Posted in Whathaveyou on February 12th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Along with their plans to release their second album, Of Theories and Dimensions, on March 27 through Stolen Body Records, Mexican heavy instrumentalists Vinnum Sabbathi also cite “European Tour May-August 2020” among their intentions. Well that’s a hell of a tour, but they’re already booked for Esbjerg Fuzztival in Denmark, and that’s on May 8, so at least we know around when they’ll start. I wouldn’t have any trouble believing they’d be on the road for an extended period — wouldn’t be their first time — but that’s a hell of a stretch.
We’ll see how it works out, but while we’re seeing things, there’s a new video the band have posted for “In Search of M-Theory,” the nine-minute, sample-laced opener of Of Theories and Dimensions, and if it’s cosmic heft, grainy space footage and cool live shots you seek — and I know it is — then dive in. Some of the widest-smiling nine minutes I’ve spent today.
More to come on this one (including those tour dates when I see them), but for now, this:
It is a great pleasure to finally announce info and pre-orders of our second Album “of Dimensions & Theories”
3 years have passed since Gravity Works. We’ve been on the road playing some amazing shows and meeting friends that we now consider family. We have been through unique experiences and colossal changes during this time; not only as musicians but as human beings as well: this is our vision of those experiences.
ODAT is a follow up from our first record and it serves as a sequel to the Album “The Sixth Glare” from our brothers Cegvera (go check that one out as well).
Recorded, mixed & mastered by KB in Testa Estudio in León, Mexico on January 3rd – 5th 2020. Art from the talented Yasinviolet from Indonesia.
“In Search of M-Theory” is the opening track of our new Album and on it a TV host describes the world of 2061.
The complete Album samples were recorded by dear friends of us and in the video you can see footage from some very special shows, courtesy of Phocal.mx and our buddy Dan Delaney along with some old space visuals.
THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO SUPPORT US
Stolen Body Records is making a VERY SPECIAL edition containing an Earth 12″ + a Moon 7″ + a Reference Manual booklet with all the detailed story and samples.
We’re having pre orders for the Album as well as merch including fresh mission patches, a special digipack CD and new t-shirts that we’ll bring to Europe for the upcoming tour (still looking for help BTW).
of Dimensions & Theories releases on March 27th 2020, you can pre order it for $1 now but don’t worry, it’ll be free to download once available.
ENDLESS THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND LOVE
Tracklisting: 1. In Search of M-Theory 2. Quantum Determinism 3. An Appraisal 4. Beyond Perturbative States 5. A Superstring Revolution I 6. A Superstring Revolution II
VINNUM SABBATHI is: Alberto (Guitar) Samuel (Bass) Mico / Gerardo (Drums) Roman (Live Samples & Synth)
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 30th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
It actually hasn’t been that long since I listened to one track off a forthcoming record from a band whose last work I dug a lot and immediately had to chase down the rest of the album because the tones hit me so hard. But if you discount that other instance, like on Tuesday, it’s been a good long while. Bristol, UK-based now-duo Cegvera bring expert-level thickness to the proceedings on their upcoming long-player, The Sixth Glare, and the video streaming below for “Red Swarm Beyond” is exactly what got me hooked, as it happens. I guess as far as the idea of a ‘teaser’ goes, whether it’s a whole track (as this is) or not, that’s basically the ideal.
Cegvera‘s last outing was 2019’s Live at Palíndromo (review here) on which some of this material also appeared. All the more reason to hit their Bandcamp.
The PR wire takes it from there:
Cegvera ‘The Sixth Glare’ (Stolen Body)
Dark psychedelia, mesmerising doomy soundscapes, obscured and enlightening riffs are just few components of what to expect from Cegvera’s new record ‘The Sixth Glare’. The album will be released on March 6th by Stolen Body Records (LP/CD/DL) and LSDR (CD).
