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December 2021 = |
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Zone 6 |
Slithey Tove |
Good Shepherd |
Tangle Edge |
Kodax Stophes /
Martyn Bates |
Soup |
Neal Casal |
Gong |
Lokruz |
Dean
McPhee |
the
Bevis Frond |
Vespero |
Giobia
& the Cosmic Dead |
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ZONE
SIX - PSYCHEDELIC SCRIPTURE
(2LP
set
on Acid Test Recordings/Little
Cloud
Records)
This
is
an absolutely monstrous release to end the year
on, a mind-blowing cosmic rocket ship aimed
straight at your head that comes steaming in
from outer space carrying a payload of
psychedelic treacle: thick, swirling and it
sticks there once inside.
Originally
recorded
in 2000 and released as a 3 song digipak CD back
in 2004/5 on the Sunhair label, ‘Psychedelic
Scripture’ opens with some suitably
extra-terrestrial scene-setting before launching
into the relatively short, as in fourteen
minutes plus, ‘Extremandura’ courtesy of some
way cool middle-eastern guitar work and
innumerable swirly effects that together build
and build in intensity until attaining some kind
of stable orbit. It’s a musical blueprint which
is adapted and shape-shifted throughout this
extraordinary acid-drenched freakout of an
album: ‘The Sacred Toad’ which closed the
original CD features all manner of strange
sounds phasing in and out of the sonic landscape
before setting down into a drone, and sandwiched
between those the twenty-minute plus ‘Pipe
Dream’ lulls us into a false sense of the
familiar, or familiar at least for anyone raised
on a diet of Tangerine Dream, before guitarist
Hans-Peter Ringholz presses down on the booster
pedals and strikes off into prime Liberty
Records-era Man-band and Hawkwind territory; two
bands I was most frequently reminded of when
listening to this extended set.
Hans-Peter
has,
I seem to recall, been highlighted in our pages
before as a guitarist of note: he was originally
a member of the much-revered (hereabouts at
least) Liquid Visions, as indeed was our drummer
for this trip, Claus Bühler, and the founder of
Zone Six, bassist Dave Schmidt (aka Sula
Bassana) (who I think left Liquid Visions just
before their final album was released). The rest
of Zone Six line-up has been something of a
moveable feast down the years, as befits an
improvisational band; although keyboard player
Rusty Viltz and synth programmer Martin Schorn
are regulars, and both feature here.
For
this
limited-edition 2LP 2021 version Acid Test
Recordings/Little Cloud Records have expanded
the release, and our minds, with two bonus
tracks, or an extra 24 minutes worth, of
space-rock jams from 1998: ‘Chill In’ which
finds our space-cadets experimenting which what
sounds suspiciously like a sitar, and the
brilliant ‘Room Of No Escape’ which is a return
to the band’s signature blueprint of innovative
cosmic space-rock which slowly becomes more and
more heavy. Worth noting too that John McBain
has remastered this reissue, and Brett Savage
has designed the cover (and I strongly suspect
Dave Cambridge had a hand in this as well, as if
you needed any further confirmation that this is
one very special release…)
(Phil
McMullen)
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SLITHEY
TOVE – BIG TOP
(LP
from
Sugarbush Records SB083)
Unrelated
to
the late, great psychedelic legend in his own
backyard Todd Dillingham and the Slithy Tove
from the early 90s, this Slithey Tove, with an
extra e in the name, are notable for having been
formed by two members of the Green Ray,
guitarist Simon Whaley (originally drummer for
the Green Ray alongside his brother, bassist and
former Helpless Elf the late Ken Whaley) and
guitarist Simon Burgin, sadly also now passed
on. Essentially an infectious live band with a
revolving door approach to both musicians and
instruments, their heady heyday was the
free-festival scene of the early 90s where
Slithey Tove quickly became a draw for their
“fun psychedelic gigs with odd timings and
mid-song genre shifts.”
The
past
is littered with fine little bands whose names
live on fondly in gig-goers memories but left no
recorded legacy. One of my own personal
favourites is/was the Half Human Band, who I saw
but once but have never forgotten. Drummer
Martin Griffin went on to perform with Hawkwind,
and there are connections too with the Braniac 5
I believe; but anyway, I digress. The Half Human
Band lit up the mid-70s musical scene with their
colour-shifting torch of musical shades – one
contemporary report records that they “showed
at the recent sit-in that they could improvise
to meet the conditions.” Slithey Tove
remind me both musically and spiritually of the
Half Human Band, and others like them such as
the Global Village Trucking Company (who did at
least manage to leave behind a fairly
substantial recorded legacy). Sugarbush Records
are therefore to be congratulated for having the
foresight to release this posthumous LP, limited
to 150 copies although I daresay more would be
pressed if it proves to be a runaway success.
Former
Toves,
centred around saxophonist Aaron Liddard and
vocalist Doug Southall plus original
guitarist Simon Whaley and drummer Toby
Barron, came together to record the album after
playing a support gig to The Green Ray following
Simon Burgin’s death in 2000. It’s taken a while
to put together, but I for one am very glad that
it exists at all, particularly for the excellent
‘Amazing Place’ which is the kind of complex,
infectious number which would have been the
highlight of any live band’s show back in the
day, and ‘Road’ which (like several of the
pieces on here) has a similar funky vibe to the
fondly remembered Welsh band Alcatraz. If you
like your festival stage to be draped in funk,
jazz and space-rock, or have fond memories of
bands of this ilk, then this is the kind of
album you’d queue up at the merch table to
purchase afterwards.
