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Friday Full-Length: The Machine & Sungrazer Split LP

Posted in Bootleg Theater on August 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

What a moment this was for these bands. Consider that in 2013 when this split full-length (review here) was released, Netherlands-based heavy psych rockers The Machine and Sungrazer were both signed to Elektrohasch Schallplatten, and were the spearheads of what seemed to be the next generation of European heavy rock, both working off influences from weighted fuzz and trippy jams while offering a personality of their own in that. Neither sounded precisely like the other, despite shared elements and basic construction — both were guitar-led three-pieces with an affinity for tonal warmth and mellow-psych exploration — but they were both young, exciting bands who took the work of those who came before them like their label head in Colour Haze and pushed it to places it hadn’t yet been.

By 2013, Sungrazer‘s 2010 self-titled (review here) and 2011’s Mirador (review here) — the only two albums they’d ever make — had established them as a significant presence in the European heavy underground. Supported on club tours and throughout the then-emergent Euro heavyfest scene, the band’s melodic approach, penchant for drift, and sheer tonal depth made them a standout. The Machine were the longer-standing band, having debuted in 2007 with Shadow of the Machine and issued Solar Corona (discussed here) through Nasoni Records in 2009, been picked up by Elektrohasch for 2011’s Drie (review here) and 2012’s Calmer Than You Are (review here). The worlds of each of these trios seemed to draw them together — they toured in 2013 around this release as well — and though then-Sungrazer bassist Sander Haagmans (also The Whims of the Great Magnet) would eventually join The Machine for a brief period, this split was nonetheless the payoff for the toward-each-other momentum they had to that point built.

The Machine — led by guitarist David Eering, with Hans Van Heemst on bass and drummer Davy Boogaard — would take side A and earn it almost immediately. If “Awe” wasn’t named after the effect produced by its central riff, then it should’ve been. Pure worship. They knew it, you certainly still feel it while listening, and they ride that groove from the moment the “the eagle has landed” sample ends well past the 10-minute mark in a glorious celebration of rhythm, vibe and repetition. If this release had nothing else in its favor, you would nine years later listen to the entire thing and call it stunning for that lone riff, and they give it its due space as part of a three-song showcase of who The Machine were atMachine sungrazer split that point and who they were en route to becoming, with the subsequent hooky “Not Only” cutting to (less than) a quarter of the runtime a two and a half minutes of punkish burst.

Careening in a way that was prescient of where they’d head on 2015’s Offblast! (review here) and 2018’s Faceshift (review here) — the latter issued through the band’s own imprint uncoincidentally called Awe Records — “Not Only” perfectly cleaned the slate before the also-north-of-10-minutes “Slipface” took over with its early fuzz twist and going-and-not-coming-back jam later, a final two minutes of residual drone and drift, organ or effects hum and swirl wrapping up because what is their possibly left to say? They took about 23 minutes to showcase who they are, where they’d already been on their first four records, and where they were headed on the ones to come. One doesn’t like to throw around words like ‘perfect,’ but certainly their efficiency and the sureness with which they executed these three songs is to be lauded, all the more in hindsight.

If The Machine presented a challenge in not delving into hyperbole, certainly that’s another shared aspect with Sungrazer. This would be the swansong for the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Rutger Smeets, drummer Hans Mulders and the aforementioned Haagmans on bass, as they broke up at the end of 2013, thereby denying their audience a third full-length and leaving a hole that even now feels unfilled. Their ability to take massive fuzz and roll it out with a touch that could feel both heavy and delicate was something that no one else had yet brought to heavy psych, different from just melody, jazzy in a way but more open than pretentious. They began their stretch with “Dopo,” meeting the nod of The Machine‘s “Awe” head-on with a landmark riff of their own while saving a crescendo melody for the song’s second half.

Sungrazer‘s three inclusions, “Dopo,” “Yo La Tengo” and “Flow Through a Good Story,” all sat comfortably around seven or eight minutes, and demonstrated precisely how welcoming their craft was at its best while “Yo La Tengo” offered hints of their maybe pushing the balance more into the psychedelic and “Flow Through a Good Story” took what would’ve been a hodgepodge in less capable hands and turned it into what the title promised: a sonic narrative of their growth and being able to run fluidity across bumpy shifts and rougher feeling terrain. They were a band who could’ve gone anywhere after this and simply didn’t.

