The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Joan Francesc “Fiar” Monguió of Foscor

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

At my studying years of career, I remember having a conversation with a renewed poet who was explaining to the class the sort of emotional dialogue poetry allowed him to develop. Like an exercise which words were tools for defining the immaterial… I remember asking him why he couldn’t see a way higher tool and resource music than poetry, considering that the immaterial perhaps shouldn’t be defined with words, limited in meaning and scope, because responses to a way higher level of comprehension??

I remember sharing some thoughts with him about that, and how conventions and language must serve humans to define what they don’t know. From that point, I understood why I always felt that music was the path I needed to live…something special having way more to do with an untouchable emotional point of view, than a simple tool for catching a moment.

Music speaks to your guts, heart and more essential emotions, despite someone would call them perverted by the society and education we all have had… Music should only speak to that level of human consciousness, the immaterial one, and allow each of the ones you shared it too, feel it from their very unique nature.

So, Emotional Music is what I like to think I do… or face.

Describe your first musical memory.

As a kid, being at my grandparents’ living room, playing with my hands being an orchestra director. My grandfather was a classical music lover, and probably under three years, I have images of his wall furniture from where he played those vinyls and show me something I’ve always called, intensity.

Call it trauma…or whatever, but there already was a sort of seed that many years after made a spark of love for music shine. Being part of a moment of greatness, something I wasn’t able to explain and understand at that so early age, but once I started seriously to play in bands, came with strength to me.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Interesting…and so difficult to answer though. I honestly don’t give much importance to the past in terms of nostalgia. I have always felt a sort of exciting expectation for what’s yet to come, and having this feeling every day or often, because my sight is onwards and not backwards, means the world to me.

Said that, I guess that this difficulty might come from the different way I live and approach myself to the music experience. As a creator or consumer should mark a difference regarding picking a best memory, and why not the personal moment on each parcel or the Live one perhaps should too. I know…you are just asking me for one best musical memory, but honestly, I cannot set only one when it refers to music.

I think it was “Within The Depths of Silence and Phormations”, in 1995, during a trip to the Basque Country trees one of the most intense experiences with music I’ve ever had…Ok, there was some help of substances that helped to merge us with Nature and ourselves…but this memory still gives goosebumps. There would be a couple of unique moments when listening to a couple of Norwegian Black Metal albumsin a way more lonely way, back in the days, which like nails…are deep inside and would accompany this top.

In terms of Live experience, it’s so difficult to beat the emotion once lived after a memorable concert from your own band. In my case, the best memory might be set during and after the presentation gig of our 2017’s album “Les Irreals Visions” in our hometown with a sold out venue… I’m not lying if I call it one of the best musical memories, because of the spontaneous moment and thrilling development of actions during the time it lasted…and it might be considered like that closure act for a soooo long process, which made that moment even more special and unique.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

More than a belief I should say a way to face things… If I might set how much being involved in band changed a really shy guy like me from 20’s on… after probably 15 years believing I was doing things right in terms of living, moving and developing my band, a big disappointment moment after releasing our 4th album helped me out to because a new profile of person and definitely grow in a much more productive and efficient way.

Let’s say that our relationship with our label and booking agent at that time suddenly ended after them feeling disappointed on the kind of band they thought we were and they truly found. They were kind enough for explaining the lack of attitude and qualities despite the creative one. I remember feeling so bad at that time, like defeated… and of course it meant big issues in the band’s core.

After that, and a really thoughtful period, I remember jumping to an “empty pool” trying to prove myself that I was much better than what the mirror those guys put me in front showed me. It was like a challenge in terms of changing 360º the manners I used to have…probably improve and polish many I already had but didn’t used right…and learn in a really short time what even in more than 15 years I was not capable to realize. I’ll be always grateful for such experience and bad moment for everything that changed on me and allowed me later to live.

I might write many names who are worth mentioning, but I feel this is about ideas, not stories in itself… Anybody in need to know when I’m talking about, simply look for the band we were before and after 2015.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

And artist shall take care of many sources and resources in order to be able to express his ideas and what comes from heart. From the skills and tools he need, to the inspirational seas where feel drowned in ecstasy… progression should lead to be able to express yourself more and better every time you need it.

I’m thinking on progression linked to your own personal development, what I feel should be natural and healthy in terms of creating and expressing something coherent with yourself. Perhaps this personal development is not necessary leading to communicate and connect much better with people, but at least should allow you to feel as much control as possible of your speech and the process and result of what you need to express.

More often, than someone might think, when all of this occurs, progression in terms of music language appears from nowhere…and it is so thrilling.

How do you define success?

Feeling renovated enthusiasm and motivation for the main things you are led by.
Let’s put an example in terms of music… I might mention an album not reaching or receiving the attention and response you would had expected. I am talking about the passion that moves you on to need expressing yourself with music. All the process lived from the first conception act to the very last effort put into layout, lyrics or promotional visuals cannot be dragged because it doesn’t get “results”.

Maximum, it should make you reconsider your way of expressing if what you want is results, but never get down the passion running through your veins. Same thing goes for values which too often and put to test.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

The coldness on people that shows no empathy with the others… I’ve seen and see that every day in too much life circumstances, and really hurts and makes me feel fed up of the society I live in. You are probably asking me for a music related topic, but even in this small artistic bubble, this is something I wish I would not see anymore.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

An album with no schedule nor money limitations… Let’s say this in a way more positive way: I would love to create an album or even a way more complex creation, gathering as many artistic disciplines as possible, worked from a total feeling of freedom in terms of time and resources. Looks like there’s always a sort of presence pushing behind when recording music, that would be lovely to make disappear…of course it has to do with the fact that we always have had to deal with such moments among many other life matters and obligations, and probably it may affect to the result.

