I was pretty stoked last week when word came through that Glasgow’s The Cosmic Dead had signed to Heavy Psych Sounds for their next record, and at that point I didn’t even know the album announcement would be here. Turns out the LP-to-come is called Infinite Peaks, and it’s got at least one entire-side-consuming jam, from which the video-premiering-below “Space Mountain Part I: Desert Djilo” has been carved out as an initial single.
A longer-form modus isn’t new for The Cosmic Dead, for whom Infinite Peaks serves as their ninth full-length as noted by the PR wire below. The band’s most recent outing, 2021’s split with Giöbia, The Intergalactic Connection – Exploring The Sideral Remote Hyperspace (review here), also came out on Heavy Psych Sounds, so it’s not the first time the band and label have worked together, and by adding the Scottish space racers to their roster, the Italian imprint only further cements its position at the forefront of heavy consciousness within and beyond Europe’s borders.
And if I told you “Space Mountain Part I: Desert Djilo” was a scorcher, would you believe it? How could you not? The Cosmic Dead‘s contribution to the Giöbia split was the 19-minute “Crater Creator,” and it doesn’t take them long to nestle into a groove on the new single, with threads of cosmic synth coursing along with the central outward nod; vibes and tones heavy, aimed at the sun, launch’d. There’s a lot of space rocking this and that out there right now. What distinguishes The Cosmic Dead from the glut of chic cosmic whatnot is the low end. It’s where heavy lives, and where bass is an afterthought in so much psych as there’s barely room on stage with guitar pedal boards the size of neighborhoods, The Cosmic Dead have always been able to hone a sound with float as well as heft. They’re heavier.
That’s what I’m hearing in “Space Mountain Part I: Desert Dijlo,” anyhow, and five years after 2019’s Scottish Space Race (review here), I’m glad for the reminder of what I thought was so badass about these guys to start with. The track is six minutes long, so more than a teaser, but you can still expect to be left hanging as the segment of the longer jam cuts out. The band comments on the piece under the player below, where you’ll also find the ever-crucial preorder links.
V-i-b-e:
The Cosmic Dead, “Space Mountain Part I: Desert Djilo” video premiere
THE COSMIC DEAD – New album “Infinite Peaks” out April 12 on Heavy Psych Sounds
“Infinite Peaks” is the long awaited ninth full length album from tumultuous Glaswegian astral travellers The Cosmic Dead. The album features two extended incantations recorded and mixed at Glasgow’s 16 Ohm Recording Studio. About the new single: “‘Desert Djilo’ is the opening section of our 20-minute instrumental track ‘Space Mountain’, completely improvised and recorded live in the studio, it was in itself part of a larger jam. This is a jam within a jam, synth follows bass follows drums follows fiddle. The sound of the radioactive desert.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 16th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
After releasing the expansive-of-title-and-sound split LP The Intergalactic Connection – Exploring The Sideral Remote Hyperspace (review here) in 2021 through Heavy Psych Sounds and partnering for that release with their now-labelmates in Italy’s Giöbia, Glasgow heavy psych explorers The Cosmic Dead have made it official with the same label for their next full-length. And I know there’s been a lot happening in space rock the last couple years with your King Gizzards and your Slifts and Pigsx7, etc., but it’s been a half-decade since The Cosmic Dead released their last LP, 2019’s Scottish Space Race (review here), so you might need a refresher on just how righteous their interstellar slop actually is. All good. I’m sure by the time the record shows up — April? late March? — the hype will have us all up to date.
The PR wire hurled this in the direction of my eyeballs a bit ago, and it seemed fitting to share. True to established methodology, Heavy Psych Sounds next week will follow this announcement with the album details and first single:
Heavy Psych Sounds to announce THE COSMIC DEAD signing for their upcoming new album !!!
We’re incredibly stoked to announce that the Glasgow space rock band THE COSMIC DEAD is coming back with a brand new album !!!
NEW ALBUM PRESALE + FIRST TRACK PREMIERE January 24th
BIOGRAPHY
The Cosmic Dead are an amorphous blob of space rock energy hailing from Glasgow, Scotland. Their exploratory compositions often reach levels of sonic destruction through reflective repetition and visceral harmony.
The band has taken many forms since forming in 2010 and has been declared ‘The loudest psychedelic rock band on the planet.” by legendary compere Kozmik Ken. At the base of the current sonic obliteration team is a rhythm section of Tommy Duffin and Omar Aborida, a thunderous and cohesive unit which is then further propelled into the outer realms by Luigi Pasquini providing frantic italo synthesized electronics along with Calum Calderwood’s mind bending, sky-shattering fiddle acrobatics.
The Cosmic Dead is: Omar Aborida – Bass, Guitars, Wah Tommy Duffin – Drums, Wah Calum Calderwood – Fiddle, Wah Luigi Pasquini – Synthesizer, Wah
Giöbia and The Cosmic Dead will release their new split LP, The Intergalactic Connection: Exploring the Sideral Remote Hyperspace, on Friday, Oct. 29, through Heavy Psych Sounds. And of course, the question isn’t so much whether or not you can hang with the 37-minute outward-tripping psychedelic wowness of it, but whether or not the transwarp pathway they’ve opened by routing aux power systems through a tertiary distortion matrix will continue to expand at an exponential rate, gradually swallowing, you, me, your dog Toto, both of our record players, and eventually the rest of the universe as we know it. I’m going with a solid “yes” on that.
