures. Dear offers simultaneous melodic breadth and droning depth on its centerpiece duo of “Kagero” and “Biotope” after counteracting minimalist march with explosive crash on “Beyond,” but they’re still just getting started. The seven-minute “The Power” leads off the second of the two LPs and seems to stem upward from the same roots as YOB at their harshest, brutally feedbacking into the dronegaze of the shorter “Memento Mori” before the 12-minute “Dystopia – Vanishing Point” and the nine-minute title-track comprise a side D that’s nothing less than a triumphant lesson in how to meet your audience head-on right before you swallow them whole, setting its stage with keys and tribalist drums quickly before hypnotizing through five minutes of quiet stretch and bursting gloriously to life ahead of one last contrast of empty spaces and crushing tonality on “Dear” that gives way at last to the noise and feedback that’s always been so essential to their process. If Dear is a letter to Boris‘ fans, as they have said, it is also a willful embrace of the wide-open sensibilities that have made the last 25 years of their craft so uniquely their own. They can go anywhere stylistically and remain Boris precisely because they refuse to settle on a single idea that defines them.
Having now passed the 20-year mark since their founding in 1995, Iceland’s Sólstafir continue to reshape melancholy in their own image on their sixth album and third for Season of Mist, Berdreyminn. The Reykjavik-based four-piece keep the significant achievements of 2014’s Ótta (review here) close to the chest throughout the eight-track/57-minute offering, but songs like “Ísafold” have an upbeat push behind their emotional resonance, and even on a brooding piano piece like “Hvít Sæng,” the overarching sense of motion and the dynamic is maintained. The penultimate “Ambátt” — first of two eight-minute cuts in a finale duo — might be Berdreyminn‘s richest progressive achievement, with its lush opening vocal harmonies giving way to a patiently-delivered clinic on texture, build and payoff that borders on the orchestral. Of course, strings and horns to appear on the album, adding to already complex arrangements, but Sólstafir never lose their corresponding human center, and as “Bláfjall” closes with an intensity of thrust hinted at by the cymbal-crash wash of opener “Silfur-Refur” and the post-blackened push of “Nárós” but ultimately on its own level, they underline the realization and poise that is simply all their own. Berdreyminn is the sound of a band doing important work, and with it, Sólstafir only prove themselves more crucial on an aesthetic level, yet it might be their ability to somehow still feel in-progress that most defines what makes them so special. More than two decades on, they still come across like a group exploring their sound and finding new ways to develop their songwriting — which they are and which they do here. That in itself is an accomplishment worthy of every accolade they reap, and Berdreyminn lives up to that standard front to back across its engaging, encompassing span.
Desert Suns & Chiefs, The Second Coming of Heavy – Chapter 5
Ripple Music has made its The Second Coming of Heavy series of split LPs an essential showcase of the variety in underground rock. The Second Coming of Heavy – Chapter 5 brings together San Diego heavy psych/blues rockers Desert Suns, who also reissued their debut long-player through Ripple in 2016 and followed it with the single “The Haunting” (review here) in conjunction with Ripple and HeviSike Records, and Phoenix, Arizona’s Chiefs, whose 2015 debut, Tomorrow’s Over (review here), arrived on vinyl via Battleground Records and whose five tracks included on side B here cast them among the best Ripple Music bands in the Southwest not currently signed to Ripple Music for their next album. More than some prior installments, The Second Coming of Heavy – Chapter 5 finds its two featured purveyors complementing each other’s work excellently, as Desert Suns offer three seven-plus minute tracks running from the harmonica-inclusive “Night Train” and the rolling, long-fading “Solitude” with the push of “Heavy” in between and Chiefs — though their individual runtimes are shorter — holding straightforward heavy/desert rock methods at their core in unpretentious fashion across “The Rhino,” the standout “Baron to Chancellor,” “Low Tide,” “Caroline” and “My Last Stand,” nodding initially at ’90s noise rock à la Helmet in “The Rhino” but in the end keeping to their sandy, well-structured mission. As ever, The Second Coming of Heavy asks nothing more of its audience than a basic exploration of the groups included, and certainly both Desert Suns and Chiefs earn that. Whether one takes it on in the context of the prior chapters or as a standalone split release, it delivers a collection of cuts from two outfits with a shared core of quality songcraft and the underlying message that sometimes the straight-line route is the way to go. Right on, once again.
