Quarterly Review: Tortuga, Spidergawd, Morag Tong, Conny Ochs, Ritual King, Oldest Sea, Dim Electrics, Mountain of Misery, Aawks, Kaliyuga Express

Posted in Reviews on November 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

The-Obelisk-Quarterly-Review

Generally I think of Thursday as the penultimate day of a given Quarterly Review. This one I was thinking of adding more days to get more stuff in ahead of year-end coverage coming up in December. I don’t know what that would do to my weekend — actually, yes I do — but sometimes it’s worth it. I’m yet undecided. Will let you know tomorrow, or perhaps not. Dork of mystery, I am.

Today is PACKED with cool sounds. If you haven’t found something yet that’s really hit you, it might be your day.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Tortuga, Iterations

TORTUGA Iterations

From traditionalist proto-doom and keyboard-inflected prog to psychedelic jamming and the Mountain-style start-stop riff on “Lilith,” Poznań, Poland’s Tortuga follow 2020’s Deities (discussed here) with seven tracks and 45 minutes that come across as simple and barebones in the distortion of the guitar and the light reverb on the vocals, but the doom rock doesn’t carry from “Lilith” into “Laspes,” which has more of a ’60s psych crux, a mellow but not unjoyful meander in its first half turning to a massive lumber in the second, all the more elephantine with a solo overtop. They continue throughout to cross the lines between niches — “Quaus” has some dungeon growls, “Epitaph” slogs emotive like Pallbearer, etc. — and offer finely detailed performances in a sound malleable to suit the purposes of their songs. Polish heavy doesn’t screw around. Well, at least not any more than it wants to. Tortuga‘s creative reach becomes part of the character of the album.

Tortuga on Facebook

Napalm Records website

Spidergawd, VII

spidergawd vii

I’m sorry, I gotta ask: What’s the point of anything when Spidergawd can put out a record like VII and it’s business as usual? Like, the world doesn’t stop for a collective “holy shit” moment. Even in the heavy underground, never mind general population. These are the kinds of songs that could save lives if properly employed to do so, and for the Norwegian outfit, it’s just what they do. The careening hooks of “Sands of Time” and “The Tower” at the start, the melodies across the span. The energy. I guess this is dad rock? Shit man, I’m a dad. I’m not this cool. Spidergawd have seven records out and I feel like Metallica should’ve been opening for them at stadiums this past summer, but they remain criminally underrated and perhaps use that as flexibility around their pop-heavy foundation to explore new ideas. The last three songs on VII — “Afterburner,” “Your Heritage” and “…And Nothing But the Truth” — are among the strongest and broadest Spidergawd have ever done, and “Dinosaur” and the classic-metal ripper “Bored to Death” give them due preface. One of the best active heavy rock bands, living up to and surpassing their own high standards.

Spidergawd on Facebook

Stickman Records website

Crispin Glover Records website

Morag Tong, Grieve

Morag Tong Grieve

Rumbling low end and spacious guitar, slow flowing drums and contemplative vocals, and some charred sludge for good measure, mark out the procession of “At First Light” on Morag Tong‘s third album and first for Majestic Mountain Records, the four-song Grieve. Moving from that initial encapsulation through the raw-throat sludge thud of most of “Passages,” they crash out and give over to quiet guitar at about four minutes in and set up the transition to the low-end groove-cool of “A Stem’s Embrace,” a sleepy fluidity hitting its full voluminous crux after three minutes in, crushing from there en route to its noisy finish at just over nine minutes long. That would be the epic finisher of most records, but Morag Tong‘s grievances extend to the 20-minute “No Sun, No Moon,” which at 20 minutes is a full-length’s progression on its own. At very least the entirety of side B, but more than the actual runtime is the theoretical amount of space covered as the four-piece shift from ambient drone through huge plod and resolve the skyless closer with a crushing delve into post-sludge atmospherics. That’s as fitting an end as one could ask for an offering that so brazenly refuses to follow impulses other than its own.

