Posted in Whathaveyou on August 20th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Not a lot of details yet about the forthcoming debut album from German psych/krautrockers The Sun or the Moon, but if you’re up for a little YouTube digging — if they have a Bandcamp, I couldn’t find it — they have a few singles out there that are enticing enough. The four-piece have been picked up by Tonzonen for the release and the countryman German imprint has proven reliable in terms of taste, so if they say there’s good stuff in the works, I’ve no real reason to doubt it. They cover “Julia Dream” — the last version of that I heard was from Boston’s Worshipper — so that’s something too.
The band is, of course, not to be confused with the Swedish Asteroid offshoot The Sun, The Moon & the Witch’s Blues, or I guess any other band with the words “sun” or “moon” in their moniker, of which there are plenty. In lieu of massive social media presence — they’re a relatively new band, they may get there — I’ve included two clips below. The first is “Trippin’ on Mars,” which is the A-side of what I understand is their latest single, and the second is the aforementioned Floyd cover. From there you’re on your own.
Tonzonen had this to say:
THE SUN OR THE MOON – Tonzonen
THE SUN OR THE MOON will release the debut album via Tonzonen Records in 2021.
THE SUN OR THE MOON is a powerfully creative new psychedelic Krautrock group currently emerging in Germany. Inspired by Can, Kraftwerk, early Pink Floyd, and Radiohead, the band has developed an expansive, brilliant, non-mainstream sound that dives deeply into the psyches of eclectic and intelligent listeners. Band members Frank Incense (vocals, bass, baritone guitar, guitar, electric sitar, electronics, keyboards), George Nowak (guitar, theremin, flute), Susanne Baum (keyboards), and Niclas Ciriacy (drums and percussion) have already released the singles “Cosmic”/“Julia Dream” and “Trippin’ on Mars”/“Quicksand,” .
Like musicians all over the world, The Sun or the Moon has seen its career trajectory altered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since live gigs are out, the group has concentrated on writing and recording. Streaming platforms have replaced concert stages for the time being but the group is fueled by a true love of making this music and is determined to reach its fans by any means necessary. Listeners intrigued by the sounds of analog electronics, modular synths, guitars, and drums working together to attain new worlds need to discover The Sun or the Moon immediately. This is what the future sounds like.
The Sun or the Moon is: Susanne Baum (keyboards) Niclas Ciriacy (drums, percussion) George Nowak (guitar, theremin) Frank Incense (bass, electronics, vocals)
By now the ‘quarantine video,’ as a trope with band members filming themselves individually on phones playing a song and then splicing that footage together either to look like a Zoom call or in time with music, is a familiar enough sight. It will be years if not decades before all the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown are played out, and so it seems extra fitting that Iguana‘s “Below the Hinterlands” video also brings a reckoning with history. Presented across the four minutes of sweetly melodic fuzzadelia of the song itself, “Below the Hinterlands” shows us not just the band going through their parts, but also a bit of their hometown in Chemnitz, located in what was formerly East Germany before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
I remember watching the Berlin Wall fall on television — certainly an amazing time to be alive, especially if you were a Scorpions fan — but was too young to really understand the political and social ramifications of what I was seeing. To my newly-10 eyes it was clearly important, but mostly because adults said it was. It’s been the better part of 29 years since then, but as Iguana posits, those days are still rippling out across time and place, and they see it in their hometown.
Led by Angela Merkel, Germany has weathered the COVID-19 crisis better than many, including my own country (though of course, that’s a particularly easy standard to meet), but even so, across Europe’s liberal democracies, the clash of various social movements, populism and economic inequality continue to challenge a restless status quo. As Euro-tribal nationalism lurks in the corners — or worse, doesn’t — learning from historical context feels especially crucial. Maybe “Below the Hinterlands” doesn’t say all that, but that the band bothered to write, record and make a video for it does, I think.
Don’t treat it like a history lesson or an opinion diatribe — it’s neither — but enjoy the track on its own level. They make that easy:
Iguana, “Below the Hinterlands” official video
“Below The Hinterlands” is the secret hit of the new record “Translational Symmetry” by the Chemnitz based psych rock quartet Iguana. The video is as personal as the song itself. It is produced in corona times, socially distant, self directed, filmed independently by all 4 musicians, then loaded into the dropbox and finally delicately edited by video artist Michael Chlebusch. A corona project, so to speak. Aesthetic in the river, packed psychedelically and superimposed in several layers and metaphors (as well as the translational symmetry of the record itself), so that all details only become apparent when you look and listen several times .