(Phil
McMullen)
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GOOD
SHEPHERD
- LET'S SEE WHAT THE EAST WIND BRINGS
(CD/DL
from Rusted
Rail )
This,
the
latest release from the ever reliable Rusted
Rail, is a collection of drifting psych-folk
tunes culled from two earlier releases plus
three new songs from the same period. Originally
released on 3” cd-r (“ah...the good sea” and
“her dark aspects”) some tunes are now extended
in length and all the songs blend together
beautifully to create a fully formed and highly
engaging album.
Seeming like a mission statement,
“flown The Other Side” is a song of migration or
escape, gentle guitar and soft drones creating a
melancholy texture that is haunting and wistful,
a delightful beginning that is matched by “The
Beast” an undulating bass/guitar forming the
bass for the cracked and fragile vocals, drones
filling the spaces in between before “Slow Down”
adds some percussive elements to the music, the
tune tiptoeing through the room, a beautifully
paced folk tune that is like watching a deer
caught in the early morning mist. Seemingly
continuing in a similar way, “Sunday Morning
Son” suddenly takes off into a swirl of West –
Coast happiness, ending abruptly as the drones
of “Lungs On Fire” take over, with flutes
writhing together to create a soft cloud of
noise that is gently engulfed ,over time, by a
rising tide of electronics, itself abruptly
ended as a sweet guitar takes over, those vocals
again holding sway forcing you to listen
intently.
Basically the work of one man, Duncan
Poyser, these tunes have a definite soundscape
of their own, the playing is delicate and
precise creating atmosphere with ease, the whole
thing reminding of many of my favourite bands
(Gorkys, John Martyn, Jefferson Airplane, Early
Genesis) whilst remaining unique and highly
listenable.
Moving on the quality continues with
“There Is A Mountain” sounding like a lost
seventies pastoral prog intro that slowly morphs
into a Neil Young sounding tune, the guitar tone
nailing it, whilst “Sing Again”, the longest
piece on the album, is a languid, drifting track
that favours emotion and texture over dexterity,
a soft flowing river that slowly picks up pace
before being swallowed by the sea.
With rippling synths and strummed
guitars,” Nightjar Song” has underlying melodies
sweet enough to make a grown man cry, a flute
aching over the top to form a dreaming
soundscape that engulfs the listener gently yet
completely.
To end it all, “End Of All” is a sad,
slowly dissolving tune that disintegrates
completely into a wall of white noise and
distortion, the repeated vocal line remaining
merely as a memory underneath the chaos.
According to the website this will be
the last release from Good Shepherd, which is a
darn shame as it has been a complete pleasure to
re-visit this music that I originally reviewed
in its EP form ten years ago and I would love to
hear some more. The perfect winter gift, dive
in.
(Simon
Lewis)
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TANGLE EDGE – KRATHOMA
(DL
from
Music
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Tangle Edge (bandcamp.com) )
Many
moons
ago, when magazines like The Terrascope and
Freakbeat began expanding my mind to the
possibilities of music, I purchased an album
entitled “ In Search of a New Dawn” by
Tangle Edge, the music was otherworldly and
mysterious, not Prog, not Psych but a
strange mix of both and yet something else
entirely. Sadly, as is often the case, there
was so much music to discover at that time
in my life that I never managed to hear
anything else by the band although I still
own that album purchased back in the mists
of time.
Moving on thirty years or so and
the internet thingie has allowed us to
explore any music we desire and through the
Terrascope On-Line I discover that Tangle
Edge are still thriving and releasing music
both new and old through the medium of
Bandcamp and occasionally on LP/CD, not only
that but I am in contact with Bassist Hasse
Horrigmoe who kindly sent me a link to this
album five months ago, about time I wrote
about it methinks, sorry Hasse.
Recorded in 1983 and aired on a
local radio show in 1984, this music has
lain undisturbed until this point, they have
been edited and cleaned up producing an
album that ebbs and flows wonderfully and
those familiar with their music will
instantly recognise the sound.
Maintaining their love of obscure
titles side one begins with “Februus
Conducting”, a spacey, Tangerine Dream(with
a hint of Clanger) inspired intro slowly
morphing into a moody, rolling tune, the
drums setting the pace whilst the bass coils
around the rhythm allowing the guitar to
probe and caress the spaces in between, the
sound of a group of musicians in tune with
each other and the universe itself.
Having launched into space,
“Dandelion Merchants” sees the band explore
the stars, a drifting and languid piece with
some beautiful, fluid guitar work. Reminding
me of the Edgar Broughton Band, “Dolphins at
the Gate” is a heavier tune, drum and bass
locked into a serious groove, with jagged
guitar overhead, the piece becoming more
frenzied at is moves along. Equally
impressive is “Erupting Colossus”, the
perfect track to play to someone who has
never heard the band before, all sounds and
structures in place and bringing us to the
albums centrepiece, the magnificent, 21
minute “The Airy Darkness of Advancements” a
cosmic jam of the highest order that goes
through several distinct phases setting the
controls for a sun many light years from our
own. As the music flows it is hard to find
any comparisons, hints of Man, maybe a pinch
of the Dead, a flavour of Hendrix, but in
reality it is Tangle Edge you are hearing
the unique guitar tones and style of Ronald
Nygard equally matched by the tight as fuck
rhythm section, instantly recognisable and
thoroughly enjoyable.
Having bathed in the golden light
for a while, “Cascading Acherusia” is the
sound of the long flight home, heavy and
relentless, the drive of huge engines ,
distorted bass leading the way before
“Paradoxamba” takes over, a softer, lysergic
awakening from one of your new favourite
dreams, a cloud of shimmering sound that
picks up energy to leave you dancing down
the street coated in wonder.