And by the way, “going with” is precisely what The Intergalactic Connection — saving some time by shortening the title if you’ll pardon; I know time is a construct, and the Italian and Scottish four-pieces are only offering a reminder of that here; what is once more around the sun when you’ve left orbit at three times FTL? — is made for. As to how much direct collaboration of intent there was between Giöbia, who begin side A with the let’s-surf-in-antigrav “Canyon Moon,” drift peacefully through a take on Pink Floyd‘s “Julia Dream” and drone away three and a half earth minutes in the hypnotic “Meshes of the Afternoon,” and The Cosmic Dead, whose “Crater Creator” runs 19:40 and is a blunter instrument of blowout on its face but no less dynamic once it actually hits your auditory processors.
Can you believe there was a time when humans measured distance in miles instead of sound?
Anyhoozle, whatever psychic link may have been established across these international borders — I don’t know what kind of VAT one has to pay for such things in this post-Brexit era, or even how they’d tally it, or even if VAT applies to the dimension the bands are working in — the two acts are firmly united in the purpose of taking their audience from the place they are and putting them in the place they want them to be. That is to say, The Intergalactic Connection starts far out and proceeds on a course toward farther out. “Canyon Moon” is ignition. “Julia Dream” the organ-inclusive wistfulness of seeing Earth for the insignificant dot it is. “Meshes of the Afternoon” a float through background radiation, perhaps a state of suspended animation across decades or centuries or some other unknown stretch of depth and time. And “Crater Creator” is the fabric woven of interstellar indecencies against the galactical puritan square. Shred shred shred your conceptions and the rest will follow. What happens when? When happens what?
Preliminary data makes it hard to determine a proper rate of cellular decay across what translates as a deceptively-manageable full-length runtime, but let the takeaway from this briefing be that the advent alignment of Giöbia and The Cosmic Dead is not down to simple happenstance. They are drawn together in intent across a linear direction, a single arrow pointing all the way beyond known space (rock). These are not asteroids banging together at random. If you believe something as unknowable as the unknown itself could be working from a plan, well, this is a record and not actually the universe and that’s a pretty dumb idea, but hell’s bells, there’s certainly a plan at work here. And the rest? Screw the rest. If fucking Bill Shatner can go to space on a rocket shaped like a billionaire dingus, certainly you can with headphones and closed eyes and all the wah you can handle and probably then some.
Heavy Psych Sounds Records is really proud to present the Psychedelic-Space split of the century!!
“The Intergalactic Connection – Exploring The Sideral Remote Hyperspace” it’s a split album that came from deep deep space !!! Here Giöbia meets The Cosmic Dead, two of the best modern space-rock bands you can find. The Italian quartet come with 3 incredible songs, while the Scottish guys deliver a 19 minute long suite.
This piece of psychedelic journey is a travel inside the universe, 4 tracks full of heavy psych and space rock riffs that will bring you into a psychedelic vortex with no way out!
A must-have for all the space travelers. Fans of Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, UFO and Gong will be more than enthusiastic… It’s a Space Ritual journey!!
Rad artwork by Branca Studio!
GIÖBIA A01 Canyon Moon A02 Julia Dream A03 Meshes of the Afternoon
THE COSMIC DEAD B04 Crater Creator
GIÖBIA are: STEFANO ‘BAZU’ BASURTO – GUITARS PAOLO ‘DETRJI’ BASURTO – BASS MELISSA CREMA – ORGAN / SYNTHESIZERS / VOCALS PIETRO D’AMBROSIO – DRUMS
THE COSMIC DEAD are: OMAR ABORIDA – GUITARS / WAH TOMMY DUFFIN – DRUMS / BIG GUITAR / WAH LUIGI PASQUINI – SYNTHESIZERS / WAH CALUM CALDERWOOD – FIDDLE / WAH
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 13th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Arriving just in time for your freaked-out Halloween, the new split between Italy’s Giöbia and Scotland’s The Cosmic Dead bears the cumbersome title The Intergalactic Connection: Exploring the Sideral Remote Hyperspace. It’s out Oct. 29 through Heavy Psych Sounds and I’ll be streaming it on Oct. 26 (shh…), but ahead of that, here’s more good news in that Giöbia are returning to playing live at a number of indoor shows and even a festival in Germany in December. Hey folks, baby steps, you know?
I’m not actually sure how much of their Spring 2020 tour the band played supporting their then-just-released LP Plasmatic Idol, but they were headed out right as the Covid-19 pandemic was laying waste to their home country, and their social media has any number of “sorry to cancel”-type posts. Obviously out of their control. In any case, they’re a bunch of weirdos and accordingly, I’m glad to see them get back out on the road and do the thing. One imagines and hopes that more performances will be scheduled for 2022. Not trying to jinx anything so I’ll leave it at that.