Every new recording gives me the impression that we are way more efficient, productive and capable to manage everything better than before; but even then, there’s job times to deal with, money limits we cannot afford, etc… That’s the dream I have.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

With no doubt it’s a communicative one…

You might fill that with all the aesthetical theory and philosophy, but in the end art is the main tool we humans have to connect with the immaterial world. There’s no need to define what’s immaterial, but I’m pretty sure each one of your readers may have a very own idea of how defining the immaterial from a social, cultural, religious or simply emotional point of view, something we cannot explain but we need to express. And even more… share, because the act of communication, although being based on a dialogue with ourselves, always translates previous moments into something new…so, knowledge, to keep living.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

My son is 2 years and 8 months old, and beyond the challenging moment that paternity means for someone who lives music the way I live, I’m very much looking forward seeing my son develop himself the way he feels. I would love him to be able to express himself in any artistic discipline…but way more important, I would love to see him growing moved by a healthy passion, and surrounded by life aspects that he feels good with.

https://www.facebook.com/foscor.official
https://twitter.com/foscor_official
http://foscor.bandcamp.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/FOSCORbcn
https://www.foscor.com

https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial
http://www.season-of-mist.com/

Foscor, Els Sepulcres Blancs (2019)

If you work in an office, or you ever have, or you’ve ever spoken to someone who has or does or whatever — which is everybody, is what I’m saying — then you’ll probably have a good idea of why I cringe at saying “happy Friday” as though the end of a workweek’s slog is a holiday even with the next week peering just over the horizon beyond the next 48 hours of not-your-boss time. Nonetheless, we’re at the end of this week, hitting 50 records covered in this Quarterly Review, and while I’ll spend a decent portion of the upcoming weekend working on wrapping it up on Monday and Tuesday, I’m grateful for the ability to breathe a bit in doing that more than I have throughout this week.

I’ll say as much in closing out the week as well, but thanks for reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Black Helium, UM

It’s just too cool for the planet. Earth needs to step up its game if it wants to be able handle what London’s Black Helium are dishing out across their five-song third record, UM, from the sprawl and heavy hippie rock of “Another Heaven” to the utter doom that rises to prominence in that 12-minute-ish cut and the oblivion-bound boogie, blowout, and bonfire that is 15:47 closer “The Keys to Red Skeleton’s House (Open the Door)” on the other end, never mind the u-shaped kosmiche march of “I Saw God,” the shorter, stranger, organ-led centerpiece “Dungeon Head” or the motorik “Summer of Hair” that’s so teeth-grindingly tense by the time it’s done you can feel it in your toes. These are but glimpses of the substance that comprises the 45-minute out-there-out-there-out-there stretch of UM, which by the way is also a party? And you’re invited? I think? Yeah, you can go, but the rest of these fools gotta get right if they want to hang with the likes of “I Saw God,” because Black Helium do it weird for the weirdos and the planet might be round but that duddn’t mean it’s not also square. Good thing Black Helium remembered to bring the launch codes. Fire it up. We’re outta here and off to better, trippier, meltier places. Fortunately they’re able to steer the ship as well as set its controls to the heart of the sun.

Black Helium on Facebook

Riot Season Records store

—

 

Seismic, The Time Machine

A demo recording of a single, 29-minute track that’s slated to appear on Seismic‘s debut full-length based around the works of H.G. Wells sometime later this year — yeah, it’s safe to say there’s a bit of context that goes along with understanding where the Philadelphia instrumentalist trio/live-foursome are coming from on “The Time Machine.” Nonetheless, the reach of the song itself — which moves from its hypnotic beginning at about five minutes in to a solo-topped stretch that then gives over to thud-thud-thud pounding heft before embarking on an adventure 30,000 leagues under the drone, only to rise and riff again, doom. the. fuck. on., and recede to minimalist meditation before resolving in mystique-bent distortion and lumber — is significant, and more than enough to stand on its own considering that in this apparently-demo version, its sound is grippingly full. As to what else might be in store for the above-mentioned LP or when it might land, I have no idea and won’t speculate — I’m just going by what they say about it — but I know enough at this point in my life to understand that when a band comes along and hits you with a half-hour sledgehammering to the frontal cortex as a sign of things to come, it’s going to be worth keeping track of what they do next. If you haven’t heard “The Time Machine” yet, consider this a heads up to their heads up.

Seismic on Facebook

Seismic linktree

—

 

These Beasts, Cares, Wills, Wants

Something of an awaited first long-player from Chicago’s These Beasts, who crush the Sanford Parker-produced Cares, Wills, Wants with modern edge and fluidity moving between heavier rock and sludge metal, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Chris Roo, bassist/vocalist Todd Fabian and drummer Keith Anderson scratching a similar itch in intensity and aggression as did L.A. sludgecore pummelers -(16)- late last year, but with their own shimmer in the guitar on “Nervous Fingers,” post-Baroness melody in “Cocaine Footprints,” and tonal heft worthy of Floor on the likes of “Blind Eyes” and the more purely caustic noise rock of “Ten Dollars and Zero Effort.” “Code Name” dizzies at the outset, while “Trap Door” closes and tops out at over seven minutes, perhaps taking its title from the moment when, as it enters its final minute, the bottom drops out and the listener is eaten alive. Beautifully destructive, it’s also somehow what I wish post-hardcore had been in the 2000s, ripping and gnarling on “Southpaw” while still having space among the righteously maddening, Neurot-tribal percussion work to welcome former Pelican guitarist Dallas Thomas for a guest spot. Next wave of artsy Chicago heavy noise? Sign me up. And I don’t know if that’s Roo or Fabian with the harsh scream, but it’s a good one. You can hear the mucus trying to save the throat from itself. Vocal cords, right down the trap door.