The album may be over but the fun
and exploration need not stop as the
Bandcamp site is a treasure trove of music
with albums from all periods of the bands
existence. Do take a while to explore, buy
some music and find time to immerse yourself
in the magnificence that is Tangle Edge.
(Simon Lewis)
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KODAX
STROPHES / MARTYN BATES - POST-WAR BABY
(CD/Digital available from A-Scale)
Kodax
Strophes
/ Martyn Bates is the current
moniker/alias/persona of the Eyeless In Gaza
co-founder and Terrastock
3 performer.
Following on from last year’s debut, It
Doesn’t
Matter Where It’s Solstice When You’re In the
Room (Klanggalerie), Post-War
Baby continues to explore ambient,
cinematic textures with autobiographical
touchpoints, indicating a move into a new
musical journey that takes a few steps away from
the voice/guitar records that he’s released over
the past few years. [Bates tells us “the Eyeless
thing is a bit sleepy right now, going through a
resting spell that may return in the future.”
Populated
with spilt milk, paper swans, painted dolls, and
the Christ child rapping at the night window,
the album is a child’s journey into the unknown,
as Bates re-envisions his own post-war
upbringing, exploring “the giant world of [his]
imagination, armed with a handful of books and
the complete eye of prelapsarian innocence.”
These groundings are established with opening
track, ‘Arthur Mee’, a swirling whirlwind of
gusting leaves wrapping their arms around us, as
a fatherly figure sits us down to instil
structure and order into this chaos, as Mee
himself did via his Children’s
Newspaper and Encyclopaedia.
‘Shell & Eagle Book’ is even more specific,
as Bates revisits his 7-year old self listening
in wonder to the sounds of the sea captured
within a seashell:
I’m
left listening as I ride upon the waves/ it’s
a gift to be joyous, it’s a gift to realise,
is a gift to be awakened, to be astonished -
to be surprised.
Bates’
trademark verbal pyrotechnics serpentine
throughout his haunting electronics (his
guitar/bass/drum accompaniment, while present in
minimal doses takes a back seat to an echoed or
heavily-treated effects machine), with the
melancholic and wistful ‘Treasure Of Feathers’
perhaps the most accessible signpost to earlier,
more “traditional” song structures. A child’s
sense of fear and wonder permeates the horror
house ghostly pronouncements of the nightmarish
‘Smashed Milk (room awoke from sleeping)’ - we
love to be scared, but sometimes the world “out
there” throws more at us than we can absorb with
our self-imposed synthetic armour. Frighten me,
but don’t petrify me - leave me room to escape
if the terror becomes too much to handle.
Cascading
chimes stroke our senses for ‘Friends Came To
Stay’, an evocative recreation of those special
times when you looked forward to your mates
stopping by to spend the day and accompany you
on exploratory adventures around the
neighbourhood. But behind the façade of fun and
games, there lurks a mysterious sense of dread.
After they leave, did they have enough fun to
return or will they move on to other mates that
you don’t share?
‘Paper
Swans/Sunny Wedding Of The Painted Dolls/The
Cyclopaedia/Pears’ is the most atmospheric track
in the set, an amoebic exploration of a
dollhouse full of dystopian rooms of dread and
wonder, again tipping a nod in Mee’s direction
and perhaps recalling a lonely child’s games of
self-amusement birthed from a fertile
imagination. Bates’s guitar pluckings and
effects machine are ratcheted into hyperdrive,
slinking through a mysterious-yet-ominous fog of
loneliness.
Finally,
‘Kindred (learn the song she sang)’ harkens back
to the days we learned nursery rhymes and
lullabies which simultaneously instructed (even
if we didn’t know it at the time) and
entertained us (I hear vestiges of ‘Colours’ /
‘Black Is The Colour Of My True Love’s Hair’
sneaking around in the background). The song is
one of the few (only?) which ends in a dreamlike
floating swirl of comforting hugs, again
extolling the pleasures of childhood innocence
before the outside world started to act out of
the neat compartment we created for it. Now it’s
up to us to adjust…to (re)discover our inner
strength that taught us how to confront
unexpected feedback from a fairy tale world
where everything was supposed to turn out the
way we planned. An age-old dilemma that’s as
vital today as it’s always been for Post-War
Babies and will be for Post-Covid survivors.
(Jeff
Penczak)
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SOUP
- VISIONS
(2LP set from Glassville and Crispin Glover Records)
Crispin Glover Records based in Trondheim, Norway
claim to “release the music we love in the
packaging it deserves” which is to my mind a
pretty damn fine way of going about things,
especially when no expense is spared in the
production of said packaging.
The first thing that will strike you about
Norwegian experimental progressive post-rockers
with an ear for a good soundtrack Soup is the
cover on their latest and seventh (I think) LP,
‘Visions.’ It’s elaborate, to say the least. The
band’s long time collaborator Lasse Hoile is
behind the stunning cover photos, which
continues the visual story from Soup’s last few
albums, notably ‘The Beauty of our Youth’ and
2017’s ’Remedies’. This time the front cover is
over-printed with an eye-catching Holographic
rainbow laminate, and comes with a lavish 16
page 12" photo booklet. There’s apparently also
a deluxe version (with marbled blue vinyl as
opposed to red) which sees the entire sleeve,
including the inside, rendered holographic. Even
the standard version includes a CD of the same
album, in a sleeve of its own (thankfully
without the holograph - which, I can’t help but
feel, would have been a step too far…)
Linked to Motorpsycho by guitarist Hans Magnus
"Snah" Ryan, which is in itself a guarantee of a
Terrascopic ear pricked up in attentive
interest, Soup have described their latest
release as “If Godspeed You! Black Emperor
ventured into jazz, hired Richard Wright as
producer, mixed it down to cassette by a
stressed out Brian Eno, the new Soup album would
pretty much be it“ - a statement which I
couldn’t possibly improve on. It’s more melodic
than you might expect at first, with the
dynamics between the softer and louder sections
really standing out - it’s certainly not
bombastic, closer in fact to symphonic, and I
found it quite melancholic at times, although I
found myself returning again and again to what
to my mind is the outstanding track, the
nine-minute long ‘Kingdom of Color’
“Yes to paper and crayons, sticks and analog
creativity” say the band, and so say all of us.
