(Insert witticism about dipping your toe in, the vastness of the ocean, water water everywhere,etc …) ___________________ …but you got to start somewhere…
Beau (England), Black Tempest (England), The Bordellos (England), Cat Frequency (England), The Cream People (England), Dead Pylons (England), Earthling Society (England), Elevation (USA), Frobisher Neck (England), The Golden Cake Company (Wales), The Grand Astoria (Russia), Julie’s Haircut (Italy), Mademoiselle Marquee (Scotland), James McKeown (England), Mechanik (Spain), Moonweevil (England), Oceanfire (England), Organic Is Orgasmic (Russia), Craig Padilla (USA), Palace of Swords (Scotland), Purple Rock Trip (USA), Sendelica (Wales), Jay Tausig (USA), Temple Music (England), The Amazing Sounds Of D.B. Turi (England), Vert:x (England), Vespero (Russia), The Vox Humana (Wales), Zenith: Unto The Stars (England)
Strange Fish, from Fruits de Mer Records, is a 4 volume set of ’extended prog rock tracks, acid-james, side-long ambient pieces, electric/acoustic guitar + electronics tracks,’ plus a bonus CD for the completists who clean their plate. And there is much to digest here. Surely many of the names, whether you’re a regular diner at Fruits de Mer, will be familiar while others will be the strangest of the fish. By casting a net this big, there are bound to be particulars and peccadilloes for everyone. That’s a given. It’s also a given that if you swim in similar waters as these fish do, you’re bound to be open to some new sounds, or at the very least a few new coordinates on the chart. Spanning the globe with running times from full-sides (Sendelica’s adventuresome, bubbling trip-fest Strange Fish) to day-trips, there is literally something for everyone.
Craig Padilla kicks off Strange Fish One with Full Moon World, setting the tone, but not the destination, with his electro space stretches. To run through every cut would not only be tedious, but a disservice to Strange Fish’s expanse. Exploration is no small part of the mission here, and though you’ll find plenty of heavily electronic mind twists and turns like Padilla, the ocean is vast and the species plenty. Sendelica tackle the title cut, flowing out over a full side, mapping and doing reconn through waters both limpid and dense with sound-colors darting and pinging like, well, strange fish. Right off the bat, Strange Fish One makes clear the scope of what’s to come pairing Sendelica’s more spacey prog leanings with Padilla’s electronics. Throughout all the volumes the diversity and range of ear candy all work in tangent to make a statement, a very broad one. Moonweevils short burst of idiosyncratic pulses may have an electro-base in common with Padilla, but it’s as different from that as it is from the more Kosmiche sounds of Black Tempest‘s Energy of Stars or the gentle and enigmatic Palace of Swords.
Fruits de Mer has said that if Head Musicis where your ears are at, then Strange Fish can easily dock in your own head space, and that’s spot on. Though Head Music focused on Krautrock, the range of interpretations and executions were as varied as the type of music it sought to celebrate, making a statement far beyond the confines of a genre. Strange Fish does the same, blurry the edges of this head music revealing just how much the variety here shares in intent. Whether it’s the more folk leanings of James McKweon, the space prog of Vespero and Organic is Orgasmic, Jay Tausig‘s Kraut beat on the stellar Shortwave, or the foot through the floorboards space rock chug of vert:x and the outrageous showing of Oceanfire, the concrete target may be hard to put into words, but we have the music to do that for us and you’ll know it when you hear it. What you also hear, loud and clear, is the unspoken artist here: the sprawl. The height, width and depth of Strange Fish is as vital as any of the artists on display. You can take each album as a great compilation, or broad sampler of a handful of bands, but Strange Fish achieves maximum depth in full scope. Though it may not share the more direct intent of other opuses like The White Album, Physical Graffiti, or even Exile On Main St., what it does share is a celebration of those records’ sprawl. Depending on where your interests lie, and what defines a peak or valley, Strange Fish is never less than intriguing and fully successful in its reverence of the simple action of dipping your toe in stranger waters than you usual do. Fruits de Mer have the lures, the waters are stocked…all you have to do is wait for the bite after the nibble.
