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Full Album Premiere & Review: Dune Sea, Orbital Distortion

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on November 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Dune Sea Orbital Distortion

Trondheim, Norway-based heavy psychedelic rockers Dune Sea release their third album, Orbital Distortion, this Friday, Nov. 11, through All Good Clean Records. It is a record whose attention to detail takes the band’s songwriting to a new level, and as the follow-up to 2020’s Moons of Uranus (review here) and their 2019 self-titled debut (review here), it feels very much like a realization and manifestation of what’s been their driving intention all along. The trio of vocalist/guitarist/synthesist Ole Nogva, bassist/synthesist Petter Solvik Dahle and drummer Viktor Olsen Kristensen (also percussion) reach beyond the confines of microgenre to craft a vision of psych rock that’s informed by, among other things, Norse culture, modern cosmic stylings, fuzz fuzz fuzz, and an underlying current of prog that’s as much heard in “Astro Chimp” as the violin on “Hubro.” To say it plainly, Orbital Distortion is gorgeous and expansive, individualized in its craft and admirably broad in its scope, with lyrics switching between delivery in English and Norwegian, brief jammy stretches that would sound made up on the spot if they weren’t so thoughtfully executed, with even a bit of space disco for good measure. Can’t go wrong.

The eight component pieces of Orbital Distortion are longer on average than were the tracks on Moons of Uranus, and where that album had seven of 10 total tracks under four minutes long, the newer LP has one of the total eight in its utterly-manageable 39-minute runtime, but the point is in how that time is spent. From the misleading, almost-Nebula-esque sneer in the early verse of “Astro Chimp” that unfolds into an inviting hook to the nod to extreme metal in closer “Hevn,” Dune Sea make a resounding argument for the benefits of artists listening to music outside their own style. There’s influences from Britpop and hip-hop, indie rock, various world folk musics and beyond as Orbital Distortion unfolds, and by the time “Astro Chimp” is done, the trio have not only displayed these wares but still found room to redirect to a standout riff at the end. In this way, the lead cut sets the tone for the rest of what follows in that it is masterful, composed and rife with purpose. Even in longer pieces like “Hubro,” “Anesthesia” and “Hevn,” which stretch past five minutes — the closer tops seven and is the longest piece Dune Sea have written to-date — the band maintain telltale poise and guide their listener through their deeply varied material with a sure and welcoming hand.

“Hubro” introduces the violin and Norwegian lyrics, some shaker percussion and a deceptively sharp-edged riff nodding into a light shove boogie verse with acoustic guitar layered in. There’s a layered wash in the midsection, quickly-enough resolved back to the catchy guitar line. Bands have made careers with less sonic breadth than Dune Sea show in this 5:28, but the point is there’s room enough in their sound to accommodate whatever changes come as they move toward and through the hook, still using stylization as a tool rather than a standard to uphold. In “Euphorialis” and “Draugen,” which follow and continue to alternate between languages.

The acoustic guitar is held over, but “Euphorialis” brings the bass up front and hits harder on the drums, the guitar stretching out as a bed for the echoing psych vocals. They depart into a jam, return, go again, holding to a space rock tension but not fully committing to it or aping neo-psych bounce (kudos on avoiding the temptation), even as the song explodes into its repetitions of the title in the second half, which is an effective transition into “Draugen,” which ups the metallic quotient in harsher layers of backing vocals, vital fuzz, shades of folk metal, prog, Bowie. It is dynamic and a vocal highlight, but not by any means the only one and not relying strictly on the vocals to get its point across as the engrossing fuzz guitar swells for the next turnaround to the chorus.

It’s notable that as “Draugen” crashes out at 3:30, the instrumental stretch that comprises the rest of the song feels specifically culled from an All Them Witches influence, but is perhaps more Norwegiana than Americana, and that’s a fit for the lead guitar line that starts “Gargantua” as well, which is more decisively folk metal in its twists — Amorphis‘ “Forever More” is a relevant comparison point — even as its verse taps into a meditative psych that “Trinity” will push further, blending aspects of Middle Eastern pop into its guitar and keyboard lines. An extra layer of percussion (or at least what sounds like one) bolsters the sans-lyrics chorus, while the verse pattern of the vocals actually sets the march.

At 4:21, “Trinity” feels like it ends where for a lot of bands it would most likely just be taking off into some meandering progression or other, but Dune Sea made the right choice to serve the song as it is in ending it where they do, and that’s emblematic of their ethic overall in how Orbital Distortion is structured and built, one song into the next, each one making the record stronger. There’s a fakeout ending before “Trinity” gives way to “Anesthesia” — good fun, quick — and the penultimate track starts riffier but doesn’t shy away from poppier melody in its bassline or the wash that arrives with the chorus. Keys, guitar, vocals, all pushed by the drums, surround and touch on metallic angularity, but are thoroughly progged and refuse to be one single thing or style, even as the lead guitar holds an adjacent position to the central movement of the piece in such classic style. Another tonal highlight, “Anesthesia” gives way to an answer to the instrumental finish of “Draugen,” with mellow, feedback-laced guitar fading to silence from which “Hevn” rises.

Rises and runs. The gallop isn’t quite immediate, but it’s not far off. A rougher edge pushes “Hevn”‘s vocals down in the mix so they too can be swept up in the cosmic boogie, which unfolds something like Hawkwind fighting Iron Maiden with Devin Townsend as referee. A positively dreamy midsection, delivered confident, resolute, becomes a progressive-style chug with acoustic guitar and synth tied in, moving into a suitable but not at all overblown finale. To say it’s classy is perhaps underselling some of its bite, but whatever flawed and inherently-at-least-partially-inaccurate genre-based descriptors one might want to use to position this or that measure of a given piece, Orbital Distortion‘s ultimate triumph is moving past these concerns while keeping the band’s established modus of writing short(er), mostly tight-knit songs.