Morag Tong on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Conny Ochs, Wahn Und Sinn

Conny Ochs Wahn Und Sinn

The nine-song Wahn Und Sinn carries the distinction of being the first full-length from German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs — also known for his work in Ananda Mida and his collaboration with Wino — to be sung in his own language. As a non-German speaker, I won’t pretend that doesn’t change the listening experience, but that’s the idea. Words and melodies in different languages take on corresponding differences in character, and so in addition to appreciating the strings, pianos, acoustic and electric guitars, and, in the case of “Welle,” a bit of static noise in a relatively brief electronic soundscape, hearing Ochs‘ delivery no less emotive for switching languages on the cinematic “Grimassen,” or the lounge drama of “Ding” earlier on, it’s a new side from a veteran figure whose “experimentalism” — and no, I’m not talking about singing in your own language as experimental, I’m talking about Trialogos there — is backburnered in favor of more traditional, still rampantly melancholy pop arrangements. It sounds like someone who’s decided they can do whatever the hell they feel like their songs should making that a reality. Only an asshole would hold not speaking the language against that.

Conny Ochs on Facebook

Exile on Mainstream website/a>

Ritual King, The Infinite Mirror

ritual king the infinite mirror

I’m going to write this review as though I’m speaking directly to Ritual King because, well, I am. Hey guys. Congrats on the record. I can hear a ton going on with it. Some of Elder‘s bright atmospherics and rhythmic twists, some more familiar stoner riffage repurposed to suit a song like “Worlds Divide” after “Flow State” calls Truckfighters to mind, the songs progressive and melodic. The way you keep that nod in reserve for “Landmass?” That’s what I’m talking about. Here’s some advice you didn’t ask for: Keep going. I’m sure you have big plans for next year, and that’s great, and one thing leads to the next. You’re gonna have people for the next however long telling you what you need to do. Do what feels right to you, and keep in mind the decisions that led you to where you are, because you’re right there, headed to the heart of this thing you’re discovering. Two records deep there’s still a lot of potential in your sound, but I think you know a track like “Tethered” is a victory on its own, and that as big as “The Infinite Mirror” gets at the end, the real chance it takes is in the earlier vocal melody. You’re a better band than people know. Just keep going. Thanks.

Ritual King on Facebook

Ripple Music website

Oldest Sea, A Birdsong, A Ghost

oldest sea a birdsong a ghost cropped

Inhabiting the sort of alternately engulfing and minimal spaces generally occupied by the likes of Bell Witch, New Jersey’s Oldest Sea make their full-length debut with A Birdsong, A Ghost and realize a bleakness of mood that is affecting even in its tempo, seeming to slow the world around it to its own crawl. The duo of Samantha Marandola and Andrew Marandola, who brought forth their Strange and Eternal EP (review here) in 2022, find emotive resonance in a death-doom build through the later reaches of “Untracing,” but the subsequent three-minute-piece-for-chorus-and-distorted-drone “Astronomical Twilight” and the similarly barely-there-until-it-very-much-is closer “Metamorphose” mark out either end of the extremes while “The Machines That Made Us Old” echoes Godflesh in its later riffing as Samantha‘s voice works through screams en route to a daringly hopeful drone. Volatile but controlled, it is a debut of note for its patience and vulnerability as well as its deep-impact crash and consuming tone.

Oldest Sea on Facebook

Darkest Records on Bandcamp

Dim Electrics, Dim Electrics

dim electrics dim electrics

Each track on Dim Electrics‘ self-titled five-songer LP becomes a place to rest for a while. No individual piece is lacking activity, but each cut has room for the listener to get inside and either follow the interweaving aural patterns or zone out as they will. Founded by Mahk Rumbae, the Vienna-based project is meditative in the sense of basking in repetition, but flashes like the organ in the middle of “Saint” or the shimmy that takes hold in 18-minute closer “Dream Reaction” assure it doesn’t reside in one place for too much actual realtime, of which it’s easy to lose track when so much krautgazey flow is at hand. Beginning with ambience, “Ways of Seeing” leads the listener deeper into the aural chasm it seems to have opened, and the swirling echoes around take on a life of their own in the ecosystem of some vision of space rock that’s also happening under the ground — past and future merging as in the mellotron techno of “Memory Cage” — which any fool can tell you is where the good mushrooms grow. Dug-in, immersive, engaging if you let it be; Dim Electrics feels somewhat insular in its mind-expansion, but there’s plenty to go around if you can put yourself in the direction it’s headed.