These Beasts on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records store

—

 

Ajeeb, Refractions

Comprised of Cucho Segura on guitar and vocals, Sara Gdm on bass and drummer Rafa Pacheco, Ajeeb are the first band from the Canary Islands to be written about here, and their second album — issued through no fewer than 10 record labels, some of which are linked below — is the 11-song/42-minute Refractions, reminding in heavy fashion that the roots of grunge were in noisy punk all along. There’s some kick behind songs like “Far Enough” and “Mold,” and the later “Stuck for Decades” reminds of grainy festival videos where moshing was just people running into each other — whereas on “Mustard Surfing” someone might get punched in the head — but the listening experience goes deeper the further in you get, with side B offering a more dug-in take with the even-more-grunge “Slow-Vakia” building on “Oh Well” two songs earlier and leading into the low-end shovefest “Stuck for Decades,” which you think is going to let you breathe and then doesn’t, the noisier “Double Somersault” and closer/longest song “Tail Chasing” (5:13) taking the blink-and-it’s-over quiet part in “Amnesia” and building it out over a dynamic finish. The more you listen, the more you’re gonna hear, of course, but on the most basic level, the adaptable nature of their sound results in a markedly individual take. It’s the kind of thing 10 labels might want to release.

Ajeeb on Facebook

Spinda Records website

Clever Eagle Records website

The Ghost is Clear Records website

Violence in the Veins website

—

 

OAK, Disintegrate

One might be tempted to think of Porto-based funeral doomers OAK as a side-project for guitarist/vocalist Guilherme Henriques, bassist Lucas Ferrand and drummer Pedro Soares, the first two of whom play currently and the latter formerly of also-on-Season–of–Mist extreme metallers Gaerea, but that does nothing to take away from the substance of the single-song full-length Disintegrate, which plies its heft in emotionality, ambience and tone alike. Throughout 44 minutes, the three-piece run an album’s worth of a gamut in terms of tempo, volume, ebbs and flows, staying grim all the while but allowing for the existence of beauty in that darkness, no less at some of the most willfully grueling moments. The rise and fall around 20 minutes in, going from double-kick-infused metallurgy to minimal standalone guitar and rebuilding toward death-growl-topped nod some six minutes later, is worth the price of admission alone, but the tortured ending, with flourish either of lead guitar or keys behind the shouted layers before moving into tremolo payoff and the quieter contemplation that post-scripts, shouldn’t be missed either. Like any offering of such extremity, Disintegrate won’t be for everyone, but it makes even the air you breathe feel heavier as it draws you into the melancholic shade it casts.

OAK on Facebook

Season of Mist store

—

 

Ultra Void, Mother of Doom

“Are we cursed?” “Is this living?” “Are we dying?” These are the questions asked after the on-rhythm sampled orgasmic moaning abates on the slow-undulating title-track of Ultra Void‘s Mother of Doom. Billed as an EP, the five-songer skirts the line of full-length consideration at 31 minutes — all the more for its molten flow as punctuated by the programmed drums — and finds the Brooklynite outfit revamped as a solo-project for Jihef Garnero, who moves from that leadoff to let the big riff do most of the talking in the stoned-metal “Sic Mundus Creatus Est” and the raw self-jam of the nine-minute “Måntår,” which holds back its vocals for later and is duly hypnotic for it. Shorter and more rocking, “Squares & Circles” maintains the weirdo vibe just the same, and at just three and a half minutes, “Special K” closes out in similar fashion with perhaps more swing in the rhythm. With those last two songs offsetting the down-the-life-drain spirit of the first three, Mother of Doom seems experimental in its construction — Garnero feeling his way into this new incarnation of the band and perhaps also recording and mixing himself in this context — but the disillusion comes through as organic, and whether we’re living or dying (spoiler: dying), that gives these songs the decisive “ugh” with which they seem to view the world around them.

Ultra Void on Facebook

Ultra Void on Bandcamp

—

 

Aktopasa, Journey to the Pink Planet

Italian trio Aktopasa — also stylized as Akṭōpasa, if you’re in a fancy mood — seem to revel in the breakout moments on their second long-player and Argonauta label debut, Journey to the Pink Planet, as heard in the crescendo nod and boogie, respectively, of post-intro opener “Calima” (10:27) and closer “Foreign Lane” (10:45), the album’s two longest tracks and purposefully-placed bookends around the other songs. Elsewhere, the Venice-based almost-entirely-instrumentalists drift early in “It’s Not the Reason” — which actually features the record’s only vocals near its own end, contributed by Mattia Filippetto — and tick boxes around the tenets of heavy psychedelic microgenre, from the post-Colour Haze floating intimacy at the start of “Agarthi” to the fuzzy and fluid jam that branches out from it and the subsequent “Sirdarja” with its tabla and either sitar or guitar-as-sitar outset and warm-toned, semi-improv-sounding jazzier conclusion. From “Alif” (the intro) into “Calima” and “Lunar Eclipse,” the intent is to hypnotize and carry the listener through, and Aktopasa do so effectively, giving the chemistry between guitarist Lorenzo Barutta, bassist Silvio Tozzato and drummer Marco Sebastiano Alessi a suitably natural showcase and finding peace in the process, at least sonically-speaking, that’s then fleshed out over the remainder. A record to breathe with.