Both sides of Elara‘s PsyKa Records-released debut full-length, Deli Bal, are comprised of one shorter track on either side of eight minutes and one longer one, 12 and 17 minutes, respectively. Between that and the cover art, it should come as no surprise that heavy psychedelic drift is central to what the Stuttgart, Germany, trio of bassist/vocalist Daniel Wieland, guitarist/noisemaker Felix Schmidt and drummer Martin Wieland — who also stylize their name as the bracketed [Elara Sunstreak Band] — get up to in their first offering, but there’s an underlying progressive melodic sensibility as well, and Schmidt‘s guitar seems to have picked up a few lessons from My Sleeping Karma‘s minor-key solo mysticism, so one can hear a sound beginning to take shape early as the leadoff title-track gives way to “Amida,” which swaps back and forth between organ-laden krautrock meandering and fuller-fuzz thrust, and as “Quarantania” reinforces that classic vibe with a warm bass tone from Daniel. Whether you’re listening to the platter itself and switching sides or digitally or on CD, Deli Bal is clearly intended to be consumed as a whole work, and one can hear the vocal melody of “Harmonia” tying back to that in the opener as another example of the underlying structure with which it plays out, despite the broad feel of the songs themselves and the expanses they both intend and actually do cover. The LP has just the four tracks, but the digital version comes with the 9:42 bonus cut “Trimenon,” which builds around a core post-rocking guitar line to come to a fervent apex before receding again to let the listener go gently from Deli Bal‘s total 56-minute runtime; no minor undertaking, but effectively executed and a pleasure in its wandering mind and spirit.
This early-2017 psychedelic curio from Umeå, Sweden’s Fungus Hill begins by asking “Are You Dead?” The just-under-nine-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) of the groovy outfit’s four-song, self-released, 28-minute debut Creatures EP doesn’t sound overly concerned with whether the answer is yes or no so much as enacting a serene flow by posing the question over a laid back bluesy vibe. Arrangement? Fluid. With dual vocals from guitarist Gustav Orvefors and percussionist Jenny Isaksson — the five-piece is completed by guitarist Erik Sköld, drummer Nils Mörtzell and bassist Tom Westerlund — Fungus Hill are able to bring variety as they turn to post-Ghost straightforward ’70s chorus-leaning in the first half of “Beware of Evil in the Sky,” prior to a midsection trip outward on subdued shimmy and deceptively complex melodicism. The flute (or keyboard flute sounds) of the jazzy “Evolution” brings Isaksson to the floor with a smoky, even-bluesier feel, and the guitar answers back with fuzzy lead flourish that only enhances the soul on display, while a seven-and-a-half-minute closing title-track delves deepest of all into thicker riffing, a “Na na na na” hook taking hold quickly just in case you weren’t sure it was going to be a highlight. It is. More tonally dense than most retro boogie — and less retro, for that matter — Fungus Hill‘s Creatures nonetheless has its traditionalist elements, but across its individual pieces each one points to a different side of the band’s personality, and from the Alan Watts sample at the beginning of “Are You Dead?” to when we meet the troll later in “Creatures,” each side of that personality utterly shines.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 25th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
It begins. And by ‘it,’ I suppose I mean the touring cycle Boris will undertake to support their new album, Dear, which releases on July 14 via Sargent House and Daymare Recordings. This touring cycle — you know, as opposed to the general touring cycle that Boris never seem to leave, which in 2016 had them out performing Pink in full and which, in addition to heralding the arrival of Dear on this upcoming run, will see the Tokyo experimentalist trio celebrating their 25th anniversary. The run starts in Moscow on Aug. 3 and will include shows around Poland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Ireland and the UK before finishing in Finland on Aug. 25. Lots of travel, lots of volume. Boris don’t mess around when it comes to either.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, the band unveiled the first bit of audio from Dear in a video for “Absolutego” when they announced the album earlier this month. You’ll find that clip at the bottom of the post here, because it’s the internet and I can do that kind of thing.