From the internets:
Friends we are super excited to announce the first indoor concerts for this fall.
Music lovers and live fans please help support, concerts, promoters and venues.
THE INTERGALACTIC CONNECTION FALL TOUR 2021 OCT 16 ZIGGY Club – Torino OCT 23 Circolo Gagarin-Bust Arsice VA NOV 19 Caracol Pisa – Pisa NOV 20 Traffic Club Roma – Roma DEC 4 Bloom – Mezzago MI w\Delving DEC 16 BASIS Vinschgau Venosta-Silander, BZ DEC 17 Astra Kulturzentrum Centro Culturale-Bressanone, BZ DEC 18 NEKROPOLIS FEST 2021 – Munich, Germany
The mystical day 60s rock met neo-psych and krautrock, mixing up to the point of losing consciousness of their own essence in an overwhelming and incessant soundtrack with an unmistakable Italian taste, GIÖBIA’s acid rock was born. In a vortex that leaves no way out, the unique melodies of this quartet take the listener into a world where the boundaries of reality are no longer defined and anything can ever happen.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 21st, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Next May will mark the third edition of the Sonic Whip Festival, though I’ll admit this is the first I’m hearing of it. No surprise there, as I’m about two years behind on most things in life. Tickets for Sonic Whip 2020 are set to go on sale tomorrow at noon CET for the night-and-dayer, with a pre-party May 1 and a full event on May 2 at Doornroosje in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and the lineup will feature a few of the acts making the rounds at that time, including headliners Masters of Reality and Kadavar, as well as Pissed Jeans, Rotor, Forming the Void, The Cosmic Dead, Gum Takes Tooth and Bonnacons of Doom.
I’ll admit it was Forming the Void that caught my eye and not just because I happen to be wearing their t-shirt today. This is the second event around that time that the Louisiana-based progressive heavy rockers have been announced for, and while I was already just waiting for them to announce a European tour after the first one, this only further confirms that update is coming.
Likewise keeping an eye out for Masters of Reality‘s full run to be unveiled, as they’re set to do Desertfest and others in addition to this one. And, well Kadavar are just kind of always on the road somewhere, so yeah, they’ll probably be touring too.
But I’m getting off-track, so here’s the announcement from the fest:
Sonic Whip 2020
Sonic Whip, the multi-headed rock monster that combines roaring guitars riffs with steaming bass lines, pounding drums and other sonic, psychedelic excesses, is preparing for the third edition. We kick off on May 1 with a pre-party deluxe in Doornroosje to go completely berserk on May 2 at the same location.
LINE-UP ? MASTERS OF REALITY ? KADAVAR ? PISSED JEANS ? ROTOR ? THE COSMIC DEAD ? FORMING THE VOID ? GUM TAKES TOOTH ? BONNACONS OF DOOM ? MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED…
Ticket sales start on Friday 22 November at 12.00 with the combi tickets. The first batch of very limited combi costs € 57.50, then € 67.50. Day tickets go on sale later, more info will follow.
Posted in Reviews on October 3rd, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I’d like to find the jerk who decided that the week I fly to Norway was a good time for the Quarterly Review. That, obviously, was a tactical error on my part. Nonetheless, we press on with day four, which I post from Oslo on CET. Whatever time zone you may find yourself in this Thursday, I hope you have managed to find something so far in this onslaught of whatnot to sink your chompers into. That’s ultimately, why we’re here. Also because there are so many folders with albums in them on my desktop that I can’t stand it anymore. Happens about every three months.
But anyhoozle, we press on with Day Four of the Fall 2019 Quarterly Review, dutiful and diligent and a couple other words that start with ‘d.’ Mixed bag stylistically this time — trying to throw myself off a bit — so should be fun. Let’s dive in.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Total Fucking Destruction, #USA4TFD
Who the hell am I to be writing about a band like Total Fucking Destruction? I don’t know. Who the hell am I to be writing about anything. Fuck you. As the Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth)-led Philly natives grind their way through 23 tracks in a 27-minute barrage of deceptively thoughtful sonic extremity, they efficiently chronicle the confusion, tumult and disaffection of our age both in their maddening energy and in the poetry — yeah, I said it — of their lyrics. To it, from “Is Your Love a Rainbow”: “Are you growing? Is everything okay? Are you growing in the garden of I don’t know?” Lines like this are hardly decipherable without a lyric sheet, of course, but still, they’re there for those ready to look beyond the surface assault of the material, though, frankly, that assault alone would be enough to carry the band — Hoak on drums/vocals, Dan O’Hare on guitar/vocals and Ryan Moll on bass/vocals — along their willfully destructive course. For their fourth LP in 20 years — most of that time given to splits and shorter releases, as one might expect — Total Fucking Destruction make their case for an end of the world that, frankly, can’t get here fast enough.