…Overhang Party is criminally overlooked. From the heavily psychedelic noise-rock of their first album to the piano-rock anthems of 4, Overhang Party was somehow impossibly consistent and seamless. This box set flows as an even, open document of this fearless and inventive Japanese rock group…The Complete Studio Recordings of Overhang Party includes each of their studio albums (each with a bonus track) and their unreleased final recording sessions. While this 4 CD set is sure to please aficionados of Japanese underground rock The biggest surprise, however, will be for the uninitiated who can finally confront the groups emotional depth and stylistic breadth head on…
As encompassing as it is exhilarating, Complete Studio Recordings might seem overwhelming in scope, and style. But only in concept. Ears here were unfamiliar with them, but the new 4-disc testament from Important Records changes that. Certainly not the only band to cut a wide stylistic swath by any means, Overhang Party certainly did it innately. Depending on where your loyalties lie taste-wise, it might be evolution vs. de-evoltuion, but there’s no arguing that Overhang Party approached each tangent with as much commitment and fervor as the next. And did it successfully without disappearing into the shifts. They move effortlessly from subdued, elastic stretches to garage-fueled psych flare-ups, and handle landing just as comfortably on more straight-ahead ‘modern’ fare; progressive, powerful and daring. A true showcase, Overhang Party call to mind—and join—a vast history of artful and aggressive rock, fluent in its many splintered tongues.
“We are not scared of staying in the same place, but we always need a change. I want to make a truly alternative style.”—Rinji Fukuoka, from Sake-Drenched Postcards
Then The Ship Sank :: Overhang Party :: Complete Studio Recordings (2012, Important Records)
Hofmann’s Kaleidoscope Vol. 1 – Expiation of the Psychedelic Hunters; a mouthful, and earful. Put together by Vincebus Eruptum, Perkele.it and ExLab, Hofmann’s aims at delivering a ’journey through the muddy swamps of Italian acid rock. A lysergic funfair set up by a wild bunch of manic bounty hunters, fervent worshippers of the psychedelic cult. A one-way trip aiming at unearthing forgotten gems from the underground of the peninsula, as well as emerging heroes of the most visionary and mind-bending forms of rock.’ The key there is ‘forms.’ Hofmann’s arsenal of hunters and weaponry certainly share a common thread, but the range of offerings and dynamics cast a wider net, and bigger haul, than might be expected. Riffy hooks courtesy of Clark Nova, the slow space-burn of Insider, Otehi’s engine thrumming conjuring of the Sea Witch, Enormous’ eerie deep-space call-and-response of Fly Low Dragonfly…there’s bound to be something for everyone who bathe in the muddy swamps across the universe, and not only on Planet Italy. Some tributaries converge, others go their own way, some make rapids, but they all share kaleidoscopic headwaters. Which way they flow is partly subjective, and probably fully a moot point. As is the nature of compilations, there’s bound to be favorites, and some do hit their mark more assuredly than others, but Hofmann’s is a sturdy, if not confident, collection of sonics that, despite the title, isn’t in need of atonement.
Fly Low Dragonfly :: Enormous :: Hofmann’s Kaleidoscope Vol. 1 – Expiation of the Psychedelic Hunters (2012, Ex Lab/Perkele.it/Vincebus Eruptum)
Venerable label Transubstans, a fave for many cosmic sounds, also keeps a set of tires firmly on the road to put some rubber down. If your travel needs lean more towards the grounded and grinding, Transubstans has a handful of new releases that might aid your road trips…
Sideburn/IV Monument
The 4th release from Sweden’s Sideburn traffics in a road-tested hard rock drive reaching back to the days of Sabbath and their kin to more modern stabs by outfits that have grabbed that gauntlet since. Cuts like Crossing The Line and Silverwing inject a bit o’blues feel into the tank further linking them to not only their touchstones, but the bigger picture in general.
Diamonds :: Sideburn :: IV Monument (2012, Transubstans)
Dirty Passion/In Wonderland
Sporting new vocalist Kriss Lohikoski Svensson, Sweden’s Dirty Passion return with In Wonderland. Hearkening back to more melodic metal and hard rock, In Wonderland is both a throwback of sorts and a call to arms for the party(ing) faithful.
Into The Wild :: Dirty Passion :: In Wonderland (2012, Transubstans)
Three Seasons/Understand The World
Rocking with a touch of the groovy, Three Seasons move through a 70s vibe, calling up signals from bluesy outfits like Humble Pie and Faces (I Would Be Glad) as well paying respect to keys-heavy locomotives like Uriah Heep and Deep Purple (Set In Stone, Can’t Let Go).
Set In Stone :: Three Seasons :: Understand the World (2012, Transubstans)
Dödaren/Maen
Gothenburg’s Dödaren strive to keep it ‘truly Nordic’ on their debut Maen. Singing in Swedish and keeping a grip on the melodic, Dödaren deliver the chug and pump. Pulling a 70s hard rock and metal framework into the modern age, Dödaren don’t lose sight of their ‘Swedish energy.’
