NOW LISTING THE VINYL VERSION...
Um, yeah!! Windhand. At this point, three albums in, doom lovers, do you need us to tell you they're freaking great? Bow down already. There are lots of lots of doom bands, and dooooom bands, and even dooooooooooooooooooom bands out there dooming it down these days, but Virginia's Windhand are easily at or near the top of that heaping heap. Do not sleep on this latest release of theirs. Heck, they know how to write a 14 minute long doom song that's so groovy and catchy and heavy and utterly hypnotically captivating, that you're startled when it ends. That's something a lot of other doom bands, no matter how long they make their songs, can't do.
Windhand wield plenty of heavier-than-thou (and heavier-than-Sabbath, Vitus, even Electric Wizard) massive fuzzy riffage, plus they have a bunch of other elements that make them unique, including the way they occasionally weave in acoustic Americana parts, and some ambient passages too, amidst the blown out heaviness of the whole thing. Also crucial is their singer, Dorthia Cottrell, who as a female vocalist in this genre is interesting 'cause some of the time you can't tell it's a woman singing, and sometimes you can, but either case she brings a lot of melody and emotion and presence to the vocal parts, adding a lot to the overall, multidimensional Windhand sound. On previous Windhand slab Soma, the band really started making use of the potential of Cottrell's vocals, and Grief's Infernal Flower builds on that.
"Hesperus", the album's quasi-title track (it's in the the lyrics), brings back the surprising Acid Bath comparison we noted in our review of Windhand's debut, in the vocals at least, delivering a catchy refrain, until the lengthy song's final 2 or 3 minutes, which ramp up the already stoned out sludge to incredibly hypnotic, even heavier and harder proportions, before the sudden ending gives way to the next (also 14 minute!) cut's ambient opening, but we're hitting repeat on "Hesperus" already. Damn it's the epic doom jam of the fall, utter doom trance nirvana. Oh, speaking of Nirvana�at times on this album we're reminded of Seattle grunge slowed waaay down, and interestingly enough, Jack Endino produced this.
There's one entire old tymey folky sounding acoustic song here, "Sparrow", following on from some efforts in this direction on Soma as well as Cottrell's solo album earlier this year. It's a nice change of pace, well not pace really� nor even mood� just change in volume and heaviness from most of the other tracks here, which ultimately are all about thee HEAVY sheer slomo groove, married to a melodic sensibility as well. Kinda like Electric Wizard run through some sort of 'especially-melodic, almost-sorta-dreamy' filter. So maybe Electric Wizard with some Mazzy Star to it?? Whatever, it's a beautiful thing. So once again all the doom fanatics here are in love. Windhand rules.
We've had this record by British band Winters (not to be confused with seminal doom-dirge act Winter) for some time now, but as with so many deserving things, didn't find time to review it until now, and it's a shame 'cause it's a great album we probably should have highlighted back when. Well, great if you love Nirvana and things that sound like Nirvana. The worst criticism (unoriginality) that could be leveled against Winters is also their biggest draw - how much they sound like good ol' Nirvana!! That's right. Though this came out (in '07) via England's hairy, heavy Rise Above label (home to the doomy, stoner likes of Electric Wizard and Witchcraft, among others), Winters are a bit poppier than you might expect. With loads of fuzzy, crunchy guitar riffs, yeah - but definitely poppy in an old school GRUNGE way, complete with slightly whiney, sometimes sing-songy vocals very reminiscent of Kurt Cobain's. The Melvins and Black Sabbath and '60s garage psych are all obvious influences (the band also cites The Creation, The Kinks, Elliott Smith, and Witchfinder General, among other inspirations). Their song "Aftershown" is what "Iron Man" would have sounded like if it had been ripped off by Kurt for inclusion on Bleach! And there's plenty more of those sorts of Sabbath meets Shocking Blue riffs and hooks on here, both languid and lurching. Aside from Nirvana, we'd also figure that fans of old Soundgarden and Fudge Tunnel might dig this, among others... or for more recent reference, how 'bout imagining a hybrid of the first albums from Burning Brides and Witch?
Wirkus, Wirkus, Wirkus. We like that name. 'Specially since we now associate it with some great, rainy day glitchtronica music! Subdued, abstract yet melodic drones n' glitch here from Poland-born, Cologne-based electronica artist Paul Wirkus -- a former improv jazz drummer, who has also played in punk and post-rock bands. His calm, clip-clip-clippy electro-acoustical dronological methodology is very lo-fi "live" and melodic, Wirkus creating shimmering, pulsating soundscapes with microphones, minidiscs, samples, loops, effects, and crackly vinyl. Buried in these densely textured tracks you'll hear (what might be) jazz piano, classical strings, and raw electronic noises...it's all layered and distorted and so so lovely. Track five adds a mysterious French (?) male vocal that works quite well. And track eight sounds like Philip Jeck teamed up with Ryoji Ikeda! Highly recommended. We hadn't heard Wirkus' music until now, and we've totally fallen in love. Turns out that this album, while his first for Staubgold, is his fourth solo effort, and he's also done a lot of collaborating as well, so we'll have to look for more of those Wirkus works...
Back on list 126, I (Allan) wrote about my belated discovery of the greatness that is Wishbone Ash's self-titled 1970 debut. Well, now it's about time to follow that up with a rave review of another Wishbone Ash record, this being the newly remastered and expanded edition of their third album, 1972's "Argus". Giving this a few listens, I've come to the conclusion that while their first album is certainly somewhat more of a "heavy rock" outing (think Cream meets Thin Lizzy), "Argus" is equally great, and is actually destined to be one of my ALL TIME favorite albums! Seriously, I'm becoming kinda obsessed with listening to this, with its absolutely gorgeous, gentle melodies and its extended instrumental workouts. Some internet investigation reveals that I'm not alone -- this record is in fact considered by many fans to be Wishbone Ash's absolute masterpiece. They just got everything right on this release, from the evocative cover photo of an ancient sentry to the achingly beautiful, stirring music. I can't get enough of the three-part vocal harmonies, the dual guitar leads, or the melancholic power of the riffs. Favorite tracks include the beautiful British folk of "Leaf And Stream", the anthemic "Warrior", and the shoulda-been-a-pop-hit "Sometime World". The whole album has a timeless vibe. Maybe you could call their style "rural progressive" rock? It's melodic, mystical and complex in ways that make it sound simple.
In addition to being remastered, this new 30th anniversary edition includes three bonus tracks: the entire "Live From Memphis" promo-only EP. These live-on-the-radio versions of "Phoenix" (from their debut) and "Jail Bait" and "The Pilgrim" (from their second album, "Pilgrimage") add another half-hour to the disc, being even more jammed-out and epic than the original studio cuts! So even if you already have the old cd of "Argus", you should consider replacing it with this disc, these bonus tracks are worth it! The loud-soft dynamics and interlocking instrumental loveliness of the live "Pilgrim" are positively 'post-rock', but better of course.
Truly 'classic' rock that needs to be rediscovered. My advice for this week: pick up that new Champs album, and order a copy of this as well. You'll be set for a while then!
This is one of those classic rock '70s bands that I (Allan) had always heard of (their claim to fame was pioneering the twin guitar harmony thing, inspiring Thin Lizzy and later Iron Maiden) but had never heard... Nobody was like, "Dude! Wishbone Ash! You
All right, more '70s "ZamRock"! Last list, in our highlight review of 45,000 Volts by the awesome Ngozi Family, we mentioned that there was another crucial reissue from Zambia on the way that we were looking forward to - that's this, Witch! (Not to be confused with the present-day Witch that's got J. Mascis on drums, they're cool too, but couldn't ever be as cool as this.) The Witch's 1975 album Lazy Bones!! (the two exclamation marks are part of the title) is BADASS. It's got tons of rhythmic umph, and makin'-more-with-less third world charm. Again it's the western garage psych template with African extras.
Some tracks are heavy duty crunchers, such as the curiously named "Tooth Factory" (which sounds like Japan's Speed, Glue, and Shinki, we think), some more spaced and mellow, like "Strange Dream", and still others are loose limbed groovy jams, like the title track. And, you'd better believe there's plenty of fuzz throughout, you'll get your daily dose and then some. Wah wah guitars roam wild, The Witch managing to be wonderfully melodic, funky, and downright distorted across these ten tracks, providing everything we desire from the electric ZamRock phenomenon (similar too, to bands from Nigeria like Blo and Ofege). With English being the official language of Zambia, that's what the vocals are in, sorta nasal and accented and lovely in a gritty way. Kinda hard to know what else to say except, recommended!
There was a Shadoks vinyl reissue of this a while back, but it was prohibitively expensive (close to fifty bucks retail!) so we're really glad they got around to doing this much more affordable compact disc version, licensed from the sole surviving band member and featuring a booklet full of interesting liner notes (by Egon from Now-Again / Stones Throw) and vintage photos.
Witch's self-titled debut from 2006 was one of our absolute favorite "stoner/doom" metal releases of that year (or any year sez Allan!). An unlikely "supergroup" combo consisting in part of members of folk-pysch collective Feathers, with famed alt-rock guitar god J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. on drums (not guitar!), Witch exceeded all expectations with their slow and Sabbathy, heavier than thou, utterly righteous psychedelic doom mastery. OMG, oh my Iommi, the riffs!!
Perhaps aware that they couldn't really outdo (or outdoom?) themselves riff-wise, the debut being such a tough act to follow in that department, the Witchy ones have smartly decided to accentuate some other aspects of their sound on their sophomore slab. So while the first Witch had held hints of SST styled '80s punkishness, our first impression of Paralyzed is that it's definitely much more punked out than its illustrious predecessor. Perhaps Mascis, who used to keep time in hardcore/grind band Deep Wound way back when, wanted more of a workout on the drums. It's quite chaotically energetic and uptempo aggro a lot of the time, along with indulging in their usual lugubrious headbanging trancification. A little less Vitus, a little more Flag (is the song "Gone" a nod to Ginn's other band?). And maybe more Frost, less Sabbath.
Not that they don't bring the riffs, it's just that they don't quite match the 10 on a scale of 1-10 magnitude of those from the likes of "Changing" or "Rip Van Winkle" from the self titled album (how could they?). However, the speedier (in parts) Paralyzed does certainly boast a bonanza of snakey lead guitar action, liberally dosed in tripped out psychedelic FX. We gotta hand it to singer/lead axeman Kyle Thomas, he shows no signs of nervousness taking tangled solos with none other than (let's not forget) J. Mascis bashing away behind him. Nor is he shy on the mic, his vocals sometimes reminding us of the sneer/snarl of Blaine from The Accused... with, still, a bit of the Ozz. Other observations: sometimes we think we hear the cries of garagey pop jangle buried alive on some of these tracks, and at times we might (might) describe Witch as sounding like a way more badass Dead Meadow. Also the more lumbering tracks here ('cause they do slow it down) remind us of some early Melvins or Steel Pole Bathtub. It's a pretty rad, reverby mix altogether, an cool collision of heavy psychotic shambling psych and corroded crossover punk/metal. We're digging it. Comes in a black digipack adorned with the apocalyptic, druggy, melty-looking artwork of bros Luke and Kyle Thomas, which makes it even cooler.
Glory be, talk about a reissue! So, we were pretty excited a couple years ago when Germany's Shadoks (or Normal, or Q.D.K. Media, or whatever they're called) did legit reissues of two amazing albums of '70s African garage psych action by Zambia's Witch (not to be confused with the present-day Witch that's got J. Mascis on drums, they're cool too, but couldn't ever be as cool as this), their 1973 debut Introduction, and 1975's Lazy Bones!! (yes, the two exclamation points are part of that record's title). But now, the Now-Again label has put those two albums together with a ton more stuff, everything ever recorded by this '70s "ZamRock" group, in one super deluxe package consisting of four cds, or six lps!! (The vinyl version being naturally more expensive, but just be glad you didn't buy the two limited lp editions Shadoks put out, which woulda cost more). Again, it's all officially licensed from the sole surviving band member.
So, the first Shadoks cd reish we listed was Lazy Bones!!, which got an all-caps BADASS citation from us. Here's our review: It's got tons of rhythmic umph, and makin'-more-with-less third world charm. Again, it's the western garage psych template with African extras. Some tracks are heavy duty crunchers, such as the curiously named "Tooth Factory" (which sounds like Japan's Speed, Glue, and Shinki, we think), some more spaced and mellow, like "Strange Dream", and still others are loose limbed groovy jams, like the title track. And, you'd better believe there's plenty of fuzz throughout, you'll get your daily dose and then some. Wah wah guitars roam wild, The Witch managing to be wonderfully melodic, funky, and downright distorted across these ten tracks, providing everything we desire from the electric ZamRock phenomenon (similar too, to bands from Nigeria like Blo and Ofege). With English being the official language of Zambia, that's what the vocals are in, sorta nasal and accented and lovely in a gritty way. Kinda hard to know what else to say except, recommended!
Then, not long after, when Introduction was also reissued, we said it to be such a damn delight, living up to the high hopes we had for it. "Zam Rock" at its best - not that we've ever heard any Zam Rock we didn't like, so far the reissues have been uniformly rad! As with Lazy Bones!!, the fuzzed out wah wah'd guitars run rampant, the rhythms are infectious, the organ playing unrestrained, the English language lyrics charming (song titles include "Feeling High", "Like A Chicken" and "See Your Mama"... how could this record NOT be good?). Need we go on? If Lazy Bones!! rocked your world, this should be enough of an introduction to Introduction! While '75's Lazy Bones!! is a bit heavier, any fan will dig this too.