Nine years after the fact — not an eternity but certainly long enough for a revisit — and amid so much vibrant creativity from both these bands, that remains sad. Smeets and Mulders joined the more folkish Cigale and would release a self-titled (review here) in 2015 before the former passed away that October. That tragic ending to one of heavy psychedelia’s brightest lights.

That’s it. That may be half a sentence but that’s the sentence. That’s exactly how it felt when Smeets died. Like a story left unfinished. So there. Cigale never did a second record, no Sungrazer reunion, which would’ve been otherwise inevitable. Done.

In that context, this split, yes, has a surrounding bittersweet aura. I’d encourage you to listen to it in the spirit not just of what could’ve been but also what might still be. The Machine have a new album in the works, and I’m not going to say too much about it, but those who found themselves engaged by this era should perk ears to what they’re up to these days. And Haagmans and Mulders both remain active to some degree, but this split represents exactly what I said at the outset: a moment in time for both of these acts. Along the myriad paths heavy psychedelia has taken in the ensuing years, including among these players, this was when theirs came together at just the right time, right place, right sound. However long or short, in music or out, not every life is gifted such a moment.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thank you for reading.

Up and down week, but busy. Head-spinning, still recovering from Psycho Las Vegas last weekend and a tumultuous return trip that had me home at 3:30 in the morning on Monday/Tuesday. Not the best way to start out, and I basically lost all of Tuesday working as a result. That sucked; I don’t have another way of saying it. Frustrating end to a trip that I still feel like I’m processing on a few different levels: emotional, physical, ethical, and so on.

The Pecan starts school week after next. The Patient Mrs. started her new semester yesterday, which he’s old enough now to know means she won’t be around. He and I are pretty tight. We have a solid relationship, and markedly more so now that he’s potty trained. But as with pretty much everything else about my relationship with my wife, I am the second. She is the star of the show, and legitimately so. He fucking loves her. And I get it. It’s not like I’m out here arguing against. I have spent the last 25 years rightly worshiping the ground she walks on, so yeah. I understand. She’s incredible. But that does make it harder when all of a sudden she’s not upstairs on her laptop anymore, she’s out teaching class. Next week will be difficult.

He was bummed yesterday when she left, but we got down to work cleaning the house, played the arcade for a while, ran errands, talked a lot about music and construction vehicles and space and generally had a good time. He’ll fight you, though. He’ll push, and push, and push. If there’s a line, he’s crossing it. He’s not yet five. Every day he says, “I hate being told what to do.” Fucking hell, kid, who doesn’t? Welcome to existence. Sorry about that.

He has openly admitted (which is saying something as regards him and emotions generally; they are mostly denied verbally and expressed via physicality) to being nervous about starting school again. I feel for him. And if he can’t find a balance between knowing when to break rules and climb fences and when to sit down, shut up, do your work and then screw off and do whatever you want, he’s going to have a much, much harder time. Maybe “first this, then that” is the frame. I don’t know. I’ll try it. Thanks for talking it out with me. Starfleet method. Brainstorm AF.

It’s 5:50 and he just opened his door to come downstairs, so I’m out. Have a great and safe weekend. Thanks for reading. Hydrate, enjoy your waning summer if it’s summer where you are, watch your head, all that. Good stuff next week.

Here we go.

FRM.

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 90

Posted in Radio on August 5th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

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I don’t remember the last time I did three voice breaks on a show, and while I’m of the general opinion that the less the universe hears my voice the better off said universe will likely be for not having heard me invariably say something stupid, I did turn in three VTs for this episode. Truth is I’ve been pretty dug in as regards this show — music, music, music — and I think that’s a winning philosophy for life in general, if one that doesn’t necessarily take advantage of the full potentialities of radio as a format. Gimme Metal have been kind enough to let me do 90 episodes (so far!) of this show. Making some effort to meet that audience halfway seems like the least my contrarian ass can do.

Maybe that’s just me getting old. Whatever. I sucked at being young anyway.

