Posted in Whathaveyou on May 20th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The May 6 release date for Wo Fat‘s new album, The Singularity (review here), has come and gone, and so it’s time for the band to head out to herald the cause. Recall that the Texan forerunners-o’-riff — and considering Texas, that’s saying something — announced in March that they’d revamped their lineup, bringing in Matt Watkins on second guitar (he’d previously played on their first record) and new bassist Patrick Smith alongside founding mainstays Michael Walter (drums) and Kent Stump (guitar/vocals; you remember him, he probably mastered your album). This will be the first tour undertaken by this incarnation of the group, already in a way moving forward from The Singularity toward some unknown future.
Booked by Sound of Liberation, who posted the following announcement, the run isn’t the longest we’ve seen of US bands returning to Euro shores, but with slots at Rock im Wald, Lake on Fire and a big old mystery spot between Denmark and the Netherlands on Aug. 1 — I’m sure there’s something happening that day — it’s nothing if not efficient in covering a good amount of ground. Note the Salzburg date with Samavayo supporting as well.
From socials:
WO FAT EUROPE 2022
Dear friends,
we’re happy to announce that Texas’ riff dealers Wo Fat return to Europe with a NEW ALBUM this summer!
A crushingly heavy stoner rock band from Dallas, Texas, Wo Fat are a power trio whose music harks back to the fuzzy punch of ’70s hard rock, with an added dash of prog rock adventure, a fistful of amped-up boogie, and some contemporary metal muscle for seasoning.
Sound of Liberation proudly presents: WO FAT EUROPEAN TOUR 2022
29.07. (DE) Michelau, Rock im Wald Festival 30.07. (DE) Hamburg, Lazy Bones @ Gruenspan 31.07. (DK) Copenhagen, Spillestedet Stengade 01.08. TBA 02.08. (NL) Rotterdam, Baroeg Rotterdam 03.08. (NL) Nijmegen, Merleyn 04.08. (DE) Cham, L.A. Cham * 05.08. (AT) Waldhausen, Lake on Fire 06.08. (IT) Osoppo, Pietrasonica Fest 07.08. (AT) Salzburg, Rockhouse Salzburg * 08.08. (AT) Vienna, ARENA WIEN 09.08. (DE) Berlin, Urban Spree 11.08. (CH) Bagnes, PALP festival 12.08. (BE) Kortrijk, ALCATRAZ MUSIC
* SUPPORT: Samavayo
Don’t miss out on the hottest swampadelic fuzz act out there!
Cheers, Your SOL Crew
WO FAT is: Kent Stump – guitar, vocals Matt Watkins – guitar Michael Walter – drums Patrick Smith – bass
[Click play above to stream Wo Fat’s The Singularity in full. Album is out Friday on Ripple Music.]
The first several minutes of Wo Fat‘s “Orphans of the Singe” are dedicated to putting the listener back into the band’s particular otherworldly swamp. Atmospheric guitar and bass, far back but tense tom runs and a generally hazy air permeate the build into the percussion-laced, 13:55 opener’s true boogie. Thus it is that the Dallas, Texas-based here-trio set the stage for their seventh studio full-length, The Singularity, also their second album for Ripple Music and their first offering in the six years since 2016’s Midnight Cometh (review here), though a good chunk of that time was spent on tour.
Between the firebreathing robot dragon on the album art and the rising flood waters beneath it, it’s hard to know precisely which apocalypse they’re referring to — one suspects hints of others are strewn about the intricate details of the piece — but suffice it to say there are plenty to choose from and the post-jam harmonized vocal hook that emerges amid the crashing cymbals and telltale fuzzy shred in that first track, “Truth is rebellion/In a land of illusion,” the band haven’t been blind to the goings on over the last half-decade-plus in their home country.
