One Fish, Two Fish, Three Fish…Strange Fish…

Fruit de Mer Records go into even deeper water with their new project, Strange Fish. Promised to satisfy those yearning for more of the goods found on releases like Head Music and Roqueting Through Space, Strange Fish have five releases planned…For those who dig “…Neu!, Klaus Schulze, 70s Tangerine Dream, the Brain and Ohr labels, extended prog rock tracks, acid-james, side-long ambient pieces, electric/acoustic guitar + electronics tracks…”

Check Fruits de Mer Records for release/order info and a roster of artists that will be swimming between your ears. FdM’s YouTube conduit has excerpts from all their upcoming bounty of the sea…again…

Vespero/Steppe

First video from Vespero’s upcoming 5th studio release Droga, due this summer on R.A.I.G.

“The release will be available in two versions: regular CD-edition housed in a thick rough cardboard folder with silkprinted artwork; and special 100-ltd. two-disc set. In addition to a regular “Droga” CD, the latter version includes the “Liventures, etc” pro-duplicated CD-R. This disc is a satellite release to both the “Droga” and “Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier” albums. It captures VESPERO live and performing alternative versions of their favorite compositions, cover songs, compilation exclusives, and new songs.”

Todd Parker and the Witches/Martians

Todd Parker and the Witches ready more greetings…this time from Mars…Martians is set to enter our atmosphere this coming June, via Bakery Records.

Tune in this Monday, 1-3 a.m., for an exclusive preview of cuts from this new release from founder of perennial fave psych rockers The Tadpoles, great Americans and sonic namesake of this humble broadcast.

Interview with Todd Parker

RVA Playlist 3rd Birthday

Anousheh, Long Arms, Horsehead headline RVA Playlist 3rd Birthday Party on May 29.



“On Wednesday, May 29 music blog RVA Playlist celebrates three years of highlighting the Richmond music scene and so far, it’s been a huge success. Local writer Andrew Cothern returns to the Camel to commemorate the success of the online music digest with a free show. Last year’s event was standing-room only.

The night features some of the best local bands in the city including Anousheh, Long Arms and Horsehead.  The Camel is RVA’s destination for live music, which also has 28 local and craft beers on tap and serves a full menu all night. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 9 p.m. sharp…”

More info at their FB event page

You’ve Got A Lot Of Nerve/SOB 4.29.13

Podcast to-go at radio4all

Come In-Peter Wyngarde-When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head-RPM-1970

I Surrender-Bonny St. Clair-Le Beat Bespoké-Sanctuary-2004

Instant Nirvana-101 Strings Orchestra-Astro-Sounds From Beyond The Year 2000-Righteous-1969

Psyche Rock-Pierre Henry-Psychedelic Jazz-Indie Europe/Zoom-2008

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Robotheque-Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited-The Spooky Sounds Sessions-Dionysus Records-2009

Orbit Around The Moon-Joe Meek And The Blue Men-I Hear a New World: An Outer Space Music Fantasy-RPM-1968

Foggy Twilights-Secret Circuit-Tropical Psychedelics-Emotional Response-2013

The Ride of Aida (Voodoo)-Mort Garson-Black Mass/Lucifer-UNI Records-1971

Arco atlántico-Diego Garcia-Estela Discoidea-Sonidido Muchacho-2012

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Brother High-KB Cabala-Brother High Single-KB Cabala-2012

On the Run-The Oscillation-Fall EP-The Oscillation-2011

Butterfly, How Long It Takes To Die-The Flaming Lips-The Terror-Warner Brothers-2013

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You Lust-The Flaming Lips-The Terror-Warner Brothers-2013

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Echoes Pt. 2/Lead Out-Pink Floyd-Live at Pompeii-Polygram-1971

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A Visit to Newport Hospital-The Baking Research Station-A Visit to Newport Hospital/Queen St. Gang 7”-Fruits de Mer Records-2012

Child of My Kingdom-Arthur Brown-The Crazy World of Arthur Brown-Track Records-1968

Mother No Head-The NoMen-Happy Record Store Day!-The Active Listener-2013

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Hollow Sky-Navel-Loverboy-Noisolution Records-2012