Further to that “making an effort thing,” I’ve tried last episode and this one specifically to include a few staples of stoner/heavy/doom/psych/whatever that even if people don’t know hopefully they can latch onto. Last ep started with Acid King, this one leads with Goatsnake. There’s Black Sabbath, Stoned Jesus, Sungrazer along the way before the playlist really digs into new stuff. And even some of that — My Sleeping Karma, Abrams, Elephant Tree — is from known parties. I don’t know. I’m trying my best here. I was happy to include the Guhts song that premiered, and CB3 finally putting out “To Space and Away” from their new record is a gift. This won’t be the last time I play that song, I’m sure.

Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 08.05.22 (VT = voice track)

Goatsnake What Love Remains I
Foehammer Recurring Grave Second Sight
VT
Elephant Tree Sails Track-by-Track
Abrams Like Hell In the Dark
Stoned Jesus I’m the Mountain Seven Thunders Roar
My Sleeping Karma Avatara Atma
Guhts Burn My Body Burn My Body
VT
Black Sabbath Into the Void Master of Reality
Sungrazer Goldstrike Mirador
Sons of Arrakis The Black Mirror Volume 1
All Souls I Dream Ghosts Among Us
Sleestak Northwoods Harbinger
Deadly Vipers Big Empty Low City Drone
CB3 To Space and Away Exploration
VT
Obscure Supersession Collective Auroral Purposes I Obscure Supersession Collective
(If needed) Psychlona El Tolvanera Palo Verde

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Aug. 19 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Sander Haagmans of The Whims of the Great Magnet

Posted in Questionnaire on May 26th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Sander Haagmans of The Whims of the Great Magnet

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

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

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Sander Haagmans of The Whims of the Great Magnet (ex-Sungrazer)

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

I make rock music, teach guitar and I’m a father. So basically that puts me in the dad rock corner. I got my first Steely Dan record last year. Countdown to Ecstasy. Pretty neat. The way I came to make music was just by making sounds and noise from an early age on, like everybody does actually. As a young kid I already felt the need to make songs, record them and make albums out of it. Those first albums, which are cassette tapes that we put in a cigar box and then decorate the outside and inside, are probably my most precious releases to date.

Describe your first musical memory.

My memory is terrible. But I do know I had a poster near my bed with children’s songs that I loved to sing before I went to bed. And later I remember dancing on the table with my best friend to “Walk of Life” from Dire Straits. Or singing with my dad in the car the string parts of “Strawberry Fields.” There’s too many good memories, but I can’t recall the first.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Maybe that was listening to Nirvana as a teenager as loud as possible in a small bedroom with my best friend Willem. He also let me hear “Vortex Surfer” from Motorpsycho for the first time when we were, I don’t know, 20 or something. It was late at night and we had a big hifi soundsystem there. I once talked to a soundguy that used that song for soundchecking the P.A. at shows. Enough low end there, pfff.

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

A firmly held belief, eh? I think I first need to think about the answer to the question ‘when was the last time you had a firmly held belief’ or ‘did you ever have a firmly held belief’ or ‘did you ever believe in something’ or ‘did you ever held anything firmly’. Well that’s a lot to think about. Not really though. But let’s stick to your question. I could have skipped that first part of my answer that led to nothing but this. But this is also a way of just writing down words and getting into some really meaningless bullshit that could actually be something I believe in. Well there you go. I think I always believed in a lot of bullshit and now I realize it’s not bullshit, but the truth. No no no no, get that out. Ok, I always believed you should not make any corrections to what you just put down. But I’m seriously having second thoughts about that right now. No…wait… it’s gone. I still believe in it. Damn it.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

For me it leads to musical freedom, improvisation, magical unique moments in jams combined with that chorus or hook that will make you laugh and cry and stay with you till the end of time. In other words it’s just about having some fun and see what happens. These progressions always change and I guess I just try to go with that.

How do you define success?

When there’s a cool result when you tried something or even when you didn’t try.

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

You’re a father too. You know it’s the cartoons kids watch nowadays.

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

A monster.

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

Getting laid, getting high, getting rich, I can’t choose. Art made the world and everything. And everything is everything only if it’s not. But, man what a question. Good one. Really, this is not something you write down. This is bar talk. Or can bar talk be written down? Of course it can. If it can’t be written down it’s not writable on anything. I could dance you the answer.

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

Yes.

