https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Review & Video Premiere: Iron Jinn, Iron Jinn

Posted in Bootleg Theater, Reviews on April 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

iron jinn iron jinn

Based in The Netherlands, Iron Jinn release their self-titled debut album April 21 through Stickman Records, celebrating with a release show at Roadburn Festival on April 22. The venerable Tilburg fest is a fitting showcase for the band, who’ll present their nine-song/60-minute 2LP cycle after having made their live debut at Roadburn 2018 (review here), working then under the moniker Iron Chin and entrancing a packed 013 Green Room with material it had never heard before. With the collaboration between guitarist/vocalists Wout Kemkens (Shaking Godspeed) and Oeds Beydals (Death Alley, Gewapend Beton, Molassess, The Devil’s Blood) at its foundation and the lineup solidified with Birth of Joy‘s Bob Hogenelst on drums and Gerben Bielderman (Pronk, Pauw, Helm Op, Figgie, etc.) on bass, the album sprinkles moments of clarity amid headed-way-down plunges into atmospheric ethereality, seeking to and succeeding in immersing listeners in a sprawl of dark and progressive heavy rock with the stated goal of evoking the feel of dreams.

It is ostensibly psychedelic, but an is-it-real psychedelia of the unconscious more than an effects wash, and in moments like the winding build to the crescendo of “Blood Moon Horizon” tucked away before closer “Cage Rage” with its extended drone finish or the dual-vocal melody of “Ego Loka” rounding out the three-song leadoff salvo with particularly Swansy vibes after “Winding World” first sounds the alarm at the very beginning of the record — howling lead guitar with frenetic strums behind; Beydals and Kemkens announcing the band’s arrival — before the string sounds swap channels, the effigies are burnt and the mellowing resolution feels like a gift after and before “Soft Healers” plunges once again into foreboding creep groove, jazzy intensity and a feel like being transported to someplace else as (I think?) the keys emulate horns to set up a stretch of electronic low-end beneath the meditative doom drums and second cynical verse — “break through the fourth wall and ‘burn the green room” feels like it’s dropping references — lead to a wobbly weirdo guitar solo emblematic of the manner in which Iron Jinn as a whole is too cohesive to be experimental at least in the we-tried-a-thing-and-recorded-it sense, but remains deep in its exploratory sensibility, notably in the guitars and synth, which makes it fortunate that Bielderman and Hogenelst are there to provide a grounding presence.

I haven’t seen a tracklisting for the 2LP version, and perhaps unsurprisingly for something with so much flux and fluidity, there are multiple ways it can be parsed, whether it’s the first three songs on side A or just the pairing of the seven-minutes-each “Winding World” and “Soft Healers,” which on their own do a lot of the necessary scene-setting for what follows, even as “Ego Loka” offers reinforcement of their vaporous motives. Stylistically, Iron Jinn is much the same, and whether one wants to approach it as a work of dark prog, heavy psychedelia edging on the stratospheric, a new branch on the cultish family tree of The Devil’s Blood or the something-else that it ultimately is, what you put into listening is what you’re going to get out. “Truth is Your Dagger” picks up to establish new momentum coming out of “Ego Loka,” unfurling its somehow-drifting angularity on either side of a midsection break held together by Hogenelst that leads into a surge topped by a triumphant delivery of the title-line by Kemkens and Beydals in unison; the encouragement to break out of one’s own conceptions that the concluding lyric “stab your truth” seems to be — and fair enough — the ethic seems to be conveyed by the example of the music itself as much as the words. Whatever else Iron Jinn might be at this point and however one might want to categorize this initial offering, it is markedly individual.

That is to say, if you want to sit with it and parse out where centerpiece  “Lick It or Kick It” — lyric video premiering below; the single’s been out for a week or so — comes by its grim ambience, vague threat and theatricality (also glockenspiel, maybe), controlled bombast and abiding tension that seems unreleased even through the fuzzed payoff it gets, amplifier hum carrying into the willful play on Devin Townsend doing ’60s psych that “Relic” posits itself as being, you can do that. I won’t say you’re wrong, and the rewards of closer listening throughout Iron Jinn‘s Iron Jinn are abundant, from the arrangements of synth to the manner in which the guitars work off each other from the outset on, to the subtle energetic push of the vocals coming together and the tent of Weird under which the entire cosmic circus is held, to the chiming notes in “Bread and Games” that seems to push as far into amorphousness as they’ll go until the aforementioned drone epilogue of “Cage Rage” still to come, viewing the world around them with due terror and refusing to capitulate to the demands of genre. But whether you’re with them or not, Iron Jinn are going to that place right where the brain meets the stem, the moment right before you’re actually asleep when you have that last conscious thought, whatever it might be. They’ll take you if you’re willing to go, and I’d bet that if you asked, they already know not everyone is going to be willing.

