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Quarterly Review: Negative Reaction, Fuzz Evil, Cardinal Point, Vlimmer, No Gods No Masters, Ananda Mida, Ojo Malo, Druid Fluids, Gibbous Moon, Mother Magnetic

Posted in Reviews on November 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

The-Obelisk-Quarterly-Review

Don’t ask me if the ‘quarter’ in question is Fall or Winter, and I’m still planning another QR probably in early January or even December if I can sneak it, but I was able to sneak this week in while no one was looking at the calendar — mostly, that is, while I wasn’t filling said calendar with other stuff — and I decided to make it happen. I even used the ol’ Bing AI to make a header image for it. I was tired of all the no-color etchings. It’s been a decade of that at this point. I’ll try this for a bit and see how I feel about it. The kind of thing that matters pretty much only to me.

This might go to 70, but for right now it’s 50 releases Monday to Friday starting today, 10 per day. I know the drill. You know the drill. Let’s get it going.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Negative Reaction, Zero Minus Infinity

Negative Reaction Zero Minus Infinity

Holy fucking shit this rips. You want sludge? Call the masters. There are two generations of bands out there right now trying to tap into the kind of slow and ultra-heavy disaffection — not to mention the guitar tone — of Negative Reaction, and yet, no hype whatsoever. This record didn’t come to me from some high-level public relations concern. It came from Kenny Bones, who founded Negative Reaction over 30 years ago in Long Island (he and thus the band are based in West Virginia now) and whose perpetual themes between crushing depression and the odd bit of Star Wars-franchised space opera have rarely sounded more intentionally grueling. Across six songs and a mood-altering 46 minutes, Bones, bassist KJ and drummer Brian Alien bludgeon with rawness and volume-worship weight that, frankly, is the kind of thing riff-dudes on social media should be tripping over themselves to be first to sing its praises, the lurch in “Back From the Sands” feeling sincere in its unconscious rifference (that’s a reference you make with a riff) to Saint Vitus‘ “Born Too Late,” and maybe Negative Reaction were, or maybe they were born too early, or whatever, but it’s not like they’ve been a fit at any point in the last 30-plus years — cheeky horror riff chugging in “Space Hunter,” all-out fuckall-punker blast in “I’ll Have Another” before the 13-minute flute-laced (yes, Bones is on it) cosmic doom finish of “Welcome to Infinity,” etc., reaffirming square-peg status — because while there’s an awful lot of sludge out there, there’s only ever been one Negative Reaction. Bones‘ and company’s angry adventures, righteous and dense in sound, continue unabated.

Negative Reaction on Facebook

Negative Reaction on Bandcamp

Fuzz Evil, New Blood

fuzz evil new blood

Arizona brothers Wayne and Joey Rudell return with New Blood, the first Fuzz Evil full-length since High on You (review here) in 2018, and make up for lost time with 53 minutes of new material across 13 songs from the post-Queens of the Stone Age rock at the outset in “Suit Coffin” to the slow, almost Peter Gabriel-style progressivism of “Littlest Nemo,” the nighttime balladry of “Gullible’s Travel” or the disco groove of “Keep on Living.” Those three are tucked at the end, but Fuzz Evil telegraph new ideas and departures early in “My Own Blood” and even the speedier “Run Away,” with its hints of metal, pulls to the side from “Souveneers,” the hooky “G.U.M.O.C.O.,” a cut like “Heavy Glow” (premiered here) finding some middle ground between attitude-laced desert rock and the expansions thereupon of some New Blood‘s tracks. Shout to “We’ve Seen it All” as the hidden gem. All Fuzz Evil have ever wanted is to write songs and maybe make someone — perhaps even you — dance at a show. With the obvious sweat and soul put into New Blood, a little boogieing doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

Fuzz Evil on Facebook

Fuzz Evil on Bandcamp

Cardinal Point, Man or Island

Cardinal Point Man or Island

A second full-length from Serbia’s Cardinal Point, Man or Island asks its central question — are you a man or an island — in the leadoff title-track. I’m not sure what being one or the other delineates, but masculinity would seem to be preferred judging by the Down-style riffing of “Stray Dog” or the heavy-like-1991 “Right ‘n’ Ready,” which feels like it was written for the stage, whether or not it actually was. “Sunrise” borders on hard country with its uber-dudeliness, but closer “This Chest” offers tighter-twisting, Lo-Pan-style riffing to cap. The tracks are pointedly straightforward, making no pretense about where the band is coming from or what they want to be doing as players. The grooves swing big and the choruses are delivered with force. You wouldn’t call it groundbreaking, but the Vranje-based four-piece aren’t trying to revolutionize heavy so much as to speak to various among those traditions that birthed it. They succeed in that here, and in making the results their own.

Cardinal Point on Facebook

Cardinal Point on Bandcamp

Vlimmer, Zersch​ö​pfung

vlimmer zerschopfung 1

Voices far more expert than mine have given pinpointed analyses of Vlimmer‘s goth-as-emotive-vehicle, semi-electronic, sometimes-heavy post-punk, New Dark Wave, etc., stylistic reach as relates to the Berlin-based solo artist’s latest full-length, Zersch​ö​pfung, but hearing The Cure in “Makks” and “Fatalideal” taken to a place of progressive extrapolation on “Platzwort” and to hear the Author & Punisher-informed slow industrial churn of the penultimate “Todesangst” become the backdrop for a dreamy vocal like Tears for Fears if they stayed up all night scribbling in their notebook because they had so much to say. Vlimmer (né Alexander Leonard Donat) has had a productive run since the first numbered EPs started showing up circa 2015, and Zersch​ö​pfung feels like a summation of the style he’s established as his own, able to speak to various sides of underground and outsider musics without either losing itself in the emotionalism of the songs or sublimating identity to genre.