Following on from their now sold out split release with Vinnum Sabbathi ‘The Good Earth Is Dying’ in 2018, Cegvera have become a two piece – Gerardo Arias (guitar) and Matt Neicho (drums). The bass duties have been taken on by Gerardo splitting the guitar between guitar and bass amps. A sound that needs to be seen to be believed. ‘The Sixth Glare’ represents the first full-length album that Cegvera has to offer as a duo. Recorded and mixed by Joe Clayton at No Studios (Manchester, UK) and mastered by KB at Testa studio (León, Gto. México).
‘The Sixth Glare’ is a reference to the environmental crisis that we are living through today and the anthropogenic extinction events that are referred by world-renowned scientists as ‘the Sixth Mass Extinction’.
The Sixth Glare stands as a conversation that needs to take place. The world is in danger of killing itself. You will find this subject embodied from the smallest scratch of the artwork (Hellbound Graphics, México) to the last second of the final track. The scene is actually set as precursor to Vinnum Sabbathi’s upcoming album ‘Of Dimensions and Theories’ (also to be released this year via SBR) which Gerardo plays drums on.
If it is well true that our planet is facing great biodiversity loss generated by human activity, this record tries to look at these phenomena in a broader context and offers a merely informative in-depth review of the factors that are mindlessly dragging our planet towards decay in modern times. This not only means that humans are depriving other species from their natural environments but they are also threatening their own existence by doing irreversible damage to the biosphere. Similarly, another factor of great importance, the overuse of antibiotics is inducing and facilitating the emergence of abnormal resistance traits in pathogenic microorganisms. At present, antibiotic-resistant diseases also represent and will remain a major threat to the human species.
It should also be said that Gerardo Arias has just become a doctor in Biology and had first hand knowledge on the subject matter.
Tracklist: Side A (Antibiotic resistance – stages of a disease): 1. Infection (Entrance of the pathogen) 2. Incubation (period between infection and the first apparent symptoms) 3. Prodromal (period between first symptom and the full development of the disease) 4. Convalescence (period of recovery)
Side B (The Sixth Glare) 5. The Great Blackout (Environmental effects of nuclear war) 6. After the Thaw (Thawing of the permafrost) 7. The Sixth Glare (Climate change – Global Warming) 8. Red Swarm Beyond (Wildfires – Bushfires)
Cegvera is: Gerardo Arias (guitar, bass) Matt Neicho (drums)
Posted in Reviews on January 7th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
We begin Day Two of the Winter 2020 Quarterly Review. Snow on the ground fell overnight and the day ahead looks as busy as ever. There’s barely time to stop for sips of coffee between records, but some allowances must be made. It’s Tuesday after all. There’s still a lot of week left. And if we can’t be kind to ourselves in the post-holiday comedown of wintry gray, when can we?
So yes, pause, sip — glug, more likely — then proceed.
I don’t usually play favorites with these things, but I think today’s might have worked out to be my favorite batch of the bunch. As always, I hope you find something that speaks to you.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Dommengang, No Keys
Driving heavy psych and rock meet with spacious Americana and a suburbanite dreaminess in Dommengang‘s No Keys, the now-L.A. trio’s follow-up to 2018’s Love Jail (review here). It is a melting pot of sound, with emphasis on melting, but vocal harmonies and consistently righteous basslines like that in “Stir the Sea” act to tie the nine component tracks together, making Dommengang‘s various washes of tone ultimately the creation of a welcoming space. Early cut “Earth Blues” follows opener “Sunny Day Flooding” with a mindful far-outbound resonance, and the later “Arcularius – Burke” finds itself in a linear building pattern ahead of “Jerusalem Cricket,” which reimagines ’70s country rock as something less about nostalgia than forward possibility. Having come far on their apparently keyboard-less journey, from the breadth-casting verses of “Stir the Sea” to the doomy interlude “Blues Rot,” they end with “Happy Death (Her Blues II)” which sure as hell sounds like it has some organ on it. Either way, whether they live up to the standard of the title or not is secondary to the album’s actual achievements, which are significant, and distinguish Dommengang from would-be peers in atmosphere, craft and melody.