IRON JINN (Photo by Louise te Poele)

As “Bread and Games” gives over not-quite-patiently to the here-we-go spacey intro of “Blood Moon Horizon,” and the eventual breakout that everything seems to have been moving toward that’s still preface to the linear build across the first six-plus minutes of “Cage Rage” — a fitting title to encapsulate the jaw-clenching tension throughout — the real accomplishment of Iron Jinn becomes somewhat clearer. The reason it works is because none of the four-piece are playing against each other. Beydals and KemkensHogenelst and Bielderman, drawn together by the smoothness in the production sound by Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt — let alone the scope of the mix — are united in their purpose. Even when Hogenelst sits out “Ego Loka” and “Bread and Games,” and even in the comings and goings around that long final contemplation, the impression is that Iron Jinn are trying this thing and following where it has led them. You wouldn’t be wrong to say it’s a record born out of and for strange times, but the ambition here is even broader than the hour-long stretch of the 2LP. They sound like a band frustrated with conceptions of style driving themselves to create something new, like a sculptor whose medium just happens to be fog, or the first chapter of a book the plot of which is only starting to reveal itself.

Maybe that’s the case, and if so, I won’t predict where Iron Jinn are headed in terms of sound, or why, or how long it might take them to get there, if ‘there’ is even an endgame and the goal is not the going in the first place. What I’ll say instead is that I hope they keep moving. In following Beydals‘ work over the last decade, as a player and songwriter he seems to have been a reluctant focal point, searching for an outlet wherein his expressive intent can flourish, untethered. And it could well be that Iron Jinn, that the creative partnership with Kemkens is the vehicle through which that will happen, but it will be years more before we know, and in a universe of infinite possibility the band could break up before the record’s even out and an asteroid could smash into the ocean and set all the oxygen in Earth’s air on fire, so no, no speculation. But there’s potential and promise at this point, and Iron Jinn builds on past successes — by no means just for Beydals — while carving out their own path, not with arrogance, but with artistic certainty and an awareness of and (if understated) excitement for what they might yet achieve.

In addition to the Roadburn release show, Iron Jinn have slots lined up at Desertfest London, Sonic Whip, Bridge Festival and Void Fest, as well as club dates and gigs supporting and performing with the venerable Alain Johannes in September. You’ll find those dates, the preorder link, and more info under the premiere of the “Lick It or Kick It” lyric video below, courtesy of the PR wire.

Hope you enjoy:

Iron Jinn, “Lick it or Kick It” lyric video

The third song from our upcoming debut album, preorder the record at https://www.stickman-records.com/shop/iron-jinn-iron-jinn/

Iron Jinn are Oeds Beydals (The Devils Blood/Molassess/Death Alley), Wout Kemkens (Shaking Godspeed/De Niemanders), Bob Hogenelst (Birth of Joy/Molassess) and Gerben Bielderman (Pauw).

‘Iron Jinn’ tracklisting
1. Winding World
2. Soft Healers
3. Ego Loka
4. Truth Is Your Dagger
5. Lick It Or Kick it
6. Relic
7. Bread And Games
8. Blood Moon Horizon
9. Cage Rage

Credits
Written by Iron Jinn
Recorded and mixed at Galloway Studio by Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt
Mastered by Pieter Kloos
Video concept and styling Louise Te Poele
Camera, animation and editing Daan van der Pluijm
Handwriting by William van Giessen
Released by Stickman Records

The release party takes place at Roadburn Festival Saturday April 22nd. Other shows we can announce at this point are:

14.04.2023 – Live At The Farm, Varsseveld Gelders Goed
05.05.2023 – London (UK), Desertfest London
06.05.2023 – Nijmegen (NL), Sonic Whip
12.05.2023 – Eindhoven (NL), Bridge Festival Eindhoven
27.05.2023 – Den Haag (NL), Sniester
12.08.2023 – Void Fest, Waldmünchen (DE)
08.09.2023 – Zwolle – Hedon Zwolle w/ Alain Johannes
09.09.2023 – Leiden – Gebr de Nobel w/ Alain Johannes
10.09.2023 10.09.2023 – Heerlen – @de nieuwe nor w/ Alain Johannes

Iron Jinn are:
Oeds Beydals
Gerben Bielderman
Bob Holgenelst
Wout Kemkens

Iron Jinn, “Winding World” lyric video

Iron Jinn, “Soft Healers”

Iron Jinn on Instagram

Iron Jinn on Facebook

Iron Jinn on Bandcamp

Stickman Records on Facebook

Stickman Records on Instagram

Stickman Records website

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Elder Announce Fall Tour Dates in Europe and the UK

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 13th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Elder have just unveiled their tour plans for this autumn, playing Lazy Bones Fest in Hamburg but thus far bypassing most of the continental Fall festival season, though of course there’s always time for more to be announced. They’ll be joined for some of the Euro portion of the run by Steak (from the UK) and in the UK by Slomosa (from Norway) as they continue to support 2022’s Innate Passage (review here), following the previously announced US tour set for this May into June.

I don’t imagine I need to tell you if you’re reading this just how in-their-own-league Elder remain, even as their influence on the next generation of heavy rock ripples outward, or how Innate Passage pushed their heavy prog rock to new expressive heights while getting both heavier and more melodic — all sides growth and production to match — but it is fun to mention. I’ll posit them as one of the most essential acts under the umbrella of heavy music, and I’ll keep it simple and just say if you can see them, see them, wherever you live.

Dates follow as per social media:
Elder fall uk eu

ELDER * EU/UK TOUR *

We are hitting the road again this fall in support of our latest record “Innate Passage” with stops around Europe and the UK!

Joining us on the trip are our friends Slomosa and Steak (select dates each, please mind the symbols).