Vacate the Horror-This Other Kingdom-Sunlight-This Other Kingodm-2013

Shoot to Kill-His Name Is Codeine-The Only Truth Is Music-Deadbook-2013

In Zaire/White Sun Black Sun

Italian quartet In Zaire describe themselves as ‘Psychedelic Afro Beat from Italia,’ but that’s only a small part of what this ball of fire is all about. Neo-global furnace blasts, Krautrock, space rock, psych rock…and more…compress and explode on their first full-length White Sun Black Sun, via Sound of Cobra. Drenched in combustion, with an almost punk ferocity, In Zaire literally explode out of the gate with Sun. When an outfit comes outs with such intensity, it can make you nervous thinking they shot their full payload up front. The more White Sun Black Sun burns though, the deeper In Zaire go, seemingly never running out of fuel. Sun instantaneously goes supernova, threatening to consume the pilots who have absolutely no intention of re-entry on this flight. Fears are laid to rest as Moon redefines that body as anything but lifeless. It threatens to alter all orbits with a churning galactic chug that heads right into the eye of the vortex, spinning a wicked corkscrew drive. New life? There’s more of it on Mars, with a swampy guitar dancing over a tinkling of gaseous bodies proving beyond a lunar shadow of doubt that there is water—and life—on Mars. At this point, In Zaire has gone deeper than most ‘nauts, but planetary explorations continues, and thrives when the surface of Mercury cracks open with a simple drum beat that acts as gyroscopic control as the rest of In Zaire coil tightly around it, generating a rumbling aura that expands the energy output further than you would think. There’s a bone-rattling looseness that is evident throughout the record, a frayed edge that gives In Zaire an added punch of ferocity above their already white-hot delivery. It’s a pretty straightforward cut that uses the understated power of buzz to full effect. The outermarker is pushed even more approaching Jupiter, an amorphous rumble that implies size through intergalactic ballooning over crippling mass. This is a gas giant, deceptively open while contained in a cauldron of bouncing and rhythmic reaction. Don’t let planetary sequence fool you into thinking you’re back in tighter with Venus. A microcosm of the galaxy (not just ours), throbbing bass and drums circle the star-wagons around an open core with the guitar providing transport between the ricocheting particles. The circular nature of In Zaire is used to full effect, while brief roiling flares highlight the latent power they have in more restrained passages as well as the added booster energy that’s under the hood even when the eye of the storm opens wide open to swallow everything in its path. By the end, Venus becomes a mass of electrified lava of one-mind. As it fades out, it’s clear this is only a window to the never-ending change and activity of another body teeming with life. No matter what the astronomers say. Deepest out is your next outpost, Saturn…out to the edge where what little has been mapped out ends. This is where the tether is fraying and you willingly reach for the scissors to make the final cut. By the end, your not only in deeper space, but your strapped in for a whole new launch sequence. The biggest mystery, and key to the allure, of In Zaire is that for all the interstellar hyperbole, this is firmly rooted on Mother Earth. With the rhythm, tribal fury and power of tectonic grind, White Sun Black Sun serves as a reminder that our Mothership here is part of an open-ended system that is a conflagration in constant motion, consuming, exhuming and expanding at a rate that loses scale in the great vacuum. Just as importantly, White Sun Black Sun is a blazing calling card that there’s a new Master of the Universe in town.

Hills/Live

Hills have worked the Gothenburg time-machine for a special June release via Cardinal Fuzz before their upcoming Rocket Recordings release slated for this year. Live was originally a very limited cassette release, made up of 2 long jams that captured the strong roots and base soil under Hills and really put a spotlight on their improvised meditative ‘hyp-no-monotony.’ Hills thrive in the live setting. Expanding their sound with lengthy psychedelic ruminations, Live also gets down to something very elemental about Hills, a taste of the marrow. Obviously put down in intimate settings, Live feels personal, like you’re right there, down in it…Hills quickly get into full-flight and that setting blossoms, folding and unfolding into itself while still packing a strong inward, personal punch. Think of looking—and listening—down the kaleidomicroscope the ‘wrong’ way again, razoring on a map pinpoint until it becomes an iris, overlapping plates sliding open to let you into a whole new space that’s as boundless as this side. Burgeoning in an improvised atmosphere Hills become even more elastic, shaking of structure, but never form. Live is not only another feather in the cap for Hills growing canon, but a heady snapshot of them that goes far beyond the frame-edge.

Frigörande Musik (excerpt) :: Hills :: Live (2013, Cardinal Fuzz)

Interview with Hills

Robotmonkeyarm

Robotmonkeyarm, doing a muscular musical reach-around from North Andover, present a ‘Morricone/Goblin influenced prog-metal EP trilogy.’ Why not take 3 EPs and make one album you ask? For one thing, you wouldn’t get a trio of killer album covers from an art monkey-jockey named Matt Talbot. Besides, it’s just more fun this way. And if anything, Robotmonkeyarm are about fun. A heady mix of spaghetti western, spy and surf sounds with some kitchen sink parts tossed in, robot senza nome​!​, cinema vomitif & the white mask of doom​! and in memoriam to those we’ve lost and those we don’t remember own up to their influences as well as the promise of the packaging. Irreverent? You bet. Kitschy? Nope. Under the flurry and fury there is some serious love going on that lift this well above being jokey or tossed off. They pepper the pasta with sand, but cuts like Titoli and l’epilogo (in memoria di Anthony de Mello) reveal an artier and more progressive side (I’m not sure why—yet—but I’d love to hear this arm beat on some Crimson) of their evolutionary scale that does even more to elevate Robotmonkeyarm from the trash heap of tawdry. There’s even more time away from the desert beach when they get down to some street walking night cheetah strut on Cinema Vomitif or the snotty The Psychogenic Stomp! Not content to stop there, Deliria (the final girl) carries the whiff of entering the circus lounge tent on the wrong side of the tracks…from the back side. No need to wipe. You can wash up back at the beach where the water is hot-rodded with cuts like Kill the Cutie, Dance Party Ending or the sweet Vengeance of the Sweater Girl. High concept? Not really considering the additives in the tank or the execution, but certainly high-octane when they turn on the nitrous. Mixing all this together, especially the ingredients that make Robotmonkeyarm twitch, could have easily devolved into non-calorie laughing gas, but they shift gears with ease and a sure hand that delivers the goods so that there really is something to talk about at this party. Saddle up since the surf’s up. More than once.