(Phil
McMullen)
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VARIOUS ARTISTS – HIGHWAY BUTTERFLY:
THE SONGS OF NEAL CASAL
5 LP/3 CD/Digital on The
Royal Potato Family
In the wake of tragedy comes this
magnificent gift o’ plenty.
Neal Casal’s work needs little
introduction here; his work with Ryan Adams and
the Cardinals, Beachwood Sparks, the Chris
Robinson Brotherhood, The Skiffle Players,
Circles Around the Sun, among other bands speaks
for itself. But
the gentle guitarist, who sadly took his life in
2019, also recorded 14 solo albums of
incredible, criminally undervalued material
dating back to the mid-90s.
And from that embarrassment of
semi-hidden riches comes this overflowing,
loving tribute.
Highway Butterfly boasts 41 tracks on 5
LPs or 3 CDs from one of the most amazing
rosters of talent ever assembled, and that’s no
hyperbole. There
are so many superstars I’m not going to list
them all, with 41 artists and over 130 great
musicians in tow, but here’s a sampling:
Aaron Lee Tasjan, members of Beachwood
Sparks & GospelbeacH, Marcus King, Billy
Strings, Hiss Golden Messenger, Mapache, Phil
Lesh, Bob Weir, Jonathan Wilson, Susan Tedeschi
and Derek Trucks, Circles Around the Sun,
Vetiver, J Mascis, Warren Haynes, Steve Earle,
Norah Jones (with her band Puss N Boots), the
Allman Betts Band, Cass McCombs, Farmer Dave
Scher, and the list goes on.
The proceeds will go to a great cause.
The Neal Casal Music Foundation will
distribute portions to MusiCares and Backline,
as well as other organizations dedicated to
mental health care for musicians, and provide
musical instruments and lessons for children.
A lot of tribute albums sound like an
uneven Medusa sprouting many heads, but not this
one. That’s
down to a brilliant system devised by
co-producers and old Casal pals Dave Schools
(Widespread Panic) and Jim Scott.
The plan was for the artists to come to
Scott’s Southern California studio (where many
Casal albums were originally recorded).
Artists who didn’t have their own groups
were offered the whopping choice of backing from
several of Casal’s stellar former bands.
The intent was to record one full song
per day. They
were well on their way to doing it, but COVID
would interrupt the proceedings.
Many of the artists continued the effort
by recording in their own studios, or Schools
and Scott would construct other tracks remotely.
But still, the result is a work that,
despite its length and number of contributors,
flows beautifully like a clear mountain stream.
The highlights – my heavens, where do I
even begin? The
great Billy Strings, along with Circles Around
the Sun, made the set’s first recording back in
early 2020, “All the Luck in the World.”
The song is about people who’ll be kind
to your face, but privately hope you’ll fail.
While the subject has been done before,
from Dylan’s sneering “Positively Fourth Street”
to the O’Jays’ upbeat sounding “Back Stabbers,”
in Casal’s and Strings’ hands, it’s a solemn,
thoughtful treatment.
Strings plays a pretty acoustic guitar
figure, foreshadowing some of the monster guitar
work that will follow from some of the other
greats.
Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, without
their band, offer the moving “Day in the Sun.”
Susan’s soulful voice and Derek’s
tasteful guitar accompaniment make this a
towering moment in the set.
This is where I need to mention that I
found that many of the tracks, originally penned
as either messages of encouragement to others
(or perhaps himself), or of soul-searching
desperation, sound on this set as if the artist
is singing them poignantly back to Neal.
It may be just me, but when Susan sings
“You will have your day in the sun.
Your day will come,” it’s one of those
emotional “right back at ya” moments.
Many of the songs contain stark lyrics
of personal darkness and not knowing where to
turn, that would seem to point to where all this
was tragically headed, and are all the more
heartbreaking because of it.
But some of Neal’s fellow players and
supporters say it wasn’t so apparent at the
time, due to Neal’s sunny personality and other
songs he wrote of a positive nature.
“Bird With No Name,” was originally one
of those with sad lyrics.
However, guitarist Jimmy Herring
(Widespread Panic) and Circles Around the Sun
turn it into a joyous instrumental, and what a
celebration it is.
Herring’s and the band’s triumphant
playing make this one of the great musical
themes of the collection.
Todd Sheaffer’s rendition of “December”
is a melancholy gem.
The lyrics cut straight to the heart: “It
gets so hard to remember/with every word that
goes by/Cause this doesn’t feel like
December/and that didn’t sound like goodbye.”
The combination of the message, the
beautiful string arrangement and Sheaffer’s
extremely emotional singing hits hard.
You try to listen to Todd
Scheaffer’s “December” and hold yourself
together.
Warren Haynes’ “Free to Go” has a
cathartic, Crazy Horse-like guitar wigout that
seemed to me the angst-ridden flip side to the
rollicking “Bird With No Name.”
