Quarterly Review: Muto Tapes, Turkey Vulture, Polymerase, Troy the Band & Cower, Jaspe, Yung Druid, The Crystal Teardrop, Doom Lab, Liquid Pennies, Mordbear

Posted in Reviews on July 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-winter 2023

This is day four of the Summer 2025 Quarterly Review, and though I might pay for it later, say right around late-September when I’m doing the Fall one, I think I’m going to keep it to five days. Mostly that’s about not pressing my luck. This has been an exceedingly easy QR to get through, a breeze compared to some — one downer day is all it takes and I feel like I never have my groove again, but that hasn’t happened here — and I’m content to take the win and move on, as opposed to pushing for an extra day or two next week.

So this is the penultimate day, and we’ll finish tomorrow. I hope you’ve enjoyed the Quarterly Review nearly as much as I have. Not one day has passed without me adding at least one release to my year-end list(s), which is a pretty killer thing to realize as I type it. Let’s see how today goes.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Muto Tapes, Side Effects

muto tapes side effects

One of apparently five singles that Mexico City’s Muto Tapes will release over the course of 2025 — year’s half-over, they’d better hurry up — “Side Effects” runs four riffy minutes of thickened, aggressive chug-metal, calling to mind Sepultura in its spit-out guttural vocals, but creating a denser mass of distortion and leaving in trade the thrashy, sometimes bloody, roots. Past the halfway point in the song, circa 2:30 into the total 4:05, the tempo drops and the guitar/drum duo bask in some of the minimal spaces their configuration lets them occupy, saving a fair round of shove for the finish after setting it up with due foreboding guitar creep. Not sure if Muto Tapes are building toward an EP or LP or what, or just releasing singles because not everything needs to be a package to sell, but they bring a blend of heft and intensity that immediately distinguishes them in the heavy underground, and they look to be developing their sound on their own terms. Guitarist/vocalist/bassist Jorge S. and drummer Roy B. have been meting out punishment in this manner since 2023, so we’re just beginning to see where it’s all headed.

Muto Tapes website

Muto Tapes on Bandcamp

Turkey Vulture, Dead to Me

Turkey Vulture Dead to Me

It hasn’t been that long since Turkey Vulture released their Oct. 2024 EP, On the List, or maybe I just blinked out for a few months. The Connecticut duo of Jessie May (guitar, bass, vocals) and Jim Clegg (drums, backing vocals) have long-enough since carved their niche in doom and punk rock, and “Dead to Me” and “Jill the Ripper (Heavy Take)” — the two of them running about four and a half minutes, combined — continues the thread. They don’t list the recording info, so I don’t know if these two songs were done at the same time as the EP or not, but “Jill the Ripper (Heavy Take),” as the title describes, is a louder and punkier take on the closing “Jill the Ripper” from that also-short release. “Dead to Me,” meanwhile, seems to be about not going to shows anymore, presumably because you have a kid, and the changing nature of friendships as a result of that. Turkey Vulture have a whole series of songs about these life-stages; just six years on from their debut, they’ve done a lot of growing.

Turkey Vulture on Bandcamp

Turkey Vulture on Instagram

Polymerase, Mindspace

Polymerase Mindspace

Philippines heavy psych wanderers Polymerase are back two years after their two-part Dreams and Realities I & II full-length cycle with the mood-altering 78 minutes of Mindspace, seemingly named for the two things on which the material has the greatest effect. Pairing extended, jammier pieces with, well, shorter, jammier pieces, songs like “Divine Reefer” (12:08) can touch on Sleep while “Space Child” (7:10) is anything but grounded in its repetitions and evident outbound plotted trajectory. There’s more to Mindspace than mellow-out stoner idolatry, though, as the bassy rumble underwriting the harsher shouts of “Interplanetary Echoes” (13:08) demonstrates, taking some of the sludgier moments paired with heavygaze in “Crows and Doves” (11:57) and using them to call out to the expanse of the band’s own making. Closer “Downward Spiral” (12:22) functions similarly at the conclusion, calling to mind modern practitioners like Rezn while feeling empowered through their individual processes. I don’t know how much is actually improv, but Mindspace is way open, and that’s how it should be.

Polymerase on Bandcamp

Polymerase on Instagram

Troy the Band & Cower, Fade Into You

Troy the Band and Cower Fade Into You

Something of a specialty item, perhaps. Fade Into You is a two-tracker split 12″ with London outfits Troy the Band and Cower taking its name from the Mazzy Star song, which both bands cover. Like, they do the same song. And much to their credit, they do it differently. Troy the Band, who early last year released their debut album, Cataclysm (review here), on Bonebag Records, take a heavygaze viewpoint on the 1993 single, fleshing out the moody atmosphere with echoing effects and hard-landing, immersive roll. Cower, whose second full-length, Celestial Devastation (review here), also came out last year, reimagine it as Nick Cave or latter-day Wovenhand, holding to the emotional crux of the original with ethereal drones and new age-y keyboard. A stopgap? Probably, but an interesting project just the same, and the song, of course, stands up to the manipulation.