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The Whims of the Great Magnet, “Share My Sun”

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Review & Full Album Stream: The Whims of the Great Magnet, Good Vibes & High Tides

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on November 25th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

The Whims of the Great Magnet Good Vibes High Tides

[Click play above to stream The Whims of the Great Magnet’s Good Vibes & High Tides in Full. Album is out Dec. 1 with preorders direct from the band.]

Founded seven years ago by Sander Haagmans in Maastricht, the Netherlands, The Whims of the Great Magnet returns with a second full-length album in the self-released Good Vibes & High Tides. The follow-up to early 2017’s The Purple & Yellow Album (discussed here), it would seem to be in conversation with Haagmans‘ work as bassist/vocalist for the much-missed Sungrazer, whose 2013 disbanding was followed in 2015 by the death of guitarist/vocalist Rutger Smeets, thereby obviating an eventual reunion. As willfully as The Purple & Yellow Album pushed in alternate directions away from what Sungrazer was, the 10-track/44-minute Good Vibes & High Tides embraces it without necessarily trying to recapture that sound and moment entirely. Haagmans instead hones across the new album’s span a kind of summery grunge fuzz, occasionally given to psychedelic shimmer — some added pedal steel on “Simple” courtesy of Ingo Jetten at Trashed Attic Audio doesn’t hurt — and holding onto the intimacy of solo songwriting while adopting a more full-band feel with drummer Iwan Wijnen, even unto capturing a fluid, at-least-part-improv guitar-led jam on 11-minute closer “Roerloze Beweger.”

That in itself is an impressive feat, even for Haagmans, who’s had plenty of time in the studio over the course of the last decade and seems at this point to do most of his recording at home, but as the title of the record puts it first, the focus here indeed is on the vibe, and the vibe is good. Good Vibes & High Tides is marked by a welcome sense of tonal warmth that lo-fi neopsych has replaced with naked shimmer, and the depth that’s been forsaken by so much jammy psych is evident right from the opening roll of “Lose My Head,” which counts in on the hi-hat and then is on its way like it was never off. Haagmans‘ vocals are laid back in the verse and layered in the chorus, the bass tone is an early highlight — as it would almost have to be — and immediately the spirit is melodic, welcoming and engaging, continuing onto “Here to Party” as if to underscore its intent. Through up and down verse lines that shift quickly into the chorus, the 3:40 “Here to Party” is marked by its abiding lack of pretense.

The Whims of the Great Magnet

I wouldn’t call it a party song in the “party rock” sense — the hook lines, after all, are, “We are only here to party/We are only here” — but its straightforward presentation is a fitting summary of the perspective from which Good Vibes & High Tides seems to be working in general in balancing personal expression and a complete-group sound. Even shorter at 3:19, “Guess it’s True” follows in subtly more patient fashion, alternative rock and fuzz melding without argument beneath layers of sweet-toned post-Cobain vocals and a third-in-a-row memorable chorus. Three makes a salvo, and there’s still the title-track to round out the opening movement, which would seem to be delineated from the rest of the LP by the 40-second interlude “Hay.”

That’s just a riff and the word repeated a couple times — a lost art of sneaky listener-disorientation that any number of in-some-ways-more-loyal ’90s preservationists have neglected — over in flash and maybe a vinyl-flip to bring on “Oew,” with a vocal drawl and particularly Sungrazer-style chorus sort of bounding through a thick and immersive fuzz after more of a strummed verse. Though it has the briefest runtime of Good Vibes & High Tides‘ non-interlude tracks at 2:23, it nonetheless keeps the underlying structure as barebones as possible, cutting off at the end and refusing a jam that might otherwise have taken hold in spite of itself in Haagmans‘ one-time four-piece incarnation of the band. I don’t think it would be missing if it wasn’t there, but the presence of pedal steel doesn’t take anything away from “Simple,” certainly, and it plays up the pastoralia-memory of the verse ahead of the crunchier chorus, just a touch of BrantBjork-at-the-beach coming through but ultimately establishing its own personality ahead of “Cocaine & Yoga,” the verse of which seems to have derived part of its structure directly from Nirvana‘s “School.”

