Posted in Whathaveyou on December 26th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Okay, so yeah, Esbjerg Fuzztival made its first lineup announcement a couple weeks ago, and I’m behind on posting it. Are they going to make another announcement today like right now this afternoon? I don’t know, probably. I do my best to keep up.
In any case, the lineup is right on for the Danish two-dayer fest set for this coming June. Skyjoggers impressed on their recent split with Sula Bassana, and Karkara and Wyatt E. bring a vibe for sure, Djiin too with that harp — it’s quite a sight to behold — and Green Milk From the Planet Orange will carry their righteous weirdness to Europe for at least a month starting in May, while hometeam players Vestjysk Ørken will once again take the stage to launch the proceedings, as has become an annual tradition.
In addition to this announcement, the fest has announced it’ll be promoting a selection of club nights under the banner of ‘Fuzztival Presents…’ which is a natural extension of what’s been a successful festival buildout over the last however many years. Worth keeping up with announcements if you follow Esbjerg Fuzztival on socials. I bet they pull in some good gigs over the course of the year.
From the internets:
ESBJERG FUZZTIVAL 2025 – First bands announced AND partout tickets now available!!
We are proud to announce the first line of bands for Fuzztival 2025!
Skyjoggers from Finland caught our eyes and ears at a festival in 2024, and we instantly had to have them! Musically representing what it is to travel through time and space as a living being, their brand of krautrock inspired heavy psych is exactly what we need!
KARKARA is one explosive powertrio combining garage and fuzz with middle eastern sounds, in a unique way that found their way to our ears.
Wyatt E. Is a Belgian doom outfit, and that’s pretty much all the info we have, as the band remains cloaked in mystery. They write the soundtrack of a pilgrimage to Neo-Babylonian Empire, which they call music for gods and Antiquity Doom. It’s doom and drone and sounds pretty damn good to us.
Djiin is a psychedelic stoner group from France fronted by the enigmatic Chloe Panhaleux on vocals and electric harp. They had us at electric harp!
Green Milk From The Planet Orange is a Japanese heavy psych, prog-rock and punk outfit. Fully experimental sounding, this is an act you can’t miss!
Vestjysk Ørken is THE best house band this side of 1973! Heavy Psych blended with cosmic doom and a total disinterest in doing anything like anyone else, they will once again open the festival on Friday!
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In light of our success with recent club shows (and with new possibilities in Esbjerg) we are looking at hosting TEN club shows in 2025 under our “Fuzztival presents…” concept!
If your band is planning a tour in 2025, be sure to hit us up by mail! Or get your booker to do so – that’s what you pay them for! Contact info on our website www.fuzztival.com . Only 3 of these are booked already, so hurry up! Touring bands only.
Lokalt DK band der gerne vil opvarme? I skriver da også bare!
These 10 shows will be hosted at the new “Kulturscenen” in Esbjerg.
Meanwhile we’re waiting anxiously to announce both these shows and the remaining bands for Fuzztival 25! We had planned to announce more bands Friday but have been asked to sit on the news just a little bit longer. Maybe next week? Probably next week.
Partout tickets, 1-day tickets and kiddie-tickets are already available.
—
Our second announcement adds another 4 bands on the poster, with three headliners still TBA!
First new band on the bill is Daily Thompson a German desert grunge trio that are no strangers to the European stoner festival circuits, Influenced by bands like Alice in Chains, Sonic Youth, Kyuss and The Smashing Pumpkins.
DAEVAR @daevargram is another German trio that considers themselves a doom grunge outfit ala Windhand. We can’t wait to finally experience the mysterious hand of DAEVAR reach out to grip the soul of whomever is ripe for the taking.
Dunes is a UK stoner rock outfit out of Newcastle, and they sound just like their name implies. Known for marrying up hard hitting riffs with hook-laden melodies, the three-piece channel a handful of Northern grit through the fuzzed-out, cranked-up, trip-tinged sounds of the infamous generator parties of the 90’s desert rock scene and the beer-soaked, sweat-drenched, feedback engulfed clubs of the grunge era.