Vlimmer on Facebook

Blackjack Illuminist Records on Bandcamp

No Gods No Masters, Torment

No Gods No Masters Torment

Dutch sludge metallers No Gods No Masters may seem monolithic at first on their second full-length, the self-released Torment, but the post-metallic dynamics in the atmospheric guitar on lead cut “Into Exile” puts the lie to the supposition. Not that there isn’t plenty of extreme crush to go around in “Into Exile” and the four songs that follow — second track “Towering Waves” and closer “End” on either side of the 10-minute mark, “Such Vim and Vigor” and “A God Among the Waste” shorter like “Into Exile” in a five-to-six-minute range — as the band move from crawling ambience to consuming, scream-topped ultra-doom, leave bruises with elbows thrown before the big slowdown in “Such Vim and Vigor” and tear ass regardless of tempo through the finale, and while they never quite let go of the extremity of their purpose, neither do they forget that their purpose is more than extremity. Torment sounds punishing superficially — certainly the title gives a hint that all is not sunshine and puppies — but a deeper listen is met by the richness of No Gods No Masters‘ approach.

No Gods No Masters on Facebook

No Gods No Masters on Bandcamp

Ananda Mida, Reconciler

Ananda Mida Reconciler

Italian psych rockers Ananda Mida are joined by a host of guests throughout their third full-length, Reconciler, including a return appearance from German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs on the extended heavy psych blueser “Swamp Thing” (14:52) and the four-part finale “Doom and the Medicine Man (Pt. V-VIII)” (22:09), which draws a thread through the history of prog and acid rocks, kraut and space applying no less to the 12-minute “Lucifer’s Wind” as to the surf-riffing “Reconciling” after — the latter gets a reprise on platter two of the 83-minute 2LP — as Ananda Mida dig deep into the shining thrust in the early verses of “Never Surrender” that give over to thoughtful jamming in the song’s second half, finding proto-metallic resolve in “Following the Light” before reconciling “Reconciling (Reprise)” and unfurling “Doom and the Medicine Man” like the lost ’70s coke-rock epic it may well be in some other universe, complete with the acoustic postscript. It’s two records’ worth of ambitious, and it’s two records’ worth of record. This is exploratory on a stylistic level. Searching.

Ananda Mida on Facebook

Go Down Records website

Ojo Malo, Black Light Fever Tripping

ojo malo black light fever tripping

Lumbering out of El Paso, Texas (where folks know what salsa should taste like), with seven tracks across a 23-minute debut EP, Ojo Malo follow a Sabbathian course of harder-edged doom, thick in its groove through “Crow Man” after the “Intro” and speedier with an almost nu-metal crunch in “Charon the Ferryman.” There’s Clutch and C.O.C. influences in the riffing, but there are tougher elements too, a tension that wouldn’t have been out of place 28 years ago on a Prong record, and the swing in “Black Trip Lord” has an undercurrent of aggression that comes forward in its chugging second half. The penultimate “Grim Greefo Rising” offers more in terms of melody after its riffy buildup, and “Executioner” reveals the Judas Priest that’s been in the band’s collective heart all the while. Bookended with manipulated sounds from the recordings in “Intro” and “Outro,” Black Light Fever Tripping sounds exactly like it doesn’t have time for your bullshit so get your gear off stage now and don’t break down your cymbals up there or it’s fucking on.

Ojo Malo on Facebook

Ojo Malo on Bandcamp

Druid Fluids, Then, Now, Again & Again

druid fluids then now again and again

Druid Fluids — aka Adelaide, Australia’s Jamie Andrew, plus a few friends on drums, piano, and so on — inhabits a few different personae out of psychedelic historalia throughout Then, Now, Again & Again, finding favorites in The Beatles in “Flutter By,” “Into Me I See” (both with sitar), and “Layers” while peopling other songs specifically with elements drawn from David Bowie and the solo work of Lennon and McCartney, all of which feels like fair game for the meticulously-arranged 11-song collection. “Sour’s Happy Fantasy” offers sci-fi fuzz grandeur, while “Timeline” is otherworldly in all but the central strum holding it to the ground — a singularly satisfying melody — and “Out of Phase” swaggers in like Andrew knows he was born in the wrong time. He might’ve been, but he seems to have past, present and future covered either way in this material, some of which was reportedly written when he was a teenager but which has no doubt grown more expansive in the intervening years.

Druid Fluids on Facebook

Druid Fluids on Bandcamp

Gibbous Moon, Saturn V

Gibbous Moon Saturn V

The years between their 2017 self-titled three-songer EP and the forthcoming 11-track debut full-length, Saturn V, would seem to have found Philly heavy rockers Gibbous Moon refining their approach in terms of craft and process. “Blue Shelby” has a turn on guitar like Dire Straits as vocalist Noelle Felipe (also bass) drops references to Scarface in “Blue Shelby” and brings due classicism to Mauro Felipe‘s guitar on “Ayadda.” That song, as well as “Everything” and closer “Peacemaker,” tie the EP to the LP, but Noelle, Mauro and drummer Michael Mosley are unquestionably more confident in their delivery, whether it’s the bass in the open reaches of “Sine Wave” or the of-course-it’s-speed-rock “Follow that Car” and its punker counterpart “Armadillo.” Space rock is a factor in “Indivisible,” and “Inflamed” is almost rockabilly in its tense verse, but wherever Gibbous Moon go, their steps are as sure as the material itself is solid. I’m not sure when this is actually out, if it’s 2023 or 2024, but heads up on it.

Gibbous Moon on Facebook

Gibbous Moon on Bandcamp

Mother Magnetic, Mother Magnetic

mother magnetic

Arranged shortest to longest between the ah-oo-oo-ah-ah hookiness of “Sucker’s Disease” (3:03), the nodder rollout of “Daughters of the Sun” (5:47) and the reach into psych-blues jamming in “Goddess Land” (7:03), Mother Magnetic‘s self-titled three-song EP is the first public offering from the Brisbane four-piece of vocalist Rox, guitarist James, bassist Tim and drummer Danny, and right into the later reaches of the last of those tracks, the band’s intentions feel strongly declarative in establishing their melodic reach, an Iommi-circa-’81 take on riffmaking, and a classic boozy swagger to the vocals to match. There was a time, 15-20 years ago, when demos like this ruled the land and were handed to you, burned onto archaic CD-Rs, in the vain hope you might play them in your car on the way home from the show. To not do so in this case would be inadvisable. There’s potential in the songwriting, yes, but also on a performance level, for growth as individuals and as a group, and considering where Mother Magnetic are starting in terms of chemistry, that’s all the more an exciting prospect.