If you never thought it possible to
convey such vivid emotions with just guitars,
you need to listen here.
Both tracks are essential.
“Pray Me Home” is another track
converted from one with lyrics to an
instrumental, this time played gorgeously on
solo piano by Jason Crosby.
About three quarters into the collection,
to me this served as a moment to pause, catch
one’s breath and meditate on all the beauty and
emotion that has come before it, to take stock
of the situation and what majesty Neal Casal
brought us. This
is followed immediately by “Lost Satellite” by
Lauren Barth. With
lyrics painfully on the nose, Barth gives a
heartrending vocal performance.
She stretches out every phrasing,
wringing every last tear and bit of pathos from
Neal’s words. It’s
yet another instance where it seems to me as if
she’s singing his own words back to him.
When she sings “I let you go/I let you
go/like a lost satellite/when will they find
me,” well, in a set full of tearjerker moments,
this one was the climax for me.
There are many, many more highlights,
far too many to mention.
But another thing Highway Butterfly does
so excellently is to proudly put on display with
a gifted songwriter Casal was, in both words and
melody. What
a shame and a mystery that these songs didn’t
get the recognition they deserved in his
lifetime. They
should now.
Your scribe was kindly invited by the
very wonderful petalmotel, who has a
Terrascope heart, to participate in a podcast
about Highway Butterfly, along with guitarist
Jon Graboff, who not only played with Neal on
many of the originals, but also on 17 of these
tracks; Michele Augis of the Neal Casal Music
Foundation; and Kevin Calabro of the Royal
Potato Family record label.
You can find it here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5yWrz4DGaAD9bLD3rJ7r5n?si=E3oYqSkkRx-S60Og5iEoBg.
I think of Highway Butterfly as an echo;
an echo Neal sent up long ago into the ether,
full of questions like “Who am I?
Am I successful?
Am I loved?
I’m desperate, I’m not sure where to go.”
And lo, years later, the echo came back,
and it was sung by multitudes – 41 voices, and
really many more than that.
And it said “Yes, you are very much
loved.” Neal’s
outgoing echo may have contained sorrow, but the
return echo is a message of rich love, and
release. Nowhere
is it so perfectly encapsulated than Susan
Tedeschi singing Neal’s words, “You will have
your day in the sun.”
(Mark
Feingold
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GONG
– LIVE AT THE GONG FAMILY UNCONVENTIONAL
GATHERING 2006
(2cd
set available from www.planetgong.co.uk
)
Over
a weekend in late 2006 the Gong family convened
at the Melkweg in Amsterdam for a reunion
concert, in which the original band members got
together as the main event to play a couple of
lengthy sets, all of which is released here as
super cheap 2 cd set. The band consisted of
Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Tim
Blake, Mike Howlett, Didier Malherbe, Miquette
Giraudy, Chris Taylor (Drums) and Theo Travis (
Sax and Flute).
I
sometimes feel that these reunions are a little
bit flat, with not much of the original spirit
remaining, but this is truly brilliant and shows
just how good this band were, of course they are
still active but this is pretty much the
original line up, responsible for a classic
trilogy of albums released in the 70’s. Original
drummers Pip Pyle and Pierre Moerlin are no
longer with us, however Chris Taylor does a
phenomenal job in filling those very large
shoes.
The
band play a mixture of whimsical progressive
jazzy flavoured rock music, often with strange
time signatures, interspersed with spacey
glissando guitars, synths and space whispering
from Gilli.
Things
kick off with a classic from Camebert Electrique
‘You Can’t Kill Me’ before launching into a
central song on follow up album Flying Teapot
‘Radio Gnome Invisible’ ha ha ho ho both of
which go down very well, Gilli then delivers her
‘Tomorrow Afternoon’ space poem before the band
launch into Dynamite/I Am Your Animal. Didier’s
flute then introduces the classic flute of
‘Flute Salad’ which is swiftly followed by ‘Oily
Way’ a fan favourite judging by the impromptu
sing-along it generates. ‘Outer Temple’ and
‘Inner Temple’ are blissful and playful. ‘Zero
The Hero And The Witches Spell’ is magnificent.
Things are taken down a notch by another of
Gilli’s poems, the very naughty ‘I Am Your
Pussy’, a song about a cat apparently. A pairing
of ‘Tropical Fish’ and ‘Selene’ round of the
first disc, a disc in which Steve Hillage’s
guitar is strangely muted.
The
second disc is a bit more muscular and a little
less whimsical, which is ably demonstrated by
opening song I Never Glid Before, Chris’s
martial drumming and Didier’s sax set out the
tune and Steve Hillage plays some fine fluid
guitar. A sultry come hither piece in the form
of the French flavoured ‘Prostitute Poem’
precedes ‘Magdalene’, a song I’m not familiar
with. A lengthy synth spectacular arrives with
‘A Sprinkling Of Clouds’, Tim Blake’s keyboards
shine throughout and Steve Hillage delivers one
of his finest electric guitar solos. The final
three songs really demonstrate that this is a
killer band. One of the key songs on the final
part of the trilogy is ‘Master Builder’ which
does exactly what it says on the tin, what a
riff this song has. ‘The Isle Of Everywhere’ is
simply stunning with the final song ‘You Never
Blow Your Trip Forever’ runs to over seventeen
minutes.
This
is the first time this concert has been released
in a purely audio form; it was originally only
put out as a DVD. It’s a steal at this price
(about a tenner) and comes highly recommended.
Proof if needed, that this band is truly unique.