Ok, that's those two. But there's more, that's why you'll want this set, even if you've got those. Now-Again has added two discs (or 8 more lp sides) of material, to cover Witch's complete works from 1972-77. Not just those two albums we've already had, but FIVE albums: Introduction, In The Past, Lazy Bones!!, Lukombo Vibes, and Including Janet. Plus a whole bunch of rare 7" tracks too! All restored/remastered from the original master tapes.
And while we thought maybe their later material, would get more "disco" or something, well, no, for the most part The Witch stayed heavy... and groovy too of course. On 1976's Lukombo Vibes, for instance, tracks like "Devil's Flight" and "Blood Donor" live up to anything on Lazy Bones!!. There's more traditional Zambian folk influence perhaps, more Zam going on in their Rock. In any case, it's for stuff any Witch fan will be happy to hear.
And all this is beautifully packaged with a giant booklet of rare vintage photos and informative text, including an interview with bandleader "Jagari" Chanda, expanding upon the liner notes that Egon from Now-Again / Stones Throw had done for the previous Shadoks releases, which he'd been instrumental in making happen in the first place.
Kudos to Now-Again for giving the Witch discography this deluxe treatment, we're thankful indeed.
We've all been loving the soft lilting new weird free hippy folk of the Feathers, who for us were a recent discovery. And we've always been big fans of J Mascis, the distorted psychedelic indie fuzz of Dinosaur Jr, but even in his stints with sludgy punk rock outift Deep Wound and behind the kit for weirdo metallers Upside Down Cross. But never in our wildest dreams did we imagine the twain would meet. But what do you know? It's either a seriously small world, or there is some not so secret bond joining the disparate music arcs of these long haired fellows. Witch is not necessarily what you might imagine a meeting of Dinosaur Jr. and the Feathers would sound like, although the frilly jackets and bell bottoms and long hair should give you a clue. This is total seventies proto metal meets sludgy groovy stoner rock. Big BIG riffs, groovy and sun baked, blown out and HEAVY. Seriously. We hear Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Trouble, even some Kyuss and more modern stoner/doom outfits, like Witchcraft and Dead Meadow. The vocals are drenched in reverb and are sort of soaring and whining, some definite Ozzy influence there, also at times verging on a reedy Marc Bolan/Comus folky warble. And the guitar sound, OOF! You'd be forgiven for thinking that was Mascis on lead guitar, but he's manning the drum kit here, no the guitars are fuzzy seventies metallic groove, with a guitar sound definitely reminiscent of Sub Pop drone guitar gods Rein Sanction, like Hendrix filtered through Iommi, laced with LSD, dipped in goat's blood, set in the sun to bake and of course slathered in warm distorted fuzz. But with a band like this it's all about the riffs. Everyone knows Sabbath took all the best riffs, that's why so many heavy bands have based entire careers on stealing 'em, but Witch prove that there are still some killer riffs left out there. Heavy and fuzzy enough to bear a passing resemblance to the Sabs, but weird and wooly and unique enough that they can unabashedly claim them as their own. This is definitely another one of those bands like Elope or the Want, that if you didn't know better, and were forced to guess, you could be forgive for thinking Witch were straight out of the seventies (though with maybe 'cause of J, a whif of '80s SST hardcore punk somewhere in there too). Sonically, production wise, the whole package. And while the whole record is heavy and sludgy and groovy, it's worth the price of admission alone for track 5, "Rip Van Winkle" with a riff that is one of THOSE riffs. The whole track is a stone cold classic, from THAT riff, to the crazy blown out psychedelic leads, to the bombastic drumming, the weird arrangement, the wailing vocals, it's hugely heavy, head noddingly hypnotic, head bangingly massive, but groovy and catchy, minor key melodies beneath thick waves of warm guitar fuzz, totally emotional and amazing, it's like the best Sabbath song that never was. Then there's the track right before it, "Changing", that ALSO has one of THOSE riffs, and sounds like some sort of incredible, exotic Saint Vitus/Flower Travellin' Band hybrid. Wow. And all the other songs are pretty amazing too.
We just wish that they could have come up with a name a little more original than Witch. If they were indeed dead set on some sort of Witch name, you can't go wrong adding some appropriately evil or mysterious second word to your band name, I mean, c'mon, we would have gladly taken Featherwitch or even better DINOSAUR WITCH!
Profound Lore brings us the second album in two years from female fronted PDX doom posse Witch Mountain. And for the second time, their weighty Sabbathy stoner sludge is taken to another level by the soaring singing of Uta Plotkin, who can really belt it out, damn!
Opener "The Ballad Of Lanky Rae" is a bit of a curveball, a bluesy backwoods tall tale about a seven foot woman, who as a little girl preferred to play with guns instead of dolls, and eventually leaves town (after stealing a car and shooting a man down) to find her gun-totin', whisky drinking demon daddy, deep at the center of the earth. It's good fun, some swampy stoner rawk all right, and Plotkin sure puts it across. But, the other tracks on this album are quite a bit more "serious" sounding than that, with atmospheres more desolate, or emotions more real. The riffs are massive and mighty, the quiet parts moody and melodic, and Plotkin proves that her vocal range can convincingly venture into scary growls as well as piercing howls. The guitars get to let loose too, and these aren't short songs. Ferinstance, "Aurelia", the longest, clocks in at almost 12 minutes, its epic post-rock loud-soft dynamics mixed with more of that high lonesome sound, Plotkin singing sadly and sweetly amidst plodding heavy parts that utterly crush. The album's closer is another long one, a 9:22 doom-blues that creeps along quietly for some time before its cathartic fists-clenched conclusion. Earth fronted by Alannah Myles might be a good/weird comparision! Furthermore, there's moments on this album that make us think of both Hammers Of Misfortune and Black Label Society, at the same time. Which is also weird. But awesome.
Basically, if you liked Witch Mountain's South Of Salem, you'll like this. And it's very much recommened to fans of the current crop of female fronted heavy rock acts, especially Royal Thunder, Loon, and The Devil's Blood.
Could it be that Sweden's Witchcraft, who seem like some long-lost '70s outfit who stumbled into our era by mistake, are for real? And not some drug-induced figment of a bell-bottomed stoner/doom fantatic's imagination? Yea and verily. Firewood proves that the first Witchcraft record was no crazy fluke. That album was so good (recall, we opened our review of it by saying: "PERHAPS THEE BEST '70s-INSPIRED DOOM ALBUM EVER" in all-caps just like that!) that for their eagerly-awaited follow-up to be even half as good would be impressive. I mean, they'd set the bar pretty high. We are therefore ecstatic to report that Firewood definitely lives up to the standard established by the debut! Can't say yet if it's just almost as good, or if it's even better -- but clearly it's up there with their first disc. I don't think they've yet topped their signature song "No Angel Or Demon" (which appeared on the self-titled disc but also preceeded it on the band's first release, a 7" single) but there's plenty of great songs (and riffs) on Firewood nonetheless, to compare well with the debut. Firewood storms out of the gate with "Chylde of Fire", wanders through the morose "Wooden Cross (I Can't Wake The Dead)", bludgeons with the doomful "Queen of Bees"...and seven more, all killer.
Firewood's also got the same fat '70s vintage production (a little brighter now mayhaps) as before. And certainly their undeniable Pentagram influence (what countrymen Dungen are to Pugh Rogefeldt, Witchcraft are to early Pentagram) is still there, in spades, including a hidden bonus track Pentagram cover, which goes hand in hand with a BIG first-couple-of-Ozzy-era-Sabbath-albums influence as well. And then there's the proggier/folkier elements too, some reminders of Jethro Tull and King Crimson if not quite Comus. Though there is something pagan and ancient here that makes it clear that modern metal and stoner rock has left these guys untouched. That's the beauty of Witchcraft's nostaglic creation. It's hard to think of any current stoner rock or doom band (except for them) who would seriously throw such a disco strut into a song like the way they open "Mr. Haze". Led Zeppelin would be proud. From such unexpected songwriting moves to the folky trill in guitarist/singer/mastermind Magnus Pellander's ever-stronger, emotive voice, they've got such FEEL. That's where they excel. It's an X-factor difficult to describe but central to their success. And it must stem from two things: sheer talent, and their absolute, honest love for (and learning from) the bands that once sounded a bit (or a lot) like them. Put that together and you've got this heavy, sparkling witchy riff-rock retro genius!! If you loved the first Witchcraft, don't hesitate. And if you haven't heard 'em yet, but if you like Pentagram and Sabbath and Witchfinder General and all things heavy and '70s, you'd better lend an ear right NOW. You'll be happy you did.
Yay, at long last (five years!) the return of our/your/everyone's favorite Swedish retro-proto-metallers, Witchcraft! With this, their fourth album, they've moved on from their previous label Rise Above to a new home on bigger label Nuclear Blast. They've also altered their lineup quite a bit, though of course mainman Magnus Pelander remains at the mic (though he's not playing guitar anymore, for some reason, concentrating solely on vocals). Going through changes� without changing -too- much, as far as us listeners are concerned, thankfully. Even with a new drummer and two new guitarists, this still sounds of a piece with the Witchcraft of olde, certainly in part due to the distinctive, emotive, melodic vocal stylings of Pelander. We just love his voice, and he puts on a great performance here. He's got flair, the whole band does.
Musically, Legend is maybe a bit more modern and slickly produced than previous Witchcraft outings, and certainly they didn't get rawer or heavier, no. The direction they took was onwards and upwards. But the influence of such vintage greats as Black Sabbath and Pentagram hasn't exactly waned, though nowadays we'd be more likely to describe Witchcraft as being their own psychedelic, doomy, melodic, proggy, heavy rock thing. Good meaningful music, well played, with lots of both light and shade - lumbering riffs, lovely vox, great guitarwork� Now, someone here thought that this new Witchcraft showed signs of being "success rock", whatever that means, and someone else here (Andee) thought some of it sounded a bit like Queens Of The Stone Age (meant, he assured us, as a compliment!), and yeah sure this is perhaps geared to appeal to a bigger audience than the record collecting '70s downer rock nerds that Witchcraft themselves once were (and heck, still are - after all, the likes of "Dystopia" here sounding like something off of one of Sabbath's final few Ozzy-era albums like Never Say Die). But, whatever. At the risk of sounding snobby, very few bands who get big are really all that great, but Pelander and Witchcraft definitely deserve all their success, so we won't hold it against 'em. Longtime Witchcraft fans, you have nothing to worry about, listen to "It's Not Because Of You" ferinstance and tell us that it doesn't sound like it coulda been on The Alchemist or Firewood. Once again, we're happily enscorcelled by this Witchcraft - and hope it won't be another five years between albums, again!
Domestic vinyl version coming out later in October, fyi.
Oh man. The third album from the Swedish prog/psych/doom wizards Witchcraft is finally here. We can barely contain ourselves. They say third time's the charm, and of course with Witchcraft it can't help but being so, since the first two times were charmed as well. This band's debut destroyed us with its incredibly authentic retro Pentagram/Sabbath stylings, with lashings of flute and folkiness too. Their second album, Firewood, captivated us with an equally early '70s heavy progressive vibe. Now The Alchemist succeeds at giving us what we want from Witchcraft -and- pushing further into the realm of melodic, folky proggy rock that stands on its own far beyond being a mere tribute to its '70s ancestors.
Guitarist/singer Magnus Pelander and his band Witchcraft have pretty much proved that the old adage "they don't make 'em like they used to" isn't always true. Witchcraft sure as hell does. That it's 2007 not 1972 isn't evident from anything on here, though it sounds as fresh as a daisy at the same time. These guys are so old school analog you halfway expect that their cd would be made out of black plastic and have visible grooves in it. We certainly could imagine some DJ's looking for breaks wanting this on vinyl real bad, you could do some badass hiphop mix with parts of "Remembered" ferinstance. Bet Andy Votel digs this band. Totally sounds like they could have gotten a deal with his favorite progressive record label back in the day (that'd be the famed Vertigo) had Witchcraft really existed in the '70s... certainly the inclusion of the sax solo (yes, a sax solo!) at the end of "Remembered" helps make it sound like something from an old Vertigo LP! Elsewhere Witchcraft get super sweet and gentle, or break out the heavy riffs Sabbath style (like you'd expect -- Sabbath originally being a Vertigo band y'know) in a blend we can't help but love.
Magnus' emotive, melodic vocals are so crucial here, one of this record's shining strengths. He still sounds a bit like a Swedish-accented Ozzy, yet with a graceful finesse, belting it out expressively or crooning with lilting loveliness. His vocals are matched by the absolutely powerful and gorgeous guitarwork throughout the disc. This album sweeps us off our feet immediately with the instant-classic opener "Walk Between The Lines", which is followed by a re-recorded version of the A-side of last year's 7" single, "If Crimson Was Your Colour", an urgent, witchy rocker embellished with some tasty Moog licks. Then there's the loping "Leva", which though Magnus sings it in Swedish, still goes straight to our soul. The Sabbath factor is ratcheted up on "Hey Doctor", a lumbering doom-riffed downer lamentation/accusation. The next track, "Samaritan Burden" combines the heavy riffs with a mellower mood and more acoustic-y moments, masterfully structured. It's followed by the aforementioned "Remembered", definitely an album-standout that's so '70s in so many ways that pretty much only Witchcraft could have done it in this day and age. And then, speaking of standouts, comes the nearly 15 minute long title track, "The Alchemist"! We'll omit description other than to say it's of course an epic mindblower, closing the album with magnificent, mesmeric, proggier than thou flourish.