Last but not least, as the name suggests, it is a view of the hinterland, Chemnitz, the east, home and its beautiful, but rather pale and shattering dark sides. Because East Germany is still swinging in the echo of the fall of the Berlin wall with a mood of openness, euphoria and departure on the one hand and burgeoning hatred and growing nationalism on the other. A worrying melange with a dangerous open ending and the hopeful wish of the song not to commit the mistakes of the past again.
Band: Iguana Song: Below The Hinterlands Album: Translational Symmetry Label: Tonzonen Records 2019 Regie, artwork, animation and cut by Michael Chelbusch. Idee and regie by Alexander Loerinczy, Camera by Iguana.
The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Kamille Sharapodinov of The Grand Astoria, The Legendary Flower Punk & Slovo Mira (St. Petersburg, Russia)
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How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?
All my bands had to change plans to some degree. The one that suffered the most is The Legendary Flower Punk, we had to cancel the whole 16-shows european tour in support of the new record. Slovo Mira got problems of different character – LPs and CDs with the new album are now stuck in Estonia at our friend’s house and there’s no way we can get them until the crisis ends. Release date is 24th of April so there’s almost no chance we will pick them by that time unfortunately. With The Grand Astoria we were going to finish vocal overdubs for our new EP, planned for release during autumn 2020. Luckily, we still can do that at home. Hello neighbors! All my guys are feeling fine, I personally don’t know anyone who got the virus but we are taking the situation seriously anyway.
What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?
April 7 the so called “quarantine holidays” were prolonged until 1st of May by the president of Russia. I am leaving home once in three-four days to get the fresh bread and vegetables, trying to keep distance from the other people on the street and grocery
How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?
Mostly it’s a huge financial breakdown for all the artistic folks out there. So, I’d like to encourage people who are still getting paid to support their favorite musicians, bookshops, record stores or any other nice small local business ventures in the hour of need. There are tons of ways to do that so go ahead please!
What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?
I’d like to share some positive news concerning all my current music projects.
Three weeks ago it became clear that our voyage with The Legendary Flower Punk is not going to happen so I came up with this idea to make a virtual tour. We recorded 16 sets of music (each set as the complete show that we planned to play in the respective city, from Vilnius to Hamburg) live in our rehearsal room and we plan to publish them every day since 9th of April up to 26th. So next week everybody is more than welcome to our special live series bandcamp page for a daily dose of psychedelic jam rock: https://theflowerpot.bandcamp.com/
The Grand Astoria is busy with the new album called From the Great Beyond due to release also during October-November 2020. It’s 35 mins of genre-bending music again, ranging from psychedelic art rock to obscure heavy metal.
Track listing is as follows:
1. From the Great Beyond
2. Wasteland
3. Njanatiloka
4. Anyhow
5. Us Against the World
6. Ten Years Anniversary Riff
That’s pretty much it. Looks like a lot of things are happening for me and I really hope that these turbulent times will pass quickly cos I miss the road very much! All the best for everyone in the world! Support each other with kind words and don’t panic.
Posted in Reviews on March 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Alarm went off this morning at 3:45. Got up, flicked on the coffee pot, turned the heat on in the house, hit the bathroom and was back in bed in four minutes with an alarm set for 4:15. Didn’t really get back to sleep, but the half-hour of being still was a kind of pre-waking meditation that I appreciated just the same. Was dozing when the alarm went off the second time, but it’s day two of the Quarterly Review, so no time to doze. No time for anything, as is the nature of these blocks of writeups. They tend to be all-consuming while they’re going on. Could be worse. Let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Khemmis, Doomed Heavy Metal
Denver four-piece Khemmis have made themselves one of the most distinctive acts in metal, to say nothing of doom. With strong vocal harmonies out front backed by similarly-minded guitars, the band bring a sense of poise to doom that’s rare in the modern sphere, somewhat European in influence, but less outwardly adherent to the genre tenets of melancholy. They refuse to be Paradise Lost, in other words, and are all the more themselves for that. Their Doomed Heavy Metal EP (on 20 Buck Spin and Nuclear Blast) is a stopgap after 2018’s Desolation (review here) full-length, but at 38 minutes and six songs, it’s substantial nonetheless, headlined by the Dio cover “Rainbow in the Dark” — capably done with just a flair of Slough Feg — with a take on Lloyd Chandler‘s “A Conversation with Death” and “Empty Throne,” both rare-enough studio cuts, for backing, as well as three live cuts that cover their three-to-date albums. The growls on “Three Gates” are fun, but I’ll still take the Dio cover as the highlight. For a cobbled-together release, it feels at least like a bit of thoughtful fan-service, and really, a band could do worse than to serve their fans thoughtfully.