That is the foundation from which their third album soars, and it absolutely does soar. If this is going to be Dune Sea‘s progression — because they in no way sound ready to rest on laurels — then they are on their way to becoming something truly special as a group. One had high hopes coming off of Moons of Uranus, goofily titled as it was. Those hopes have been surpassed and then some by Orbital Distortion. This band deserves your time.

You’ll find the full stream of Orbital Distortion below. I’m honored to host it.

Please enjoy:

Dune Sea on Orbital Distortion:

On the new album we have evolved our songwriting to longer tracks, and included a Norwegian-folk music vibe to some of the songs. This is also the first time we have included Norwegian lyrics. With only eight songs, we have focused on each individual one being almost in a genre itself, with its own sound and production/idea. This time we also include elements of acoustic guitar, violin and screamed vocals by guest appearances. That said, the good space rock/stoner feeling is always safely placed at the bottom.

Since their self-titled debut album in 2019, Dune Sea have establish themselves as a solid part of the Norwegian psych-scene. Their psych-space rock universe has expanded for every release and on this effort it seems like they have left the Earth for good to cruise throughout the cosmos.

Line-Up:
Ole Nogva – Vocals, guitar, and synthesizer
Petter Solvik Dahle – Bass and synthesizer
Viktor Olsen Kristensen – Drums and percussion

Dune Sea on Instagram

Dune Sea on Facebook

Dune Sea on Bandcamp

Dune Sea on Soundcloud

All Good Clean Records on Thee Facebooks

All Good Clean Records website

All Good Clean Records webstore

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Dune Sea to Release Orbital Distortion Nov. 11; New Song Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 27th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

dune sea

It’ll be just about two years on Nov. 11 when Trondheim trio Dune Sea release Orbital Distortion as the follow-up to 2020’s Moons of Uranus (review here) and only over three since their 2019 self-titled debut (review here), but maturity seems to be coming quickly to the Norwegian outfit as they present “Hubro” as the new single from the impending release. All Good Clean Records is once more behind the offering, and a surely as ‘c’ is for ‘cowabunga,’ the track streaming below is a heavy cosmic rocker that, even just at five minutes, has reach well beyond where the airplanes go.

I got hit up to do a premiere for this record, and space is tight between now and the 11th, but I’m gonna see if I can’t make something happen in that regard anyway. A lot of the younger-bands heavy rock attention these days is on Slomosa and Kanaan, who’ve been out touring hard and earning it to be sure, but Dune Sea do something a little more about texture and atmosphere, and show that if you’re looking at the up and coming generation of outfits — that is, no grey beards in the press photos — there’s no shortage of aural diversity emerging between different bands.

Also, Trondheim. I damn near got on a train from Oslo earlier this month on a whim just to see the place where so much right on music comes from. Alas, my tourist card remains unpunched in this regard.

From the PR wire:

Dune Sea Orbital Distortion

Dune Sea – Norwegian Psych/Stoner-Rockers Share New Song “Hubro”

Norwegian psych/stoner rockers Dune Sea have recently shared a new song off their third album “Orbital Distortion”, which is set for release on November 11th via All Good Clean Records.

Titled “Hubro”, this song is the first taster of what’s to expect from “Orbital Distortion” and sees the Norwegian trio delving further into space rock, taking off for a grand musical journey into outer space.

Since their self-titled debut album in 2019, Dune Sea have establish themselves as a solid part of the Norwegian psych-scene. Their psych-space rock universe has expanded for every release and with their upcoming 3rd album “Orbital Distortion” it seems like they have left the Earth for good cruising though the cosmos.

https://instagram.com/duneseaband
https://www.facebook.com/duneseaband
https://dunesea1.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/allgoodcleanrecords
http://www.allgoodcleanrecords.com
https://store.allgoodcleanrecords.com

Dune Sea, “Hubro”

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Quarterly Review: Motorpsycho, Abrams, All India Radio, Nighdrator, Seven Rivers of Fire, Motherslug, Cheater Pipe, Old Million Eye, Zoltar, Ascia

Posted in Reviews on September 29th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Welcome to the penultimate day of the Fall 2022 Quarterly Review, and yes, I will make just about any excuse to use the word “penultimate.” Sometimes you have a favorite thing, okay? The journey continues today, down, out, up and around, through and across 10 records from various styles and backgrounds. I hope you dig it and check back tomorrow for the last day. Here we go.

Quarterly Review #81-90:

Motorpsycho, Ancient Astronauts

motorpsycho ancient astronauts

There is no denying Motorpsycho. I’ve tried. Can’t be done. I don’t know how many records the Norwegian progressive rockers have put out by now, and honestly I wonder if even the band members themselves could give an accurate count. And who would be able to fact check? Ancient Astronauts continues the strong streak that the Trondheim trio of Tomas Järmyr, Bent Sæther, and Hans “Snah” Ryan have had going for at least the last six years — 2021’s Kingdom of Oblivion (review here) was also part of it — comprising four songs across a single 43-minute LP, with side B consumed entirely by the 22-minute finale “Chariot of the Sun/To Phaeton on the Occasion of Sunrise (Theme From an Imaginary Movie).” After the 12-minute King Crimsony build from silence to sustained freakout in “Mona Lisa Azazel” — preceded by the soundscape “The Flower of Awareness” (2:14) and the relatively straightforward, welcome-bidding “The Ladder” (6:41) — the closer indeed unfurls in two discernible sections, the first a linear stretch increasing in volume and tension as it moves forward, loosely experimental in the background but for sure a prog jam by its 11th minute that ends groovy at about its 15th, and the second a synthesizer-led arrangement that, to no surprise, is duly cinematic. Motorpsycho have been a band for more than 30 years established their place in the fabric of the universe, and are there to dwell hopefully for a long(er) time to come. Not all of the hundred-plus releases they’ve done have been genius, but they are so reliably themselves in sound it feels silly to write about them. Just listen and be happy they’re there.

