From the exotic & prolific New Zealand soil comes the feedback-laden psychedelic blast from the dynamic trio Sunken Seas. Rising from its post-punk beginnings, the members of the group gaze at their footwear while remembering to wear flowers in their hair. “Null Hour” is a blasting, fuzzy and healthily amplified collection of alienated anthems and soaring jams with some post-rockish space to breathe every now and then. A slow burner, sinks in slowly. Highly recommended!
This Mexican psychedelic “supergroup” is hellbent to transport the listener into the heart of the dense, intense psychedelic experience. Headed by the mysterious shaman Rancho Shampoo, the group travels the musican world, throwing dancey tribal workouts, dubby bassy bliss, fuzzed out desert rock and a pit of a religious ritual mysteriousness into a trippy, mind-expanding mix. Highly recommended!
One of the finest releases from the generally all-killer no-filler catalogue of Sweat Lodge Guru, “Six Movements in Four Hours” by this ghost drone band from the dusty nowhere of Lincoln, Nebraska (US of A), combines the slowest, most molasses-flood like post-rock of GY!BE or Tarentel, haunted psychedelic desert music of Barn Owl and the haziest, most othewordly moments of Low and you’re getting close to describing the sound of the Bus Gas quartet. Heavy, trippy, beautiful and pregnant with emotion. Birth. Re-birth. Cosmic reunion. Slowcore? More like the slowest core. Highly recommended.
Here’s a nice little offering from our German friends: a three song long EP offering a look at fuzzed out, classical stoner/psychedelic rock with a more concise, melodic edge, complete with lyrics, choruses, solos, codas and all the standard song structures. The cover doesn’t give any clue, but this EP will have you thinking of hot women (or men, depending on sex/orientation, this is an all-friendly blog ;) ), even hotter American classic muscle cars and, most of all, sweet sweet sticky dank buds. Check out the groovy bass licks and the relaxing organ workouts in “Dunerider”, for example. Or the fuzzed-out guitar solo in “Circus of Life”. Man, makes me miss the 70’s even though I was born in the late 80’s.
http://www.impossiblecolours.com
(Vinyl LP, Adrian Records, 2013)
First of all: Good God, that’s one scary cover. It kinda reminds me of that urban legend painting that was allegedly haunted or the shit from the SCP Foundation (if you haven’t heard of that website and you’re going to read it at night, don’t expect to go to sleep anytime soon). Thankfully, the music here doesn’t go in the same direction as the artwork does (which is not say it’s not a bitchin’ piece of art, but it’s pretty unsettling). Instead of muffled screams and deep, echoing noises we get floral, oriental psych-krautrock in the style of Agitation Free or Brainticket. Plus the band’s from Sweden, a country that can be always trusted upon with their psychedelic music (take Goat’s “World Music” as the latest example, even if it’s been hyped to oblivion in the last few months).
“Pushing this power, this energy out of my head…” - a monologue in English with a heavy foreign accent begins side A’s “Spectra” (the album is divided into two side-long tracks). A slowly rolling jam reads like a guitar duel: on one side there’s a snakelike, oriental guitar shamanism, on the other there are explosions of fuzzy, distorted guitar. First fighting, like melodic psychedelia wrestling with noise rock, the guitars later begin to work in unison, propelled forward by calm, slow drumming that further enhance the smokey, oriental feel of the album. The musicians keep pushing this power out of their heads in a mandala-like fashion, building the laid back jam around a few simple riffs adorned with proggy organ workouts.
The second track, “Starokorokas” begins in a similar manner, slowly, with a heavily hasheeshian vibe, with a hypnotic bass line and just as equally hypnotic flute playing, much in the vein of Brainticket’s “Celestial Ocean”. The drums grow almost tribal and the dulcimer joins the meditational parade, transporting the listener to the Garden of Eden. But not for long: after a short, almost ambient, dulcimer-driven interlude, the music suddenly, without any warning kicks into a high-octane motorik kraut-jazz jam with a screeching sax and maniacal, re;entless drumming. Guitars explode in violent, sparse chords. It’s a total opposite of the slowed-down psychedelia of side A, an ecstatic explosion of energy that lasts for almost 10 minutes. It’s just for this autobahn-friendly piece alone that this album is well worth recommending. Actually, let the music speak for itself:
Back when I posted Sungod’s “First Matter” on the Blogger based Weed Temple, it was an album filled to the brim with white hot, mind-melting stoner/space rock jams very much in the Hawkwind school of thought. “Crash Galactic”, the 2012 release by the same band, doesn’t rock as much, this time going for a more mind-expanding approach, doing less freakout jams and more droning nirvana sessions. It’s partially psych folk, partially New Age, partially kosmische musik and partially psychedelic rock free jam, but all in all it’s a 70+ minute long spectacle of cosmic powers and great, great music for trips of all kind (including the sober inner-self meditational trips). Recommended!