Lastly we are presenting Aptera which is a heavy doom/metal 4-piece, that we think you guys are going to dig quite a bit. We know you like it heavy. Hailing from Brazil, Italy, Belgium, and the US, Aptera have risen from the seas to join forces in Berlin. Playing a mix of sludge, doom, blues, and classic metal glued together with some punk grit, Aptera is a guttural cry that will lure you to your destruction.
Don’t forget that both Partout Tickets and Single-Day Tickets are already available! We’ll be revealing our headliners in the new year!
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This is a good way to spend a couple of nights in Denmark. Hot damn. I missed I think, wait, let me check, yes, all of the batch announcements for Esbjerg Fuzztival 2023 due, I assume, to the whims of the algorithm, but when it finally occurred to me to check in on the fest precisely because I hadn’t seen anything about it, well, there was the full damn lineup waiting for me.
And it’s looking sharp, as well. There isn’t one band on this bill I wouldn’t want to see, from Nebula and Greenleaf to Slowjoint and Vestjysk Ørken. Not a clunker in the bunch. And hell, I’ve never seen Clouds Taste Satanic and they’re from New York, so catching them in Denmark would be a hell of a way to see them for a first time. And Ecstatic Vision, High Desert Queen, Edena Gardens, Kryptograf, getting to check Causa Sui off my all-time must-see list? Yeah. Sounds fucking amazing, actually. Throw in Kanaan, Valley of the Sun and oh, say, Deathchant, and you’ve got yourself a deal. I’m not trying to be glib when I say this, but it looks like a lovely time.
I pieced the below together out of the aforementioned posts I missed, so if it reads clunky or they come off as excessively proud, perhaps, that’s why. Here you go:
Complete lineup for Fuzztival ’23!
Who are you most excited to see this year!?
Get your tickets in now!
Fuzztival are PROUD to announce our Friday night headliner NEBULA, bringing the desert to Denmark! ECSTATIC VISION, VALLEY of THE SUN and KRYPTOGRAF will be joining! And as always the Fuzztival house band VESTJYSK ØRKEN will be opening the festival for the 6th consecutive time!
We are PROUD to present another round of bands! Adding KANAAN as well as EDENA GARDENS (feat. members of Causa Sui & Papir) and CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC to Fuzztival 23!
We are proud to be adding the OG desert Rockers FATSO JETSON alongside DEATHCHANT and HIGH DESERT QUEEN! The riffs will be plenty and scorching hot! SLOWJOINT will be returning to Fuzztival with a special surprise set!
The almighty riff machine GREENLEAF will be headlining Saturday at Fuzztival ’23! Closing the fest with a shake and a bang so bring your dancing shoes!
Last but not least we are PROUD to welcome back the KINGS of Heavy Psych CAUSA SUI to Fuzztival ’23!
This wraps up the bands announced for this year! Final call to save some dough for more Fuzz Ales!
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 3rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
As they started hinting toward announcements for 2022, the Danish fest Esbjerg Fuzztival made it known that they were shooting for the biggest edition yet. Bringing Truckfighters down from Sweden to headline the first night of the two-day proceedings does nothing at all to hurt that cause. Pulling bands from Norway, Poland, the UK, the US, Chile, Germany, now Sweden and of course Denmark itself, Esbjerg Fuzztival has made itself a genuinely international concern, and with more acts still to be unveiled — six more, including a Saturday headliner — it seems like anything else they want to bring in at this point is gravy to an already rock solid lineup.
Hard to believe it’s been five years since Truckfighters released 2016’s V (review here), but I guess it’s been a tumultuous few years. They had some controversy around that record, then announced a hiatus in 2018 that lasted just about a year before they started playing festivals and touring again, then 2020 happened. They recently announced a stint alongside fellow Swedes Asteroid and Greenleaf for March into April (holy hell I want to go) and provided any of it can happen at all, it looks like they’ll be getting back to their live-focused ways in 2022.
I don’t know if they have new songs or whatnot, or if they feel like they even need them, but 2021 marks 20 years since their start and they’re exactly the kind of band who can be announced as a fest headliner and make somebody’s night by kicking ass on stage as they so reliably do.
EsbjergFuzztival is a fest of short announcements. Here’s the latest:
We are PROUD to present our Friday night headliner… TRUCKFIGHTERS!