Dim Electrics on Facebook

Sulatron Records webstore

Mountain of Misery, In Roundness

Mountain of Misery In Roundness

A newcomer project from Kamil Ziółkowski, also known for his contributions as part of Polish heavy forerunners Spaceslug, the tone-forward approach of Mountain of Misery might be said to be informed by Ziółkowski‘s other project in opener “Not Away” or the penultimate “Climb by the Sundown,” with their languid vocals and slow-rolling tsunami fuzz in the spirit of heavy psych purveyors Colour Haze and even more to the point Sungrazer, but the howling guitar in the crescendo of closer “The Misery” and the all-out assault of “Hang So Low” distinguish the band all around. “The Rain is My Love” sways in the album’s middle, but it’s in “Circle in Roundness” that the 36-minute LP has its most subdued stretch, letting the spaces filled with fuzz elsewhere remain open as the verse builds atop the for-now-drumless expanse. Whatever familiar aspects persist, Mountain of Misery is its own band, and In Roundness is the exciting beginning of a new creative evolution.

Mountain of Misery on Facebook

Electric Witch Mountain Recordings on Facebook

Aawks, Luna

aawks luna

The featured new single, “The Figure,” finds Barrie, Ontario’s Aawks somewhere between Canadian tonal lords Sons of Otis and the dense heavy psych riffing and melodic vocals of an act like Snail, and if you think I’m about to complain about that, you’ve very clearly never been to this site before. So hi, and welcome. The four-song Luna EP is Aawks‘ second short release of 2023 behind a split with Aiwass (review here), and the trio take on Flock of Seagulls and Pink Floyd for covers of the new wave radio hit “I Ran” and the psychedelic ur-classic “Julia Dream” before a live track, “All is Fine,” rounds out. As someone who’s never seen the band live, the additional crunch falls organic, and brings into relief the diversity Aawks show in and between these four songs, each of which inhabits a place in the emerging whole of the band’s persona. I don’t know if we’ll get there, but sign me up for the Canadian heavy revolution if this is the form it’s going to take.

Aawks on Facebook

Black Throne Productions website

Kaliyuga Express, Warriors & Masters

Kaliyuga Express Warriors and Masters

The collaborative oeuvre of UK doomsperimental guitarist Mike Vest (Bong, Blown Out, Ozo, 11Paranoias, etc.) grows richer as he joins forces with Finnish trio Nolla to produce Kaliyuga ExpressWarriors & Masters, which results in three tracks across two sides of far-out cosmic fuzz, shades of classic kraut and space rocks are wrought with jammy intention; the goal seeming to be the going more than the being gone as Vest and company burn through “Nightmare Dimensions” and the shoegazing “Behind the Veil” — the presence of vocals throughout is a distinguishing feature — hums in high and low frequencies in a repetitive inhale of stellar gases on side A while the 18:58 side B showdown “Endless Black Space” misdirects with a minute of cosmic background noise before unfurling itself across an exoplanet’s vision of cool and returning, wait for it, back to the drone from whence it came. Did you know stars are recycled all the time? Did you know that if you drop acid and peel your face off there’s another face underneath? Your third eye is googly. You can hear voices in the drones. Let me know what they tell you.

Kaliyuga Express on Facebook

Riot Season Records store

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Conny Ochs

Posted in Questionnaire on November 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

CONNY OCHS (Photo by Pietro Bondi)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Conny Ochs

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

I think self-perception can be deceptive given the many pitfalls of ego and circumstance, but since you ask, I’d like to think of myself as an explorer. I have always lived a life on the fringes of society. In orbit, observing, sometimes trying to fit in, but rarely succeeding. This has made me an observer of things, I think, a not always humble, sometimes manic observer. I explore what I see and consequently feel through music, words and images. It’s very cathartic in the sense that you have to let go of everything that comes at you from time to time so that it doesn’t tear you apart. But I hope that the dialog that manifests in this process can be inspiring for everyone who participates. Even if it’s only for a moment. In the end, it’s a quest for freedom.

Describe your first musical memory.

My father used to play and sing songs for me on the guitar just before I had to go to sleep, when I was about four to five years old. I remember how awestruck I was. There was this person I knew from everyday life, but somehow hearing and seeing him in this way transformed him into something almost metaphysical. I hold those memories most dear.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

That is a difficult one. There are many, and they are “best” in different ways. But here and now I’m going with my encounter with Scott “Wino” Weinrich. He really encouraged me to follow my calling when he brought me on stage with him during the “Adrift” tour in 2010 and put me in a spotlight that I wasn’t used to at all. Up until that moment, I hadn’t really figured out where I wanted to go as an artist, but Wino really helped me bring everything into focus by just being the passionate player and singer and, later on, friend that he is. From him I really learned to be in the moment, and to be there for the song, undisguised and honest. What I learned in those days has certainly shaped the way I write and perform forever.