Aktopasa on Facebook

Argonauta Records store

—

 

Troll Teeth, Underground Vol. 1

There’s heavy metal somewhere factored into the sound of Philadelphia’s Troll Teeth, but where it resides changes. The band — who here work as a four-piece for the first time — unveil their Underground Vol. 1 EP with four songs, and each one has a different take. In “Cher Ami,” the question is what would’ve happened if Queens of the Stone Age were in the NWOBHM. In “Expired,” it’s whether or not the howling of the two guitars will actually melt the chug that offsets it. It doesn’t, but it comes close to overwhelming in the process. On “Broken Toy” it’s can something be desert rock because of the drums alone, and in the six-minute closer “Garden of Pillars” it’s Alice in Chains with a (more) doomly reimagining and greater melodic reach in vocals as compared to the other three songs, but filled out with a metallic shred that I guess is a luxury of having two guitars on a record when you haven’t done so before. Blink and you’ll miss its 17-minute runtime, but Troll Teeth have four LPs out through Electric Talon, including 2022’s Hanged, Drawn, & Quartered, so there’s plenty more to dig into should you be so inclined. Still, if the idea behind Underground Vol. 1 was to scope out whether the band works as constructed here, the concept is proven. Yes, it works. Now go write more songs.

Troll Teeth on Facebook

Electric Talon Records store

—

 

Finis Hominis, Sordidum Est

Lead track “Jukai” hasn’t exploded yet before Finis Hominis‘ Sordidum Est EP has unveiled the caustic nature of its bite in scathing feedback, and what ensues from there gives little letup in the oppressive, extreme sludge brutality, which makes even the minute-long “Cavum Nigrum” sample-topped drone interlude claustrophobic, never mind the assault that takes place — fast first, then slow, then crying, then slow, then dead — on nine-minute capper “Lorem Ipsum.” The bass hum that begins centerpiece “Improportionatus” is a thread throughout that 7:58 piece, the foundation on which the rest of the song resides, the indecipherable-even-if-they-were-in-English growls and throat-tearing shouts perfectly suited to the heft of the nastiness surrounding. “Jukai” has some swing in the middle but hearing it is still like trying to inhale concrete, and “Sinne Floribus” is even meaner and rawer, the Brazilian trio resolving in a devastating and noise-caked, visceral regardless of pace or crash, united in its alienated feel and aural punishment. And it’s their first EP! Jesus. Unless they’re actually as unhinged as they at times sound — possible, but difficult — I wouldn’t at all expect it to be their last. A band like this doesn’t happen unless the people behind it feel like it needs to, and most likely it does.

Finis Hominis on Facebook

Abraxas Produtora on Instagram

—

 

Space Shepherds, Losing Time Finding Space

With its title maybe referring to the communion among players and the music they’re making in the moment of its own heavy psych jams, Losing Time Finding Space is the second studio full-length from Belfast instrumentalist unit Space Shepherds. The improvised-sounding troupe seem to have a lineup no less fluid than the material they unfurl, but the keyboard in “Ending the Beginning (Pt. 1)” gives a cinematic ambience to the midsection, and the fact that they even included an intro and interlude — both under two minutes long — next to tracks the shortest of which is 12:57 shows a sense of humor and personality to go along with all that out-there cosmic exploratory seeking. Together comprising a title-track, “Losing Time…” (17:34) and “…Finding Space” (13:27) are unsurprisingly an album unto themselves, and being split like “Ending the Beginning” speaks perhaps of a 2LP edition to come, or at very least is emblematic of the mindset with which they’re approaching their work. That is to say, as they move forward with these kinds of mellow-lysergic jams, they’re not unmindful either of the listener’s involvement in the experience or the prospect of realizing them in the physical as well as digital realms. For now, an hour’s worth of longform psychedelic immersion will do nicely, thank you very much.

Space Shepherds on Facebook

Space Shepherds on Bandcamp

—

 

The fucking intensity of this band. Following on from last year’s divine-comedic EP, Seconda Morte (review here), Alicante, Spain, heavy noise rock trio Rosy Finch offer further evidence of their general not-screwing-around nature with the 20-minute/three-song pro-captured live-in-studio clip ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions.’ Premiering below, the session features three tracks — “Oxblood,” “Gin Fizz” and “Ruby” — taken from the band’s 2020 sophomore full-length, Scarlet (review here), and makes no apologies either for the fullness of its tonal assault or the way in which, like the record itself, the songs are able to shift between melodic, atmospheric heavy and rawer punishment.

Founding guitarist/vocalist Mireia Porto and bassist Óscar Soler share vocals in a way they couldn’t on Scarlet since the latter hadn’t joined the band yet when the record came out, representing their live presence with Juanjo Ufarte holding the march steady on drums. On paper, their approach shouldn’t work at all, but like Seconda Morte, these new takes on Scarlet cuts harness noise vibes without losing their ambience, cacophony without sacrificing groove, and have enough space to account for melody as well as the caustic, “Gin Fizz” blending grunge, riot-grrrl screams and sludge metal with purpose and force alike after the outright nastiness that emerges in “Oxblood” and before “Ruby” digs even deeper, comprising most of the second half of the video by itself.

Worth noting that Marcos Baño, who directs here, also helmed the clip for “Purgatorio” from the EP last year, the indoor portion of which was filmed at the Creative Madness Lab, and the collaboration is successful again in conveying the righteous fury as well as the scope of these songs. It may be that some of the intent behind ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions’ — the last three words there indicative of a series — is to demonstrate the way Rosy Finch now handle the work of the band’s earlier incarnation, which they wield like a weapon, but to more generally showcase what they bring to the stage in a live setting; considerably more than simple aggression but plenty of that as well, deliberate in execution and the build and release of tension as it is.

That aggro sensibility has been a defining feature of their output to-date — though I’ll emphasize that it’s not all that’s happening in their songs and this video proves that again — and as such they’re somewhat subject to the perils of inhabiting a place between styles, crossing lines of heavy rock, punk, metal and noise while refusing to commit to just one approach. Or three. The tradeoff there is Rosy Finch are a more interesting band for the breadth, and if a given listener/viewer was undecided on whether or not to catch them performing, say, at Desertfest London 2023 where they’ll play next month, it’s hard to imagine taking in ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions’ and not coming down in their favor.