There are shades of doom metal’s origins underlying Mutant Flesh‘s first release, the eight-song/33-minute Evil Eye, but the Philly troupe are too gleeful in their weirdness ultimately to be paying full homage to the likes of Witchfinder General, and especially in a faster song like second cut “Meteoric” and the subsequent lead-guitar-flipout-and-vocal-soar title-track, they tap into the defiantly doomed vibe of earliest Saint Vitus. That’s true of the crawling “Euthanasia” as well, which crashes and nods as it approaches the six-minute mark as the longest inclusion here, but even the penultimate “Blight” brings that twisted-Black–Flag-noise-slowed-down spirit that lets you know there’s consciousness behind the chaos, and that while Mutant Flesh might seem to be all-the-way-gone, they’re really just getting started. Maybe their sound will even out over time, maybe it won’t, but for what it’s worth, they do ragged doom well from the opening “Leviathan (Lord of the Labyrinth)” onward, and feel right at home in the unhinged.
Having just shredded their way across Europe, War Cloud took their set into the Earhammer Studio with Greg Wilkinson at the helm in an attempt to capture the band in top form on their home turf. Did it work? The results on Earhammer Sessions (Ripple Music) don’t wait around for you to decide. They’re too busy kicking ass to take names, and if the resulting 29-minute burst is even half of what they brought to the stage on that tour, those must’ve been some goddamn shows. Songs like “White Lightning” and the snare-counted-in “Speed Demon” and “Striker” feel like they’re being given their due in the max-speed-NWOBHM-but-still-too-classy-to-be-thrash presentation, and honestly, this feels like War Cloud have found their method. If they don’t tour their next album and then hit the studio after and lay it down live, or at least as live as Earhammer Sessions is — one never knows as regards overdubs and isolation booths and all that — they’re doing themselves a disservice. War Cloud play metal. So what? So this.
Void of Sleep return after half a decade with the prog-doom stylings of their third album, Metaphora (Aural Music), which stretches dramatically through songs like “Iron Mouth” (11:00), preceded by the intro “The Famine Years” and the shorter “Unfair Judgements,” preceded by the intro “Waves of Discomfort,” and still somehow manage not to sound out of place tapping into their inner Soilwork in the growled verses/clean choruses of “Master Abuser.” They get harsh a bit as well on “Tides of the Mourning,” which uses its 10:30 to summarize the bulk of the proceedings and close out the record after “Modern Man,” but that song has more of a scope and feels looser structurally for that. Still, that shift is only one of several throughout Metaphora, which follows the Italian five-piece’s 2015 LP, New World Order (discussed here), and wherever Void of Sleep are headed at any given moment, they head there with a duly controlled presence. Clearly their last five years have not been wasted.
As yet, Germany’s Pretty Lightning remain a well kept secret of fuzz-psych-blues nuance, digging out their own niche-in-a-niche-in-a-niche microgenre with a natural and inadvertent-feeling sense of just writing the songs they want to write. Jangle Bowls, which puts its catchy, semi-garage title-track early in the proceedings, is the duo’s second offering through Fuzz Club Records behind 2017’s The Rhythm of Ooze (review here), and seem to present a mission statement in opener “Swamp Ritual” before bringing a due sense of excursion to “Boogie at the Shrine” — damn that’s a smooth groove — and reviving the movement in “RaRaRa,” which follows. Closer “Shovel Blues” is a highlight for how it drifts into oblivion, but the underlying tightness of craft in “123 Eternity” and “Hum” is an appeal as well, so it’s a tradeoff. But it’s one I’ll be glad to make across multiple repeat visits to Jangle Bowls while wondering how long this particular secret can actually be kept.