Motorpsycho on Facebook

Stickman Records store

 

Abrams, In the Dark

Abrams In the Dark

Did you think Abrams would somehow not deliver quality-crafted heavy rock, straightforward in structure, ’00s punk undercurrent, plus metal, plus melody? Their first offering through Small Stone is In the Dark, the follow-up to 2020’s Modern Ways (review here), and it finds guitarist/vocalist Zachary Amster joined by on guitar by Patrick Alberts (Call of the Void), making the band a four-piece for the first time with bassist/vocalist Taylor Iversen and drummer Ryan DeWitt completing the lineup. One can hear new textures and depth in songs like “Better Living” after the raucous opening salvo of “Like Hell” and “Death Tripper,” and longer pieces like “Body Pillow,” the title-track and the what-if-BlizzardofOzz-was-really-space-rock “Black Tar Mountain,” which reach for new spaces atmospherically and in terms of progressive melody — looking at you, “Fever Dreams” — while maintaining the level of songwriting one anticipates from Abrams four records in. They’ve been undervalued for a while now. Can their metal-heavy-rock-punk-prog-that’s-also-kind-of-pop gain some of the recognition it deserves? It only depends on getting ears to hear it.

Abrams on Facebook

Small Stone Records on Bandcamp

 

All India Radio, The Generator of All Infinity

All India Radio The Generator of All Infinity

Australia-based electronic prog outfit All India Radio — the solo ambient/atmospheric endeavor of composer and Martin Kennedy — has been releasing music for over 20 years, and is the kind of thing you may have heard without realizing it, soundtracking television and whatnot. The Generator of All Infinity is reportedly the final release in a trilogy cycle, completely instrumental and based largely on short ambient movements that move between each other like, well, a soundtrack, with some more band-minded ideas expressed in “The New Age” — never underestimate the value of live bass in electronic music — and an array of samples, differing organs, drones, psychedelic soundscapes, and a decent bit of ’80s sci-fi intensity on “Beginning Part 2,” which succeeds in making the wait for its underlying beat excruciating even though the whole piece is just four minutes long. There are live and sampled drums throughout, shades of New Wave, krautrock and a genuine feeling of culmination in the title-track’s organ-laced crescendo wash, but it’s a deep current of drone that ends on “Doomsday Machine” that makes me think whatever narrative Kennedy has been telling is somewhat grim in theme. Fair enough. The Generator of All Infinity will be too heady for some (most), but if you can go with it, it’s evocative enough to maybe be your own soundtrack.

All India Radio on Facebook

All India Radio on Bandcamp

 

Nighdrator, Nighdrator

Nighdrator Nighdrator

Mississippi-based heavygaze rockers Nighdrator released the single “The Mariner” as a standalone late in 2020 as just the duo of vocalist/producer Emma Fruit and multi-instrumentalist JS Curley. They’ve built out more of a band on their self-titled debut EP, put to tape through Sailing Stone Records and bringing back “Mariner” (dropped the ‘The’) between “Scarlet Tendons” and the more synth-heavy wash of “The Poet.” The last two minutes of the latter are given to noise, drone and silence, but what unfurls before that is an experimentalist-leaning take on heavier post-rock, taking the comparatively grounded exploratory jangle of “Scarlet Tendons” — which picks up from the brief intro “Crest/Trough” depending on which format you’re hearing — and turning its effects-laced atmosphere into a foundation in itself. Given the urgency that remains in the strum of “Mariner,” I wouldn’t expect Nighdrator to go completely in one direction or another after this, but the point is they set up multiple opportunities for creative growth while signaling an immediate intention toward individuality and doing more than the My-Bloody-Valentine-but-heavy that has become the standard for the style. There’s some of that here, but Nighdrator seem not to want to limit themselves, and that is admirable even in results that might turn out to be formative in the longer term.

Nighdrator on Bandcamp

Sailing Stone Records store

 

Seven Rivers of Fire, Sanctuary

Seven Rivers of Fire Sanctuary

William Graham Randles, who is the lone figure behind all the plucked acoustic guitar strings throughout Seven Rivers of Fire‘s three-song full-length, Sanctuary, makes it easy to believe the birdsong that occurs throughout “Union” (16:30 opener and longest track; immediate points), “Al Tirah” (9:00) and “Bloom” (7:30) was happening while the recording was taking place and that the footsteps at the end are actually going somewhere. This is not Randles‘ first full-length release of 2022 and not his last — he releases the new Way of the Pilgrim tomorrow, as it happens — but it does bring a graceful 33 minutes of guitar-based contemplation, conversing with the natural world via the aforementioned birdsong as well as its own strums and runs, swells and recessions of activity giving the feeling of his playing in the sunshine, if not under a tree then certainly near one or, at worst, someplace with an open window and decent ventilation; the air feels fresh. “Al Tirah” offers a long commencement drone and running water, while “Bloom” — which begins with footsteps out — is more playfully folkish, but the heart throughout Sanctuary is palpable and in celebration of the organic, perhaps of the surroundings but also in its own making. A moment of serenity, far-away escapism, and realization.

Seven Rivers of Fire on Facebook

Aural Canyon Music on Bandcamp

 

Motherslug, Blood Moon Blues

Motherslug Blood Moon Blues

Half a decade on from The Electric Dunes of Titan (review here), Melbourne sludge rock bruisers Motherslug return with Blood Moon Blues, a willfully unmanageable 58-minute, let’s-make-up-for-lost-time collection that’s got room enough for “Hordes” to put its harsh vocals way forward in the mix over a psychedelic doom sprawl while also coexisting with the druggy desert punkers “Crank” and “Push the Venom” and the crawling death in the culmination of “You (A Love Song)” — which it may well be — later on. With acoustic stretches bookending in “Misery” and the more fully a song “Misery (Slight Return),” there’s no want for cohesion, but from naked Kyussism of “Breathe” and the hard Southern-heavy-informed riffs of “Evil” — yes I’m hearing early Alabama Thunderpussy there — to the way in which “Deep in the Hole” uses similar ground as a launchpad for its spacious solo section, there’s an abiding brashness to their approach that feels consistent with their past work. Not every bands sees the ways in which microgenres intersect, let alone manages to set their course along the lines between, drawing from different sides in varied quantities as they go, but Motherslug do so while sounding almost casual about it for their lack of pretense. Accordingly, the lengthy runtime of Blood Moon Blues feels earned in a way that’s not always the case with records that pass the single-LP limit of circa 45 minutes, there’s blues a-plenty and Motherslug brought enough riffs for the whole class, so dig in, everybody.