Issued first by the band digitally and on CD and then by Cursed Tongue Records on vinyl, 111 is the impressively toned debut full-length from Portland, Oregon’s Hippie Death Cult, who cull together heavy rock and post-grunge riffing with flourish of organ and a densely-weighted groove that serves as an overarching and uniting factor throughout. With the bluesy, classic feeling vocals of Ben Jackson cutting through the wall of fuzz from Eddie Brnabic‘s guitar and Laura Phillips‘ bass set to roll by Ryan Moore‘s drumming, there’s never any doubt as to where Hippie Death Cult are coming from throughout the seven-track/42-minute offering, but longer, side-ending pieces “Unborn” (8:24) and “Black Snake” (9:06) touch respectively on psychedelia and heavy blues in a way that emphasizes the subtle turns that have been happening all along, not just in shifts like the acoustic “Mrtyu,” but in the pastoral bridge and ensuing sweep of “Pigs” as well. “Sanctimonious” and “Breeder’s Curse” provide even ground at the outset, and from there, Hippie Death Cult only grow richer in sound along their way.
Heavyweight Glaswegian space jammers The Cosmic Dead present four massive slabs of lysergic intensity with their eighth long-player, Scottish Space Race (on Riot Season Records), working quickly to pull the listener into their gravity well and holding them there for the 2LP’s 75-minute duration. As hypnotic as it is challenging, the initial churn that emerges in the aptly-named 20-minute opener “Portal” clenches the stomach brutally, and it’s not until after about 12 minutes that the band finally lets it loose. “Ursa Major,” somewhat thankfully, is more serene, but still carries a sense of movement and build in its second half, while the 12-minute title-track is noisier and has the surprising inclusion of vocals from the generally instrumental outfit. They cap with the 24-minute kosmiche throb of “The Grizzard,” and there are vocals there too, but they’re too obscured to be really discernible in any meaningful way, and of course the end of the record itself is a huge wash of fuckall noise. Eight records deep, The Cosmic Dead know what they’re doing in this regard, and they do it among the best of anyone out there.
With just three tracks across a 20-minute span, There are More Things (on Acid Cosmonaut) feels like not much more than a sampler of things to come from Italian post-sludgers Greenthumb, who take their name from a Bongzilla track they also covered on their 2018 debut EP, West. The three-songer feels like a decided step forward from that offering, and though they maintain their screamier side well enough, they might be on the verge of needing a new name, as the rawness conveyed by the current moniker hardly does justice to the echoing atmospherics the band in their current incarnation bring. Launching with the two seven-minute cuts “The Field” and “Ogigia’s Tree,” they unfurl a breadth of roll so as to ensnare the listener, and though “The Black Court” is shorter at 5:37 and a bit more straight-ahead in its structure, it still holds to the ambient sensibility of its surroundings well, the band obviously doing likewise in transposing a natural feel into their sound born of landscape real or imagined.
Riffy Sardinians Elepharmers set themselves to roll with “Ancient Astronauts” and do not stop from there on Lords of Galaxia, their third LP and debut through Electric Valley Records. There are some details of arrangement between the guitars of El Chino (also bass, vocals and harmonica) and Andrea “Fox” Cadeddu and the drums of Maurizio Mura, but as Marduk heralds his age on second cut “Ziqqurat,” the central uniting factor is g-r-o-o-v-e, and Elepharmers have it down through “The Flood” and into side B’s classic stoner rocking “Foundation” and the driving “The Mule,” which shifts into laser-effects ahead of the fade that brings in closer “Stars Like Dust” for the last 10 minutes of the 47-minute offering. And yes, there’s some psychedelia there, but Elepharmers stay pretty clearheaded on the whole in such a way as to highlight the sci-fi theme that seems to draw the songs together as much as the riffage. More focus on narrative can only help bring that out more, but I’m not sure I’d want that at the expense of the basic songwriting, which isn’t at all broken and thus requires no fixing.
How do you recognize true misanthropy when you come across it? It doesn’t wear a special kind of facepaint, though it can. It doesn’t announce itself as such. It is a frame. Something genuinely antisocial and perhaps even hateful is a worldview. It’s not raise-a-claw-in-the-woods. It’s he-was-a-quiet-loner. And so, coming across the debut album from Los Angeles experimentalist doom outfit, one gets that lurking, creeping feeling of danger even though the music itself isn’t overly abrasive. But across the 2CD debut album, a sprawl of darkened, viciously un-produced fare that seems to be built around programmed drums at the behest of Craig Osbourne — who may or may not be the only person in the band and isn’t willing to say otherwise — plays out over the course of more than two hours like a manifesto found after the fact. Imagine chapters called “Hope is Weakness,” “Fingered by the Hand of God,” and “Uplift the Worthy (Destroy the Weak).” The last of those appears on both discs — as do several of the songs in different incarnations — as the track marries acoustic and eventual harder-edged guitar around murderous themes, sounding something like Godflesh might have if they’d pursued a darker path. Scary.
