As to why only 42 tapes? Well aside from the fact that it’s the answer to life, the universe, and everything, I don’t really know. But at least it’s that.

Today, Ukrainian sludgethrowers The Device release their new three-songer, titled EAST in all-caps as though to emphasize the other-ness of Eastern Europe from the perspective of the western portion of the continent, on limited cassette through Galactic SmokeHouse, which honors the outing’s live recorded, harsh, dense-toned chaos with handmade art, poems, and exclusive tracks on the B-side that aren’t available in the DL version.

Proceedings from the release — also streaming in full as of today — go to benefit the war effort in Ukraine, which now has the rest of Europe and beyond fortifying itself for who the hell knows what will happen in the next couple years as it drags on, the Ukrainian people running point in a proxy war between my home country of the US and Russia which reaffirms that America learned nothing from wasting 20 years and I don’t even know how many lives in Afghanistan and Iraq — that’s before you get to the money — and reminds once again that humans, primarily, don’t deserve a planet this beautiful. Nonetheless, we’re here and we’re wrecking up the place.

How does this war end? And when? I don’t know. Think Russia won’t just throw hundreds of thousands of its ‘soldiers’ under the treads of US and European tanks? Think America is going to bankrupt itself again without sending ground troops in? And when NATO goes to war with Russia, and that’s basically WWIII, what does China have to say about it? I think about these things, and then my head starts to hurt when I think it could be my kid’s generation fighting this war in another 10-plus years, and having seen my own generation pulled apart by needless conflict in a war of aggression — that the US started, I’ll note — to watch the cycle start up all over, with nuclear threat looming, is all the more disheartening. So yeah.

I’m not saying it’s not worth supporting Ukraine. I’m saying it’s not worth betting on humanity.

And on that happy note, I’ll turn you over to the PR wire info for The Device‘s EAST — which was recorded in 2021 when all Eastern Europe had to worry about was a fucking plague like everyone else at the time — and the war-themed video that accompanies the 13-minute “Front” from it. Alongside “Work” (10:24) and the interlude “Crawl” (2:44), “Front” is duly raw and biting, and if you actually make it through watching the clip and feel nothing, just a heads up, you might be a sociopath.

Here you go:

The Device – EAST

Available to buy here: https://thedevice.bandcamp.com/album/east

The Device rises again. From the ashes of the ruined buildings. From the tears of the forsaken ones. From the blood of the dead.

‘Front’ is a single promoting the new album of the ancient brotherhood. ‘EAST’ is to be released on a DIY TAPE the 31st of March, 2023. By buying this album, you are helping in the fight for freedom of Ukraine and its people. Money from this tape is being sent to those who need it in the UA. Right now we are raising money for a thermal viewfinder for our friend Ivan, fighting in Donbas.

Fundraiser:
https://send.monobank.ua/jar/P4iKAquJg

This album is dedicated to all Easterners in Europe.

Stay strong, brothers and sister. We will see better times. The power of change is within us.

Eastern Europe. War. Regime. Propaganda. Gov-Party police. Inhumane working conditions in modern day slavery – minimum wage jobs. This is an album touching on all of those topics so vivid in everyday life of the Easterners today. With this music, we are fighting against all of those as much as we can. To help our Ukrainian brothers and sisters win the most important of all fights, the fight for freedom of the whole East against the muscovite invasion, we are sending all the profits from this record to the Ukrainian army.

East is an album that is a pure expression of anger, anguish and grief of living in Eastern Europe. Raw, disgusting sounds full of saturation and distortion. Sludge in the most real form. DIY live recorded on one day in a basement in Poland during summer 2021.

Credits:
Recording / Mix / Master – Cebula
Video: Maciej Niemczyk

Tracklisting:
1. Work
2. Crawl
3. Front

Side A recorded live in one day, in a basement somewhere in the heart of Poland, in much calmer and safer times, during the summer 2021.