From the PR wire:
BORIS DEAR/25TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR ANNOUNCED, NEW ALBUM OUT VIA SARGENT HOUSE, 14 JULY
Legendary amplifier-worshipping trio Boris recently announced the release of their twenty-third studio album, Dear, which is due out July 14th on Sargent House. Today we’re pleased to share news of live shows on the horizon in support of the album and their 25th Anniversary, including festival appearances, all dates below:-
BORIS 25 ANNIVERSARY/DEAR TOUR DATES 03/08 – Moscow, Volta – RU 04/08 – St. Petersburg, ClubZal – RU 05/08 – Vienna, Szene – AT 06/08 – Katowice, OFF Festival – PL 07/08 – Leipzig, Naumans – DE 08/08 – Berlin, Lido – DE 09/08 – Jaromer, Brutal Assault – CZ 10/08 – Munich, Backstage – DE 11/08 – Frankfurt, Das Bett – DE 12/08 – Lausanne, Rock Altitude – CH 13/08 – Ieper, Ieperfest – BE 15/08 – Cologne, Underground – DE 16/08 – Hamburg, Hafenklang – DE 17/08 – Bielefeld, Forum – DE 18/08 – Amstelveen, P60 – NL 19/08 – Bristol, Arctangent Festival – UK 20/08 – Dublin, Whelans – IE 21/08 – Cork, Cyprus Avenue – IE 23/08 – Belfast – Limelight – UK 25/08 – Helsinki – Nosturi – FI
Read on for more information about the new album…
Dear marks the band’s 25th year of existence and while the 10-track album is chockfull of early-Boris calling cards, the avant-garde mavens aren’t learning on old tricks, describing the album as “heavenly—far beyond heavy.” Boris have shared the album’s first single and magnificent new music video “Absolutego”.
Though Boris have traversed a broad swath of sonic territories, they have always been consistently embraced the excess, pushing their myriad of approaches and stylistic forays to points of intoxicating absurdity. Eventually the band reached a crossroads in the early years of their third decade together, leaving them wondering if there were any new horizons left to explore. The renewed vitality yielded an album that fortifies their monolithic wall of sound while also allowing the individual band members to explore the nuances and intricacies of minimalist riffs played at maximum volume.
Songwriting for Dear initially yielded three albums’ worth of material by the end of 2015, but as the band was slated to spend a large chunk of 2016 on their “Performing Pink” worldwide tour, they decided to hold off on releasing any new material. The tour further rekindled their passion for the craft, spurring the band to return home to crank out even more new material while scaling down three records’ worth of sonic deluge down to one.
From the glacial pacing and earthquaking rumble of the album opener to the smouldering rock ’n roll-infused “Absolutego”, Boris have managed to find wildly thrilling work in the familiar trenches of metal. Never ones to shy away from a challenge, the trio carves even experiments with fuzz fuelled dream pop. “At the very first moment, this album began as some kind of potential farewell note of Boris,” the band said. “However, it became a sincere letter to fans and listeners… you know, like ‘Dear so-and-so, this is the new album from Boris’ or something like that. We feel so grateful we can release this album in our 25th anniversary year.”
Dear will be released to the world on July 14, 2017 on CD, 2xLP, and digital formats. Stay tuned for more news to come.
Dear Track Listing: 1. D.O.W.N. (Domination Of Waiting Noise) 2. DEADSONG 3. Absolutego 4. Beyond 5. Kagero 6. Biotope 7. The Power 8. Memento Mori 9. Dystopia -Vanishing Point- 10. Dear
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 16th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
25 years of Boris. How is the world not weirder than it is? The long-running Japanese genreproof experimentalists have been everywhere, seen everything, done just about everything, kicked more ass than one could’ve thought a human foot would endure and still come out of it with the creative drive to alienate entire segments of their audience at will. After a quarter-century, they remain nearly impossible to predict, and even now as I look at the cover below of their forthcoming album, Dear — which is out July 14 on Sargent House and Daymare Recordings — I have absolutely no idea what to expect from the record. How many bands can you sincerely say that about?