Described as music for ‘neural travelling,’ Copenhagen’s Mantric Muse provide ticket, transport and timetable on their self-titled. The songs are culled from various jams and ‘mapped, dissected and then re-created’ for a full-length’s worth of prog heavy space rock with suitcases full, but able to travel light of foot when needed. With all but one cut clocking in over 7 minutes, Mantric Muse corkscrew their way through passageways and wormholes letting the songs take up the space and time they need without overstaying their welcome (indeed, some seem to pass far too quickly), or more importantly getting lost. The edges and boundaries are as elastic as they band’s playing, expanding and contracting like the muse’s lungs filling both with rich oxygen and nebula gas. Some press describes their outings as for those inclined to Vespero, Ozric Tentacles and Øresund Space Collective. Spot on for those who gravitate to, and orbit around, improvised jams and journeys that may make you question where they might be going but not lose faith in the piloting of the ship. Mantric Muse blatantly takes the scenic route on their debut, pushing and pulling the songs’ penetrations to the byways rather than sticking to the well-worn roads and the usual tedious rest stops. If you’re more concerned with how you get there rather than exactly where you end up, Mantric Muse is at the platform and more than ready to help you to your seat.
By all accounts, space will thankfully get deeper October 10 with ignition from their Bandcamp outpost…You can preview more cuts at the Soda Shop and Heavy Planet.
More to come…keep the tanks full…
The Mantis & The Cow :: It’s Not Night: It’s Space :: Bowing Not Knowing To What (2012, It’s Not Night: It’s Space)
The first live recording from the long-running Stone Breath, The Snow-White Ghost-White Stag, is both a great live, and intimate, document and a thoroughly rich one. On many levels. If you’re new to Stone Breath like me, they trade in a macabre and melancholy tinged folk, steeped in musical, as well as storytelling, tradition. I have to admit that it’s a field I’m not overly familiar with, but that doesn’t—and shouldn’t—make the record any less engaging to the uninitiated, and given the aura they conjure up, entrancing. Whether it’s in the versatile and complex songs and execution, the ghostly narratives or the setting they create, Stone Breath shape a world that strikes a chord that you feel more than you might actually know. Titles with signposts of hooves, soldiers, crows, skeletons and, unsurprisingly, psalms (that’s how their Earthy and otherworldly glimpses come across) shape-shift into blazes on a trail through a timeless path. These aren’t so much snippets or snapshots of a specific moment, but rather strands in on ongoing weave, a ride that stretches as far back as it will snake into the future. In a sense, and in the senses, that makes their wares elemental. And in true bewitching fashion, the more primary it gets the more sprawling it becomes. That’s not something at odds with itself or in contradiction, that’s simply how things are, and Stone Breath know it and can make it take ethereal form. You may not be able to get your fingers firmly around it, but you can chase after and grasp at it. Getting a grip on it and holding it tight isn’t the point or purpose…or as we hear all the time, the journey is the destination. Through their molding and folding of those elusive strands, The Snow-White Ghost-White Stag not only becomes a very human album, but also a commentary—one that’s been and being told—on the human condition. Timothy Renner, Brooke Elizabeth and Carin Wagner Sloan’s vocals play off and compliment each other while giving their songs of ‘ghosts and the green wood’ a unified voice. One made up of much more than just three, including Don Belch’s crucial lead work. Stone Breath offer both an archive of their performance at State College, PA as well a chronicle of places familiar, unfamiliar and the blurry point where they both converge as well as take separate.