Please enjoy:

Rosy Finch, ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions’ premiere

Rosy Finch full performance at Creative Madness Lab

Audio by Red Records: https://www.redrecordsestudio.es

Video by Marcos Bañó: @marcos_bano

Recorded at Creative Madness Lab: https://creativemadnesslab.com

Tracklist:
00:37 Oxblood
06:39 Gin Fizz
11:52 Ruby

All songs included in “Scarlet” album 2020

Rosy Finch are:
Mireia Porto – guitar/vocals
Óscar Soler – bass/vocals
Juanjo Ufarte – drums

Rosy Finch, Seconda Morte EP (2022)

Rosy Finch on Instagram

Rosy Finch on Facebook

Rosy Finch on Bandcamp

Rosy Finch website

Lay Bare Recordings on Instagram

Lay Bare Recordings on Facebook/a>

Lay Bare Recordings on Bandcamp

Lay Bare Recordings website

Discos Macarras on Instagram

Discos Macarras on Facebook

Discos Macarras on Bandcamp

Discos Macarras website

LaRubia Producciones on Instagram

LaRubia Producciones on Facebook

LaRubia Producciones on Bandcamp

LaRubia Producciones website

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Mario “Pitu” Hospital of Grey Giant

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

It’s a fantasy I never dreamed of because even though I’ve been listening to rock and metal since I was five or six years old, I never had any intention of making songs or starting a band. When I had my first guitar, I was about 20 years old and until I was 30 I competed in soccer teams and the only musical intention was to play those riffs or little licks that I liked, not even whole songs, until by chance we got together every other day from a mutual friend the guitarists of my group and a couple of other friends to try to play something together, and little by little we were doing some versions until we began to create our own songs and after some line-up changes and without finding a vocalist who It didn’t fit us, I ended up performing that role myself so I could get in to record and play concerts, so if I never thought about playing in a band, being also the singer was something I thought was impossible to happen.

Describe your first musical memory.

I have two brothers who are five and 10 years older than me and they also listen to heavy music, so growing up surrounded by music and posters I remember listening secretly and being very careful not to spoil some recurring cassettes from bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Whitesnake and Spanish bands like Barón Rojo or Barricada, but the greatest memory that struck me as a child was the video clip on TV of Maiden’s Can I Play With Madness with those dark passageways in which Eddie himself appeared, hanging from the walls of my room and that it scared me because I had the feeling that he was watching me, but since then I knew that being heavy was much cooler than the rest of the music that was on TV.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

It was this summer when I shared a concert in my city and next to my neighborhood with Valley Of The Sun, which is one of the bands I like the most today. I still consider myself more of a fan than a musician, so it’s amazing to meet people you admire in this way, who see your concert, tell you they enjoyed it and stay for a few beers and shots with you, I don’t know, the big bands now they sell VIP tickets for a lot of money and they take a quick photo with each fan, and they let us play with them. As soon as I saw that they were coming to Rock Beer The New in Santander to play, I told the rest of the band that I was going to get Grey Giant to play at that concert. It was simple because they are very good people.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I love traveling and getting to know different places, cultures and people, but every time I come back home, I realize that Cantabria is the best place to live that I know. It’s a very small region, but they say it’s infinite, in the north of Spain, but we have everything very close, from the many paradisiacal beaches to the Picos De Europa National Park there is less than an hour by car, also old towns, great gastronomy, modern museums… (Yes, sorry for the spam, but if you visit Cantabria you will thank me).

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

It leads us to spend more time composing. The songs are always open until we enter the recording studio, but after releasing “Turn To Stone”, I think that this progression is translating into that as artists we want the next thing we release to have other compositional formulas even though we keep our style and stoner sound.

How do you define success?

Success is a word that is used to sell self-help books to people who, despite reading them, are not going to have the success they claim, but who are going to get the people who write them to finally have it (or not).

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Going by my school and seeing that the playground is empty outside of school hours. When I was a child that was impossible because we were always on the street, today children have their parents attached to them until they are teenagers. I think that all the freedom we had as children to interact and learn with each other, today has been transformed into fear, overprotection and extracurricular classes.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I would like to organize a small rock festival with bands from our area and some from another region. I just found out about a good place in the open air, with green meadows and a swimming pool to do it, and if possible, this summer it could come true.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I think that creating emotions can encompass the many and different feelings that art can generate, and that would be its main essence, but I want to think that in addition to that, art makes people have a more formed and own opinion of things. Today we are too influenced by political propaganda, commercial advertising, the big media, social networks… that is why I consider it important to develop a personality and culture around art that is not influenced more and more by all those toxic agents.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I want to get back in shape, but they say you have to take care of yourself for that, so I hope that one day beer will be good for weight loss.

https://www.facebook.com/Grey-Giant-102700815774858/
http://www.instagram.com/greygiant_band
https://greygiant.bandcamp.com/

Grey Giant, Turn to Stone (2022)

Based in Madrid, Loma Baja will make their full-length debut through Spinda Records — whose announcement appears below — Lay Bare Recordings in the Netherlands, Clostridium Records in Germany and Echodelick Records in the US, and the multinational synergy of its backing should tell you something about the record. Namely that it makes people want to be involved. Honestly, they had me here at the involvement of Jorge García, formerly of Adrift and El Páramo, but I did bother to go as far as to listen to the demos they put up last year on Bandcamp, and the warm-psych bass is only part of the appeal, as there’s proggy movement and ambience to coincide and the songs feel like nothing so much as blueprints from which to expand their sound. I hope they do just that when the record arrives.