Motherslug on Facebook

Motherslug on Bandcamp

 

Cheater Pipe, Planetarium Module

Cheater Pipe Planetarium Module

Keep an ear out because you’re going to be hearing more of this kind of thing in the next few years. On their third album, Planetarium Module, Cheater Pipe blend Oliveri-style punk with early-aughts sludge tones and sampling, and as we move to about 20 years beyond acts like Rebreather and -(16)- and a slew of others including a bunch from Cheater Pipe‘s home state of Louisiana, yeah, there will be more acts adapting this particular stoner sludge space. Much to their credit, Cheater Pipe not only execute that style ably — Emissions sludge — on “Fog Line Shuffle,” “Cookie Jar” or “White Freight Liner Blues” and the metal-as-punk “Hollow Leg Hobnobber,” they bring Floor-style melody to “Yaw” and expand the palette even further in the second half of the tracklist, with “Mansfield Bar” pushing the melody further, “Flight of the Buckmoth” and closer “Rare Sunday” turning to acoustic guitar and “The Sad Saga of Hans Cholo” between them lending atmospheric breadth to the whole. They succeed at this while packing 11 songs into 34 minutes and coming across generally like they long ago ran out of fucks to give about things like what style they’re playing to or what’s ‘their sound.’ Invariably they think of these things — nobody writes a song and then never thinks about it again, even when they tell you otherwise — but the spirit here is middle-fingers-up, and that suits their sound best anyway.

Cheater Pipe on Facebook

Cheater Pipe on Bandcamp

 

Old Million Eye, The Air’s Chrysalis Chime

Old Million Eye The Air's Chrysalis Chime

The largely solo endeavor of Brian Lucas of Dire Wolves and a merry slew of others, Old Million Eye‘s latest full-length work arrives via Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube with mellow psychedelic experimentalism and folk at its core. The Air’s Chrysalis Chime boasts seven pieces in 43 minutes and each one establishes its own world to some degree based around an underlying drone; the fluidity in “Louthian Wood” reminiscent of windchimes and accordion without actually being either of those things — think George Harrison at the end of “Long Long Long,” but it keeps going — and “Tanglier Mirror” casts out a wash of synthesizer melody that would threaten to swallow the vocals entirely would they not floating up so high. It’s a vibe based around patience in craft, but not at all staid, and “White Toads” throws some distorted volume the listener’s way not so much as a lifeline for rockers as another tool to be used when called for. The last cosmic synthesizer on “Ruby River,” the album’s nine-minute finale, holds as residual at the end, which feels fair as Lucas‘ voice — the human element of its presence is not to be understated as songs resonate like an even-farther-out, keyboard-leaning mid-period Ben Chasny — has disappeared into the ether of his own making. We should all be so lucky.

Old Million Eye on Bandcamp

Cardinal Fuzz Records store

Feeding Tube Records store

 

Zoltar, Bury

Zoltar Bury

“Bury” is the newest single from Swedish heavy rockers Zoltar, who, yes, take their moniker from the genie machine in the movie Big (they’re not the only ones either). It follows behind two songs released last year in “Asphalt Alpha” and “Dirt Vortex.” Those tracks were rawer in overall production sound, but there’s still plenty of edge in “Bury,” up to and including in the vocals, which are throatier here than on either of the two prior singles, though still melodic enough so that when the electric piano-style keys start up at about two and a half minutes into the song, the goth-punk nod isn’t out of place. It’s a relatively straight-ahead hook with riffing made that much meatier through the tones on the recording, and a subtle wink in the direction of Slayer‘s “Dead Skin Mask” in its chorus. Nothing to complain about there or more generally about the track, as the three-piece seem to be working toward some kind of proper release — they did press up a CD of Bury as a standalone, so kudos to them on the physicality — be it an EP or album. Wherever they end up, if these songs make the trip or are dropped on the way, it’s a look at a band’s earliest moves as a group and how quickly that collaboration can change and find its footing. Zoltar — who did not have feet in the movie — may just be doing that here.

Zoltar on Facebook

Zoltar store

 

Ascia, III

Ascia III

Sardinia’s Fabrizio Monni (also of Black Capricorn) has unleashed a beast in Ascia, and with III, he knows it more than ever. The follow-up to Volume II (review here) and Volume I (review here) — both released late last year — is more realized in terms of songcraft, and it would seem Monni‘s resigned himself to being a frontman of his own solo-project, which is probably the way to go since he’s obviously the most qualified, and in songs like “The Last Ride,” he expands on the post-High on Fire crash-and-bash with more of a nodding central groove, while “Samothrace” finds a place for itself between marauder shove and more direct heavy rock riffery. Each time out, Monni seems to have more of an idea of what he wants Ascia to be, and whether there’s a IV to come after this or he’s ready to move onto something else in terms of release structure — i.e., a debut album — the progression he’s undertaken over the last year-plus is plain to hear in these songs and how far they’ve come in so short a time.

Ascia on Bandcamp

The Swamp Records on Bandcamp

 

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Wizrd to Release Debut Album Seasons Oct. 21

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 5th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Wizrd

Having recently engaged with Orango‘s upcoming album, it feels inevitable that, when it comes to Wizrd‘s autocorrect-defying classic-heavy-informed, harmony-prone and patiently wrought material as represented by “Lessons” — the opener and first streaming single from Wizrd‘s Karisma Records debut, Seasons — that’s kind of where my head goes, but the difference of what Wizrd offer is down to the specifically prog take “Lessons” would seem to demonstrate. The band — who will release the album on Oct. 21, preorders now, blah blah — boast connections to the likes of Spidergawd, Krokofant, Soft Ffog, and in the production end, Jaga Jazzist, and if those names mean nothing to you, that’s your next week’s worth of exploration sorted, but while you’re here, you may as well check out the song posted below.

