Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Wasn’t it just last week I was talking about Craig Williamson? Just to save you looking, yes, it was, and while that post may have been about his Lamp of the Universe solo-project, I did dare to go so far as drop a hint near the end in case anyone read that deep saying a Datura reissue was in the works. Well, full disclosure, the reason I knew that last week was because it was a couple months ago I suggested Datura to Ripple Music for the ‘Beneath the Desert Floor’ series of underheralded turn-of-the-century reissues. Frankly, there are few bands who come to mind more readily to fit the qualifications.
Datura‘s 1999 sophomore LP, Visions for the Celestial (discussed here), will be out through Ripple Music on Jan. 17. Can confirm it sounds great. You’ll find more background and such from the PR wire below, and of course the full thing is already streaming because it’s been out for 25 years. Go figure, I know.
Dig it:
New Zealand stoner rockers DATURA to reissue “Visions For the Celestial” album on January 17th via Ripple Music; preorders available now.
Early 90s groundbreaking stoner rockers from New Zealand DATURA are set to reissue their quintessential 1999 studio album “Visions For The Celestial” as part of Ripple Music’s “Beneath The Desert Floor” special vinyl series this January 17th.
Formed in August 1992 in Hamilton, New Zealand, DATURA started as a four-piece Sabbath-worshipping outfit. After a few member changes, the group settled on the lineup of Craig Williamson on bass and vocals, Brent Middlemiss on guitar, and Jon Burnside on drums. Three now long-lost cassette demos ensued they hit the studio to record and then release their February ’98 debut album “All Is One”. Quickly moving forward with intermittent touring and continuing to write new material, the band gathered in the studio again in early 1999, to tape what was to be the final album “Visions for the Celestial”.
Written by Williamson and jammed on with the band, “Visions For The Celestial” was his outwardly spacious, psychedelic, mindset at the time — his visions for the outer realms of space and time. With a myriad of inspirations ranging from Hawkwind, John Coltrane, Monster Magnet, Kyuss, Sleep, Man’s Ruin Records and acid folk, DATURA was set. Says the band: “2025 will be 25 years since their sophomore and last studio album was originally released, and Datura are beyond honoured to have Ripple Music re-release “Visions For The Celestial” once again, in glorious vinyl, for you all to experience!”
“Visions For The Celestial” is the 8th chapter of Californian label Ripple Music’s “Beneath The Desert Floor” vinyl series, which unearths treasures from the golden days of stoner and desert rock with releases from Fireball Ministry, The Awesome Machine, Glitter Wizard, Witch White Canyon, Rollerball, The Sabians and Dear Deceased. All reissues can be streamed and purchased at this location: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
DATURA “Visions For The Celestial” reissue Out January 17th on Ripple Music (LP/digital)
With the benefit of 21 years of hindsight, it’s tempting to imbue Datura’s Visions for the Celestial with some kind of prescience, as though the New Zealand-based heavy rockers were somehow ahead of their time. The simpler truth is they were right in line with it. Formed in 1992, Datura were led by bassist/vocalist Craig Williamson — who would later found the one-man acid folk outfit Lamp of the Universe and return to heavy rock with Arc of Ascent — and as they solidified their lineup around Williamson, guitarist Brent Middlemiss and drummer Jon Burnside, they also made their way through various recordings and compilation tracks, demos and the like en route to the eventual 1998 debut EP, All is One.
Already there at that point was the sense that Datura were doing more than simply cloning riffs imported from Californian acts Kyuss, Sleep, Acid King and Fu Manchu, or the likes of Monster Magnet, Acrimony, Orange Goblin, etc., and the same holds true on the follow-up debut long-player. Comprised of six songs in its original incarnation, Visions for the Celestial came out on New Zealand’s Cranium Music in 1999 and saw US release through Brainticket Records — the imprint helmed by John Perez of Solitude Aeturnus — in 2000. Running 48 minutes that were expanded to circa 53 with the addition of the five-minute “Into the Light” as a centerpiece for a 2007 reissue on Williamson’s own Astral Projection label (Krauted Mind also did a vinyl in 2010), the album showcases a communion with heavy rock and psychedelia that were highly individual in their balance. Listeners hearing Visions for the Celestial for the first time in 2020 might be struck by the sense of roll in a song like the nine-minute penultimate cut “Voyage,” but there’s more to the track than just its forward motion and swaggering groove. The underlying organ line, the deep punch of its bassline, and the weaving lines of guitar effects atop the live-feeling drums — even before funky-time hits with the solo about halfway through the song — all come together to create a sense of who Datura were as a band, and the personality they brought to their material. Should you be surprised when the flute and watery vocals come out? Yeah, probably, but you should also know by that point to just go with it. They’ve got it all well in-hand.
