Alright, day two. Here we go. I never really know how a given day of the Quarterly Review is going to flow until I get there. The hope is that in slating releases for a given day — which I mostly do randomly over time, though I generally like to lead with something ‘bigger’ — I’ve considered things like not putting too much that sounds the same together, geographic variability, and so on. Sometimes that plan works, and I get a day like yesterday, which was pretty close to ideal. If that was the pattern for this entire QR, I’d be just fine with that, but I know better. One day at a time, as all the inspirational tchotchkes say.

Feeling good though headed into day two, so I’ll take it.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Blackwater Holylight, If You Only Knew

The narrative around L.A.-by-way-of-Portland’s Blackwater Holylight at this point is one of growth, and well it should be. At seven years’ remove from their self-titled debut (review here), the four-piece offer the four-song If You Only Knew — three originals and a take on Radiohead‘s “All I Need” — as something of a stopgap four years after their third LP, Silence/Motion (review here). And like that 2021 album, “Wandering Lost,” “Torn Reckless” and “Fate is Forward” see the band working to expand their sound. They’re not upstarts anymore, and the marriage of dream-pop and crush on “Wandering Lost” alone is worth the price of admission, never mind the downward swirl of “Torn Reckless” the melodic burst-through and quiet space of “Fate is Forward” or the explosion in the back half of the Radiohead tune. Pro shop, all the way.

Blackwater Holylight website

Suicide Squeeze Records website

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Spider Kitten, The Truth is Caustic to Love

There’s a deep current of Melvinsian quirk in Spider Kitten‘s thickly-riffed slog, and it’s in the creeper-into-noiseburst of “Revelation #1” with its later rawest-Alice in Chains harmonies as much as the false start on “Febrile and Taciturn” and a chugblaster like “Wretched Evergreen” which is just one of the six songs in the 14-song tracklisting under two minutes long. Throughout the 37 minutes, shit gets weird. Then it gets weirder. Then they do folk balladeering in “Sueño” for a minimal-Western divergence prefacing the later soundtrackery of “Woe Betide Me.” Then they’re back to bashing away — but at what? Themselves? Their instruments certainly. Maybe a bit of shaking genre convention if not outright, all-the-time defiance. The key blend is ultimately of the crunch in their guitar and bass tones and the melodies that come to top it — not that all the vocals are melodic, mind you — with a kind of creative restlessness that makes each cut find its own way through, some at a decent clip, to leave a dent right in the middle of your forehead.

Spider Kitten links

APF Records website

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Mooch, Kin

Montreal three-piece Mooch align with Black Throne Productions for their fourth album release. The band, comprised of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Ben Cornel, guitarist/vocalist/bassist/keyboardist Julian Iac and drummer/vocalist Alex Segreti, have run a thread of quick, purposeful growth through the last several years, with 2024’s Visions (review here)  following 2023’s Wherever it Goes following their 2020 debut, Hounds, and other singles and such besides. At their hookiest, in a piece like “Hang Me Out (False Sun),” they remind some of At Devil Dirt‘s heavy-fuzz poppy plays, but one knows better than to expect Mooch to be singleminded on an LP, and Kin plays out with according complexity, finding a particularly satisfying resolution in “Prominence” before hitting successive, different crescendos in “Lightning Rod,” “Gemini” and the eight-minute “Zenith” to end the record. A band who genuinely seem to follow where the material takes them while refusing to get lost on the way.

Mooch links

Black Throne Productions website

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Snakes & Pyramids, Disappearer

I’m not a punker. I was never cool enough to listen to punk rock. Generally when I hear something that’s rooted in punk and it lands with me, I assume that means the band are doing punk wrong. If so, I like the way Snakes & Pyramids do punk wrong on Disappearer. The tonal presence, their willingness to make not-everything be exactly on-the-beat, the liberal doses of wah treatment on the lead guitar to give a psychedelic edge, the effects on the vocals helping that as well, plus the flexibility to roll out a heavy riff. There’s not a whole lot to not like as they push genre limits across 38 minutes and eight songs, finding space for post-punk in “Disappearer” or “All the Same” before they really dig in on the near-eight-minute closer “Seven Gods.” For future reference, the band is the doubly-Brian’ed three-piece of Brian Hammond (ex-The Curses), Brian Connor (ex-Motherboar) and Cavan Bligh. Psychedelic punk, even more than punk-metal or any other way you might want to try to blend it, is incredibly difficult to pull off well. That seems much less the case here.

Snakes & Pyramids on Bandcamp

Snakes & Pyramids on Instagram

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Unbelievable Lake, I Have No Mouth and Yet I Must Scream

There is only one song on I Have No Mouth and Yet I Must Scream, and it’s the title-track. At 41 minutes long, that’s all you need, and Northern Irish psych-drone experimentalists Unbelievable Lake — think Queen Elephantine, but longer-form, more effects on the guitar, and dramatic in the ebbs and flows — the first 10 minutes are a movement unto themselves, with a linear build into a consuming payoff; due comedown provided. Those comparatively still stretches can be some of the most difficult for a band who’ve just blown it out to dwell in, but Unbelievable Lake use negative-space as much as crush to make their way toward the next culmination, which sort of gradually devolves instrumentally but makes its way along the path of residual noise toward one last round of pummel. You bet your ass they make it count. This is a significant accomplishment, and enough on its own wavelength that most ears will glaze over to hear it. But there’s just the right kind of brain out there for it, as well. Maybe that’s you.

Unbelievable Lake on Bandcamp

Cursed Monk Records website

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Krautfuzz, Live at the Church

Krautfuzz scorch the ground on the 23-minute “Live at the Church A” to such a degree that I’m surprised there was anything left to plug in for when they bring out J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and Witch to take part in “Live at the Church B,” let alone a full album-unto-itself 39 minutes’ worth of go. Rest assured, there’s plenty of noiseshove in “Live at the Church B” as well, and it arrives quicker than in the preceding slab, guitar running forward and back in loops even before the swirl cuts through the fuller distortion surrounding at about seven minutes in, howls and wails and wormholes and spacetime bend inward, flex outward, breathe like the cosmic microwave background, and the exploration continues after the rumble (mostly) subsides, getting ready to sneak in one more mini-freakout before they’re done. Damn, Krautfuzz. Save some lysergic push for the rest of the class. Or better, don’t. Clearly they were rolling out the ‘red carpet’ for Mr. Mascis. It just happened to be red from all the plasma churning thereupon.