The painted-blood-red cover of Rosy Finch‘s second album, Scarlet (on Lay Bare Recordings), and horror-cinema-esque design isn’t a coincidence in terms of atmosphere, but the Spanish trio bring a more aggressive feel to the nine-track outing overall than they did to their 2016 debut, Witchboro (review here), with additional crunch in the guitar of Mireia Porto (also vocals and bass) and bassist Elena Garcia, and a forward kick drum from Lluís Mas that hammers home the impact of a pressure-on-head squeezer like “Ruby” and even seems to ground the more melodic “Alizarina,” which follows, let alone the crushing opener/longest track (immediate points) “Oxblood” or its headspinning closing companion “Dark Cherry,” after which follows the particularly intense hidden cut “Lady Bug,” also not to be missed. Anger suits Rosy Finch, it seems, and the band bring a physicality to the songs on Scarlet that only reinforces the sonic push.
Brutal, gurgling doom-of-death pervades The Haunting Continuum from Denver one-man-unit Ghost Spawn, and while the guitar late in “Escaping the Mortal Flesh” seems momentarily to offer some hope of salvation, rest assured, it doesn’t last, and the squibbly central riff returns with its extremity to prove once more that only death is real. Multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Kevin Berstler is the lone culprit behind the project’s first full-length and second release overall (also second this year, so he would seem to work quickly), and across 43 minutes that only grow more grueling as they proceed through the centerpiece title-track and into “The Terrors that Plague Nightly” and the desolate incantations of “Exiled to the Realm of Eternal Rot,” there are some hints of cleaner grunts that have made their way through — a kind of repeated “hup” vocalization — but this too is swallowed in the miasma of cave-echo guitar, drums-from-out-of-the-abyss, and raw-as-peeled-flesh production. Can’t get behind that? Probably you and 99.9 percent of the rest of humanity. For us slugs, though, it’s just about right.
It’s kosmiche thrust and watery vibes when Agrabatti go Beyond the Sun. What’s there upon arrival? Nothing less than a boogie down with Hawkwind at the helm of a spacey spaced-out space rocking chopper that you shouldn’t even be able to hear the revving engine of in space and yet somehow you can. Also synth, pulsating riffs and psych-as-all-golly-gosh awakenings. Formed in 2009 by Chad Davis — then just out of U.S. Christmas, already at that point known for his work in Hour of 13 and a swath of other projects across multiple genres — and with songs begun to come together at that time only to be shelved ahead of recording this year, Beyond the Sun sat seemingly in some unreachable strata of anomalous subspace, for 11 years before being rediscovered from its time-loop like Kelsey Grammer in that one episode of TNG, and gorgeously spread across the quadrant in its five-cut run, with its cover of the aforementioned Hawkwind‘s “Born to Go” so much at home among its companions it feels like, baby, it’s already gone. Do you need sunglasses in the void? Shit yeah you do.
Four sprawling doom epics comprise the 2019 debut album — and apparently debut release — from Illinois four-piece Dead Sacraments, who themselves are comprised from three former members of atmospheric sludgers Angel Eyes, who finished their run in 2011 but released the posthumous Things Have Learnt to Walk That Ought to Crawl (review here). Those are guitarist Brendan Burchell, bassist Nader Cheboub and drummer Ryan Croson, and together with apparently-self-harmonizing vocalist/guitarist Mark Mazurek, they cast a doom built on largesse in tone and scope alike, given an air of classic-metal grandiosity but filtered through a psych-doom modernity that feels aware of what the likes of Pallbearer and Khemmis have done for the genre. Nonetheless, as a first record, Celestial Throne shines its darkness brightly across its no-song-under-nine-minutes-long lumber, and affirms the righteousness of doom with a genuine sense of reach at its disposal.