Tickets will be on sale from this Wednesday, March 15th at https://beholdtheelder.com/tour.html

See you soon!

27.10.23 – DE – Erfurt | Bandhaus†
28.10.23 – DE – Hamburg | Lazy Bones Fest *
29..1023 – DK – Copenhagen | Pumpehuset*
31.10.23 – NL – Amersfoort | Fluor*
01.11.23 – DE – Oberhausen | Kulttempel*
02.11.23 – NL – Nijmegen | Doornroosje*
03.11.23 – BE – Leuven | Het Depot*
04.11.23 – FR – Paris | La Maroquinerie*
05.11.23 – FR – Lille | The Black Lab*
06.11.23 – UK – Bristol | The Fleece*
08.11.23 – UK – Brighton | Patterns*
09.11.23 – UK – London | Electric Ballroom*
10.11.23 – UK – Glasgow | Slay*
11.11.23 – UK – Leeds | Brundenell Social Club*
12.11.23 – UK – Manchester | Gorilla*
14.11.23 – DE – Frankfurt | Nachtleben†
15.11.23 – CH – Dudingen | Bad Bonn†
16.11.23 – DE – Munich | Hansa 39†
17.11.23 – DE – Dresden | Chemiefabrik†
18.11.23 – DE – Berlin | Hole 44†

* = with Slomosa
† = with Steak

Previously announced US tour dates:

5/3 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk
5/4 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
5/5 Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle
5/6 Rock Island, IL @ Wake Brewing
5/7 Kansas City, MO @ The Record Bar
5/9 Denver, CO @ The Bluebird Theater
5/10 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
5/11 Las Vegas, NV @ The Usual Place
5/12 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
5/13 Santa Ana, CA @ The Constellation Room
5/14 San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick
5/16 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
5/17 Fresno, CA @ Strummer’s
5/18 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
5/20 Seattle, WA @ Substation
5/21 Vancouver, BC @ Modified Ghost Festival
5/23 Calgary, AB @ Palomino
5/24 Edmonton, AB @ Starlite Room
5/26 Winnipeg, MB @ The Park Theatre
5/27 Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium
5/28 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
5/29 Milwaukee, WI @ X-Ray Arcade
5/30 Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
5/31 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
6/1 Montréal, QC @ Les Foufounes Électriques
6/2 Providence, RI @ Alchemy
6/3 Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom

Elder is:
Nick DiSalvo – Guitars, Vocals
Mike Risberg – Guitars, Keys
Jack Donovan – Bass
Georg Edert – Drums

http://facebook.com/elderofficial
https://www.instagram.com/elderband/
https://beholdtheelder.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/armageddonshop/
https://armageddonshop.bigcartel.com/
http://armageddonshop.com

http://www.stickman-records.com/
http://stickmanrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940/

Elder, Innate Passage (2022)

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Weite: Members of Elder, High Fighter, Delving & Lawns Form New Band; Signed to Stickman Records

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 8th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

The story seems pretty straightforward here. Dudes got together and made a record. Turned out they liked the record they made, so they decided to be a band. Maybe they’ll play some shows? There you go. That’s the bio at this point for Weite — in English: “width” or “vast” — which is a new project featuring Nick DiSalvo and Mike Risberg of Elder alongside Ben Lubin of Lawns and Ingwer Boysen of Hamburg-based riff-core bashers High Fighter.

I’ll assume the pedigree is explanation enough for how they wound up with Stickman Records getting behind the album in question, Assemblage — same label puts out Elder and the one-to-date release from DiSalvo‘s Delving side-project — and while there isn’t much to go on here, they do say it’s a July release and there’s a video the band posted on Instagram that has at least some snippets to tell you where they’re coming from. Also always nice to see the inside of Big Snuff Studio, where Richard Behrens holds court and has helped many, many acts make many, many killer records. I’m on board for adding one more to that list if you are.

More to come, I hope. The PR wire brings preliminaries:

Weite

Members of ELDER, HIGH FIGHTER, DELVING & LAWNS announce new band WEITE!

Debut album coming in the summer of 2023 on Stickman Records!

Nicholas DiSalvo (Elder, Delving) and Michael Risberg (Elder) alongside colleagues Ingwer Boysen (High Fighter) and Ben Lubin (Lawns), have announced a new band, Weite!

Weite was initially conceived as a one-off winter project by Boysen, who contacted DiSalvo and Risberg with the idea to write and record a record within a week. Having played together in DiSalvo’s live band for his project Delving, a certain musical chemistry was already apparent. The three recruited Berlin-based English guitarist Lubin to round out the quartet and proceeded to bunker in for a week of intense songwriting.

Sharing their diverse musical interests and swapping instruments frequently, a body of songs was quickly created that channeled a collective love for 60’s and 70’s psychedelic music, krautrock, jazz and listening to one motorik beat for 20 minutes straight. The troupe set off to record in a short session at Big Snuff Studio with frequent collaborator Richard Behrens and within a few days “Assemblage” was born. Recording live, Behrens captured the essence of the session, at times mellow and times intense, with the five together then embellishing the raw recordings with a hearty dollop of experimental overdubs.