Definitely a Top 10 Best of 2007 album. We'd have made it Record Of The Week, but what we've got here is the somewhat pricier Japanese import edition (the domestic version is due out towards the end of the month), with a Japan-only bonus track added on at the end, "Sweet Honey Pie", a lovely, acoustic little number. Not sure when/if we'll get more, so we were wary about giving it pole position. But with or without bonus track, it's an AMAZING new effort from this fantastic band, highly recommended. Seriously, we'd have been happy taking all day to write this review, just 'cause we love listening to this album so much.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Oh man. The third album from the Swedish prog/psych/doom wizards Witchcraft is finally here. We can barely contain ourselves. They say third time's the charm, and of course with Witchcraft it can't help but being so, since the first two times were charmed as well. This band's debut destroyed us with its incredibly authentic retro Pentagram/Sabbath stylings, with lashings of flute and folkiness too. Their second album, Firewood, captivated us with an equally early '70s heavy progressive vibe. Now The Alchemist succeeds at giving us what we want from Witchcraft -and- pushing further into the realm of melodic, folky proggy rock that stands on its own far beyond being a mere tribute to its '70s ancestors.
Guitarist/singer Magnus Pelander and his band Witchcraft have pretty much proved that the old adage "they don't make 'em like they used to" isn't always true. Witchcraft sure as hell does. That it's 2007 not 1972 isn't evident from anything on here, though it sounds as fresh as a daisy at the same time. These guys are so old school analog you halfway expect that their cd would be made out of black plastic and have visible grooves in it. We certainly could imagine some DJ's looking for breaks wanting this on vinyl real bad, you could do some badass hiphop mix with parts of "Remembered" ferinstance. Bet Andy Votel digs this band. Totally sounds like they could have gotten a deal with his favorite progressive record label back in the day (that'd be the famed Vertigo) had Witchcraft really existed in the '70s... certainly the inclusion of the sax solo (yes, a sax solo!) at the end of "Remembered" helps make it sound like something from an old Vertigo LP! Elsewhere Witchcraft get super sweet and gentle, or break out the heavy riffs Sabbath style (like you'd expect -- Sabbath originally being a Vertigo band y'know) in a blend we can't help but love.
Magnus' emotive, melodic vocals are so crucial here, one of this record's shining strengths. He still sounds a bit like a Swedish-accented Ozzy, yet with a graceful finesse, belting it out expressively or crooning with lilting loveliness. His vocals are matched by the absolutely powerful and gorgeous guitarwork throughout the disc. This album sweeps us off our feet immediately with the instant-classic opener "Walk Between The Lines", which is followed by a re-recorded version of the A-side of last year's 7" single, "If Crimson Was Your Colour", an urgent, witchy rocker embellished with some tasty Moog licks. Then there's the loping "Leva", which though Magnus sings it in Swedish, still goes straight to our soul. The Sabbath factor is ratcheted up on "Hey Doctor", a lumbering doom-riffed downer lamentation/accusation. The next track, "Samaritan Burden" combines the heavy riffs with a mellower mood and more acoustic-y moments, masterfully structured. It's followed by the aforementioned "Remembered", definitely an album-standout that's so '70s in so many ways that pretty much only Witchcraft could have done it in this day and age. And then, speaking of standouts, comes the nearly 15 minute long title track, "The Alchemist"! We'll omit description other than to say it's of course an epic mindblower, closing the album with magnificent, mesmeric, proggier than thou flourish.
Definitely a Top 10 Best of 2007 album. We'd have made it Record Of The Week, but what we've got here is the somewhat pricier Japanese import edition (the domestic version is due out towards the end of the month), with a Japan-only bonus track added on at the end, "Sweet Honey Pie", a lovely, acoustic little number. Not sure when/if we'll get more, so we were wary about giving it pole position. But with or without bonus track, it's an AMAZING new effort from this fantastic band, highly recommended. Seriously, we'd have been happy taking all day to write this review, just 'cause we love listening to this album so much.
PERHAPS THEE BEST '70s-INSPIRED DOOM ALBUM EVER. Can't put it any plainer. This is sooo authentically old sounding, and sooo good. Sweden's Witchcraft have delved into the past through seemingly mystical means and come up with a masterpiece that sounds like it was recorded by some genius yet unknown downer-rock contemporary of Black Sabbath or Pentagram back in 1972. In a blindfold test, anyone into '70s heavy rock would be fooled for sure. Doomy retro-proto-metal full of heart-wrenching atmosphere, killer riffs, and melodic hooks galore. The mastermind behind Witchcraft, guitarist/vocalist Magnus Pellander, is obviously HUGELY into heavy '70s psych/prog rock. Doubtless he's got an extensive record collection with well-worn albums by Sabbath and a host of more obscure bands like Dust, Captain Beyond, November, Toad, Jerusalem, etc... But unlike so many other record collectors, instead of spending his time making want lists and grading LPs, Magnus *listened* to 'em, then went into the studio and wrote songs as good or BETTER than pretty much anything on those collector's platters. Literally, inspired stuff. As modern-day but '70s sounding records go, maybe only that Elope record we reviewed recently could compare in convincing us it was recorded thirty years ago -- imagine that album with heavier, fuzzier guitars and more melancholic vibrations. (Another one would be The Want album Southern Lord released a few years ago).
So we were super thrilled to hear that this band was putting out a full-length. And apparently other folks were too, 'cuz we've already sold a bunch of these in the store before even reviewing it! Kinda weird, since their only previous release, a 7" single paying tribute to two of Witchcraft main man Magnus Pelander's big heroes, Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators and Pentagram's Bobby Liebling, was a hard to find, import-only release (both tracks from which are included here, along with an obscure Pentagram cover making Witchcraft's love of Liebling even more obvious). On the strength of that single, though (and the few singles and compilation tracks recorded by Magnus's previous band, Norrsken), our anticipation for Witchcraft's debut album ran high. Well, as you've already gathered, we're even more thrilled to say that it more than lives up to our expectations! We have a handful of copies of the import vinyl as well, which includes a bonus track (another Pentagram cover).
Holy shit. Doom fiends rejoice, for NWN! and BBT&D have unearthed *another* disc of rarities from the most Sabbathy of NWOBHM bands, the illustrious, infamous doom metal pioneers Witchfinder General. Like the live cd that came out last year this one is again material from the archives of original guitarist Phil Cope, who provides liner notes in the cd booklet (which is also filled with vintage photos and graphics) discussing the music herein, which consists of tracks from Witchfinder General's 1981 debut 7" single ("Burning A Sinner" b/w "Satan's Children") and their 1982 12" single Soviet Invasion (three songs: "Soviet Invasion", "Rabies", and a live one, "R.I.P."), along with four further live tracks recorded at a pub in Birmingham circa '81. The songs from the 7" and 12" are all raw, riffy, heavier-than-thou tunes bearing all the hallmarks of the material we know and love from the General's subsequent classic albums Death Penalty and Friends Of Hell. "Burning A Sinner" (which Cope mentions was often referred to as "Burning A Singer") was later re-recorded for their first full-length Death Penalty, but the other songs remained available only on those original two hard-to-find single releases -- until now. Reason enough for most Witchfinder General fans to want this! In addition, the rather rough-sounding live stuff here is a headbanging hoot, singer Zeeb Parkes charmingly and so obviously a (drunken) pupil of Ozzy's in the stage banter dep't. and vocal style too... and also they do a totally unreleased composition, "Phantasmagorical", never heard elsewhere. So definitely a bit of history there, and all the more reason that this collection of early tracks is essential for all true fans of the band and old school doom metal in general! In fact, considering that currently we can only seem to sporadically get copies of the reissue of Friends Of Hell, but never Death Penalty, this is all the more welcome of a release, being a good place as any to start for anyone keen on hearing what this cult doom band was all about.
Can we write a Wizar'd review without mentioning the weird unexplained apostrophe in their name? No we can't!
With that behind us, here's what we think about the latest lethargic lamentation let loose by these lords of lo-fi doom metal, down n' out and drowned in sorrow Down Under. Their new album, Infernal Wizardry (hey, shouldn't that be Infernal Wizar'dry??) features eight new, agonized outpourings of distorted dirge. Eight Sabby slabs of fuzz filled sludge, with spacey psychedelic lead guitar, trudging beats, and misery-evoking vox that vary from an Ozzyish warble to a deep slowed-down mumble to a more punkish shout. Fans of Saint Vitus, Reverend Bizarre, Electric Wizard and of course Black Sabbath are of course the sort of folks likely to become ensorcelled by the oozing audio of this Wizar'd. At least, those that can appreciate true, traditional doom at its most raw and primitive.
As serious and sincere as their music sounds (tracks like "Witchwither" and "Depressive Holiday" are truly moving, morose monuments), the Wizar'd obviously have a (drunken?) sense of humor too, judging by their slightly silly pseudonyms: Ol' Rusty Vintage Wizard Master is the vocalist and lead guitarist, Blackie the Crimson Heretic Of A Thousand Eyes plays bass, Iron Tyrant is on the drums, and Sir Nunn Piss handles the other guitar parts. Heck you've gotta have *some* fun, when you otherwise seem as negative and dejected as these suffering dudes do!
They pick up the pace a bit on the aggressive "Crushing Gothic Slime" (which, as we now realize, is NOT how they label their music, but rather an expression of animosity toward Goths) but mostly this is glacial and gloomy... culminating in the nearly 13 minute epic "The Megalomaniac". What we really like about these guys (besides the apostrophe) is how their poverty-stricken sound works towards the dual goals of doominess and drugginess. What Wizar'd lack in production, they make up for in feeling. It's old school doom done with the same fucked up aesthetic of our favorite bizarre, far underground black metal. Utterly, wretchedly recommend'd.
Our favorite apostrophe'd doomsters from Down Under return! We've had a heck of a time tracking down the compact disc version of this, haven't been able to get it in yet (their supposed US distro won't email us back, helloooooo?), but thankfully Buried By Time And Dust just put the album out on deluxe vinyl, we got it from them along with Solstice's New Dark Age reish we reviewed last list. Usually BBTAD do reissues of classic doom (Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar, etc.) but they decided to get ahead of the curve here and release what simply sounds like something they'd eventually be reissuing anyway, if they're still doing this in 20-30 years.
With Pathways To Darkness, their second full-length, Tasmania's most Sabbathy DIY doommongers offer up a crude, yet catchy album that posers will doubtless despise. Normal folks will find the vocals too weird and nasal, the riffs too raw and remedial. But those that don't mind their doom a little damaged and psychedelic, ought to dig this wretched and rockin', emotional and eccentric, seven song opus. Less murky than some past recordings, this is, in fact, perhaps The Wizar'd at their poppiest. Seriously, slumberously.
There's lots for the True (and Truly Demented) Doom fan to love here... The slo-mo pop of "Living Dead". The melancholic triumph of "Rainbow's End". The almost gothic epic "Frankie's Dungeon". The tearful trudge of "Some Like It Dead". The spooky, droning Hammer Horror keyboards that herald "Disease From The East"... You gotta delve in, and revel in the sheer doominess of it all, that in its own outsider, down under way, retardedly rivals Electric Wizard, Reverend Bizarre, and Saint Vitus. Folks who enjoyed the recent, ridiculous, Sabbath-centric Furze might also find this to their liking as well.
By the way, there's been a few lineup changes for The Wizar'd since their previous album from 2008, with rhythm guitarist Sir Nun Piss having left the band, causing bassist Blackie The Crimson Heretic Of A Thousand Eyes to move over to guitar, alongside vocalist and lead guitarist Ol' Rusty Vintage Wizard Master, with Iron Tyrant on drums, and new bass recruit Tangerine Dream holding down the low end (of which there's plenty). Yes, those are their stage names, and aren't they great?!
Ultimately, though, even with the obvious sense of humor such names convey, we suspect that any such frivolity on the part of the The Wizar'd is part of a "sad clown" scenario, y'know? This is DOOM to the core, in the truest sense. Feel it, folks.
Being on BBTAD, it's a nicely done 180 gram vinyl slab, packaged with a booklet and a giant obi, AND they've included 3 live bonus tracks not on the cd version: "Crushing Gothic Slime", "Burned Lord", and "Smouldering Sinners"!
Wold are an ultra mysterious outfit from the barren land to the north (Canada, Saskatchewan to be precise), who play the weirdest and most weirdly recorded black metal we've ever heard. Imagine some old radio serial, or some snippet from an old black and white film, sort of scratchy and fuzzy and otherworldly, then smother it in guitarfuzz and blown out distortion, add some keening guitar melodies and blast beats, and you've got what we can only describe as a black metal Philip Jeck. The warm and warbly keyboard melodies and timeless cinematic snatches of sound are so hypnotic and dreamily repetitive. It's almost like a black metal band doing their own blackened version of William Basinski's Disintegration Loops. Kind of hard to describe, but Wold somehow take the drone-y aspect of BM bands like Graveland and Nargaroth even further, adding a creepy and scratchy looped mesmer beneath a wash of almost My Bloody Valentine like guitars. Or an even more abstract analogy, imagine Persephone in Hades, the goddess of Spring who was kidnapped and spirited down into the depths of hell, all these little ribbons of Springtime and loveliness drifting in the cold and grim underworld, a bleak and miserable expanse of sound with brief glints of color and sunshine, glimpses of a world that once was, looped like a rotting old filmstrip, repeated over and over and over, head nodding, thoughts drifting, eyes closing, spirit shifting, soul blackening.
As if the music weren't weird enough, the band is fronted by the curiously named Fortress Crookedjaw, and backed up by his cohorts, Operationex and Obey.
And then of course there's the band's manifesto:
"Wold embraces the Mytho Poetic; the communication is expressed through our music, and theoretical as well as practical work done through our Woldclan brotherhood and our lodge, the L.O.T.M.P..
"Wold venerate our ancestors and cultures through myth and existence, and remain open and reflective to other effective metaphors.
"Wold promote awareness.
"Wold strive for honor and dignity above materialistic lies and novelty culture.
"Wold solemnly swear to adhere to the law of the Self."