If you’re learning about who these people are and what they’ve done in the past and what they’re doing now, in other words, “Lessons” can be a good way to start.

And while you’re processing the emotional trauma of that play on words, I’ll direct you to the smoothly executed copy of the PR wire for refuge:

Wizrd Seasons

Norwegian Rockers WIZRD Reveal Details and Single from Upcoming Album Seasons!

Album pre-order/ pre-save: https://link.karismarecords.no/WIZRD_Seasons

Having learned their craft at the Jazz Conservatory in Trondheim, WIZRD have completed work on their new album Seasons, and Karisma Records have today released the track Lessons from the album.

Lessons is a track that gives an insight into what we can expect from the debut album from this talented Norwegian quartet, consisting of Hallvard Gaardløs (SPIDERGAWD, DRAKEN and more) on bass and lead vocals, Karl Bjorå (MEGALODON COLLECTIVE and more) on guitar and vocals, Vegard Lien Bjerkan (SOFT FFOG and more) on keyboards and vocals and Axel Skalstad (KROKOFANT, SOFT FFOG and more) on drums.

The band’s Hallvard Gaardløs explains: “Lessons is somewhat the quintessential WIZRD song, at least for me. It is a good representation of what we intend to do on this album, mixing progressive and improvisational elements with rock & pop sensibilities. The lyrics are about the New Age movement, and the fact that I find it rather silly. I’m kind of just making fun of it all, comparing yoga to a sacrificing ritual for Satan. With that said, I practice yoga sometimes myself, so I guess that makes me a demon worshipper.. Oh well, why not! Hail Satan!”

The single Lessons can be downloaded or streamed from a variety of services:

Listen + share: https://link.karismarecords.no/Wizrd_Lessons

Seasons itself, is set for release on the 21st October, and showcases how WIZRD are more than happy to test their limits with a sound that encompasses Rock and Indie to Jazz and Prog, whilst breaking a few rules along the way. The end result is a masterclass in how to produce a catchy album that is filled with beautiful vocal harmonies, stunning melodies, quirky jazz grooves and a rock’n’roll drive to die for.

Produced by Norwegian film score composer and JAGA JAZZIST drummer Martin Horntveth, Seasons was recorded at the Studio Paradiso in Oslo by Marcus Forsgren (BROR FORSGREN, JAGA JAZZIST) and Horntveth, and mixed by Bergen based musician and producer Matias Tellez (YOUNG DREAMS, GIRL IN RED).

With artwork by Steph Hope, Seasons will be available in CD, Digital and a Limited Edition LP in transparent magenta vinyl formats, and can now be pre-ordered from: https://www.karismarecords.no/shop/

Tracklist
1. Lessons
2. Free Will
3. Spitfire
4. All Is As It Should Be
5. Show Me What You Got
6. Fire & Water
7. Divine
8. When You Call

WIZRD are:
Hallvard Gaardløs (SPIDERGAWD, DRAKEN and more) – bass/lead vocals
Karl Bjorå (MEGALODON COLLECTIVE and more) – guitar/vocals
Vegard Lien Bjerkan (SOFT FFOG and more) – keys/vocals
Axel Skalstad (KROKOFANT, SOFT FFOG and more) – drums

https://wizrd.bandcamp.com
https://facebook.com/WIZRDTHEBAND
https://instagram.com/wizrdtheband

https://www.facebook.com/KarismaRecords/
www.karismarecords.no

Wizrd, Seasons (2022)

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Motorpsycho to Release Ancient Astronauts on Aug. 19

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

motorpsycho

You might turn a quizzical eye toward the cover art of Motorpsycho‘s new album, Ancient Astronauts, but what are they supposed to do, get this guy from the History Channel? Because I’m fairly sure his contract is exclusive.

Not really much to know about the new Motorpsycho as regards details yet. There are no songs listed or stuff like that, but they do have a bit about the process and they talk about recording live as a three-piece. Some bands waited, you know, until travel could happen. If we count right now, Ancient Astronauts is the third pandemic-era LP Motorpsycho will have released. Computer, define “unstoppable.”

Yes, that was my Star Trek voice. Live with it.

Motorpsycho‘s 2021 album, Kingdom of Oblivion (review here), was a gem. If you expect less, you don’t know Motorpsycho.

From the PR wire:

motorpsycho ancient astronauts

MOTORPSYCHO Announces New Album “Ancient Astronauts”! Coming out on August 19, 2022 through Stickman Records!

Bill Graham once said, “They aren’t the best at what they do, they are the only ones that do what they do” about The Dead, and no truer words have ever been written about Motorpsycho.

Following their latest two albums during the “Covid years”, The All is One (2020) and Kingdom of Oblivion (2021), Motorpsycho has announced the release of Ancient Astronauts!

The album was recorded in Amper Tone studio in Oslo in the summer of 2021. Since Covid was still making international travel very difficult, Stockholm-based Reine Fiske wasn’t in the studio with the three core Motorpsycho members, making this the first album in years that they recorded as a three-piece. Recorded mainly in live takes with only a few overdubs and the vocals added afterwards, this is essentially the band playing live in the studio. At times fairly frantic and angular yet grandiose and hypnotic, this is a very explorative offering without a whole lot of choruses.