Krautfuzz on Instagram

Sulatron Records website

Mirror World Music website

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Sleeping Mountain, Sleeping Mountain

Even before they get to the six-and-a-half-minute “The Door” or the dreamy midsection of closer “Medusa,” London’s Sleeping Mountain demonstrate patience in their delivery early on with the instrumental-save-for-the-sample leadoff “Humans” and “Walls of Shadows,” which leads with guest vocals before the full tonal crux of the riff is unveiled, and continues in methodical, doom-leaning fashion. That’s a vibe that doesn’t necessarily persist as the later “Akelarre” puts the cymbals out front and pushes a more uptempo finish ahead of the closer “Medusa,” but the dude-twang “Alibi” and the all-in nod of “Tennessee Walking Horse” underscore the message of dynamic, and while this self-titled may be the first album from Sleeping Mountain, it portrays the three-piece as confident in their approach and sure of their direction, even if they’re not 100 percent on where that direction is going. Nor should they be. They should be writing the songs and letting the rest work itself out over time, which is what you get here. They sound like a band I’ll still be writing about in a decade, so I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Sleeping Mountain website

Sleeping Mountain on Bandcamp

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Goblinsmoker, The King’s Eternal Throne

Behold the awaited first album from Durham, UK, sludge-doom, put-a-pillow-over-your-face-and-it’s-made-of-riffs betrayers Goblinsmoker. Dubbed The King’s Eternal Throne and indeed capping with the three-minute minimalist homage “Toad King (Forest Synth Offering),” the preceding title-track works its way from its more poised opening into an engrossing meganod of hairy-ass distortion, with the later-arriving throatripper screams ready for whatever Dopethrone comparison you want to make, and no less sharp in the biting. Of course, by the time they get to that third-of-four inclusions, this has already been well proven on side A’s “Shamanic Rites” and “Burn Him,” the leadoff holding to a steady and malevolent lumber while the follow-up takes a faster swing to upending witchy convention as the vocals offer the most vicious devourment I’ve heard from an English band since Dopefight roamed the earth. Down with humans. Up with toads. Familiar enough in its sludgy roots, The King’s Eternal Throne makes its own trouble like dog food makes gravy (with added liquid, in other words), and basks in heaps of shenanigans besides. The songs are like slow-motion razor juggling.

Goblinsmoker on Bandcamp

APF Records website

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Onioroshi, Shrine

The three-song sophomore full-length, Shrine, from Italian heavy progressives Onioroshi is the band’s first outing since 2019’s debut, Beyond These Mountains (review here), and is duly adventurous for that. Set up across “Pyramid” (18:18), “Laborintus” (15:35) and “Egg” (20:31), the album feels cohesive in refusing to be anything other than one it is. Its psychedelia is met with fervent terrestrial groove, and “Laborintus” spends most of its 15 minutes sounding like it’s about to fall apart, but never does. Duh, should I call it expansive? The truth is at 54 minutes, it’s a significant undertaking, but “Laborintus” ends up thrilling for the element of danger, and though raw in the production, “Egg” builds its own world in atmospherics, pushing further in the ebbs and flows of “Pyramid,” which itself takes loud/quiet trades to a less-predictable place. Some of Shrine feels insular, but that seems to be the point. A creative call to worship, and maybe worshiping the creativity itself.

Onioroshi on Bandcamp

Bitume Productions website

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L’Ira del Baccano & Yama, Tempus Deorum

Whoa. First of all, with Tempus Deorum, you’ve got L’Ira del Baccano. The Roman psychedelic explorers follow 2023’s Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here) with the 19-minute piece “Tempus 25,” an ether-bound reach that hypnotizes well ahead of unveiling its full tonal breadth and even crushes a bit before receding ahead of the next go. With synth cascading through the midsection and a duly expansive build that hits two more climaxes before it’s through, “Tempus 25” sets itself up in contrast to Tilburg, the Netherlands’ Yama, whose 2014 debut, Ananta (review here), is well remembered as they offer three songs “Wish to Go Under,” “The Absolute” and “Naraka,” that feel more solidified in their structure but that offer complement to “Tempus 25” for that. Not short on scope themselves, Yama let the chug patterning and vocal soar of “The Absolute” stand in evidence of their progressivism, and after 11 years, they sound like they have more to say. One only hopes that’s the case all around on this somehow-tidy, 35-minute split LP.

L’Ira del Baccano website

Yama on Bandcamp

Subsound Records store

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Tomorrow, June 27, marks the release of Da Captain Trips‘ fifth album, In Between, through Subsound Records. With it. the long-ish running North Italian instrumental prog-psych four-piece offer six new tracks of lush immersion and fluidity — a safe space to dwell for a time — and foster a bit of heft besides. Looking at you, “Spiralis.”

Beginning with the keyboard blips and bloops fading it at the start of opener and longest cut (immediate points) “Die,” with guitar gradually entering the procession with such finesse that it’s there before you know it. This movement, happening patiently over the first several minutes of the 38-minute six-song LP, is telling of the band’s methodology more broadly across the record. Not all of the songs end up in the same place — “Die” is longer than everything else by three minutes or so and plays across its own linear build to an encompassing and bright-hued wash, guitars and keys surging together at the finish. But it’s indicative of the dream tones and the care the four-piece of guitarist Riccardo Cavicchia, bassist Federico Chiappa, drummer Tommaso Villa and keyboardist Paolo “Apollo” Negri have clearly put into presenting the material. One who has spent time in the evocations of My Sleeping Karma wouldn’t feel out of place in “Whispers,” or really any of the songs here.

But at the same time, there’s a story to tell (through the music), and death, as you may have heard somewhere, is only the beginning. “Whispers” begins the onward journey, and it is not without footfalls, whether that’s a flourish of denser tone or the proggy solo exploring across much of the second half before the keyboards move forward to mark the finish. The chemistry there, guitar and keys weaving melodies over a solid underlying groove, is a big part of what makes In Between feel cohesive as it moves through the early emotional pastoralism of “Spiralis,” seeming to declare something in the midsection but I’m not sure what. If this it’s the procession of an afterlife, then maybe we’re in memory, but there’s more than nostalgia happening too, which is fair when one considers the complexity of a life.

“Back to Sargassian” continues the thread and tops its steady low-end movement with keyboard and effects swirls before a more jagged guitar strum cuts through, but the threat it momentary, and it’s the synth that gives the presumed side B leadoff its crescendo. That “Land of Shades” takes its time unfurling isn’t a shock by the time the listener arrives at the penultimate track’s doorstep, but there’s jazzy flourish in the guitar and a more insistent punchthrough from the snare drum that soon enough diverge via organ into a section of more classic ranging psychedelia, complete with effects-manipulated spoken voice, picking up from a Morricone-style whistle to Hypnos 69-level progressive classicism before departing again into the finish. It’s not revolutionary, but it certainly is gorgeous. The same is true of the album as a whole.