It takes a lot for a record to so completely kick our ass and to so confound us musically. Definitely one of the coolest and weirdest black metal records we've heard in a long long time!!
All right! A domestic release for the new, third album from a band that's become a favorite 'round these parts, when the moon is full and we feel like howling along to some killer old school heavy metal made by hungry young Swedish heshers clad in leather and studs. Not exactly the most original band ever, but they've got something -- youthful exuberance, a garagey rock n' roll edge, maybe a sense of both irony and reverence for the masters, not to mention songwriting and playing ability -- that makes this special. Wolf ain't just another European power metal band, they've got an (evil) star quality about 'em for sure.
Their previous two albums worshipped at the altar of Iron Maiden and this one does too but I think their allegiance has tipped somewhat towards Judas Priest. Certainly we'd guess that when Wolf is rehearsing in their practice space they say "let's do our Priest number" when they want to play track two here, "American Storm"! Sounds like something off of Painkiller. Even the lyrics display excessive Halfordisms. But perhaps to demonstate some diversity they end this album with a cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper"...which they commendably covert to a Wolf-sounding song, although there's other less well-known BOC tunes I'd rather have heard 'em try. And that's followed by two bonus tracks: covers of Slayer and the Ramones! But it's their own material that makes this disc such a fun slab of retro-metal mania, demonstrating a high level of energy and a knack for melody. The lead-off title track will definitely get stuck in your head, first thing. In fact, while I'm all for extended, six-minute long metal songs, I'd actually suggest that they cut a 'radio edit' of "Evil Star" on the off chance that they could have a pop hit... that'd be cool.
Young Swedes playing traditional heavy metal, a pretty great debut. No Hammerfall-like pop silliness, just heads-down, raised-fist, speedy Iron Maiden/Riot styled METAL with decent-enough (not too) high pitched vocals, and plenty of ripping guitar work. And the production, courtesy of Peter Tagtgren (Scandinavian metal producer of the moment), is super. Take the likes of In Flames or Soilwork, add real vocals and make the songs a bit more catchy, that's Wolf. And they should get props for the incredible Richard Scarey/children's book-like cover art (by famed European illustrator Hans Arnold), a cover which has been universally but unjustly slammed in all (otherwise positive) reviews that we've seen of this album. It's great, and it harkens back to the album covers of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal which weren't afraid to be weird and not-blatantly metal for metal's sake. Anyway, we applaud the band for their unafraid aesthetic choice. More importantly, we also salute them for making such a great record!!
As we're always pleased to observe, apparently there's an absolutely inexhaustible supply of worthwhile old music awaiting rediscovery, every week it seems we're lucky enough to see another amazing batch of obscure rarities reissued, vintage psych, prog, folk, funk, jazz... We've long thought that the next fertile field for reissue frenzy would be the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM), and lo, it's happening, there's been a bunch of cool reissues and archival releases hitting the racks in recent weeks, like the Dark Star reviewed last list, Jameson Raid and Bleak House (both of which will be on our next list), and this one - WOLFBANE. Nope, never heard of 'em before either, but man are they great.
The six tracks on this 33 minute cd come from the two demo tapes that this band recorded during their 1980-1983 "career"; raw, rough and riffy rock recorded by a trio consisting of a guitarist named Dee, a bassist named Lee, and two different drummers variously named Syd (demo #1) and Sid (demo #2). Actually, they weren't always a trio, Wolfbane apparently went through several frontmen, but none ever managed to make it into the studio, leaving guitarist Gramie Dee to do the singing on all their recorded demos. Which is awesome, 'cause his voice is actually really cool, and we can't imagine why they'd even have wanted any other singers. He's got a tough, sometimes slightly Ozzyish voice, with a ragged hint of a rasp, that's perfect for Wolfbane's style, which falls on the heavier, doomier side of the NWOBHM scene, having a palpable Sabbath vibe, definitely for those who hold the likes of Witchfinder General and Angel Witch near and dear! The spoken intros are a hoot, the riffs are killer, and they just freakin' rock, doin' songs about werewolves ("Wolfbane" and "The Howling"), love or the lack thereof ("Leave Me"), serial killers (the epic "See You In Hell"), swords & sorcery ("Elric Of Melnibone"), and prostitutes ("Midnight Lady"). What more do you want? Drugs? Vampires? More werewolves? Doubtless had they made it to a demo #3 they'd have done a song about at least one of those subjects (chances are, more werewolves).
The primal DIY-ness of this is totally a plus, Wolfbane exuding underground charisma and true heavy metal spirit to the max. We're so glad these songs have been reissued, we'd have never heard 'em otherwise, and the cd booklet comes complete with a cheeky band history and notes on each track.
We're super into this, but avant black metallers Wolves In The Throne Room have gotten a lot of flack for this new record of theirs, which seems to be more based on them as a band, than the record itself; like Deafheaven or Liturgy, the fact that they're 'hip' and 'cool' and lots of non metalheads dig them makes them ripe for criticism from the 'troo cvlt' black metal crowd. Also that they're doing something a bit different. A LOT different, here. And we applaud it! 'Cause taken objectively, as in, if you didn't even know this was WITTR, you might find yourself pretty into it.
The deal is, there's really no black metal here, just pure spaced-out synth shimmer, completely cosmic and kinda New Agey, even. It's total Tangerine Dream worship, but with plenty of dense bombast and thick layered drones. More like Emeralds than Emperor. The sort of thing some black metal bands dabble in as "intro music", taken to the full-length extreme. And it's pretty good - the first track sounds like it could be an alternate soundtrack to Bladerunner. Haunting and ominous, lush drones and buried melodies... Elsewhere, the swaths of thick synth-iness sound almost like Salem, some beatless almost witch-housiness... There's even some Carpenter-y electro beats on "Sleeping Gold Storm". The moaning horns and other elements, in the more cacophonous crescendos, builds up the drama and edginess, but it never gets metal, nope. It's the intro to itself, instead.
Thumbs up from us! And, black metal and/or WITTR fans who aren't open-minded enough to approve of this, don't fret, it's just meant as an electronic "companion" to their last album, 2011's Celestial Lineage, not a follow-up. You still gotta keep waiting for that, but in the meantime, you could try to relax and enjoy these surprisingly spaced-out sounds. Plus, it's not like there's not precedence for stuff like this in the realms of black metal, from Neptune Towers to Alturaz... And for other folks, more into synths and drones than metal, this could easily be the first (only?) WITTR you'll ever need.
We've been selling Wolves In The Throne Room cd-r demos like crazy since we first discovered these guys last year. And how could we not? You gotta love a band that unfurls massive fuzzed out epics, 10+ minute bursts of swirling droning black metal, dirging, lurching and gorgeously blown out. The obvious comparison is SF black metal legends Weakling, and you know we wouldn't make that comparison lightly. The same sort of fierce brutality and chaotic ferocity mixed with impossibly anguished emotionalism all wrapped up in a blackness that is informed as much by suffocating dark ambience and mesmerizing drones as it is grim black metal.
If you thought the WITTR demos sounded great, HOLY SHIT does this new record blow those out of the water. Which is a good thing as two of the songs here are actually from the demos, but they have been massively reworked and completely re-recorded. It's got a huge wall of guitar sound, surprisingly heavy for a black metal band, in place of more typical reedy buzzy BM mosquito guitar. There's thick snarling monster riffs, dense and multilayered, spread thick over furious pounding drumming and howled strangulated vocals (very Weakling-esque). Now you might think the world needs another Nordic style black metal band like a hole in the head, no matter how amazing they are. BUT, Wolves In The Throne Room do it SO WELL, and write amazing songs, and manage to mix it up like crazy, incorporating all sorts of un-BM elements, gorgeous folky ambience, weirdly TRUE metal riffing, even some ethereal angelic female vocals. It all somehow fits, and makes the Wolves' black metal black enough to remain true, but fucked up enough to matter. Plus they probably do think the world needs need a hole in the head...
You'd never guess from listening to this record that the WITTR are a bunch of short haired, furry vested, tight panted, scruffy indie dudes from Olympia. But don't let that put you off, impossibly true metal nerds, just close your eyes, listen close, and all you'll see are grim, 10 foot tall, spike encrusted leather clad warriors of the misty, ancient northwestern forests... Yep, we're surely excited to have their "real cd" debut, at long last!!
From right here in our sunny San Francisco neighborhood, comes an eagerly anticipated new release that clinches its Record Of The Week status not only by comprising a fantastic debut full-length album of hypnotically searing garagey psych jams, but also by including a BONUS disc (limited edition, first 2000 copies only) in a cardboard sleeve shrinkwrapped to the jewel case, featuring all the tracks from the now-out-of-print 10" and 7" vinyl records released last year that first made us -- and so many others, foremost among 'em Tom Lax of Siltbreeze/Siltblog fame, and Byron Coley at The Wire -- into drooling Wooden Shjips fanatics.
And yes, if you haven't run into them before, it's Wooden ShJips with a J, that's not a typo, just a way we guess of making their moniker more psychedelic (and easier to Google, too). They've garnered a lot of deserved attention from folks into minimalistic psych throb, that's for sure, and further whetted everyone's appetites for this album with the "Summer Of Love" 7" single that came out a couple weeks ago and has already sold out (2nd pressing in the works, be patient).
So, this new self-titled album follows on from that single with five more fuzzy, super groovy, guitar/organ/bass/drums slowburners, somewhere between Comets On Fire and Circle, with a definite Doors-y vibe as well, in part due to the keys which give this an almost loungey relaxed feel at times, and in part due to the occasional laidback Morrison-ish vocals of guitarist Erik Johnson. Erik also makes us think of Neil Young as well, as his more "out" guitar solos -- some if 'em SCORCHING -- could be off of Young's feedback-filled Arc. Or a Les Rallizes Denudes record! Track four, "Blue Sky Bends", having the best Rallizes-ish drone-factor of the disc. Overall, we'd say that these tracks, as a development from their earlier material, exhibits more and more of a throwback to the ballroom Frisco style of the sixties... now they just need to get a light show happening! But something tells us they'd be all about stark bright white strobes and dark black shadows only, maybe some b&w op art spirals, if their monochrome packaging aesthetic and the general heavy lidded mood of the music is anything to go by...
And then there's the limited bonus disc. Don't dawdle, you don't want to miss it (particularly if you didn't score the original vinyl releases). It's got the three tracks from their debut Shrinking Moon For You 10" (the one that they didn't even tell us about even though we see these guys on the street every day, we had to find out about it from Mr. Lax's blog!) and both cuts from their Dance, California / Clouds Over Earthquake 7". We'll try to summarize what we said about these songs before. The music from the 10" starts off with the title cut, a fuzzy garagey stomp, a groove that locks in and plows forward relentlessly. We began to feel like we were listening to some sort of garage rock Steve Reich. Guitars just sort of buzzing along, blooping new wave bass right underneath, simple solid drumming. But then in swoops some super feedback guitar that sounds like a demented horn section, and before you can examine it more closely it disappears, and we're back to the groove. That happens a few more times before the vocals kick in, sort of sing songy, but SO drenched in delay that the words get all jumbled up and are sort of jettisoned into outer space. There is also a subtle wash of fuzzy keyboards giving the whole thing a sort of Loop vibe. the second track is quite similar except the vocals are a bit more distinct, sort of laidback and mumbly. After a few listens, it became clear that there is some sort of minimal thing going on, but it's more like some lost Velvet Underground track arranged for Reich and Riley. Droney and drifty and druggy and totally mesmerizing. The third track bucks the trend and instead veers off into some tripped out ambience, with drifting motes of guitar fuckery, random sounds and noises, and some cool creepy backwards vocals. Sort of like an indie hipster freenoise "Revolution #9." Cool.
The two tracks from the 7" are also quite sonically similar to the 10" cuts. First up, surprise surprise a buzzy lo-fi garage groove, beneath bizarre super distorted insectoid guitar leads, buzzing WAY up in the mix and sounding almost like some primitive malfunctioning synth. But the whole time, beneath the alien buzz, the groove just hums along, like some extra baked Velvet Underground outtake. "Clouds Over Earthquake" is way more laid back, some blown out sun baked riffage, a super lazy groove, like Loop played at 16rpm, decorated with warm hornlike melodies that eventually stretch out into some serious outerspace psych rock explorations. The vocals we loved so much on the 10" resurface here too, laconic, drawled sung/spoken and super affected, very Lou Reed sounding albeit buried way down in the mix and absolutely drenched in thick reverb and fuzzy delay. Awesome!
So those tracks are all here (not in that order though) along with a radio edit of "Dance, California" for completists. These are the songs that had us jonesing for a full length, which you've just read about up above, and now all this music is together in one crucial package, while they last.
FYI, a vinyl version of the full-length is to follow in a month or two we're told... and maybe Holy Mountain can come up with some better cover art for it too? We were a bit underwhelmed by the blurry black & white photo of the band sitting around on the steps to someone's house, but then again their vinyl releases were in clear sleeves with no art to speak of, so I guess elaborate packaging ain't their thing. But motorik minimalist krautrocky pulsations, mellow Doorsy '60s groove, and out and out geetar psych-splosions are, so we can't complain!!
As we've said before, regular aQuarius shoppers should know what to expect from Wooden Stake: female fronted, horror fixated, riff rituals of slomo sludge, that are part Black Sabbath, part Jex Thoth, part Obituary. The first thing we ever listed by 'em, a limited cd-r entitled Vampire Plague Exorcism, proved quite popular, and is now totally out of print. But, now you'll find those tracks again here, on this new compact disc which collects that 2010 debut together with a bunch of other rare, out-of-print recordings (an unlucky 13 cuts in all) from this cult doom/death duo (one boy, one girl, all ghoulish).
