5 posts tagged “psychedelic”
Soup wrote this:
Portland's Grails dropped their new album, Doomsdayer's Holiday on Temporary Residence today. They play a sort of heavy classic rock, blues and folk influenced post-rock kind of thing, somehow defying any attempt at categorization or pigeonholing.
The title track is probably as straight-up metal as these guys get, with its classic doom metal guitar bringing to mind bands like Black Sabbath and Candlemass without ever ripping off either of them. The second track, “Reincarnation Blues,” is definitely my favorite on here. Starting out simple with bells and a wind instrument (I'm not sure what it is) playing an awesome blues riff. Then the guitars come in and the track turns into an energetic psychedelic blues freakout that winds down into an ambient drone outro with some sampled chanting underneath it. “The Natural Man” is folk music for astronauts. It channels the feel of David Bowie's “Space Oddity” into something else entirely. Something that sounds undeniably classic without being too self-conscious about it. “Immediate Mate” seems to kind of want to hang in the background. Starts out with a quiet blues guitar riff and some keyboards and subtle percussion. It's sort of an ambient jazz thing, and the glitched out electronics and awesome jazz percussion keep it interesting. “Predestination Blues” picks up where “Reincarnation Blues” left off. It's a slower song, drowned in reverb with the same kind of feel. Meditative chanting provides a base from which swirling guitars build up over the last two minutes or so of the track. The next track, “X-Contamination” builds up from a droning keyboard into a swirling mass of samples and loops into an awesome spaced-out blues-rock thing, which is gone almost as soon as it began, degenerating back into the primordial soup it came from. The last track, “Acid Rain,” starts with a lazy, stoned Dark Side of the Moon style guitar thing with some electronics building up under it until they eventually overtake it in a sort of staticky climax that, much like the radio fading out, quickly fades out and disappears. There are some vocals here. Very subtle, buried under the guitars and bass and drums. Eventually, this fades out to make way for a warm, reverb drenched guitar meditation.
These guys are playing a show on October 12th with Sunn o))) in Portland. After that, they're going on a short east coast tour with the Silver Apples (who I am frankly surprised are still around, but it's an appropriate fit, I think)! As always, more information can be found at the band's official website.
Oct 12 2008 8:00P Berbati’s Pan, w/Sunn0)) Portland, Oregon
Nov 11 2008 8:00P Empty Bottle Chicago, Illinois
Nov 12 2008 8:00P Skull Alley Louisville, Kentucky
Nov 13 2008 8:00P Hi Tone, with Silver Apples Memphis, Tennessee
Nov 14 2008 9:00P Caledonia, with Silver Apples Athens, Georgia
Nov 15 2008 8:00P Drunken Unicorn, with Silver Apples Altanta, Georgia
Nov 16 2008 8:00P Emerald Lounge, with Silver Apples Asheville, North Carolina
Nov 18 2008 8:00P Local 506, with Silver Apples Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Nov 19 2008 8:00P Ottobar, with Silver Apples Baltimore, Maryland
Nov 20 2008 8:00P Bard College Poughkeepsie, New York
Nov 21 2008 8:00P Union Pool Brooklyn, New York
Nov 22 2008 9:00P Knitting Factory Manhattan, New York
I'm all about sludge and bands with a good ear for repetition. Anyone who's paid attention to any article I've written is probably well aware of that. And it's been a while since I wrote about a band that sent us something that's all about that, too. So with that having been said, Italy's Ufomammut combine a sludge assault reminiscent of early Isis with subtle psychedelic flourishes that tie it all together into something unique. Their new album, Idolum, is out now, and I have to say, I'm really digging it.