That’s not the only thing that’s made Boris so crucial for the last two and a half decades, but it’s definitely part of it. Info on the new record follows below from the PR wire, along with their new video for “Absolutego” from Dear, which, if it has you scratching your head and wondering, “Hey, wasn’t Absolutego the name of Boris‘ first album, released in 1996?,” yes, yes it was. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
Have at you:
Boris celebrate 25 years together with new album Dear, watch a music video for their first single “Absolutego”
Legendary amplifier-worshipping trio Boris have announced the release of their twenty-third studio album, Dear, which is due out July 14th on Sargent House. Dear marks the band’s 25th year of existence and while the 10-track album is chockfull of early-Boris calling cards, the avant-garde mavens aren’t learning on old tricks, describing the album as “heavenly—far beyond heavy.” Boris share the album’s first single and magnificent new music video “Absolutego”.
Though Boris have traversed a broad swath of sonic territories, they have always been consistently embraced the excess, pushing their myriad of approaches and stylistic forays to points of intoxicating absurdity. Eventually the band reached a crossroads in the early years of their third decade together, leaving them wondering if there were any new horizons left to explore. The renewed vitality yielded an album that fortifies their monolithic wall of sound while also allowing the individual band members to explore the nuances and intricacies of minimalist riffs played at maximum volume.
Songwriting for Dear initially yielded three albums’ worth of material by the end of 2015, but as the band was slated to spend a large chunk of 2016 on their “Performing Pink” worldwide tour, they decided to hold off on releasing any new material. The tour further rekindled their passion for the craft, spurring the band to return home to crank out even more new material while scaling down three records’ worth of sonic deluge down to one.
From the glacial pacing and earthquaking rumble of the album opener to the smoldering rock ’n roll-infused “Absolutego”, Boris have managed to find wildly thrilling work in the familiar trenches of metal. Never ones to shy away from a challenge, the trio carves even experiments with fuzz fueled dream pop. “At the very first moment, this album began as some kind of potential farewell note of Boris,” the band said. “However, it became a sincere letter to fans and listeners… you know, like ‘Dear so-and-so, this is the new album from Boris’ or something like that. We feel so grateful we can release this album in our 25th anniversary year.”
Dear will be released to the world on July 14, 2017 on CD, 2xLP, and digital formats. Stay tuned for more news to come.
Dear Track Listing: 1. D.O.W.N. (Domination Of Waiting Noise) 2. DEADSONG 3. Absolutego 4. Beyond 5. Kagero 6. Biotope 7. The Power 8. Memento Mori 9. Distopia Vanishing Point 10. Dear
Posted in Reviews on October 6th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
I’ll admit I’m a little surprised at the shape this Quarterly Review has taken. As I begin to look back on the year in terms of what records have been talked about over the span, I find it’s been particularly geared toward debut albums, both in and out of wrap-ups like this one. There’s less of that this time around, but what’s happened is some stuff that doesn’t fall into that category — releases like the first two here, for example — are getting covered here to allow space for the others. Let’s face it, nobody gives a shit what I have to say about Russian Circles anyhow, so whatever, but I’m happy to have this as a vehicle for discussing records I still think are worth discussing — the first two releases here, again for example — rather than letting them fall through the cracks with the glut of new bands coming along. Of course things evolve as you go on, but I wish I’d figured it out sooner. Let’s dive in.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Russian Circles, Guidance
From the warm wash of guitar that begins “Asa” onward, and no matter how weighted, percussive and/or chug-fueled Russian Circles get from there, the Chicago trio seem to be offering solace on their latest outing, Guidance. Recorded by Kurt Ballou and released through Sargent House, the seven-track offering crosses heavy post-rock soundscapes given marked thickness and distinct intensity on “Vorel,” but the record as a whole never quite loses the serenity in “Asa” or the later “Overboard,” crushing as the subsequent “Calla” gets, and though the spaces they cast in closer “Lisboa” are wide and intimidating, their control of them is utterly complete. Six albums in, Russian Circles are simply masters of what they do. There’s really no other way to put it. They remain forward thinking in terms of investigating new ideas in their sound, but their core approach is set in the fluidity of these songs and they revise their aesthetic with a similar, natural patience to that with which they execute their material.
