Sundial- Return Journey (Sulatron Records)

This has always been my favourite Sundial record. I was lucky to pick up the vinyl in Spain back in 1998 but this is the first reissue of this great record, which was originally pressed in 500 numbered (discogs says only 200 but I have number 293/500) copies.  IT is a sort of outtake record from 1990-1991 and many of these tracks would later appear in less raw versions on other albums, EPs, etc..  Anyway, it is great that Sulatron is re-releasing this fucking classic from the early 90s. I still love this record and Gary is such a cool guy and still evolving musically from these more raw psychedelic guitar driven tracks. 

http://sulatron.com

https://www.facebook.com/sundialofficial/

Black Moon Circle & Steinstopp- Vaterland, Oslo 16/3/19

   We hit the road to Oslo at 9:45. Listening to Spidergawd, Motorpsycho, Andreas Berg, his dad’s instrumental rock album from the 70s, Andreas’s other band, 22. A mix of Mars Volta, Messhuga and 80s Queen, is how he describes it. Everyone is pretty fresh and in a good mood. Beautiful day so far on this drive. Car is pretty packed but we are doing fine. Long trip ahead. 520km to Oslo and small winding roads where mostly you can go 50-.80km/hr. Only after 5-6 hours do we hit a highway where you can go 110.  I took a lot of great pictures.
We had to get up at 8 and be on the road by 9 for Oslo… We had a great gig last night in Trondheim.

I drove the last part of the time to the venue and hostel and later the parking garage. We arrived at 16:30 at the venue and loaded all the stuff up stairs. Very cool club and nice people. Andreas stayed and had coffee or something but it took us at least 20mins to find the way to the hostel and check in and get our room. We took our stuff up there, I checked in for my flight and then we walked back to the venue for soundcheck at 18.

Australian soundman was great and the other band Steinstopp had already set up the drum kit and was also providing the cabinets. Very cool guys. They are fans of Øresund Space Collective. I would meet a lot of people, including a nice woman from Finnish Lapland named Aria, who wanted a picture of me. She loves ØSC. Very nice. Great to see Rune and his friends as well as Stian.

Soundcheck went pretty well. There were some issues with Øyvin’s bass but all else was fine. We ran through Stone Cold Killer and that was about it. After that we went downstairs and had pizza. They make their own pizzas at this place.  I think we all had the Satan pizza. Fresh chilli, red onion, Italian salami, Fontana cheese,.. it was a very good pizza. The bread part was excellent. Nice… They also gave us coupons for 4 of the cheap draft Hansa beer, which is terrible. I was able to talk the nice bartender lady into giving me one of the lager 63’s instead, which was so cool of her. This was a very nice local beer.

Steinstopp started a bit early and played a bit short so there was plenty of time. They were young guys, a trio, and they started off quite spacey and then it became a sort of psychedelic stoner doom vibe. The audience really liked them. There was 60 paid people and it was 170kr to get in. We had some sort of door deal.   Anyway, they played a pretty cool set of only 5-6 songs with some different dynamics. The bass player sat down and the guitar, who played very loud, did some nice solos as well. Cool guys..

 

Set List: Jamambalam, Urtern, Suppedrolderm, Intro-Qassearn, Mykkærn

We hit the stage right on time and started a little spacey and then went into Stone Cold Killer. Andreas, who by this time had had a few beers, played it too slow. We managed but it should have been faster. Machine on the Hill, one of the songs Andreas likes the best, was going really well and then Vemund was having trouble with his baritone guitar so he just up and left the stage before his solo spot and we just continued on as if he never left and then he was back. That really surprised people.

Our Audience

I felt like this was a rough gig but it pushed into unknown territory and we made it through the asteroid field!!! Andreas was just killing it on the drums. He is loving playing in the band. Anyway, a long and dangerous Supernova, lead to the best version of the Ghost and Vemund’s longest and coolest solo of the gig. Then we ended with Warp Speed. Super intense ending. We played about 80mins and blew people away. Wow.. Great feeling.

Set List: Stone Cold Killer, Machine on the Hill, Supernova, The Ghost, Warp Speed.