Here's what we said about Vampire Plague Exorcism (tracks 9-13 here), which pretty much sums up the entire Wooden Stake ouvre:
So it's beginning to seem like it's a happening new quasi genre of sorts, this "doomy, black magic metal band with witchy sounding female frontperson" thing. There's Jex Thoth, and The Devil's Blood, and Blood Ceremony... and now Wooden Stake, an extremely doomy duo who've seen more horror movies than you have, featuring Vanessa Nocera on vocals and bass, with Wayne "Elektrokutioner" Sarantopoulos handling the guitars, keyboards, and drums. Like the other abovementioned bands, Wooden Stake is Sabbathy and '70s, with lumbering riffs and an occult vibe, though the difference is that they come from more of a death metal background, and are thus a lot darker and creepier. Electrokutioner is in a bunch of other doomed-out death metal bands we like, among 'em Decrepitaph, Scaremaker, and Encoffination; Vanessa is also in Scaremaker, and just joined Skeletal Spectre. So the guitars are not just thick but EVIL, the plodding drumming has a caveman wallop, and Vanessa's spooky siren song singing style sometimes switches to guttural growls. Imagine Jex Thoth wearing an Incantation t-shirt. Very underground sounding for sure, underground as in "from the grave".
But, say you've got V.P.E. already. Besides the upgrade to an actual cd, what else do you get here? Plenty. In fact, everything, almost, apart from last year's full-length Dungeon Prayers And Tombyard Serenades. There's the 2 cuts from the Black Caped Carnivore 7" (about which we said, that the title track was perhaps the best we'd yet heard from 'em), 2 more from an earlier 7" we never got (Invoke The Ageless Witch), their song from a split 7" with Druid Lord, and for completeness' sake (since it's actually still available), the 2 tracks from their great split cd with Blizaro. You might have some of this stuff, but we didn't even have it all... And also there's one previously unreleased song, "Night Of The Banshee"! So, definitely an essential collection for Wooden Stake fans who might have missed out on any of those limited edition releases, or alternately a fine place to start becoming a Wooden Stake fan if you're into the idea of checking out their brand of heavy & haunting metal, bewitched and brutal... The cd's booklet includes full lyrics, thumbnail cover graphics from all the featured releases, and a pair of b&w pictures of the two bandmembers (in which you'll see Wayne proudly brandishing a truly horrific, eldritch looking guitar, something like a Lovecraftian flying-V, all melted and monstrous).
Now, our appetites fully whetted by their debut out of print cd-r ep, their more recent split cd with Blizaro, and their 7" single reviewed last list, here at last is the first full-length from the ultra-cult (cultra?) Wooden Stake, one of the only boy-girl doom-death duos around, and in any case our fave, as the most "extreme metal" example of the female-fronted occult rock mini-phenomenon happenin' now, a la Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony, The Devil's Blood, etc.
We've described 'em as playing "slomo sludge", that's "part Black Sabbath, part Jex Thoth, part Obituary" and that's still just about right. Yeah, imagine Jex Thoth occasionally channelling her inner Cookie Monster, that'd be Wooden Stake's Vanessa Nocera. She's the wicked, witchy woman on vocals and bass, while Wayne "Elektrokutioner" Sarantopoulos (also of Decrepitaph, Encoffination, Father Befouled, etc.) handles the guitar and drums, and would slay you in a staring contest, no doubt, to judge from his picture here.
Their music is scary stuff, too, and also wonderfully underground, old-school, and horror-kitschy. The album opens with "Cadaverum Caecorum Liber", yet another of metal's tributes to the Blind Dead movies, from '70s Spain. Nocera first intones the lyrics in spoken rather than sung style, double tracked, over a quietly gloomy guitar backing, lulling and almost lovely, before busting out some raspier vokills (and she'll have you know, by the way, that no effects were used on her voice anywhere on this album). The next track, "Salem, 1692", showcases her more melodic siren song style of singing, that's where the Jex Thoth comparisons come in (and we're also thinking Bliss Blood, a bit). But her throat-shredding deathlier vocals are also employed for contrast. Musically, the gloominess of course continues, lo-fi rumbling riff repetition that's a doomic delight, grinding down down down into the ground. And so it goes, the many moods of Wooden Stake (gloomy, gloomier, gloomiest) highlighted by the multitracking of Nocera's varied vocal personas - she's a one-woman coven, indeed.
All nine of the Dungeon Prayers and Tombyard Serenades found here hit the spot for us, this album never lacking for eldritch atmosphere, whether conveyed by quiet creepiness or loud riffiness. Ferinstance, behold the instrumental interlude "Cemetery Closes At Sundown", a gentle somber solo, leading into the lumbering lurch-out of "Skullcoven", a composition combining bashing brutality with sloppy psychedelic Sabbathry. Which would describe a lot of this record, really. Electric Wizard fans, here's a witchier witchcult for you!
Well, hopefully we've already convinced you in previous reviews to worship Wooden Stake, and like us, you were just waiting for this to come out. But if you haven't yet been initiated, appropriate attention to this album under certain conditions (by the light of the full moon, in a graveyard) ought to do the trick...of course, that's right where it puts you, anyway.
When we reviewed the most recent 7" from sunshiney lo-fi twang-flecked indie pop combo Woods, we finished with saying how we couldn't wait for the full length, and thankfully, we only had to wait a matter of weeks, and we are not at all disappointed. The A side from that single shows up here of course, so it might be worth revisiting that review, since in a way it's essentially an overview of this whole record. Anyway, here's what we had to say about the track "Cali In A Cup":
"Maybe the catchiest most perfectly poppy jam we've heard from Woods yet, driven by reverbed harmonica and dreamy falsetto vox, the whole song is fantastic, and it's got one of those choruses that will stick in your head forEVER."
Indeed! And listening to that track again now, it sounds just as good as it did when we first threw on the single. The funny thing is, the record starts out with a much different vibe, the title track is a sort of ominous chunk of Neil Young-ish psychedelia, all minor keys, wah wah guitars, very seventies, but the thing about Woods is, they manage to make it sound crazy catchy ANYway, with a chorus to die for, and one that is surprisingly melodic considering how dark the rest of the song is. But it works, and it's a weird, but cool, transition from that, to "Cali In A Cup".
And while much of the record tends toward the sunshiney jangle, there is plenty of darkness, and a surprisingly heavy psych streak, not to mention a knack for some seriously perfect pop, plus band don't shy away from experimentation, "Cascade" is a tripped out instrumental, all burbling FX and thick chugging bass, beneath spidery guitars, and swirls of noise, "Find Them Empty" is some heavy organ driven psych rock that fans of groups like Spyrals and Wooden Shjips will freak out over, "Lily" is a sweet slab of orchestral baroque pop, and closer "Something Surreal" is some seriously dreamy sixties style psychedelic pop. Maybe the best Woods record yet, which is saying a lot considering how much we dug the other ones!
On Profound Lore, which has developed quite the reputation as an interesting metal label across several genres ('tis always worth listening to what they deem worthy of release, we'd say) comes the debut from Worm Ouroboros, a Bay Area based trio that notably includes singer/bassist Lorraine Rath formerly of blackened gothic doomsters The Gault (also ex-Amber Asylum). The trio is completed by guitarist/vocalist Jessica Way and drummer Justin Green, who both play in a crusty death-doom metal act called World Eater.
Although Worm Ouroboros has its doomy aspects, it's pretty far from crusty, or even often metal, really! The music on this disc is really mostly quite gentle, with hushed lovely vocals and somnolent instrumental atmospheres. It's all vaguely medieval (in a folky, not metal way) and meditative, dark and dreamy, though these songs do have post-rock style loud-soft dynamics, allowing for some heavy distorted doom riffage to kick in occasionally, and always majestically. Much of the time, though, Worm Ouroboros is all about the interweaving of delicate drifting guitar, clean female vocals (the two ladies in the band sometimes sing harmonies), poetic lyrics, and restrained drumming.
When we first put this on, it started off in that near ambient ethereal mode, and we were thinking, hmm, hope this doesn't turn out to be boring, or too "Lilith Fair", but pretty soon we were thoroughly entranced, it's total ear candy that compels repeat spins. It flows beautifully, whether mellow or more "metal", and even when the waters are churned by heavier guitar/drums passages the mood still remains calm, soothing somehow. Never headbanging, maybe head-cradling though, face in hands, weeping, perhaps from sadness, perhaps from joy...
Slow and sinuous, this sometimes reminds us of forgotten Finnish art-metal act Decoryah from the '90s (which is strange, since they were so unique we're rarely reminded of 'em, in fact, haven't even thought of them for ages, heck now we're gonna go put a Decoryah cd on!). To mention some perhaps better known bands that this also evokes, in ways, at times: Katatonia, Isis, Amber Asylum, Sigur Ros, Hammers Of Misfortune, and of course The Gault... So, can we call it gothic downer doom rock folk prog? Yes indeed. There's even a bit of flute (helping to make the heaviness of the epic 11 minute "Riverbed" be even more progged out), and magically tinkling glockenspiel! Most definitely, another unusual winner (as far as we're concerned) from Profound Lore.
Here's something we've been meaning to list for a long time... since, oh, about 1995! 'Cause while we've reviewed a LOT of things on our site, somehow we haven't reviewed everything. So more than once in a while, we like to write up an old fave that we haven't actually ever listed before - often something that kinda predated our doing of "the List". Like this, which came out in '95. Turns out the distributor we got it from originally still had some copies in stock, and we figured that lots of you might not have come across this before. Plus, c'mon, how could we pass up finally having a band called WORMDOOM in our catalog?
However, it's not the usual doom metal fare like you might be expecting. Instead Wormdoom are, uh, fake Christian '70s heavy psych! Well, fake's not quite the right word (though these guys and gal probably aren't actually all that Christian). But they're not really trying to fool anyone about actually being from the '70s, either, we mean. That's just their inspiration, the Wormdoom concept, totally going for an apocalyptic Jesus freak "holy fuzz" vibe. The artwork is right on, the cover reminding us of some private press krautrock rarities (not necessarily Christian but apocalyptic anyway, like Necronomicon and Gravestone's Doomsday). Not only does it have the look, they've got the sound down too, as well they should since Wormdoom was comprised of folks with great record collections, members of a bunch of other great, totally freaky bands that were all part of the the whole genius drugged out Twisted Village scene of the early '90s. On guitars, Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggar from Crystallized Movements, Magic Hour, Vermonster, B.O.R.B. aka Bongloads Of Righteous Boo! On bass, Tom Leonard of Luxurious Bags (and also Vermonster, B.O.R.B.). On drums, Joe Malinowski (Vermonster). And of course, Wayne, Kate & Tom are all currently still slinging axes and kicking out the jams in Major Stars.
So, no surprise Wormdoom are willing and able to deal out the full on distortodelic acid guitar splurt like it was gifted to them from on high! Their garagey protometalgrindboogie is actually waaaay more extreme than anything really from the '70s, nothing back then sounded quite this crazed (did it?). With trashcan drumming, tons o' distortion n' noise, and glossolalia-like vocal babble on a couple tracks ("The Gift Of The Tongues" parts 1 and 2, natch - everythin' else is all instrumental), they woulda however fit in sonically pretty darn well on one of them classic PSF Tokyo Flashback comps, were they Japanese. Heck, some of this would fit in on a Butthole Surfers album. Of all the Twisted Village bands, Wormdoom is by far the heaviest.
And, underneath it all, they manage some damn catchy hooks, the wham-bam 2:21 title track ferinstance definitely boogie-ing its way into your brain until the Rapture, at least. They also sprawl out with some extended jams too, as you might expect from this bunch, proving that you don't need drugs, just Jesus to get you high. We'll put "Jesus" in quotes, though.
This, by the way, was Wormdoom's only album, besides this they managed a live 7" and a comp track and that's about it, which is as it should be, since if they really WERE an early '70s Jesus rock band, they wouldn't have left behind much more than that for collectors to discover years later, would they? Praise the Lord, they let it all hang out here.
15 years after this came out (and, like, 40 years after it -looks- like it came out), it still seems like we're approaching the Last Days don't it? So, if you missed this before, repent ye sinners, Wormdoom saves! Amen.
A couple years ago we reviewed an obscure, DIY cd-r release, In The Stars, by this band Wormsblood. As you might guess from their name, they're an underground black metal free noise new weird America psych folk cd-r band... oh wait you might not guess that. But you'd get the idea this is something dark and strange and evil, right? Not some normal indie rock band that's for sure. And you know this, if you remember our review of that previous release. So, band leader Wyrdskull (an alter ego of Clay Ruby from freak folksters Davenport and psych doomsters Jex Thoth, we have reason to believe) and cohorts are back with a new release, an actual cd this time, though the music is still way DIY and lo-fi (like we like it!), consisting of three "demo" sessions recorded between 2004 and 2008. Though without that info you wouldn't know this wasn't conceived as all one album. Ten tracks total, about 38 minutes of very, very fucked up "metal". Like, if Ariel Pink did even -more- drugs and then tried to produce a black metal album. Or, imagine a black metal Faxed Head (as we said about 'em before). It's that weird, that WRONG. And thus damn right in our ears. 'Cause if we know anything, we know our fucked up black metal. Dead Reptile Shrine, Varghkogargasmal, Vorak, Dead Raven Choir's Cask Strength stuff, old Necrofrost, Wold, etc., this fits right in, not that it really fits in anywhere.