These legends of the desert need no further introduction! Full festival partout tickets are available now!
17 of the finest and fuzziest bands out there. Oh, and Vestjysk Ørken.
Full festival tickets available now. 1-day tickets available at a later time.
Lineup so far: Truckfighters (Friday headliner) Bongzilla Dopelord Weedpecker Papir Purple Hill Witch Kal-El Ritual King Arteaga Bogwife Vestjysk Ørken *Plus Six More TBA!
I did the voice tracks for this episode yesterday sitting on the wood edge of a large sandbox in a closed public park in Morris Plains, NJ, while my son played with the various digger trucks that adorn the place. Fitting that I should be here now too, writing this. He loves it here. Did last summer too, but is now capable of a bunch more imaginative play than he was a few months ago. Pandemic boredom and being stuck at home has expanded his capacity in that regard notably.
That’s life I guess.
While I’m thinking about it, I don’t really explore it in the show, but I’m continually fascinated by the perceived dichotomy between art and “real life,” as though the function of your day should be menial and any creative endeavor hidden away like a secret masturbatory fetish. No. The art is life. They go together. If you need the one, you need to make it part of the other or you’re sunk. Even if you create alone, you don’t do it in a vacuum and to pretend otherwise is just dumb.
Anyway, the show. It’s good and you should check it out. Will you? Probably not, but if you like lists of bands, here’s one. If you do listen, I kind of go on about music as an escapist trance in the second voice break. Again, while my son digs in the sand. That’s life.
Thanks for listening if you do.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmeradio.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 05.15.20
Faith in Jane
The Well
Mother to Earth*
Geezer
Groovy
Groovy*
Red Mesa
Desert Moon
The Path to the Deathless*
Kryptograf
The Veil
Kryptograf*
BREAK
Snail
Nothing Left for You
Nothing Left for You / Fearless*
Frank Sabbath
Les Trois Petits Pochons
Compendium*
Vestjysk Ørken
Forbidden Planet
Full Dark No Stars*
Tia Carrera
Layback
Tried & True*
Daisychain
How Can I Love You?
Daisychain*
Alain Johannes
Hum
Hum*
BREAK
Comacozer
Sun of Hyperion
Here & Beyond Split w/ Vinnum Sabbathi*
The Shell Collector
Raw, Improvised and Live from a Studio in Nalepastrasse
Raw, Improvised and Live from a Studio in Nalepastrasse*
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is May 29 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Features on April 2nd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Bo Sejer of Vestjysk Ørken & Esbjerg Fuzztival (Esbjerg, Denmark)
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How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?
Luckily we only had a few live shows planned in March and April domestically in Denmark. Still, even a few shows cancelled meant a few boxes of freshly made merch we were not able to sell after live shows. Compared to other bands we’re talking to, we got off easy in that regard. We just announced a new album, though, and in that respect it could not come at a worse time: We’ll not be able to ride the new album wave for long and book new gigs as a current band.
This is only made worse since most venues are now busy re-booking bigger bands and acts for the Fall that should’ve played in the spring, meaning less potential dates for smaller bands like ourselves. Even worse though is that we can’t jam or rehearse, as we do not live in the same city. This last part is the most frustrating, I think. There’s little worse than being a band that can’t get together to create.
As a promoter for Fuzztival in Esbjerg, Denmark, we’ve been working overtime for weeks now. It took less than a week before the first band had to cancel after the crisis got really bad in Italy and the restrictions started happening all over Europe. After that we had somewhat of a snowball effect that resulted in some tough decisions. It’s not cheap to relocate a festival you have been working on for the better part of a year, and it’s not easy. But we felt it had to be done, and luckily we have been met with cooperation and understanding from all parts.
I don’t think anyone got much sleep the first two weeks, but once the decision was made to postpone the festival and we made the necessary arrangements to do so, I think we could all take a deep breath and reflect a bit on the situation. We have to make a lot of changes all over in the coming months, but I’m still positive we’ll have one hell of a party come August. People will be starved for fuzzy music, especially after both Desertfests and Roadburn had to cancel. While things can still be affected well into the summer, I think we all feel that something has to happen in August,or we’ll simply loose our minds!