I’ve done a few of these announcements now, and I remain on board. Think it’s a coincidence that everyone can do more through collective action? Hell no. Riffers Union Now! Rising tide of fuzz lifts all amps. Then probably blows a tube or something and has to stop the show for a little bit.

From the PR wire:

SPINDA RECORDS NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT: LOMA BAJA

Can you imagine a band featuring members of Adrift, El Páramo, G.A.S. Drummers, Giganto, Another Kind Of Dead and Sou Edipo? Well, that band already exists and it’s called LOMA BAJA.

In our family we didn’t think twice and we opened our doors to them a few months ago when they presented us their debut album ‘Piscinas verticales‘ (vertical pools), about which they tell you this:

“[…] it’s about nightmares, places that generate strange feelings and about the hidden side of things. The songs seek to generate that feeling that stays with you after having seen something weird. This album is the result of the search for a common point between four guys who come from different places and who found a place in the darkness. We like “trial and error” and this is the way we wrote ‘Piscinas verticales’, mixing elements from kraut-rock, post-punk, alt-rock, post-rock and other exotic music […]”

The album will be out this Spring thanks to a collaboration between Spinda Records (ES), Lay Bare Recordings (NT), Clostridium Records (GE) and Echodelick Records (US). But do not worry as a first single is coming out very soon.

They’ll be playing on May 26 in Madrid at Sound Isidro Fest.

Loma Baja is:
Victor Teixeira – Guitarra
Jorge García – Teclado/Guitarra/Voz
Paco Moto – Bajo/Teclado/Voz
Raúl Lorenzo – Batería

https://www.instagram.com/loma____baja/
https://lomabaja1.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SpindaRecords
https://www.instagram.com/spindarecords
https://spindarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.spindarecords.com/

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/clostridiumrecords/
http://www.clostridiumrecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ERECORDSATL
https://www.instagram.com/echodelickrecords/
https://echodelickrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.echodelickrecords.com/

Loma Baja, Demos (2022)

Andalusian atmospheric heavy rock three-piece Santo Rostro will issue their fourth album, Después no habrá nada, on March 10 through Spinda Records, Discos Macarras and LaRubia Producciones. At 34 minutes and five songs, it’s barely as long as the list of links at the bottom of this post, but that’s plenty enough time for the Jaén trio to make their impression in fuzz, space and largesse, crafting a kind of heavy rock that, whether it’s celebrating riffs for crunch’s sake on “Carcasa Digital” or twisting around the more progressive headspins of “Matriz” later on, resounds with persona and purpose alike.

Self-recorded, the album is likewise heavy and movement-based, even in its basic construction; the individual tracks — “Telerañas” (3:50), “Carcasa Digital” (4:29), “Aire” (5:44), “Matriz” (8:09) and the instrumental “Después no habrá nada” (11:52) — being arranged shortest to longest to draw the listener further in as “Carcasa Digital” picks up from the post-grunge melodic noise rock of “Telerañas” to intertwine synth with the fuzzy crunch of (also vocalist) Miguel Ortega‘s guitar and Antonio Gámez‘s bass; Alejandro Galiano‘s snare drum tapping away furiously beneath the keyboard-topped swirl of “Carcasa Digital” before the whole thing shifts into a proggy run of start-stops and sweeps back into the build, ending with more of a tempo push than a swell of volume.

There’s grace here, and the listener is never in doubt Santo Rostro are going to get where they’re going, but the process of how that happens is what makes the record an exciting and grabbing listen, the jabs of keys in “Telerañas” and the beginning there of the almost manic guitar runs runs that typify the album as a whole (or at least as a most), and the sneaky entry of what on many albums would be a culmination-riff after the three-minute mark — it put me in mind of something Genghis Tron might use to make a declaration earlier in their career, but there isn’t much in common between the two bands otherwise, save for a generalization like “they’re intense” — and the trio’s Andalusian-folk-informed semi-psychedelic atmospheres emerging from the physicality of the music itself, angular and immediate in rhythm, but with an overarching flow like some kind of overly complex hyper-run-on sentence that just won’t end and maybe you forgot what you wanted to say when you started it but Santo Rostro still know what they’re doing when they’re spinning circles around the inside of your brain. Dance, baby, dance.

And then doom a bit, because indeed, Después no habrá nada (English: ‘Then there will be nothing’) isn’t screwing around when it comes to heft as one of the tools in its stylistic shed. The first three tracks — what one assumes is side A — drop hints of the largesse to come in “Matriz” and the title-cut, the acoustic guitar that starts “Aire” and remains beneath for the duration, the electrifying surge in the layers of the solo in the song’s second half ascends to its peak, the band exquisitely tapping aspects of regional heavy psych, less garage than Mía Turbia, in which Ortega drums, but certainly aware of the likes of Mind!, Atavismo and Híbrido and the post-Viaje a 800 cohort’s ability to create a flowing current from seemingly hairpin turns. Santo Rostro aren’t nearly as drift-minded or kosmiche as some of those, and they’re not trying to be, but there are shared elements just the same, as “Matriz” begins side B with an immediate run of full synth-complemented fuzz and sprinting progressive heavy.

This out-of-a-cannon madcap sproing is destined to hit a wall, but the infectiousness of Después no habrá nada‘s energy isn’t to be understated as the band’s rhythmic tension is taken in by the listener, turned into a skin-tightening grip as “Matriz” grows more spacious in its chorus, Ortega‘s gruff vocals (yes, in Spanish) echoing over. The bass and guitar foreshadow just after the four-minute mark, but they’re still in full-go mode, and not to be lost in the cacophony is the sense of control on the part of the band holding it all together even when the song itself sounds like it’s struggling to come apart.