As it invariably would be on either a craft or thematic level, the closer “Lotus” is a landing point. It marks itself out as such quickly with a full-tone procession, keys, guitar, bass and drums aligned around a more dramatic, almost doomly, nod. The keyboard departs to trickle down notes in between — hey that’s the name of the record — the crashes, but the kick drum gives a transition under the keyboard and soon enough the darker hue is a memory replaced by Mediterranean-sounding keys over motion-minded drums; we’re dancing. It gets weirder, and should. The guitar gradually comes back in, works its way toward a final solo, but there isn’t a blowout coming. It wouldn’t work for the theme. Ultimately, this is the story of a shutting down.

A gong strikes and they’re done, Da Captain Trips having succeeded in conveying a kind of transcendence through music that resonates whether one is following a plot thread or not. At the very least, it’s nothing to be afraid of, and there’s a kind of comfort in that.

Some PR wire-type background follows the player below. Immerse and enjoy:

“In Between” is the fifth full length album of the band and comes after 3 years from “Maths of the Elements” with the same line up.

This time the mission of the four musicians is to explore the sound and the landscape of the place “in between” where our consciousness moves when the physical form ends its time .

Death is part of life and it could be the last definitive psychedelic trip.

A great inspiration was reading “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”, where you can find a detailed explanation of what to do in life to recognize the way after you have passed away. They tried to give their own Interpretation going deep in their consciousness to explore the sound of that moment, passing through the colors, whispers, shades, symbols and thinking about the emptiness of our being.

The result can be perceived in their compositions from a dark and a light side of the music that fight.

Compared to the previous album, there is an improvement in dialogue between guitar and keyboards and structures are like a flow because most of the ideas come from improvisations and some songs were born and developed starting from the rhythm.

Visual artist and friend “Dem” created this beautiful artwork as his own interpretation of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Inspired by the shape of a double Vajra (a ritual tool symbolizing absolute stability in Tibetan Buddhism) he merged it with magical symbols from various European traditions that bridge the material and spiritual worlds.

Da Captain Trips are :
Riccardo Cavicchia : Guitars
Federico Chiappa : Bass
Tommaso Villa : Drums & Percussions
Paolo “Apollo” Negri : Keyboards

Da Captain Trips on Bandcamp

Da Captain Trips on Instagram

Da Captain Trips on Facebook

Subsound Records store

Subsound Records on Facebook

Formed just last year, Litania were already booked to appear as part of Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Switzerland next month alongside Brant Bjork, Twenty Two Toads, Duel, Dead Meadow and a slew of others, but I guess the label(s) couldn’t wait to make the announcement. Litania‘s signing is the probably not the first label-collab for Heavy Psych Sounds, who are working with Subsound Records on the release, but I can’t think of another off the top of my head, so I’ll call it ‘rare’ rather than ‘unheard of,’ to be safe.

There is no music yet. Not from the impending debut album the details from which will be revealed in two weeks, not a demo, not a live track — nuffin on the Bandcamp but the follow button and a logo. That’s where the part about getting together in 2024 comes into play. Still, I guess the record’s done because HPS is starting the promo cycle. August release? We’ll find out on June 12.

From social media:

!! NEW BAND SIGNING !! *** LITANIA ***

– The Italian psych doom band signed to HPS and Subsound Records for the debut album –

We’re really stoked to announce that the Italian psych doom band LITANIA is now part of the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Family !!

This time we joined forces with our brothers in arms at Subsound Records.

Litania has signed for the debut album.

PRESALE + FIRST TRACK PREMIERE: June 12th

SAYS THE BAND:

“We’re beyond excited to finally share this record with you. Joining the Heavy Psych Sounds and Subsound Records family is a milestone that makes us proud — it marks the beginning of a new chapter, louder than ever.”

BIOGRAPHY

Litania is a doom/hindustan psych band from Italy and Serbia. The sound is based on drones, heavy riffing and inspired by ancient hindustan singing and playing (with instruments such as Sitar, Dilruba and Harmonium). Litania is also the title of our first album.

LITANIA is:
Elisa De Munari (Elli De Mon) – Vocals, Harmonium, Sitar, Dilruba
Marco Degli Esposti (The Great Northern X) – Electric guitar and drones
Enrico Baraldi (Collars, Ornaments) – Bass guitar
Vladimir Marikoski (The Black Heart Procession, NBG) – Drums and percussions

https://linktr.ee/litaniaband
http://litania.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/litania_band
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575201397600

http://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/subsound_records/
https://www.facebook.com/subsoundrecords/

http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

—

Certainly L’Ira del Baccano have been kicking around this whole time — their maybe-fourth full-length, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here), came out in 2023 — but it’s something of a surprise to see Tilburg, the Netherlands, classic desert rockers Yama. The Dutch outfit released their debut album, Ananta (review here), in 2014, and one assumes after doing a show together or some such, the two bands became friends.

A decade later, here comes Tempus Deorum, a new split with L’Ira del Baccano‘s first new material since the last record (not that long) and Yama‘s first new material in 11 years. Curious to hear what both bands have come up with for it, but definitely some added intrigue in the assertion of psychedelic experimentation in doom and so on. There’s no audio from the LP posted yet that I’ve found, but keep an eye out.

I don’t remember if this was from socials or the PR wire, but I’m not sure it matters. Info and preorder links follow, from the internet:

L’IRA DEL BACCANO and Yama team up for a special split album entitled “Tempus Deorum”, to be released on March 28th !

We are super stoked to start the presale of this this incredible split !

Formats : LP/CD/DDL
Artwork : Michele Carnielli
Mastering : Claudio Pisi Gruer Claudio Mastering Pisi

PREORDERS:
https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/l-ira-del-baccano
https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/yama

In the summer of 2015, in the Italian Dolomites, a friendship between two European heavy underground bands was struck. About a decade later, Roman psych-doom quartet L’Ira Del Baccano and Tilburgian doom rock outfit Yama join forces in a musical collaboration: their split album ‘Tempus Deorum’, to be released on March 28th through Subsound Records (Italy).

L’Ira Del Baccano’s contribution comprises a drawn-out 19-minute instrumental psych doom jam, in which they fully expand the concept of an ever-evolving song, taking a theme and leading it on a dynamic roller-coaster journey, reshaping it through the heaviness of doom, the psychedelia of improvisation and the precision of progressive rock.

