Posted in Whathaveyou on October 16th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Issued via cooperation between PDV Records and Setalight Records, Croatian heavy rockers Stonebride‘s third album, Heavy Envelope (review here), is out now on vinyl. Not technically a reissue since it’s the first pressing in the format, the album is a moody but progressive take on bruiser riffing, and offers more on repeat visits than it might the first time around. All the better that it’s up now for revisiting by anyone who missed it. You’d almost swear these things were planned out ahead of time.
Stonebride had posted in Aug. about planning out a European tour for March/April 2016, so when and if I hear more on that, I’ll post accordingly. Until then, the PR wire sent along the following on the album:
Stonebride’s ”Heavy Envelope” vinyl release!
It is a huge pleasure to announce that the sons of all things heavy , the band Stonebride have just released their latest critically acclaimed album Heavy Envelope in vinyl format! From now on you can treat your record player with two LP album versions (black & halloween orange edition). At the end of 2014. the band unleashed upon the world its’ 4th official release in CD/digital format. This came out via joint efforts from an independent label PDV records and Setalight records.
After a European tour last year, including some selected shows this year, Stonebride is ready for further conquering of all hearing senses. Their take on heavy rock, tied with alternative / psych / doom / prog voyages leaves none without awe. European tour for March/April 2016. is being booked at this moment, so keep an eye out when they roam through your city.
It’s also worth mentioning that in December band celebrates a 10th year jubilee of existing, sonic road bending, creating music and leaving their own mark in the oceans of the most finest art we call music.
Tracklist: 1 Movies, Movies 2 Lowest Supreme 3 Lay Low 4 Coloured Blue 5 Sokushinbutsu 6 Venomous
Posted in On Wax, Reviews on July 23rd, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Released to mark a month-long tour together earlier this year, the Setalight Records split 10″ between Berlin heavy rockers Samavayo and Russian genrenauts The Grand Astoria holds a few surprises along the way. Pressed to black vinyl, it’s a follow-up to Samavayo‘s 2014 joint release with One Possible Option, and for The Grand Astoria, who’ve worked with Setalight in the past on 2014’s La Belle Epoque (review here), as well as 2013’s Punkadelica Supreme (review here) and several other short releases along the way.
Though on paper it might seem like an awkward pairing — come to think of it, just about anybody paired with The Grand Astoria is kind of awkward on paper; their sound is expansive, and they’re more than capable songwriters, but you never quite know what they’re going to do next — they mesh pretty well, and with a side split between them, both bands give a quick glimpse at where they’re at stylistically without completely losing a thread going one into the other.
One might notice The Grand Astoria‘s skull-headed mascot on the cover art by Sophia Miroedova walking away from a temple — or maybe having his portrait painted in front of it? — over which Samavayo‘s sun-style logo resides in the sky. Both acts, then, are represented, one perhaps more subtly than the other. It’s much the same way with the music. On side A, Samavayo offer two tracks: “Intergalactic Hunt” (4:03) and “Soul out of Control” (8:06), while on side B, The Grand Astoria reaffirm their shift toward progressive rock with “Kobaïa Express” (11:30).
Each cut is distinct from those around it, one way or another, and “Intergalactic Hunt” stands out for its immediate sense of movement, the guitar of Behrang Alavi (also vocals) setting a tight rhythm that drummer/backing vocalist Stephan Voland and bassist/backing vocalist Andreas Voland match both in groove and nuance, building and releasing tension in the instrumental verses and chorus of the first half before shifting in the second to a bridge that gradually leads them back to where they started, the guitar line that started it all serving also as the leadout. Fitting somehow for Samavayo in terms of showing their range that they should go from an entirely instrumental track to one centered almost completely on its vocal hook.
Well, “almost completely” is a stretch. “Soul out of Control” still has its riff — a more laid back chug over which Alavi calls to mind any number of ’90s alt melodies — and at eight minutes, there’s plenty of room for Samavayo to give the song a sense of space. They do precisely that, even slowing down over the last two minutes to march the way out, but “Soul out of Control” remains a deceptively quick listen for topping eight minutes, and that too suits Samavayo well, their songwriting always at the core no matter how expansive a given track may or may not be.