Though they don’t do it nearly as often as they did between 2012 and 2015, every now and then Boston’s Ice Dragon manage to sneak out a new release. Over the last few years, that’s been a succession of singles, but Passage of Mind is their first LP since 2015’s A Beacon on the Barrow (review here), and though they’ll always in some part be thought of as a doom band, the unassuming organic psychedelia of “Don’t Know Much but the Road” reminds more of Chris Goss‘ work with Masters of Reality in its acoustic/fuzz blend and melody. The experimentalism-prone outfit have been down this avenue before as well, and it suits them, even as members have moved on to other projects (Brass Hearse among them), with the seven-minute “One of These Days” basing itself around willfully simplistic-sounding intertwining lines of higher and lower fuzz. There are moments of serenity, like closer “Dream About You” and “Sun in My Eyes,” but “The Sound the Rain Makes” is more of a blowout, and even the darker vibe of “Delirium’s Tears” holds hits melody as top priority. Hey guess what? Here’s an Ice Dragon album that deserves more attention than it’s gotten. I think it’s the 12th one.
Oslo’s Saint Karloff squash the high standard they set for themselves on their 2018 debut, All Heed the Black God (review here), with the 41-minute single-song long-player Interstellar Voodoo, basking in bluesy Sabbathian grandeur and keeping a spirit of progressive adventuring beneath without giving over entirely to self-indulgent impulses any more than one could as they careen from one movement to the next in the multi-stage work. With vinyl through Majestic Mountain Records, tape on Stoner Witch Records and CD through Ozium Records, they’re nothing if not well represented, and rightly so, as they veer in and out of psychedelic terrain in exciting and periodically elephantine fashion, still making room for classic Scandi-folk boogie on side A before the second half of the track stomps all over everything that’s come before it en route to its own organ-laced jammy meandering, Iommi shuffle and circa-’74 howl. As a new generation of doom rock begins to take shape, Saint Karloff position themselves well as earlier pursuers of an individualist spirit while still drawing of course on classic sources of inspiration. The first record was encouraging. The second is more so. The third will be the real tell of who they are as a band.
The jangling guitar strum in centerpiece “Lucid” on Witch Trail‘s The Sun Has Left the Hill (Consouling Sounds) has the indelible mark of classic rock and roll freedom to it. One wonders if Pete Townshend would recognize it, or if it’s too far blasted into oblivion by the Belgian trio’s aesthetic treatment across The Sun Has Left the Hill‘s convention-challenging 29-minute span, comprising seven tracks that bring together a heavy alternative rock and post-black metal vision marked by spacious echoes and cavern screams that are likewise tortured and self-assured. That is to say, there’s no mistaking the intent here. In the early intensity of “Watcher” or the shimmering and more patiently unfolding “Silent Running,” the Ghent three-piece mark out their stylistic terrain between bursts of noisy chaotic wash and clearheaded execution. The six-minute “Afloat” hisses like a lost demo that would’ve rewritten genre history some 25 years ago, and even in closer “Residue,” one can’t help but feel like Witch Trail are indeed looking to leave some lasting effect behind them with such forward-thinking craft. Sure to be a shock for those who take it on with no idea of what to expect.
Shortly before Love Gang are halfway through the opening title-track of their debut album, Dead Man’s Game, just when you think you might have their blend of organ-laced Radio Moscow and Motörhead figured out, that’s when Leo Muñoz breaks out the flute and the whole thing takes a turn for the unexpected. Surprises abound from the Denver foursome of Muñoz (who also handles organ and sax), guitarist/vocalist Kam Wentworth, bassist Grady O’Donnell and drummer Shaun Goodwin, who find room for psychedelic airiness amidst the gallop of “Addiction,” which doesn’t seem coincidentally paired with “Break Free,” though the two don’t run together. Love Gang‘s 2016 self-titled EP (review here) had a cleaner production and less aggro throb, and there’s some of that on Dead Man’s Game in the peaceful melody of “Interlude,” but even seven-minute closer “Endless Road” makes a point of finishing at a rush, and that’s ultimately what defines the album. No complaints. Love Gang wield momentum as another element of inventive arrangement on this encouraging first long-player.