Following their 2014 RidingEasy Records debut, …Lurar ut dig på prärien (discussed here) – which, presumably met with some pronunciation trouble outside the band’s native Sweden – Salem’s Pot return with Pronounce This!, further refining their blend of psychedelic swirl, odd vibes and garage doom riffing. They remain heavily indoctrinated into the post-Uncle Acid school of buzz and groove, and aren’t afraid to scum it up on “Tranny Takes a Trip” or the slower-shifting first half of “Coal Mind,” but the second portion of that song and “So Gone, so Dead” take a more classically progressive bent that is both refreshing and a significant expansion on what Salem’s Pot have accomplished thus far into their tenure. Still weird, and one doubts that’ll change anytime soon – nor does it need to – but as Pronounce This! plays out, Salem’s Pot demonstrate an open-mindedness that seems to have been underlying their work all along and bring it forward in engaging fashion.
International House of Mancakes – yup – is the follow-up to Bridesmaid’s 2013 long-player, Breakfast at Riffany’s, and like that album, it finds the Columbus, Ohio, instrumentalists with a penchant for inserting dudes’ names into well-known titles – see “Hungry Like Nick Wolf” and “Ronnin’ with the Devil” – but it also expands the lineup to the two-bass/two-drum four-piece of Scott Hyatt and Bob Brinkman (both bass) and Cory Barnt and Boehm (both drums). Topped off with KISS-meets-Village People art from W. Ralph Walters, there are shortages neither of snark nor low end, but buried underneath is a progressive songwriting sensibility that doesn’t come across as overly metal on cuts like “Ricky Thump” and doesn’t sacrifice impact or heft for the sake of self-indulgence. Opening with its longest track (immediate points) in “It’s Alectric (Boogie Woogie Woogie),” International House of Mancakes unfolds a heavy rock push that, while obviously driven in part by its sense of humor, earns serious consideration in these tracks for those willing to actually listen.
Too thick in its tones to be a completely vintage-style work, the sleazy vibes of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s Keep it Greasy! (on Rise Above) are otherwise loyal to circa-1971 boogie and attitude, and whether it’s the rewind moment on opener “U Got Wot I Need” or proto-metallic bass thrust of the “Hawkline Monster” or the brash post-Lemmy push of “Tired ‘n’ Wired,” the album is a celebration of a moment when rock isn’t about being any of those things or anything else, but about having a good time, letting off some steam from a shit job or whatever it is, and trying your damnedest to get laid. Radio samples throughout tie the songs together, but even that carries an analog feel – because radio – and the good Admiral are clearly well versed in the fine art of kicking ass. Familiar in all the right ways with more than enough personality to make that just another part of the charm.
The invitation to completely immerse comes quickly on the 13-minute “Delusion Sound,” which opens Landing’s Third Sight (on El Paraiso), and from there, the Connecticut four-piece sway along a beautiful and melodic drift, easing their way along a full-sounding progression filled out with airy guitar and backing drones, moved forward patiently by its drum march and topped with echoed half-whispers. It’s a flat-out gorgeous initial impression to make, and the instrumental “Third Site” and “Facing South” follow it with a tinge of the experimentalism for which Landing are more known, the former led by guitar and the latter led by cinematic keyboard. To bookend, the 14-minute “Morning Sun” builds as it progresses and draws the various sides together while creating a rising soundscape of its own, every bit earning its name as the vocals emerge in the second half, part of a created wash that is nothing short of beautiful. One could say the same of Third Sight as a whole.