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

There have been a few occasions where I’ve been subtly asked to adapt to certain standards. Very subtly, maybe in terms of a certain sound detail, a certain lyrical style or artwork. I’ve always stuck to what I thought was right at the time, which didn’t always work out the way I had envisioned and made me question my decisions and sometimes quite stubborn demand for authenticity (which is already very hard to define) many times. This can put you in strange places and test the aforementioned faith in whether what you’re doing makes sense at all. Nevertheless, I always did what I thought was honest, and that was the most important thing for me. Still is.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

To freedom, I hope.

How do you define success?

As an artist, to get as close as possible to what you really want to communicate. As a human being, to remain kind, respectful and curious like a child.

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

To be honest, I can’t think of anything… I think it’s all part of the journey, part of the bigger picture by default. However, i am a big movie fan, you could say I watch too many silly films maybe, but that doesn’t really count I guess.

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

I would actually love to work on a graphic novel with a good scriptwriter. I’ve been into comics since I was a kid and have always done small panel projects on my own, but I’ve never ventured into working on a proper graphic novel. I have a few ideas, but I haven’t found the right writer to work with yet. I’d like to just focus on the artwork – plus, the whole process of scriptwriting is something I’d love to find a partner for who really knows how to do it right. I’m a big fan of the work of Alan Moore, as well as Enki Bilal, Rick Griffin, Raymond Pettibon or John Totleben. A sort of crossover between mysticism, surrealism and noir. Probably some musical allusions in it, too. It’s something I’ve been dreaming about for a while. I’m always on the lookout for the still anonymous partner.

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

For me, art means creating connections. Physical connections between people, connecting to your own body, connections between ideas, connections between brain cells. It can even point a way back into the past, to things you might not have been able to perceive at the time, but which only make sense later. It can connect you to a world from which you feel alienated. And then again, connection is activation, and that is movement, and that is life.

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

It’s been a while since I’ve been on the road without a guitar on my back, and I’m really looking forward to just traveling for a while once I finish recording the new album. It’s going to be hard too. I usually pile new projects on top of each other far in advance. I was actually supposed to start this trip after we finished the last master earlier this year, fingers crossed that I can pull it off this time.

https://www.connyochs.com
https://www.facebook.com/conny.ochs
https://www.instagram.com/connyochs
https://connyochs.bandcamp.com

http://www.mainstreamrecords.de
https://www.youtube.com/@exileonmainstream3639

Conny Ochs, “Hickhack” official video

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Conny Ochs to Release Wahn Und Sinn Oct. 20; Preorders Available

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan

CONNY OCHS (Photo by Pietro Bondi)

I’m glad there’s a new Conny Ochs on the way. I don’t care if it’s in German or English or anything else. If you can get down with Trialogos, there’s probably not much in Ochs‘ folkish solo work that’s going to alienate you. The PR wire informs of that below, and I can’t help but be taken aback by Ochs‘ last record, Doom Folk, having come out four years ago. Time has gone all wonky in my head. True of more and more things, I guess.

And looking at that four years, I guess maybe the Trialogos record, Stroh Zu Gold (review here), of which Ochs was a driving force, coming out in 2021, and the noted mountaintop performance in 2022 — the video is at the bottom of this post; too good not to include, since it was mentioned — take a bit of the sting out of that stretch, and certainly Ochs has been active in terms of live performance as much as anyone since 2019.

There’s a book of poetry being released concurrent to Wahn Und Sinn, and there are two release shows booked in Germany and no doubt a stretch of tour dates will follow, along with some music ahead of the release. Plenty to go on at the bottom of this post, though, if you’re looking for a fix.

From the PR wire:

Conny Ochs Wahn Und Sinn

CONNY OCHS: Singer/Songwriter To Release German-Sung Wahn Und Sinn LP Through Exile On Mainstream In October; Artwork, Track Listing, And Preorders Posted

Four-and-a-half years have passed since CONNY OCHS’ most recent album, Doom Folk. While new music from the man was rare in the record store, he was quite active on stage. In addition to some solo tours and very intensive concerts including the online Roadburn Festival 2020 and two touching performances in the Dolomites in 2021 and 2022, which fans could follow via livestream, the artist, who works and lives in Germany and Italy, surprised us especially with the band Trialogos, whose 2021 debut album Stroh Zu Gold presented a completely new side of CONNY OCHS. Working with multi-instrumentalists Kiki Bohemia and Sicker Man, the band delivered a musical collective improvisation based on Tony Conrad’s concept of minimal music as maximalism that was acclaimed worldwide.