Recording Side A – Cebula
Mix – Cebula (except B1,3)
Cover art and B1 mix – Wiktor Kozak
Video: Maciej Niemczyk

Contains TAPE ONLY B SIDES:

1. Unsleeping – Unsleeping
2. Aргос – BCD
3. RAQAL – the beauty of the bad trip

Tape mastered, hand numbered, hand copied and crafted by Cebula. MC tape in a handmade cardboard box. Hand numbered, limited to 42 copies. Made from 100% recycled materials. Additionally, there is an insert with tracklist and two poems. One in Ukrainian, one in Polish. Both full of darkness and sorrow. Just like the music.

https://thedevice.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/GalacticSmokeHouse
https://www.instagram.com/galacticsmokehouse/
https://linktr.ee/GalacticSmokeHouse

The Device, EAST (2023)

The Device, “Front” official video

Stoned Jesus, Father Light album premiere

[Click play above to stream Father Light by Stoned Jesus in its entirety. Album is out tomorrow, March 3, through Season of Mist.]

Igor Sydorenko on Father Light:

“Written in 2019, recorded in 2021, released in 2023 — behold Father Light! Serving as the first half of our ambitious five-years-in-the-making song cycle project, Father Light is heavy, intense and progressive — while its sister album, Mother Dark, is expected to be more laid-back, hypnotic and introverted. You know how every artist ever says their new work is their best? Well, we actually believe this to be true with this one!”

In March 2020, Ukrainian heavy rock forerunners Stoned Jesus were forced to call off what would’ve been the tour to mark their first decade as a band owing to the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. Then signed to Napalm, they had released Pilgrims (review here) in 2018 as their fourth full-length and most progressive statement up to that point. In April 2022, they were slated for a long European run celebrating the 10th anniversary of 2012’s Seven Thunders Roar (review here), which has in the years since its release become a genuine landmark for Ukrainian and greater Euro heavy rock thanks in no small part to the continued viral success of its epic track “I’m the Mountain” on streaming services — slow burner, but a burner — but Russia’s invasion of their home country caused that to be canceled as well.

The Kyiv trio’s fifth full-length, Father Light, arrives as their first outing through Season of Mist, and though as guitarist/vocalist Igor Sydorenko says above it was written before the pandemic and recorded before the invasion — a topic about which Sydorenko has been vocal in a series of social media videos he calls ‘#ukrsplaining’ — both are bound have an effect on how the songs are going to be interpreted, whether that’s the added context to “Thoughts and Prayers” describing the desensitized responses to violence and tragedy around the world, or the way one might read lyrics in 11-minute second cut “Season of the Witch” like, “The stakes are high so light the torch/And throw it at your neighbor’s porch,” and “Nobody cares who’s right who’s wrong/The hunting season’s always on.”

And even the climate change thematic of nine-minute closer “Get What You Deserve” feels perhaps more relevant as we see the breaking apart of the Thwaites ice shelf in Antarctica happening in real-time. From any angle of approach, be it the skepticism in the point of view of “CON,” or the commentary on fame amid the lumber of  side B leadoff “Porcelain,” or even the feeling of pleading in the acoustic album-opening title-track “Father Light” — the three minutes of which seem to set up the larger procession between this album and a forthcoming companion-piece, Mother Dark — the 43 minutes of Father Light are prone as much to emotional weight as they are to aural heft the tones of Sydorenko and bassist/backing vocalist Sergii Sliusar or the crash and plod in Dmytro Zinchenko‘s drums where applicable.

But heavy in theme though it is, Father Light is on solid footing structurally, its six tracks alternating between shorter cuts like “Father Light,” the willfully Graveyardian boogie of “Thoughts and Prayers” and the progressive garage punk (yup) of “CON,” the all-words-that-start-with-“con” phrasing in the verses of which also offers some intangible reminder of Rubber Soul, or the purposeful riffy contrast in the largesse of the rolling “Season of the Witch,” the creeper builds and crescendos of “Porcelain” — the subtle vocal layering in the chorus a highlight — amid a lurch that recalls early Tool, or the way in which the open-feeling tonality of “Get What You Deserve” closes in like rising ocean levels as the post-midsection march becomes a noisy solo-topped plod worthy of Electric Wizard while managing to not actually sound like them. Yet, in the totality of scope and even in the admirably stubborn refusal to capitulate to being just one thing sonically, Stoned Jesus are as much in conversation with themselves as with anyone else, and maybe more so as one considers the sustained roar of the words “down below” near the finish of “Porcelain,” reminiscent of landmark declarations past.