The disc starts off with the amazing/retarded "Fragments Of The Witch" which will either convince you this is the best thing you've heard since you played the Weakling album backwards through a malfunctioning Kaoss pad while screaming at the top of your lungs, or convince you to turn it off. Obviously, we're part of the former camp. A murky, palpitating admixture of primitive, clanking rhythms, truly over-the-top gargled and anguished kokills, dim distorted guitar riffs and woozy synths dealing out Skeptical doom plod. All of it mired in an echoey, almost dubby "production". The next track, "Hollow Cost Nothing", ups the ante with even more majestic, messed up melodies. It dawns on us that whomever is on guitar can really play. Somehow this makes Wormsblood sound even more insane. It also suggests that maybe one way to look at this isn't as an attempt at making tr00 cvlt black metal primitivism, but rather as simply a very, very, VERY damaged version of traditional '80s heavy metal (and we recall they did do a Manilla Road cover on the In The Stars cd-r)...
Then, there's a track that also appeared on that cd-r,"The First Dim Shinings (Of Those About To Awaken)", which takes a turn into ritualistic ancient folk musick, with a military snare and Muppet-on-meth vocals. It's like Ghost meets Abruptum. Or ESP-Disk's Cromagnon gone metal. That's followed by "Sig Bind", which begins with abstract, Jewelled Antler-y atmospheres before erupting with high-end guitar neck strangle, kind of like a Kemialliset Ystavat meets Krallice mashup. By the end of this track, it's a madhouse of maniacal voices, harshing the mellow with which it began. And on it goes, this disc of demos delving backwards in time, the recordings getting boombox-ier and buzzier, the songs even less songlike and more soundscapey if possible. "Goodnight" opens a can of that Striborg-style aersol spray, a grim sonic mist of vibrating electric strings and hissing exhalations. "Obsessed By The Bloodstone" (is that shout-out to cult pulp fantasist Karl Edward Wagner?) is an ambient piece for keyboard - and barking dog! And then sometimes, they get it together for an extended spasm of, uh, song, full of high pitched singing/shrieking and chaotic drums/guitars.
Now, you might be thinking, there's other black metal releases on this week's AQ list. Yet this is the only one we chose as a Record Of The Week. Does that mean it's BETTER than those other black metal albums? Better than Ayat, or Moloch, or Nav, or the new Satyricon, for example? Well, no, not exactly. But we're not judging this purely as a black metal release. We figured this was something that AQ customers into any sort of bizarre, fucked up music (many of whom love black metal, to be sure) would find intriguing. 'Cause as metal as this is (and it IS, really metal, if you listen close) it's equally something else entirely. There's whole passages of "music" here that sound more like that fake field recordings disc Jurassic Soundscapes, but with lonely werewolves wandering around in the prehistoric swamps. And drugged up pterodactyls swooping about overhead. Wormsblood's sound is as much recognizable metallic instrumentation (guitars, drums, vocals) as it is wyrd sound FX and destroyed noise, rustlings and clankings and howlings.
As befits this music, this comes packaged in black and white and grey, bearing disturbing, fantastical, hellish yet cartoonish line drawings that look a bit like Mike Diana's notorious art... get the LP if you want to study the drawings in detail.
Ah ha ha ha ha! Triumphant battle-metal will never die!! Hahahaha! Gird your loins and steel your sinews and be ready to wet your sword or axe in bloody red gore, for it is Wotan who approacheth at whatever maximum volume decibel level you can conjure from your stereo, and Wotan are majestic and mighty and take no prisoners. Unlike most European "power metal", and certainly unlike most Italian power metal, Wotan's heavy metal is raw and heavy and underground, and boasts a biting guitar tone that will kill poseurs (and wimpy power metal popsters) dead. Plus, the vocals that aren't bad for an Italian (if you listen to much Italian power metal you know what we mean). They are super dramatic, though, so you have to be partial to such theatrics. Wotan's unashamed worship of Manowar pays off because this isn't jokey, they're really feeling it... and maybe can make you feel it too (it worked on us, as the beginning of this review proves). Though doubtless laughable to many, the few and proud will loft Wotan to the pantheon already occupied by such acts as Doomsword, Solstice, Brocas Helm, Sacred Steel, Thunderstorm, and Slough Feg...
The power of gloom and doom!! And the glory! It's all on full display here, yes indeed, as rolling waves of doomed out, fuzzed filled riffage emanate from this, the latest slab of slow and low heavosity from the UK's epic doom mongers The Wounded Kings. Ahhh, the sound of overdriven vintage tube amps! With occasional atmospheric embellishment from sad acoustic guitar and church organ keyboards when they want to indulge their more proggy and introspective inclinations (as on the moody interlude "Space Conqueror" for instance).
To top it off, The Wounded Kings' generals are gathered in their masses like witches at black masses by the commandingly creepy, husky and haunting vocals of Sharie Neyland, who initially stepped up to the mic on The Wounded Kings' previous album, In The Chapel Of The Black Hand. Now fully integrated into the band and their writing process, she's an even more crucial presence this time. Imagine a Jex Thoth who's lived the life of Ozz, doing drugs and drink, biting bats and doves, having visions. Or, Mark "The Shark" Shelton of Manilla Road, with a sex-change. Or, hopefully you've heard that Darkscorch Canticles compilation of '70s proto-metal we made Record Of The Week recently - specifically, you know the track "Warlord" by the band Wrath, with the girl singing who sounds like brainwashed cultist? 'Cause we think Neyland sounds kinda like her, but all growed up, even more certain in her beliefs, her voice aged deeper and dronier. It's a weird, wicked, wailing warble, enhanced by effects, that incredibly suits the hypnotically stretched-out Sabbath/Vitus sludge of The Wounded Kings.
'Tis true, female-fronted occult rock and doom acts are quite thick on the ground these days, it's kind of the in thing, many of them quite good (Blood Ceremony, Purson, the aforementioned Jex Thoth, etc.). If we now count The Wounded Kings as part of that scene, they still stand apart, sounding "old" but not "retro", if that makes sense, and also being so much HEAVIER than most. Their closest competition would probably be the mighty Windhand, but Windhand generally doesn't have "clean" vocals, so that's a big difference. Besides, we figure that The Wounded Kings, who originally had a male vocalist, hired on Neyland not 'cause they just wanted a "female singer" but because they wanted HER unique vocals, sounding like a witness to the abyss, so synergistic with their preexisting epick aesthetic.
Once again, a success, from one of the best in the realm of the oh so gloriously doomy and gloomy.
Wow, what a surprising piece of downer metal artistry from a band we'd never heard of before! Though, we were curious about 'em 'cause this, their debut, is one of the first two releases from the new Eichenwald Industries imprint, which is closely related to the limited edition Paradigms label, who have put out a lot of cool stuff you probably have. On this, the Dartmoor, UK duo known as The Wounded Kings play classic, epic, dark doom metal (a la Sabbath) with an especially druggy, spaced out, very psychedelic vibe. The very first, and title track, sets the tone, being a three-part suite beginning with some proggy organ drone... soon joined by funeral paced, fuzzed-out guitar... and cleanly sung, eerie echo-effected vocals with a melancholic, Ozzyish croak to 'em. The album continues with much more in the way of morose heaviness, epic-ness, and ambience, full of the sort of sludgy riffs we like, having quite a haunted, occult vibe.
This should appeal to fans of both Electric Wizard and Witchcraft. Clearly their record collections include a lot of '70s psych and possibly also Italian prog too... there's hints of Goblin going on here with the organ and all. We might also cite Trouble, very early Cathedral, Fall Of The Idols, Wizar'd, Solstice, Reverend Bizarre, and early Candlemass (Epicus Doomicus era)... the obscure Detroit '80s act Coven too if you've ever heard them... all could be referenced to describe The Wounded Kings' somber sound. Definitely some recommended, traditional (but not too traditional) DOOM here, folks!
Bow down doom hounds, the third full-length opus of spaced out sludge trudge from these British heavies is here! In most respects, exactly as expected, slow and low and psychedelic. But, they've changed up one (big) thing. Get this: in our review of their previous disc, The Shadow Over Atlantis, we suggested that the many fans of their labelmates Jex Thoth might dig the The Wounded Kings too, due to similar sonics and aligned atmospherics. Well, now that's even more the case, as on this album suddenly the Kings have a female singer, a la Jex Thoth! Not sure why they made this move (the popularity of Jex Thoth, The Devil's Blood, Blood Ceremony, et. al. in the "New Wave Of Female Fronted Occult Metal" trend couldn't possibly be the reason, could it?) but it was a good one, really. Not that we didn't like their original singer (former bassist George Birch, now out of the band) but we're really digging new singer Sharie Neyland's haunting, yet commanding, presence on this platter. Also, it makes perfect sense, considering that The Wounded Kings already had the spooky-proggy organ sound of Italian horror movie scores as a big influence upon their sound. Female vox fit in quite well with that vibe, and, as those other aforementioned bands also have demonstrated, sound good in conjunction with dirgey, lumbering, Sabbath-derived riffage.
And they're not just "female vox" anyway, there's an eccentric personality here. With her wavery, witchy, fairly low for a female voice, Neyland sounds something like a weird hybrid of Jex Thoth and Manilla Road's Mark "The Shark" Shelton... really! Now that's cult. Take that voice and let it range o'er epic effected hypnotic heaviness along the lines of early Cathedral or Electric Wizard (with a dash of Blizaro), and you've got In The Chapel Of The Black Hand.
So. Not just another Wounded Kings album (though that would have been fine too) but one that stands apart, if not above. Phantasmagorically recommended.
We described this British doom duo's debut in 2008 as being Sabbathy doom metal with a particularly druggy, spaced-out vibe... well they've returned and are even more druggy and spaced-out than before! This isn't doom that crushes you (though they can get quite heavy) but rather doom that envelops you, doom you sink into... like the warm embrace of sleep - or like Atlantis sinking into the ocean, the mythic cataclysm about which it appears this is a concept album (that's doom!). Thus, 'tis dark, majestic, mournful. With that mood in mind, the cover art and font used really capture the look of '60s paperback pulp sci-fi / fantasy novels, and we do know The Wounded Kings take much inspiration from both literature and the occult. They also cite several of our '70s proto-metal and prog rock faves: Night Sun, Museo Rosenbach, Hairy Chapter, Gracious, May Blitz, Alphataurus, Earth and Fire, and Van Der Graaf Generator, among others. Though what we hear could possibly best be described by suggesting one imagine UFOmammut, Witch, or Electric Wizard, ultra qualuuded and heavy lidded, at their most '70s proggish and beauteous. Also, this being on I Hate Records, it occurs to us that Jex Thoth fans (and would-be fans, those turned off by the singing in that band) ought to dig the music here.
The first track is called "The Swirling Mist" and is aptly named, describing the Wounded Kings' sound altogether. Their doomy gloomy guitar riffs are sluggishy smeared across this whole disc, almost becoming one continuous psychedelic downer drone stretching from song to song; songs which trudge forth in gorgeous glorious misery, driven by plodding drums, embellished with eerie Goblinesque chiming of keys, ofttimes gothically graced with vocal lamentations delivered a spooky shivery deep voice, reverb effected, all contributing to this album's very much haunted and melancholic feel. As does the trance inducing slo-mo psych guitar soloing and comforting organ buzz throughout. Also, some of our favorite moments are the most mellowed out ones: the gentle piano/drone interlude "Into The Ocean's Abyss" is both sad and beautiful, one of two brief instrumentals here (the other, "Deathless Echo"), among the much more epic, heavier tracks. We'd certainly recommend this Wounded Kings album to not only our true doom and doom-drone regulars but also folks into current indie psych and even cold wave acts, you might find something to grab you... and envelop you... and dreamily doom you, here!
I hate to gush, but gush I must. This is my (Andee's) RECORD OF THE YEAR. Done deal. It doesn't matter what happens for the rest of the year. Kurt Kobain could come back from the grave and record a new Nirvana record. Laddio Bollocko could get back together. Earth reunion. It doesn't matter. This is it. THE ONE. It's magical, dark, mysterious, sinister, gorgeous and moves me like very few records do. But I digress.
Woven Hand is David Eugene Edwards from Sixteen Horsepower's solo project. If you're anything like me, you're always wondering why people have solo projects that sound just like their 'actual' band, and often not nearly as good. But fear not. While Edwards' Woven Hand is similar in many ways to 16HP, it takes things in a direction even darker, dreamier, creepier, and more religious (more on that later) ending up sounding EVEN BETTER than 16HP. Hard to believe, especially if you loved 16HP's 'Folklore' that we made record of the week a few weeks back as much as we did! Woven Hand is like a Cormac McCarthy novel put to music. "Blood Meridian" arranged for rock band. "All The Pretty Horses" sung by wandering minstrels. Desolate and dreary, violent and cathartic, but not obviously so, more like a creeping seeping sickness, death and destruction and human sin as it swallows souls and destroys lives. The instrumentation is similar to 16HP, a dark and dreamy gypsy swamp-folk, but more lush, with thicker, richer atmospheres, and murky, almost impenetrable instrumental backdrops, underpinning Edwards' tales of redemption and forgiveness, sorrow and apocalypse. The lyrics are way more blatantly religious, biblically themed, and aimed at touching our souls. Which for some reason doesn't bother me as much as you think it would. The words are poetic and symbolic, simple and timeless, just beautiful stories and poems, like much of the Bible. Removed from the Christian tradition (thousands of years of hypocrisy and murder and keeping people from thinking for themselves), Edwards' biblical testifying almost has me bowing prostrate hoping to appease a stern but ultimately forgiving God. It helps that Edwards delivers these parables in a rich, throaty rasp, a gorgeous gruff tenor, like a mix of Mark Lanegan, Chris Grigoroff (Souled American) and Nick Cave, that sounds like it has the power to make men sob and women swoon. It all comes together, sound and fury, voice and instrument, in a rich tapestry of fear and hope and death and the cycle of life and desperate dreams of an afterlife. It's rare to really hear music so powerful and so evocative that it manages to become more than just 'rock music' or 'that pretty cool band.' This record brings me to the verge of tears, makes me shiver...I feel it in my brain and in my heart and in my soul. Seriously. This is what music should be to me. Intense and emotional and heartfelt and brutally powerful. There's a creepy crawly version of Bill Withers' 'Ain't No Sunshine' that manages to be even better than the original, due in no small part to the dark, funereal treatment it gets from Woven Hand, that under the right circumstances (or wrong circumstances) could crush me into a weeping, sobbing heap, with my heart broken into a thousand pieces. I wish all music could do that...