Yama bring some of their doomiest tracks to the table and experiment with psychedelic drone elements, in collaboration with producer David Luiten (Autarkh).

‘Tempus Deorum’ (‘Time Of The Gods’) is not only an allegorical congregation of deities, it is also the blossoming of psychedelic heaviness.

https://www.instagram.com/liradelbaccano/
https://www.facebook.com/LiraDelBaccano42/
https://liradelbaccanoofficial.bandcamp.com/
http://www.iradelbaccano.it/

https://www.instagram.com/yama_doom/
http://www.facebook.com/yamadoom
https://yama.bandcamp.com/

http://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/subsound_records/
https://www.facebook.com/subsoundrecords/

L’Ira del Baccano, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (2023)

Yama, Ananta (2014)

At least the third Sherpa album, 2023’s Land of Corals (review here), won’t be their last. Not that such an expansive take on soothing and adventurous psych would be a bad way to go out, they just seemed like a band on a longer-term journey. And so the duo are, but not together.

Alignment is a compilation of demos and alternate versions — if I read right — and to herald its arrival later this week, in addition to announcing their breakup, they’ve posted the nine-minute title-track, which, when the whispers and light flourish of guitar arrive over the central drone, will feel like a godsend. That high-pitched hum is there the whole time, so get used to it. It’s a good long away from the sweetness of 2017’s Tanzlinde (review here), and I think that’s the point.

Best of luck to Franz and Matteo, the latter of whom seems to be taking the reins here. Hope we get to hear something new from them soon, and in the meantime, there’s still the maybe-last Sherpa out Friday. As per Bandcamp:

Dear friends and fans,

I don’t know if SHERPA has a future or will ever return, but for now, the project is on an extended break.

Franz and I (Matteo) are fully immersed in new projects and exploring sounds that drift away from what we’ve created so far. We feel the need to leave this experience behind and venture into new sonic visions, pushing ourselves further along our musical paths.

When the time comes, I’ll be thrilled to share what’s next with you, hoping you’ll enjoy it and come along for the ride.

This release includes an unreleased track, Alignment, along with a selection of early versions of songs from our albums.

I wanted to share these moments of compositional intimacy with you—the very first sparks of an idea, the rush of excitement, that unique energy when something new begins to take shape.

And honestly, that’s the kind of energy I’m always searching for in every musical journey I embark on.

To mark the occasion, we’ve put together a special bundle featuring all our LPs at a discounted price. But what truly matters to me is that you listen and connect with the intimacy of these sounds.

There’s still a long road ahead. I don’t yet know all the sounds that will shape my future, but we’re moving forward.

Oh yes, we’re already deep into a new journey.

Tracklisting:
1. Alignment
2. Dusk Age
3. The Mother of Language
4. Eleven
5. Ariadne, sister of Inanna
6. River Nora
7. Lovely Little Cod

Matteo Dossena: vocals / guitars / synth / drums / electronic drums / bass / keyboards
Ayu Shi: additional vocals on #3

https://www.facebook.com/sherpa.ita/
https://www.instagram.com/sherpa.music/
https://sherpaita.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/subsoundrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/subsound_records/
http://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.subsoundrecords.it/

Sherpa, Alignment (2025)

Sherpa, Land of Corals (2023)

Tons and Viscera/// release their split LP Feb. 28 through Subsound Records. As the dually-referential cover art above indicates, the split is number 10 in a label series, and for being 31 minutes and seven songs, it’s a pretty wild ride. Both bands are Italian — Tons are from Turin and Viscera/// are from Cremona — and there is some commonality there in a willingness to screw around with notions of genre, but the divergence between them is broad and feels like a purposeful act of curation. The label rather than the bands putting it together, I mean, though I don’t know if that’s how it actually happened. In any case, by the time the rasp in Tons‘ “Rime of the Modern Grower,” the dirty stonersludge groove has long since been set and so when it gets harsh, you’re about as ready for it as you’re going to be.

Monolithic as the seven-plus-minute “Rime of the Mordern Grower” might seem, Tons aren’t locked into a sound here. Second cut “Milk It” is a Nirvana cover from In Utero, and the last of their three, “Boards of the Unlighter,” goes down a semi-psych rabbit hole of dark surf-rock weirdness and handclap-inclusive shuffle to cap. To call that a stark turn is an understatement, but the ‘fuck it’ comes through clear and they’re right. It’s fun and it grooves, so it works. “Boards of the Unlighter” has a rough, garage-y, kind of campy darkness, and as Viscera/// take over for side B starting out with the four-minute noise intro “House of Soul Surgery” to lead into “Celebrate Death” (also premiering below), the thickening plot feels like no coincidence.

While they’ve been around since the turn of the century and have over the course of that time expanded their sound from its beginnings in more extreme metal, Viscera/// remain caustic-capable, and “House of Soul Surgery” brings that to light in two interweaving drones. If a hum could be urgent, this one might be, or at least mixed loud, and it moves into harsher synth noise en route to the sweeping guitar that kicks off “Celebrate Death,” the riff standout out triumphant having made its way forward through the aural mire, and within the first minute the band have aligned around the central riff and are on their way to the clean-sung verse and catchy chorus. I’ll admit this is my first time hearing Viscera///, but knowing their roots in grind, the harshness makes sense, and with their progressive elements, there’s an almost latter-day Enslaved feel to parts, but ultimately the band are on their own trip.

And it’s a weird one. Tons putting sludge to the side for a bit of garage rock was a curveball, sure, and Viscera/// might not have any such radical stylistic shifts playing out across their four inclusions, but the wash in “Mystical Cherry Bomb” before the vocals enter in the second half is immersive enough to make it seem like “Celebrate Death” rose up from a river of noise and receded again beneath the surface when it was done. All the while, the river runs. The transition to closer “Turmoil” is no less direct, and with a harsh buzz and a sample of a recorded voice on a phone that feels like a remnant from a time far less apocalyptic, the finisher of the split turns its modus more fully to evocation and ambience.

Like a lot of what is happening across the relatively brief runtime for this split, the ending makes sense when you hear it. A couple of bands getting together, pushing hard against the imaginary walls of genre, exploring — and yeah, getting up to a bit of charming fuckery as well — is a good time. The two tracks premiering below don’t represent the entirety of the split. Don’t expect them to. But whatever elements they do or don’t share in sound, they are the base around which both bands seem to be building during their portion of the LP.