‘Tis the stuff of battle axes and severed limbs, but it’s worth noting that three of the six inclusions on Firebreather‘s second LP and first for RidingEasy Records, Under a Blood Moon, have some reference to fire in their title. The follow-up to their brazen 2017 self-titled debut (review here) starts with its longest track (immediate points) in the nine-minute “Dancing Flames,” then follows immediately with “Our Souls, They Burn” and launches side B with the eponymous “Firebreather,” as the Gothenburg trio of Mattias Nööjd, Kyle Pitcher and Axel Wittbeck launch their riffy, destructive assault with urgency that earns all that scarred land left in its wake. The High on Fire comparison remains inevitable, perhaps most of all on “Firebreather” itself, but Firebreather have grown thicker in tone, meaner in approach and do nothing to shy away from the largesse that such a sound might let them convey, as “Our Souls, They Burn” and in the volume surges of closer “The Siren.” Under a Blood Moon is a definite forward step from the first LP, showing an evolving sound and burgeoning individuality that one hopes Firebreather continue to hunt down with such vigilance.
Presented through Stolen Body Records, the debut long-player from French trio Karkara purports to be “Oriental psych rock,” which accounts for an Eastern influence in the overall sound of its seven-track/41-minute run, but there are perhaps some geographical questions to be undertaken there, as “Camel Rider” and others show a distinctive Mideastern flair. Whatever works, I guess. At its core, Crystal Gazer is a work of psychedelic space rock, brought to bear with a duly open sensibility by guitarist/vocalist Karim Rihani (also didgeridoo), bassist Hugo Olive and drummer/vocalist Maxime Marouani as seemingly the beginning stages of a broader sonic adventure. That is to say, the stylistic aspects at play here — and they are very much “at play” — feel purposefully used, but like the foundation of what will be future growth on the part of Karkara as a unit. Will they progress along a more patient and meditative path, as “The Way” hints in some of its early roll, or will the frenetic winding of closer “Jedid” set their course for subsequent freakouts? I don’t know, but Karkara strike as a band who won’t see any point to standing still creatively any more than they do to doing so rhythmically.
Information is limited on Circle of Sighs, and by that I primarily mean I don’t have any. They list their point of origin as Los Angeles, so there’s that, but as to the whos and whats, wheres and so on, it’s a mystery. Something tells me that suits the band, whose four-track debut EP, Desolate, gracefully executes a blend of melodic downerism with more extreme elements at play, melodic vocal arrangements offset by screams in the closing title-track after the prior rolling groove of “Burden of the Flesh” offered a progressive and synth-laden take on Pallbearer-style emotive doom. Acoustics, keyboard, and a clear use of multiple singers give Circle of Sighs‘ first outing a kitchen-sink feel, but one can only admire them for trying something new at their (presumed) outset, and the catchy chug of “Hold Me, Lucifer” speaks to more complex aesthetic origins than the simplistic subject matter might lead one to believe. The outlier is the penultimate nine-minute cut “Kukeri,” which broods across its first three minutes in a manner that would make Patrick Walker proud before unfolding the breadth of its lumber and arrangement, harmonies and screams and the first real showcase of more extreme impulses taking hold in its second half — plus strings, maybe — which “Desolate” itself will build upon after a bookending acoustic close. There’s some sorting out to do in terms of sound, but already they show a readiness to push in their own direction, and that’s more than it would seem reasonable to ask.
Way out west, Chris Allison of the band Lord Loud is taking on psychedelic shimmer under the ostensible solo moniker of Floral Fauna, but the situation of the project’s 11-tracker debut LP, Pink and Blue is more complicated in personnel and style than that, melding fuzzy presence, classic ’60s surf-tone, rampant hooky melody and ready-to-go-anywhere-as-long-as-it-works pop experimentalism together in a steaming lysergic cauldron of neo-yourface-ism that’s ether blissed enough to tie funk and ancient R&B to cosmic flow together in a manner that feels like an utter tossoff, like, hey, yeah man, this kind of thing just happens all the time here. You know, no big deal on this wavelength. Mellow dreams in “Great White Silence,” a spacey ramble in “Velvet and Jade” and the echoing leadwork of “Red Anxiety” continue the color theme from the opening title-track, and the record caps with “Herds of Jellyfish,” which at last brings forward the vocal harmony that the whole album seems to have been begging for. Cool debut? Shit, man. It’s 36 minutes of straight-up psych joy just waiting to bring you on board. Legal psilocybin now.