The Singularity comprises seven songs and runs a CD-limit-testing 75 minutes — a definitive double-LP — and it reassures familiar aspects of who Wo Fat are in terms of sound and style while furthering the path of growth that’s made them one of their generation’s most rightly-appreciated bands. The fuzz, funk and solo work of guitarist/vocalist Kent Stump and the crash and thud — the latter particularly in stomping highlight second cut “The Snows of Banquo IV,” which is outright heavier than Wo Fat have ever been — of Michael Walter‘s drums, and the steady low-end carry of Zack Busby‘s basslines assure that as far out as they might go on an extended piece like the leadoff or “Overworlder” (11:55), with its psychedelic flourish of swirling effects later on, the more chug-motoring “The Witching Chamber” (9:25) and the sum-it-all-up-and-make-it-go-further closer “The Oracle,” which brings more melodic complexity to its instrumentalism close to the album’s finish as if to hint that there’s still more ground for them to cover, they are not without an underlying sense of structure.
Memorable choruses are nothing new to Wo Fat, as their catalog reissues over the last year-plus have duly asserted for anyone who might’ve missed out the first time, but the key to what they do is in the balance between crafted, riff-based, blues-minded, swamp-stank heavy rock and roll, jazz-informed jams, and a sense that the party you’re having might just be the last one you get before the whole thing — i.e. the universe — comes crashing down on itself.
In mood, this is the crux of The Singularity. “The Witching Chamber,” “Overworlder” — which picks right up where “The Snows of Banquo IV” leave off and makes its way toward its own genuinely exciting crescendo — and the telling riff-slappy centerpiece “The Unraveling” (again, maybe of everything) do not fail and do not cease to engage. And the darker thematic is hardly new for Wo Fat either. Hell, their first record in 2006 was literally called The Gathering Dark, so yes, that is a recognizable element, even if one more complex in its presentation now than it was those 16 years ago.
The swamp may still be haunted, but with different ghosts, in other words, though a cut like “The Witching Chamber” is about as classic Wo Fat as one might get, from its hypnotic intro answering back “Orphans of the Singe” to the manner in which its verse seems to emerge from the murk of its own devise to joy they make it to follow along with the groove that takes hold from there until the final bits of rumblefuzz fade into the crashing start of the title-track, the band clearly aware of each song’s effect on the audience and the way in which they want their songs to flow across the album’s extended span. It is no minor feat to put together a 75-minute 2LP and have it lock in its audience for the duration. This is ultimately why Wo Fat are the kind of band from whom one might spend six years looking forward to a new record.
With Stump (who also donates some electric piano in the sonic hithers and yons) and Walter (whose off-kit percussive contributions are no less integral) as the founding core of the band — also co-owners of Crystal Clear Sound in Dallas, where The Singularity was made — Wo Fat are masters of their sound, however they might seek to push themselves creatively in any given track. The swinging procession and scorch of the title-track demonstrates this as plainly as the rest of what surrounds, if perhaps in somewhat condensed form compared to “Overworlder” or “Orphans of the Singe,” etc., and the shifts the band pulls off between one song and the next, the feeling they bring to their jams — not lazy or purely exploratory; there’s a plot and a basic forward idea, but they’re ready to meander en route back to where they came from — isn’t to be understated.
There’s consciousness in “The Singularity” as though the band were functioning as one of the coherent thinking machines the lyrics describe, and the development of that can be traced back at least over the last decade of their work. The Singularity is comforting in some contrast to the grim thematic in that the songs themselves reaffirm the band’s modus, of which progression is an integral part. If the world is ending — and the only reason it wouldn’t be is because it already happened — then at least we got one more Wo Fat album out of the deal.
Whatever they do next will inherently find their dynamic somewhat shifted, as Busby is out of the group and Patrick Smith has joined in his place, along with Matt Watkins, who played on the aforementioned The Gathering Dark, rejoining on second guitar — the acquisition of which makes more sense in the context of the dual leads at the culmination of the title-track, as well as in the farthest-out spaces of “The Oracle” subsequent — but Wo Fat, now a veteran act at the vanguard of Texas and broader American heavy rock, will hopefully continue to thrive, explore, and harness their processes as they do here. Any shape their future might take, they leave no question that it will be theirs.
Wo Fat, “The Snows of Banquo IV” official visualizer
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 16th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
A double-guitar incarnation of Wo Fat circa 2022 is most definitely an intriguing proposition, and while part of me feels like, headed into the release of their new album, The Singularity, as they are, the news of a revamped lineup — which also includes bringing Patrick Smith in on bass in place of Zack Busby, who plays on said record — kind of undercuts the idea of it as the latest Wo Fat have to offer. That is to say, even before The Singularity is available to the listening public, Wo Fat have pretty clearly moved on.