The best single-disc Link Wray comp. Twenty tracks, including all-time classic "Rumble" (the birth of rock n' roll distorted guitar), "Raw Hide", "Ramble", "Jack The Ripper", "Run Chicken Run", "Ace of Spades", "Batman Theme", "Switchblade", etc. All great, mostly-instrumental, slices of early rock n' roll from the master.
The current incarnation of sixties-spawned free jazz & acid folk label ESP has been doing more than just reissuing their old n' obscure classics. They've also been signing up some new bands from the NYC jazz underground (which we have yet to really check out), and, perhaps better yet, have also dug up some hitherto *unreleased* vintage recordings from artists in the ESP orbit. Such as the music on this disc, which barely contains the energetic maelstrom stirred up by tenor saxophonist "the Reverend" Frank Wright and his band, live at Germany's Moers Jazz Festival in 1974. There's two long (almost half-hour tracks) here, full of frenzied blowing from Wright, who after all was inspired by Albert Ayler to take up the sax in the first place, and was discovered by ESP boss Bernard Stollman while sitting in with John Coltrane's band in '64! The other cats on here are certainly up to the challenge of expressing themselves alongside Wright -- you've got Alan Silva on bass, Bobby Few on piano, and Rashied Ali's brother Muhammad on drums! Together they made some truly vital, exciting music that night, and you can hear the crowd at Moers really getting into it!
Easily the BEST album whose tracks contain of a lot of seeming nonsense baby babble and backwards tape manipulations (that was originally improvised for Italian radio) we've ever heard. Even if you already think you'd like babbling vocals and tape FX, this is even better than you think. Why? well it helps that it was done by Robert Wyatt, who is a bit of a genius, you know. Of course, if you're a Wyatt fan, you already know you want this 'cause it's basically an UNRELEASED ROBERT WYATT ALBUM FROM 1981.
Now, the title is Radio Experiment as it definitely was an experiment, a successful one, fortunately. Wyatt was invited to come to Rome and spend a week at this radio station's studio, recording his spontaneous creative process during that time frame, whatever might transpire.
The radio people picked the right artist to participate in this project, as Wyatt fully embraced the concept, working in a "blank frenzy", willing to let the end results remain secondary to documenting the work in progress of music making, though as it turned out, the finished music is pretty cool. And strange.
There's seven completed compositions presented on this disc, along with a final 10 minute track that was assembled and edited by the radio program's staff from recordings made surreptitiously during Wyatt's initial "rehearsals" in the studio. He's a one-man band here, playing piano and keys and drums and Jew's harp and other "objects". And singing, overdubbing his voice, which is all over the place, from playfully chopped up burble to weird whisper to high pitched whine to mumbled chatter to, well, actual singing that's quite fragile and pretty. There's plenty of wordless ba ba ba la la la, and other more coherent parts where you can understand the lyrics, in some cases read from political/historical texts. Multitracked and layered, all these pieces have a dreamy, hazy, hallucinatory aspect, somewhat abstract but pleasant, moody and melodic too. Being to a degree improvised, some jazz seeps in from Wyatt's Soft Machine days, and one track in fact is an interpretation, of sorts, of Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce".
Overall, a week well spent! Wyatt fans of course should enjoy this, and it also sounds to us like something perhaps This Heat related, and there's lots of current underground, cd-r scene activity featuring fractured pop and rhythmic lo-fi psychedelia and the textural use of the human voice that unknowingly harks back to these archival recordings from 28 years ago, long hidden away but thankfully now issued on cd and vinyl. The way this combines both beautiful pop-iness with really weird methods and sounds seems like something fans of, say, Panda Bear would be totally into. Very recommended!
Xasthur is a one-man, home-recorded black metal outfit delving into the distortion-washed realm of Burzumic bliss, and is a favorite of both tUMULt's black metal master Leviathan *and* the Jewelled Antler/Thuja crew, so you know it's beautifully primitive and droney stuff, with majesty undying. The music is all shades of grey, like the packaging, with strains of melody obscured in mists of mostly mid-tempo metallic mayhem a la ancients like Darkthrone and Burzum, achieving, even at speed, a trance-inducing dirge quality. It's truly "A Walk Beyond Utter Blackness" in the "Forgotten Depths Of Nowhere", as per two of the song titles. If you like cultish black metal that verges on experimental drone (or vice versa), Xasthur should please you greatly, and offers more proof (along with Weakling and the aforementioned Leviathan) that even "sunny" California can produce black metal to rival that from Nordic climes. From the same label that just brought us that Lugubrum "De Totem" reissue we recommended recently, this has been a sleeper hit here at the store, and we're happy now to have enough in stock to give it a listing.
The guy behind Xasthur goes by the name Malefic, which leads to a little Andy Rooney question I've got: why do folks need to make up two names when one would do? why not call your band (ahem) Malefic? Although, his contact address is c/o "Scott" so we can see the need for at least one pseudonym in order to maintain the aura of grim darkness that his music deserves.
MPEG Download: "Soul Abduction Ceremony" [/audio/xasthursoul.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Soul Abduction Ceremony" [/audio/xasthursoul.m3u]
Remember the French label Gooom? The label that introduced us to the gauzy blissed out dreampop of M83. As well as similarly beautiful pop buzz from bands like Cyann & Ben, KG, Abstract Keal Agram, Montag, Mils., Purple Confusion and others. Well, while Gooom seem to have dropped off the map, Type has stepped up in their bid to be our new favorite label of blissy abstract wonder. While the two labels do share an aesthetic, a sort of blurry buzzy dreamy drift, each approaches the sound from dramatically different angles. Gooom bands are, at their core, simply pop bands, or slow core bands, or post rock bands, but bands nonetheless. Guitar, bass and drums. Choruses, verses, bridges, lyrics, but these seemingly normal elements are then twisted and distorted, blurred and fuzzed out, into the glorious sounds and shapes we fell in love with. Like hearing sweetly psychedelic pop music, filtered through a cracked funhouse mirror made out of amp buzz and fuzzy sheets of reverb. Type are obviously fans of the same sort of cracked sonic shimmer, all of their releases shimmery and ethereal, rife with lots of buzz and hiss, glitch and fuzz.
Such is the case with Xela, the debut release from Type label head honcho John Twells. His cracked pop vision fits perfectly alongside the other outfits on Type, Ryan Teague, Mountaineer, Machinefabriek, Goldmund, North Sea & Rameses III. Twells wanders through a strange world of abstract sound making, fuzzy dreamlike blurs, and manner of mechanical musics. Melodies are rendered indistinct, actual songs are turned into blurry fragments, everything is pulled apart into abstract skeletal soundscapes, like seeing buzzy dream pop from the inside, watching all the gears and bits and parts and machinations that make that sort of music so dang pretty on the outside. But the view from the inside is so gorgeously alien, grinds and clicks, disembodied melodies stretched over rhythmic skitter, it's almost like being shrunken down and exploring some huge music box. Or better yet, imagine the Dead C making a record for children, playfully noisy, subtly melodic, a disembodied dream folk bathed in dreamy static, murky record crackle, and tangled up with little bits of video game music, all stretched into a gauzy later afternoon soundscape. So great. When we first heard about this album, we read a description the label wrote that pretty much seemed intended to make us at AQ curious, as it cited both Italian horror soundtracks by Goblin, AND Jewelled Antler improv soundscapes as references for Xela's sound!! Amazingly enough, The Dead Sea lives up to the expectations thus generated, and we're hooked.
Amazingly creepy cover art. Black and white line drawings of people drowning and being attacked by some sort of underwater zombies. Cool!
Cool. A truly cult band begins to get its due. If you read our list or are otherwise hip to out-there '70s communal psych rock then you already know all about the amazing Ya Ho Wa 13, house band of Father Yod's Source Family, uh, commune. It was just a few months ago that we hosted a book signing with Isis and Electricity Aquarian and other original members of the Source Family, in conjunction with which the reunited Ya Ho Wa 13 played a show here in San Francisco. Wow. That was something.
So, what with the book (The Source: The Untold Story Of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 And The Source Family) and associated publicity, now the Cold Sweat label has done a domestic digipack cd reissue of what might be the best of the Ya Ho Wa's many albums. A domestic vinyl release is soon to follow on the Tee Pee label as well.
Here's more or less what we said about this big AQ fave when we listed the previously available UK import cd edition a few years ago:
Whoah, man. A seriously trippy, dark and clangorous document here from the (very literally) cult group of early '70s rockers called Ya Ho Wha 13. Of all the many albums that the legendary Father Yod and his band of freaky communal-living hippies made back in the day (most but not all of 'em compiled into the massive Aquarius-beloved 13-disc God And Hair box set that came out in Japan some years back), it's always been THIS one that we at AQ (and pretty much every other reputable source too) have heralded as the absolute heaviest and best of the bunch. An essential item for anyone into far-out freeform '70s psych weirdness. And it's got an unbeatable title, eh? Penetration: An Aquarian Symphony. How can we not dig that? So we're quite stoked to have it reissued by itself on cd for those who haven't got and/or aren't ready for the box set. The four tracks here (including one entitled simply "Ya Ho Wha 13") venture from droneing spacey effects laden soundscapes with eerie Eastern-sounding vocal wailing to full-tilt throbbing, percussive tribal lift-off frenzies complete with stabs of heavy guitar distortion. Throw in some whistling to add an off-kilter spaghetti western soundtrack vibe and you've got Penetration. A damaged, dense, intense, quasi-religious psychedelic California-krautrock experience. Even the mellowest parts are still pretty edgy. This 1974 recording is definitely to be considered a cosmic precursor to everything from the drum circle discs of the Boredoms to the improv rock of Reynols to the neo-hippy clank of the No Neck Blues Band. Amazing. And totally utterly AQ-recommended!!
There are a handful of records that seem to truly define the unique (sometime ridiculous) aesthetic that we pride ourselves on here at Aquarius Records. The Conet Project is one, a four cd set of haunting mysterious shortwave transmissions of spy stations, hours and hours of numbers and music. Then there's the Thai Elephant Orchestra, a recording of gamelan playing elephants, or the Ghost Orchid, a recording of emanations from beyond the grave, but one release that is truly near and dear to our freaky musical hearts is the Yahowha box. Originally released on Captain Trip as a jumbo sized box with 13 cds in regular jewel cases with a huge LP sized booklet, with lots of amazing photos and loads of Japanese text, this massive collection has been re-issued in a gorgeous wooden box, sealed with gold cords and a wax seal, the jewel cases are gone and instead the discs are housed together in slim sleeves, and the all-in-Japanese-anyway booklet is gone now too (although we've yet to crack one of these open, so we suppose it might have been resized to fit in this much smaller box), but it's also cheaper and will now fit on your cd shelf. But why is this collection so essential and why should you absolutely drop everything and pick up one of these amazing boxes? Read on...
For 13 discs you better get the complete recordings... and here on God and Hair that is what you get. (Well, this was true until recently when The Operetta was released...but you do get plenty!)
Led by the late, legendary Father Yod (who supposedly died in a hang-gliding accident in the late 70s... just like Icarus!) YaHoWha 13 "epitomize the insanity of highly-personalized psychedelic exploration via the fringes of rock music and its subsequent private documentation better than anything else produced by the human race to date." (a glorious if over the top description from the fine folk at Forced Exposure)... This collection ranges from tribal acid pound to weird noisy float to dense aural freakouts, all accompanying Yod's megalomaniacal vocal output (as on the unbelievable masterpieces Penetration and I'm Gonna Take You Home). Then there's the other side of Yod and his minions, creepy cult-guru sermons over simple acoustic guitars (which give those tracks a vibe not unlike the recently reveiewed freak folk of Charles Manson's). Warning: this stuff is VERY hippie. But if you're anything like us that's maybe not so much of a warning as it is a promise!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
For 13 discs you better get the complete recordings... and here on God and Hair that is what you get. [well, this was true until recently when The Operetta was released...but you do get plenty!] Led by the late, legendary Father Yod (who supposedly died in a hang-gliding accident in the late 70s... just like Icarus!) YaHoWha 13 "epitomize the insanity of highly-personalized psychedelic exploration via the fringes of rock music and its subsequent private documentation better than anything else produced by the human race to date." (a glorious if over the top description from the fine folk at Forced Exposure)... This collection ranges from the tribal acid pound with weird noises floating in and out of aural spaces alongside Yod's megalomaniacal vocal output (as on the unbelievable masterpieces "Penetration" and "I'm Gonna Take You Home") to the cult-guru sermons over simple acoustic guitar (which give the uncanny resemblance to Charles Manson's folk). Warning: it's VERY hippie. The huge 13" x 13" heavy duty box houses the 13 discs and a 50 page booklet (which is unfortunately only in Japanese). So fucking cool.
(If anyone out there has any more information about this band (in English) please direct us to it.)
Please Note: Due to the sheer cost of this thing, AQ will only have 1 or 2 in stock at any given time. We will certainly do our best to fill any orders that come in, but please be patient with us! And it's a limited edition, too, of course, so don't delay...