There’s some slide in the chorus (I don’t think it’s more pedal steel?), but the song itself is a high point — “What the hell is going on today?/Cocaine and yoga all the way” is a hook that deserves to be delivered from a stage — and the noisy transitional mess and quiet guitar line that picks up to end the song is a surprising and, frankly, delightfully honest, moment put to tape. By then he’s well into the depths of side B, but the closing duo of “Wei Wu Wijnen” (6:01) and “Roerloze Beweger” (11:41) are a movement unto themselves just the same, the former establishing itself quietly with fading-in drum swing and a guitar/bass bed for soft, bluesy melodic vocals.

The Whims of the Great Magnet doing not so much

This too would seem to come from a similar place as some of the more atmospheric stretches of Sungrazer‘s second long-player, 2011’s Mirador (review here), hypnotic guitar noodling leading the way out and directly into the righteous opening strum of “Roerloze Beweger.” A well-placed tambourine shake signals the launch of the groove and the finale is underway, uptempo and exciting if still overridingly mellow of vibe. The push settles down for the verses but plays well back and forth, and the song pays off the layered vocal melodies heard prior, the forwardness of the rhythm of Good Vibes & High Tides‘ most rocking moments, and its hinted-at sense of nod, arriving at the latter circa three minutes in and taking spot-on ownership of it. An instrumental jam ensues from then on, moving through a plotted progression into more improvised-sounding fare in the basslines standing out around five minutes in and the guitar that takes the reins after the final builds and crashes of Wijnen‘s drums, a meandering line that recedes to silence gently to end the album.

While there’s no doubt Good Vibes & High Tides both lives up to its title and the legacy of Haagmans‘ former three-piece, it does leave one wondering what his plans ultimately are for the project. To wit, this material is really, really engaging, and where The Purple & Yellow Album seemed almost to be an act of expression-as-exorcism — a release in the truest sense — Good Vibes & High Tides has more of an outreach kind of feel, connecting to the listener with outwardly catchy songs meant to do precisely that. Will Haagmans put together another full lineup? Will he continue down this sonic path, or is it a directional one-off en route to the next thing? Would he combine this with some of the more bedroom-acoustic material he’s done before? As much as Hunter S. Thompson advised following the Great Magnet’s directives, Haagmans seems to-date to be charting his own course with The Whims of the Great Magnet, and as to where that will take him (rumor has it a trio incarnation is to debut live next month), we’ll just have to wait and see. This record is nothing less than a gift as a part of that process.

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Six Dumb Questions with The Whims of the Great Magnet (Plus Track Premiere)

Posted in audiObelisk, Six Dumb Questions on March 29th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

the-whims-of-the-great-magnet

[Click play above to hear ‘BVO’tje (1 More 4)’ from The Whims of the Great Magnet’s The Purple and Yellow Album, out April 1.]

Even before the book was closed in 2013 on fuzz rockers Sungrazer, bassist/backing vocalist Sander Haagmans had begun to explore new ground in The Whims of the Great Magnet. The rock was lower-fi, still pulling influence from a ’90s sphere, but rawer in tone and intent alike. Haagmans, alternating between a full-band and completely-solo approach, oversaw the release of several EPs — 2012’s EP being the first, followed the next year by a collection of home recordings, then April Fool in 2015 — and now makes a full-length debut with The Purple and Yellow Album, once more working on his own and in arguably the most intimate incarnation of The Whims of the Great Magnet to-date.

Comprised of 12 self-recorded songs and running a vinyl-ready 37 minutes, The Purple and Yellow Album brings forth an at-times psychedelic vision of grunge folk. Instrumental and vocal layering and arrangement varies as songs like “Falling to Pieces” and the later “Better Stay at Home” might only feature an acoustic guitar while others build further out, whether it’s the howling guitar of “BVO’tje (1 More 4),” the incorporated keys of “As I Felt Alright Before,” the garage psych of “Ow What Have I Done” (which gets an experimentalist reprise at the album’s conclusion), the Mellotron-infused “Debussy” or the six-minute “Slowburner,” which shifts from its solo melancholy into an acoustic/bass/drum progression at the end over a six-minute run that makes it the longest inclusion overall.