The languid and trippy spirit in opener “Solar Flares” is something of a misdirect on the part of organ-laced, Cologne-based heavy rockers Smokemaster, who go on to boogie down through songs like “Trippin’ Blues” before jamming out classic heavy blues-style on “Ear of the Universe.” I’m not saying they don’t have their psychedelic aspects, but there’s plenty of movement behind what they do as well, and the setup they give with the first two cuts is effective in throwing off the first-time listener’s expectation. A pastoral instrumental “Sunrise in the Canyon” leads off side B after, and comes backed by “Astronaut of Love” (yup, a lovestronaut) and “Astral Traveller,” which find an engaging midpoint between the ground and the great beyond, synth and keys pushing outward in the finale even as the bass and drums keep it tethered to a central groove. It’s a formula that’s worked many times over the last half-century, but it works here too, and Smokemaster‘s Smokemaster makes a right-on introduction to the German newcomers.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 18th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Yeah, it’s kind of a goofy name in the tradition of stoner rock bands having a goofy name, and I think that’s on purpose given the band’s sound, but stay with me on this one as I present a few key words you want to note: “Germany.” “Heavy psych.” “Tonzonen.” “Colour.” I’m coming to trust the label’s taste more and more, and while I generally think of their output as being in a more classically progressive vein, Smokemaster‘s bluesy vibe on some of their self-titled debut isn’t screwing around. Think latter-day organ-laced Siena Root with forward vocals when it comes to a piece like “Trippin’ Blues,” which leads into the 10-minute “Ear of the Universe” — a live version of which you can hear below — and the arrival of a harmonica, but there’s a sonic reach here as well and an exploratory vibe that builds off those more straightforward moments in interesting ways. I’ve got the record on now and it won’t be the last time I listen, for whatever that’s worth.
I’ll leave it to the PR wire to fill in the details and present the album teaser. Like everything else in the universe, it’s out April 24:
Tonzonen Records: Psychedelic Rock Five-Piece SMOKEMASTER Announces New Album. Teaser Online!
Smokemaster announce their self-titled debut album via Tonzonen Records for April 24, 2020.
Smokemaster is a psychedelic rock band from Cologne, Germany. Their musical spectrum ranges from slow and spherical parts that are reminiscent of Pink Floyd to colourful jam parts that remind you of The Doors or Colour Haze.
The self-titled debut album starts with gentle tones. The first track Solar Flares starts quite slowly and takes the listener on a musical journey. However, this dream-like journey abruptly ends when they speed up with their song Trippin’ Blues which is a blues-rock song. This is the first time on the album that singer Björn Bear presents his warm voice.
Ear Of The Universe is the third and longest song on the album. It’s about ten minutes long and as intense as Trippin’ Blues. It starts as a mid-tempo krautrock number, however this changes and the song evolves from colourful jam parts to an epic kind of post rock song. Sunrise In The Canyon, a song that might remind you of Tarantino’s Wild West movies.
On Astronaut Of Love the band dives into real stoner rock, starting with a fuzzy bass riff which is later supported by heavy guitar. It is the last time on this album you will hear Björnsen Bear’s warm voice. The song ends with an epic and massive organ. Finally, the last track Astral Traveller, is a 60s or 70s heavy psychedelic song that is moving forward constantly before guitarist Jay starts with a solo that sends you to a far away universe – or to another dimension.
Smokemaster are extremely happy about working with the sound genius Eroc, who is widely known as the drummer of the German band Grobschnitt. The band is one of the bands of the golden age of krautrock. With his dedication and commitment Eroc gave the album the brilliance and power Smokemaster wanted to achieve.
The first single, Astral Traveller, will be released soon with a video that was directed by psychedelic artist Larry Carlson from New York. Stay tuned.
Tracklist 1. Solar Flares 2. Trippin’ Blues 3. Ear Of The Universe 4. Sunrise In The Canyon 5. Astronaut Of Love 6. Astral Traveller
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 17th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
It’s not the whole gig, and it doesn’t need to be to get the point across. In a newly posted playlist of four live tracks — “Vague as a Mirage,” “The Fish Code,” “Hear the Kid Out” and “Below the Hinterlands” — German heavy psych rockers Iguana give a 16-or-so-minute glimpse at what their release show was like for their latest album, Translational Symmetry (review here), and from what I can see in the clips and hear from the hooting of the crowd, it sounds like a party. Three of the four songs are from the album itself, while “Vague as a Mirage” is older, and it’s worth noting the shorter bursts that the newer pieces seem to be, with the longest of them arriving in the spacey push of “Below the Hinterlands” at four and a half minutes while “Vague as a Mirage” tops six. Not that Translational Symmetry doesn’t have its longer-form stretches, but I think they give a sense of the underlying tightness of their songwriting here, and the appeal from the stage is plain to see, even if the videos themselves are kind of dark.