That’s one way of looking at it. The other, I suspect, is that the re-addition of Matt Watkins on guitar (he played on 2006’s debut, The Gathering Dark) allows Wo Fat to bring the new album to life on stage with all the more vividness for the ability to greater capture the depths of layers and expanses of their jams, as well as the full-bore fuzz they utilize in their more rocking moments. As to how the changes will affect the band’s work from here, if you’re lucky enough to see them sometime this year, you’ll probably have a better idea. The rest of the universe will just have to wait.
From social media:
We’re pleased to announce a couple new additions to the band: Patrick Smith is joining us playing bass and OG Wo Fat member Matt Watkins has come back to play guitar with us. Matt played way back in the early days of Wo Fat. We also want to send a huge thank you to Zack Busby, for supremely kicking ass on bass with us for the last 6 years. He recently decided he needed to step down, but really brought a lot to the band and helped shape the sound of the new record quite a bit.
WO FAT is: Kent Stump – guitar, vocals Matt Watkins – guitar Michael Walter – drums Patrick Smith – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Texas heavy psych blues forerunners Wo Fat have just announced the details of their awaited new album, The Singularity. It’ll be out May 6 on Ripple Music. There’s a moment in the new song, “The Witching Chamber,” where the Dallas three-piece come a to full stop ahead of launching into the final galloping run of the nine-plus-minute track, and I think that’s where it’s most hitting me that yeah, these guys are back. Some six years after Midnight Cometh (review here), I wouldn’t expect them to make a bad record. That is to say, if it sucked, well, they’re seven full-lengths deep into their career, so it’s not like they wouldn’t know it, and considering they produce their own material, I’d have to think they’d keep woodshopping until it came out the way they wanted. And with Wo Fat, that’s a winning formula.
I haven’t heard all of The Singularity yet — though I’ve certainly begged Ripple for a listen — but, well, I get it. And speaking of winning formulas, “The Witching Chamber” pushes outward on the band’s jammy foundations nicely, and though it’s kind of counterintuitive to think of a nine-minute song as a single, hell’s bells, it’s Wo Fat. The more the merrier. Can’t wait to hear the rest.
Fresh off the PR wire:
WO FAT share details of new album ‘The Singularity’ on Ripple Music; first track and preorder available!
Dallas-based psychedelic doom legends WO FAT announce the release of their seventh studio album ‘The Singularity’ this May 6th on Ripple Music. Listen to its dark and bluesy first single “The Witching Chamber” and preorder the album now!
WO FAT returns with their seventh studio album, a record they feel is their most adventurous and exploratory yet. While not necessarily a concept album, its themes relate to existential threats and a dark destiny, a reflection of the times we’re living in.
The title, ‘The Singularity’, can refer to an environmental tipping point beyond which irreversible cascading feedback loops of climate destruction are inevitable; it can also refer to a point in the evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning after which everything changes and goes beyond what we can control, potentially leading to humankind’s destruction. These apocalyptic and sci-fi-based ideas also serve as metaphors for the struggle for truth and reality in the face of disinformation, manufactured facts and cultic thinking. In essence, the battle for the future of our planet and civilization.
Musically, ‘The Singularity’ ventures outside WO FAT’s well-establish blues-based paradigm, keeping all the heaviness but also tapping into some 70’s fusion influences and more open jamminess. All in all, it’s the perfect return and elaboration of everything we love about one of the most iconic bands in all of heavy rock history! ‘The Singularity’ will be released on limited edition colored 2xLP, classic black 2xLP, limited digipack CD and digital, with preorder available at this location.
WO FAT – New album ‘The Singularity’ Out May 6th, 2022 on Ripple Music US preorder: https://ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/products?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=the+singularity World preorder: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-singularity
TRACKLIST: 1. Orphans of the Singe 2. The Snows of Banquo IV 3. Overworlder 4. The Unraveling 5. The Witching Chamber 6. The Singularity 7. The Oracle
WO FAT is: Kent Stump – guitar, vocals Michael Walter – drums Zack Busby – bass