Their ability to pivot from one style to the next and to tie their songs together through performance, be it the angular jangle and bursts of “CON” in its verses or the brooding pre-crash blues guitar solo that ends the first half of “Get What You Deserve,” is a defining feature of both this record and their work more generally across all (now) five of their albums. But there’s no question they’re speaking to their own oeuvre on “Season of the Witch,” which bookends with an intentionally slogging nod, the most outright heavy of the record’s heaviest movements, while turning suddenly at 4:23 to a proggy chase that’s an energized departure from the encircling density, some deceptively-free-flowing strumming and vocals over the build of bass and drums leading the way back, layer by layer, to the return of the verse at nine minutes in, Sydorenko almost audibly winking at the audience as he intones, “So here we are once again.”

And he’s right, they’ve been there before, whether it was earlier in the song, in the righteous grandiosity of “I’m the Mountain” or the oh-fine-here’s-your-heavy-riff of “Rituals of the Sun” from 2015’s creative breakout The Harvest (review here), but the difference between “Season of the Witch” or “Get What You Deserve” and prior Stoned Jesus heavy deep-dives is that as a band, they feel reconciled to this part of their persona. In true veteran fashion, they know what they’re doing every step of the way. And as much as they might range outward from it, in the shuffling catchiness of “Thoughts and Prayers” — no less a defining moment for Father Light than anything on either side of it — or the quirky bounce that straightens into a forward run in the peak of “CON,” or even in the patience of the tempo in the perpetually-ab0ut-to-burst “Porcelain,” an unabashed heaviness continues to suit Stoned Jesus and is a crucial facet of their work. Across this album more than anything they’ve put out in the last decade — and Pilgrims had some basher stretches as well — Stoned Jesus openly embrace that part of who they are.

Given the surrounding context, and the fact that the story being told isn’t finished with the complementary Mother Dark still to follow, it isn’t proper to think of Father Light just a celebration of that heaviness. On the most basic level, there’s more going on than just that. However, the key shift in perspective within these tracks seems to be in not fighting against those big riffs when they’re called for, but acknowledging them as a foundation, bringing them into the broader sphere of expression throughout, and creating a new stylistic totality for what Stoned Jesus do. They are ambassadors of heavy rock — a band who bring new listeners into the genre — and they know it and are aware of the responsibility inherent in that. Father Light is a mature, crafted and thoughtful collection that, as it remains organic in production value, welcomes heads new and old and offers immersion while asking little in return. It accounts for the narrative of how Stoned Jesus became the band they are, and in that retelling, inevtiably changes and evolves that same definition.

Stoned Jesus, “Get What You Deserve” lyric video

Stoned Jesus, “Thoughts and Prayers” official video

Stoned Jesus, “CON” official video

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain” official video

Stoned Jesus on Facebook

Stoned Jesus on Instagram

Stoned Jesus on Bandcamp

Stoned Jesus store

Season of Mist website

Season of Mist on Facebook

Season of Mist on Instagram

Veterans of Nasoni Records and Robustfellow Productions and now signed to Interstellar Smoke Records, the Kyiv-based heavy rock/psych trio Risin Sabotage announce the release of their new album, Macabre. Set to arrive on June 2, the album emerges as the band’s first following 2017’s prescient Planet Dies (discussed here) and features material dating back at least to 2018, when the included-on-the-record “Serpent” was issued as a standalone single. Fair enough.

Macabre, as a title, is a decent way to describe how it’s felt to — while at a far off geographic remove — watch for the last year as Russia has scaled up its invasion of Ukraine into an actual war rather than the casually cruel annexation of territory it had been since circa 2014. The album remains colorful in its psychedelic purpose, and fascinates with a blend of garage rock, shimmering, floating leads over solidified grooves, and a density of tone that underpins a song like “Mentor” or the payoff of the spacious “Hum” with resonance that adds depth to the mix and results in a fascinating, engrossing blend across the 40 minutes of the album as a whole.