The cover consists of stills from a movie project, filmed at dawn in early August at Skottbu in Norway. The title, Ancient Astronauts, remains a bit of a mystery: are Motorpsycho following clues left by earlier travellers or are they perhaps leaving some themselves? Stay tuned for many more details and album news to be revealed soon…

Ancient Astronauts is slated to be released on August 19, 2022 via Stickman Records, with a pre-sale to start on July 15 at THIS LOCATION: https://www.stickman-records.com/

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Motorpsycho, Kingdom of Oblivion (2021)

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Quarterly Review: Spidergawd, Eight Bells, Blue Rumble, The Mountain King, Sheev, Elk Witch, KYOTY, Red Eye, The Stoned Horses, Gnome

Posted in Reviews on April 4th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Here we are in the Spring 2022 Quarterly Review. I have to hope and believe you know what this means by now. It’s been like eight years. To reiterate, 10 reviews a day for this week. I’ve also added next Monday to the mix because there’s just so, so, so much out there right now, so this Quarterly Review will total 60 albums covered. It could easily be more. And more. And more. You get the point.

So while we’re on the edge of this particular volcano, looking down into the molten center of the Quarterly Review itself, I’ll say thanks for reading if you do at any point, and I hope you find something to make doing so worth the effort.

Here we go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Spidergawd, VI

Spidergawd VI

Like clockwork, Spidergawd released V (review here), in 2019, and amid the chaos of 2020, they announced they’d have a new record out in 2021 — already the longest pause between LPs of their career — for which they’d be touring. The Norwegian outfit — who aren’t so much saviors of rock as a reminder of why it doesn’t need saving in the first place — at last offer the nine songs and 41 minute straight-ahead drive of VI with their usual aplomb, energizing a classic heavy rock sound and reveling in the glorious hooks of “Prototype Design” and “Running Man” at the outset, throwing shoulders with the sheer swag of “Black Moon Rising,” and keeping the rush going all the way until “Morning Star” hints toward some of their prior psych-prog impulses. They’ve stripped those back here, and on the strength of their songwriting and the shining lights that seem to accompany their performance even on a studio recording, they remain incomparable in working to the high standard of their own setting.

Spidergawd on Facebook

Stickman Records website

Crispin Glover Records website

 

Eight Bells, Legacy of Ruin

eight bells legacy of ruin

The first Eight Bells full-length for Prophecy Productions, Legacy of Ruin comes six years after their second LP, Landless (review here), and finds founding guitarist/vocalist Melynda Marie Jackson, bassist/guitarist/vocalist Matt Solis, drummer Brian Burke, a host of guests and producer Billy Anderson complicating perceptions of Pacific Northwestern US black metal. Across the six songs and in extended cuts like “The Well” and closer “Premonition,” Eight Bells remind of their readiness to put melodies where others fear tread, and to execute individualized cross-genre breadth that even in the shorter “Torpid Dreamer” remains extreme, whatever else one might call it in terms of style. “The Crone” and other moments remind of Enslaved, but seem to be writing a folklore all their own in that.

Eight Bells on Facebook

Prophecy Productions on Bandcamp

 

Blue Rumble, Blue Rumble

Blue Rumble Blue Rumble

Swiss four-piece Blue Rumble bring organically-produced, not-quite-vintage-but-retro-informed heavy psych blues boogie on their self-titled debut full-length, impressing with the sharp edges around which the grooves curve, the channel-spanning, shred-ready solo of the guitars, and the organ that add so much to where vocals might otherwise be. The five-minute stretch alone of second cut “Cosmopolitan Landscape,” which follows the garage urgency of opener “God Knows I Shoulda Been Gone,” runs from a mellow-blues exploration into a psych hypnosis and at last into a classic-prog freakout before, miraculously, returning, and that is by no means the total scope of the album, whether it’s the winding progressions in “Cup o’ Rosie (Just Another Groovy Thing),” the laid back midsection of “Sunset Fire Opal” or the hey-is-that-flute on the shorter pastoral interlude “Linda,” as if naming the song before that “Think for Yourself” wasn’t enough of a Beatles invocation. The strut continues unabated in “The Snake” and the grittier “Hangman,” and closer “Occhio e Croce” (‘eye and cross,” in Italian) shimmers with Mellotron fluidity atop its central build, leaving the raw vitality of the drums to lead into a big rock finish well earned. Heads up, heavy rock and rollers. This is hot shit.

Blue Rumble on Instagram

Blue Rumble on Bandcamp

 

The Mountain King, WolloW

the mountain king wollow

It’s palindrome time on Mainz, Germany’s The Mountain King‘s WolloW. Once the solo-project of guitarist/vocalist/programmer Eric McQueen, the experimentalist band here includes guitarist Frank Grimbarth and guest bassist Jack Cradock — you can really hear that bass on “II In Grium Imus Noctem Aram et Consumimur Igni” (hope you practiced your conjugations) and through five songs, they cross genres from the atmospheric heavygaze-meets-Warning of “I Bongnob” through the blackened crunch of the above-noted second cut to a gloriously dreamy and still morose title-track, and the driving expanse of “V DNA Sand.” Then they do it backwards, as “V DNA Sand” seems to flip halfway through. But they’re also doing it backwards at the same time as forward, so as The Mountain King work back toward album finale “bongnoB I,” what was reversed and what wasn’t has switched and the listener isn’t really sure what’s up or down, where they are or why. This, of course, is exactly the point. Take that, form and structure! Open your mind and let doom in!

The Mountain King on Facebook

Cursed Monk Records website

 

Sheev, Mind Conductor

Sheev Mind Conductor

Berlin trio Sheev prove adept at skirting the line of outright aggression, and in fact crossing it, while maintaining control over their direction and execution. Mind Conductor is their debut album, and it works well to send signals of its complexity, samples and obscure sounds on “The Workshop” giving over the riffs of immediate impact on “Well Whined.” The channel-spanning guitar pulls on “Saltshifter,” the harmonies in the midsection of “All I Can,” the going-for-it-DannyCarey-style drums on the penultimate “Baby Huey” (and bonus points for that reference) — all of these and so much more in the nine-song/53-minute span come together fluidly to create a portrait of the band’s depth of approach and the obvious consideration they put into what they do. Closer “Snakegosh” may offer assurance they don’t take themselves too seriously, but even that song’s initial rolling progression can’t help but wind its way through later angularities. It will be interesting to hear the direction they ultimately take over the course of multiple albums, but don’t let that draw focus from what they accomplish on this first one.