After many banal discussions and almost a year after the project was finished, Weite was officially born as the group decided to continue the project as a proper band. “We didn’t intend to start a band, but it kinda happened“, the band comments on their first social media post. “It turned out pretty cool, too cool to let it be a one-off, so we decided to keep it going. WEITE was officially born; the word means “expanse” “vastness” or “width”, a few adjectives we’d use to describe our sound.“
A making of video for “Assemblage” is now available on Weite’s Instagram page.

Stay tuned and expect shows in 2023 celebrating the official release of “Assemblage”, slated for a July-release through Stickman Records, with more music to come in the future!

www.instagram.com/_weite

https://www.stickman-records.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by WEITE (@_weite)

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Slomosa Sign to Stickman Records; Second Album Recorded

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Just what do Slomosa have up their sleeves for a second album, I wonder. Their self-titled debut (review here) came out in 2020 on Apollon Records and made a splash and basically as soon as they could be they were on the road for it. I think they played every European festival last year except the three I was lucky enough to go to — which has had the sad effect of making me probably even more eager to see them live — and that album continues to spread via word of mouth even as the Bergen, Norway, four-piece are confirmed for more gigs. And now they’ve signed to Stickman Records; a home for heavy that matters.

So what’s it gonna be with Slomosa? Are they the forerunners of a new generation of heavy rock? Are they the vanguard? I don’t know, but I think the next album is going to tell us an awful lot one way or the other. And I think this signing is big enough news that I’m posting about it on Friday even after I already closed out the week. So yeah, I’m at least open to the idea that they’re the real deal and are going to be leaders of that next-gen of heavy that’s so badly needed, make an impact and be influential. That potential is there. It’s exciting to think it could happen.

This is why you sign up for record label newsletters:

slomosa

SLOMOSA Sophomore LP to be released on Stickman – new single coming soon

We are proud to announce that SLOMOSA and Stickman are joining forces for the band’s upcoming second full-length, which they recently recorded at Polyfon Studio in their hometown of Bergen, Norway. A single from the album will be released in the coming months, so stay tuned!

Since their sudden appearance on the scene with the self-titled debut album “Slomosa” in 2020, the band has hit the ground running with relentless tours alongside bands such as Orange Goblin, Sasquatch and Stöner.

Singer/guitarist Benjamin Berdous says of the upcoming record:

“The feel good vibes of our first album were apparent in the music, even though the lyrical themes were more serious and angry, but also in some sense comforting for me personally. Since then more of life has happened and things have gotten more serious, and as always this reflects on the music. It’s still important to me that we continue to offer something fresh in an at times homogeneous genre. Catchy vocal hooks and heavy guitar riffs is our recipe, and we don’t plan to mix up our diets!”

www.facebook.com/slomosaband
https://www.instagram.com/slomosa
http://slomosa1.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/slomosa
https://sptfy.com/4Qaf

https://www.stickman-records.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940

Slomosa, Slomosa (2020)

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Weedpecker Announce April & May Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Weedpecker‘s page on Facebook got hacked. First of all, that that happens to anyone in 2023 is emblematic of how much the tech model of “continuous improvement” — executed most often in a situation where something done mostly right the first time is gradually made worse over a period of however long until eventually it’s so awful everyone moves onto something else — is bullshit. The band issued their righteously proggy IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts (review here) album through Stickman Records in late 2021 and are not letting the social media woes get in their way as they announce a Spring 2023 tour to support the album that will include slots at Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Bologna, Italy, a stop at Echoes of Erebus in Wien, and a swing through the UK that’s got them dropping by Desertfest London 2023 on May 7, adding to the already epic lineup there.

I honestly don’t know if giving them a follow on Facebook helps their cause or not — I’m waiting for my turn to be hacked; everybody seems to get there — but the band asked people to share the dates and doing so seems reasonable enough. There are a couple shows open — unless that’s another fest already confirmed but not yet announced — and of course, if you happen to have a venue handy for them to play, can provide a meal and so on, I’m sure they’d love to hear from you, whichever platform you might use to get in touch.

Tour looks like this:

Weedpecker tour

“Hello everyone, we are happy to announce Weedpecker’s spring tour. We can’t wait to see you all! As some of you may know, our FB page was hacked 2 weeks ago and we still have no access to it. Every share, likes and comments would help us a lot to spread the message. Thank you all for your help and support.”

28.04 Brno Kabinet Muz CZ
29.04 Vienna Echoes of Erebus Fest AT
30.04 Bologna Heavy Psych Sounds Fest IT
01.05 Basel Hirscheneck CH
02.05 TBC
03.05 TBC
04.05 Manchester Rebellion UK
05.05 Glasgow Ivory Blacks UK
07.05 Desertfest London UK
08.05 Nantes Decadanse FR
09.05 Gent Trefpunt BE
10.05 Tilburg Little Devil NL
11.05 Rotterdam Baroeg NL
12.05 Cologne MTC DE
13.05 Jena Klub Kuba DE
14.05 Dresden Club Novitas DE

Weedpecker is:
Walczak (Tankograd, ex-Dopelord) – drums
Wyro – guitar/vox
Seru (BelzebonG) – keyboards
Piotr Kuks – bass

https://www.facebook.com/Weedpecker-349871488424872/
https://weedpecker.bandcamp.com/
http://weedpecker.bigcartel.com/
http://weedpecker.8merch.com/

https://www.stickman-records.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940

Weedpecker, IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts (2021)

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Iron Jinn Announce Debut Album Release Show at Roadburn 2023; New Single Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Listen to the two singles back to back and you can hear some of the differing sides of Iron Jinn‘s makeup coming forward, between psychedelia and some more urgent push. The Amsterdam-based four-piece, which boasts Oeds Beydals on guitar — see also Death AlleyMolassessThe Devil’s Blood, etc. — will release their self-titled debut full-length through Stickman Records this April, playing a release show at, where else?, Roadburn Festival, where Beydals and Wout Kemkens (also Birth of Joy) first came together, then under the moniker of Iron Chin, in 2018.