In addition to war returning to Europe and the global pandemic that I’ll go out on a limb and assume you heard something about, the years since their last offering have seen Risin Sabotage part ways with singer Kirill Chepilko, with guitarist Vitya Panchishko and drummer Igor Nedyuzhiy taking over vocal duties and the band pressing on as a trio. Doesn’t seem to have slowed them down any, if the single “Silence Queen” — premiering at the bottom of this post — is anything to go by. The meld of lysergic breadth and rhythmic force is deceptively immersive, and though none of the tracks are especially lengthy, there’s still a sense of world-creation to coincide with the raw push of their more intense moments.

They talk about it as nine songs below and the version I got has 10, but there’s plenty of time between now and June to sort these things out. Initial info follows, from the PR wire:

RISIN SABOTAGE – Macabre – Interstellar Smoke Records

Says the band: “The album was written during the time of the global pandemic and mastered during the currently ongoing war in our country, Ukraine. These events have definitely affected the sound and, as a result, the title of this album. The release features nine songs that tell nine stories. Some of them put you in the atmosphere of today’s horrors, and others help you escape them.”

About “Silence Queen”: “It’s broken, it’s not alive, it fades away, but it’s beautiful, unique, and it drags you in.”

Kyiv based Risin Sabotage slams with heavy psych and desert rock since 2015. In the quest for a new sound the music is giving the best of desert rock, heavy psych, stoner and doom. Risin Sabotage’s fuzzy riffs and grooves inspired by the sounds of 70’s astound with the incredible energetic performance.

Tracklisting:
01. Abundance
02. Serpent
03. Silence Queen
04. Circus
05. Mentor
06. Loom (Forswear Intro)
07. Forswear
08. Hum
09. Macabre
10. Thawing

Risin Sabotage:
Igor Nedyuzhiy – drums/vocals
Vitya Panchishko – guitar/vocals
Valerii Skorzhenko – bass

https://www.facebook.com/risin.sabotage/
https://www.instagram.com/risin_sabotage/
https://risinsabotage.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Interstellar-Smoke-Records-101687381255396/
https://www.instagram.com/interstellar.smoke.label/
https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/

Risin Sabotage, “Silence Queen” track premiere

To be sure, this is information that would’ve been handy to have yesterday, when I posted Stoned Jesus‘ new single “Thoughts and Prayers”, but, well, I was already days late on that news and so this coming in on what seems like such a quick turnaround isn’t actually that quick a turnaround at all. I’m just trying not to be behind, which I’ve been already since last week (or like four years ago?) and so posting this now rather than letting it sit. If you could see the Google Doc that I use to keep my notes in where I organize my days, weeks, months, it would make probably only a little more sense, but still a little more.

Check out Stoned Jesus though, keeping good company with Elephant Tree, Psychlona, Samavayo, and fellow Ukrainians and Season of Mist labelmates Somali Yacht Club, as they head out on the beginning of their tour cycle supporting the upcoming album, Father Light, which, as noted yesterday, is out March 3. They’ll do Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Italy — Torino and Bologna — and hit Sonic Whip in the Netherlands, which I hope is recorded this year as well as it was last year, resulting in live releases from Elephant Tree, among others.

These won’t be the last shows Stoned Jesus announce supporting Father Light, but this’ll be their first tour following the album’s arrival, so here are the dates as seen on the social medias. You’ll find the three album singles streaming at the bottom of this post:

Behold the first cities of #FatherLightTour – with more dates and territories to be added along the way! Looking forward to share the stage with Somali Yacht Club, Elephant Tree and Samavayo and to play the new and the old songs for y’all :)

28.04.23 (AT) Innsbruck, pmk (w/Elephant Tree)
29.04.23 (IT) Bologne, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023
30.04.23 (IT) Turin, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023
01.05.23 (CH) Aarau, KIFF (w/Elephant Tree)
02.05.23 -TBA-
03.05.23 (DE) Stuttgart, Goldmark’s
04.05.23 (DE) Fulda, Kulturkeller (w/Samavayo)
05.05.23 (DE) Cologne, Club Volta (w/Somali Yacht Club & Psychlona)
06.05.23 (NL) Nijmegen, Sonic Whip
07.05.23 (DE) Hannover, Faust (w/Samavayo)
08.05.23 (DE) Dresden, Beatpol (w/Samavayo)
09.05.23 (CZ) Brno, Kabinet MUZ