Mother Magnetic on Facebook

Mother Magnetic on Bandcamp

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Ananda Mida Announce Tour Dates Starting Nov. 30; Reconciler Out Now

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Mostly-Italian heavy psychedelic unit Ananda Mida just released their third full-length, Reconciler, through drummer Max Ear‘s own long-running Go Down Records imprint — and by long-running I mean there’s an anniversary fest coming up in Berlin on Dec. 1 to mark 20 years that Ananda Mida will also play — as the follow-up to 2021’s Karnak EP (review here). They’ve lined up a series of weekender-type dates between now and February in order to support the album, and they’ll be playing mostly in Italy but also Germany and Austria as they look to the start of 2024 and the possibility of more to come.

If you haven’t heard the record yet — it’ll be in the next Quarterly Review in a couple weeks — it’s streaming below in full, along with the lyric video for “The Stumbling Doll.” Whether you can make it to one of these shows or not, if you’re still reading this, you might at this point find the music worth your time.

To wit:

Ananda Mida Reconciler tour

Psych Rock Collective ANANDA MIDA Announces “Reconciler Tour 2023/2024”; New Album Out Now Via Go Down Records!

Psych Rock collective Ananda Mida just recently released their third album, titled “Reconciler”, via Italian powerhouse label Go Down Records. To celebrate the band’s latest offering in its pure form, the band has announced a bunch of live dates for 2023/2024. Tickets on sale now and dates are as follows:

Reconciler Tour 2023/2024
2023/11/30 THU – p.m.k – Innsbruck – AT
2023/12/01 FRI – Urban Spree – Berlin – DE
2023/12/08 FRI – Backstage München – München – DE
2023/12/09 SAT – Astra Kulturzentrum Centro Culturale – Bressanone – IT
2024/01/18 THU – Fine Mondo Verona – IT
2024/01/19 FRI – SIDRO CLUB – Savignano s.R. – IT
2024/01/20 SAT – Arci Joshua Blues Club APS – Como – IT
2024/01/21 SUN – Freakout Club – Bologna – IT
2024/02/02 FRI – Astro Club – Pordenone – IT
2024/02/03 SAT – BLAH BLAH – Torino – IT
2024/02/16 FRI – Trenta Formiche – Roma – IT
2024/02/17 SAT – CSOA COX18 – Milano – IT

The new album “Reconciler “marks the final act of a trilogy inspired by Georges Ivanovič Gurdjieff’s book, “Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson,” and his profound thoughts. Originally planning to release three records, Ananda Mida’s founders, Max Ear and Matteo Pablo Scolaro, collaborated with artist and friend Eeviac to create a concept album trilogy. The first two albums in the series, “Anodnatius” and “Cathodnatius,” explored themes of Holy Affirmation and Holy Denial respectively. Now, with “Reconciler,” the band delves into the theme of Holy Reconciliation. During the making of “Reconciler,” one of the band members experienced both the joyous grace of birth and the deep mourning of death. These significant life events have greatly influenced the reconciliatory intent behind this record. With eight tracks spanning over 83 minutes of music, “Reconciler” showcases a diverse range of emotions and musical styles.

The album features an instrumental song titled “Reconciling,” while five other tracks are performed by talented singers. In addition to Ananda Mida’s core members, twelve artists from Go Down Records’ musical gang have contributed their talents to this record. This collaboration not only fulfills the band founders’ vision but also serves as a tribute to their independent label, which has been a hub for talent and passion over the past two decades. Ananda Mida’s sound is deeply rooted in 70s Rock, infused with desert and psychedelic grooves. Since their formation in 2015, the band has performed with various lineups, ranging from three to six members, both instrumental and featuring singers. Their unique blend of influences has garnered them a dedicated following within the Stoner and Psychedelic Rock community.

“Reconciler” is out now via Go Down Records and available for purchase at THIS LOCATION: https://www.godownrecords.com/ananda-mida

Tracklist:
01. Stormy Lady feat. Quiet Confusion
02. Lucifer’s Wind feat. Virtual Time
03. Reconciling
04. Swamp Thing
05. Never Surrender feat. Virtual Time
06. Following the Light feat. Lu Silver
07. Reconciling (reprise)
08. Doom and the Medicine Man [part V – VIII]
V- The Future
VI- The Stumbling Doll
VII- The Ghost In The Machine
VIII- Otherlives

ANANDA MIDA are:
Davide Bressan | bass
Max Ear | drums
Conny Ochs | vocals
Matteo Pablo Scolaro | guitar
Alex Tedesco | guitar

https://www.facebook.com/anandamidaband
https://www.instagram.com/anandamidaband/
https://anandamidaband.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/GoDownRecords/
https://www.instagram.com/godownrecords/
https://www.godownrecords.com/

Ananda Mida, Reconciler (2023)

Ananda Mida, “The Stumbling Doll” lyric video

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Quarterly Review: Darsombra, Bottomless, The Death Wheelers, Caivano, Entropía, Ghorot, Moozoonsii, Death Wvrm, Mudness, The Space Huns

Posted in Reviews on October 5th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk winter quarterly review

Welcome to Thursday of the Fall 202 Quarterly Review. It’s been a good run so far. three days and 30 records, about to be four and 40. I’ve got enough on my desktop and there’s enough stuff coming out this month that I could probably do a second Fall QR in November, and maybe stave off needing to do a double-one in December as I had been planning in the back of my head. Whatever, I’ll figure it out.

I hope you’ve been able to find something you dig. I definitely have, but that’s how it generally goes. These things are always a lot of work, and somehow I seem to plan them on the busiest weeks — today we’re volunteering at the grade school book fair; I think I’ll dig out my old Slayer God Hates Us All shirt from 20 years ago and see if it still fits. Sadly, I think we all know how that experiment will work out.