Sheev on Facebook

Sheev on Bandcamp

 

Elk Witch, Beyond the Mountain

elk witch beyond the mountain

Dudes got riffs. From Medford, Oregon, Elk Witch draw more from the sphere of modern heavy rockers like earlier The Sword or Freedom Hawk than the uptempo post-Red Fang party jams for which much of the Pacific Northwest is known, but the groove is a good time just the same. The six tracks of Beyond the Mountain are born out of the trio’s 2021 debut EP — wait for it — The Mountain, but the four songs shared between the two offerings have been re-recorded here, repositioned and sandwiched between opener “Cape Foulweather” and closer “The Plight of Valus,” so the reworking feels consistent from front to back. And anyway, it’s only been a year, so ease up. Some light burl throughout, but the vocals on “Coyote and the Wind’s Daughters” remind me of Chritus in Goatess, so there’s some outright doom at work too, though “Greybeard Arsenal” might take the prize for its shimmering back-half slowdown either way, and “The Plight of Valus” starts out with a seeming wink at Kyuss‘ “El Rodeo,” so nothing is quite so simply traced. Raw, but they’ll continue to figure out where they’re headed, and the converted will nod knowingly. For what it’s worth, I dig it.

Elk Witch on Facebook

StoneFly Records store

 

KYOTY, Isolation

kyoty isolation

If “evocative” is what New Hampshire post-metallic mostly-instrumentalists KYOTY were going for with their third full-length, could they possibly have picked something better to call it than Isolation? It’d be a challenge. And with opener “Quarantine,” songs like “Ventilate,” “Languish,” “Faith,” and “Rift,” “Respite” and closer “A Fog, A Future Like a Place Imagined,” the richly progressive unit working as the two-piece of Nick Filth and Nathaniel Parker Raymond weave poetic aural tapestries crushing and spacious in kind with the existential dread and vague flashes of hope in pandemic reality of the 2020s thus far. Still, they work in impressionist fashion, so that the rumbling crackle of “Onus” and the near-industrial slog of “Respite” represent place and idea while also standing apart as a not-quite-objective observer, the lighter float of the guitar in “Faith” becoming a wash before its resonant drone draws it to a close. At 70 minutes, there’s a lot to say for a band who doesn’t have lyrics, but spoken lines further the sense of verse, and remind of the humanity behind the programming of “Holter” or the especially pummeling “Rift.” An album deep enough you could listen to it for years and hear something new.

KYOTY on Facebook

Deafening Assembly on Bandcamp

 

Red Eye, The Cycle

red eye the cycle

Andalusian storytellers Red Eye make it plain from the outset that their ambitions are significant, and the seven songs of their third full-length play out those ambitions across ultra-flowing shifts between serenity and heft, working as more than just volume trades and bringing an atmospheric sprawl that is intended to convey time as well as place. In 46 minutes, they do for doom and various other microgenres — post-metal, some more extreme moments in “Beorg” and the morse-code-inclusive closer “Æsce” — what earlier Opeth did for death metal, adding shifts into unbridled folk melody and sometimes minimalist reach. Clearly meant to be taken in its entirety, The Cycle functions beautifully across its stretch, and the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Antonio Campos (also lyrics), guitarist/vocalist Pablo Terol, bassist Antonio Muriel and drummer Ángel Arcas, bear weight of tone and history in kind, self-aware that the chants in “Tempel” brim with purpose, but expressive in the before and after such that they wherever they will and make it a joy to follow.

Red Eye on Facebook

Alone Records store

 

Stoned Horses, Stoned Horses

The Stoned Horses Self-titled

Originally recorded to come out in 2013, what would’ve been/is the Stoned Horses‘ self-titled debut full-length runs 12 tracks and swaps methodologies between instrumentalism and more verse/chorus-minded sludge rock. Riffs lead, in either case, and there’s a sense of worship that goes beyond Black Sabbath as the later “Scorpions Vitus” handily confirms. The semi-eponymous “A Stoned Horse” is memorable for its readiness to shout the hook at you repeatedly, and lest a band called Stoned Horses ever be accused of taking themselves too seriously, “My Horse is Faster Than Your Bike” is a sub-two-minute riffer that recalls late-’90s/early-’00s stoner rock fuckery, before everyone started getting progressive. Not short on charm, there’s plenty of substance behind it in “Le Calumet” like a northern Alabama Thunderpussy or the last cut, “The Legend of the Blue Pig,” which dares a bit more metal. Not groundbreaking, not trying to be, it’s a celebration of the tropes of genre given its own personality. I have nothing more to ask of it except what happened that it sat for nearly a decade without being released.

Stoned Horses on Facebook

From the Urn on Bandcamp

 

Gnome, King

Gnome King

Antwerpen’s Gnome make it a hell of a lot of fun to trace their path across King, their second full-length, bringing in The Vintage Caravan‘s Óskar Logi early for “Your Empire” and finding a line between energetic, on-the-beat delivery and outright aggression, letting “Ambrosius” set the tone for what follows as they careen though cuts like the instrumental “Antibeast,” the swinging and catchy “Wencelas” and the crunching “Bulls of Bravik.” How do they do it? With the magic of shenanigans! As King (which “Wencelas” was) plays out, the suitably hatted trio get up to high grade nonsense on “Kraken Wanker” before “Stinth Thy Clep” and the 11-minute we-can-do-whatever-we-want-so-let’s-do-that-yes closer “Platypus Platoon” buries its later march amid a stream of ideas that, frankly, kind of sounds like it could just keep going. They are adventurous throughout the eight songs and 42 minutes, but have a solid foundation nonetheless of tone and consciousness, which are what save King from being a mess. It’s a hard balance to strike that they make sound easy.