Recording line-up
Igor Sydorenko (Arlekin, Voida, Krobak, Snakerider) – lead and backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, organ on track 3
Dmytro Zinchenko (Doomed City, Orkectr Che, Sekunda Kota, Smeyushiysa Tigr, Small Depo) – drums and percussion, backing vocals
Sergii Sliusar – bass, backing vocals

https://www.facebook.com/stonedjesusband
https://www.instagram.com/stonedjesusband/
http://stonedjesus.bandcamp.com/
https://stonedjesus.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial
http://www.season-of-mist.com/

Stoned Jesus, “Thoughts and Prayers” official video

Stoned Jesus, “CON” official video

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain” official video

There’s a fair amount of important info included in the blue PR wire text below. I mean, important if you’re looking forward to the new Stoned Jesus album, Father Light, anyhow. If not, I might ask why you’re reading this, or maybe you just kind of stumbled on this site out of the blue researching ancient phallic monuments? If so, hi. This site isn’t so much about monuments as heavy rock and roll, and Stoned Jesus are a band from Kyiv, Ukraine, about to put out their fifth album, called Father Light, through Season of Mist, which is a long-running and well-respected underground record label specializing mostly but not exclusively in metal, on March 3. I think you’re pretty much caught up.

Anyway, among the prudent details — that release date, the preorder links, recording info and so on, is the fact that the new single “Thoughts and Prayers” was written in 2019. That means before the plague, and more specifically to Stoned Jesus‘ situation, before Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 2022 invasion of Ukraine. With a pointedly Graveyardian sway — Graveyard are a band from Sweden who play a very blues-informed kind of heavy rock specifically derived from bands of the early ’70s — “Thoughts and Prayers” examines our experience of the tragedies of others, the numbing effect of social media and life behind a screen. The lyrics of the chorus, “In gardens of stone/We die alone/Waiting for someone to guide us back home/But nobody’s there/And nobody cares/Our only answer is still thoughts and prayers,” should tell you a lot about where they’re coming from.

That the song has become more relevant since the time it was written is testament to its relevance in the first place. It is one of six tracks on Father Light and the third single to be released ahead of the album’s arrival behind “CON” and “Porcelain,” both of the videos for which are also streaming below. If you listen through those and think to yourself, “Hey, each of these songs sounds kind of like it’s doing something different,” that’s on purpose and the disparity is no less a running theme throughout Father Light than the band’s engagement with their proggier tendencies and the straight-up heavy riffing on which they made their rather weighty name. Wait until you spend 11 minutes with “Season of the Witch.”

From the PR wire:

STONED JESUS Premieres Music Video for New Song, Reveals New Album Details

Pre-save: https://orcd.co/stoned-light
Pre-order: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/STJ-FL

Ukrainian psychedelic rock trio STONED JESUS will release its new album, ‘Father Light,’ on March 3, 2023 via Season of Mist, making it the band’s debut to the label! The band is now sharing a music video for its brand new song, “Thoughts and Prayers.” The song and video can be found at THIS LOCATION while album art and other details can be found below!

Lead vocalist and guitarist Igor Sydorenko comments: “I wrote these songs mostly in 2019, we worked on them through 2020, recorded them in 2021 and were ready to release them in 2022…and finally the first batch of them is coming out as ‘Father Light’ in 2023! So this is neither our ‘pandemic’ nor our ‘war’ record, this is something I was really obsessed about many months ago – climate change, media numbness, corporations’ impact, social divisions…

“But revisiting these issues years later shows that they’re still important and this is still something that resonates with us – and hopefully will resonate with many other people, too. Musically, I think this is our most diverse and mature record to date, but there’s a good dose of old school Stoned Jesus there too!

“Anyway, enjoy this one and fingers crossed for 2024’s release of ‘Mother Dark’ – the moodier, more personal, more experimental sister album to ‘Father Light.'”