Anyway, busy times, good music, blah blah, let’s roll.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Darsombra, Dumesday Book

darsombra dumesday book

Forever touring and avant garde to their very marrow, ostensibly-Baltimorean duo DarsombraAnn Everton on keys, vocals, live visuals, and who the hell knows what else, Brian Daniloski on guitar, a living-room pedal board, and engineering at the band’s home studio — unveil Dumesday Book as a 75-minute collection not only of works like “Call the Doctor” (posted here) or “Call the Doctor” (posted here), which appear as remixes, but their first proper album of this troubled decade after 2019’s Transmission (review here) saw them reach so far out into the cosmic thread to harness their bizarre stretches of bleeps and boops, manipulated vocals, drones, noise and suitably distraught collage in “Everything is Canceled” — which they answer later with “Still Canceled,” because charm — but the reassurance here is in the continuation of Daniloski and Everton‘s audio adventures, and their commitment to what should probably at this point in space-time be classified as free jazz remains unflinching. Squares need not apply, and if you’re into stuff like structure, there’s some of that, but all Darsombra ever need to get gone is a direction in which to head — literally or figuratively — so why not pick them all?

Darsombra on Instagram

Darsombra on Bandcamp

Bottomless, The Banishing

bottomless the banishing

Cavernous in its echo and with a grit of tone that is the aural equivalent of the feeling of pull in your hand when you make a doom claw, The Banishing is the second full-length from Italian doom rockers Bottomless. Working as the trio of vocalist/guitarist Giorgio Trombino (ex-Elevators to the Grateful Sky, etc.), drummer David Lucido (Assumption, among a slew of others) and bassist Sara Bianchin — the latter also of Messa and recently replaced in Bottomless by Laura Nardelli (Ponte del Diavolo, etc.) — the band follow their 2021 self-titled debut (review here) with an eight-track collection that comes across as its own vision of garage doom. It’s not about progressive flourish or elaborate production, but about digging into the raw creeper groove of “Guardians of Silence” or the righteous post-Pentagram chug-and-nod of “Let Them Burn.” It is not solely intended as worship for what’s come before. Doom-of-eld, the NWOBHM, ’70s proto splurges all abound, but in the vocal and guitar melody of “By the Sword of the Archangel” and the dramatic rolling finish of “Dark Waters” after the acoustic-led interlude “Drawn Into Yesterday,” in the gruel of “Illusion Sun,” they channel these elements through themselves and come out with an album that, for as dark and grim as it would likely sound to more than 99 percent of the general human population, is pure heart.

Bottomless on Facebook

Dying Victims Productions website

The Death Wheelers, Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness

The Death Wheelers Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness

Look. I don’t know The Death Wheelers personally at all. We don’t hang out on weekends. But the sample-laced (“We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the Man — and we wanna get loaded!” etc.), motorcycle-themed Québecois instrumental outfit sound on their second LP, the 12-track/40-minute riff-pusher Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness, like they’re onto something. And again, I don’t know these cats at all. I don’t know what they do for work, what their lives are like, any of it. But if The Death Wheelers want to get out and give this record the support it deserves, the place they need to be is Europe. Yeah, I know there was The Picturebooks, but they were clean-chrome and The Death Wheelers just cracked a smile and showed you the fly that got splattered on their front tooth while they were riding — sonically speaking. The dust boogie of “Lucifer’s Bend,” the duly stoned “Interquaalude” ahead of the capper duo of “Sissy Bar Strut (Nymphony 69)” and “Cycling for Satan Part II” and the blowout roll in “Ride into the Röt (Everything Lewder Than Everything Else)” — this is a band who should bypass America completely for touring and focus entirely on Europe. Because the US will come around, to be sure, but not for another three or four month-long Euro stints get the point across. I don’t know that that’ll happen or it won’t, but they sound ready.

The Death Wheelers on Facebook

RidingEasy Records store

Caivano, Caivano

Caivano Caivano

The career arc of guitarist Phil Caivano — and of course he does other stuff as well, including vocals on his self-titled solo-project’s debut, Caivano, but some people seem to have been born to hold a guitar in their hands and he’s one of those; see also Bob Balch — is both longer and broader than his quarter-century as guitarist and songwriting contributor to Monster Magnet, but the NJ heavy rock stalwarts will nonetheless be the closest comparison point to these 10 tracks and 33 minutes, a kind of signature sleazy roll in “Talk to the Dead,” the time-to-get-off-your-ass push of “Come and Get Me” at the start or the punkier “Verge of Yesterday” — touch of Motörhead there seeming well earned — a cosmic ripper on a space backbeat in “Fun & Games,” but all of this is within a tonal and production context that’s consistent across the span, malleable in style, unshakable in structure. Closer “Face the Music” is the longest cut at 5:04 and is a drumless spacey experiment with vocals and a guitar figure wrapped around a central drone, and that adds yet more character to the proceedings. I’d wonder how long some of these songs or parts have been around or if Caivano is going to put a group together — could be interesting — and make a go of it apart from his ‘main band,’ but he’s long since established himself as an exceptional player, and listening to some of this material highlights contributions of style and substance to shaping Monster Magnet as well. Phil Caivano: songwriter.

Caivano on Instagram

Entropía, Eclipses

Entropía Eclipses

Together for nearly a decade, richly informed by the progressive and space rock(s) of the 1970s, prone to headspinning feats of lead guitar like that in the back end of second cut “Dysania,” Entropía offer their second full-length in Eclipses, a five-track/40-minute excursion of organ-inclusive cosmic prog that reminds of Hypnos 69 in the warm serenity at the start of “Tarbes,” threatens the epic on seven-minute opener “Thesan” and delivers readily throughout; a work of scope that runs deep in the pairing of “Tarbes” and “Caleidoscopia” — both of which top nine minutes long — but it’s there that Entropía reveal the full spectrum of light they’re working with, whether it’s that tonal largesse that rears up in the latter or the jazzy kosmiche shove in the payoff of the former. And the drums come forward to start closer “Polaris,” which follows, as Entropía nestle into one more groovy submersion, finding heavy shuffle in the drums — hell yeah — and holding that tension until it’s time for the multi-tiered finish and only-necessary peaceful comedown. It’s inevitable that some records in a Quarterly Review get written about and I never listen to them again. I’ll be back to this one.

