Saturnia- The Real High (Elektrohasch 172)

Saturnia is the one man project of Portugese Luis Simones. He records all the instruments himself and this is a lot of different instruments- drums, bass, guitars, organ, gong, sitar, etc…. and he sings as well. This is his first new album in 6 years and it was all recorded in the last 4 years. The lead off track is….  The Real High (see video below) is a cool Indian psych raga. A Burnt Offering reminds me a lot of MORE era Pink Floyd. Mandrake Scream is a more uptempo affair with a really great multilayered sound and nice organ playing between the sung parts. A bit of sitar and stuff thrown in as well and around 4mins a guitar solo appears over the really stoney groove.  Amazing track. Heavenly Bodies is another slow beautiful gliding psychedelic work. Most Beautiful has some new agey feel with floating organ, wind sweeps and sublime vocals. Tentacles is another floating psychedelic adventure with a nice laid back space jazz feel to it with the Rhodes piano and guitar lines but lots of spacey sounds. Shells is the last track and beautiful mellow piece, again reminding me of the David Gilmour sung tracks from early Pink Floyd. Another great record…. Obrigado!

http://www.elektrohasch.de

http://www.saturniamusic.com

Colour Haze- Live Vol 1 Europa Touree 2015 (Elektrohasch 060)

Colour Haze is back with a new live album, a double CD or triple LP documenting the best of their shows from 2015. This is the first in a series of live albums by the band.  I did not get to see them on this tour but it was good to hear songs from the last couple of records. Transformation (hear a version from London 2015 below), She Said and To the Highest Gods we know (My fave song from the last album) were great versions. The rest of the set is exactly the same set of old and tired tracks that bands has not been able to let go of since 2008 or even earlier… Except for Periscope, all of the tracks not off the last two records are the same as on the Burg Herzberg  2008 and played more or less the same. Great sound, great songs and great vibe.. What can I say…. Colour Haze are a great German band…. Their fans will dig this but I hope the next live Vol 2 is not the same songs again…. Perhaps a much older show when they were much more adventurous with the set lists.. 

http://www.colourhaze.de

http://www.elektrohasch.de

Ahkmed- The Inland Sea (Elektrohasch 171)

Wow.. what a surprise this was… I really quite liked the bands last album but still not as much the first material.  This three piece band from Melbourne Australia take you on some long trips (only 5 tracks in 70mins!) once again… The CD starts off with Kaleidoscope. The guitar tone is really cool on this starting riff. After about min the bass joins in the riffing guitar and drums. It might remind you a bit of Causa Sui. There is also some quite buried vocals by the drummer but you can’t really hear what he is saying. A very uptempo track with just the same riffs repeated over and over for over 4mins and then it dies down to just a bass line and then slowly builds on some spacey guitar. The guitar is layered and it gets pretty psychedelic (I wonder if they loop the guitar live?) as it builds up around 9mins. The Inland Sea is next and it slowly builds up. The guitar sound has more room to it, reverb and he plays in waves as the drums stay pretty tribal and die out. A new riff kicks in around 3mins and the tempo increases and the riffing makes some incremental changes until the explosion at 6:30 when the track chills out to the sound of waves. It now goes into full on post rock dream territory that has been tread so many times by so many bands.. Pity…  Still not guitar solos but a spoken word vocal appears and the track dies out around 13mins. Last hour of Light starts with some insects at twilight and then the clean guitar riff begins. The rest of the instruments and vocals join in about 2mins. At about 6mins the track makes some different maneuvers and gets a bit heavier with a flangy distorted guitar, while the clean riff repeats in the background at a lower volume. At 11mins we start to drift out into space with some delay guitars and a long space noodling guitar. Just before 17mins it really starts to build up again. Pattern of Atolls starts again with a stand alone guitar which slowly has more guitar effects added to it as the drums slowly enter. A spoken word vocals appears briefly as the post rock build takes form. At 9mins it gets pretty intense and there is a noticeable change in the drum sound when John-Paul pounds them and then does some more spoken words over the just riffing guitar. Intense ending. The CD ends with The Empty Quarter. Starting again with solo guitar with a sound of being in a deep chamber and a slow evolving musical journey... Cool record..

http://www.elektrohasch.de

http://ahkmed.bandcamp.com

Mos Generator/Year of the Cobra Split 7” (H42 Records H42-033)

This split 7” is released for the summer Mos Generator/Year of the Cobra US tour. Both tracks are unique to this 7”. Mos Generator start things off with a track that the band recorded in 2 hrs direct to 4 track cassette. Only the vocals and mellotron were added later. Gamma/Hydra is a really cool track with a King Crimson like feel at times but no intense guitar solos.  Raw but cool stuff. Tony loves King Crimson! The Siege, by Year of the Cobra has a totally different mood and driven by the bass lines and female voice. Not much else it can be driven by given the band are a bass and drum duo!!  The 7” is made in 280 copies (50 gray, 50 white, 80 gold and 100 black).

http://www.h42records.com

Radio Moscow- Live in California (Alive Naturalsound 0183-2)

The blues rock trio, Radio Moscow are back with their first ever live album. This was recorded in Los Angeles on two nights (Dec 10-11, 2015). I was actually in Hollywood not too far away visiting friends but could not make it. Recorded totally live with no overdubs!  This set is heavy on songs for Brain Cycles and Magical Dirt, with no songs from the debut album and only 1 song from the Great escape of Leslie Magnafuzz. The sound is nice and raw and the band really sound powerful.  Mr. Griggs is rippin’ it up and mixed super loud in the mix, nearly drowning out drums at times. Love the guitar playing on I don’t need Nobody. It is not all full on guitar assault as they bring it down now and then with tracks like 250 miles and Deep Blue Sea. Before it Burns features some electric fire as parker just kills it on the guitar and the backline guys keep it flowing. Awesome guitar on this long 8min track… I don’t think these guys will ever be regarded like Jimi Hendrix due to the lack of variety in the songs but damn, they rock like a mother fucker and Parker plays awesome lead guitar and a nice variety in the way he uses his guitar effects..  Great stuff guys….

http://alive-records.com