The fact that Warish are blasting hard punk through heavy blowout tones isn’t what everyone wants to talk about when it comes to the band. They want to talk about the fact that it’s Riley Hawk — of royal stock, as regards pro skateboarding — fronting the band. Well, that’s probably good for a built-in social media following — name recognition never hurts, and I don’t see a need to pretend otherwise — but it doesn’t do shit for the album itself. What matters about the album is that bit about the blasting blowout. With Down in Flames (on RidingEasy), the Oceanside three-piece follow-up their earlier-2019 debut EP with 11 tracks that touch on horror punk with “Bones” and imagine grunge-unhinged with “Fight” and “You’ll Abide,” but are essentially a display of tonal fuckall presented not to add to a brand, but to add the soundtrack to somebody’s blackout. It’s a good time and the drunkest, gnarliest, most-possibly-shirtless dude in the room is having it. Also he probably smells. And he just hugged you. Down in Flames gets high with that dude. That matters more than who anyone’s dad is.
It’s a double-dose of New England doom as Connecticut’s Mourn the Light and Boston’s Oxblood Forge pair up for a split release. The former bring more material than the latter, particularly when one counts the digital-only bonus cover of Candlemass‘ “Bewitched,” but with both groups, it’s a case of what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Both groups share a clear affinity for classic metal — and yes, that absolutely extends to the piano-led drama of Mourn the Light‘s mournful “Carry the Flame” — but Oxblood Forge‘s take thereupon is rougher edged, harder in its tone and meaner in the output. Their “Screams From Silence” feels like something from a dubbed-and-mailed tape circa ’92. Mourn the Light’s “Drags Me Down” is cleaner-sounding, but no less weighted. I don’t think either band is out to change the world, or even to change doom, but they’re doing what they’re doing well and without even an ounce of pretense — well, maybe a little bit in that piano track; but it’s very metal pretense — and clearly from the heart. That might be the most classic-metal aspect of all.
Swiss heavy rockers Those Furious Flames push the boundaries of psychedelia, but ultimately remain coherent in their approach. Likewise, they very, very obviously are into some classic heavy rock and roll, but their take on it is nothing if not modern. And more, they thrive in these contradictions and don’t at all sound like their songs are in conflict with themselves. I guess that’s the kind of thing one can pull off after 15 years together on a fifth full-length, which HeartH (on Vincebus Eruptum) is for them. Perhaps it’s the fact that they let the energy of pieces like “VooDoo” and the boogie-laced “HPPD” carry them rather than try to carry it, but either way, it’s clearly about the songs first, and it works. With added flash of organ amid the full-sounding riffs, Those Furious Flames round out with the spacey “Visions” and earn every bit of the drift therein with a still-resonant vocal harmony. You might not get it all the first time, but listening twice won’t be at all painful.
This is what it’s all about. Four longer-form instrumentalist heavy psych jams that are warm in tone and want nothing so much as to go out wandering and see what they can find. Through “Hydrogen,” “Atmos,” “Delta-V” and “Heliosphere,” Amsterdam-based three-piece Mantra Machine want nothing for gig-style vitality, but their purpose isn’t so much to electrify as to find that perfect moment of chill and let it go, see where it ends up, and they get there to be sure. Warm guitar and bass tones call to mind something that might’ve come out of the Netherlands at the start of this decade, when bands like Sungrazer and The Machine were unfolding such fluidity as seemed to herald a new generation of heavy psychedelia across Europe. That generation took a different shape — several different shapes, in the end — but Mantra Machine‘s Heliosphere makes it easy to remember what was so exciting about that in the first place. Total immersion. Total sense of welcoming. Totally human presence without speaking a word. So much vibe. So much right on.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 21st, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Hey-ho, space muffins and dwellers of the reaches between planets! Gather round the ol’ meteorite and hear good tidings from Glasgow’s The Cosmic Dead, who’ll issue their new full-length, Scottish Space Race, on Sept. 20 through the subspace receiver array known terrestrially as Riot Season Records. Get groovy, my little symptoms of the universe, because the writing’s in your eyes, but so’s the sunshine, and it rarely sounds brighter than when The Cosmic Dead get their jam jammy.
They’ll do the Euro thing in celebration of the offering, hitting it from then until, you know, pretty much whenever, man.
Dudes be like:
THE COSMIC DEAD ? SCOTTISH SPACE RACE ? NEW ALBUM AND EU TOUR
Heavy psych experimentalists The Cosmic Dead’s eighth album – Scottish Space Race – is set to be released on September 20th via Riot Season Records on Gatefold 2xLP / CD and has been mastered by John Mcbain (Monster Magnet, Wellwater Conspiracy).
The album was recorded in their Glasgow HQ with cosmic sound guru Luigi Pasquini, four sprawling chunks of music recorded live amongst a run of momentous late night festival appearances in the summer of 2018. Scottish
Space Race is the first The Cosmic Dead release to feature the drumming of Tommy Duffin (Headless Kross) and the lap-steel synthesizer yowls of Russell Andrew Gray (Girl Sweat) alongside long-time cosmicians Omar Aborida and James T Mckay.
To accompany the release the band is set to embark on a run of dates across the UK and Europe this autumn.