Entropía on Facebook

Clostridium Records store

Ghorot, Wound

Ghorot Wound

God damn, Ghorot, leave some nasty for the rest of the class. The Boise, Idaho, three-piece — vocalist/bassist Carson Russell (also Ealdor Bealu), guitarist/vocalist Chad Remains (ex-Uzala) and drummer/vocalist Brandon Walker — launch their second LP, Wound, with the gloriously screamed, righteously-coated-in-filth, choking-on-mud extreme sludge they appropriately titled “Dredge.” And fuck if it doesn’t get meaner from there as Ghorot — working with esteemed producer Andy Patterson (The Otolith, etc.) and releasing through Lay Bare Recordings and King of the Monsters Records — take the measure of your days and issue summary judgment in the negative through the mellow-harshing bite of “In Asentia,” the least brutal part of which kind of sounds like High on Fire and the death/black metal in centerpiece “Corsican Leather.” All of which is only on side A. On side B, “Canyon Lands” imagines a heavy Western meditation — shades of Ealdor Bealu in the guitar — that retains its old-wizard vocal gurgle, and capper “Neanderskull” finally pushes the entire affair off of whatever high desert cliffside from which it’s been proclaiming all this uberdeath and into a waiting abyss of willfully knuckledragging blower deconstruction. The really scary shit is these guys’ll probably do another record after this one. Yikes.

Ghorot on Facebook

Lay Bare Recordings website

King of the Monsters Records website

Moozoonsii, Outward

Moozoonsii Outward

With the self-release of Outward, heavy progressive psych instrumentalists Moozoonsii complete a duology of pandemic-constructed outings that began with last year’s (of course) Inward, and to do so, the trio based in Nantes, France, continue to foster a methodology somewhere between metal and rock, finding ground in precision riffing in the 10-minute “Nova” or in the bumps and crashes after eight minutes into the 13-minute “Far Waste,” but they’re just as prone to jazzy skronk-outs like in the midsection solo of “Lugubris,” and the entire release is informed by the unfolding psychedelic meditationscape of “Stryge” at the start, so by no, no, no means at all are they doing one thing for the duration. “Toxic Lunar Vibration,” which splits the two noted extended tracks, brings the sides together as if to emphasize this point, not so much fitting those pointed angles together as delighting in the ways in which they do and don’t fit at certain times as part of their creative expression. Pairing that impulse with the kind of heavy-as-your-face-if-your-face-had-a-big-boulder-on-it fuzz in “Tauredunum” is a hell of a place to wind up. The unpredictable character of the material that surrounds only makes that ending sweeter and more satisfying.

Moozoonsii on Facebook

Moozoonsii on Bandcamp

Death Wvrm, Enter / The Endless

Death Wvrm enter

An initial two tracks from UK trio Death Wvrm, both instrumental, surfaced earlier this year, one in Spring around the time of their appearance at Desertfest London — quiet a coup for a seemingly nascent band; but listening to them I get it — and after. “Enter” was first, “The Endless” second, and the two of them tell a story unto themselves; narrative seeming to be part of the group’s mission from this point of outset, as each single comes with a few sentences of accompanying scene-setting. Certainly not going to complain about the story, and the band have some other surprises in store in these initial cuts, be it the bright, mid-period Beatles-y tone in the guitar for “The Endless” (it’s actually only about four and a half minutes) or the driving fuzz that takes hold after the snap of snare at 2:59, or the complementary layer of guitar in “Enter” that speaks to broader ambitions sound-wise almost immediately on the part of the band. “Enter” and “The Endless” both start quiet and get louder — the scorch in “Enter” isn’t to be discounted — but they do so in differing ways, and so while one listens to the first two cuts a band is putting out and expects growth in complexity and method, that’s actually just fine, because it’s exactly also what one is left wanting after the two songs are done: more. I’m not saying show up at their house or anything, but maybe give a follow on Bandcamp and keep an eye.

Death Wvrm on Instagram

Death Wvrm on Bandcamp

Mudness, Mudness

Mudness Mudness

Safe to assume some level of self-awareness on the part of Brazilian trio Mudness who, after unveiling their first single “R.I.P.” in 2020 make their self-titled full-length debut with seven songs of hard-burned wizard riffing, the plod of “Gone” (also an advance single, if not by three years) and guitarist Renan Casarin‘s Obornian moans underscoring the disaffected stoner idolatry. Joined by Fernando Dal Bó, whose bass work is crucial to the success of the entire release — can’t roll it if it ain’t heavy — and drummer Pedro Silvano, who adds malevolent swing to the slow march forward of “This End Body,” the centerpiece of the seven-song/35-minute long player. There’s an interlude, “Lamuria,” that could probably have shown up earlier, but one should keep in mind that the sense of onslaught between the likes of “Evil Roots” and “Yellow Imp” is part of the point, and likewise that they’re saving an extra layer of aural grime for “Final Breeze,” where they answer the more individual take of “This End Body” with a reach into melodicism and mark their appeal both in what they might bring to their sound moving forward and the planet-sucked-anyhow despondent crush of this collection. Putting it on the list for the best debuts of 2023. It’s not innovative, or trying to be, but that doesn’t stop it from accomplishing its aims in slow, mostly miserable stride.