What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?
Right now the borders are completely closed, all airports are closed down, and all travel restricted. All gatherings, inside or outside, of more than 10 people are forbidden (this means parks, beaches, whatever). All restaurants, cafes, bars, venues, theatres, whatever are closed. Everyone working in the public sector have been sent home, except healthcare workers, and everyone else have been asked to work from home, if they are able.
These are so far in effect until after Easter, but I think most people are expecting it to be extended at least two more weeks after that. Most likely we’ll see a gradual return to normalcy, maybe the oldest schoolchildren and students returning for the summer exams, and smaller establishments reopening sometime in April. Unlikely that we’ll be having any live music this side of the summer holidays, though.
How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?
Luckily, I don’t know anyone personally who contracted the virus, and I hope to keep it that way. People are taking this thing seriously, staying home. Sadly we’ve already seen several venues, smaller booking companies, promoters, and more going out of business, and several others struggling. I’m afraid this in turn mean that niche music like stoner/doom/heavy-psych is going to have an even harder time this year.
Already we’re seeing venues being booked solid this Fall with no room for touring bands in this genre, and I’m afraid it’ll continue into 2021 as well. This crisis will probably be the biggest blow a lot of bands will ever get to experience, and I fear for the consequences. Luckily, a lot of artists tend to bloom in their darkest hours, so what we’ll miss out on in live music, we might get to enjoy from upcoming releases. That’s a silver lining if any.
What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?
It’s crucial to stand together right now and support artists struggling to keep head above water. We’re not one of them, at least not financially, but we are represented by a one-man record company, and I know it’s not easy on his part either with the added shipping time all over. I think a great way to support these small businesses is buying records directly, if you can.
Our festival will survive this, as will most, but this is also a time to make sure you support your favourite festivals and venues. Keep your tickets, don’t return them, if you in any way can afford to do so. And make sure you get out, party, and listen to live music, as soon as you can wherever you are. This is a time to take chances on new music, and support artists you don’t necessarily already know. Let’s show the scene all the support we can – make sure even the smallest and most unknown of bands attract full venues later this year. That would really be something.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
In some ways, Vestjysk Ørken are very much a heavy psych jam band, but within that framework, there’s still a lot of refusal to be defined in their sound. In May, they’ll follow-up 2018’s Cosmic Desert Fuzz (review here) with their second long-player for Interstellar Smoke Records, Full Dark No Stars, and is it instrumental? Not entirely. Is it laced with samples? Not entirely. Is it improv jamming? Not entirely. Is it all of these things? Well, sometimes definitely.
It’s spacious and weighted and exploring psychedelic reaches in its own way, and one gets the sense that the three-piece — who are also the crew behind putting together the Esbjerg Fuzztival, which will be their release party this year — are finding their approach out there in the sonic ether even as they’re having a good time gathering up clips from their favorite movies and, in this case, picking out some of Kurt Russel’s many awesome lines from over the years. No, I don’t think any from Captain Ron made it in, but I could be wrong.
Kind of amazed some studio hasn’t rebooted Captain Ron, frankly. Missed opportunity.
In any case, there’s no music out yet from Full Dark No Stars, but it’s coming next month, as the PR wire informs:
’FULL DARK NO STARS’ sophomore album by Vestjysk Ørken out May 8th 2020
Danish cosmic desert fuzzers Vestjysk Ørken once again sign to Interstellar Smoke Records to release their second album ’Full Dark No Stars’ in May of 2020 on name appropriate black vinyl, limited to 250, just in time for the festival ‘Esbjerg Fuzztival’, which the tree-piece space rockers organize themselves.
Vestjysk Ørken once more take your hand through a grand back catalogue of 60’s and 70’s sci-fi films, dusty desert guitar riffs, smoldering fuzz, funky bass, and earth shattering drums, all mixed with samples, synthesizer drones, and a loose and open relationship with vocals. Once more they take their DIY approach to music and recording to present you with a spacey desert rock opera of epic proportions.
The album follow up on the debut from 2018 (released on vinyl via Interstellar Smoke Records in 2019) with 4 new tracks, clocking in at around 45 minutes total runtime.