PR wire info follows. As always, I hope you enjoy:

Tons, “Rime Of The Modern Grower”

Viscera/// “Celebrate Death”

Heavy Psych Experimental Post-Metal New EP ‘Subsound Split Series #10’ Out February 28th 2025 via Subsound Records

Bandcamp: https://subsoundsplitseries.bandcamp.com/album/split-10-tons-viscera
Shop: https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/tons-viscera

Italian powerhouses TONS (sludge/doom) and VISCERA/// (post-metal) join forces on Subsound Records’ Split Series #10. A beautiful opportunity to get wild with the genres and to experiment! If TONS maintain their signature sound on the first track “Rime of the Modern Grower”, they totally revisit their classic track “Boards of the Unlighter” in a garage/surf flavour. The third song is a cover version of Nirvana’s “Milk it” taken from the recording sessions of their previous album Hashenshion.

“This latest opus marks the band’s studio comeback since 2018’s ‘City Of Dope And Violence’, plus the opportunity to work with underground scene juggernauts like Tons and Subsound Records and the consolidation of Alexander Lizzori as active producer (“Cyclops” / “2” era drummer and long time collaborator)” say VISCERA/// about their record side.

The I Subsound Split Series’ is a collectors series of 12″ limited edition vinyls. Each release features two bands of the Italian and international underground scene, spanning multiple genres. Artworks and illustrations are curated by Stonino and play on the interaction between two movie characters chosen by the musicians of the split in an imaginative way. This one features James Wood/Max Renn in David Cronenberg l s ‘Videodrome’ (Viscera///’s choice) and Ghostbusters’ Rick Moranis (by TONS).

TRACK LISTING ‘Subsound split Series 10’
A SIDE
1. Tons – Rime Of The Modern Grower
2. Tons – Milk It
8. Tons – Boards Of The Unlighter
B SIDE
4. Viscera/// – House of Soul Surgery
5. Viscera/// – Celebrate Death
6. Viscera/// – Mystical Cherry Bomb
7. Viscera/// – Turmoil

TONS are:
Phatty B.: voice, bass
Duncan McLoud: lead guitar
Little Stevie: rhythm guitar
Oreste Pennarelli: drums

VISCERA are:
Michele Basso: vocals/guitars/electronics
Marcello Bellina: guitars/electronics
Gian Lorenzo Cantb: bass
Federico de Bernardi di Valserra: drums

Tons on Facebook

Tons on Instagram

Tons on Bandcamp

Viscera/// on Facebook

Viscera/// on Instagram

Viscera/// on Bandcamp

Subsound Records store

Subsound Records on Facebook

Oh hi, I didn’t see you there. Me? Oh, you know. Nothing much. Staring off a cliffside about to jump headfirst into a pool of 100 records. The usual.

I’m pretty sure this is the second time this year that a single Quarterly Review has needed to be two weeks long. It’s been a busy year, granted, but still. I keep waiting for the tide to ebb, but it hasn’t really at all. Older bands keep going, or a lot of them do, anyhow — or they come back — and new bands come up. But for all the war, famine, plague and strife and crisis and such, it’s a golden age.

But hey, don’t let me keep you. I’ve apparently been doing QRs since 2013, and I remember trying to find a way to squeeze together similar roundups before it. I have no insight to add about that, it’s just something I dug back to find out the other day and was surprised because 11 years of this kind of thing is a really long gosh darn time.

On that note, let’s go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

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Agusa, Noir

The included bits of Swedish dialogue from the short film for which Agusa‘s Noir was written to serve as a soundtrack would probably ground the proceedings some if I spoke Swedish, admittedly. As it is, those voices become part of the dream world the Malmö-based otherwise-instrumentalist adventurers conjure across 15 at times wildly divergent pieces. In arrangement and resultant mood, from the ’70s piano sentimentality of “Ljusglimtar” to the darker church organ and flute workings of “Stad i mörker,” which is reprised as a dirge at the end, the tracks are evocative across a swath of atmospheres, and it’s not all drones or background noise. They get their rock in, and if you stick around for “Kalkbrottets hemlighet,” you get to have the extra pleasure of hearing the guitar eat the rest of the song. You could say that’s not a thing you care about hearing but I know it’d be a lie, so don’t bother. If you’ve hesitated to take on Agusa in the past because sometimes generally-longform instrumental progressive psychedelic heavy rock can be a lot when you’re trying to get to know it, consider Noir‘s shorter inclusions a decent entry point to the band. Each one is like a brief snippet serving as another demonstration of the kind of immersion they can bring to what they play.

Agusa on Facebook

Kommun 2 website

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Octoploid, Beyond the Aeons

With an assembled cast of singers that includes Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun), his Amorphis bandmates Tomi Koivusaari and Tomi Joutsen, Petri Eskelinen of Rapture, and Barren Earth bandmate Jón Aldará, and guests on lead guitar and a drummer from the underappreciated Mannhai, and Barren Earth‘s keyboardist sitting in for good measure, bassist Olli Pekka-Laine harnesses a spectacularly Finnish take on proggy death-psych metal for Octoploid‘s first long-player, Beyond the Aeons. The songs feel extrapolated from Amorphis circa Elegy, putting guttural vocals to folk inspired guitar twists and prog-rock grooves, but aren’t trying to be that at all, and as ferocious as it gets, there’s always some brighter element happening, something cosmic or folkish or on the title-track both, and Octoploid feels like an expression of creative freedom based on a vision of a kind of music Pekka-Laine wanted to hear. I want to hear it too.

Octoploid on Facebook

Reigning Phoenix Music website

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The Obscure River Experiment, The Ore

The Obscure River Experiment, as a group collected together for the live performance from which The Ore has been culled, may or may not be a band. It is comprised of players from the sphere of Psychedelic Source Records, and so as members of River Flows Reverse, Obscure Supersession Collective, Los Tayos and others collaborate here in these four periodically scorching jams — looking at you, middle of “Soul’s Shiver Pt. 2” — it could be something that’ll happen again next week or next never. Not knowing is part of the fun, because as far out as something like The Obscure River Experiment might and in fact does go, there’s chemistry enough between all of these players to hold it together. “Soul Shiver Pt. 1” wakes up and introduces the band, “Pt. 2” blows it out for a while, “I See Horses” gets funky and then blows it out, and “The Moon in Flesh and Bone” feels immediately ceremonial with its sustained organ notes, but becomes a cosmic boogie ripper, complete with a welcome return of vocals. Was it all made up on the spot? Was it all a dream? Maybe both?