Mudness on Facebook

Mudness on Bandcamp

The Space Huns, Legends of the Ancient Tribes

The Space Huns Legends of the Ancient Tribes

I’m not generally one to tell you how to spend your money, but if you take a look over at The Space Huns‘ Bandcamp page (linked below), you’ll see that the Hungarian psych jammers’ entire digital discography is €3.50. Again, not trying to tell you how to live your life, but Legends of the Ancient Tribes, the Szeged-based trio’s new hour-long album, has a song on it called “Goats on a Discount Private Space Shuttle Voyage,” and from where I sit that entitles the three-piece of guitarist Csaba Szőke, bassist Tamás Tikvicki and drummer Mátyás Mozsár to that cash and perhaps more. I could just as easily note “Sgt. Taurus on Coke” at the start of the outing or “The Melancholic Stag Beetle Who Got Inspired by Corporate Motivational Coaches” — or the essential fact that in addition to the best song titles I’ve seen all year (again, and perhaps more), the jams are ace. Chemistry to spare, patience when it’s called for but malleable enough to boogie or nod and sound no less natural doing either, while keeping an exploratory if not improvisational — and it might be that too — character to the material. It’s not a minor undertaking at 59 minutes, but between the added charm of the track names and the grin-inducing nod of “Cosmic Cities of the Giant Snail Kingdom,” they make it easy.

The Space Huns on Facebook

The Space Huns on Bandcamp

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Mystical Porn Heroes Premiere “Tura” Lyric Video; Debut EP Out July 7

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on June 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

mystical porn heroes

Italian newcomer trio Mystical Porn Heroes — who are named presumably so that those posting about them on social media can have any and all accounts immediately suspended — will release their self-titled debut EP on July 7 through Go Down Records. The band brings together drummer Max Ear (also of Ananda Mida, OJM and Go Down Records) and guitarist/vocalist Andrea “Rocker” Ghion (also Scontro Frontale and El Cuento de la Chica y la Tequila, among others) with Tommaso Mantelli (Captain Mantell, Kirlian, ex-Bleeding Eyes, among others) handling bass and production in the band’s hometown of Treviso. Working shortest to longest across “Tura” (3:12), “Carnal” (4:16) and “Titana” (4:57) — the last of which appeared on a Go Down digital compilation last year, the three-piece find their way into darkened corners of heavy, classic doom nod and garage rock drawl meeting without coming across as either an Electric Wizard clone or hyper-performative cult rock.

What saves them in both regards is the movement in the tracks. “Tura” and “Carnal” have an undercurrent of ’70s heavy rock, the instrumental and “Carnal” reaches with Ghion‘s solo toward modern prog tonality like later-’70s Iommi, but even there, Mystical Porn Heroes don’t shy away from boogie, even if the tone is moodiermystical porn heroes mystical porn heroes and that rhythmic shuffle is filled out with a marked consideration for atmosphere. “Tura” works in layers almost from the outset and establishes its riff like stoner metal, but might shakes out across its brief course like a nebulous Green Lung, replacing grandeur of arrangement with lower-fi, dug-in darkfuzz. It and “Carnal” lead into the prior-unveiled “Titana,” and that song’s arrival feels momentous with its keys-or-effects flourish, rhythm and lead layers, somehow-Bowie strut and rawer hook, the drums matching the guitar in its turns before straightening out to sprint to the crashout at the end, a final thud. Whump.

With elements of garage rock, garage doom, classic heavy, ’90s weirdness, and a moniker that is going to catch the eye one way or the other, Mystical Porn Heroes on their debut EP establish a place for themselves between defined microgenres. This is to their credit as experienced players and as new collaborators in this context, and ideally the direction of their growth as a unit from here will be foreshadowed by the malleable sound offered in these three songs and 12 minutes. They are on their way toward a multifaceted sound underscored by volatile but steady groove and a sneaky depth in the mix, and these first steps are an encouraging beginning of their getting there.

A lyric video for “Tura” premieres below, followed by more info from the PR wire. One more time, Mystical Porn Heroes‘ self-titled debut EP is out July 7 on Go Down Records.

Please enjoy:

Mystical Porn Heroes, “Tura” lyric video premiere

Mystical Porn Heroes is a fictional work inspired by the current obsessive and disturbing cult of appearance trying to interpret it. These are three “musical tales” set in a crazed, dystopic, and obscene world, a theater of questionable heroic deeds.

“Tura” is the EP’s opening track, and its official lyric video features AI-generated visuals edited by Andrew Pozzy (The Sade). “Carnal” is an instrumental interlude that perfectly encapsulates MPH’s musical style: a tight rhythm section that intertwines with oriental-flavored harmonies. The final “Titana”, previously included on the Go Down Records 2022 compilation, evokes the anxiety triggered by the chaos of an impending and mysterious disaster.

MYSTICAL PORN HEROES is the new musical project of guitarist and songwriter Andrea Ghion, aka Rocker (Scontro Frontale, Rocker’s Guitar), and drummer Max Ear (OJM, Ananda Mida, Go Down Records Art Director). Their self-titled debut EP was conceived at Altroquando, Zero Branco, Italy, and later arranged and recorded by Tommaso Mantelli at his Lesder Studio.

Music and lyrics by Andrea ‘Rocker’ Ghion.
Recorded and mastered by Tommaso Mantelli at Lesder Studio, Treviso, Italy.
Language supervision by Luciano Caserta.
Cover by eeviac: http://www.eeviac.art/

LINE-UP & CREDITS
Rocker – guitar, vocals
Max Ear – drums
Tommaso Mantelli – bass

Mystical Porn Heroes on Facebook

Mystical Porn Heroes on Instagram

Mystical Porn Heroes on Bandcamp

Go Down Records on Facebook

Go Down Records website

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OJM Post Full Reunion Set From Venezia Hardcore Fest 2022

Posted in Bootleg Theater on May 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

ojm at venezia hardcore festival 2022

Italian heavy rockers OJM took the stage at the Sept. 2022 Venezia Hardcore Fest playing alongside the likes of Dropdead, The Flex, Melt and Big Cheese, and a respectably aggressive slew of others. They also just played the Go Down Records-associated Maximum Festival 2023 in April, and you’re right, this April is more recent than last Fall, but the full set of the Venice show has been posted by the band and it’s all the more of an occasion since it was a special gig in celebration of their 25th anniversary performed as a reunion of the lineup that featured on 2006’s Under the Thunder.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but OJM belong to the class of ’00s-era European underground heavy rockers who did the thing before the mobilization of social media as an ecosystem for bands. Playing in a heavy desert style, OJM was the kind of band you’d hear about on StonerRock.com, or maybe you picked up their records at All That is Heavy like I did. Their most recent full-length was 2010’s Volcano (review here), which means that for 13 years of their quarter-century tenure, they haven’t had a record out. True, it hasn’t been a complete absence, as 2021’s Live at Rocket Club (review here) was a definitive sign of life, but their activity has been almost exclusively live since Volcano, the 18th anniversary compilation 18 (discussed here) that came out in — hang on, doing math — 2015 notwithstanding.