First single and pre-order of the album on March 13th 2020!
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 26th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I’ve been through Denmark’s airport, so while my passport has the stamp — and the last time I was there, the guy at the customs counter had some very nice things to say about the photo from 2013 as relates to my current look; they almost always comment or at least give me a second look — I can’t really claim to have ever been there. If I was going to go, a smaller-ish festival like Esbjerg Fuzztival 2020 would be the reason why. The event, put together by members of Vestjysk Ørken, will feature not only that band for another go in its third incarnation, but also Vokonis and fellow Swedes Hazemaze as well as Mexico’s Vinnum Sabbathi, who one assumes will be announcing a European tour any minute now or at very least sometime in the next couple months — you know, before they fly over. That’s usually how these things work. But yeah, even from here I can feel this one being all about the vibe, being chill but heavy, and everyone there being laid back and having a good time.
2019 looked like an utter blast. I’d expect no different from 2020 once it’s finished being built up. Hell, this already looks like fun.
To wit:
ESBJERG FESTIVAL 2020 – FIRST BAND ANNOUNCEMENT!
We are very proud to present the first 4 bands on the poster for 2020!
VOKONIS will travel across the shallow waters from Sweden with a style that ranges from the heavy riffage and vocals of heavy bands such as Baroness to utterly clean Pink Floydish soundscapes, they aim to completely immerse you!
All The way from Mexico Vinnum Sabbathi merges heavy walls of sound with samples from science and sci-fi to create a unique sonic experience!
Also from Sweden Hazemaze will give you all the Sabbath riffs you could ever hope for and so much more! Today also marks their second full album release!
As per tradition (3 times IS a tradition!) we welcome back Vestjysk Ørken to open the festival for us on Friday!
Posted in Reviews on December 10th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
We meet again! The second week of this amply-proportioned Quarterly Review begins today as we move ever closer toward the inevitable 100-album finish line on Friday. There is an incredible amount of music to get through this week, so I don’t want to delay for too long, but as we look out across the vast stretch of distortion to come, I need to say thank you for reading, and I hope that you’ve been able to find something that’s kicking your ass a little bit in all the right ways so far. If not, well, there are 50 more records on the way for you to give it another shot.
Here goes.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
Thou, Magus
How can something be so raw and forward thinking at the same time? Baton Rouge’s Thou might be the band of their generation who’ve added the most to sludge in terms of pushing the style in new directions and shaping genre to their purposes. Magus (on Sacred Bones), their fourth or fifth full-length depending on whom you ask, is an overwhelming 75-minute 2LP of inward and outward destructive force, as heavy in its ambience as in its weight and throat-ripping sonic extremity, and yet somehow is restrained. To listen to the march of “Transcending Dualities,” there’s such a sense of seething happening beneath the surface of that chugging, marching riff, and after its creeping introduction, “In the Kingdom of Meaning” seems intent on beating its own rhythm, as in, with fists, and even a stop-by from frequent guest vocalist Emily McWilliams does little to detract from that impression. Along with Magus, which rightly finishes with the lurching threat of “Supremacy,” Thou have released three EPs and a split this year, so their pace runs in something of a contrast to their tempos, but whether you can keep up or not, Thou continue to press forward in crafting pivotal, essential brutalizations.
Sulatron Records‘ pressing of Liquid Visions‘ 2002 debut, Hypnotized, is, of course, a reissue, but also the first time the album has been on vinyl, and it’s not long into opener “State of Mind” or the grunge-gone-classic-psych “Waste” before they earn the platter. Members of the band would go on to participate in acts like Zone Six, Wedge, Electric Moon and Johnson Noise, so it’s easy enough to understand how the band ties into the family tree of underground heavy psych in Berlin, but listening to the glorious mellow-unfolding-into-noise-wash-freakout of 15-minute closer “Paralyzed,” the appeal is less about academics than what the five-piece of vocalists/guitarists H.P. Ringholz (also e-sitar) and Kiryk Drewinski (also organ), bassist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (also Fender Rhodes and Mellotron), drummer Chris Schwartzkinsky and thereminist Katja Wolff were able to conjure in terms of being both ahead of their time and behind it. As the album moves from its opening shorter tracks to the longer and more expansive later material, it shows its original CD-era linearity, but if an LP reissue is what it takes to get Hypnotized out there again, so be it. I doubt many who hear it will complain.