SCOTTISH SPACE RACE TOUR DATES
SEPTEMBER 17 UK HUDDERSFIELD ? The Parish 18 UK LONDON ? The Lexington 19 BE BRUSSELS ? Magasin 4 20 NL UTRECHT ? DB’s 21 DE BAMBERG ? Pizzini 22 PL WROCLAW ? D.K. Luksus 24 DE BERLIN ? Urban Spree 26 SL LJUBLJANA ? Gromka 27 HK ZAGREB ? Mochvara 28 HU SZEGED ? Jazz Kocsma 30 RO BUCHAREST ? Q-Fest Quantic Club
OCTOBER 01 RO CLUJ-NAPOCA ? Subform 02 RO TIMISOARA ? Capcana 03 AT WIEN ? Viper Room 04 IT VERONA ? Stoner Mafia 05 IT BOLOGNA ? Krakatoa Festival 08 FR PARIS ? Supersonic 09 FR LILLE ? La Bulle Café / MFM 10 FR ROUEN ? Les 3 Pieces 11 UK BRISTOL ? The Lanes
NOVEMBER 14 UK BEDFORD ? Esquires 15 UK FALMOUTH ? The Fish Factory 16 UK BATH ? St James Wine Vaults 17 UK NEWCASTLE ? Brave Exhibitions Festival
Posted in Features, Reviews on September 2nd, 2017 by JJ Koczan
09.02.17 – 00.30 – Friday night/Saturday morning – Sid’s house
First night of an inaugural edition of a festival. I couldn’t help but be affected by a kind of ambient level of anxiety in the room, though I’ll say as well that the hypercaffeination factor probably didn’t help in that regard. It was a cloudy day in Dublin with just a bit of a chill in the air and 10 bands on the bill, and before I put myself in the darkened recesses of the Voodoo Lounge for the evening, I sat at the coffee shop and could see the sundry black-t-shirt-clad weirdos who’d be attending the fest. They were easy enough to pick out.
The show got underway at 19.00 with Elder Druid on The Obelisk Stage, which even though I’m here and have seen it in-person still seems more than a little unreal, and was just about nonstop from there until Wild Rocket finished on the Mother Fuzzers Ball Stage after midnight, so there was plenty to see. I did the best I could with the back and forth and tried not to look like too much of an ass taking notes in between. Here are the results of that effort:
Elder Druid
Well, if you want to get things rolling, you might as well get someone that rolls, and Elder Druid have that part down. The Northern Irish sludgers weren’t heretofore unknown to me, having checked out their 2016 debut EP, Magicka (review here), and they broke out riff after sludgy riff for the early crowd filing in. It hardly seemed like a coincidence they were starting off the show. Although they’re from up north, like a lot of the representation Irish heavy would get throughout the night to follow, they were young and hungry, and looking to establish themselves as a force to the audience assembled. Aggro vocals over Southern-style riffs aren’t necessarily uncharted territory, but for a newer group, they worked quickly to find their momentum and held people in check for the duration, sounding full and mean through the Voodoo Lounge soundsystem with pro-shop lighting flashing behind them. They were angrier than a lot of the vibe would be for the rest of the night, but definitely drew people right into the thick of it with their set. They’re about to release their debut album, Carmina Satanae, on Oct. 6, and I hope I get to dig into it, because it was a fast half-hour from them to start the night.
Blaak Heat
Talk about a band who deserves more respect than they get. I suppose that’ll happen when your stuff is so head-spinningly complex, full of frenetic rhythmic changes, blinding turns, obscure Eastern-inflected scales and progressive melodies, but still. Playing as a five-piece and sharing three members with Abrahma in percussionist Sacha Viken, guitarist Nicolas Heller and bassist Guillaume Theoden — which left just guitarist/vocalist Thomas Bellier and drummer Mike Amster in the lineup from when I last saw them — they opened with “Sword of Hakim” and “Al-Andalus” from their new 7″ The Arabian Fuzz (review here) and proved once again how absolutely underrated they are and have been basically since they started. I had talked to them earlier in the day and Bellier said they had new stuff in the works, demos and whatnot (which I’d love to hear, though he doesn’t seem the type to send something unfinished, even just to check out), and while their 2016 full-length, Shifting Mirrors (review here), was the farthest they’d yet reached, the new single proves they’re still progressing, still pushing themselves, and I hope that will continue, because the results have never been anything less than stellar. They might be underrated, they might deserve more respect than they get, but clearly they’re chasing something within themselves sonically and that journey seems to thrive on the validation from the creativity that results from its undertaking.
Zlatanera
They were the first act upstairs on the Mother Fuzzers Ball Stage, and like much of what followed them in the smaller room, they played a more straightforward vibe and did well representing the native Irish scene. I hadn’t quite realized the shape the evening would take until I actually looked at the schedule, with international bands exclusively downstairs and Irish acts upstairs, but it made sense, and it was clear to see who the locals were once the double-guitar five-piece got going. As had Elder Druid, Zlatanera drew a good early crowd, and though I was kind of in and out for their set as I wanted to catch the end of Blaak Heat back downstairs — conflicts, conflicts, conflicts; back and forth is life at a festival — when I went back down I could still hear them from the back of the bigger room, so they were clearly doing something right. Light on frills, but their sound filled that upstairs room perfectly.