You could debate who’s won as the drums crash out at 5:17 and not-just-a-but-the-slower-riff is introduced, taking the clue dropped in “Telerañas” and bringing that righteous nod forward as the foundation for the rest of the track. They set it up in grand style, Galiano keeping time on the crash, Gámez underscoring with warmth the guitar and the organ line that emerges to join the slow march. The ending of “Matriz” is a standout moment that grows noisier and its own kind of frantic in the layering despite the drop in pace, but the shift is intentional and smoothly done as Santo Rostro give themselves an arrival point to go along with all that going.

Of course, they’re not done yet. “Matriz” howls by the time it’s done, the vocals and guitar as stretched out as they’re going to get, and the closer “Después no habrá nada” takes off like nothing ever happened, effectively resetting the pieces on the board for another game as they bounce and careen, build and run through the first couple minutes of the title-track, vague in genre — if some dude was screaming on it circa the three-minute mark, you’d say it sounded like Enslaved, but in reality Santo Rostro aren’t nearly so metal — but right on in affect and, by this time, well established in their doing-their-own-thing ethic.

As noted, “Después no habrá nada” is instrumental, but that aside it accounts for most of what Santo Rostro do throughout the album that shares its name, including the prog-out-into-slowdown at 4:30, the echoing atmospheric lead lines thereafter and the keys bolstering the moment’s impact, a fluid jam proceeding until before seven minutes in the drums break and an acoustic guitar enters to set up the final section, a cosmic payoff that, while keeping the acoustic guitar beneath like in “Matriz,” unfolds with due sense of exhalation. Ortega throws some shred into the fray, but the ending is less about one player than the total immersion crafted by the three of them. It stops, invariably, and hums into a fade, but the acoustic returns for another minute-plus of grows-more-urgent strum before cutting to silence, as though the album could end any other way.

It’s been six years since Santo Rostro issued their third full-length, The Healer, and coming up on 10 since they made their self-titled debut, and while Después no habrá nada carries forward some of the sonic facets and attitude of their prior work, the change from English to Spanish lyrics and titles and the choice to record themselves can only be said to suit them. They make themselves at home in the stormy, jazzy feverishness, and effectively contrast that later on with more straight-ahead groove, furthering the whole-record experience at no cost to the individual tracks in terms of the impression made. Después no habrá nada, like any kind of extreme music or really anything, won’t be universally received, but for those willing to put in the effort to keep up with it, the satisfaction is commensurate.

The album is streaming in its entirety below, followed by some more basic info and the aforementioned barrage of links.

Please enjoy:

‘DESPUÉS NO HABRÁ NADA’ by Santo Rostro. Out 10th March 2023.

PRE-ORDER (10th Feb): Santo Rostro / Discos Macarras / LaRubia Producciones / Spinda Records

Spanish psych-doom rockers SANTO ROSTRO are back in business with their 4th studio album ‘Después no habrá nada’ – to be released on 10th March 2023 via Discos Macarras, LaRubia Producciones & Spinda Records.

Andalusian power trio returns with a dark-psych rock album, with long tracks including complex instrumental developments, processed atmospheres and a dirty sound plenty of echoes, different modulations and occasional synths.

Many things have changed in SANTO ROSTRO since they put out ‘The Healer’ in 2017, and this is obviously reflected in this new album. ‘Después no habrá nada’ is the result of a more mature band, with thousands of kilometers touring both Spain and EU on their back, several TV appearances and a couple of stand-alone video-singles – and everything 100% DIY.

The album was produced by the band itself; then recorded and mixed by Raúl Pérez at La Mina (Spain); and mastered by Mario G. Alberni at Kadifornia Mastering (Spain). Behind the artwork is The Braves Church, based on photographies by Manu Rosaleny.

Digital
300x CD Digipack
150x Black Vinyl
150x Orange Translucent Vinyl

TRACK-LIST:
1. Telarañas
2. Carcasa Digital
3. Aire
4. Matriz
5. Después no habrá nada

SANTO ROSTRO:
Miguel Ortega: guitars
Antonio Gámez: bass, vocals
Alejandro Galiano: drums

Santo Rostro on Facebook

Santo Rostro on Instagram

Santo Rostro on YouTube

Santo Rostro on Bandcamp

Spinda Records on Facebook

Spinda Records on Instagram

Spinda Records on Bandcamp

Spinda Records website

Discos Macarras on Facebook

Discos Macarras on Instagram

Discos Macarras on Bandcamp

Discos Macarras website

LaRubia Producciones on Facebook

LaRubia Producciones on Instagram

LaRubia Producciones on Bandcamp

LaRubia Producciones website

Okay, so, you’re probably going to notice pretty quickly the spaciousness in Santo Rostro‘s new single, “Telarañas,” what with all that cavernous echo and reverb tonality, vocals calling up from the mix and so on. Killer, right from the moment the song bursts in just when it should. As the Andalusian trio bring it forward through its utterly-consumable sub-four-minute run, you’ll notice that that space that feels so open at the beginning of the song has begun to fill up. By the end of the track, it becomes a full-on wash of clearheaded atmospheric heavy psych, pushing forward in a way that reminds me of bands like Arc of Ascent, who’ve mastered the art of bringing together grounded groove and lysergic effects plunge. The band’s fourth album — first I’ve heard, I’ll say outright; I ain’t perfect and I’m just about never Johnny Groundfloor — is called Después No Habrá Nada, and with the unveiling of the opening track today and the launch of preorders comes confirmation of a March 10 release through Spinda Records, Discos Macarras and LaRubia Producciones.