The second short release from Benthic Realm behind a 2017 self-titled EP (review here) finds the Massachusetts-based trio of guitarist/vocalist Krista van Guilder (ex-Second Grave, ex-Warhorse), bassist Maureen Murphy (ex-Second Grave) and drummer Dan Blomquist (also Conclave) working toward a refined approach bridging the divide between doom and darker, harder hitting metal. They do this with marked fluidity, van Guilder shifting smoothly between melodic clean singing and harsher screams as Murphy and Blomquist demonstrate like-minded ease in turns of pace and aggression. The penultimate semi-title-track “I Will Not Bow” is an instrumental, but “Save us All,” “Thousand Day Rain” and closer “Untethered” — the latter with some Slayer ping ride and ensuing double-kick gallop — demonstrate the riff-based songwriting that carries Benthic Realm through their stylistic swath and ultimately ties their ideas together. If they think they might be ready for a debut full-length, they certainly sound that way.
Maybe Ape Machine need to make a video with cats playing their instruments or something, but five albums deep, the Portland outfit seem to be viciously underrated. Releasing Darker Seas on Ripple, they take on a more progressive approach with songs like “Piper’s Rats” donning harmonized vocals and more complex interplay with guitar. It’s a more atmospheric take overall — consider the acoustic/electric beginning of “Watch What You Say” and it’s semi-nod to seafaring Mastodon, the likewise-unplugged and self-awarely medieval “Nocturne in D Flat (The Jester)” and the rocking presentation of what’s otherwise fist-pumping NWOBHM on “Bend Your Knee” — but Ape Machine have always been a band with songwriting at their center, and even as they move into the best performances of their career, hitting a point of quality that even producer Steve Hanford (Poison Idea) decided to join them after the recording as their new drummer, there’s no dip in the quality of their work. I don’t know what it might take to get them the attention they deserve — though a cat video would no doubt help — but if Darker Seas underscores anything, it’s that they deserve it.
Stockport, UK, three-piece Under bring a progressive edge to their pummel with their second album, Stop Being Naive (on APF), beginning with the deceptively thoughtful arrangement of crushing opener and longest track (immediate points) “Malcontent,” which unfurls a barrage of riffs and varied vocals contributed by guitarist Simon Mayo, bassist Matt Franklin and drummer/keyboardist Andy Preece. Later cuts like “Soup” and “Grave Diggers” tap into amorphous layers of extremity, and “Happy” punks out with such tones as to remind of the filth that became grindcore in the UK nearly 40 years ago, but while “Big Joke” rolls out with a sneer and closer “Circadian Driftwood” has a more angular foundation, there’s an overarching personality that comes through Under‘s material that feels misanthropic and critical in a way perhaps best summarized by the record’s title. Stop Being Naive is sound enough advice, and it comes presented with a fervent argument in its own favor.
Trimming the runtime of their 2017 debut, Otherworld (review here) nearly in half, Austin weirdo rockers Evil Triplet present the six-song/38-minute single LP Have a Nice Trip on Super Secret with classic garage buzz tone on “A Day Like Any Other,” a cosmic impulse meeting indie sneer on opener “Space Kitten” and a suitably righteous stretch-out on “Aren’t You Experienced?” — which is just side A of the thing. The pulsating “Open Heart” might be the highlight for its Hawkwindian drive and momentary drift, but “Pyramid Eye”‘s blown-out freakery isn’t to be devalued, and the eight-minute capper “Apparition” is dead on from the start of its slower march through the end of its hook-topped jam, reminding of the purpose behind all the sprawl and on-their-own-wavelength vibes. A tighter presentation suits Evil Triplet and lets their songs shine through while still highlighting the breadth of their style and its unabashed adventurousness. May they continue to grow strange and terrify any and all squares they might encounter.