And speaking of expansive, The Grand Astoria‘s “Kobaïa Express” takes its name from the fictional planet created by Magma drummer Christian Vander — or at least from the train that presumably gets you there with the minimum of stops en route — and is presented in the accompanying alien language, a morass of syllables sometimes closer to Italian, sometimes more Slavic depending on where the music is going in any particular movement. And it does go. Recorded as the six-piece of Kamille Sharapodinov (vocals, electric and acoustic guitar), Danila Danilov (vocals, keys, flute), Eugene Korolkov (bass), Vladimir Zinoviev (drums), and Igor Suvorov (lead guitar) with Ravil Azizov on clarinet, “Kobaïa Express” is nigh on visionary progressive metal, at times operatic and at times grinding, but always precise, heavy and intricately constructed.
The Grand Astoria have already followed this split up with a two-song full-length titled The Mighty Few on which each track tops 20 minutes, so we know it’s not as far as they’ll push into fleshing out arrangements and the like, but “Kobaïa Express” thrills nonetheless for its direct Magma-ism and the poise the band demonstrates throughout, and Samavayo‘s inclusions, both of which were recorded at the end of last year, bode well for what they might do on their own next outing. If nothing else, the moral of the story with their split would seem to be that that must have been one hell of a tour. Even though it’s long since over, the scope both bands show here does justice to the fact that they got together in the first place and unites in unexpected ways across a bridge of progressive stylization and heavy craftsmanship.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 25th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Last I heard, the plan was for German heavy rockers Samavayo to release a new album this year, which would be their first as a three-piece. Nothing’s come my way to contradict that, but it looks like they’ll be tightening up new material on the road prior to hitting the studio. Titles like “Intergalactic Hunt,” “Kodokushi,” “Someone Else” and “Iktsuarpok” have been tossed about as being inclusions in the setlist, and as you can see from the list of dates below — there goes March — those songs and anything else Samavayo might decide to throw in the set are bound to get a workout on the road with The Grand Astoria. The two groups will also have a split 10″ out next month on Setalight Records.
Dates and the preorder link for that split follow here, taken from Samavayo‘s latest updates. They came from the internet! Imagine that:
Oh yeah, booking is almost finished. And here we go, We proudly present our tour in March 2015 across Europe playing a lot of the shows with our friends from The Grand Astoria and Six Months of Sun and many many more. Looking forward to an awesome tour!
28.02. DE Berlin, Zukunft am Ostkreuz 04.03. DE Potsdam, KuZe 05.03. DE Hamburg, Bar 227 06.03. DE Hamburg, Marias Ballroom 07.03. DE Cottbus, Muggefug 08.03. DE Erfurt, Tiko 11.03. DE Nürnberg, Artischocken 12.03. DE Karlsruhe, Alte Hackerei 13.03. FR Paris, Le Buzz 14.03. FR Nantes, La Scène Michelet 17.03. FR Strasbourg, Check point 18.03. CH Neuchatel, La Prise 19.03. CH Genf, Kalvingrad 20.03. CH Luzern, Bruch Brothers 21.03. CH Winterthur, Gaswerk 22.03. CH Olten, coq d’or 23.03. DE München, Cafe Cult 24.03. AT Salzburg, Rockhouse 25.03. AT Haag, Boellerbauer 26.03. AT Wien, Arena 27.03. DE Weiden, Salute Club 28.03. DE Jena, Kulturbahnhof
It just arrived! The new Split Ep from The Grand Astoria and Samavayo. It´s an honour to share the EP with our Russian friends! It´s gonna be on our tourbus in March and of course we´ll bring it to our gig on Saturday in Berlin as well.
Posted in Reviews on January 14th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Russian heavy rockers The Grand Astoria have only gotten more progressive and more prolific. La Belle Epoque, which was released last month by Setalight Records, is their first long-player since 2013’s Punkadelica Supreme (review here) and their fifth overall, but in the time between the two albums, the Saint Petersburg-based outfit have unleashed a barrage of outings, including singles, EPs, splits and live releases, plus side-projects from guitarist/vocalist Kamille Sharapodinov (The Legendary Flower Punk) and lead guitarist Igor Suvarov (Lucifer in the Sky with Diamonds). Their increasing tendency toward exploration has led them to a more metallic approach on La Belle Epoque, and what seemed on their earlier works like a defining core of stoner rock and punk has become only pieces of a puzzle to which, apparently, more is being added. Their first three records, 2009’s I (review here), 2010’s II (review here) and 2011’s Omnipresence (review here), showed an increasing tendency to look outside the band itself — a rotating lineup around Sharapodinov and Suvarov has been part of that; near as I can tell, keyboardist/floutist/vocalist/metallophonist Danila Danilov is the only other returning player from Punkadelica Supreme — and La Belle Epoque further extends that impulse stylistically. It is their proggiest work to date, though at seven-tracks/43 minutes it’s not like they’ve gotten so indulgent as to surpass an easy vinyl fit, but the range of their material and their ability to fluidly bring listeners along for the ride throughout is indicative of their growth. As much as it is exploring, La Belle Epoque is also a mature, not-at-all-confused offering.