But that comp came with word that the band was taking a long break, and that’s how it’s gone since. I don’t know what their forward plans are, if anything, but vocalist David Martin, guitarist Alessandro Tedesco, bassist Andrew Pozzy and drummer Massimo “Max Ear” Recchia hit it hard enough in this clip that while they’d still definitely be a standout on any bill calling itself a hardcore fest — since, you know, they’re not a hardcore band — they did have a mosh going in front of the stage, people getting up and stage-diving off, and all that sort of happens-at-gigs-when-not-everyone-is-60-yet types of things. Not ragging on old people shows at all, by the way. If you need me, I’ll be in back looking for a chair.

I’ve included the stream of OJM‘s Under the Thunder below as hoisted from their Bandcamp. The fact of the matter is an entire generation of heavy rock’s audience has come to prominence since the last time OJM released an album, and I’m hoping that maybe one or two people will take the chance here to go back and listen to this one, or maybe their Beard of Stars-issued 2002 debut, Heavy (discussed here), or anything else on there, since the bottom line is they were a band worth knowing then and they remain one now. And if I didn’t hint at it strong enough, I’ll say outright that I’d love to hear what these guys could do on a new full-length. Maybe next year. Maybe not.

If you can dig it, then by all means, dig it:

OJM, Live at Venezia Hardcore Fest 2022

LINE UP
DAVID MARTIN – vocals
MAX EAR – drums
ANDREW POZZY – bass
ALESSANDRO TEDESCO – guitar

OJM, Under the Thunder (2006)

OJM on Facebook

OJM on Instagram

OJM on Bandcamp

Go Down Records on Facebook

Go Down Records website

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Ananda Mida Premiere “The Pilot” Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on March 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

ananda Mida

Italian progressive heavy rockers Ananda Mida issued their Karnak EP (review here) last summer through drummer Max Ear‘s (also OJM) long-running and much-respected Go Down Records imprint. As you’ve probably guessed by the fact that we’re talking about it, “The Pilot” (live video premiering below) was featured on that particular release, which is streaming in full at the bottom of the post as well. It was one of three songs on the short offering, and it was recorded live at the Mirano Summer Festival, which ran throughout July 2021 in, well, Mirano.

“The Pilot” also opened 2019’s CathodnatiusAnanda Mida‘s second album, and it’s an anomaly in that it features vocals, in this case contributed by German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs — known for his releases through Exile on Mainstream, speaking of weighty endorsements, and his collaborations with Scott “Wino” Weinrich — who adds a poppish flair to the track’s bouncing groove, the strummy guitars of Alessandro Tedesco and Matteo Pablo Scolaro in the early verses building toward a ready-shred apex later on as lyrics top the procession with evident flow. One would not suspect it’s a one-off, which it seems to have been.

Karnak, as I said in the review, is kind of a mini-compilation, with Mario Lalli (Fatso JetsonYawning Man) sitting in on aptly-named middle cut “Jam With Mario” and the opener “Anulios” a newly-released instrumental take on a song from 2018’s debut, Anodnatius (review here), but even as more than a holdover while they couldn’t play shows last year, its release makes sense to highlight the open spirit of Ananda Mida — completed by bassist Davide Bressan — and the welcome they bid to guests outside of the band itself. The situation and the track, then, are both markedly fluid.

Today, Ananda Mida, and Ochs for that matter, are premiering the video that coincides with the version of “The Pilot” that appears on Karnak. You’ll find it below, followed by a few words from the band, etc.

Please enjoy:

Ananda Mida, “The Pilot” live video premiere

Ananda Mida on “The Pilot”:

The Pilot is a song we always enjoy playing! The opening theme comes from the sounds of hospital machinery, then we added our own groove and there you go! We are very happy with the result because this performance reflects a clean edge that is not always part of our live experience.

‘Karnak’ is out on Go Down Records and available to purchase here:
https://www.godownrecords.com/product-page/ananda-mida-karnak-EP

Ananda Mida is:
Conny Ochs | vocals
Davide Bressan | bass
Max Ear | drums
Alessandro Tedesco | guitar
Matteo Pablo Scolaro | guitar

Ananda Mida, Karnak EP (2021)

Ananda Mida on Facebook

Ananda Mida on Instagram

Go Down Records on Facebook

Go Down Records on Instagram

Go Down Records on Bandcamp

Go Down Records website

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Giulia Parin Zecchin of Julinko

Posted in Questionnaire on April 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Giulia Parin Zecchin Julinko

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: Giulia Parin Zecchin of Julinko

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

With music I’ve always felt like I am trying to translate something aerial or resting underneath, into an audible scenario.

I sensed a belonging to music as a child and started to sing in choirs and later, in bands. Then, as a young adult I guess I was brought away by a much too structured model of society and education, and stopped practicing and experimenting with music for years. It all came back to me — and much more forcefully — when a dear friend made me an unexpected gift in 2013: an old acoustic guitar. I realized how much I could express by just pressing the strings and let my voice interact with their sound, and never stopped creating after that.

Describe your first musical memory.

It has a sense of ecstasy, immensity and supernatural. I close my eyes and am I child, going to church. I lift my head, gazing to the big fresco of the vault, observing the painted holy figures and the celestial creamy sky move above me, as the space is filled by organ music and vocal hymns.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Summer of 2018, June. A choir is doing an open air concert of Medieval and Baroque music, starting at 4AM and dropping the last notes as the sun rose. The light slowly, sensibly changing with the chromatic visual projections decorating the venue: the ruins of an ancient abbey with an opened vault due to WWI bombings. The place is called Abbazia di Sant’Eustachio, located on an hilly area close to Treviso, north-east of Italy. It truly was a breathtaking experience and I will never forget it.