There are a couple things you can figure on in this wacky universe, and one of them is that German imprint World in Sound knows what it’s doing when it picks up a classic heavy rock band. Silhouettes is the second long-player the label has released from woefully-monikered Aschaffenburg-based four-piece Vvlva, and indeed in the upfront boogie of “Cosmic Pilgrim” or the more progressive unfolding of pieces like “Tales Told by a Gray Man,” the centerpiece “Gomorrah,” or the longer “Night by Night/The Choir” and “Dance of the Heathens,” which seem to bring the two sides together, there’s enough vintage influence to make the case once again. Like the more forward thinking of their contemporaries, Vvlva have brought this modus into the present when it comes to production value and clarity, and rather than sound like it’s 1973, they would seem to be making 1973 sound like them. Whether one dives in for the early hooks in “Cosmic Pilgrim” or “What Do I Stand For?” or the fuzzy interplay between the solo and organ in the maddeningly bouncing “Hobos,” there’s plenty in Silhouettes to demonstrate the vitality and continued evolution of the style.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 31st, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Recently enough back from a tour of Europe and already confirmed for a return to that continent in Spring 2020 for an appearance at Desertfest Berlin with presumably more dates to follow, the Wellington, New Zealand-based duo Earth Tongue released their debut album, Floating Being, this past summer through Stolen Body Records, and if their name is somewhat easy to overlook, their sound certainly isn’t. While rife with a heavy fuzz in the opening salvo of “Microscopic God” and “Probing the New Reality,” setting the tone both, well, tonally, and in terms of the album’s sci-fi we’re-all-robots-ish post-New Wave thematic that will soon come to further fruition, there are pop and electro showcases that take hold as the maddeningly catchy and surprisingly aggressive “Hidden Entrance” comes in to unveil a secret Nine Inch Nails influence — shh! don’t tell anybody! — before “Unseen Tormentor” finds a new echelon of vocal righteousness from the two-piece of Gussie Larkin and Ezra Simons, arranging in layers and setting up a duet dynamic that can be switched on and off that only adds character to the proceedings as the rest of the record plays out in chic and effective fashion.
Centerpiece “Astonishing Comet” builds on the sci-fi vibe while “The Well of Pristine Order” digs into deeper-mixed fuzz and melody while setting a forward push of snare for added proto-punk urgency. It’s got a hook, but the greater impression is the riff that resolves itself in the second half, and like much of the half-hour-long LP, it’s over quick and on to “Portable Shrine,” which takes a bit more of a patient roll, but still refuses to waste any of its time, underscoring the tightness of Earth Tongue‘s craft and the unflappable nature of their sound, that fuzz and an earliest-Kadavar-style compression in the drums providing an excellent backdrop for the voices of Simons and Larkin. Floating Being caps with its two longest tracks in “The Dome” (3:52) and “Sentient Sediment” (5:21), with a winding course in the former hitting into a wall of more swinging starts and stops marked by standout drums and even more standout harmonies en route to fuzzo-blivion. It’s awesome. And “Sentient Sediment” backs it up with an almost post-rocking drift initially before finding its core riff around midway through and even slowing down to more of a nod by the time its five-plus minutes are up — a surprising and broad finale for a record that’s spent so much effort on being so efficient, but damned if it doesn’t work for them.
Earth Tongue will tour Australia and New Zealand in November and December, and once again, they’ll be back in Europe come Spring at least for Desertfest and likely more, so keep an eye out. Somehow I doubt this is the last we’ll be hearing from them. In the meantime, the video for “Probing the New Reality” is rife with charm and premiering below. I advise you to do the right thing and dig in accordingly.
Have fun:
Earth Tongue, “Probing the New Reality” official video premiere
Take a trip into Earth Tongue’s astonishing universe in their new music video for ‘Probing the New Reality’. Delicately balancing all-out pop hooks with mind-frying riff action, the New Zealand two-piece take stoner-pop to a new level in this track. ‘Probing the New Reality’ is the third single off their debut album ‘Floating Being’, released in June this year via Bristol-based label Stolen Body.