Neat, right? New song, release show, things happening. Cool. You’ll also note the part below at the end where it mentions ever so casually that members of Iron Jinn (all or some, I don’t know) will pull double-duty this coming Fall, touring with and playing in the backing band for Alain Johannes. That is a show I would like very much to see. Johannes has promised a career-spanning set, if such a thing is even possible in a single night, and I feel like only good things can come from these two parties meeting and working together over a stretch of dates.

The PR wire takes it from there:

iron jinn

IRON JINN (feat. members of The Devil’s Blood, Death Alley & more!) announce Roadburn record release & share new single “Winding World”!

Years after debuting at Roadburn 2018 as a European counterpoint for the San Diego-Takeover, Iron Jinn, featuring members of The Devil’s Blood, Death Alley, Shaking Godspeed and Birth Of Joy, comes full circle with a release party at Roadburn 2023!

Iron Jinn will be released on April 21, 2023 coinciding with the band’s appearance at the festival. A limited Roadburn edition of the vinyl will be available exclusively there and in the Stickman Records webshop.

You can get a taste of their woozy rock’n’roll on debut single Soft Healers, and get swept along with the tide on Winding World – their brand new track released today to coincide with this very announcement. Listen to Winding World now!

Says guitarist/singer Wout Kemkens of the new single:
”Winding World is like a sonic action painting to me; the parade of seemingly unrelated images/happenings that pass by during the song is an ode to the fact that everything is constantly changing, which is maddening, but beautiful. I always loved Louis Armstrong’s ‘Wonderful World’ and for me ‘Winding World’ feels related, but as a hectic 21st century version. A stroll in this particular moment of time, and really feeling and seeing what is happening, such a day.”

Ever since we came off stage at Roadburn 2018 as the one off Iron Chin project, I always wondered what would happen if Wout Kemkens and I would share writing duties equally and develop an actual band,” Oeds says, “By circumstances beyond our control we suddenly had the time to make it happen and Iron Jinn quickly developed a mind of its own. To be able to present it where the first seeds were sown makes it all the more special.

The Amsterdam-based band has also announced a slew of live dates celebrating the record, as well as an upcoming tour with Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures). Not only will Iron Jinn be directly supporting Johannes on the tour, but also playing in his live band. Dates have not been made public yet, but the tour is slated for September/October of this year. Find more info HERE: https://alainjohannes.eu/alain-johannes-european-tour-2023/

https://www.instagram.com/iron_jinn=-
https://www.facebook.com/ironjinn

https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940/
https://www.instagram.com/stickmanrecords/
https://www.stickman-records.com/

Iron Jinn, “Winding World” lyric video

Iron Jinn, “Soft Healers”

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Elder Announce Tour Dates with Ruby the Hatchet and Howling Giant

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Elder, Ruby the Hatchet and Howling Giant is one god damned good show, and that is the sum total of what I have to say about it. Elder and Ruby the Hatchet coming off killer records and maybe Howling Giant too by then? I don’t know anything but they’re about due. I wouldn’t argue if that news came in.

The run is a full month and hits both coasts, in between, and Canada. I don’t feel like I need to argue on favor of this. If you’re not on board with Elder or Ruby the Hatchet at this point, and you’re somehow bothering to read this at all (thanks for that), it’s probably not because you haven’t heard them. Or of them. And if you don’t know Howling Giant, it ain’t my fault. One way or the other, they are going to make a lot of friends on this tour.

It is one good damned good show. More likely a bunch of them. Dates follow:

Elder tour horizontal

We’re hitting the road this spring in the US and Canada with our friends Ruby the Hatchet and Howling Giant!

Tickets will go on sale January 20th at 10AM EST.

Links at our website: www.beholdtheelder.com

5/3 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk
5/4 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
5/5 Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle
5/6 Rock Island, IL @ Wake Brewing
5/7 Kansas City, MO @ The Record Bar
5/9 Denver, CO @ The Bluebird Theater
5/10 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
5/11 Las Vegas, NV @ The Usual Place
5/12 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
5/13 Santa Ana, CA @ The Constellation Room
5/14 San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick
5/16 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
5/17 Fresno, CA @ Strummer’s
5/18 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
5/20 Seattle, WA @ Substation
5/21 Vancouver, BC @ Modified Ghost Festival
5/23 Calgary, AB @ Palomino
5/24 Edmonton, AB @ Starlite Room
5/26 Winnipeg, MB @ The Park Theatre
5/27 Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium
5/28 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
5/29 Milwaukee, WI @ X-Ray Arcade
5/30 Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
5/31 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
6/1 Montréal, QC @ Les Foufounes Électriques
6/2 Providence, RI @ Alchemy
6/3 Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom

Elder is:
Nick DiSalvo – Guitars, Vocals
Mike Risberg – Guitars, Keys
Jack Donovan – Bass
Georg Edert – Drums

http://facebook.com/elderofficial
https://www.instagram.com/elderband/
https://beholdtheelder.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/armageddonshop/
https://armageddonshop.bigcartel.com/
http://armageddonshop.com

http://www.stickman-records.com/
http://stickmanrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940/

Elder, Innate Passage (2022)

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Quarterly Review: Gaupa, Orango, Onségen Ensemble, Gypsy Wizard Queen, Blake Hornsby, Turbid North, Modern Stars, Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Borehead, Monolithe

Posted in Reviews on January 13th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-winter 2023

So here we are. On the verge of two weeks, 100 records later. My message here is the same as ever: I’m tired and I hope you found something worthwhile. A lot of this was catchup for me — still is, see Gaupa below — but maybe something slipped through the cracks for you in 2022 that got a look here, or maybe not and you’re not even seeing this and it doesn’t matter anyway and what even is music, etc., etc. I don’t know.

A couple bands were stoked along the way. That’s fun, I guess. Mostly I’ve been trying to keep in mind that I’m doing this for myself, because, yeah, there’s probably no other way I was going to get to cover these 100 albums, and I feel like the site is stronger for having done so, at least mostly. I guess shrug and move on. Next week is back to normal reviews, premieres and all that. I think March we’ll do this again, maybe try to keep it to five or six days. Two 100-record QRs in a row has been a lot.

But again, thanks if you’ve kept up at all. I’m gonna soak my head in these and then cover it with a pillow for a couple days to keep the riffs out. Just kidding, I’ll be up tomorrow morning writing. Like a sucker.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #91-100:

Gaupa, Myriad

Gaupa Myriad

Beginning with the hooky “Exoskeleton” and “Diametrical Enchantress,” Myriad is the second full-length from Sweden’s Gaupa (their first for Nuclear Blast), and a bringing together of terrestrial and ethereal heavy elements. Even at its most raucous, Gaupa‘s material floats, and even at its most floating, there is a plan at work, a story unfolding, and an underlying structure to support them. From the minimalist start of “Moloken” to the boogie rampage of “My Sister is a Very Angry Man,” the Swedefolk of “Sömnen,” the tension and explosions of “RA,” with the theatrical-but-can-also-really-sing, soulful vocals of Emma Näslund at the forefront, a proggy and atmospheric cut like “Elden” — which becomes an intense battery by the time it hits its apex; I’ve heard that about aging — retains a distinct human presence, and the guitar work of Daniel Nygren and David Rosberg, Erik Sävström‘s bass and Jimmy Hurtig‘s drums are sharp in their turns and warm in their tones, creating a fluidity that carries the five-piece to the heavy immersion of “Mammon,” where Näslund seems to find another, almost Bjork-ish level of command in her voice before, at 5:27 into the song’s 7:36, the band behind her kicks into the heaviest roll of the album; a shove by the time they’re done. Can’t ask for more. Some records just have everything.

Gaupa on Facebook

Nuclear Blast Records store

 

Orango, Mohican

orango mohican

Six albums in, let’s just all take a minute to be glad Orango are still at it. The Oslo-based harmonybringers are wildly undervalued, now over 20 years into their tenure, and their eighth album, Mohican (which I’m not sure is appropriate to take as an album title unless you’re, say, a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community) is a pleasure cruise through classic heavy rock styles. From opener/longest track (immediate points) “The Creek” twisting through harder riffing and more melodic range than most acts have in their entire career, through the memorable swagger in the organ-laced “Fryin’,” the stadium-ready “Running Out of Reasons,” the later boogie of “War Camp” and shuffle in “Dust & Dirt” (presumably titled for what’s kicked up by said shuffle) and the softer-delivered complementary pair “Cold Wind” and “Ain’t No Road” ending each side of the LP with a mellow but still engaging wistfulness, nobody does the smooth sounds of the ’70s better, and Mohican is a triumph in showcasing what they do, songs like “Bring You Back Home” and the bluesier “Wild River Song” gorgeous and lush in their arrangements while holding onto a corresponding human sensibility, ever organic. There is little to do with Orango except be wowed and, again, be thankful they’ve got another collection of songs to bask in and singalong to. It’s cool if you’re off-key; nobody’s judging.

Orango on Facebook

Stickman Records website

 

Onségen Ensemble, Realms

Onségen Ensemble Realms

You never really know when a flute, a choir, or a digeridoo might show up, and that’s part of the fun with Onségen Ensemble‘s six-track Realms LP, which goes full-Morricone in “Naked Sky” only after digging into the ambient prog of “The Sleeping Lion” and en route to the cinematic keys and half-speed King Crimson riffing of “Abysmal Sun,” which becomes a righteous melodic wash. The Finnish natives’ fourth LP, its vinyl pressing was crowdfunded through Bandcamp for independent release, and while the guitar in “Collapsing Star” calls back to “Naked Sky” and the later declarations roll out grandiose crashes, the horns of “The Ground of Being” set up a minimalist midsection only to return in even more choral form, and “I’m Here No Matter What” resolves in both epic keys/voices and a clear, hard-strummed guitar riff, the name Realms feels not at all coincidental. This is worldbuilding, setting a full three-dimensional sphere in which these six pieces flow together to make the 40-minute entirety of the album. The outright care put into making them, the sense of purpose, and the individualized success of the results, shouldn’t be understated. Onségen Ensemble are becoming, and so have become, a treasure of heavy, enveloping progressive sounds, and without coming across as contrived, Realms has a painterly sensibility that resonates joy.