“Stigma” opens the disc with an oddly timed guitar riff that builds and layers, eventually adding reverb-drenched organs and some of the most “musical” shouted vocals ever recorded. “Stardog” is where they assert that they were just getting started. A heavy downtuned guitar riff provides a backbone, while strange, barely audible samples and the shouts of the singer take stabs at it, only to all come to a complete stop, after which everything comes back together into a jam session vaguely reminiscent of White Light/White Heat era Velvet Underground, with insane drumming and noisy, squealing guitar that sound quite graceful together. “Hellectric” reminds me a lot of Isis on Celestial. With that really mathy backbone making what could otherwise sound like a slow song at the beginning sound evil as it builds into pile after pile of oceanic waves of sound. The bass drum-heavy breakdown and the subsequent build-up, however, are the defining moment of this song. On the other hand, “Ammonia,” despite sounding really evil, with lots of what sounds like flanger and reverb all over the place, with whispered vocals subtly audible underneath parts of it, actually is that slow song. It's got that sort of pseudo-”Egyptian” vibe going on, with guest-vocalist Rose Kemp lending her rather impressive voice to the track, and it works pretty damn well. And, of course, just because it's slow doesn't mean it doesn't build up into into a heavy psychedelic stoner jam! Granted, it doesn't pick up a lot of speed, but it'll still melt your eardrums if you play it too loud. What more could you ask for? The next track, “Nero,” just kinda seems like a logical progression from that. An 8-minute dirge that instantly cranks the heaviness, but then dwells on that alone without worrying about the speed too much. Once again, what I like about this is how the vocals seem to exist solely for the purpose of cutting through all the sludge being laid down by the instruments. The psyched-out breakdown at the end is about as majestic as that sort of thing gets. With all that slow noodling, the full-on aggression of “Destroyer” is pretty welcome when it shows up. The psychedelia of the past couple tracks is still there, too, channeled into spacey breakdowns throughout. The last track, “Void/Elephantom,” actually two tracks tied together by a meandering, overly long middle bit is probably what I like least on here. The tracks themselves are good. And honestly, if I was listening to this on vinyl, I'd probably be a lot more forgiving, just because it is really hard to take a track this long when you have a music library sitting in front of you and you could change the song at the push of a button. But, unfortunately, that's how the vast majority of listeners are going to hear this, and I'd be willing to bet a lot of them are probably going to skip about half the track every listen after the first, if they don't skip it altogether. “Void” opens with a slow space rock thing with sung vocals buried under it. Eventually it gets heavy, and then it breaks down. Then it's a meandering ambient keyboard thing for about 15 minutes. The length of it is kind of overboard, and it could've used some trimming. Toward the end of it, samples start coming in and “Elephantom” starts up. It's a heavy thing, with lots of really cool samples and a sort of “jammy” vibe and a looser feel than most of the rest of the album.
This
album is out now, it's damn solid and worth a listen, and these guys
have a European tour coming up in November. Keep watching their
website for details on that. They sound like they'd be pretty sweet
live. The album is on CD and there's a limited edition double-LP for all you vinyl geeks. The transparent sold out, and as of this writing, there's about 200 copies of the black left; it goes for 40 Euros, so if you've got a lot of cash lying around to spend on records, and you like what you hear, you might be interested in that. The packaging is definitely pretty top-notch.
-Soup
Seattle's Jex Thoth (formerly Totem), play a solid girl-fronted psychedelic doom. This is one of those CD's that just kind of came out of nowhere and surprised me with how good it is.
The album opens with a short intro followed by a kind of weird downtuned guitar sound, with Jex Thoth (the name of both the singer and the band) channeling Sabbath-era Ozzy Osbourne in her own unique, and really cool way. Topped off by an atonal solo, I'd say this track (entitled “Nothing Left to Die”) kicks off the album in a pretty awesome way.
The second track, “The Banishment” is based around an organ played in a way that makes me wonder how many flaming pentagrams they had going in the studio. Kind of kitschy, but tasteful. Reminds me of some old horror movie. It ends with a sped-up section with a guitar solo in it.
The next track is “Obsidian Night,” which opens with a downtuned, sludgy intro and a guitar lead with some gnarly feedback on it. Jex's vocals are particularly good on this track. I don't know if the echo effect that comes in about halfway through is really necessary, but it doesn't detract so much as just distract, and actually, on second listen, sounds pretty cool.
“Seperated at Birth” is a more uptempo track. I really dig the guitar lead on this one. The vocals stand out here, once again. This one leads into another more uptempo track called “Son of Yule,” which starts out all about the sludge and surprises with a sudden turn into organ-based psych territory and then breaks down to prepare for re-entry into the same heavy-ass sludge it started with.
“Warrior Woman” is a little more downtempo, and unfortunately, is the victim of rather poor placement on the album. I kinda wish it wasn't positioned right before the album's centerpiece, “Equinox Suite,” which is made up of four parts. “The Poison Pit” has some awesome guitar tone, with a sort of “medieval” vibe, and some restrained vocals that serve as a fitting intro to the rest of it. Part two, the instrumental “Thawing Magus,” is more on the psych end of things, with a syncopated hand drum beat under a noodling guitar line. It builds into a sort of reverb-drenched “jammy” thing, that leads straight in to part three, another instrumental confusingly titled “Invocation Pt. 1,” which is even more on the psych end of things, with the organ's tone sort of reminiscent of Geogaddi-era Boards of Canada. This track's purpose is to build into part four, “The Damned and Divine,” which is not an instrumental! The vocals kick back in. It's a slower track with an emphasis on the loud/quiet dynamic and the strength of the vocals, trading sections with sparsely arranged hand drums and vocals with a classic Sabbath-based sludge.