Abrahma
Parisian progressive heavy rockers Abrahma kept the theme — and the lineup — rolling from Blaak Heat. Viken moved behind the drum kit at the back of the deep downstairs stage, and Theoden and Heller switched sides from left to right as founding Abrahma guitarist/vocalist Sebastien Bismuth took the center spot. I’ve been fortunate enough to catch Abrahma live once before, in the Netherlands for Roadburn 2015 (review here), but neither Theoden nor Viken were in the band at that point, so it was half like seeing them for the first time anyway, even knowing how dynamic a frontman Bismuth is onstage. And he is. They said earlier this summer they’d be recording a new album this Fall as a follow-up to 2015’s Reflections in the Bowels of a Bird (review here), and I hope they get there, because they seemed to be pretty locked in when it came to their presentation, right down to a pleasant-as-hell-surprise cover of Type O Negative‘s “Red Water (Christmas Mourning)” from October Rust. Unexpected, to be sure, and twice as daring without keys, but Bismuth led the charge through a two-guitar interpretation, and it’s worth noting that even after the show that song continues to be stuck in my head, where I hope it will stay for, I don’t know, ever? In all seriousness, I’m very, very intrigued to hear where their new (original) material takes Abrahma. Reflections in the Bowels of a Bird added to much to their sound even compared to the preceding 2012 outing, Through the Dusty Paths of Our Lives (review here), that I can only wonder what the next step in that process will be. One to look forward to for 2018, at the very least.
Mount Soma
I was really hoping they’d be good, because I bought one of their shirts even before they started playing. Long story. Not really, but a boring story, so we’ll call it long and leave it at that. Being there to catch Mount Soma‘s mix of melodic and nasty heavy meant again trodding upstairs in my plodding-old-man kind of way, and again, when I got there, I found the native Dubliners, like Zlatanera before them, giving a right-on impression of Irish underground heavy. The scene representing itself to itself: here we are. Obviously I’m an outsider and no expert to start with, but the understanding I’ve come to is that while the UK has been in something of a boom the last decade or so, that’s kind of overshadowed what’s actually happening here in terms of outside bands coming to tour and native Irish acts garnering wider attention. Efforts like Emerald Haze, particularly backed by the county of Dublin as this event is, are crucial in making that happen, and I didn’t quite realize until I watched Mount Soma that while it’s great to see the international acts downstairs, perhaps even more attention has gone into curating the Irish groups playing here, because a huge part of the message of this festival is that Ireland’s scene is coming into its own, and while there’s still growing to do, the bands are clearly willing to take that responsibility on their shoulders. Mount Soma proved it with volume and force. No regrets on buying that shirt, to be sure.
The Cosmic Dead
The spaced-out Scots started late. Like, way late. Would you expect anything less of The Cosmic Dead than the bending of time? If so, then perhaps you’ve never heard them before, because that’s kind of what they do. Also, bending space. Also, melting brains. In any case, late start or no, once they got going, the Edinburgh four-piece freaked the royal fuck out — immediately and thoroughly. Killer. All the way. No doubter. Front to back. Green lights flashing. Synth blaring. Low end righteousness under wash of swirl. Melt. Melt. Melt. Space. Space. Space. Right frickin’ on. Like a frequency check for your consciousness. A litmus to see how much jam your brain could take before turning into powder. Every level, they were a lysergic win to behold, and while the running theme for the night was holy-crap-I-can’t-believe-I’m-lucky-enough-to-be-here-to-see-this, The Cosmic Dead only underscored the point that, holy crap, I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be here to see this. I’d already purchased every CD they had for sale and though I didn’t have enough cash, by the time they were done — they had the lights turned out on them because they were running long (that late start coming back to bite them in the collective ass) — I wanted to go back out to the merch area and pick up a t-shirt too. There were times as they were dug in when each member seemed to be on his own out there, floating without gravity and purposefully so, but when they locked step, whoa. Chills up the spine. Hair standing on end. Pick your cliché and roll with it. Whatever you got, The Cosmic Dead earned it. When they were done, they hung their guitars and bass from the ceiling. Room: conquered.
King Witch
To the best of my knowledge, they were the only band on the Mother Fuzzers Ball Stage not from Ireland or Northern Ireland, but while they shared a hometown with The Cosmic Dead in Edinburgh, the four-piece King Witch, whose metallic roots came through clearly in the guitar work of Jamie Gilchrist and the vocals of Laura Donnelly, the straight-ahead groove anchored by bassist Joe Turner and drummer Lyle Brown fit them right in with the likes of Mount Soma and Zlatanera before them. Donnelly was, one should note, the evening’s only standalone frontwoman, and she provided melody and force in kind from the stage. They were going even as The Cosmic Dead were still setting up downstairs, so were easy to hear from the start, and while once more I was up and back down again and back up again, King Witch‘s doom-tinged approach was a welcome preface to some of what tomorrow’s even more extended lineup will bring.