Onségen Ensemble on Facebook

Onségen Ensemble on Bandcamp

 

Gypsy Wizard Queen, Gypsy Wizard Queen

Gypsy Wizard Queen self-titled

Chad Heille (ex-Egypt, currently also El Supremo) drums in this Fargo, North Dakota, three-piece completed by guitarist/vocalist/engineer Chris Ellingson and bassist/vocalist Mitch Martin, and the heavy bluesy groove they emit as they unfurl “Witch Lung,” their self-titled debut’s 10-minute opener and longest track (immediate points), is likewise righteous and hypnotic. Even as “Paranoid Humanoid” kicks into its chorus on Heille‘s steady thud and a winding lead from Ellingson, one wouldn’t call their pace hurried, and while I’d like to shake everyone in the band’s hand for having come up with the song title “Yeti Davis Eyes” — wow; nicely done — the wandering jam itself is even more satisfying, arriving along its instrumental course at a purely stoner rock janga-janga before it’s finished and turns over to the final two tracks, “The Good Ride” and “Stoned Age,” both shorter, with the former also following an instrumental path, classically informed but modern in its surge, and the latter seeming to find all the gallop and shove that was held back from elsewhere and loosing it in one showstopping six-minute burst. I’d watch this live set, happily. Reminds a bit of Geezer on paper but has its own identity. Their sound isn’t necessarily innovative or trying to be, but their debut nonetheless establishes a heavy dynamic, shows their chemistry across a varied collection of songs, and offers a take on genre that’s welcome in the present and raises optimism for what they’ll do from here. It’s easy to dig, and I dig it.

Gypsy Wizard Queen on Facebook

Gypsy Wizard Queen on Bandcamp

 

Blake Hornsby, A Collection of Traditional Folk Songs & Tunes Vol. 1

blake hornsby A Collection of Traditional Folk Songs & Tunes Vol 1

It’s not quite as stark a contrast as one might think to hear Asheville, North Carolina’s Blake Hornsby go from banjo instrumentalism to more lush, sitar-infused arrangements for the final three songs on his A Collection of Traditional Folk Songs & Tunes Vol. 1, as bridging sounds across continents would seem to come organically to his style of folk. And while perhaps “Old Joe Clark” wasn’t written as a raga to start with, it certainly works as one here, answering the barebones runs of “John Brown’s Dream” with a fluidity that carries into the more meditative “Cruel Sister” and a drone-laced 13-minute take on the Appalachian traditional song “House Carpenter” (also done in various forms by Pentangle, Joan Baez, Myrkur, and a slew of others), obscure like a George Harrison home-recorded experiment circa Sgt. Pepper but sincere in its expression and cross-cultural scope. Thinking of the eight-tracker as an LP with two sides — one mostly if not entirely banjo tunes between one and two minutes long, the other an outward-expanding journey using side A as its foundation — might help, but the key word here is ‘collection,’ and part of Hornsby‘s art is bringing these pieces into his oeuvre, which he does regardless of the form they actually take. That is a credit to him and so is this album.

Blake Hornsby on Facebook

Ramble Records store

 

Turbid North, The Decline

Turbid North The Decline

Oof that’s heavy. Produced by guitarist/vocalist Nick Forkel, who’s joined in the band by bassist Chris O’Toole (also Unearth) and drummer John “Jono” Garrett (also Mos Generator), Turbid North‘s The Decline is just as likely to be grind as doom at any given moment, as “Life Over Death” emphasizes before “Patients” goes full-on into brutality, and is the band’s fourth full-length and first since 2015. The 2023 release brings together 10 songs for 43 minutes that seem to grow more aggressive as they go, with “Eternal Dying” and “The Oppressor” serving as the opening statement with a lumber that will be held largely but not completely in check until the chugging, slamming plod of closer “Time” — which still manages to rage at its apex — while the likes of “Slaves,” “Drown in Agony” and “The Old Ones” dive into more extreme metallic fare. No complaints, except maybe for the bruises, but as “The Road” sneaks a stoner rock riff in early and some cleaner shouts in late amid Mastodonny noodling, there’s a playfulness that hints toward the trio enjoying themselves while doling out such punishment, and that gives added context and humanity to the likes of “A Dying Earth,” which is severe both in its ambient and more outright violent stretches. Not for everybody, but if you’re pissed off and feel like your brain’s on fire, they have your back with ready and waiting catharsis. Sometimes you just want to punch yourself in the face.