To a certain extent, what you see is what you get on Vestjysk Ørken‘s debut EP, Cosmic Desert Fuzz. At very least, the Danish trio’s three-tracker first outing is aptly-named, and guitarist/vocalist Bo Sejer, bassist Søren Middelkoop Nielsen and drummer Thomas Bonde Sørensen indeed tap into space, sand and tone on the release, but each song also has a definite theme derived from cinema. To wit, “Dune” (11:41) samples Dune, “…Of the Dead” (9:13) taps into the landmark George Romero horror franchise, and “Solaris” (14:15) draws from the 1972 film of the same name. The spaciousness and hypnotic reach of the latter has an appeal all its own in its extended and subtle build, but all three songs not only pay homage to these movies but seem to work at capturing some aspect of their atmosphere. Vestjysk Ørken aren’t quite rewriting soundtracks, but they’re definitely in conversation with the works cited, and with an entire universe of cinema to explore, there are accordingly no limits as to where they might go. Something tells me it won’t be long before we find out how deep their obsession runs.
I have no interest in playing arbiter to what’s “true” in doom metal or anything else, and neither am I qualified to do so. Instead, I’ll just note that Germany’s Dawn of Winter, who trace their roots back nearly 30 years and have released full-lengths on a one-per-decade basis in 1998, 2008 and now 2018 with Pray for Doom, have their house well in order when it comes to conveying the classic tenets of the genre. Issued through I Hate, the eight-track/51-minute offering finds drummer Dennis Schediwy punctuating huge nodder grooves led by Jörg M. Knittel‘s riffs, while bassist Joachim Schmalzried adds low end accentuation and frontman Gerrit P. Mutz furthers the spirit of traditionalism on vocals. Songs like “The Thirteenth of November” and the stomping “The Sweet Taste of Ruin” are timeless for being born too late, and in the spirit of Europe’s finest trad doom, Dawn of Winter evoke familiar aspects without directly worshiping Black Sabbath or any of their other aesthetic forebears. Pray for Doom is doom, because doom, by doomers, for doomers. The converted will be accordingly thrilled to hear them preach.
Semi-retroist Southern heavy blues boogie, some tight flourish of psychedelia, and the occasional foray into broader territory, Stuttgart three-piece Pale Heart‘s StoneFree debut long-player, Junegleland is striking in its professionalism and, where some bands might sacrifice audio fidelity at the altar of touching on a heavy ’70s aesthetic, guitarist/vocalist Marc Bauer, key-specialist Nico Bauer and drummer Sebastian Neumeier (since replaced by Marvin Schaber) present their work in crisp fashion, letting the construction of the songs instead define the classicism of their influence. Low end is filled out by Moog where bass might otherwise be, and in combination with Hammond and Fender Rhodes and other synth, there’s nothing as regard missing frequencies coming from Jungleland, the nine songs of which vary in their character but are universally directed toward honing a modern take on classic heavy, informed as it is by Southern rock, hard blues and the tonal warmth of yore. A 50-minute debut is no minor ask of one’s audience in an age of fickle Bandcamp attentions, but cuts like the 12-minute “Transcendence” have a patience and character that’s entrancing without trickery of effects.
UK instrumentalist three-piece Slowbro‘s full-length debut, Nothings, brings forth eight tracks and 51 minutes of heavy-ended sludge rock notable for the band’s use of dueling eight-string guitars instead of the standard guitar/bass setup. How on earth does something like that happen? I don’t know. Maybe Sam Poole turned to James Phythian one day and was like, “Hey, I got two eight-string guitars. So, band?” and then a band happened. Zeke Martin — and kudos to him on not being intimidated by all those strings — rounds out on drums and together the trio embark on cuts like “Sexlexia” (a very sexy learning disability, indeed) and “Broslower,” which indeed chugs out at a considerably glacial pace, and “Fire, Fire & Fire,” which moves from noise rock to stonerly swing with the kind of aplomb that can only be conjured by those who don’t give a shit about style barriers. It’s got its ups and downs, but as Nothings — the title-track of which quickly cuts to silence and stays there until a final crash — rounds out with “Pisscat” and the eight-strings go ever so slightly post-rock, it’s hard not to appreciate the willful display of fuckall as it happens. It’s a peculiar kind of charm that makes it both charming and peculiar.