Troy the Band on Bandcamp

Cower on Bandcamp

Troy the Band & Cower at ElasticStage

Jaspe, Grietas

jaspe grietas

What would seem to be the debut offering from Tijuana-based post-metal four-piece Jaspe, Grietas runs just 23 minutes at three songs, but carries a full-length’s sense of breadth in doing so. Shades of Amenra persist in the quiet/spoken stretch of “Rios de Polvo II” (11:52), where the lumber that begins opener “Litorales” (9:46) crushes as might a modern Isis before departing into the inevitable stretch of pretty guitar, Russian Circles-esque, but with more plunge in the low frequencies, and the arriving guttural growl of vocals is genre-transgressive in a way that satisfies wholly. Separating the larger pieces is the two-minute droner “Rios de Polvo I,” obviously aligned to the second part that follows, which adds to both the tension and atmosphere of this resoundingly impressive post-doom showcase and highlights the potential that’s so prevalent in Jaspe‘s sound. I’ll take an album of this for sure. Just say when.

Jaspe on Bandcamp

Jaspe on Instagram

Yung Druid, Wooden Lungs

Yung Druid Wooden Lungs

Two songs, 20 minutes. Yung Druid, in continued collaboration with Totem Cat Records, offer Wooden Lungs, comprised of the 11-minute “Wooden Lung” and the nine-minute “Space Cowboy.” Both songs owe some debt in swagger to Led Zeppelin, but “Wooden Lung,” in the vocal arrangement and steady nod, reminds more of Iota‘s 2024 return, Pentasomnia, in its fluid progression and grunge-style harmonies. Not a complaint. Also not complaining about the uptick in fuzz for “Space Cowboy,” which still manages to move despite the primordial pool of tone in which it seems to soak. A riff for riffers, that one. Originally based in London around the time of their 2019 self-titled debut (discussed here), the band have moved between the Spain, Australia and New Zealand. It can be difficult for a band who were all together in the rehearsal space to transition to working remotely, but if Wooden Lungs is their proof of concept, they can make a go of it.

Yung Druid on Bandcamp

Totem Cat Records store

The Crystal Teardrop, …Is Forming

The Crystal Teardrop Is Forming

Issued through Rise Above Records imprint Popclaw (see also Bobbie Dazzle and Scott Hepple and the Sun Band), The Crystal Teardrop‘s debut long-player, …Is Forming, sounds remarkably ‘formed,’ if you want to think of it in those terms, as regards aesthetic. Taking a heaping dose of influence from ’60s garage and daring toward Beatlesism on the sweetly bouncing “Borrowed Time” or the Help-toned “Two Hearts,” the band present a retroist face but hold back from IYKYK-style gatekeeping via pop songwriting and the sweep of the later “Turn You Down,” which is a ruffled-hair rush ahead of the similarly shoving “Stealing Suggestions” and the perhaps inevitable psychedelic delve of the closing pair “Nine Times Nine.” and “…Is Forming,” the latter of which has enough backward guitar to meet whatever your quota might be before it unfurls darker instrumental heavy proto-prog like it’s something the band just invented. Rise Above is ready for the garage rock revolution, ready to foster a new generation of artists, but as ever, the question is whether or not the world at large can keep up. …Is Forming argues fervently in favor of trying.

The Crystal Teardrop links

Rise Above Records website

Doom Lab, Desert Caravan Doom

Doom Lab Desert Caravan Doom

The adventures of Alaska’s Leo Scheben and his Doom Lab continue, declaring a genre in Desert Caravan Doom and then immediately setting about defying its parameters with an encompassing, continually on-its-own-wavelength craft, increasingly clear production, and varied intent across the 12-song/43-minute long-player, with creeps like raw East Coast hardcore in “What’s Your Angle?” before the jazzy puns take further hold in “Feeling Minor and Diminished,” pieces like “Fives” and “Desert Hailstorm” tapping into some Stinking Lizaveta-type intensity while the sweetly alt-rocking “At Dusk” and the “Gimmie One Drop (Dub)” and “Desert Caravan Improvisation” — with a new live drummer, reportedly — add to the fabric of Doom Lab‘s ongoing explorations in style and expression. Desert Caravan Doom isn’t as dark, on average, as some of Doom Lab‘s output, and that comparative lightness of mood lets it swing all the more, but Scheben‘s never just been/done one thing, and Desert Caravan Doom holds to this dynamic as well.