Opener “Henry’s Got a Gun” makes a surprising first impression in calling to mind Faith No More sonically, and I find the more I listen to La Belle Epoque, the more that band fits as a comparison point. Not always in sound — The Grand Astoria aren’t limited to aping one group or genre at this point, if they ever were — but in method. The likeness comes more from the ability to translate experimental tendencies into traditional or semi-traditional forms of songwriting; that is, to take the experiment and develop it into a fully-realized song. Be it the slight country touch of guest banjo in “The Answer,” the Metallica groove early in “Gravity Bong,” the Devin Townsend-style harmonies and prog-metal range of the 14:05 “Serpent and the Garden of Eden” or the sweet melodicism of the clarinet-inclusive title-track and the brief, positive moment provided in closer “Charming,” each song offers something different, but La Belle Epoque does not overbake its ideas or push too far in one direction or another, instead keeping a balance sound-wise and through Sharapodinov and Danilov‘s vocals that guides the listener across the various movements on hand. Overarching flow winds up one of the great strengths of the CD — the vinyl presumably splits just before “Serpent and the Garden of Eden” — though that’s not really a surprise given it’s The Grand Astoria‘s fifth full-length. The tonal quality is a bit more of a surprise, the guitars having more bite and bassist Eugene Korolkov and drummer Vladimir Zinoviev following them on runs like those of “Lisbon Firstborn”‘s instrumental first half, which shifts after four minutes to an acoustic homage to Lisbon that in turn builds to organ-topped classic rock groove and soloing to finish out.
In many other contexts, such shifts might come across as manic or disjointed, but by the time they get around to “Lisbon Fuzzborn,” The Grand Astoria have bent the rules far enough that they can more or less squeeze through whatever they want. Of course, at 14 minutes, “Serpent and the Garden of Eden” is a focal point, and from its grandiose opening build through the metallic tension that arises early, the tight groove, psychedelic vibe in Suvorov‘s first-half solo, and progressive changes and turns made from there on out, winding up in a second-half payoff for song and album alike, it’s a singular achievement in the band’s discography in its arrangement and execution. As an example of how far they’ve come since their debut six years ago, I don’t think there’s much more one could ask of it, though one could just as easily say the same of “La Belle Epoque” itself, which clocks in at a much shorter 3:19. So it’s not just about how they’ve written a long track, or found a metal-sounding production. It’s about how La Belle Epoque demonstrates a progression hard won through constant evolution of songwriting and work on the road. Most satisfying of all is how increasingly these elements belong solely to The Grand Astoria, and how they’ve carved an identity for themselves in their willful searching for their sound. They’re only going to keep moving forward, and while La Belle Epoque features their familiar cow-skull mascot on its cover by Sophia Miroedova, the tracks on the album itself are anything but repetitive. If anything, this is one in a series of ambitious adventures that character has had, and I’d be very surprised if it’s all that long before the next one arrives.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 28th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Berlin’s Samavayo walk the line between hard and heavy rock, but always seem to find room for the fuzz. This year, they released a split with One Possible Option that featured their first recorded work as a three-piece, having bid farewell to guitarist/backing vocalist Marco Wirth last year after 13 years with the band. Like the original version of that song, which came out on 2010’s One Million Things long-player, “Rollin’ 2014” has a bruiser riff and heavy hook with just an undertone of metal, but in comparing it to some of the style in which their last full-length, 2012’s Soul Invictus, was executed, there could be the potential for a shift in focus on their next album, which is being put together now for a 2015 release.
Does that mean more fuzz to come? I don’t know, but Samavayo — guitarist/vocalist Behrang Alavi, drummer/backing vocalist Stephan Voland and bassist/backing vocalist Andreas Voland — aren’t quite done with Soul Invictus yet. They’ve got a brand new animated video for the song “Oblivion,” taken from the record and set to animation by Bastian Wienecke that brings to life the dystopian critique of the lyrics. And after touring in Brazil this summer, they’re making ready to head out again on tour as well in March, this time with anything-goes Russian heavy rockers The Grand Astoria. Seems likely they’ll be trying out new material before they go in and record their next outing.