The tag list on the Bandcamp page of the simply named “VI” album by Brooklyn’s Evan DeJesus (who makes music under the moniker Misled Navigator) doesn’t give any clues about any particular style or genre that can be expected, instead putting everything under the deceptive cloak of “experimental”. But don’t worry, there are no harsh drones or electoacoustic PhD thesis in there. In fact, “VI” is supremely laid back and relaxing, at times recalling the later albums of Blues Control (especially “Valley Tangents”) or the later, more synth-oriented wave or krautrock on the edge of 70’s and 80’s when they started mingling with synth pop. And if you pardon the minor occasional compositional slips (like the sloppy drums here and there or hitting a note slightly too late), you get an auteur compilation of urban scenes steeped in a psychedelic sauce.
(Cassette, Triangle Tapes, 2012)
I used to dislike live albums for some reason. Maybe it was the worse sound quality than recordings made in the studio or a completely different approach to production - instead of pristine studio environment, where everything could be adjusted, live recordings documented a certain time and place. Or maybe it was the deviations from the studio versions of the songs. But it’s impossible not to deviate with psychedelic rock, where hypnotic grooves and stoned guitar solos reign. Thankfully now, I’ve grown to appreciate the grit and documentary quality of live recordings.
With this cassette we fall into the middle of the psychedelic capital of the world. 3 Leafs recorded this set at the legendary venue Cafe du Nord in December 2011, but we had to wait until 2013 when the fresh London cassette label released it on cassette - two sides of unedited, unpaused and untreated psych rock goodness with a bass line that makes one’s brain melt with its sheer depth and power. Bass here is on the forefront, leaving the electric guitar behind a bit - not sure if this was the musician’s intention or it’s just how the mixing turned out. But thanks to this one can only appreciate more the importance of the good bassline in psychedelic rock. It’s really snakelike and hypnotic, meaty and heavy - just as it should be. Electric guitars can get really attention-craving and show-offy in psych rock, with Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. being the best, most jarring example. On “Live at Cafe du Nord”, 3 Leafs invert the situation, putting the bass in the spotlight. The drummer shifts between a propelling, somewhat tribal style full of cymbal crashes and breaks and minimalistic, fast-paced motorik. The guitar serves more like a tool for providing intriguing textures and lengthy drones, making the term “drone rock” quite appropriate for 3 Leafs, or at least this specific recording. Occasional synth warbles also enhance the psychedelic atmosphere, rising and disappearing in the bassed-out fog and intense drumming in the vein of Jaki Liebezeit circa “Delay 1968” sessions.
“Live at Cafe du Nord” perfectly channels the trippy atmosphere of the club, transporting the listener to the live concert, making them imagine the people, the visuals, the smells and the grooves coming from the amplifiers. It’s a great audio documentary of a great set played by great people. There’s a very good reason this is released on cassette - because it’s not digital, there’s no indication of length or the time that has passed since the beginning of listening, rendering the session seem almost endless at times and making the listener wish it played for a lot longer. The cassette allows to forget about the time constrains and fully focus on the sound. Highly recommended.
(Vinyl LP, Ba Da Bing Records, 2013)
This fresh split from Ba Da Bing places some of the leading forces in experimental rock music against themselves, but also makes them work in unison towards a greater goal: on side A there is Rangda, a psychedelic supergroup comprised of Chris Corsano on drums and Sir Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny, both wielding guitars. Side B is occupied by New Zealand noise rock legends The Dead C comprised of Michael Morley, Bruce Russell and Robbie Yeats, who are also some of the greatest deconstructionist of guitar-based canon, those who took rock music and left it rusting in the sun, consumed by rust and decay.