Whoah, man. A seriously trippy, dark and clangorous document here from the (very literally) cult group of early '70s rockers called Ya Ho Wha 13. Of all the many albums that the legendary Father Yod and his band of freaky communal-living hippies made back in the day (most but not all of 'em compiled into the massive Aquarius-beloved 13-disc God And Hair box set that came out in Japan some years back), it's always been THIS one that we at AQ (and pretty much every other reputable source too) have heralded as the absolute heaviest and best of the bunch. An essential item for anyone into far-out freeform '70s psych weirdness. And it's got an unbeatable title, eh? Penetration, An Aquarian Symphony. How can we not dig that? So we're quite stoked that the UK's Swordfish label has reissued it on cd for those who haven't got and/or aren't ready for the box set . The four tracks here (including one entitled simply "Ya Ho Wha 13") venture from droneing spacey effects laden soundscapes with eerie Eastern-sounding vocal wailing to full-tilt throbbing, percussive tribal lift-off frenzies complete with stabs of heavy guitar distortion. Throw in some whistling to add an off-kilter spaghetti western soundtrack vibe and you've got Penetration. A damaged, dense, intense, quasi-religious psychedelic California-krautrock experience. Even the mellowest parts are still pretty edgy. This 1974 recording is definitely to be considered a cosmic precursor to everything from the drum circle discs of the Boredoms to the improv rock of Reynols to the neo-hippy clank of the No Neck Blues Band. Amazing.
Back In Print!!!! The Source book was awesome, but before that, there was this dvd, you need it too...
If you're at all like us, you're a fan of the Ya Ho Wha 13 records. big fans don't know much more than that the Yah Ho Wha 13 was a band that belonged to a '70s hippy religious commune (some would say, a "cult") known then as the Brotherhood Of The Source and now as the Source Family, that was based in California (and later, Hawaii), led by a fellow named Father Yod, who eventually perished in a hang-gliding accident. Pretty mysterious really. And if you're like us you're curious about the folks who made all that weird music. Well, now you can learn the rest of the story from this DVD documentary. And it's a long story -- about two and a half hours. Very entertaining though. In part 'cause the actual facts are so strange, in part 'cause the interviewees are really rather charming... and in part 'cause this was a student film project. The filmmaking isn't so much amateur or low budget as it is simply bizarre. It fits with the subject though!! The young filmmaker himself sometimes appears on-screen, hosting the proceedings. A lot of the time, he has the back of his head to the camera, superimposed Mystery Science Theatre 3000 style over whatever he's discussing. Weird. And he really tries to generate a "psychedelic" mood with the use of computer animations and the overlaying of multiple video images. It's a pretty darn trippy movie he's made. But once you're used to it, you'll be able to focus on what the former "Family" members are talking about in the interviews. You'll learn that Father Yod's real name was Jim Baker. And that supposedly he was an Olympic athlete and WWII hero. Well, that's what his former followers still think. Further viewing will reveal how Tarzan, salad dressing, Jodie Foster's dad, and the Egyptian pyramids, among many other things, all play parts in the story... And don't worry, in addition to the present-day interviews, this makes use of all sorts of vintage footage and photos, both "home movies" and what appears to be a local Los Angeles TV news feature on the Father Yod and his followers from back in the day.
In a lot of ways, this film is basically a case study in how to start and run a cult. In Jim Baker/Father Yod's case, the idea is to become an esoteric-wisdom-spouting father figure to a group of "lost" youths (it's helpful if there happens to be a whole hippie generation running around looking for spiritual enlightenment and belonging). And get them all working at your successful health-food restaurant, to make money to pay for Rolls Royces, mansions, and nice suits. And have amazing hair! (The sequence where one former Family member describes the colors and texture of Father Yod's hair is really intense!) For instance, would-be cult leaders probably are curious to know just how Father Yod wound up with so many attractive young "wives"? Well, he taught his flock that women were god-creatures, creative spirits who should be utterly liberated and free to choose their partners as they wished. If a man was chosen, he should accept the attentions of the woman gratefully, no matter what. Now, could Father Yod help it if many of the women in the Family chose him, leaving many of his male "children" without partners? No, he could not.
An interest in cults, gurus and sixties spirituality aside, despite the fact that the Ya Ho Wha 13's music (which you'll hear throughout the film) doesn't really get discussed much until about an hour and a half into the movie (and Djin Aquarian, the guitarist in the band, isn't talked to for some reason, though you can find a fascinating 2003 interview with him online here: http://www.nicepooperzine.com/interviews.html, and of course he's in the Source book), this is still pretty much essential for any fan of Father Yod & Co.'s musical endeavors. We think you'll "hear" a lot more next time you spin one of their albums, after viewing this. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! ACID WITCH "Witchtanic Hellucinations" (Razorback Recordings) cd 13.98 AI ASO "Aida" (PSF) cd 22.00 ATOM TM "Liedgut" (Raster-Norton) cd 17.98 AURA NOIR "Hades Rise" (Peaceville) cd 15.98 BARRACUDA, RANDY & MESAK "Black Vaseline" (Harmonia) 12" 16.98 BIRD, ANDREW "Noble Beast" (Fat Possum) cd 13.98 CARTER, ANITA "Songbird" (The Omni Recording Corporation) cd 16.98 COLTRANE, JOHN "A Love Supreme" (Impulse) lp 16.98 COLTRANE, JOHN "Sun Ship" (Impulse) lp 16.98 COLTRANE, JOHN & JOHNNY HARTMAN "s/t" (Impulse) lp 16.98 CONDO FUCKS "Fuckbook" (Matador) cd/lp 13.98/14.98 DALEK "Gutter Tactics" (Ipecac) cd 16.98 DISTANCE "Repercussions" (Planet Mu) 2cd 16.98 ELOY "s/t" (Revisted) cd 17.98 EMPIRE, ALEC "Plays Staubgold: Rauschgold" (Staubgold) cd 14.98 ENFORCER "Into The Night" (Heavy Artillary) cd 15.98 ENVENOMIST "Helix" (Killer Pimp) cd 11.98 FAITHFULL, MARIANNE "Easy Come Easy Go" (Decca) cd 16.98 FAUST "C'est Com... Com... Complique" (Bureau B) cd/lp 17.98/17.98 FAUST "Schiphorst 2008" (Salamanda) 2cd 23.00 FENNESZ / DAFELDECKER / BRANDLMAYR "Till The Old World's Blown Up And A New One Is Created" (Mosz) 2cd 16.98 FRIDGE "Early Output 1996-1998" (Temporary Residence) cd 14.98 FRUMPY "2" (Philips) cd 17.98 FRUMPY "All Will Be Changed" (Philips) cd 17.98 GAINSBOURG, SERGE "Aux Armes Et Caetera" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98 GAINSBOURG, SERGE "L'Homme A Tete De Chou" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98 GOBLIN COCK "Come With Me If You Want To" (Robcore Records) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 HIGH RISE "Psychedelic Speed Freaks Live 1986" (PSF) dvd 27.00 IBLISS "Supernova" (Garden Of Delights) cd 22.00 IELASI, GIUSEPPE "Aix" (12K) cd 14.98 JEPSON, WARNER "Totentanz and Other Electronic Works, 1958 - 1973" (Melon Expander) cd 19.98 KELLARISSA "Flamingo" (Mint) cd 16.98 LINES, THE "Flood Bank" (Acute Records) cd 14.98 LIVERPOOL "Por Favor Sucesso" (Shadoks / Normal) cd 17.98 LOW FREQUENCY IN STEREO, THE "Futuro" (Rune Grammofom) cd 17.98 LUSTMORD "The Dark Places Of The Earth" (Vault Works) cd 16.98 MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ W/ MASAMI SHINODA "s/t" (PSF) dvd 27.00 MANDIBLE CHATTER "Grace" (Magnanimous Records) cd 14.98 MASTODON "Crack The Skye" (Reprise) cd 13.98 MONKS "Black Monk Time" (Light In The Attic) cd 16.98 MONNO "Ghosts" (Conspiracy) cd/lp 15.98/15.98 MONO "Hymn To The Immortal" (Temporary Residence) cd 14.98 NEGATIVE SPACE "Hard, Heavy, Mean & Evil" (Vintage) cd 12.98 O.W.L. "Of Wondrous Legends" (Locust) cd 14.98 O'MALLEY, STEPHEN "Keep An Eye Out" (Table Of The Elements) lp 15.98 OFEGE "Try And Love" (Acadamy) lp 14.98 OFERMOD "Tiamtu" (Ajna) cd 15.98 ONNA "Katawa" (PSF) cd 22.00 POWERHOUSE "s/t" (Erebus) cd 17.98 RAPE X "False" (At War With Noise) cd 14.98 RED FANG "s/t" (Sargent House) cd RIGAS DEN ANDRE "Valla" (Harmonia) 12" 15.98 RUSTED SHUT "s/t" (Fleece Records) cd 14.98 SHOGUN KUNITOKI "Vinonaa" (Fonal) picture disc lp 23.00 SHOLI "s/t" (Quarterstick) cd 14.98 SMASH "We Come To Smash This Time" (LSD) lp 32.00 STRIBORG "Perceiving The World With Hate" (Displeased) cd 14.98 STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS & ANGEL "s/t" (Important) cd 14.98 SULTAN, MARK "Hold On / I Hear A New World" (Sub Pop) 7" 5.98 TAAKE "s/t" (Century Media) cd 12.98 THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES "Tail Swallower And Dove" (Suicide Squeez) cd 14.98 V/A "Cazumbi: African Sixties Garage Vol-1" (No Smoke) cd 25.00 V/A "Source Records 1-6, 1968-1971" (Pogus) 3cd 43.00 VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "Time Vaults" (Abstract Sounds) cd 13.98 VAN DUREN "Are You Serious?" cd VEE DEE "Public Mental Health System" (Criminal IQ) 2lp 21.00 VILE, KURT & THE VIOLATORS "The Hunchback EP" (Richie Records) 12" 14.98 VIRUS "The Black Flux" (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98 WALKER, PETER "Long Lost Tapes" (Tompkins Square) cd 14.98 WEIRD OWL "Ever The Silver Cord Be Loosed" (Tee Pee) cd 14.98 WIMPLE WINCH "Tales From The Sinking Ship" (RPM) cd 16.98 WOLF "Ravenous" (Century Media) cd 12.98 YELLOWBEARD "s/t" (Ultra Eczema) lp 30.00 _______________________________________________________________________ Please place your order via our website. 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Time to don your white robes, brush out your white beards, and slip on your headbands. Yahowa has returned! Well, no, not Father Yod, who perished in a hang gliding accident 33 years ago, but the psychedelic rock band of mortals who survive him: the legendary Yahowa 13! Now the core tribal trio of Djinn Aquarian (guitar), Octavius Aquarian (drums), and Sunflower Aquarian (bass). And they definitely have kept the faith, white robes and headbands and all, biding their time up on Mount Shasta or at Rainbow Gatherings or maybe out in astral space, until the stars were right and the time had come for the music of the Yahowa 13 to again surge forth spreading the word of Yod. Who would have thunk it possible? That they'd be back, and so damn good too?
We wouldn't have believed it, either, but we saw 'em with our own eyes, when they hung out at Aquarius one afternoon not too long ago for a book signing, and then played a fantastic show (well, except for when Sky Saxon joined them on stage, but that's another story...) at the Cafe du Nord that same night. Wow. (There's a live LP document of that show, actually, entitled Feather Of Wisdom, that we haven't ever listed but do still have a few copies of in stock, act quick if you want one!).
Yep, Sonic Portation, their first studio album in over 30 years, is good. Better even than several of the original Yahowa discs in the totemic God And Hair box set! Seriously. The track record of bands from the distant past "getting the band back together" and doing something worthwhile is often dismal, with some pleasant exceptions (like Trad Gras Och Stenar, of whom this reminds us!). So that this is so good is a sweet blessing. A blessing consisting of hypnotically throbbing, head nodding, guitar-heavy psych rock in service to the power of Yod, his presence still felt. It begins with the longest of the six jams on the disc, "E Ah Oh Shin", pushing 12 minutes. The other songs are shorter, though we'd be happy if they'd gone on longer... the completely enthralling, choppily rhythmic chant of "Yod Hey Vau Hey", which we recall as a highlight of their live show, is here only a mere, uh, 4:20. Of course the whole album flows together in a spiritual and improvisatory trance-state anyway. The sorta Circle-ish rhythm section gets into a groove around which Djinn's guitar does various far out things. From shimmering blissfulness (he plays with a feather, sometimes) to heavy washes of distortion, Djinn's sound hints at everything from surf music to oldies garage rock n' roll to the Sun City Girls. The group's music is mostly instrumental, with some weird vocals chanting or growling in the background once in a while. But the instrumental interplay is key. The Higher Key.
We started off this review with the assumption that this would be for folks already hip to the whole Ya Ho Wa thing (as so many AQ customers are). But even if you -weren't- already a knowledgeable fan of this group's cult (in more than one way) output from the '70s, when they existed as the musical arm of The Source, an LA religious commune led by the charismatic, bearded guru known as Father Yod, we'd recommend this. Heck if this wasn't Yahowa 13, but some kids named Crystal Master Antjler or something, we'd still be all over it. As would Arthur magazine, and all the hippy hipsters of today. Make it a limited edition cd-r release, with handmade covers, and tell us it's some spaced out new band from of freaks from Finland or Japan, and we'd be convinced. Seriously (again). We always have said the original Ya Ho Wa stuff was the closest West Coast American psych came to the best krautrock, and again this is krautrock like Acid Mothers Temple is krautrock. Three decades later, their love and dedication shines through. Whatever you think of religious cultish hippyish stuff, it's kinda heartening that these guys are still so into it! And we're into it too. What a fantastic reunion. Most mystically recommended!!!
PS for those who want to learn more about Ya Ho Wa, we still have copies of the aforementioned book, The Source.... look up our review elsewhere on this site.