Dates for that run are still being shored up, and you can check out what’s confirmed and the video for “Oblivion” below. If you notice some similarities between the style that Wienecke uses and that of the series of clips that came out around Queens of the Stone Age‘s …Like Clockwork last year, I doubt it’s a coincidence. Please enjoy.
Samavayo, “Oblivion” official video
Samavayo on Tour, March 2015: 04.03. Wed GER Potsdam, tbc 05.03. Thu GER Hamburg, Bar 227 06.03. Fr GER Harburg, Marias Ballroom 07.03. Sa GER Cottbus, Muggefug 08.03. Su GER Erfurt, Tiko 10.03. Tue GER Halle, Rockpool 11.03. Wed GER Nürnberg, Artischocken 12.03. Thu GER Karlsruhe, Alte hackerei 13.03. Fr GER/FR tba 14.03. Sa FR Paris, tbc 15.03. Su FR tba 17.03. Tue CH/FR tba 18.03. Wed CH/FR tba 19.03. Thu CH Genf , l’Usine 20.03. Fr CH Luzern, Bruch Brothers 21.03. Sa CH Olten, Coq d’or 24.03. Tue AT tba 25.03. Wed AT Graz, tbc 26.03. Thu AT Wien, Arena 27.03. Fr GER Weiden, Salute Club 28.03. Sa GER Jena Kulturfabrik 31.03. Tue GER Schwerin, Dr. K 01.04. Mi DK Roskilde, Gimle 02.04. Do DK tba 03.04. Fr NOR Stavanger, Chevy’s 04.04. Sa NOR tba
From 04.03. until 28.00. With The Grand Astoria (RUS) From 18.03. until 25.03. With The Grand Astoria (RUS) and Six Months Of Sun (CH) From 31.03. until 04.04. With Sonic Man (GER)
If interested please contact booking@samavayo.com!
Posted in Reviews on August 16th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Russian heavy rockers The Grand Astoria have traveled a long way in a relatively short amount of time. With a seemingly amorphous lineup surrounding multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/principle songwriter Kamille Sharapodinov and guitarist Igor Suvarov, the band has made a point of refusing to settle either in terms of their sound or their work ethic. Amidst a handful of European tours, The Grand Astoria have released three prior albums — 2009’s I (review here), 2010’s II (review here) and 2011’s Omnipresence (review here) — the 2013 live album Good Food – Good Show! (streamed here) and a host of other singles, including a split with U.S. Christmas that coincided with a tour together. In short, they keep busy, and that extends to their latest full-length studio outing as well, the ambitiously-titled Punkadelica Supreme. While marrying influences ranging from classic metal to heavy psych and even throwing in a touch of bluegrass in opening intro “Welcome to the Club” and some prog metal on the 13:40 penultimate “Score,” The Grand Astoria — Sharapodinov, Suvarov and drummer Alexander Chebotarev — incorporate no fewer than four keyboardists, three bassists, the aforementioned banjo, a sitar and a metallophone. Outside of the core trio and backing vocalist Danila Danilov, who is fairly easy to spot, sorting out who is contributing what to which of Punkadelica Supreme‘s 13 tracks can be a confusing affair, and as the album reaches to a full 77-plus minutes, the band are making no bones about pushing the limits both of their own creativity and of the CD format itself to which it’s pressed in a six-panel foldout digipak released through Setalight Records with well-drawn and stylized artwork by Sophia Miroedova, featuring The Grand Astoria‘s unnamed mascot who has graced all of their covers to date. With that kind of runtime, it is an expansive outing in more than just its sonic breadth. Each of The Grand Astoria‘s prior studio efforts was longer than its predecessor, but even Omnipresence was a full 20 minutes shorter than Punkadelica Supreme, and with the proliferation of extended solos and jams between bursts of metallic crunch and the other experimental elements, it is a challenge to sort out the purposes one song even as it leads into the next.