Wherever he takes a given track, Haagmans unites the material on The Purple and Yellow Album through his own performance and an overarching sense of honesty in the songwriting. Some songs have a self-aware humor, like “Better Stay at Home” or the preceding “Teen Anger,” but even these are executed with harmonic depth and a resonant emotionalism, and while one can hear shades of Haagmans‘ former outfit in pieces like “As I Felt Alright Before” and “I Could Just Leave it Like That,” that becomes only one context in which his songwriting lives up to the considerable ambition behind the concept of these tracks and the finds balance with the humility with the circumstances of their recording and release, providing a nonetheless rich and engaging front-to-back listening experience.

Below, Haagmans talks about the songs’ making and some of his future plans, threatening a doom record and more.

Please enjoy the following Six Dumb Questions:

Six Dumb Questions with The Whims of the Great Magnet

Tell me about writing for The Purple and Yellow Album. At what point did you know the material would take a more acoustic direction?

Right from the start. It’s a collection of home recordings. And at home I had mainly acoustic guitars, so… But I just moved to a new house where we’re making a rehearsal room in the back, so my next recording might be a doom record.

Home recording is a very intimate process and you’ve decided to really convey something raw in these tracks in terms of sound. How did that come about? What is it you’re looking to say in these songs?

I just wanted to record some songs, sounds and sketches on my four-track cassette recorder (actually it’s my wife’s; thank you, wife). There’s lots of imperfections and vocals out of tune and all. But I wanted it to be loose and whimsical. So I kept many first ideas and mistakes and just played around. Also I used all of my ideas. So the cheesy songs, the sing-a-longs, the quasi serious songs and the slow boring songs are all in there. It’s a pretty good reflection of what music comes out of me at home. And I didn’t leave things out because it might not be cool enough in some setting or whatever.

Why purple and yellow? Is it just the artwork or is there some further significance to using those colors?

I remember I had a period in my childhood that I would only colour and paint with these two colours. And since I’m feeling more and more nostalgic as I’m getting older I went back to this period for the cover. Wish I could do the same with my music. But I will probably never reach the level I had when I was 12.

Will future The Whims of the Great Magnet recordings take a similar direction, or do you see yourself moving back toward a full-band sound again?

I really don’t know where the path will take me. I will keep doing stuff as The Whims of the Great Magnet for sure and it can go in any direction. Maybe a doom record isn’t such a bad idea. Also I really need to get a band together again but that would probably be with a different name.

Of course we have to mention your past playing in Sungrazer and that band’s ongoing legacy (you recently appeared on Spaceslug’s Time Travel Dilemma, for example). The Purple and Yellow Album has a laid back feel but some grunge to it as well. How do you view it in relation to your past work?

Ah the grunge thing! Anything I did in the past is not what I’m doing now. When we were with Sungrazer, we played as a band. We were in that moment together. Now with this album I’m doing something on my own. That’s a difference. But I’m sure it has some similarities as well which is obvious. But because I’m doing this album alone, it’s more personal and closer to me than anything I have done with a band. Because it’s just me, uncompromised and unfiltered. You could be right when you say that this doesn’t necessarily have to be better for the result. But that’s just the way it is (Bruce Hornsby!). And I’m not only into solo and mellow acoustic stuff. Nooooo, no, no, no, no. The other things still attract me just as much but weren’t around when I hit record.

Any other plans or closing words you want to mention?

I would like to thank you and the people so very much who supported my music in the past and especially in the present. Cowabunga dudes!

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Friday Full-Length: Sungrazer, Mirador

Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 16th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

Sungrazer, Mirador (2011)

About a decade ago, The Atomic Bitchwax wrote a song called “The Passenger” which featured the lines, “I always thought you’d come around/Realize where your home really was…” and went on to talk about filling the space with fuzz. When it comes to certain bands calling it quits, “Realize where your home really was” continues to ring in my head. I guess that, since they broke up in 2013, I figured that the three members of Netherlands-based heavy psych rockers Sungrazer would spend the next however many years working their way back to each other. Different projects would come and go, whatever personality or creative conflicts that might have been insurmountable at the time would fall by the wayside, seen at last for how minute they actually were in comparison to the special collaboration between the three of them. Eventually, one way or another, Sungrazer would get back together.

I’ll allow this was a fan’s denial. Between 2010’s Sungrazer (review here) and 2011’s Mirador (review here), I had them pegged as the forerunners of the next generation of European fuzz. The band who could take the lessons of Colour Haze and maybe push even further into something new, turning influence into something truly individual and thus becoming an influence in their own right. When they disbanded after 2013’s split with The Machine (review here), it was hard not to feel like there was potential going to waste. Here was a band who, already so clearly with something special to offer, could have done so much more just blatantly refusing to do it.