While killing time in Berlin between tours, Earth Tongue conceptualised and self-directed the video, alongside Alan Waddingham whose work includes music videos for GUM, Princess Chelsea and LarzRanda. The footage, shot on 33mm film stock was brought to life by animator Neirin Best, who has created videos for names such as The Pixies and Jane Weaver. The music video release follows a successful European tour, where Earth Tongue appeared at festivals from the UK to Poland alongside bands such as Monolord and Radio Moscow.
Created by Earth Tongue and Alan Waddingham Director of Photography – Alan Waddingham Animation – Neirin Best Additional Animation – Ezra Simons Edit – Ezra Simons Assistance and BTS Photography – Joel Thomas
EARTH TONGUE AUSTRALIAN TOUR: Friday 29th November – Adelaide, Wundenberg’s Recording Studios Saturday 30th November – Melbourne, Sunburn Festival The Tote Sunday 1st December – Sydney, The Vanguard Supported by Numidia & HEV?
Earth Tongue New Zealand tour: 6/12 – Wellington, SAN FRAN 7/12 – Auckland, WHAMMY 13/12 – Christchurch, DARKROOM 14/12 – DUNEDIN, THE COOK
The band consists of two human beings – Gussie Larkin and Ezra Simons.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 3rd, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Here’s the simplest post I’m going to put together today. The info for this album came down the PR wire. I skimmed through it in that way I do when I’m most likely three-quarters asleep — which is most of the time these days — said to myself, “well that might be cool,” put it on, it was, so I’m posting about it. Done. It could not possibly be easier or more straightforward than that.
A cosmic trio based in Toulouse, France, Karkara will release their debut album, Crystal Gazer, on Oct. 25 through Stolen Body Records. They’ve got opening track “Proxima Centaury” streaming now, and it’s both a spiritual and a sonic gateway into the rest of the LP that follows. Take my word for it or don’t, but know that I wouldn’t try to purposefully steer you wrong or mess with your day — or at least not do so surreptitiously; there’s some stuff that gets posted around here very much intent on messing with your day — and rather that I’m putting this here for the opposite purpose.
Have at it:
Karkara ‘Crystal Gazer’ (Stolen Body Records)
Explosive power trio that furiously mixes garage / fuzz and middle eastern sounds, KARKARA is an unprecedented project that takes the gamble of glueing together the East and the West sound in a common goal: transcendence. Created in 2017 in Toulouse – France- under the idea of the guitarist and the bassist and inspired by the psychedelic rock scene of the Middle East and the Maghreb of the 60s and 70s, the band combines its traditional inspirations with a visceral taste for the shattering sounds of garage fuzz and contemporary krautrock.
Even going so far as to use their favorite atypical instrument – the didgeridoo – the three members of KARKARA, like desert wizards, take pleasure in pushing the boundaries of the genre further and take their audience into a mystical and indomitable world.
Their debut album «Crystal Gazer», recorded at Swampland studio and mastered by the American producer Jim Diamond, who had recorded and collaborated with the White Stripes in Detroit under Ghetto Records in the 90’s, is a hypnotic musical production inspired by the mystical folklores all around the middle eastern countries. With the collaboration of the illustrator Dead Flag who was an additional source of imagination, this 7 tracks LP of 41 minutes is a deafening psychedelic flood where the desert and the tribal atmosphere is omnipresent.The lyrics take the form of a mystical and narratives incantations that draw the thread of an epic journey that unfolds throughout all the album.