Listen to the show here: https://archive.org/details/BMC2019-03-16.FLAC

Hackberry- s/t (Self Released)

Hackberry is a Dutch 5 piece instrumental band with both progressive and metal influences.  The band has previously released a digital EP, Desert Orchid on their bandcamp site.  The album features 4 tracks and starts with Obsidian Strike. It starts with a slow fade up and quite spacey and then the main guitar line comes in, followed by the rest of the band. The music gets quite complex with a lot of rapid changes and some really nice guitar parts and then back to the clean main riff again, which this time is complimented by a mellow organ. After 2 mins, the intensity of the guitars builds up. The tracks slows down to just a guitar riff and you might think it is over but then a faster riff kicks in complimented by the organ and the 2^nd guitar with wah effect but still maintaining the nice melody.  Later the track gets really spacey with some nice organ and guitar lines mixing and melding. Brilliant 17min track.

Miragglo starts with a piano solo that lasts for nearly 2 minutes before the rest of the band joins in and creates some tension to mix with the beauty.  Later a very nice guitar solo, like you might find on an Armored Saint record! Then the track gets more heavy and intense.

Aboard starts side A and the band are heavier on this side and this one is more of a heavy metal fest but with lots of cool changes and nice guitar. Later the keyboards sneak into dampen down the intensity a bit but then the solo cuts through like a knife through butter as the main heavy riff keeps the whole track driving forward and heavy. Great solo. Desert Orchid (hear above) is a track from their first EP (digital only) and starts spacey with a really nice guitar line and the synth comes in almost like a voice, rising out of the depths before the more heavy 2^nd guitar kicks in. After some metal riffs and solos, the track drops back down to two melodic guitar lines before taking off one more time. The keyboards take the song to a different level at the end section as the band get to their most intense and heavy side on another great track. Excellent band. Wow..

https://hackberry.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/hackberryband

Astralasia- A different Kettle of Fish (strange fish 15)

This is a totally killer compilation of rare tracks either by Astralasia or tracks that were remixed by the artist and this includes tracks by Sendelica (no surprise!!), The Chemistry Set and Superfjord.  All the tracks (except 3) have appeared before but you would have to be a Fruits de mer member to have heard them all before, as many are tracks from bonus CDs. Johnny’s Little Brainticket is a new track based on tracks that appeared on a FdM box of Flexi discs and you get two versions, one a dub version. The other unique track is an instrumental mix of the Desert from the great Wind on Water LP. Deep Magick, A love Supreme is one of my faves from this collection as well as Shamanic Waterfall. If you are a fan, you will for sure like this collection. Great work guys. .

http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

The Spacious Mind- The no. 4 or 5 Gravy Band (Essence Music)

It is always a nice surprise when some new TSM arrives. I decided to go for the deluxe version and wow..  Very rare you see such a packaging. The record comes in thick brown polished leather sleeve that the record slides into in a normal brown cardboard sleeve. Both have special holes so that pieces of the artwork are visible. There is a unique painting the size of an LP sleeve and a small pouch that contains a CD-R of extra music from the same session. This version is only in 99 copies on a orange vinyl with black speckles.

Side A starts with the 13 min track, The Cinnamon Tree. This is a very slow spacey track with drums, bass, guitars and keyboards. Reminds me of 1969 era Pink Floyd. You don’t know it but you Are is even slower and like a spaced out drone track, nearly.   Side B, is one long tracks and starts off in stark contrast to the mellow side A, with a very intense freakout! It slowly fades down into a hypnotic piece of music, that reminds me of some of the bands earliest material from the early 90s, where there is just some layers of strange sounds in the music as it glides along in it’s own psychedelic way. Later on a groove sort of like Riders on the Storm, kicks in and there is a really nice long wah guitar solo and the Fender Rhodes keeps the vibe spacey as the bass and drums just keep a killer groove going. The end is very spaced out, just as the record started out. 

The CD-R contains one 20min track broken into 4 parts called On The Fragmentary Marches of Bells, Greeks and Dolls. It starts very spaced out with two guitars searching, bass grumbling, organ churning, sounds and trees growing, the pains of the earth, the birth of the northern hemisphere, warding off danger, bright lights shimmering, and then...........   you know the rest... A band that is still trippy and magical!

The SPacious Mind Facebook

http://essence-music.bandcamp.com