Psychedelic Source Records on Spotify

Psychedelic Source Records on Bandcamp

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Shun, Dismantle

Way underhyped South Carolinian progressive heavy rockers Shun arrive at the sound of their second LP, Dismantle, able to conjure elements of The Cure and Katatonia alongside Cave In-style punk-born groove, but in Shun‘s case, the underlying foundation is noise rock, so when “Aviator” opens up to its hook or “NRNS” is suddenly careening pummel or “Drawing Names” half-times the drums to get bigger behind the forward/obvious-focal-point vocal melodies of Matt Whitehead (ex-Throttlerod), there’s reach and impact working in conjunction with a thoughtful songwriting process pushed forward from where on their 2021 self-titled debut (review here) but that still seems to be actively working to engage the listener. That’s not a complaint, mind you, especially since Dismantle succeeds to vividly in doing so, and continues to offer nuance and twists on the plot right up to the willful slog ending with (most of) “Interstellar.”

Shun on Facebook

Small Stone Records website

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No Man’s Valley, Chrononaut Cocktail Bar/Flight of the Sloths

Whether it’s the brooding Nick Cave-style cabaret minimalism of “Creepoid Blues,” the ’60s psych of “Love” or the lush progressivism that emerges in “Seeing Things,” the hook of “Shapeshifter” or “Orange Juice” coming in with shaker at the end to keep things from finishing too melancholy, the first half of No Man’s Valley‘s Chrononaut Cocktail Bar/Flight of the Sloths still can only account for part of the scope as they set forth the pastoralist launch of the 18-minute “Flight of the Sloths” on side B, moving from acoustic strum and a repeating title line into a gradual build effective enough so that when Jasper Hesselink returns on vocals 13 minutes later in the spaced-out payoff — because yes, the sloths are flying between planets; was there any doubt? — it makes you want to believe the sloths are out there working hard to stay in the air. The real kicker? No Man’s Valley are no less considered in how they bring “Flight of the Sloths” up and down across its span than they are “Love” or “Shapeshifter” early on, both under three minutes long. And that’s what maturing as songwriters can do for you, though No Man’s Valley have always had a leg up in that regard.

No Man’s Valley on Facebook

No Man’s Valley on Bandcamp

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Land Mammal, Emergence

Dallas’ Land Mammal defy expectation a few times over on their second full-length, with the songwriting of Will Weise and Kinsley August turning toward greater depth of arrangement and more meditative atmospheres across the nine songs/34 minutes of Emergence, which even in a rolling groove like “Divide” has room for flute and strings. Elsewhere, sitar and tanpura meet with lap steel and keyboard as Land Mammal search for an individual approach to modern progressive heavy. There’s some shades of Elder in August‘s approach on “I Am” or the earlier “Tear You Down,” but the instrumental contexts surrounding are wildly different, and Land Mammal thrive in the details, be it the hand-percussion and far-back fuzz colliding on “The Circle,” or the tabla and sitar, drums and keys as “Transcendence (Part I)” and “Transcendence (Part II)” finish, the latter with the sounds of getting out of the car and walking in the house for epilogue. Yeah, I guess after shifting the entire stylistic scope of your band you’d probably want to go inside and rest for a bit. Well earned.

Land Mammal on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz store

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Forgotten King, The Seeker

Released through Majestic Mountain Records, the debut full-length from Forgotten King, The Seeker, would seem to have been composed and recorded entirely by Azul Josh Bisama, also guitarist in Kal-El, though a full lineup has since formed. That happens. Just means the second album will have a different dynamic than the first, and there are some parts as in the early cut “Lost” where that will be a benefit as Azul Josh refines the work laying out a largesse-minded, emotively-evocative approach on these six cuts, likewise weighted and soaring. The album is nothing if not aptly-named, though, as Forgotten King lumber through “Drag” and march across 10 minutes of stately atmospheric doom, eventually seeing the melodic vocals give way to harsher fare in the second half, what’s being sought seems to have been found at least on a conceptual level, and one might say the same of “Around the Corner” or “The Sun” taking familiar-leaning desert rock progressions and doing something decisively ‘else’ with them. Very much feels like the encouraging beginning of a longer exploration.

Forgotten King on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Church of Hed, The Fifth Hour

Branched off from drummer/synthesist Paul Williams‘ intermittent work over the decades with Quarkspace, the mostly-solo-project Church of Hed explores progressive, kraut and space rock in a way one expects far more from Denmark than Columbus, Ohio — to wit, Jonathan Segel (Øresund Space Collective, Camper Van Beethoven) guests on violin, bass and guitar at various points throughout the nine-tracker, which indeed is about an hour long at 57 minutes. Church of Hed‘s last outing, 2022’s The Father Road, was an audio travelogue crossing the United States from one coast to the other. The Fifth Hour is rarely so concerned with terrestrial impressionism, and especially in its longer-form pieces “Pleiades Waypoint” (13:50), “Son of a Silicon Rogue” (14:59) or “The Fifth Hour” (8:43), it digs into sci-fi prog impulses that even in the weird blips and robot twists of the interlude “Aniluminescence 2” or the misshapen techno in the closing semi-reprise “Bastard Son of The Fifth Hour” never quite feels as dystopian as some other futures in the multiverse, and that becomes a strength.

Church of Hed on Facebook

Church of Hed website

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Zolle, Rosa

Like the Melvins on an AC/DC kick or what you might get if you took ’70s arena rock, put it in a can and shook it really, really hard, Italian duo Zolle are a burst of weirdo sensation on their fifth full-length, Rosa. The songs are ready for whatever football match stadium P.A. you might want to put them on — hugely, straight-ahead, uptempo, catchy, fun in pieces like “Pepe” and “Lana” at the outset, “Merda,” “Pompon,” “Confetto” and “Fiocco” later on, likewise huge and silly in “Pois” or closer “Maialini e Maialine,” and almost grounded on “Toffolette e Zuccherini” at the start but off and running again soon enough — if you can keep up with guitarist/vocalist Marcello and drummer Stefano, for sure they make it worth the effort, and capture some of the intensity of purpose they bring to the stage in the studio and at the same time highlighting the shenanigans writ large throughout in their riffs and the cheeky bit of pop grandiosity that’s such a toy in their hands. You would not call it light on persona.