Doom Lab on Bandcamp

Doom Lab on YouTube

Liquid Pennies, Fore

liquid pennies fore

The synth and keyboard elements play a significant role throughout Liquid PenniesFore, as “Tapered Scape” and “Ready Tide” demonstrate early on, never mind the 11-minute “Echolalia,” which also has plenty of time for its heavy breakout in the middle third and doomier-until-it-thrashes ending. “Sight Skewer” finds the adventurous Floridian unit evoking nostalgia with fuzz and melody, the drum machine patterning working in contrast to the heavier tones, but feeling by that point very much part of the thing. Presumed side B starter “Elliptic Triptych” brings a bit more functional aggression to the mix, while the three-minute droner “Further Ennui” gives transition to the terrestrial acoustic strum in the pastiche of “The Bone,” which grows broader while remaining melodically intricate, and the closing title-track runs the atmospherics backwards for, well, backwards atmospherics. There’s some influence from All Them Witches at work, but four albums in, Liquid Pennies are onto something special in sound, and one hopes the pursuit continues.

Liquid Pennies links

Threat Collection Records website

Mordbear, Mordbear

mordbear mordbear

A fascinating debut three-song EP from Portland, Oregon’s Mordbear, released by Dipterid Records as a single-sided 12″ vinyl, comic book included. If that seems elaborate for what’s basically a demo, there’s the rub. “Like the Dead,” “A Mirror with a Sea of Flames” and “The Alchemist” are resoundingly cohesive and sure of their construction. The style is modern stoner with nascent hints of prog leaking through — again, modern — and in the seven minutes of “The Alchemist,” the scope feels broader as they methodically unfurl their riffing. Meanwhile, “Like the Dead” leads off with atmospheric semi-desert heavy, catchy and nodding and slow, and “A Mirror with a Sea of Flames” has more of a rhythmic tumble. When Mordbear lock into a bigger groove in the middle cut, there’s some hint of Monolord to their sound, but ‘their sound’ is hardly a settled issue, so the exploration is welcome even as they seem to have so much nailed down in terms of style.

Mordbear on Bandcamp

Dipterid Records on Bandcamp

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Here are 37 Yung Druid Download Codes — Have at It

Posted in Features on June 4th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

London heavy psych rockers Yung Druid released their self-titled debut album last month on Totem Cat Records. Preceded by the single “Take Me to Your Dealer” (video premiere here), which also serves as the leadoff of the six-track outing, it’s a moh-dern stoh-ner’s delight, with shades of the UK’s having-a-really-good-time-doing-this atmosphere that might generally manifest in a sillier, longer moniker, coupled together with a laid back approach in cuts like “Sleepy Eyes (Sonic THC)” and the Zeppelin-and-Sabbath “Underneath the Aching Sky,” with a ride cymbal drift in the latter that’s neither overstated nor under-present in the song.

Guitars are duly fuzz-coated to suit the giant-doober-smoking four-piece’s vibe on “Lung,” and even in the meandering daydreamy expanse of “Sleepy Eyes (Sonic THC)” and the melo-grunge roll of closer “Morning Come,” or the relatively minimalist spaceout jam in “Went into a Wooden Room” before it, they hold to a sense of patterning that speaks to their ability to cast forth an aesthetic that sounds loose but isn’t at all without a plan it’s working from but is entirely unpretentious in its execution. If you asked them, they’d probably just call it stoner and leave it at that. And yes, as regards character, I consider that a compliment.

While we’re talking about positive personality attributes, the band approached me with the killer idea of hosting a giveaway for a bunch of downloads of the album. My response was of course yes, obviously, and you’ll find below 37 free codes to let you get your hands on some tunes to make your day. No comment necessary — though if you wanted to leave one to tell the band thanks, I’m sure they’d appreciate it — and all you have to do is grab the thing from the link and enjoy. If you find afterward you need to own a physical copy — understandable — Totem Cat‘s got you set.

If the code you use doesn’t work, just do the next one down the line. When they’re gone, they’re gone:

yung druid self titled

Yung Druid download codes

Redeem at: https://yungdruid.bandcamp.com/yum

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l3cr-yy7k
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gfg4-hqkt
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tj5j-b2uv
2g76-whj9
atl2-c58t
7u2a-k3gc
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hp8z-gq5q
4fnn-uz2t
qwdv-jzx7
ghq6-kgm5
34b2-gu9r
5pxd-uv6l
r6ce-v98j
d3hf-g87k
pael-3nm9
v9kj-7l32
6y36-5jdh
u2at-bgw5
lm9t-xuhr
qgt3-vpqd
bunm-6rgc
wla9-klfx
cp9k-gm5q
s72u-u62t
pwxa-j6x7
8se8-kym5
u97g-w4q9
vywn-cpgt
9kjm-x2r7
zng7-jdhv
nakx-yca8
56zp-7h32
gz28-5vdh
32my-byw5
dv8z-hfhr
pgzn-vaqd
r22v-62gc
xn47-ygfk
j5ed-b7v9
976s-xvzt
zl3c-eyy7

