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Alunah Announce July UK Shows; Amber & Gold CD Available

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 20th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

alunah

Would you believe me if I told you these Alunah tour dates had been rescheduled? Yes, of course you would, because you too have lived through the last year-plus and are old enough to read this sentence. Kudos on that, by the way.

Yes, Alunah originally announced this relatively brief UK run last September, and at the time it was a Feb. 2021 tour. Well. We know how February went — as in, it did, without shows. Fortunately, however, Alunah have persisted — and likewise their booking agency — and a new round of gigs has been confirmed for July. Okay. According to the BBC as of four days ago, the hope in England is that all nightclubs will be able to fully reopen no later than June 21. That seems ambitious to me, but I have to acknowledge that I base my own assessment on other than my trauma-induced skepticism and Boris Johnson’s hair. I know next to nothing of vaccination or case rates in England and Scotland, where these shows will happen. But still.

So hey, maybe Alunah are rolling the dice a little bit, cutting it close with July shows. If it works, triumph! If not, they reschedule again. It’s not like they’re losing anything by giving it a shot and the potential gain of being someone’s first show post-lockdown is the stuff of for-a-lifetime memories. Worth it, I’d think.

The dates follow here, and in addition to 2019’s Violet Hour (review here) still being readily available on Heavy Psych Sounds, on March 26, the band issued a CD version of their prior 2018 EP, Amber & Gold (review here), through Solitude Productions. Links for that are below as well:

alunah tour

Alunah – UK Tour July 2021

14 July Birmingham UK Dead Wax
15 July London UK Black Heart
16 July Bradford UK Nightrain
17 July Glasgow UK Audio
18 July Manchester UK Star & Garter

Amber & Gold CD edition: https://solitude-prod.com/releases/solitude-productions/alunah-amber-and-gold/
https://alunah.uk/

Alunah is:
Siân Greenaway – Vocals
Dean Ashton – Guitar
Daniel Burchmore – Bass
Jake Mason – Drums

http://www.facebook.com/alunah.doom
http://twitter.com/#!/alunah_doom
http://alunah.bandcamp.com
http://www.alunah.co.uk

Alunah, Violet Hour (2019)

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Review & Full Album Stream: Rostres, Les Corps Flottants

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on June 27th, 2018 by JJ Koczan

rostres les corps flottants

[Click play above to stream Rostres’ Les Corps Flottants in its entirety. Album is out June 29 on Solitude Productions.]

Maybe it’s the middle of the night and you have a new pair of headphones you want to try out. Well, France’s Rostres have a debut album on Solitude Productions called Les Corps Flottants (“floating bodies”) that has plenty of alone-time vibes and sonic detail to go around. Comprised of seven songs running a total of 47 minutes, Les Corps Flottants finds the Pau-based duo of bassist, guitarist, keyboardist and recording engineer Alain Brunet and drummer/percussionist Lionel Mermin bringing a contemplative, sometimes minimal, sometimes lush vision of instrumental heavy post-rock.

A remarkable thread of patience is woven through songs like the 8:25 opening title-track and the percussion-and-keyboard-and-ebow centerpiece “118,” and the nine-minute “Au Faite des Honneurs” carefully winds its way though slow-motion riffing that winds up sharing a moody feel with classic UK-style doom but still has a personality of its own thanks in no small part to an echoing harmonica guest spot from recording assistant Julien Duboux, so it’s not exactly like Rostres are doing one thing, or the same thing, all the time, but fast or slow (mostly slow), loud or quiet, Les Corps Flottants is a record defined by its mood, and like its cover art, that mood is pervasively gray.

Mermin and Brunet are joined by a host of guests throughout including guitarist Nicolas Bonnetain on guitar for “Glaire,” Jean-Baptiste Salles on double-bass for “Les Corps Flottants,” “Glaire” and “Au Faite des Honneurs,” the aforementioned Duboux harmonica spot, and Communal Kevin adding percussion to the opener, “Meandres,” “118” and “Glaire.” The double-bass definitely makes an impression, and I won’t take anything away from the percussion or harmonica, but Les Corps Flottants is less about any given appearance or any given instrument than it is about the overarching effect created by them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, immersion plays a significant role.

Second cut “Exorde” has its heavier stretch, as do many of the surrounding tracks — Rostres liken it to a Pelican influence, and I’m not inclined to argue — but even in that weighted rollout, the focus is more on drawing the listener into the soundscape being crafted, and even the album’s hardest-hitting moments don’t lose sight of that central intent. I’m not saying I think Rostres sat down and said, “Okay, now we’re going to write some hypnotic heavy post-rock. Here’s a copy of Neurosis‘ The Eye of Every Storm and some Russian Circles — you’ll need both by the time we get to ‘Meandres’,” just that their work is deeply engaging and expressive, and in listening, it feels like that’s precisely what it was written to be.

