Domovoyd- Oh Sensibility (Svart Records SVR231)

This is a new psychedelic Finnish band. This album was recorded live in the studio in July 2012. This album is a true psychedelic trip so be ready when you put side A. The album is split up into 6 parts, with four of them on side A and 2 on side B. Introduction starts things off and is a really psychedelic intro before entering into Incarnation! The incarnation starts with a very heavy low end bass. The sound is a mix of low fi fuzzed out guitar, tripped out vocals but quite high definition on the bass, which really pushes through the sound in a very cool way. Very cool lyrics as well.. After the short vocal section it is all about a psychedelic freakout with the guitars and then a major change occurs as it slows down before building back up with multiple changes in the guitar riffs and sound but always totally out in psychedelic space. Often the drums just disappear completely in the haze of sound. of cool guitar solos and effects. Very inventive. Lots Very trippy stuff. The track Lamia ends side A and starts with a slow building guitar solo that slowly morphs into the monster doom riff and the vocals come back in a very angry way (but they are mixed quite low so it is hard to understand what he is saying but you can read them in the LP).  Intense. Sit back, smoke some more and then take on side B. It starts with the instrumental track, Eifluvial Condenser. Slow and spacey delay guitars build up the track and over and over he says electric fuse.. and then the psychedelic guitars take over completely as the track builds over a repeated slow doomy bass and drum groove. Argenteum Astrum is the last track that builds out of a really spaced out section with lot of sounds and drones and effects and then the guitars come as it all slowly grows, crawls along the mossy forest floor, oozing it’s way into your mind, until the silence is broken with the return of the huge riff and bass once again taking the psychedelic experience to a higher level. I was really impressed with this record. Wow… and the album sleeve artwork is some of the coolest this year. Great job guys, now come down to Denmark and space us out!

http://www.svartrecords.com

Tidsgæst- Tidsgæst (Afd O Records AFDO-201302)

Tidsgæst (Time’s Guest) are a new Danish band playing experimental psychedelic rock music with many influences. Most of the songs are instrumental but some like I det Hinsides have long sets of lyrics all sung in Danish. The opening sequence of Portal into Onironaut reminds me a bit of Aron, that sort of spooky low fi but also beautiful melodic music. I det Hinsides is a strange psychedelic track with a ska riff at times and pretty far out at other times. Dødsridt keeps the theme dark and features some nice dual layers of lead guitar while the drummer and bass player keep the rhythm uptempo. It is really tripped out with a like theremin otherworldy stuff happening. Cool…Ondt Blod ends the side A. Side B starts with the title track, which has a lot of lyrics and reminds me a bit of SEID (one of the tracks they did for the Lord of the Rings movies). Khronopompos starts as a trippy soundscape with some metallic sounds and effects and later piano. It slowly grows over the 5mins and leads into the very short Søndagsmesse. Hver Søndag is another longer track with a lot of lyrics but all delivered in a slow spoken word phrasing with a simple drone organ and other keyboard line. At the end a dark demon presence enters the track. Be scared! Far out stuff… Now for side C. Uopklaret Sag nr. 2431-b which is a pretty long trip, around 10mins and features a long police report from 1933 being read! The band creates a dark mood also in this one with two interweaving guitar, bass and drums. Forkert Messe follows and is instrumental and is like music that might accompany a 1920’s or 1930 silent film. Pretty cool with a spacey organ starting the track Den Forkerte Dor. It develops into a very cool song. I love the guitar hook and lead guitar line. The vocal has a funny effect on it.. Side D starts off with Den Blaa jomfru and this reminds me of Aron’s solo material (he was a sort of advisor on the record!). Slow, plodding and mysterious. The last two tracks are both instrumental (Gravmaernens Val and Evighedsglimt) and the first has an excellent jazzy guitar solo and the last a long organ solo. These are some fantastic tracks. That is the end. This is not music for everyone, you need to be in the right mood and be ready to open up your mind, then you can enjoy this quite a lot. Understanding Danish would also help a lot. There is almost no information on the record about where it was record, when, who plays on it, etc.. so this must remain a mystery for now.. This record is a double vinyl in a nice single sleeve and made in only 250 copies. Check the link below.

http://records.afdo.dk/

Sophie’s Earthquake- S/ EP (Private Release)