It was heartbreaking to learn earlier this week about the passing of former Sungrazer guitarist/vocalist Rutger Smeets. Genuinely, and not just because I dug the band he used to play in or the band he went on to play in afterward (that being Cigale). I don’t know what Smeets‘ circumstances were, but it’s almost too easy to read into, which is an impulse I’ve been trying all week, mostly unsuccessfully, to fight against.

And so, we close out the week with Mirador, the second and final full-length from Sungrazer. There was really no other choice, and to be honest, I haven’t put on much else since Tuesday. I remember getting a review copy of Mirador and listening to it in the morning a lot, even after I wrote it up, and though I wasn’t even really done yet with the self-titled — still not, as it happens — I recall thinking what a huge step forward it was for Smeets, bassist/vocalist Sander Haagmans and drummer Hans Mulders. How they had managed to develop so much chemistry between them in just a year’s time, how natural they sounded, and how fluid the whole experience of hearing it was, from the ultra-catchy “Sea” into the progressive harmonies of “Behind,” the molten explorations of “Mirador” itself and the playful spirit of “34 and More.” Between these and the early patience established on opener “Wild Goose,” the fade-in of which seems to pick up right from where the debut left off, the instrumental “Octo,” and “Goldstrike,” which is like the gateway to the expanses to come, Mirador remains four years later an album that stands out as a high point in the style. In light of Smeets‘ passing, it seems even more precious, and we should be all the more grateful to have it.

The loss is bigger than we can know. I’ve already expressed my condolences to family, friends and bandmates, but again: Heel veel sterkte. Gecondoleerd.

I think we’ll leave it there for the week. Thanks for reading. Forum and radio.

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R.I.P. Rutger Smeets of Sungrazer and Cigale

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 13th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

rutger smeets (photo by JJ Koczan)

Rutger Smeets, 1977-2015

It is with shock and sadness that confirmation comes of the death of Rutger Smeets, former guitarist and vocalist of heavy psych trio Sungrazer.

As the frontman of the Netherlands-based Sungrazer, Smeets was at the fore of one of Europe’s brightest hopes for next-generation heavy psych. Together with bassist Sander Haagmans and drummer Hans Mulders, he released two full-length albums through Stefan Koglek of Colour Haze’s Elektrohasch imprint — Sungrazer (2010) and Mirador (2011) — that showcased progression and seemingly limitless potential through natural vibes, his warm guitar tone and laid back but richly melodic vocals. At festivals like Roadburn 2011, Desertfest London and Berlin in 2012, Sungrazer amassed a considerable fanbase that set them up to pay off all their potential with a significant impact on the genre. They were a special band, and all one had to do was listen to their records to hear it.

Following a 2013 split with countrymen The Machine, Sungrazer unexpectedly called it quits, with Smeets announcing his departure from the band in a short, almost terse post on social media. Earlier this year, he made his debut alongside Mulders in the new outfit Cigale, which despite a folkier and even-more pastoral approach found him contributing many of the same elements that made Sungrazer so special to begin with. Cigale’s 2015 self-titled is one of the best first-albums of the year. No word has been announced on the band’s future plans, but they played Desertfest Berlin this past spring, and if it was slow-going, their arrival meant that both fans of Sungrazer and others would have a new and engaging way to experience Smeets’ work.

On behalf of myself, someone who interviewed Smeets, admired his output and respected the distinctive feel he brought to what’s so often simple imitation — and on behalf of this site — condolences to the family, friends and bandmates current or former. Once more this community is brought together by a devastating loss and reminded of how important we are to each other.

I’ve heard no word of a fundraiser or anything like that being set up for Smeets’ family, but when/if I do, obviously this post will be updated with that information.

 

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The Obelisk Presents: The Top 20 EPs, Demos and Singles of 2013

Posted in Features on January 2nd, 2014 by JJ Koczan

I’ve been trying to get this one on the page for a couple weeks now — really since last year if you want to go back that far — and I finally just decided to do it. Granted, it’s already 2014, but I’m pretty used to being behind the times, so I hope you’ll indulge me on this one.