They follow that up with “When the Raven Calls,” which isn't one of the album's strongest tracks, and is also kind of a victim of being placed right after one of the album's strongest tracks. Thankfully, it closes on a good'un. “Stone Evil” opens with a sparsely arranged guitar/hand drum/feedback intro that's drowned out by what sounds almost like a low-flying plane and classic doom vocals to top it all off.
This is a great album, and I'm really glad to have gotten it for review. This band doesn't appear to be touring or anything right now. But other than this album, they have a split out with Pagan Altar, and a self-titled 3-song mini-CD from when they were called Totem. I haven't heard either of their other releases, but if this one is anything to go by, I'd be willing to bet they're good.
More info can be found at the band's official MySpace page
-Soup
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As I previously mentioned, I'm totally using the Google Calendars. What's really cool is you can add weather, so if you're bicycling, like me, you can see right away if it's going to rain seven days in advance so you can plan around it. You can also add show times, for instance, I've added the Lost broadcast to my calendar, because seriously, this show is like on/off and can't keep a steady schedule.
In addition to public calendars, you can also add friends, so feel free to add 
or 
to see what CDs are being released and what concerts I'll be attending
(usually in Minneapolis, so it's probably not that useful to you).
Well the W♥M Calendar is telling me that it's Memorial Day today... which perfectly leads to "The Winter Soldier" by Austin, Texas' Ghost of the Russian Empire from their debut album, The Mammoth (released on May 13th).
This whole album seems to have been inspired by (later) Radiohead with, possibly Doves influences. Singer, Brandon Whitten, does also have Thom Yorke-like quality vocals (especially on "The Black Mark"), and if you're still not convinced he's a huge Radiohead fan, here is a blog entry from him:
In Rainbows--thoughts?
Thursday, October 11, 2007how's everyone liking the new radiohead album? i'm probably extremely biased because they're my favorite band, so it's hard for them to do wrong in my eyes (ears?). i think it's pretty damn solid. a little more chilled out in some spots and minimalized to good effect. i really hope they tour again soon. anyways, just want to see what you all are thinking.
I felt the band is at best when it's more rock n roll in "A Decade Without a Death" and "The Winter Soldier". I do appreciate them trying new sounds like creepy atmospheric background noises in "Hammer Hands" and feedback guitar technique on "Bleeding Machines", but when you have an image of a giant mammoth as an iconic symbol for your album, you just expect more monstrous loud rock or something. This is more of an image/perception thing on my behalf, however.
If you're a fan of Radiohead with a dab of psychedelic rock, don't pass The Mammoth, out now on Thirty Ghosts Records.
Links:
ghostoftherussianempire.com
myspace.com/ghostoftherussianempire
A week or two ago, I got a package in the mail from Vu. In it were two CD's for review, and due to illness, and being really busy with other things, I kinda ended up sitting on 'em for a while. One of them caught my eye instantly, and I decided that that's the one I'm going to be talking about first.
Nuclear Lipstick by Crazy Mary has an album cover that can only be described as bizarre, in that “90's throwback” sorta way. It could probably be mistaken for a bad post-grunge CD based on the cover alone. Fortunately, that's not at all what we have here.
At its core, this is psychedelic rock, but it's done in a surprisingly (and refreshingly) strange way thanks to a combination of a fiddle player with a really unique style, the entire band sharing vocal duties, and the reverb that quite a bit of it is drowned in. You can tell that they're drawing from a pretty eclectic pool of influences. “Americanized” opens with a syncopated drum beat and fuzzed out guitar, and features probably the most political lyrics on the album. “Nuclear Lipstick” features a strange, sort of Primus-y guitar lead and sci-fi keyboards, and might be one of the more straightforward tracks on the album. “Damn Good” is an instrumental space jam with a laid back sound and a really cool bass part, and it leads quite well into the reggae-influenced intro of “Baby Don't Take it Away.” Other highlights include “That Same Old Feel Once Again,” and the instrumental, “The Dolphins are Swimming.”
Overall,
while it's not something I'd typically listen to, it's still definitely a
pretty good listen, especially in the right mood, and I'm sure quite
a few people reading this will enjoy it. Unfortunately, I don't have
any tour dates or anything to post. The band's website and MySpace
page list nothing. But I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for 'em!
-Soup
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