Rangda’s side consists of two rather lengthy tracks: even without ever hearing the band as a whole, yet knowing the individual style of each musician, one can already feel what to expect: it’s ornamental, oriental and incredibly rich and nuanced. Corsano walks a fine line between off-the-hook improv madness and careful, balanced, almost meditative slow passages while Bishop and Chasny go through a masterful guitar duel of a somewhat improvisational nature without ever going astray or wandering into a cheap showmanship. The trio works in harmony, channeling the psychedelic energy without having to resort for an overblown, fuzzy destruction. There is a sense of happinnes and joy in Rangda’s music, which is further accented by the sudden burst of laughter at the end of opening “Gracilaria”. The following “Sancticallist” takes a slightly more meditative tone without losing any energy. It sounds like a more kinetic version of a Six Organs of Admittance piece, climbing the holy mountain and enjoying the view of the world.
The things on Dead C’s side, however, get darker and more grimy with the lo-fi, harsh guitar tones and a slow, synthesized drum pattern on “EUSA Kills”. If Rangda’s side was the euphoric, all-loving high from a psychedelic drug, then Dead C provide a soundtrack for the nasty, hazy comedown - the remains of hallucinations still linger in the brain, with ghostly, barely audible vocals spewing forth deadpan, dark lyrics and the guitar, once an instrument of beauty and endless satisfaction, now becomes a tool of torture, with the droning, drilling tone and a sandpapery torture. The Dead C’s tracks don’t even try to resemble any actual melodies or structures, they just stumble through the post-narcotic chaos, knocking furniture over and causing mayhem while constantly praying: “let me come back to reality, let me get a grip!” But the comedown won’t let off that easily. It gets hardest on the closing piece, “Heaven’s Wheel”. No easy solutions, no clean getaways here. Just the funeral, atonal and droning guitars set to a maniacal, basic drum rhythm that sounds like a heart beating way too fast. Anyone who has ever experienced the uncontrollably fast heartrate after ingesting a drug will identify with this piece. Few bands can produce a sonic equivalent of fear and paranoia as well as those New Zealanders.
This split vinyl LP is truly a SPLIT in the truest sense of the word: it is a panorama of vastly different moods. From the ever-unwinding peaceful jams on Rangda side to the blackened drone rock on Dead C’s side, the album presents two approaches to the psychedelic experience, both just as competent and compelling. Highly recommended.
(Cassette, Eiderdown Records, 2013)
Is the title of the newest cassette by the German grusekraut collective Datashock an obvious reference to the album by the NYC rapper A$AP Rocky? Yes, it is.
Are there any similarities between that album and the Eiderdown cassette? No, there aren’t. Well, actually, if someone would look real hard, they would probably draw a connection between the band’s calmer moments and the ambient-infused work of producer Clams Casino, but let’s not get that far. If there are any parallels that can be drawn between A$AP Rocky and Datashock, it is their mutual love for the sweet leaf (and while the Germans never explicitly mention it anywhere, their music speaks for themselves).
Let’s stay with the cold, hard facts: Datashock, similaringly to their psychedelic Japanese forefathers Acid Mothers Temple, like to refer to other/more known artists and albums in their own albums. They both embrace the atmosphere of freedom and don’t prefer to limit themselves to a tight, closely-knit rules of what constitues a musical composition or a song. Recorded while making the stellar “Pyramiden von Gießen” LP, the two lengthy tracks hit the similar vibe of hippie commune abandon and drugged out freedom that should be the staple of every freewheeling psychedelic collecitve.
The first few opening minutes of “Into the Abyss” is almost ambient: a drumless, somewhat melancholic and slowly unfolding vista with faraway synth notes and droning, ritualstic vocals and an electric guitar that is just barely there, only to remind the listener of its existence with shyly played notes. The break comes around the 8th minute mark, with the bass kicking in to lock a groove, the electric guitar that provides sparse, yet crucial blasts and some drums to finally provide a sense of rhythm. From that moment on, the jam gains power and gets more amplified, to get to the stonery, fuzzy end much in the vein of the electric-guitar oriented Kraftwerk on their one of a kind “Bremen K4 Radio” live recording.
Side B’s “Noch ein bisschen Erbs” also begins slowly, but in a more liquidy, almost aquatic way, with the gentle guitar tremolo and the bubbling synths sounding like a meeting point of Super Minerals and Bee Mask. Wordless vocals also reign here, with a disembodied whine or wail once in a while and the rough violin occasionally emerging, like a sound that lost its way in a Velvet Underground jam and went all the way to the Datashock jam. This one also gets faster and more dynamic on the way, with the drums kicking in and the electric guitar getting more presence (finally!), but without getting to the rocking gem. Instead, the second piece is slightly more meditative and desert-friendly, like a Barn Owl piece that decided to grow some balls and rock out a lil’ more.
Long.Live.Data$!