Recording studio – Spivaki Records, Ukraine
Producer / sound engineer – Artem Altunin and Dmytro Zinchenko
Mastering: Metropolis Studio, London, UK – Andy “Hippy” Baldwin

Shot at the club Hydrozagadka (Warsaw, PL) hours before actual Stoned Jesus concert there.
Camera work by true fans and filmmakers from Poland Aleksander Kwapień and Stasiek Nietrzebka.
“Thoughts and Prayers” video edited by Sergii Sliusar (who also happens to play bass for Stoned Jesus since late 2010).
“Thoughts and Prayers” track recorded and mixed in 2021 by Dmytro Zinchenko (who actually plays drums in Stoned Jesus since mid-2017).
“Thoughts and Prayers” song written in 2019 by Igor Sydorenko (who sings and plays guitar for Stoned Jesus, which he started back in 2009 as a solo bedroom project).

Tracklist “Father Light”
1. Father Light 03:35
2. Season of the Witch 11:34
3. Thought and Prayers 06:22
4. Porcelain 08:09
5. CON 04:10
6. Get What You Deserve 09:08

Total: 43:00

STONED JESUS recently announced their appearance on the mighty Hellfest of 2023! More information on tours/festival for 2023 will be announced on a later stage.

Recording line-up
Igor Sydorenko (Arlekin, Voida, Krobak, Snakerider) – lead and backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, organ on track 3
Dmytro Zinchenko (Doomed City, Orkectr Che, Sekunda Kota, Smeyushiysa Tigr, Small Depo) – drums and percussion, backing vocals
Sergii Sliusar – bass, backing vocals

https://www.facebook.com/stonedjesusband
https://www.instagram.com/stonedjesusband/
http://stonedjesus.bandcamp.com/
https://stonedjesus.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial
http://www.season-of-mist.com/

Stoned Jesus, “Thoughts and Prayers” official video

Stoned Jesus, “CON” official video

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain” official video

The other day, Ukraine’s Somali Yacht Club posted the kind of year-end summary on social media that’s become more or less standard practice for bands who, say, give a crap about engaging their fanbase. Earlier in 2022, the Lviv trio released The Space (review here) on Season of Mist, and toured alongside Greenleaf and countrymen labelmates Stoned Jesus, and for sure those came up, as well as hints of this tour that was then TBA.

Obviously they also talked about the war that’s ravaged their home country for most of the year. This week, Ukraine’s president traveled to the US and spoke to congress, etc., shoring up commitment to the aide and weaponry the US has provided thus far. To say it’s a shitty situation generally, but gosh my home nation lives a proxy war with Russia, and if Ukrainian citizens and infrastructure are slaughtered and destroyed in the interim, well, that’s eggs and omelets, innit? I honestly don’t know what the answer is there, between ‘how can you not help when your military budget is by far the highest in the world and you’ve held yourself up — wrongly, but still — as a global moral authority since the end of the Second World War’ and ‘what the fuck business is it of ours if they’re not in NATO.’ Consider it’s probably where the trillions of dollars that went to Afghanistan so girls wouldn’t be allowed in libraries now should’ve gone, but no question it’s a diplomatic conundrum well beyond my paygrade to solve, and I’m not making light of it. Unfortunately the loss of life is real, whether the American people are the ones experiencing it or not. But America has never really given a shit about that either.

I don’t see that war ending anytime soon. If the US pulls the rug out, Ukraine is likely sunk, and that’s basically a setup for genocide. If we send more missiles, what, Kyiv takes Moscow? Or Putin kicks off and all is forgiven? That doesn’t seem likely either. It’s a mess, ugly, and there’s no good answer. Hey, anyone see that trailer for Oppenheimer? Let’s not forget the latent threat of nuclear war hanging over our heads, as if to prove once and for all that humanity has learned jack squat in the last seventy years.

So anyway, happy holidays.

I guess what I’m trying to say is if Somali Yacht Club are somewhat disheartened despite the successes of the band in 2022, well, they’re human beings in a roiling shitshow of a situation, so that seems well justified. What can you do to help? Buy a record? Buy a shirt? I don’t know. That won’t end a war, but it might at least let them know someone gives a shit about what they’re doing.

Okay, that’s my piece. Here’s tour dates. They’ll be out with Psychlona. Sláva Ukrayíni:

Tour. May. 2023. Special guest Psychlona!

First time in Netherlands, UK, Croatia, Sweden, and Denmark! Don’t miss it.