The thing is, of course we already did the Top 20 Albums of 2013, but that leaves an awful lot out in terms of quality shorter releases. Demos, singles, EPs, splits — whatever it might be — there’s a lot more to the story of a year in music than who’s putting out what full-length. That might be true now more than ever, with digital releases and artists having the ability to more or less give a song-by-song feed of new material should they so choose. Since this is the first time I’ve done this list, I’ve kept the presentation pretty basic, but there’s a lot to dig into here anyway in terms of the quality of the music and what people were able to accomplish in, in some cases, just one or two tracks.

My basis for judgment here is basically the same as with the full-albums list, and by that I mean how much I listened to something played a huge role, and it’s not just how important I think an EP or a split or a demo was that got it included on this list — though of course that stuff matters as well. Like spelling, repeat listens count. And it goes without saying these are my picks and have nothing to do with the Readers Poll, the results of which are here.

Okay, let’s do this:

The Top 20 Short Releases of 2013

1. The Machine/Sungrazer, Split
2. Dozer, Vultures
3. Mars Red Sky, Be My Guide
4. Black Thai, Seasons of Might
5. Wo Fat/Egypt, Cyclopean Riffs Split 12″
6. Young Hunter, Embers at the Foot of Dark Mountain
7. Shroud Eater, Dead Ends
8. Steak, Corned Beef Colossus
9. Geezer, Gage
10. The Golden Grass, One More Time b/w Tornado 7″
11. Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight, Underground
12. King Buffalo, Demo
13. Groan, Ride the Snake
14. Crypt Sermon, Demo MMXIII
15. Stubb, Under a Spell b/w Bullets Rain 7″
16. Salem’s Pot, Watch Me Kill You Tape
17. Undersmile/Coma Wall, Wood and Wire Split
18. Second Grave, Antithesis
19. Sinister Haze, Demo
20. Olde Growth, Owl

Honorable mention has to go to the Fatso Jetson/Yawning Man split, C.O.C.‘s Megalodon EP, which was right on but which I didn’t really hear enough to include. The Gates of Slumber‘s Stormcrow as well.

Just a couple notes: In the case of Olde Growth, putting them last was actually more about not being sure when the official release date of Owl was than anything else. I actually listened to that quite a bit, and “Tears of Blood” remains my favorite work of the duo’s to date. In terms of demos, it was a good year for doom debuts, with Crypt Sermon and Sinister Haze both showing some malevolent classicism, and King Buffalo‘s demo grew on me almost immediately upon hearing it and right away made me look forward to whatever might come next from them.

I was a little hesitant to put a split in the number one spot, but The Machine‘s riff for “Awe” alone made it necessary. I’ve kept this disc on my person for almost the entire year and continue to have no regrets in doing so. For Dozer, yeah, it was a collection of older material, but I still enjoyed the crap out of it. Both Mars Red Sky and Black Thai signaled considerable creative growth in four-song EPs, and the Wo Fat and Egypt split more than lived up to its mission. The riff lives in bands like that, and as we get further into stylistic nuance and subgenre development, it’s those groups who are holding on to the Heavy.

Young Hunter are one of the most promising bands I’ve heard in the last three years. Flat out. Killer release. Ditto that in a much different context for Shroud Eater, whose take on heavy only got more sinister and more effective with Dead Ends. Steak emerge as tops among the five British bands — a quarter of the list! — here. Their Corned Beef Colossus also had the best title I heard all year, and though Trippy Wicked, Groan, Stubb, and Undersmile/Coma Wall (the latter earning bonus points for putting out a split with themselves) all thrilled, Steak‘s potential got them that spot. Time for a full-length, guys.

Not to leave out New York — though the geographical alignment is a coincidence — Geezer‘s Gage tapped into a jammier feel that I thought suited the band remarkably well, and The Golden Grass‘ debut single offered one of the most charming irony-free good times I’ve heard in a long while. The Salem’s Pot cassette was one of my most-listened-to tapes this year, last mentioned but not at all least, Second Grave‘s Antithesis probably would’ve clocked in higher if I’d had more time with it, but was definitely one I wanted to put in here anyway.

As I said, a lot of really astounding shorter outings, and worthy of attention in their own right. If I missed anything, I hope you’ll let me know in the comments.

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