Church of the Cosmic Skull
I have to admit, on paper it looks a little strange. Granted, it was one of 2016’s best debut albums, but still, UK seven-piece cult proggers Church of the Cosmic Skull only have one record out in the stellar Is Satan Real? (review here), so to find them headlining the bigger of the two stages could’ve been taken as something of a surprise. Until about 10 seconds in. I’d watched them soundcheck earlier in the day, and even that did little to prepare me for the righteousness of their presentation. Whether it was the interlude samples timed to videos between their songs or the harmonies between guitarist Bill Fisher, vocalists Caroline Cawley and Jo Joyce, bassist Sam Lloyd and Hammond organist Michael Wetherburn, or the brought-to-life memorability of cuts like “Mountain Heart,” set and album closer “Evil in Your Eye” or personal highlight “Watch it Grow,” they were nothing less than a celebration. A joy to witness. Really. Wetherburn‘s Hammond had been onstage all night, and when they finally broke it out, it was like Chekhov’s gun earning its place. Between that, the cello, and Fisher‘s rainbow guitar and stately manner as a chapeaued otherplanetary-cult leader waiting to take the whole venue away on some spaceship hidden behind a comet — pass that Kool-Aid, I’ll give it a shot, carbs or no — there was no place Church of the Cosmic Skull would have worked except at the top of the bill, and the room, which was the most packed it had been all night, knew it. I felt greedy for thinking to myself I hope I get to see them at some point again in my life, especially when they pulled out what I’m pretty sure was a new song during the middle of their time. They didn’t miss a cue in the harmony arrangements, but that did nothing to undercut their tonal presence or the push in Loz Stone‘s drumming, and as positive and affirming as they were, there was just enough evil underlying their work to be truly sinister. Right on.
Electric Octopus
In order to prepare myself for seeing Electric Octopus live, the other day I undertook the considerable task of listening to their 2017 offering, Driving Under the Influence of Jams, in its nearly-four-hour entirety. And well, I knew they’d jam. And they jammed. What I didn’t realize was that when I went upstairs to catch them in that, they’d be so funky that they literally had people dancing in front of the stage. Think you can funk out improvised space rock? Because Electric Octopus sure as hell can, and the Belfast-based trio of bassist Dale Hughes (who was pulling double-duty, having also played in Elder Druid at the start of the show), guitarist Tyrell Black and drummer Guy Hetherington were a party unto themselves. I’d say outside world be damned, but the truth is, they seemed to feed off the fun the crowd in front of them was having, and it became this awesome conversation, the band playing the music being danced to and then taking the energy from that dance and translating it back into the music. There was something classic and open about it, but still molten and psychedelic at the same time. Wild Rocket, who’d follow, were more directly galaxial in what they were doing, and ditto that for The Cosmic Dead earlier, but Electric Octopus had their own personality that came through in their play and in their chemistry, and while there was nary a hook to be had in their instrumental explorations, their energy was infectious all the same. I didn’t dance. I don’t dance. I didn’t dance at my wedding. I don’t dance. But I grooved and had a hell of a time doing so as Electric Octopus made me want to go back and download every single thing they’ve ever put out, which is convenient because it’s all name-your-price on Bandcamp. They also had three CDs for sale. I bought all three and I’ll rank them among the wiser purchases I’ve made since becoming unemployed this summer.
Wild Rocket
Okay, so first thing. If you haven’t heard Wild Rocket‘s new LP, Disassociation Mechanics, do that. In fact, you’ll note that of the 10 bands who played Emerald Haze 2017 tonight, they’re the only one I’m directly linking to on Bandcamp, and that’s not a coincidence. What a blast they were. Only fitting to have a Dublin outfit close out the evening, and Wild Rocket made sure everyone had a final chance to be launched well beyond the atmosphere. Even the dudes from The Cosmic Dead came upstairs and were throwing down at the front of the stage, and that seemed appropriate enough to the proceedings. Certainly well earned. I had seen them last year in Norway at Høstsabbat (review here), but with a little bit more of an idea of what I was getting this time around, it was a pleasure to watch them flatten the Mother Fuzzers Ball Stage and give the night the best kind finale it could’ve possibly asked for. How much further out could it go than to have Moose, Jon, Bres and Niallo trip so far there was no coming back? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. Point is, go listen to that fucking Wild Rocket album. I mean it. The review’s pretty much over anyway. Only thing left to reiterate is how well the band did in giving the city of Dublin one more excellent showing of its own homegrown scene, because they were nothing if they weren’t world-class all the way, and unquestionably ready for export. Did you go listen to the record? Did you hear “Into the Black Hole?” Yeah. Good.
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It’s well past 2AM as I finish writing this and there are still pictures to sort through and a full 15-band lineup for tomorrow, so I’m going to leave it there for the time being. I’ll have this posted hopefully before the day starts up again, but hell, it might be tight. We’ll see how it goes. Would you believe me if I said I was anxious about it? Thought so.
Thanks for reading. More to come and more pics after the jump here.