02.05.2023 (PL) Warszawa, Hydrozagadka
03.05.2023 (DE) Dresden, Chemiefabrik
04.05.2023 (DE) Jena, KuBa
06.05.2023 (NL) Nijmegen, Sonic Whip*
10.05.2023 (DE) München, Feierwerk*
11.05.2023 (HR) Zagreb, Mochvara*
13.05.2023 (DE) Ludwigsburg, Scala*
14.05.2023 (DE) Hannover, Faust*
15.05.2023 (DE) Hamburg, Knust*
17.05.2023 (DK) Copenhagen, Stengade* (w/ Kanaan)
18.05.2023 (DE) Kiel, Schaubude* (w/ Daily Thompson & Kanaan)
19.05.2023 (DE) Berlin, Desertfest*
20.05.2023 (PL) Kraków Alchemia

Kudos Sound of Liberation!

Line-up:
Ihor – guitar, vocals, keys
Artur – bass
Oleksa – drums

http://facebook.com/Somaliyachtclub
http://somaliyachtclub.bandcamp.com
http://instagram.com/somaliyachtclub

https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial
http://www.season-of-mist.com/

It’s not a long reach to grasp the intended metaphor when it comes to Iron Rain, the impending debut album from Ukrainian heavy post-rock solo-project Super Pink Moon, helmed by Somali Yacht Club guitarist/vocalist Ihor Pryshliak in Lviv. Given the ongoing war between Russia and Pryshliak‘s home country — with my home country, the US, just living its absolute best-life proxy-war thanatos boner dream against an old Cold War foe, complete with all the reactionary propaganda — it seems pretty clear Iron Rain is talking about bombs. If it needs to be said, it is unfortunate that the circumstance exists in which to title an album thusly in the first place. War, like so many other enduring human innovations, is bullshit. If anyone had allowed women to learn to read before, like, 1980, I have no doubt many similar conflicts would have been avoided, but it is what it is. Sad and dragging on.

“Nothing is Real” is the second single to be posted from Iron Rain, which is out in Feb. 2023, and a suitably atmospheric follow-up to the prior-posted “Doomscrolling,” which you can also stream below and which resolves itself in a roller of a heavy riff that offers an alternate definition for the name Pryshliak has given it. Both songs are united in their exploratory feel.

The PR wire has the story to tell:

Somali Yacht Club frontman to release new solo album as SUPER PINK MOON in February 2023; stream dreamy new single “Nothing Is Real” now.

Lviv-based post-rock and shoegaze multi-instrumentalist Ihor Pryshliak aka SUPER PINK MOON announces the release of his new solo full-length “IRON RAIN” in February 2023, and premieres his new single “NOTHING IS REAL”!

Written amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this new offering from Ukrainian multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Ihor Pryshliak as Super Pink Moon is a sonic testimony that depicts the angst and emotional turmoil of making to make it through the day when surrounded by chaos. Gracefully interweaving post-rock, shoegaze and indie rock, “IRON RAIN” washes over the listener with ten dreamy spells filled with shape-shifting dynamics, heady riffs and delicate melancholic vocals from the beloved Somali Yacht Club frontman.

About the new album, Super Pink Moon comments: “Half of the album was recorded before the 24th of February (the day of Russian invasion) and the second half afterward. For Ukrainians, this date has left a deep wound that is still massively bleeding. To escape from reality, I had to switch my focus to something else, otherwise, I’d just go mad. Musically, my idea was to confuse listeners as much as possible. There are many hidden tricks. I tried to craft complex melodies and rhythms with multiple layers while keeping them as ‘listenable’ as possible. The LP is completely recorded at home.”

“All the lyrics are revolving around self-reflection on the war. It’s still hard to describe the weird mix of feelings. Sometimes you’re extremely proud and even happy, but usually, all you feel is sadness, pain, and despair. One might say, ‘dude, you’re living in the western part of Ukraine’, which is relatively a safe place. But the feeling of survival guilt is constantly hunting you and there’s no place to hide. Also, you can’t hide from the missiles, which is disturbing at least. So, I had to evolve. Now I’m feeling much better, and this record is a kind of snapshot of the ‘self-curing’ process. After our victory, I don’t think I’d ever listen to this record again, too many emotions.”