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

In 2018 I finally put myself on a stage alone, leading an almost fully improvised set in front of an audience. Before that I was pretty insecure, and thought I could never be able to face a live show alone. After I put myself in that situation, a new world of possibilities opened up.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I feel I can only answer subjectively to this question, as we all have different ideas and measures in art and life. So as regards my movement, it progresses by slowly giving light and color to the darkness which has always distinguished my expression, yet not erasing it.

How do you define success?

The result of a step further your older self and limits; widening the ability of transmitting emotions and visions to diverse audiences.

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

I truly don’t regret any sensory experience I have of this world. Every bit of it is precious and formative in order to evolve as a human being, and even more as a creative artist.

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

An album which is minimalist in its source yet huge in its evocative reach. Something connecting a primordial/archaic type of sound to an avantgarde language.

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

To console, to open views and sensibilities and ultimately, to let us taste the eternal, if just for a moment.

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

Completing my new collection of poems.

https://www.facebook.com/julinko.julinko
https://www.instagram.com/julinko.imago/
https://julinko.bandcamp.com/
http://julinko.com/
https://ghostcity.bandcamp.com/
https://diodrone.bandcamp.com/
https://dischidevastantisullafaccia.bandcamp.com/

Julinko, No Destroyer (2021)

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OJM Premiere “Venus” from Live at Rocket Club out Feb. 19

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on February 5th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

ojm

Treviso, Italy’s OJM are set to release Live at Rocket Club, recorded in Landshut, Germany, on Feb. 19. It has been a while — nearly 13 years — since the band’s last live offering, but to be fair, it’s been a while since their last anything. Late 2015’s 18 was a compilation in honor of the band reaching adulthood, but their fourth and latest studio album, Volcano (review here), came out in 2010 through drummer Max Ear‘s much-respected Go Down Records, and apart from sporadic shows, they’ve been largely absent as the post-social media generation of listenership has ascended ‘down the front’ of the heavy underground, blissfully unaware that a record like OJM‘s 2002 debut, Heavy (discussed here), helped set the stage for the booming scene that exists in Italy today.

Is Live at Rocket Club going to correct that history and provide much-needed context for current-wave heavy rock? Nah. That’d be asking an awful lot of a live record. It does, however, show the band in top form, and for those who either snagged Volcano a ojm live at rocket clubdecade-plus ago or have investigated since, it shows the rawer edge OJM bring to the material live. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing the band — founded by Max Ear and vocalist David Martin, here rounded out by guitarist Andrew Pozzy and keyboardist/vocalist Stefano Pasky — in-person, but they sure enough sound like a good time, punkish in spirit with an edge of ’70s Detroit prot0-aggression as they cut into material mostly drawn from Volcano but going back further with “Sixties” and “Give Me Your Money” from 2006’s Under the Thunder and “Desert,” which closed 2003’s The Light Album but here is nearly twice as long at 11:19 and benefits much from the inclusion of Pasky in the lineup. One can only say the same of “Hush,” the Deep Purple cover that serves as the capstone to the 40-minute set. Because if you’re going to have an organ, use it.

Cuts like “Welcome” and “Venus” (originally “Venus God”) that begin the show and the later “Wolf” and jammier “Ocean Hearts” have plenty of room of keys as well, despite the urgency of the earlier songs. “Venus,” which premieres below, runs at a decent sprint, playing up the boogie aspect of the rhythm and the attitude-laced vocals that top it. Though the instrumental “Welcome” precedes it, as on Volcano, think of it as the beginning of the gig and I think you’ll get a sense of what they’re going for in showing it off ahead of the release. Like most of what surrounds — certainly like the fellow Volcano track “I’ll Be Long,” which follows in like-minded punkish and catchy form — it’s a high-energy riffer that asks only that you take the two and a half minutes required to follow along. No pretense, no BS, just good time heavy rock and roll.

And if it sends you over to OJM‘s Bandcamp where you check out their studio records, all the better.

A few words from the band about the single and album preorder links and all that good stuff follow here, courtesy of the PR wire.

Enjoy:

OJM, “Venus” official track premiere

OJM on “Venus”:

“Venus” has been the most important single of our 2010 album Volcano. Because of its great and overwhelming energy, we have chosen it as opening track for the concert at the Rocket Club. This version is very different from the one recorded in the studio, thanks to the addition of the Hammond organ and the brazen garage-punk attitude that characterizes us on stage. To be listened to at full volume!

OJM’s “Live At Rocket Club” out on February 19th 2021.

Coloured LP: https://www.godownrecords.com/product-page/ojm-live-at-rocket-club-LPx
LP: https://www.godownrecords.com/product-page/ojm-live-at-rocket-club-LP
Digital: https://backl.ink/144268169

OJM has been one of the first Italian bands dedicated to stoner-rock, so much that its first EP goes back to 20 years ago. The band from Treviso (north of Italy) has been able to evolve and improve. Both musicians and style changed over the years and moved to the seventies garage and the heavy-psych, which are superbly represented in the last album Volcano dated 2010. Ten years passed since then and the band never officially split up. We can talk about a long hibernation which is alternated to awakenings heated by terrific live performances: the best way to enjoy its music! All the different formations that have followed over the years, turn around the two founding members, the drummer Max Ear and the vocalist David Martin, who are the beating hearts of a creature able to give us truly unforgettable emotions! Live At Rocket Club photographs the band in one of the best ever moment of its artistic life.

Live At Rocket Club will be printed in 300 copies (only vinyl) thanks to the cooperation between Go Down Records and Vincebus Eruptum Recordings and it is a summa of the great show of OJM at the Rocket Club in Landshut, Germany. 

LINE-UP
David Martin | vocals
Max Ear | drums
Andrew Pozzy | guitar
Stefano Pasky | vocals, bass piano, organ

OJM on Facebook

OJM on Instagram

OJM on Bandcamp

Go Down Records on Facebook

Go Down Records website

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