During the Corona lockdowns, CONNY OCHS had the time to go through a collection of notebooks that he had amassed during his time in Hamburg, Berlin, and while traveling as a singer in various bands. He reveals, “I always had the feeling that in these lyrics there was a kind of connection between my time as a band member and the moment my solo journey began, the release of Raw Love Songs and my meeting with Andreas of Exile On Mainstream and with Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich. I felt like there was a before and after, and I wanted to give the before its place in the story.” The idea of publishing selected poems as a book became an affair of the heart. “I hope it can illustrate the trip that I made at the time, that led to the songs and life decisions I took later. To me, it’s thoroughly cathartic, but I’ve tried to find a dynamic that gives the book its own right to be a collection of stories, thoughts, and ideas.”

Initially, the poetry collection Wahn Und Sinn was to be published independently. However, an idea had already started to develop. “I had written some new lyrics in German while working with the notebooks,” explains the singer/songwriter the experimental approach that illustrates the beginnings of the album Wahn Und Sinn. From the collaboration with Tobias Vethake aka Sicker Man at Trialogos also arose the desire and the idea to work together another time. CONNY OCHS developed rough melodies for the lyrics, “Still without really knowing what to do with it. But I had the feeling that there was the same energy in the resulting songs as in the book. I was fascinated by Tobias’ work at Trialogos and as a producer and suddenly felt the urge to ask him to produce these songs. We did it in a radical way: I sent him my unedited demos and asked him to throw away the instruments and just keep the vocals and harmonic arrangements.” The aim was to avoid the singer/songwriter approach that had previously characterized CONNY OCHS’ music. The initial experiment turned into an album whose cover, for the first time, does not feature artwork by the artist himself but a picture by Scottish artist Abi Salvesen. Here, too, a departure from his usual way of working is manifested.

As an experimental excursion and reflection, Wahn Und Sinn thus forms the transition to a new chapter in CONNY OCHS’s creative work, which is to be followed by a new official album as early as Spring 2024.

Wahn Und Sinn will be released on LP with a CD included. The book will also be available as a limited edition with a bundled CD at concerts. In the Exile On Mainstream webshop, the record and book will be available individually or as a bundle. Finally, the content of the record complements the content of the book, inspired by the confrontation with the poems from the years 2000-2010: “If I look at both together now, I find that also Wahn Und Sinn tells the story which until now seems to be the core of my songs: getting lost in order to find yourself.”

The book and the insert included with the album contain all texts in German and English. Also on the album is Conny’s longtime friend and companion Hannes Scheffler, who also handled the final production, mixing, and mastering of the record, as well as Anna Ochs as the singer on the track “Lumos.”

Exile On Mainstream will release Wahn Und Sinn on October 20th.

Physical preorders HERE: https://shop.mainstreamrecords.de/product/eom108

Digital presaves HERE: https://connyochs.ffm.to/wahnundsinn

Watch for audio previews, an official video, and more on CONNY OCHS’ Wahn Und Sinn to be posted over the coming days.

Wahn Und Sinn Track Listing:
1. Turin
2. Risse
3. Ding
4. Hickhack
5. Taub Und Laut
6. Welle
7. Grimassen
8. Melancholia
9. Lumos

CONNY OCHS is also booking live excursions surrounding the release of Wahn Und Sinn, including two record release shows for the album and more. Expect further live announcements to post as the album draws near.

CONNY OCHS Live:
9/09/2023 Spazio 211 – Torino, IT
9/28/2023 Ostpol – Dresden, DE *record release show
10/06/2023 Objekt 5 – Halle/Saale, DE *record release show

https://www.connyochs.com
https://www.facebook.com/conny.ochs
https://www.instagram.com/connyochs
https://connyochs.bandcamp.com

http://www.mainstreamrecords.de
https://www.youtube.com/@exileonmainstream3639

Conny Ochs, Live on Bliss Mountain, Sept. 23, 2022

Conny Ochs, Doom Folk (2019)

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