Songwriting is the underpinning upon which Visions for the Celestial is based, but that’s not just about putting verses together with catchy choruses. It’s also how the material is built, how it plays off each other in the context of the whole record, and of course how it’s performed on the recording. “Magnetise” opens with an intro of wah guitar that tells you much of what you need to know about where Datura are headed, and proceeds into a languid flow and lyrics about drifting in a floating mind, walking in colors, and the like, not hurrying but not at all staid either as it moves through its seven minutes en route to “Sunshine in Purple” and the more straightforward, also shorter, “Reaching Out.” “Sunshine in Purple” largely follows suit from the opener in terms of style — a sense of high-ceiling-room permeating the mix — but Williamson’s bass begins to really shine there and does likewise on “Reaching Out” as well, leading-from-behind a shove that, depending on which version of the record you’re listening to, gives way either to “Into the Light” or “Euphoria.” To be blunt, either way you go, you don’t really lose out, and in terms of placing a bonus track, “Into the Light” adds more to the middle of the record than it possibly could being tacked on after “Voyage” and its just-under-15-minute closer follow-up “Mantra.”
“Euphoria” sets up that last salvo with a trippier feel on the whole and cleverly wrought pulls of guitar as Wililamson preaches cosmic heavy, but clearly the two pieces are intended to stand on their own as the B-side of Visions for the Celestial, and they end up doing precisely that. Neither song is a radical departure from what Datura have been doing all along, but again, it’s a question of balance. “Voyage” shifts in its second half through the aforementioned stretch of purer-strain psychedelia before building up to its resurgent roll. As he has all along, Burnside turns in a righteous performance on drums, not overly flashy, but making even a simple-seeming hi-hat march effective in carrying the momentum behind Middlemiss’ guitar excursions. He starts out “Mantra” at a slow pace soon joined by swells of melodic effects or synth, and it’s immediately clear Datura are going as far out as they’ve gone. Harmonized vocals and progressive space jamming hint at what could’ve been, likewise a hypnotic drum solo before the last push and an ending of residual effects in a melodic dronescape. Resonant, sweet and otherworldly, it could hardly be more fitting.
Datura only put out one full-length, and by the time 1999 was done, Williamson would begin exploring the folkier textures that became Lamp of the Universe, which of course is a project he continues to this day, having released Dead Shrine (review here) in June. It wasn’t until 2010 that Williamson returned to heavier fare with Arc of Ascent, but hearing Datura now in relation to that band, it’s clear just how much of his signature style and patterning are essential to both. Visions for the Celestial, while it’s been re-pressed periodically, remains a work of underrated heavy lost to the shifting tides of social media mobilization and internet decay. It and All is One, as well as a live recording from 1998, are all up on Bandcamp, though, so like so many LPs in a crate somewhere in a musty record store waiting to be unearthed and unveil their heavy ‘70s treasures, so too does Datura await a moment to get their due. In terms of what they were doing, when and how, their debut/swansong was one of promise that still stands as a hallmark of its era. Lost classic? Not if you find it.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
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As I write this, the site is down. Presumably, it’ll be back up at some point soon, and because my hours are limited, I kind of have to write when it’s time to write, which is now. Or, rather, about two hours ago when I started this post. I’ve been getting up early again — it was 3:45AM today — and that has been a tremendous help to me in terms of productivity. My head is pretty much goo by 8PM, but you know what? I was really fucking tired all the time anyway when I slept until 6AM or 6:30 or whatever I could get away with. I think maybe that’s just getting old.
Also I need to stretch more. As someone who knows zilch zero no nothing about living healthy, I do honestly believe that stretching, hydration and eating more veggies is the secret to immortality. It’s at least as good as anything I’ve seen in an infomercial.
Some requisite-feeling drama in the fallout from my father’s death this week in his side of the family wanting him buried somewhere else rather than where he’s going. Just too late on that end. It’s already all paid for, and I don’t think funeral homes do refunds. Anyway, I can’t and wouldn’t go against my mother’s wishes, regardless. He’ll be buried in Ft. Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Pennsylvania. He was an Air Force veteran whose time in the service very much resonated with the core of the person he wanted to be, and frankly, if he thought enough of himself to think he had any value whatsoever, it’s the kind of thing he might’ve arranged on his own. He didn’t. I am.
Went for a run a bit ago as I have been on the regular for the last however long. Feels okay. Trying not to be crazy about it. Intentionally not be crazy. It is difficult.
Alright, the Pecan is awake and has probably pooped in his diaper by now, so I need to grab him from his room and get him cleaned up, but thanks for reading this week. Hopefully this post is up before then, but there’s a new Gimme show at 5PM Eastern today if you can listen. Their app is free and so is their site: http://gimmemetal.com