Zolle on Facebook

Subsound Records website

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Shadow and Claw, Whereabouts Unknown

Thicker in tone than much of modern black metal, and willing toward the organic in a way that feels born of Cascadia a little more to the northwest as they blast away in “Era of Ash,” Boise, Idaho’s Shadow and Claw nonetheless execute moody rippers across the five songs/41 minute of their debut, Whereabouts Unknown. Known for his work in Ealdor Bealu and the solo-project Sawtooth Monk, guitarist/vocalist Travis Abbott showcases a rasp worthy of Enslaved‘s Grutle Kjellson on the 10-minute “Wrath of Thunder,” so while there are wolves amid the trio’s better chairs, to be sure, Shadow and Claw aren’t necessarily working from any single influence in or out of char-prone extreme metals, and as the centerpiece gives over to the eponymous “Shadow and Claw,” those progressive aspirations are reaffirmed as Abbott, drummer/backing vocalist Aaron Bossart (also samples) and bassist/backing vocalist Geno Lopez find room for a running-water-backed acoustic epilogue to “Scouring the Plane of Existence” and the album as a whole. Easy to imagine them casting these songs into the sunset on the side of some pointy Rocky Mountain or other, shadows cast and claws raised.

Shadow and Claw on Facebook

Shadow and Claw on Bandcamp

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This is the next-to-last day of this Quarterly Review, and while it’s been a lot, it’s been encouraging to dig into so much stuff in such intense fashion. I’ve added a few releases to my notes for year-end lists, but more importantly, I’ve gotten to hear and cover stuff that otherwise I might not, and that’s the value at a QR has for me at its core, so while we’re not through yet, I’ll just say thanks again for reading and that I hope you’ve also found something that speaks to you in these many blocks of text and embedded streaming players. If not, there’s still 20 records to go, so take comfort in that as needed.

Quarterly Review #81-90:

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Harvestman, Triptych: Part One

The weirdo-psych experimental project of Steve Von Till (now ex-Neurosis, which is still sad on a couple levels) begins a released-according-to-lunar-orbit trilogy of albums in Triptych: Part One, which is headlined by opening track “Psilosynth,” boasting a guest appearance from Al Cisneros (Sleep, Om) on bass. If those two want to start an outsider-art dub-drone band together, my middle-aged burnout self is here for it — “Psilosynth (Harvest Dub),” a title that could hardly be more Von Till and Cisneros, appears a little later, which suggests they might also be on board — but that’s only part of the world being created in Triptych: Part One as “Mare and Foal” manipulates bagpipes into ghostly melodies, “Give Your Heart to the Hawk” echoes poetry over ambient strum, “Coma” and “How to Purify Mercury” layer synthesized drone and/or effects-guitar to sci-fi affect and “Nocturnal Field Song” finds YOB‘s Dave French banging away on something metal in the background while the crickets chirp. The abiding spirit is subdued, exploratory as Von Till‘s solo works perpetually are, and even as the story is only a third told, the immersion on Triptych: Part One goes as deep as the listener is willing to let it. I look forward to being a couple moons late reviewing the next installment.

Harvestman on Facebook

Neurot Recordings website

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Kalgon, Kalgon

As they make their self-titled full-length debut, Asheville, North Carolina’s Kalgon lay claim to a deceptive wide swath of territory even separate from the thrashier departure “Apocalyptic Meiosis” as they lumber through “The Isolate” and the more melodic “Grade of the Slope,” stoner-doom leaning into psych and more cosmic vibing, with the mournful “Windigo” leading into “Eye of the Needle”‘s slo-mo-stoner-swing and gutted out vocals turning to Beatlesy melody — guitarist Brandon Davis and bassist Berten Lee Tanner share those duties while Marc Russo rounds out the trio on drums — in its still-marching second half and the post-Pallbearer reaches and acoustic finish of “Setting Sun.” An interlude serves as centerpiece between “Apocalyptic Meiosis” and “Windigo,” and that two-plus-minute excursion into wavy drone and amplifier hum works well to keep a sense of flow as the next track crashes in, but more, it speaks to longer term possibilities for how the band might grow, both in terms of what they do sonically and in their already-clear penchant for seeing their first LP as a whole, single work with its own progression and story to tell.

Kalgon on Facebook

Kalgon on Bandcamp

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Agriculture, Living is Easy

Surely there’s some element in Agriculture‘s self-applied aesthetic frame of “ecstatic black metal” in the power of suggestion, but as they follow-up their 2022 self-titled debut with the four-song Living is Easy EP and move from the major-key lightburst of the title-track into the endearingly, organically, folkishly strained harmonies of “Being Eaten by a Tiger,” renew the overwhelming blasts of tremolo and seared screams on “In the House of Angel Flesh” and round out with a minute of spoken word recitation in “When You Were Born,” guitarists Richard Chowenhill (also credited with co-engineering, mixing and mastering) and Dan Meyer (also vocals), bassist/vocalist Leah B. Levinson and drummer/percussionist Kern Haug present an innovative perspective on the genre that reminds of nothing so much as the manner in which earliest Wolves in the Throne Room showed that black metal could do something more than it had done previously. That’s not a sonic comparison, necessarily — though there are basic stylistic aspects shared between the two — but more about the way Agriculture are using black metal toward purposefully new expressive ends. I’m not Mr. Char by any means, but it’s been probably that long since the last time I heard something that was so definitively black metal and worked as much to refresh what that means.

Agriculture on Facebook

The Flenser website

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Saltpig, Saltpig

Apparently self-released by the intercontinental duo last Fall and picked up for issue through Heavy Psych Sounds, Saltpig‘s self-titled debut modernizes classic charge and swing in increasingly doomed fashion across the first four songs of its A-side, laces “Burn the Witch” with samples themed around the titular subject, and dedicates all of side B to the blown out mostly-instrumental roll of “1950,” which is in fact 19 minutes and 50 seconds long. The band, comprised of guitarist/vocalist/noisemaker Mitch Davis (also producer for a swath of more commercially viable fare) and drummer Fabio Alessandrini (ex-Annihilator), are based in New York and Italy, respectively, and whatever on earth might’ve brought them together, in both the heavy-garage strut of “Demon” and the willfully harsh manner in which they represent themselves in the record’s back half, they bask in the rougher edges of their tones and approach more generally. “When You Were Dead” is something of a preface in its thicker distortion to “1950,” but its cavernous shouted vocals retain a psychedelic presence amid the ensuing grit, whereas once the closer gets underway from its feedback-soaked first two minutes, they make it plain there’s no coming back.