Generally speaking, that’s enough for me as regards a debut. Intention, execution, an awareness of aesthetic and a showing of potential for growth? Absolutely. Not every first album needs to remake a genre or provide a generational landmark, and Rostres do well to create a sonic identity of their own from the elements that would seem to have inspired them, making a seemingly conscious effort to find an individual path between their ideas and modes of working, so that the crashing beginning of “Glaire,” the loud/quiet tradeoffs and the descent into minimalist guitar strumming that follows before the inevitable return of volume all feed into a larger purpose.

rostres logo

They’re functioning not only on their own wavelength, but in the larger scope of Les Corps Flottants as a whole. And further, “as a whole” seems to be exactly how the record was meant to be taken. There are breaks between the tracks, so it doesn’t seem to be that it was composed as one long piece or anything like that — though Rostres may indeed get there — but amid all the nuance and depth of layers, there’s a flow that’s not always easy to mark out but prevails nonetheless through the slow-motion twists and turns. That whole “being hypnotic” thing helps there too, as one might expect, but it’s even more than that. With the effectiveness of mood-creating at its center and the palette of muted colors from which the band draws, there’s an evocative aspect to Les Corps Flottants from “Les Corps Flottants” onward, and even down to the structure of the track placement, that too feels completely intentional.

This mindfulness of approach can be a tricky line to walk, particularly in the style of heavier post-anything. The inherent danger is that the balance between the cerebral and the passionate will tip too far to one side or another, and the expression will be lost in either a self-congratulatory exploration of effects or an onslaught of volume and crushing riffs. Both certainly have their place, the progressive and the regressive, but Rostres keep the conversation fluid among the two sides, and while staying conscious of what they’re doing as the recording method they’ve employed would require — hard to fudge it when you have to switch from recording bass to guitar to keys because you can’t just jam it all out at the same time — they’re still able to convey some urgency beneath all the flowing tones and aural contemplation.

“Au Faite des Honneurs” and “Deversoir” make a closing salvo worthy of the opening duo “Les Corps Flottants” and “Exorde,” underscoring the point that Rostres have set themselves on a creative path that’s as open as they want it to be. Whether they develop their style along a more ambient and subdued path — I’ve always wondered what would happen if Neurosis kept going along the line of the record noted above — pursue heavier sounds, or keep a steady handle on both, Les Corps Flottants feels like the starting point of a new outfit looking to push further. That’s the most pivotal impression their first album makes, and accordingly, it’s only fair to consider it a progressive work even though so much of it obviously comes from the heart. Of all the elements at play throughout Les Corps Flottants, that is the one that hopefully stays consistent in whatever they do next.

Rostres on Thee Facebooks

Rostres on Bandcamp

Solitude Productions on Thee Facebooks

Solitude Productions website

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Camel of Doom Release Terrestrial Feb. 8

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 28th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

UK experimental outfit Camel of Doom return next month with Terrestrial, their first new full-length since 2012. Led by former Esoteric guitarist Kris Clayton, the band follow-up their Psychodramas LP (review here) by pushing further into slow-motion cosmic churn, heavy and expansive in kind. As the two new songs streaming below, “Cycles (The Anguish of Anger)” and “Euphoric Slumber” make plain, if it’s terrestrial at all, it’s extra-terrestrial. Call it progressive doom, call it space metal, call it whatever you want, but it’s definitely Camel of Doom‘s own.

Album is out Feb. 8 on Solitude Productions. Judge them not by their moniker, open your mind, and dig in below:

camel of doom terrestrial

Camel of Doom ‘Terrestrial’ – Out 8th February

“The brand new full-length album by the British experimentalists. Starting with psychedelic stoner doom metal, Camel of Doom have come to make sophisticated music mixing doom death metal and sludge doom metal, with a tendency towards psychedelic effects and energetic riffs. Combining groovy moments with lengthy atmospheric riffs, adding industrial motifs to their masterpiece, the musicians paint a wide scale picture of cosmic chaos and, at the same time, harmony expressed with a share of melody. Also noteworthy is the breakthrough the band have made in forming a dense sound, fully disclosed in ‘Terrestrial’.”

After several months of pre-production, we entered Priory Recording Studios in January 2015 to record and begin mixing the record with guitarist/vocalist Kris Clayton’s former Esoteric band-mate, doom supremo Greg Chandler. These tracks represent the results of this session.

The band originally formed in 2002, and performed a handful of shows around the UK in 2004/2005. After a short hiatus, the band continued as a one man project of founder Kris Clayton, then playing with UK doom band Esoteric. Following the release of the Psychodramas LP in 2012, the line-up was expanded with the addition of bassist Simon Whittle. For the recording of Terrestrial we were assisted on drums by the extremely capable Thomas Vallely (Lychgate, Omega Centauri). The band has recently become a three piece with the addition of Ben Nield as a permanent drummer. This has allowed the band to play live once more, with shows planned throughout 2016 and beyond.

Kris Clayton – Guitar/Keyboards/Vocals
Simon Whittle – Bass
Thomas Vallely – Drums (Studio Session)

Engineered by Greg Chandler and Kris Clayton
Mixed and Mastered by Greg Chandler
Produced by Kris Clayton
Art by Daniele Lupidi

https://www.facebook.com/camelofdoom/
http://www.camelofdoom.com/
https://camelofdoom.bandcamp.com/
http://solitude-prod.com/
https://www.facebook.com/solitudeprod/

Camel of Doom, Terrestrial (2016)

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