(Andrew
Young)
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LOKRUZ
- S/T
(Limited
edition LP www.soundeffect.records.gr )
This
is the debut album by Greek band Lokruz. This
three piece group are made up of Alessandro
Castagneri: guitar and vocals. Thanos
Tampakopoulos: drums plus Christos
Chorianopoulos: bass.
Recorded
live in three days, this album has the sound of
some of the classic three piece bands, not a lot
of noodling, but infused with plenty of huge,
churning riffs. The album opens and closes with
an instrumental song split into two parts ‘Ennio
Parts 1 and 11’ lending it a feel of being a
concept album. It’s pretty heavy stuff, the
drums crash, the bass is supple and the guitars
crunch. It sounds like it was recorded in some
parched desert studio in the middle of nowhere,
but was actually recorded in Athens. Did I say
it was heavy, well it certainly is, as is ably
demonstrated on this opening song.
‘Bullets
Hail’ follows; a tight, heavy rock song, with
plenty of wah wah lead guitar, it also has a
nice short melodic guitar progression
reminiscent of say Thin White Rope.
The final song on side one ‘My Naked
Pride’, is split into three parts, the first
part The Blue laying out the melody, adding more
wah wah and some biting, searing guitar solos
before the virtually instrumental section
Progression-Arpeggio builds and adds some
Frippertronics. The final part After Echoes
brings us down with a slightly more melodic
bluesy section, in which the lead guitar glints
like a firefly in the fading light, however,it’s
not long before a monster riff wakes us back up
again.
‘Runaway’
is taken at a fair pace, a heavy rock song which
takes no prisoners; it’s built around a fairly
brutalistic riff, enlivened by some blistering
lead guitar. ‘Man In Hope’, possesses a monster
riff, things starts off fairly slowly, lulling
you into a false sense of security, but it isn’t
long before a maelstrom of heavily amped lead
electric guitar runs push us firmly into stoner,
heavy rock territory. ‘Ennio Part 11’, has
plenty of searing lead electric guitar runs
smeared all over it, the drums and bass do their
level best to ground things, before a grumbling,
heavy middle section muddies the water. The
central riff is then revisited in the final
part, bringing us back to where we started. A
pretty decent debut album all in all, one in
which they proudly state was laid down live in
the studio, with just the vocals being
overdubbed.
(Andrew
Young)
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DEAN
McPHEE – WITCH’S LADDER
(LP
released on Hood Faire records www.deanmcphee.bandcamp.com
)
This
is Dean’s fourth album. He was one of the
highlights for me of the second Woolf festival,
playing a solo set in the middle of the
afternoon. The album was recorded live with no overdubs on a telecaster, an
old valve amp plus a few, minimal effects. It
proves to be a balm for the soul, in these
troubled times.
‘The
Alchemist’, introduces his new album in fine
style. A
lone, melodic electric guitar figure is joined
by the merest of drum beats, some bass guitar
and some e-bowed guitar, layed over the top.
This simple, yet effective palette is continued
throughout this beautiful, elegiac instrumental
guitar album. ‘The Alder Tree’, repeats this
sparse, opening song. Featuring Dean’s equally
melodic slide guitar playing, he has a very slow
haunting style of playing; it’s definitely one
of those albums for the quiet times. It
is soothing and progressive in nature, unhurried
and gentle. ‘Red Lebanese’, highlights his
e-bowed guitar sound to fine effect, at points
throughout the song it almost sounds like a
synth, as it swoops and glides its way up and
down a pretty melody.
‘Eskdale
Path’, possesses an almost eastern sounding
motif, which is repeated throughout this very
atmospheric song. It’s so free and uncluttered;
exhibiting a laser like discipline, in which the
instruments are surrounded by acres of space,
this song again features some stunning e-bowed
guitarscapes. The
title track and the longest track on the album
‘Witch’s Ladder’, is the final track on this
very short album, It is vaguely middle eastern
sounding and as light as a soufflé, gossamer
threads of sparse, filigree guitar notes
spiralling heavenwards, it again features his
highly distinctive e-bowed sound, lending the
album a cohesive nature. I have played this
album plenty of times since it arrived and it
will definitely be played many more times over
the coming years. It is a very special record,
one in which I applaud his singular less is more
disciplined approach, highly recommended.
(Andrew
Young)
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THE
BEVIS FROND - LITTLE EDEN
(Available on 2LP [turquoise] and 2CD from
Fire
Records)
Nick Saloman started The Bevis Frond 35
years ago and has since released nearly 30
albums under that moniker, including
collaborations, split LPs, and live albums.
Starting as a one-man cottage industry, Saloman
played nearly everything on early releases,
eventually accompanied by the late Martin
Crowley on the drum kit. The live band
(ex-Hawkwind bassist Adrian Shaw and ex-Camel
drummer Andy Ward) began featuring on studio
recordings around the time of Superseeder (1995), with the current lineup (Shaw, guitarist Paul
Simmons, and drummer Dave Pearce - not the
Flying Saucer Attack guitarist!) being the
longest serving, together for the past decade.
Due to Covid restrictions, Little
Eden is a (forced) return to basics with
Saloman again playing most of the instruments.
Famous for giving his fans their money’s worth
with a generous selection of music (thirteen
double albums and two triples), Little
Eden is another double LP set (20 new
songs) that runs the gamut of the patented Bevis
Frond oeuvre mixing earworm pop melodies with
extended psychedelic jams.
Saloman
was never shy about introducing political
conversations into his material and with hot
topics ranging from Brexit to Covid on many
minds these days, Little
Eden dips into social commentary for some
thought provoking conversation-starting lyrics.