That’s not to say it’s not worth the effort of doing so — an attentive listen pays dividends — just that the likelihood of the average listener being able to dedicate 77 minutes solid of their attention span to Punkadelica Supreme‘s twists and turns seems slim, particularly as the jammy, sitar and metallophone-ized “Space Orchid vs. Massive Drumkit” arrives ultra-hypnotic prior to the halfway point in the tracklist. Standout moments like the Tool reference at the beginning of “Street Credit” and the locked-in, immediate groove of the later “To Cross the Rubicon” provide landmarks along the way, but by the time second cut “Slave of Two Masters” has reached its massive, lead-laden peak, the solos have stretched upwards of eight minutes and though the opener, on which Sharapodinov sets up a narrative of looking forward to and then finally being at a show and it being great, is lacking nothing for charm, that narrative is lost almost immediately and doesn’t seem to come up again until track 10, “King Has Left the Building,” on which the famous clip of Horace Lee Logan informing the screaming young girls in his audience that Elvis is gone is aired, and even that’s kind of a stretch bringing it back to the opener. You could argue that the 1:23 instrumental jam “Intermission” that closes after “Score” is part of it as well, and that everything between is the meat of the show that you as “the audience” are experiencing. With as far out as they go sonically, I’m not sure that’s enough to tie that together, so if it’s a setup, it’s one that goes more or less without an answer. What we get instead is a richly varied but ultimately consistent — surprisingly so considering the swath of personnel involved — collection of tracks that represent the boldest creative statement yet from The Grand Astoria. There may be a lot of it, but Punkadelica Supreme is rife with engaging stretches and fluid transitions. Sharapodinov has never sounded so confident as a frontman (the backing vocals of Danilov) also go a long way in complementing), and in the arrangements of extended cuts like “To Cross the Rubicon,” “Punkadelica Supreme,” “King Has Left the Building” and of course the monolithic “Score,” show payoff for the relentless creative growth he’s demonstrated as a songwriter over the course of The Grand Astoria‘s prior offerings.
Diagnosed with a terminal case of “the weird,” adventurous Russian heavy rockers The Grand Astoria are shortly to loose their latest full-length, Punkadelica Supreme. The St. Petersburg outfit have become stewards over the last couple years of the Russian riffy scene, touring around their native land and across Europe while keeping up a fairly prolific clip of singles, EPs and even a split with U.S. Christmas.
I’m not sure on the release date for Punkadelica Supreme, but The Grand Astoria posted a new video for the track “Feels Like Home,” directed by guitarist Igor Suvorov, and if you’re prone to seizures as a result of flashing lights, I can’t really advise checking it out, but for everyone else, it’s pretty rocking even if you put it on and just listen to the audio. Fuzz-toned and punk-shouting, given break in its stomp by organ, it sounds like The Grand Astoria are really shooting for the mark their title sets up.
Dig it:
The Grand Astoria, “Feels Like Home” Official Video
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 5th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Something tells me that even if they didn’t live all the way in Russia, I’d probably have a hard time keeping up with The Grand Astoria. Maybe it’s the fact that every time I turn around, the St. Petersburg-based outfit have a new release coming, if not more than one. Their split with venerated North Carolinian psych merchants U.S. Christmas still fresh off the press, The Grand Astoria have announced three new works on the way — a single and a live album due in April and a new studio album due later in the year. As much music and info as I could get follow here, grabbed from The Grand Astoria Bandcamp and Thee Facebooks pages:
The Grand Astoria, Good Food – Good Show! (April 17)
A selection of live performances from different countries
1.Mania Grandiosa (Yellowstock,BE 2012) 2.Rat Race In Moscow (Yellowstock,BE 2012) 3.Evolution Of The Planet Groove (Yellowstock,BE 2012) 4.All The Same (St.Petersburg,RU 2013) 5.Omniabsence (Potsdam,DE 2011) 6.Something Wicked This Way Comes (Potsdam,DE 2011) 7.The Man.The Sun.The Desert (Seville,ES 2010) 8.Wikipedia Surfer (Preili,LV 2010) 9.Lenin Was A Mushroom (St.Petersburg,RU 2010) 10.Map Of The Starry Night (St.Petersburg,RU 2010) 11.Shoreline Melody (St.Petersburg,RU 2010)
The Grand Astoria, Punkadelica Supreme (Later 2013)
1.Welcome To The Club 2.Slave Of Two Masters 3.I Know 4.Punkadelia Supreme 5.Street Credit 6.Space Orchid vs Massive Drumkit 7.Dropping Aitches 8.Feels Like Home 9.To Cross The Rubicon 10.King Has Left The Building 11.Visualize 12.Score 13.Intermission