Gnome on Facebook

Polderrecords website

 

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Spidergawd Reschedule 2022 Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Not the first round of tour dates for 2022 I’ve seen rescheduled, but I’m pretty sure it is the first batch that have been pushed back all the way 2023, which is both a distant dystopian future and somehow less than a year away, though the tour dates will be about a year delayed.

You don’t need me to tell you this, but that sucks. Let’s take a minute now to consider that the very first tours to have been canceled or postponed due to covid-19 were, in fact, announced in late 2019 to take place in Spring 2020. That means that by the time Spidergawd maybe go on this tour supporting their now-new album, VI, it will have been going on three years since the first cancelations/postponements of gigs and approaching four since the first ones to be called off were announced.

That is fucking brutal.

I like this band. They don’t get enough love in the States, in part I think because they’ve never been here, but they’ve got six records to their name now and a few other odds and ends — no live album, which is kind of surprising — and they consistently deliver. I’ll review that new album one of these days, but the gist of it is this is a better band than most people know.

Here are the new dates:

Spidergawd dates rescheduled

This is announced with a very heavy heart, but we are forced to postpone the european tour yet again to 2023.

Tickets are still valid.
Here the new updated show dates:

28.02.2023 DE Hamburg Knust
01.03.2023 DE Rostock Mau Club
02.03.2023 NL Groningen Vera
03.03.2023 NL Utrecht De Helling (>new venue)
04.03.2023 DE Essen Turock
05.03.2023 DE Köln Gebäude 9
06.03.2023 DE Wiesbaden Schlachthof
08.03.2023 FR Paris Backstage
10.03.2023 ES Bilbao Stage Live
11.03.2023 ES Madrid Sala Caracol
12.03.2023 ES Barcelona Sala Bóveda
14.03.2023 FR Lyon Rock’n Eat
15.03.2023 CH Winterthur Gaswerk
16.03.2023 DE Stuttgart Im Wizemann (>new venue)
17.03.2023 DE Nürnberg Hirsch
18.03.2023 DE München Backstage
19.03.2023 AT Vienna Szene
21.03.2023 DE Leipzig Naumanns
22.03.2023 DE Berlin Frannz Club
23.03.2023 DE Kiel Pumpe
24.03.2023 DK Kolding Godset
25.03.2023 DK Copenhagen Stengade

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http://www.crispingloverrecords.com/

Spidergawd, “Prototype Design” official video

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White Tundra Premiere “Honningfella” From New 7″

Posted in audiObelisk on June 3rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan

white tundra

Norwegian heavy rockers White Tundra release their new seven-inch single Honningfella on June 11 through All Good Clean Records. The Trondheim-based four-piece released their Graveyard Blues EP last March — the same week the world ended, more or less — and seem well within their rights to follow it up with a two-songer that stretches the limits of the 7″ format at a meaty 11 minutes in length. It’s an affair defined in no small part by its brashness, and as the title-track remains wildly catchy, propelled into imaginary entire-drunken-venue singalongs, fists in the air and the like by its non-lyric “whoa-whoa-whoooa” chorus following the plundering path of the coinciding riff, it’s still a bruiser, make no mistake. Some of those fists in the air are landing punches.

So it was on the EP as well, that four-song offering digging into vibes like earlier Clutch or Orange Goblin circa 2005. Heavy. Beery. Swaggering. White Tundra‘s rawness is accented by the vocals, but by no means limited to them. The guitar fuzz pushes out of both channels, and the cymbal crash behind cuts through with a punkish sense of straightforwardness. white tundra honningfellaThey’re a heavy rock band, but “Honningfella” delights in its rougher edge, and is all the more exciting for that, breaking in its midsection only to resume the circle-pit-but-nobody’s-a-dick-about-it shove to close out.

Thus ensues the more fuzz-forward “One More Place,” which tips over the six-minute line and makes a fitting B-side, following the immediacy of the prior cut with a groove that’s distinct but complementary. Stops in the verse let the lyrics pop out but they’re still willfully mumbled en route to the shoutier chorus and that’s just fine. The sort of inebriated primitivism on display remains good fun throughout, and they give it a little extra oomph at the end that feels bolstered by the mix and master from Truckfighters‘ own Niklas Källgren at the famed Studio Bombshelter, finishing with a solo on top of another duly electrified progression.

Thinking album? Yeah, they might be. And between what they show on Honningfella and Graveyard Blues they might have enough different looks to get there, but at this point, one of their assets is that they sound like a new band feeling out the stylistic ground they want to cover. White Tundra know their influences, sure enough, and they know what they’re going for, but the process of discovering how to manifest that is something precious, and it’s more important that they keep writing songs at this point than that they set themselves to some grander task. If a record happens or there’s some longer-form story they want to tell, bonus. But for a group so very clearly reveling in the pummel of these tracks, their best course would seem to be to keep going with what they’re doing and let the rest sort itself out naturally.

In any case, the single’s a blast. You’ll find it streaming on the player below, followed by a few words from the band.

Enjoy:

White Tundra on “Honingfella”:

‘Honningfella’ means ‘honey trap’ in Norwegian. The lyrics spins around the occult and undefined fear of the darkness and unseen but also obvious traps hidden behind beauty or gullibility. The theme in Honningfella is symbolised in the artwork of the single.

Active for the last four years, White Tundra have released one EP titled “Graveyard Blues” on All Good Clean Records last year and now are back with a new 7inch “Honningfella” to be released once again on All Good Clean Records.

Recorded in Trondheim, mixed and mastered by Niklas Källgren of Truckfighters and Enigma Experience at his studio Bombshelter, “Honningfella” is deeply rooted in the dirtier side of stoner rock, displaying a heavy riffage and uncompromising rhythms inspired by the likes of Monster Magnet, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats and Skraeckoedlan.

White Tundra on Facebook

White Tundra on Instagram

White Tundra on Bandcamp

All Good Clean Records on Facebook

All Good Clean Records website

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