It may also be Saloman’s first thinly-veiled -
dare I say it(?) - concept album! ‘Everyone
Rise’ is a jangly call to action and attention -
not necessarily a revolutionary tubthumping, but
a suggestion to see what’s going on about you
and act according to conscience. It’s also as
catchy as hell!
‘And
Away We Go’ is stealth-bombing bluesy
self-reflective sludge, and ‘Brain Fatigue’
(subconsciously, I’m sure) bears an uncanny
resemblance to the old Runaways’ corker ‘Is It
Day Or Night’! ‘You Owe Me’ is a vitriolic
score-settler with effects pedals set to stun
and a paint-peeling solo to clear the brain
fatigue alluded to earlier! ‘They Will Return’
wraps side one in an acoustic introspective mood
reminiscent of Graham Parker.
‘Hold
Your Horses’ harkens back to the sentimental
ballads that Saloman occasionally shoehorned
onto early albums (like a Ringo vocal on a
Beatles album) with a hint of ‘Gasoline Alley’
nostalgia added for extra down home country
comfort (Saloman actually likens it to a
Lane-sung Faces song) and ‘The Man In The
Garden’ feels like an autobiographical
confession about a man who grows his secret
stash in his allotment and just wants to be left
alone and grow old gracefully with the one thing
that gives him joy.
And
if that’s not melancholic enough, ‘As I Lay Down
To Die’ employs words like “intravenous” and
“subcutaneous” to strip away surface armour to
look within for solutions to that big old goofy
world that John Prine told us about while
simultaneously facing our own oncoming
mortality. [Interesting sidebar: Frond bassist
Ade Shaw’s recent solo albums have also featured
a number of songs reflecting on this difficult
topic, but both artists bravely come to terms
with the realities of time’s relentless march.]
There’s also a taste of wah-wah heaven on the
guitar solo for fans of wild workouts like
‘Stain On The Sun’ [c.f., New
River Head] and ‘The Shrine’ [Through
The Looking Glass LP; Inner
Marshland CD].
Unlike
many multi-volume sets, Bevis Frond double- and
triple-albums didn’t frontload all the “goodies”
on the first volume and dump the filler at the
end, and Little
Eden is no exception to this high “quality
control” standard. Side 3 opens with the
charming, albeit remorseful ‘Cherry Gardens’ a
“you can’t go home again” regretful lyric
disguised in one of Saloman’s poppiest melodies.
‘There’s Always Love’ is a dreamy ballad with a
tasteful solo that is a f[r]ond reminder of ‘The
Shrine’.
Fuzz
petals and screaming solos launch ‘Start
Burning’ into hyperdrive and if the
record-buying public ever revived the concept of
singles (aka 45 rpm, 7”, etc), the perfect pop
confection ‘My Own Hollywood’ would finally
introduce Saloman to the wonders of chartdom!
Frond fans always seem to anticipate at least
one long track that will anchor the album in
their brain and many albums feature songs
topping the 10-minute mark, which suggests a
mouth-watering, brain-frying solo snaking around
a clever lyric and a killer melody. Little Eden ends with the epic 10½-minute ‘Dreams Of Flying’ that
will take its place alongside past lengthy
glories (‘God Speed You To Earth’, ‘Stain On The
Sun’, ‘Awake’, ‘The Puller’, ‘Right On’ and
numerous ‘Miskatonic Variations’) and features
all of the Salomon tricks of the trade without
deteriorating into endlessly boring soloing and
repetitive guitar loops. A perfect ending to
another jewel in the Frond discography and one
of 2021’s finest releases.
(Jeff Penczak)
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VESPERO - SONGO
(LP/CD/Digital
on Tonzonen
Records)
Our
good friends Vespero return with their 12th
studio album, SONGO, and the space/prog/jazz
wizards from Astrakhan, Russia never disappoint.
SONGO (sorry, there’s actually supposed
to be a little carat above the G my word
processor can’t, um, process) is Esperanto for
“a dream,” which in one word tidily sums up much
about the record.
Within its grooves you’ll find themes of
dreams and forms of communication such as
international languages.
Although SONGO is, like most Vespero
music, instrumental, the nine song titles are in
different languages, including Esperanto,
Bulgarian, Galician, French, Estonian, and
English. Your
spidey sense might be correctly telling you a
worldwide trek is in the offing; if nothing
else, Vespero LOVES to take you on a journey.
When
I pop the cork on a new Vespero album, I know
what’s in store.
It’s like walking through a portal; no, a
series of portals where you look all around, up,
down, left, right, out and in, and your senses
fill with wonder and mystery.
They lead you on a widescreen tour of the
imagination, of distant cloud topped mountain
vistas, of exotic market bazaars where you can
practically smell the spices, of streams and
forests, where East meets West and South meets
North. Each
track on SONGO repeats the experience in a
different way.
Another
thing I’ve come to love about Vespero records is
their guests. They
usually have interesting contributors who may
not be household names in our neck of the woods,
but make a solid impact on us.
In this case, Sonya Vlasova sings
wordless vocals on several tracks.
It adds to the dreams and murky
communication theme, as if to think ‘I know
you’re trying to tell me something, but I can’t
seem to make it out.’
Alexey Esin contributes midi-sax and
gusli, an early Eastern Slavic stringed
instrument from the zither family, on “Myth of
Uqbar.”
SONGO
is a slight departure for Vespero, in that it
doesn’t have much of the guitar rock-edged prog
roller coaster rides of the past, but is none
the worse for it.