Iguana were in Darmstadt this past weekend — home to Wight, as well as roughly 158,250 other people — and they have a hometown show in Erfurt this week as well as more shows upcoming. Summer plans have yet to be unveiled, but there’s an already-booked appearance at the Tonzonen Fest in September, which is, naturally, hosted by their label, Tonzonen Records. I’ve not had the pleasure of seeing Iguana live, and though rock and roll has taught me the lesson time and again of never saying never as regards pretty much anything happening — from Ozzy rejoining Sabbath to, well, Dio rejoining Sabbath — I don’t know when such a thing might come to pass, so the chance to get a sense of what they’re like on stage is welcome as I have enjoyed their records for years at this point. Maybe you’ve seen them, maybe not, but a cool release show is worth capturing either way, and since Translational Symmetry itself was worth highlighting, it seems only fair to do the same for these clips. So here we are.
The album is out now on Tonzonen. Video playlist follows, as hosted by the band and shot by Daniel Wiesendorf.
Please enjoy:
Iguana, Live at AJZ Talschock Chemnitz 2019 playlist
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 13th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Psych-prog weirdos The Legendary Flower Punk will head out in April on a tour through Germany, the Czech Republic, and, well, more Germany. There’s a date in Poland and a date in Lithuania, but clearly the target here is German territory, and that’s fair enough, since their new album, Wabi Wu (review here), is due to release Feb. 21 through Tonzonen, which is based there. The band have a few shows in their native Russia booked as well, and they’ll be back through Poland on the way to Germany once more in August, this time to play the Aquamaria Festival. I wouldn’t be surprised if more touring surfaced around that appearance either, but then, I also wouldn’t be surprised if The Legendary Flower Punk put out another record this year, because being unpredictable is kind of how they do. They’re good at it.
There was a live video premiered here a little while back for the Wabi Wu title-track, but they’re also streaming the studio album in its entirety as of late last year, so I’ve included both below, because being thorough is how I do. I’m not as good at it as they are at being unpredictable, but I try.
From the PR wire:
Psychedelic Rockers THE LEGENDARY FLOWER PUNK Announce European Live Dates!
New Album Wabi Wu out 21 February.
Started in 2012 as an obscure side project of Kamille Sharapodinov (guitarist of established Russian heavy psych proggers The Grand Astoria), The Legendary Flower Punk quickly became a beast of its own. The band mixes psychedelia, space rock, funky fusion and electronics in a joyful manner like no one else in the scene. Krautrock, Japanoise, and Jazz are also no stranger words in the vocabulary of the band.
The Legendary Flower Punk knows no boundaries. The unique sound of the Russian trio combines pure Psychedelic Rock with classic Prog Rock elements.
To celebrate the brilliant varied and exciting mix that is Wabi Wu, The Legendary Flower Punk is out in clubs to play it live on these dates:
[Click play above to stream the title-track of The Spacelords’ Spaceflowers. Album is out Feb. 21 through Tonzonen. Preoders are here.]
They say that in space, no one can hear you fall into a trace of repetitive heavy psychedelic bliss. Germany’s The Spacelords — guitarist Matthias “Hazi” Wettstein, bassist Erhard “Akee” Kazmaier and drummer Marcus Schnitzler; all of whom are also responsible for sundry other effects and/or noises — wrap up a trilogy of three-song full-lengths with Spaceflowers, taking what began on 2016’s Liquid Sun and continued with 2017’s Water Planet (review here) for their fourth release total on Tonzonen Records including last year’s live outing, On Stage. Whether they’re in the studio or not, the trio emit a cosmic vibe of marked depth, and in the three extended pieces of Spaceflowers, they bloom in true fashion, each one seeming to spread out in all directions at once, circular petals opening wide to catch the light of some strange sunlight and thereby be sustained. To say the least, 24-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Cosmic Trip” is nothing if not aptly named.