Tracklisting: 1. Proxima Centaury 2. The Way 3. Camel Rider 4. Into Orchard 5. Crystal Gazer 6. Zarathoustra 7. Jedid
KARKARA is: Karim Rihani – guitar / didgeridoo / vocals Hugo Olive – bass Maxime Marouani – drums / vocals
In the time since Bristol, UK-based post-metallers Cegvera completed their tour dates in Mexico last summer, the band has signed a management deal, supported Elder and Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard — among others — newly begun recording their second album, and most pivotally, made the transition from a trio to a two-piece, saying goodbye to bassist Aaron Scrupps in the process. As one might expect, there have been some changes in their dynamic as a result. The video premiering below for “Fractals (Corrupted)” is the first offering to come from the duo version of Cegvera and in addition to playing in the dark, as will happen, it finds guitarist Gerardo Arias covering more of the low-end in terms of tone where even on last year’s split with Vinnum Sabbathi (review here), he could be heard airing out a bit more post-rock-style drift. Drummer Matt Neicho, at least if the video is anything to go by, seems to relish in the change, and headbangs in time to his own cymbal crashes in a way that looks downright painful to my gentleman-of-a-certain-age self, adding even more force to the push of the rhythm as he goes.
“Fractals” is a song that would seem to have been around for a few years at least, with its roots in the band’s 2016 debut album that shared its name. “Fractals” from Fractals had a longer introduction from the guitar and a longer runtime as a result, but some of the crunch in the video below could also be heard on Cegvera‘s Live at Palíndromo, which was recorded in Guadalajara on the aforementioned Mexican tour and released this past January through LSDR Records, but the two-piece seem to strip it down even more, so that its progression is barely recognizable from the original “Fractals” and “Fractals (Corrupted)” becomes its own entity in this new form. Its post-metallic groove will be familiar to those who’ve been around the style long enough to understand what a “Stones from the Sky”-moment is, but it intrigues nonetheless thanks to the energy of its delivery and its blend of raw aggression and barebones atmosphere.
One has to wonder what might become of Cegvera going forward and how their sound might develop over the longer term with Arias and Neicho working on their own — if they even decide to continue on that route. “Fractals (Corrupted)” shows there’s potential for doing so — a way forward, in other words — and one suspects that after their next recording is done, the live dates below will help them further clarify the path they want to take. The rest of us will just have to wait to discover how it all shakes out, unless, you know, you can make it to a show or something like that.
Enjoy the premiere of “Fractals (Corrupted)” below, followed by more from the PR wire:
It is the first time we record anything as a two piece (after aaron the bass player left the band). The session was recorded by Aleks Vezhdarov at University of West England (Bristol), and filmed by Toby Cameron (On Par Productions). It was recorded in a single take and filmed with a single camera.
Last release: the good earth is dying split w/ Vinnum Sabbathi, released by Stolen body records. Following dates:
With Weedruid (Germany): 23- May. Bristol, The cube 24 -May. Sheffield, Delicious Clam 25- May Coventry, The Arches
With Fumata (Mexico): 7- June London, The Dev. 8 – June Leeds, Bad Apples
Cegvera is: Gerardo Arias – Guitar Matt Neicho – Drums
Posted in audiObelisk on November 8th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
[Click play above to hear the premieres of ‘Intermission (The Good Earth is Dying)’ and ‘Arrival/Colonia’ from Vinnum Sabbathi and Cegvera’s The Good Earth is Dying split. LP, CD and DL are released Dec. 10 on Stolen Body Records.]
For as long as humanity has been willing to acknowledge its existence — a substantially shorter amount of time than humanity has known about it — space has represented a reason to hope. The question of whether or not we’re alone in the universe — spoiler alert: nope — and whether we might someday wander among the stars has been a central fuel burnt by science and science-fiction alike. But nothing is apolitical, and with their new split release, Vinnum Sabbathi and Cegvera remind that at best, interplanetary exploration and even colonization can only be a temporary fix without real, substantive changes to what it means to be human. The five-track/33-minute The Good Earth is Dying paints a grim picture that only seems suitable when one looks at shifting weather patterns, melting permafrost, rising sea levels, floating garbage islands and dying coral reefs, and though there are no lyrics, in the titles of its instrumental pieces, the offering brings the two bands together to work around the common theme. A narrative arc is followed that takes human beings deeper into space than we’ve ever gone before, only to find, colonize and destroy yet another world, having learned nothing from the collapsing of earth’s ecosystem that caused us to leave in the first place.