While they’ve spent the last few years kicking around the deeper recesses of Brooklyn’s heavy underground, Reign of Zaius mark their debut release with the 26-minute Planet Of… EP, bringing together seven tracks that show what their time and buildup of material has wrought. Opener “Hate Parade” reminds of earliest Kings Destroy, but on the whole, Reign of Zaius are rawer and more metal at their core, the five-piece delving into shuffle on “Out of Get Mine” and showing an affinity for classic horror in both “They Live” – which starts with a sample of Roddy Piper being all out of bubblegum – and “Farewell to Arms,” previously issued as a single in homage to Evil Dead. The charm of a “Dueling Banjos” reference at the start of “Deliver Me” leads to one of the catchier hooks on Planet Of…, and the shorter “Power Hitter” closes with a bass-heavy paean to smoking out that digs into punkish summation of where Reign of Zaius are coming from generally as they continue to be a band up for having a good time without taking themselves too seriously.
Kind of a mystery just where the time goes on Sydney rockers Transcendent Sea’s self-released 50-minute first album, Ballads of Drowning Men. Sure, straightforward cuts like “Over Easy” and “Mind Queen” are easily enough accounted for with their post-Orange Goblin burl and boozy, guttural delivery from vocalist Sean Bowden, but as the four-piece of Bowden, guitarist Mathew J. Allen, bassist Andrew Auglys and drummer Mark Mills get into the more extended “Throw Me a Line,” “Blood of a Lion” and closer “Way of the Wolf” – all over 10 minutes each – their moves become harder to track. They keep the hooks and the verses, but it’s not like they’re just tacking jams onto otherwise structured tracks, and even when “Way of the Wolf” goes wandering, Bowden keeps it grounded, and that effect is prevalent throughout in balancing Ballads of Drowning Men as a whole. It takes a few listens to get a handle on where Transcendent Sea are coming from in that regard, but their debut proves worth at least that minimal effort.
Brothers Rael and Ryan Andrews, both formerly of Lansing, Michigan, art rockers BerT, revive their heavy punk duo Red Teeth with the four-song Light Bender 7” on GTG Records. Both contribute vocals, and Ryan handles guitar and bass, while Rael is on drums and synth through the quick run of “Light Bender, Sound Bender,” “Tas Pappas,” “134mps” and “Elephant Graveyard,” the longest of which is the opener (immediate points) at 4:49. By the time they get down to “Elephant Graveyard,” one can hear some of the Melvinsian twist and crunch that often surfaced in BerT, but whether it’s the ‘90s-alt-vibes-meet-drum-madness of “134mps” or the almost rockabilly riffing of “Tas Pappas,” Red Teeth – whose last release was eight years ago – have no trouble establishing personality in these songs. Approach with an open mind and the weirdness that persists will be more satisfying, as each track seems to have a context entirely of its own.
One can hear the kind of spacious darkness and through-the-skin cold of New England winters in this new split EP from Connecticut crushers Sea of Bones and grinding New Hampshire compatriots Ramlord from Broken Limbs Recordings. What the two share most of all is an atmosphere of existential destitution, but there’s an underlying sense of the extreme that also ties together Sea of Bones’ “Hopelessness and Decay” (10:36) and Ramlord’s “Incarceration of Clairvoyance (Part III)” (10:10), the latter of which continues a series Ramlord started back in 2012 on a split with Cara Neir. Both acts are very much in their element in their brutality. For Sea of Bones, this is the second release they’ve had out this year behind the improvised and digital-only “Silent Transmissions” 27-minute single, which of course was anything but, and for Ramlord, it’s their first split in two years, but finds their gritty, filthy sound well intact from where they last left it. Nothing to complain about here, unless peace of mind is your thing, because you certainly won’t find any of that.
Philadelphia-based five-piece Holy Smoke formed in the early hours of 2015, and the exclamatory Holy Smoke! It’s a Demo! three-track EP is their debut release. Opening with its longest cut (immediate points) in “Rinse and Repeat,” it finds them blending psychedelic and heavy rock elements and conjuring marked fluidity between them. As the title indicates, it’s a demo, and what one hears throughout is the first material Holy Smoke thought enough of to put to tape, but on “Rinse and Repeat” and the subsequent “Blue Dreams” and “The Firm,” they bring the two sides together well in a way it’s easy to hope they continue to do as they move onto whatever comes next, pulling off “The Firm” particularly with marked swing and a sense of confidence that undercuts the notion of their being their first time out. They have growing to do, and by no means would I consider them established in style, but there’s a spark in the songs that could absolutely catch fire.