Super Pink Moon – New album “IRON RAIN”
Out on February 16th, 2023 on all streaming platforms

TRACKLIST:
1. NOTHING IS REAL
2. EVERYTHING
3. DOOMSCROLLING
4. COLLISION
5. MIRAGE
6. FORWARDBREAKFORWARD
7. CALMNESS
8. PER ASPERA AD ASTRA
9. HOLLOWNESS
10. ウクライナにславаあれ

Super Pink Moon was created in 2019 as a side project of Somali Yacht Club guitarist and vocalist Ihor in Lviv, Ukraine. After a few months of home experiments, the “Nude” mini album was released in November 2020 under the moniker Slow Noise. Within the next few months, he worked on his debut album “SUPER LP”. All his music is recorded at his home studio, and mixed by Jaro Sound.

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https://superpinkmoon.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0y7uR8sScWoz7t8sYfSuC8

Super Pink Moon, “Nothing is Real”

Super Pink Moon, “Doomscrolling”

Made under wartime conditions with a stated narrative of self-actualization, VOVK‘s new bilingual two-songer Tiger/Tyhr is out today ahead of the trio starting an Eastern European tour alongside Ukrainian countrymen Stoned Jesus. The band’s atmospheric take is wrought through start-stop riffing and a relevant perspective on creativity that of course extends beyond just the idea of someone leaving their comfort zone, though it’s fitting that the music should find the revamped three-piece pushing themselves outside their own as well. Someone smarter than me once said that, whatever else it does, all art tells the story of its own creation. So here we are.

Best wishes to VOVK on the upcoming tour, and as American attentions turn toward domestic unrest rather than, let’s face it, aiding Ukraine in what’s for us a proxy war against Russia — not our first of this still-young-ish century — it’s crucial to remember that this conflict of aggression drags on regardless of what the news cycle here is covering. Hey did anyone hear about some schmuck buying Twitter? Again, so here we are.

Tiger/Tyhr is out today on various digital outlets. Support:

The Ukrainian band VOVK presents double single Tiger | Tyhr

Available here: https://vovk.bandcamp.com/album/tiger-tyhr

On November 8th 2022, Ukrainian prog/post-hardcore band VOVK presents their latest double single Tiger | Tyhr and a lyric video accompanying it. It’s a first for the band that releases in both languages: English and Ukrainian, and will be a part of a future album. The song was written 2 years ago and had only an English version, but after a successful DakhaBrakha cover, the band decided to switch to Ukrainian.

The song is about a person that is too afraid to get out of their comfort zone. They are not committing to important deeds due to a constant fear of failure, which leads to undervaluing their own successes. In times of war, people frequently feel that their help or donations are too little or even meaningless, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Every single bit of help brings us closer to victory.

The song was being worked on by the new VOVK line-up, which consists of Oleksandr Kuts, joined by Yevhenii Khrulov (Pustosh, Ooze), and Yehor Druzenko (Ooze). Due to constant power infrastructure bombings from russia, recording process stalled and the band was forced to push the release over and over again, and frequent power outages prevented smooth mastering of the track.

Recording, mixing and mastering was made at Lizard Audio studio under Roman Bondar’s watchful eye.

Lyric video was shot by Nataliia Ivasiuk, and edited by Dmytro Koshyk.

Right after this release, VOVK is going on tour with Stoned Jesus visiting Eastern Europe and collecting donations for Ukrainian volunteers. First concert is on November 10 followed by 11 concerts in 7 countries of Europe.

VOVK w/ Stoned Jesus:
10.11 Kablys – Vilnius, LT
11.11 Sveta Baar – Tallinn, EE
12.11 Vagonu Haal – Riga, LV
13.11 Lemmy – Kaunas, LT
14.11 Drizzly Grizzly – Gdansk, PL
15.11 Pod Minoga – Poznan, PL
16.11 Hybrydy – Warsaw, PL
17.11 Fuga – Bratislava, SK
18.11 Form Space – Cluj-Napoca, RO
19.11 Mixtape 5 – Sofia, BG
20.11 Expirat – Bucharest, RO

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https://vovk.bandcamp.com/

VOVK, “Tiger” lyric video