The mix of down-to-earth organic
instruments such as Alexander Kuzovlev’s
guitars, saz and mandolin and Vitaly Borodin’s
soaring violin (damn is he good) blend
seamlessly with the futuristic electronic
frontier of Alexey Klabukov’s synths and Arkady
Fedotov’s mixed bag of sonic trickery.
SONGO is all about the mood; it sets a
steady, gauzy course and keeps to it.
The
main course is the beautiful, yet mysterious
“Lebedivo.” Sonya
Vlasova’s vocals hang like mist in the air,
while synths and acoustic guitars paint a
picture of a magical place.
Like the dream it invokes, the piece
moves from BBC Radiophonic Workshop to perhaps a
camel ride on the Silk Road.
A winding passage through the Orient
provides passage to Borodin’s captivating violin
to carry us home.
On
“Le Papillon ou moi” (The Butterfly or Me),
Vespero temporarily reclaims their prog mojo,
moving from one complex time signature to
another, or, as a friend put it, “Geez, the math
problems these guys are solving in their heads!”
“Papillon” segues almost without break
into “Cloudarias.”
It’s another perfect song title, as Sonya
Vlasova’s enchanting voice drifts through
cottony cumulus high over Alexander Kuzovlev’s
chiming strings.
“Soños
No Meu Pelo” (“Sleeps in My Fur” in Portuguese)
is typical Vespero, and I mean that in a very
good way. Scuttling
from Ark Fedotov’s sensitive recorder intro to a
violin break, to the full band coasting along,
to a thunderous Middle Eastern freakout with
powerful strings and percussion punctuated by
bubbling space synths, to a violin finale
sending you off to sweet dreams.
Now I ask you, who on Earth does all that
in seven minutes?
Well, Vespero does, and they do something
like it on most of the tracks here.
“Samaväya,”
a Sanskrit word that has 22 meanings in Hindu,
Buddhism, Jainism, and Hindi, among others - in
other words, perfect for the theme of this album
- opens with Kuzovlev on electric guitar
(probably multiple guitars), and ventures into a
cinematic section adding strings (Mellotron?)
and Ark Fedotov’s wordless vocals.
This transitions to a wonderful 70s style
synth from Alexey Klabukov.
Vague voices somnambulantly murmur and
whisper, returning us to prog, Mellotron and
Borodin’s violin.
No
one makes more imaginative music than Vespero.
Each new release is a treat for the ears
and the mind. And
it’s not only in the music.
The album’s artwork by Marat
Dzhamaletdinov, both on the cover and in the
enclosed booklet, is, like Vespero’s music,
beautiful, combining the simple with the
complex. SONGO
finds the boundless Vespero delivering again in
top form.
(Mark
Feingold)
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GIÖBIA and THE COSMIC DEAD (SPLIT) –
THE INTERGALACTIC CONNECTION:
EXPLORING THE SIDERAL REMOTE HYPERSPACE
(LP/CD/Digital on Heavy
Psych
Sounds records)
To all psychonauts out there, here be a
fine split album by two of international Space
Rock’s foremost proponents, Italian four-piece
and Terrascope fave Giöbia,
and
Glasgow’s prolific quartet The Cosmic Dead.
It’s a headphone trip all the way, and we
don’t guarantee you’ll be home for supper.
According to Merriam-Webster, “sideral”
means “emanating from the stars and especially
from stars held to be malefic.”
So, when it comes to exploring your own
sideral remote hyperspace, hey, don’t say we
didn’t warn you.
Giöbia
apparently
won the coin toss, and take Side A with three
new tracks. “Canyon Moon” provides our launch;
it’s a nifty krautrocker, with a driving beat
courtesy of Paolo “Detrji” Basurto’s hypnotic
bass, Pietro D’Ambrosio’s precision drumming,
and Melissa Crema’s keyboards.
Stefano “Bazu” Basurto’s guitar playing
provides the color as we blast into the heavens.
Next up, Giöbia
perform
a faithful, mind-expanding rendition of the
Floyd’s “Julia Dream.”
As the record’s only track with vocals,
sung ably by Melissa Crema, it would fit in well
on a Fruits de Mer release, if Heavy Psych
Sounds hadn’t gotten there first.
Crema’s playing even sounds a lot like
Rick Wright’s organ style, then drapes lots of
synth effects over the top, like syrup and
butter dripping down your psychedelic breakfast.
In “Meshes of the Afternoon,” Giöbia
leaves us with some of the universe’s plentiful
dark energy, courtesy of a bit of gloomy organ,
perforated by the astro-sewing machine-like
goings-on escaping from the ship’s engine room.
The Cosmic Dead have all of Side B to
stretch out with the nineteen-minute “Crater
Creator.” The
slow-burner has a long, brooding seven-minute
build-up before the four burst out with their
own big bang, seemingly in every direction at
once. And
even then, they continue pouring it on, adding
layers of face-melting cosmic rays till around
the fourteen-minute point, when gelatinous waves
give way to hard rocking Sturm und Drang.
Besides their traditional instruments,
all four musicians (Omar Aborida, guitars; Tommy
Duffin, drums, Big Guitar; Luigi Pasquini
(synths); and Calum Calderwood (fiddle) are
listed as playing “Wah.”
And I’ll admit, there’s plenty of Wah to
go around. Digital
versions come with a five-minute radio edit of
“Crater Creator,” in case you’re in a hurry to
make your splashdown.
That’s two sides of premium, sliced
Space Rock for your collection.
And the different bands and tracks
showcase different styles to keep things full of
sonic variety. It’s
a fine figure of a cosmic trip.
Bon voyage.
(Mark
Feingold)
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