“Cosmic Trip” is joined by “Frau Kuhnkes Kosmos” (11:43) and the closing title-track (13:35), but its course is set early and maintained well throughout the 49 minutes of the proceedings overall, which isn’t short for an LP in this day and age, but doesn’t find The Spacelords at all overstaying their welcome. Be it Schnitzler‘s deceptively intricate kick timing in “Frau Kuhnkes Kosmos” — he was doubling for a while with Electric Moon, whose Sula Bassana put out The Spacelords‘ 2014 album, Synapse (review here), but parted ways with the band in 2016 — or the patient underlying wash of effects and the close-your-eyes-and-get-carried-away bassline in the second half of “Spaceflowers” itself, The Spacelords bring a personality and vibrance to their material, and though the overarching vibe is serene, they aren’t by any means still throughout these proceedings.
On the contrary, while “Cosmic Trip” and its side B counterparts want nothing for fluidity and are plenty atmospheric on an almost preternatural level with all of the effects surrounding the guitar, bass and drums — not separate from them at all but still bolstering the individual performances as Wettstein demonstrates early in the synth/guitar intertwining of “Cosmic Trip” circa the five-minute mark — they’re never entirely still throughout Spaceflowers. And neither are they overblown or launching the motorik space rock hyperdrive without sonic call to do so. In fact, while never really subdued in the sense of fading to drone or anything like that, they find a marked balance that allows them to explore without departing mid-tempo push. The build that ensues across the first eight minutes or so of “Cosmic Trip” pays off in satisfying fashion and gives way to joyous guitar drift kept in this dimension by Kazmaier‘s gotta-hear-it bass tone and Schnitzler‘s drumming, and gradually, patiently, pushes itself forward again, this time over the longer stretch of the remaining two-thirds of the song.
After the guitar solo arrives and eventually shifts into the riff that the drums and bass change with immediately — it’s announced by the drums, but let’s call it 22:22 into the 24:20 — it becomes clear to what all of the progression has been leading, and that obviously-prior-constructed move underscores a key factor in The Spacelords‘ approach throughout Spaceflowers in that these three songs do not at all come across as being “just jams.” That is, while there are no doubt improvisational elements at work and in all likelihood a great deal of jamming took place to put them together — and given the flow throughout, there was likely a proportionate amount of jamming in the recording process as well — there’s at least a blueprint being followed. They never come close to what would be commonly regarded as structure in the verse/chorus sense, and nor do they want or need to, but neither are they floating through the galaxy without a mission.
Given that, and taking into consideration Spaceflowers as the purported end of a trilogy of releases — they had two early self-released studio albums that seem to be unavailable and at least one other live recording, so fair to say it’s at least their sixth LP overall — one has to wonder if there’s a narrative taking place in the tracks or across the progression from Liquid Sun to Water Planet to this album. If there is, and it’s fun to think there might be, then perhaps it could be derived even just from the titles of the three full-lengths in question. A star, a planet, a landscape. Is this The Spacelords describing entering a strange solar system with a different kind of life source and discovering what sort of life might flourish there? Have we landed? The best answer I can give is “maybe,” which is to say that listening to the tension in the latter half of “Frau Kuhnkes Kosmos,” and the ensuing space-hippies-bathing-in-soundwaves vision of “Spaceflowers” itself, it’s open for interpretation.
Certainly the latter could be viewed as a landing point, even as Wettstein‘s guitar seems most to soar and the band — kudos to whoever is handling the organ sound there, whether or not it’s an actual organ — push to a rousing and, again, planned-seeming finish. Its mellow beginning picks up gently from the centerpiece before it, and it unfolds with a lighter sense of gravity but still brings a welcome and by-then-characteristic blend of earthy groove and floating guitar. It would be difficult for a single instrumental piece to serve as the summary of three albums’ worth of outward journeying, even one 13 minutes long, but “Spaceflowers” nobly pushes in its midsection into a section of thicker riffing before embarking on its final cosmic sprawl and solo-led ending.
It’s by no means the first such build on Spaceflowers, but it emphasizes the point of the power trio dynamic in the band, with the rhythm section functioning to hold the central groove together as the guitar — and more, in this case — adventures through the outer reaches of the great kosmiche beyond. Is this The Spacelords‘ last time at the helm of their particular starship? One doubts it. The creativity on display in these tracks and the will they put into making them does not seem the sort to be dissuaded, and the progressive aspects even in the final moments of the title-track make it plain that in terms of the band’s own story, the end is the beginning. Another trilogy ahead? A full saga? Could be. Wettstein, Kazmeier and Schnitzler clearly show they have the readiness to paint the universe as they see fit, so really all the listener has to do is be ready to go and be gone.