Yung Druid, Yung Druid (2019)

Yung Druid on Thee Facebooks

Yung Druid on Bandcamp

Yung Druid on Soundcloud

Totem Cat Records on Thee Facebooks

Totem Cat Records on Bandcamp

Totem Cat Records webstore

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Yung Druid Premiere “Take Me to Your Dealer” Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 7th, 2018 by JJ Koczan

yung druid video

Whoever decided to put London four-piece Yung Druid in front of a green screen very clearly had the right idea. I’m going to guess that was the masterful decision of director Emily McDonald, and if so, kudos. Likewise to whichever involved party decided to include the candy flying saucers along with all the background footage and other low-budget effects thereof, and then not onto to have the jar, but to actually throw the candy at the band as they play, in alien masks. Also it’s shot on VHS. Also there’s a baby that gets zapped by alien lightning eyes and everyone has fun wearing colors that disappear on the green screen. Also they ride a pretend rocketship wrapped in tin foil and smoke a giant novelty joint. Also the song rules. It’s all kind of genius.

The track is called “Take Me to Your Dealer,” and it comes from Yung Druid‘s self-titledyung druid take me to your dealer debut album, which is set to release before the end of the year on Totem Cat Records. Recorded by Mark Jasper in East London, the sound and vibe are as hash-oiled as the video concept, and so the two couldn’t be more appropriate together. It’s a right-on riff for those who might dig on the likes of Witch or some of their rawer stoner acolytes, but the sense of personality, aural and visual, is a marked distinguishing factor. Yung Druid had a demo out in 2016 that in cuts like “Underneath the Aching Sky” and “Went into a Wooden Room” called to mind a somewhat psych-doomier take on earliest Groan with hints of Elephant Tree-style melody in the vocals of “Lung,” and while I don’t know if any of them or the Blind Melon-meets-first-album-Mars Red Sky esque melody of “Morning Come,” which capped the demo, will be included on the self-titled, their over-the-top leads, languid nods and spacious reach offer context for where “Take Me to Your Dealer” is coming from.

Accordingly, I’ve included the demo in an embed at the bottom of this post. “Take Me to Your Dealer” is six minutes long but has no problem holding the viewer/listener’s attention for the duration. For its intriguing take on familiar elements, the burgeoning charm of its execution, and for how well it portends the album to be released, I’m thrilled to be able to host the premiere of the video.

You’ll find more info under the player below. Yung Druid play The Bird’s Nest in Deptford tonight, Sept. 7, in the company of Morag TongTrevor’s Head and Dead Lettuce.

Please enjoy:

Yung Druid, “Take Me to Your Dealer” official video premiere

Yung Druid on “Take Me to Your Dealer”:

It’s a send-up but in a way that’s representative of the best parts of the Stoner genre in general… a holy quadrangle of pastiche, tribute, weed, and evolution. “Take Me To Your Dealer” is pretty indicative of the way we approach music in general. It’s loud, exploratory, rooted in what may or may not have actually happened, and good to crush beers to.

We started recording a year or so back in a converted shed in a semi-industrial part of East London. The initial sessions resulted in a handful of demos which later found their way onto the final cut. We returned a few months later and finished the job, turning up louder to compete with the sonic frequency of the African Evangelical church who had set up next door.

London based, ‘70s inspired Stoner Rock band YUNG DRUID have unleashed their debut video clip for the track ‘Take Me To Your Dealer’; the first single from the band’s forthcoming self-titled LP, due for release via boutique Stoner/Doom label Totem Cat Records in late 2018. It was recorded, mixed and mastered by Mark Jasper at Soundsavers Studio, East London.

The retro inspired clip, shot on VHS by filmmaker Emily McDonald, is a psychedelic trip through space; cue alien transformations, flying babies, and a smattering of other ‘organic’ stimulus. To celebrate the release of the video, Yung Druid will be headlining the September edition of the Doom residency show at The Bird’s Nest in Deptford, alongside fellow UK riff merchants Trevor’s Head, Morag Tong and Dead Lettuce, on September 7.

Project: Yung Druid – Take Me To Your Dealer
Director: Emily McDonald
DOP: Joseph Gainsborough
Art Dept: Samantha Crossley
Editor: Emily McDonald
AFX: Kieran Gee-Finch

Yung Druid is:
Jack Oliver – Guitars and Vocals
Magnus Reid – Drums
Luke Waldock – Bass
Chris Reid – Guitars

Yung Druid on Thee Facebooks

Yung Druid on Bandcamp

Yung Druid on Soundcloud

Totem Cat Records on Thee Facebooks

Totem Cat Records on Bandcamp

Totem Cat Records webstore

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