Yes, this is another post about Spinda engaging in a multi-label conglomerate to get behind a new release. Also yes, I recognize that Spanish imprints have been doing this for years, and that all three involved parties here — four if you count the band, which it’s fair to do — are based in Spain, but the last few weeks have seen Spinda making announcements that broaden this ethic to other places in Europe and beyond, and I’ll gladly reiterate that I think it’s a good thing.

Perhaps you don’t give a shit about any of that and just want to rock the tune and see if you’re interested. Go for it. But while you do, just keep in the back of your mind the sort of team ethic and extended reach that’s possible when independent labels like this work together. Teamwork, dream work, and all that. Then blow out the airlock and get ready to launch into open cosmos because that’s pretty much where this one goes.

Enjoy:

‘DESPUÉS NO HABRÁ NADA’ by Santo Rostro. Out 10th March 2023.

PRE-ORDER (10th Feb): Santo Rostro / Discos Macarras / LaRubia Producciones / Spinda Records

Spanish psych-doom rockers SANTO ROSTRO are back in business with their 4th studio album ‘Después no habrá nada’ – to be released on 10th March 2023 via Discos Macarras, LaRubia Producciones & Spinda Records, although the single “Telarañas” is coming out on 10th February. The pre-order for vinyl, compact discs and digital editions starts that same day.

Andalusian power trio returns with a dark-psych rock album, with long tracks including complex instrumental developments, processed atmospheres and a dirty sound plenty of echoes, different modulations and occasional synths.

Many things have changed in SANTO ROSTRO since they put out ‘The Healer’ in 2017, and this is obviously reflected in this new album. ‘Después no habrá nada’ is the result of a more mature band, with thousands of kilometers touring both Spain and EU on their back, several TV appearances and a couple of stand-alone video-singles – and everything 100% DIY.

This way, we find ourselves with a more balanced and determined sound, with a tremendous solid and seamless rhythmic base, powerful and organic at the same time, with a dance of tempos that accelerate and slow down at the right time – there’s no clapperboard in here.

In ‘Después no habrá nada’ you’ll find from doom to sludge, with high doses of progressive metal and even Andalusian heavy psych. It could be understood as a great mix of bands such as Viaje a 800, Adrift, Oransi Pazuzu, Mastadon or Russian Circles, but with an imprint that only SANTO ROSTRO has. This new album is a kind of a personal delirium and hangover; with some rehearsal room taste and accumulated fatigue.

The album was produced by the band itself; then recorded and mixed by Raúl Pérez at La Mina (Spain); and mastered by Mario G. Alberni at Kadifornia Mastering (Spain). Behind the artwork is The Braves Church, based on photographies by Manu Rosaleny.

‘Después no habrá nada’ comes out on 10th March 2023 through Discos Macarras, LaRubia Producciones and Spinda Records in the following editions:

Digital
300x CD Digipack
150x Black Vinyl
150x Orange Translucent Vinyl

TRACK-LIST:
1. Telarañas
2. Carcasa Digital
3. Aire
4. Matriz
5. Después no habrá nada

SANTO ROSTRO:
Miguel Ortega: guitars
Antonio Gámez: bass, vocals
Alejandro Galiano: drums

http://www.facebook.com/santorostrodoom
https://instagram.com/santorostro
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnN3cdd5mamBgzd5aG79tEA
https://santorostro.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SpindaRecords
https://www.instagram.com/spindarecords
https://spindarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.spindarecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/discosmacarras
https://www.instagram.com/discosmacarras/
https://discosmacarras.bandcamp.com/
https://www.discosmacarras.com/en/

https://www.facebook.com/LaRubiaProducciones/
https://www.instagram.com/larubiaproducciones/
https://larubiaproducciones.bandcamp.com/
https://www.larubiaproducciones.com/

Santo Rostro, “Telarañas”

One does not envy either Canary Islands trio Ajeeb or Spinda Records, which sent the announcement below, the process of coordinating a release across 10 record labels. It’s hard enough with one, two, involved, and the advantage of having a bunch covering different locales is, duh, wider distribution for the artist, but the tradeoff of who gets what when and when a record is coming out, my goodness. If even one person is an asshole — and I don’t know most of these labels personally, but my inclination is to assume that people passionate enough about underground music to help release it generally aren’t assholes — the whole thing could derail.

Nonetheless, Ajeeb‘s second full-length, Refractions — not to be confused with the Lowrider album of the same name — is part of a strong upcoming year for Spinda (not that I’ve seen the schedule or anything) and will see release with a firm March 29 arrival date. There’s no new audio as of now, but you can hear the band’s punk and noise rock-informed take on heavy with the stream of their debut LP, Toss and Turn, which came out in 2020, on the player at the bottom of this post.

Signing announcement follows:

***SPINDA RECORDS – NEW BAND ANNOUNCEMENT***

Today is a good day! We are so happy to share with y’all that Canary Island alt-rock and shoegaze power trio AJEEB is joining our family. We’ve been following them since the very beginning and there’s no better way to do this than with a new album.

‘Refractions’ will be out on March 29, 2023 via Spinda Records in collaboration with Violence In The Veins, Quebranta Records, Noizeland Records, Hey Boy Hey Girl, Bandera Records, Naife, Hombre Montaña, Clever Eagle Records (US) and The Ghost Is Clear Records (US).

First single (+ pre-order) is about to come out, so keep an eye on these guys.

Photo: Daniel Fleitas

Ajeeb are:
Cucho Segura: Guitar + Vocals
Sara Gdm: Bass
Rafa Pacheco: Drums

http://facebook.com/ajeebmusic
https://www.instagram.com/ajeebmusicband/
https://soundcloud.com/ajeebmusicband
https://ajeebmusicband.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SpindaRecords
https://www.instagram.com/spindarecords
https://spindarecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.spindarecords.com/

Ajeeb, Toss and Turn (2020)