Samples from NASA documentaries pervade Vinnum Sabbathi‘s “HEX VIII: The Malthusian Spectre,” and the transition with “Intermission (The Good Earth is Dying)” involves both bands before Cegvera — who also see Vinnum Sabbathi drummer Gerardo Arias move to guitar to play on their portion — get underway with “Arrival/Colonia,” before moving into “Depletion/Overshoot” and the inevitable-seeming “Collapse/Aftermath.” The ease with which the two lineups come together emphasizes a central characteristic of The Good Earth is Dying, which is just how much the two bands are working toward the same ends, toward telling the same story instrumentally. Granted, the Mexico City and Bristol, UK, outfits have their sonic disparities, with Vinnum Sabbathi centering more on crunching riffage and Cegvera shifting from sludge into most post-metallic fare, but this split was born earlier in 2018 following a tour the two groups did together in Mexico, and rather than play in competition with each other as so many splits see groups do, The Good Earth is Dying — recorded, mixed and mastered by KB at Testa Studio in León, Guanajuato — demonstrates just how much the two bands work together.
Granted, for Vinnum Sabbathi, the 13-minute “HEX VIII: The Malthusian Spectre” continues a live-recorded, should-be-compiled-into-an-LP-at-some-point-how-about-now series of tracks that has also had two prior installments on their April 2018 split with Owain and began on 2015’s split with Bar de Monjas (review here), but that song’s relation to ideas about overpopulation tie directly into the destruction of natural resources characterized in Cegvera‘s three tracks. And there’s precious little to argue with in terms of delivery from Vinnum Sabbathi either, as the band fluidly bring their stage-hewn chemistry to the studio as one would expect. Their commitment to recording live extends back through their awaited 2017 full-length debut, Gravity Works (review here), and their earlier work, and at this point it’s their standard modus. Adding samples after the fact lends further depth to the proceedings, and a studio feel is enhanced as well through the sampling on “Intermission (The Good Earth is Dying),” which ends with a recording of people laughing amid the sound of bagpipes before shifting into the quiet opening lines of “Arrival/Colonia” that soon give way to such heavy nod on the five-minute track.
Arriving on this foreign world seems to be the easy part, and things are rolling along well enough on a heavy groove as Cegvera unfold their portion of the outing, but the atmosphere only grows darker with time, and “Depletion/Overshoot” finds them exploring textures out of mournful heavy blues and airy post-rock alike before turning again to heavier riffing — some prime fuzz, that — and in what’s presumably the “Overshoot” portion in the second half of the song, an increasingly intense forward pummel. By the time they’re into the last minute, cacophony has taken full hold of the song, and they leave a final note out to hang in open space as a transition into the organ-laced final statement, “Collapse/Aftermath,” which indeed feels suitably mournful as regards humanity’s prospects for a better existence. Fair. The floating guitars that showed up in “Depletion/Overshoot” make a return over a gradually-unfurled progression that, at 90 seconds into its total 6:35, turns to a build that brings it to more densely-weighted riffing. If that’s the collapse, then the aftermath is no less engaging or heavy in its execution, and one is reminded of the ambience that Vinnum Sabbathi are able to so naturally conjure on “HEX VIII: The Malthusian Spectre” with echoing guitars and such heft of tone.
That Cegvera would seem to be so much in conversation with “HEX VIII: The Malthusian Spectre” — whether the songs were written out or the concept decided before the tour or not — is emblematic of how well the two groups sit alongside each other. With the bulk of the time belonging to the latter, there’s nonetheless room for both to offer a suitable glimpse at their overall approach while staying on-message in terms of the plotline being followed. I guess the only shame is they didn’t have it to take on tour earlier this year, but these things have a way of working out, whether Cegvera — now a duo down from the three/four-piece they are here — return to Mexico or bring Vinnum Sabbathi to the UK in a show-trade. Either way, the split stands as a document of their time on the road and what they were able to construct in terms of song and theme alike. There may or may not be hope for the future of humanity — again, spoiler alert: nope — but no one other than the willfully blind can say we didn’t see it coming, and though the future they’re imaging isn’t particularly bright, that they’re imagining it at all speaks to one aspect of our species most worth preserving.