Beaulieu Porch/We Are Beautiful

One-man psych pop shoppe Beaulieu Porch (Simon Berry) is satisfying the sweet tooth again with an autobiographical ‘real life psych pop odyssey’ that carries The Beatles infused finery of Beaulieu Porch forward, and carves a couple new facets into Lucy’s diamonds. All the detail and watery lushness of the self-titled are here in abundance; high lilting vocals reading the signposts to ‘be your guide to the other side,’ effortless hooks spilling out and intimate pop mastery virtually bubbling up at every turn. In every way a worthy successor to the self-titled debut, We Are Beautiful revels in the fertile soil that gave rise to indelible pop poppies of the ’60s, furthering that tradition while extending Berry’s grasp—and love—of it, as well as his own output. Golda 03 kicks of the odyssey in the fine form expected, but also signals more twists in the licorice. Golda 03 has a stop-start pace that doesn’t disrupt the flow, but adds a new light to Beaulieu Porch’s shimmering vibe. The exceptional The View From Gainsborough moves so freely and naturally that it’s airborne out of the gate, giving an aerial view of the ‘starlit ocean.’ Here though, the guitar cuts a bit deeper and highlights a slightly thicker sound throughout We Are Beautiful. By no means a radical shift, or even a jettisoning of what makes Porch go down so smoothly, but a slight coalescing that makes the chewing even more satisfying. It’s a subtle addition that dovetails right in, made clearer on the lysergic swirl and pop maelstrom of Anno Domini, the carousel chug of Daylight Faces or the fiery ride-out of the shape-shifting closer If. Contrasted with cuts like the wonderfully hazy waking-edge of The Narcissists or the gentle ricochet-dancing of planets and atoms in Of Particles, the small-scale escalation of dynamics makes the whole ride a touch more immediate without any abruptness. In the case of Beaulieu Porch and Berry’s role as psych-pop ferryman floating you downstream, the gently lit sparklers and flare-ups make the sounds, colors and the traditional pop aspects of his vision even more kaleidoscopic without being blinding, or blind-sideing you.

We Are Beautiful is available via Berry’s own Tillsammans Records.

His Name Is Codeine/The Only Truth Is Music

I have to admit, on an initial spin I wouldn’t have pegged His Name Is Codeine as Scottish. Their full-length debut, The Only Truth Is Music, has the requisite fuzz and reverb, but there is a rootsy, rustic spine that is as hard as oak that veers into a hazy, thick and often amorphous Americana fog. The Elgin-based 6-piece readily acknowledge outfits like Spiritualized and The Black Angels, as well as reaching further back to VU, Gram Parsons, Neil Young…well, hit me with that piece of oak, Young isn’t American…It doesn’t take long to realize that earlier line of thinking is what got us into trouble to begin with…but I digress. And so do His Name Is Codeine, without taking their hands off the wheel and running rampant over more than just their hometown. They cut a big swath and deliver the heft, but they also appreciate the lure, and allure, of a big sky or at least the need to pull over every now and then, take a breath, and look up. Especially when you’re feeling down. For as much as they love the rolling wall of fuzzy sound, His Name Is Codeine keep things on the human scale, approaching their ‘tales of darkness’ as storytellers. That’s made perfectly clear through the haze on the VU-ish Measure Of Your Misery and many points in between on their ‘sleazy bedsit Bible of Scottish hope.’ Needless to say, where there’s a Bible, there’s sin. You can take a bite with the first single Before The Apple Fell, mixing swagger, sexy and menace in equal parts. Slow-boil lament Magdalena mixes in blood, pavement, drugs and sailors for an added kick of the gothic that gnarls that oak even more. It’s not all a crawl in any way either, with the focus on songs over effect and a pulsing heart (check Shoot to Kill) rather than an over-revved engine. It’s a tasty mix, with some thick ingredients, but His Name Is Codeine never let it get muddy. Viscous and stout for sure, and not afraid to embrace a pop sensibility without selling out the (wide) screenwriter’s story. Or forsaking where you came from…no matter where that is, even if it caused you some troubles. His Name Is Codeine is here to tell you a story about that…

The Only Truth Is Music is out May 30th via Dead Book Records.