Boveda del Sol- Terra Firma (Self Released Portugal 2016)

Boveda del Sol is a solo project of Portuguese musician, Jordi Pajagut. I met Jordi at the reverence Festival. He said he was very inspired by the stuff I did with my own band, Oresund Space Collective. Obrigado.. This is not at all like ØSC though, just to let you know. The title track starts things off with a doomy riff and some organ. It slowly gathers a groove though and then the vocal. Oh shit… This really caught me by surprise! I did not expect a death metal like vocal. Some how it works but I am not a fan of this vocal style at all as I can’t understand anything that is said so it is more like an instrument in a way.  Effective?? Maybe… The vibe changes quite a bit around 4:30 and gets more spacey with the guitar line but also some synth sounds. Suno starts off with some cool spacey guitar with delay and some drums. At 2:30 the doom and death vocal kicks in again. Intense. The spacey guitar line is still there but now mixed further in the back and a layer of spacey synths is floating through the sound as well. It fades out after 7mins. Echeyde starts pretty spaced out and reminds me a lot of the beginning of the ØSC Ode to a black hole record. Nivaria is a 4min instrumental track. I really like this one with the great bass lines more in the front and then the heavy part comes later. Erg starts off with some really spacey sounds and a simple guitar and stays pretty droney and spaced out the entire time.  Sigil ends the album and is slow to build up with some more elaborate synthesizer stuff over a basic guitar line and it just slowly evolves over the 4mins and then there is silence for a min and then some gongs-bells before the main theme returns once again to end the CD.. Cool stuff… I could see Jordi and myself making some music in the future in Portugal…

http://bovedadelsol.com

The Freeks- Shattered (Heavy Psych Sounds HPS 044)

I believe this is the bands third album. I have only heard the first one a few years back and sadly missed their show in Denmark when Isaiah from earthless was touring with them but Ralph told me it was a fun and crazy tour. Anyway, this album features 13 tracks of wild garage rock stuff with a nasty vocal. I just can’t get used to the vocals. Ruben (Guitar, ex-Fu Manchu), Tom (Bass, ex-Nebula) and Jonathan (Guitar, ex- Angry Samoans) are all listed as singing but not sure who is the main vocalist? Esteban plays some keys while Bob Lee kicks out the drums.  The basic tracks were laid down on one day in April 2015 and then they did some overdubs in different studios to complete the LP. I guess they come and tour Europe next year?? We will see…   Anyway, this album has a lot of raw energy and with two rocking guitar players and some just good wild R&R vibes with the occasional dip into something more bluesy like Where did you go (I love the piano parts!).  Vocal sounds like old Alice Cooper on this one!  Sylvia is a bit more psychedelic. A fun album with great energy.

http://www.heavypsychsounds.com

http://thefreeks.bandcamp.com

www.thefreeks.com

Tripwave 2- Collection of Modern Russian Psychedelic Music (Trail Records 018)

US based Trail records are back with another compilation CD of bands from Russia. Besides Ole Lukkøye and Polska Radio One, all the rest are new to me. Ciolkowska starts things off with a track called Below the Grass from their CD on R.A.I.G. records. IT has some really nice guitar playing and soloing in a slow building track. Very cool stuff. Rada & Blackthorn track features some throat singing and a lead female vocalist while the music has this dark and mysterious tone to it, brooding…  Later, there is a longer guitar section and the throat singing takes the lead and the guitar gets more psyched out.  This is a long 14 min track.  Bowl of Knowledge provide an unreleased track called Ganja Yoga! This is a slow moving track focusing on the expressive guitar playing. One strumming and one playing the melodies and lead parts.  Sonora had an unreleased track called Canyon featuring another female vocalist. This was a shorter track and not as interesting for me. Cosmic Triggers (also unreleased) plays a track called Syndicate. A sort of dark, eastern wah guitar and droney sounds give it a sort of brooding, evil feel. The keyboards add to this feeling and create a new psychedelic feeling to the song. Cool stuff. Ole Lukkøye provide a edited version (still the longest track on the CD at 15:28) of a track from their last album called Dyatly. Dead Man tell no tales (unreleased) perform Suicide Trip. This track is instrumental and starts with a hard rock riff and some intense drumming but this track did not grab me that much. After a bit of a journey, the band returns to the start riff and some heavier stuff at the end as the track speeds up. Kamni (unreleased) plays Forest Song. This is a dreamy song that reminds me of some of the 80s UK psych stuff. There is a really nice delay guitar solo. Beautiful. Polska Radio One ends the CD with the track, Shangri-La from their 2014 album.  The underground seems promising as all of these bands except Ole Lukkøye are quite young based on the pictures in the nice digipack. Cool compilation.

http://www.trailrecords.us

Autumn of Pækward- Cern (Tonzonen Records TON014)

German label, Tonzonen are back with another cool release.  This is a sound project of Leipzig based artist Jochen Koch.  His main inspiration for the project was the Sci Fi works of Luc Beregeaux. This album features 6 tracks. There are 200 black, 300 clear vinyl and a special edition (only 50) with a bag, sticker, poster and autographed photo. Canteen starts things off with some strange sounds and then drones from space and then a female voice enters and takes center stage as the soundscapes grow and and grow with the flow of the synth drones (bass and space sounds). Wardrobe has these deep space keyboard sounds that are almost like voices and then some beats of sort that are repeated in patterns. Very ethereal. A spoken word comes in and talks about the super collider. Now I have a better understanding of the album title and what is written on the back of the sleeve as well!! At the end of the track there is some backwards stuff and some sort of distorted sounds fade in. Directors Office is the last track on side A. This is mainly a drone track with some sounds buzzing about here and there and later an organ comes into the picture.. Another spoken word piece that is sort of masked and difficult to understand plays over the top as well. At the end of the track a nice guitar solo and real drums come in for a min or two. That was a surprise. Trippy stuff. I like it.

Side B is also three tracks. Cupboard (See video below) starts things off with the sounds of the roadside and some static and other noises as the pure organs and synths start to invade the soundscape. It feels like something bad is going to happen but then a more happy organ changes the mood after some very brief spoken sample.  Attic sees the return of the guitar which plays a pretty repetitive riff as the new age vocal synth drones come and go until the guitar is nearly alone and then the drums come on. A very happy dreamy piece but then a sort of death metal vocal just completely freaked me out. Shit what just happened??? Collider, the last track is a strange mixture of a lot of stuff and piano, waves of sounds, clarity, noise, distortion, disorientation… In a way that is what this record is about. A trip around the theme of the collider… you don’t know what you will get when you smash a lot of ions, music and things together but one might sound like this!!!!

http://www.tonzonen.de

Nick Oliveri’s Mondo Generator – Best of (Heavy Psych Sounds HPS 042)

Oliveri’s Mondo Generator made quite a few recordings over the years and HPS has tried to put together a cool compliation. This single CD or double LP has 22 songs and of course some of the songs features John Garcia, Josh Homme, Mark Lanegan, Dave Grohl, Brant Bjork, and many others but his main partner in crime, Rex Everything, who is playing on all the tracks as is Nick. I was never a great fan of Mondo Generator, having only a couple of the releases but this is a great overview for sure. It shows a more punky, fucked up in your face desert rock. Some great tracks and some that do nothing for me but a great overview of the band for sure. Check it out.

http://www.heavypsychsounds.com