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

Brant Bjork- Tao of the Devil (Napalm Records)

Brant is back with another new record. I loved the last one. Brant described this one as somewhere in between MC5 and Blue Cheer with a  desert twist.  I went ahead and splurged for the deluxe box set. Not sure this was worth it though. I did not realize that the CD had the long cool bonus Evening Jam, which I thought you could only get if you bought the box with the extra 12”.  Oh well.  The record starts off with The Gree Heen, a pretty rough and heavy rocker. Humble Pie is groovier and the band is more jammy for sure on this record. Brant sings in a really different style for the main lyrical parts as well. Stackt slows things down a bit and has some nice harmony guitars at times and a heavy riff. Luvin’ is classic Brant with a bit more classic rock throw in! Biker No. 2 is happy biker R&R tune.  I dig the guitar solos in this one. Seems they trade off a bit. Dave’s War sees Brant nearly screaming out the vocals in this head bopping track and a nice groovy long end section jam (hear it below)… A real highlight of the record and some great bass and drums as well. . Hope they play this one live on the tour and jam it out different each night! Tao of the Devil has a super cool guitar riff that Brant slowly lays the vocals over. Cool way to end the normal album. If you get the CD or deluxe box, then Evening Jam is included and this starts with a funky wah guitar and then the rest of the band kicks in. After a min or so the whole band takes it to another level as the tempo takes off. It slows to a crawl at about 3mins as they pass a joint around the room (I could imagine!) and then some guitar solos and back into a cool groove as the guitar riff becomes more heavy. Great bass playing. The jam sort of dies out at 8mins and then takes off once again and ends at about 14mins.

Lazy/Auto and Freaks are the other two tracks on the extra 12”…  Great stuff…

https://www.facebook.com/BrantBjorkOfficial/

https://brantbjork.bandcamp.com/

Brutus and Wedge- KB 18, Copenhagen, DK Sept 30th, 2016

Brutus and Wedge- KB 18, Copenhagen, DK Sept 30^th, 2016

I left the apartment a bit before 18 for War Pigs (local Mikkaeller brewery and BBQ restaurant) for some food and beer. Had the beer #9 (rye pale ale) and some BBQ. Great food but expensive.  It was about 19 when I arrived and the Brutus guys had already soundchecked and Wedge was doing there. We hung out in the backstage. KB18 provide the bands with some bread, tea, coffee, chips, and lots of fruit, which is nice for when they arrive.  Indian food (looked like chicken tikka masala) and rice came later.  We talked about life, music, jamming, set lists, 70s rock, etc.. The band has not played a lot this year. Drummer has a new small child and two of them now live in the countryside away from Oslo and Gothenburg, where the rest of the guys live, so distance is an issue.

Anyway, Wedge hit the stage about a little after 21 and played for about 30 people. They totally rocked the place. The bass player also played organ-keyboards which was really cool. The band’s record came out in 2014 on Heavy Psych Sounds and I was expecting to hear a lot of new songs and they did. Only 3 of the songs were from the debut album. The band really rocked. All pretty short and concise songs except the last song, Never Learn, which they jammed a bit in. Intense drumming (he was totally soaking wet) and great bass and guitar. This band has a great energy and the crowd really liked them. It was mostly the Lygten’s Kro (a local night club that also books great bands) crew up in the front.

Set List:  Killing Tongue, Easy Chair, Nuthin’, Push Air, Tired Eyes, Who am I? 61’ SG, Ludic, Never Learn

Brutus started a bit late at 22:25 but kicked in with Mystery Machine.  I guess there was about 50 people here tonight but the audience was all right up in the front except the few guys dancing around all over the place in the back to the 70s boogie grooves!! I really love the new record, one of my faves this year and the band played 5 songs off the new record, including one of my faves, the Killer, which they dedicated to me. Thanks guys..  The band mixes up the set every night and has about 20 or so songs that they keep fresh that they can play. IT had been a month since they last played (no rehearsal before the tour, same for Wedge!). Soundcheck was their rehearsal! Anyway, a great mix of tracks from their albums (4 or 5 from each) and a good mix of faster and slower ones as well. Some of the new stuff is a bit more heavy but still grooves. It is clear that some of the songs like Hey Mama, Hypnotized, Golden Town, Big Fat Boogie people know and get more into it.. I think the new songs are awesome though.. All the band were in great shape but they play it a bit too safe, they take no risks, always come back to the chorus or break at exactly the right time, never take that extra 1min solo, etc…. I wish they could break out 2-3 times in the show. It would make them a better live band. Already a great one but you know what you will get. No chances, no risks, no chance of them playing the best version ever of a song as it is basically exactly the same every night.. Come on guys….  Still, would not miss a Brutus show. Love this band! Thanks guys for an amazing night and don’t miss the tour… 8 more shows to go!!!

Set List: Mystery Machine, Big Fat Boogie, Wandering Blind, Feel Free, Drowning, Blue Pills, The Killer, Hey Mama, Axe man, Blind Village, Personal Riot, Golden Town, Hypnotised, Brutus is a Hellhound! (about 70mins)