Turbid North on Facebook

Turbid North on Bandcamp

 

Modern Stars, Space Trips for the Masses

Modern Stars Space Trips for the Masses

A third full-length in as many years from Roman four-piece Modern Stars — vocalist/guitarist/synthesist Andrea Merolle (also sitar and mandolin), vocalist Barbara Margani, bassist/mixer Filippo Strang and drummer Andrea SperdutiSpace Trips for the Masses is maybe less directly space rock in its makeup than one might think. The band’s heavy psychedelia is hardly earthbound, but more ambience than fiery thrust or motorik, and Merolle‘s vocals have a distinctly Mark Lanegan-esque smokiness to which Margani adds bolstering backing presence on the deceptively urbane “No Fuss,” after the opening drift of “Starlight” — loosely post-rock, but too active to be that entirely either, and that’s a compliment — and the echoing “Monkey Blues” first draw the listener in. Margani provides the only voice on centerpiece “My Messiah Left Me Behind,” but that shift is just one example of Modern Stars‘ clear intent to offer something different on every song, be it the shimmer of “Everyday” or the keyboard sounds filling the open spaces early in the eight-minute “Drowning,” which later takes up a march punctuated by, drums and tambourine, devolving on a long synth/noise-topped fade into the six-minute liquid cohesion that is “Ninna Nanna,” a capstone summary of the fascinating sprawl Modern Stars have crafted. One could live here a while, in this ‘space.’

Modern Stars on Facebook

Little Cloud Records store

 

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Destination Ceres Station: Reefersleep EP

trillion ton beryllium ships destination ceres station reefersleep

Those who’ve been following the progression of Nebraska’s Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships will find Destination Ceres Station: Reefersleep — their second offering in 2022 behind the sophomore full-length Consensus Trance (review here) — accordingly dense in tone and steady in roll as the three-piece of Jeremy Warner, Karlin Warner and Justin Kamal offer two more tracks that would seem to have been recorded in the full-length session. As “Destination Ceres Station: Reefersleep” open-spaces and chugs across an instrumental-save-for-samples 12:31 and the subsequent “Ice Hauler” lumbers noddily to its 10:52 with vocals incorporated, the extended length of each track gives the listener plenty to groove on, classically stonerized in the post-Sleep tradition, but becoming increasingly individual. These two songs, with the title-track hypnotizing so that the start of the first verse in “Ice Hauler” is something of a surprise, pair well, and Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships add a taste of slow-boogie to lead them out in the slow fade of the latter, highlighting the riff worship at the heart of their increasingly confident approach. One continues to look forward to what’s to come from them, feeling somewhat greedy for doing so given the substance they’ve already delivered.

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Facebook

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Bandcamp

 

Borehead, 0002

Borehead 0002

The current of feedback or drone noise beneath the rolling motion of Borehead‘s “Phantasm (A Prequel)” — before the sample brings the change into the solo section; anybody know the name of that rabbit? — is indeed a precursor to the textured, open-spaced heavy progressive instrumentalism London trio have on offer with their aptly-titled second EP, 0002. Produced by Wayne Adams at the London-underground go-to Bear Bites Horse Studio, the three-song outing is led by riffs on that opener, patient in its execution and best consumed at high volume so that the intricacy of the bass in “Lost in Waters Deep,” the gentle ghost snare hits in the jazzy first-half break of “Mariana’s Lament” after the ticking clock and birdsong intro, and the start-stop declarative riff that lands so heavy before they quickly turn to the next solo, or, yes, those hidden melodies in “Phantasm (A Prequel)” aren’t lost. These aspects add identity to coincide with the richness of tone and the semi-psychedelic outreach of 0002‘s overarching allure, definitely in-genre, but in a way that seems contingent largely on the band’s interests not taking them elsewhere over time, or at least expanding in multiple directions on what’s happening here. Because there’s a pull in these songs, and I think it’s the band being active in their own development, though four years from their first EP and with nothing else to go on, it’s hard to know where they’ll head or how they’ll get there based on these three tracks. Somehow that makes it more exciting.

Borehead on Facebook

Borehead on Bandcamp

 

Monolithe, Kosmodrom

Monolithe Kosmodrom

With song titles and lyrical themes based around Soviet space exploration, Kosmodrom is the ninth full-length from Parisian death-doomers Monolithe. The band are 20 years removed from their debut album, have never had a real break, and offer up 67 minutes’ worth of gorgeously textured, infinitely patient and serenely immersive death, crossing into synth and sampling as they move toward and through the 26-minute finale “Kosmonavt,” something of a victory lap for the album itself, even if sympathy for anything Russian is at a low at this point in Europe, given the invasion of Ukraine. That’s not Monolithe‘s fault, however, and really at this point there’s maybe less to say about it than there would’ve been last year, but the reason I wanted to write about Kosmodrom, and about Monolithe particularly isn’t just that they’re good at what they do, but because they’ve been going so long, they’re still finding ways to keep themselves interested in their project, and their work remains at an as-high-if-not-higher level than it was when I first heard the 50-minute single-song Monolithe II in 2005. They’ve never been huge, never had the hype machine behind them, and they keep doing what they do anyway, because fuck it, it’s art and if you’re not doing it for yourself, what’s the point? In addition to the adventure each of the five songs on Kosmodrom represents, some moments soaring, some dug so low as to be subterranean, both lush, weighted and beautiful, their ethic and the path they’ve walked deserves nothing but respect, so here’s me giving it.

Monolithe on Facebook

Monolithe on Bandcamp

 

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