Saltpig on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Druidess, Hermits and Mandrakes

Newcomer UK doomers Druidess nod forth on their debut EP, Hermits and Mandrakes, with a buzzing tonality in “Witches’ Sabbath” that’s distinctly more Monolord than Electric Wizard, and while that’s fascinating academically and in terms of the generational shift happening in the heavy underground over the last few years, the fuzz that accompanies the hook of “Mandragora,” which follows, brings a tempo boost that situates the two-piece of vocalist Shonagh Brown and multi-instrumentalist/producer Daniel Downing (guitar, bass, keys, drum programming; he even had a hand in the artwork, apparently) in a more rocking vein. It’s heavy either way you go, and “Knightingales” brings Green Lung-style organ into the mix along with another standout hook before “The Hermit of Druid’s Temple” signs over its soul to faster Sabbath worship and closer “The Forest Witches’ Daughter” underscores the commitment to same in combination with a more occult thematic. It’s familiar-enough terrain, ultimately, but the heft they conjure early on and the movement they bring to it later should be plenty to catch ears among the similarly converted, and in song and performance they display a self-awareness of craft that is no less a source of their potential.

Druidess on Facebook

Druidess on Bandcamp

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Astral Construct, Traveling a Higher Consciousness

One-man sans-vocals psych outfit Astral Construct — aka Denver-based multi-instrumentalist Drew Patricks — released Traveling a Higher Consciousness last year, and well, I guess I got lost in a temporal wormhole or some such because it’s not last year anymore. The record’s five-track journey is encompassing in its metal-rooted take on heavy psychedelia, however, and that’s fortunate as “Accessing the Mind’s Eye” solidifies from its languid first-half unfolding into more stately progressive riffage. Bookended by the dreamy manifestation of “Heart of the Nebula” (8:12) and “Interstellar” (9:26), which moves between marching declaration and expansive helium-guitar float, the album touches ground in centerpiece “The Traveler,” but even there could hardly be called terrestrial once the drums drop out and the keys sweep in near the quick-fade finish that brings about the more angular “Long View of Astral Consciousness,” that penultimate track daring a bit of double-kick in the drums heading toward its own culmination. Now, then or future, whether it’s looking inward or out, Traveling a Higher Consciousness is a revelry for the cosmos waiting to be engaged. You might just end up in a different year upon hearing it.

Astral Construct on Facebook

Astral Construct on Bandcamp

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Ainu, Ainu

Although their moniker comes from an indigenous group who lived on Hokkaido before that island became part of modern Japan, Ainu are based in Genoa, Italy, and their self-titled debut has little to do sound-wise with the people or their culture. Fair enough. Ainu‘s Ainu, which starts out in “Il Faro” with sparse atmospheric guitar and someone yelling at you in Italian presumably about the sea (around which the record is themed), uses speech and samples to hold most positions vocals would otherwise occupy, though the two-minute “D.E.V.S.” is almost entirely voice-based, so the rules aren’t so strictly applied one way or the other. Similarly, as the three-piece course between grounded sludgier progressions and drifting post-heavy, touching on more aggressive moods in the late reaches of “Aiutami A. Ricordare” and the nodding culmination of “Khrono” but letting the breadth of “Call of the Sea” unfold across divergent movements of crunchier riffs and operatic prog grandiosity. You would not call it predictable, however tidal the flow from one piece to the next might be.

Ainu on Facebook

Subsound Records website

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Grid, The World Before Us

Progressive sludge set to a backdrop of science-fiction and extrasolar range, The World Before Us marks a turn from heretofore instrumental New York trio Grid, who not only feature vocals throughout their 38-minute six-tracker third LP, but vary their approach in that regard such that as “Our History Hidden” takes hold following the keyboardy intro “Singularity” (in we go!), the first three of the song’s 12 minutes find them shifting from sub-soaring melodicism to hard-growled metallic crunch with the comfort of an act who’ve been pulling off such things for much longer. The subsequent “Traversing the Interstellar Gateway” (9:31) works toward similar ends, only with guitar instead of singing, and the standout galloping kickdrum of “Architects of Our World” leads to a deeper dig into the back and forth between melody and dissonance, led into by the threatening effects manipulations of the interlude “Contact” and eventually giving over to the capstone outro “Duality” that, if it needs to be said, mirrors “Singularity” at the start. There’s nuance and texture in this interplay between styles — POV: you dig Opeth and Hawkwind — and my suspicion is that if Grid keep to this methodology going forward, the vocal arrangements will continue to evolve along with the rest of the band’s expanding-in-all-directions stylizations.

Grid on Facebook

Grid on Bandcamp

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Dätcha Mandala, Koda

The stated intentions of Bordeaux, France’s Dätcha Mandala in bringing elements of ’90s British alternative rock into their heavier context with their Koda LP are audible in opener “She Said” and the title-track that follows it, but it’s the underlying thread of heavy rock that wins the day across the 11-song outing, however danceable “Wild Fire” makes it or however attitude-signaling the belly-belch that starts “Thousand Pieces” is in itself. That’s not to say Koda doesn’t succeed at what it’s doing, just that there’s more to the proceedings than playing toward that particular vision of cool. “It’s Not Only Rock and Roll (And We Don’t Like It)” has fuzzy charm and a hook to boot, while “Om Namah Shivaya” ignites with an energy that is proggy and urgent in kind — the kind of song that makes you a fan at the show even if you’ve never heard the band before — and closer “Homeland” dares some burl amid its harmonized chorus and flowing final guitar solo, answering back to the post-burp chug in “Thousand Pieces” and underscoring the multifaceted nature of the album as a whole. I suppose if you have prior experience with Dätcha Mandala, you know they’re not just about one thing, but for newcomers, expect happy surprises.

Dätcha Mandala on Facebook

Discos Macarras Records website

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Dr. Space Meets Mr. Mekon, The Bubbles Scopes

Given the principals involved — Scott “Dr. Space” Heller of Øresund Space Collective, Black Moon Circle, et al, and Chris Purdon of Hawklords and Nik Turner’s Space Ritual — it should come as no surprise that The Bubbles Scopes complements its grammatical counterintuitiveness with alien soundscape concoctions of synth-based potency; the adventure into the unknown-until-it’s-recorded palpable across two extended tracks suitably titled “Trip 1” (22:56) and “Trip 2” (15:45). Longform waveforms, both. The collaboration — one of at least two Heller has slated for release this Spring; stay tuned tomorrow — makes it clear from the very beginning that the far-out course The Bubbles Scopes follows is for those who dwell in rooms with melting walls, but in the various pulsations and throbs of “Trip 1,’ the transition from organ to more electronic-feeling keyboard, and so on, human presence is no more absent than they want it to be, and while the loops are dizzying and “Trip 2” seems to reach into different dimensions with its depth of mix, when the scope is so wide, the sounds almost can’t help but feel free. And so they do. They put 30 copies on tape, because even in space all things digitalia are ephemeral. If you want one, engage your FOMO and make it happen because the chance may or may not come again.

Dr. Space on Facebook

Dr. Space on Bandcamp

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