Where the Crows Go :: Stone Breath :: The Snow-White Ghost-White Stag (2012, Deep Water Acres)
Black Science channeling An Echo Through the Eyes of Forever from Seattle, apparently take that, and the inverse, to their black heart. Magic and science, by their very existence, take the past very seriously. So do Black Science. Injecting their psych/space rock with an alchemy that conjures up the 70s through the 90s (call me the one who misunderstands, but some of the vocals remind me the criminally under appreciated 90s birthed Local H), Black Science also keep at least one of the three eyes on the future…at least one of them winking. For all the references to the occult and magic, Black Science are very well aware of the other legitimate use of those calling cards: the creamy layer of whacked frosting that puts on things. Listen, if you don’t buy into it, it’s not going to be…here you go, one of the most misunderstood and maligned words on the planet… fun. Black Science are fun; if they weren’t clued into that, and its usefulness, I doubt they’d list brewmastery, tomfoolery and badassery alongside sorcery and gadgets in a member breakdown. They’re also serious about what they’re doing and how they wield their badassery. An Echo Through the Eyes of Forever doesn’t forget the simple, and potent, release of the rock. Captain John G points out in a lengthy interview at Revolt of the Apes that Monster Magnet was a big influence on where they were coming from. Now, if you don’t think Monster Magnet understand badassery, the pure power of flat-out diversion and the effectiveness of painting flames on things, then you’ll be living at home for a long time. If that kind of mix leads you to the conclusion that this is all silly, then you forgot why your parents were a drag. John G and Co. didn’t forget: “In a way I think what I was trying to do was take everything that I think sounds cool when I’m high and cram it into one band. Stoner metal, shoegaze, noise rock, and weird electronic stuff.” So it makes perfect sense, and sound science, that underneath the knob twiddling, stereo washes, non-stop guitar wall of sounds and effects, and fairly lengthy running times, An Echo Through the Eyes of Forever is surprisingly accessible and has a keen pop sensibility, made especially clear on Easy Prey and their take on GBV’s Hardcore UFOs. Other cuts layer some more progressive leanings with the stoner bent, like the 15 minute closer Our Sentence Is Up. It all makes for an effective mix of hooks and heft. Magic and science aren’t mutually exclusive, and in the hands of Black Science, neither are tomfoolery and badassery.
The State of the Art :: Black Science :: An Echo Through the Eyes of Forever (2012, Dark Matter Industries)
Anvil Salute‘s latest has been ‘several years in the (slo-mo) making’ and for whatever reasons those obstacles arose, Black Bear Rug plays out like it turned delay into gestation. Wonderfully atmospheric, Black Bear Rug must have simply come when it was naturally ready. Call it planet alignment or coincidence, there really isn’t a better time for this to come than Summer, just past the mid-point when Autumn is still far off, but soon enough to be a reality. Trite and clichéd? Maybe, but in those is usually a kernel of truth that gave rise to them, and that’s the pulse that Anvil Salute seemingly have their wordless finger on. Black Bear Rug exists in that time when day is giving into evening and night is turning into morning. In Anvil Salute’s hands those two times meet and become virtually indistinguishable. Taking that line of thinking further out, much of the album seems blissfully lost in thought, as well as blissfully thought out in its lack of premeditation. Some argue that a natural state is one of chaos. I’ll buy that, but when the elements that buzz, hum and flit all gel into a wider, far more encompassing vista, then that natural state is an embracing one. And one that is arguably 100% natural weave. Black Bear Rug spreads itself out over a wealth of tones and hues. Don Peyote (Superfluous Poncho) is downright playful in its pixie military cadence, while Your Telephone Body floats out and spreads with equal measures of longing and hopefulness. Get In When You Feel In plucks and tugs at the heartstrings without resorting to picking scabs. If one cut says what I obviously can’t and serves as the mission example, it has to be the stellar Fourth Person Singular. See a pattern emerging? A flat-out gorgeous song, it exists in multiple, and opposing, states like most of Black Bear Rug. Welcoming, warm, soothing…melancholic, yearning…grab that achy loose tooth and wiggle the cliché out of it. It’s not that there isn’t a use for words. In this case they would more than likely add needless form where it’s up to the end-user to add it. And that’s a bigger payoff, and message, for the listener to benefit from. An evocative one that makes Black Bear Rug all the more human, and a much stronger case for the human condition. Anvil Salute claim their influences as ‘the wind, rain and snow. sunshine too. everything. all sounds. all thoughts. all sights. makes you just feel good, doesn’t it?’ It certainly does.
Fourth Person Singular :: Anvil Salute :: Black Bear Rug (2012, Deep Water Acres)
"This show is 110% … one of the most consistently awesome programs we have come across."
The Sunrise Ocean Bender sets sail every Monday morning, 1 – 3 a.m. on WRIR lp 97.3 FM, to find something for your ears, and something for your head … From psych to prog to pop and whatever tributary we can find on the way … and right back around again. There might be a map, but the destination is up for grabs. If it all goes right, we may just get lost. Meet me at the muster station … it might be a long week.
As encompassing as it is exhilarating, Complete Studio Recordings might seem overwhelming in scope, and style. But only in concept. Ears here were unfamiliar with them, but the new 4-disc testament from 
Hofmann’s Kaleidoscope Vol. 1 – Expiation of the Psychedelic Hunters; a mouthful, and earful. Put together by 
Sideburn/IV Monument
Dirty Passion/In Wonderland
Three Seasons/Understand The World
Dödaren/Maen
Described as music for ‘neural travelling,’ Copenhagen’s 
It’s Not Night: It’s Space
The first live recording from the long-running 
“Science is magic we understand.” 