Sophie’s earthquake is a three piece German rock trio. This EP features 3 long songs that developed out of four years of the band jamming. Pressure Soul (8:41) starts slow and spacey and then the main bass and guitar riff kicks in with an ominous feeling and maybe a slight Eastern feel at times as it is builds in both pace and tension. It gets quite heavy before comeing down again and heading into the main guitar solo section. Great song and dynamics. Checkless (5:54) is led by a cool bass line and Janosch’s vocal comes in pretty soon after the start of this track.  The theme is dark and mysterious. Reminds me a bit of Soundgarden at times. Excellent song. La ira de los Tres is a very intense track with a more metallic feel at times and a quite heavy riff towards the end and very intense guitar solo but it starts off with some acoustic guitar. Reminds me a bit of the German band Trigon. Actually, if you are a fan of Trigon, you will dig this band as well.  Check this band out.. They were nice people as well when I met them.

http://www.sophies-earthquake.com http://sophiesearthquake.bandcamp.com

The Cosmic Dead/Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs-split lp (The Old Noise TON001)

 I have never heard of the Pigs x 7 before but this was pretty cool and psychedelic. Each band plays an LP side long track. The Wizard and the 7 Swines starts things off with a nice catchy guitar riff before the hypnotic bass line kicks in and the singer starts to have a good time, with small vocalisations and then his anger and energy really drives the music. The intensity of the guitar also changes and builds along with the wildness of the singer. Reminds me a bit of Roque Male (if anyone remembers this cool band). This song is pretty intense all the way through from the spacey start to the end with some cool guitar parts and riff changes as well. They get more heavy and almost doomy at the end. Great stuff. The Cosmic Dead, well, they do their Cosmic Dead thing and take you and wrap you up in their comfy pillow arms and safely move your mind to the next dimension. Very cool trip. Got to love the Dead, as Alice says….. Enjoy..

http://www.theoldnoise.co.uk/  http://thecosmicdead.blogspot.com/‎

Svensk Psych Night III- Dæmonen’s Port, København Dec 13th, 2013

This was the third event organized by Sven and the folks from Kildemose Festival and Levitation Records and it was a great success. 5 bands for 50 kroner. I had only ever heard The Hills from Göteborg who also played at the first Svensk psych night with Flowers must Die. Anyway, Nils and I rode our bikes in the wet cold drizzly weather over to the venue around 20. I had made a very spicy goat curry with naga chile and we shared 3 beers and heard the Somethings in the Water (Rise above Records) compilation and a side of Domovoyd as well before riding out. 

 Met up with quite a few people we knew right away as Agusa was soundchecking. Sven wanted me to record the night so I tried to find a place to put up the mics but this was not very successful for the first band as way too many people in the back were just talking and not at all interested in the music. Agusa, a new instrumental 70s prog style band from Malmö kicked things off with a fantastic 70min set. The band is lead by Tobias (SKL) on bass and Michael (SKL) on guitar. A fantastic young organ player named Jonas and a solid drummer. We were up front and really enjoyed the set but the organ was mixed way too loud for most of the show. Check out the short video clips. Most of the songs-jams were really long journeys. Cool band.

Myreskær

               The place was pretty filled up by the time they finished and incredibly smoky. I could hardly breathe and often had to go stand by the open door. A lot of friends were here including, Tom, Sven, Rene, Morten Aron, Nik (ex-On trial), Nik the photographer, Jan from Kildemose Festival and his friends, lots of folks from some of the young bands around town, so that was cool and actually quite a few women! Anyway, Myreskær (Formic Cut) are a young five piece punky garage rock band. They played a pretty simple and quick 35 min set of passionate songs all sung in Danish. The vocals were the only thing coming out of the PA and they sounded terrible. So dry and harsh, they badly needed some EQ and reverb (it would also continue like this until Magnus fixed it for Hills, who had the mic so low you could never hear them anyway!). The singer was very passionate as where the rest of the band. They really were into their songs. People were having fun and starting to feel the effects of the smoke and alcohol now as the place was pretty lively.

Doublestone

Another quick set change and local stoner-70s rock band Doublestone were up. I have wanted to see them for the past year but have always missed them. Very nice guys when I spoke to them and I tried to encourage them to do some jamming or improve, but I failed. Anyway, Nik (OnTrial), he was up in the front and really rocking and this helped suck all the energy right to the front and Doublestone rocked the place. They did not do any psychedelic stuff at all or try to jam or space out but just played their songs straight up, heads down, ROCK…. Cool band with some great songs, some stoner, more bluesy hard rock with some short guitar solos.  The band is still a bit afraid to step out of the box and to take their songs to the next level although the last track was a bit extended.  Great band and this was a just what I and the crowded needed.

It took 45 mins for Hills to set up. The band has now expanded to a five piece, which is a great thing. The addition of a 2^nd guitar player was a good idea. The female drummer, she just totally rocks and the bass was really pummelling the groove into the room. It was not after midnight and some people had left after Doublestone but this was the highlight for sure. The band played a few shorter tracks off their Hills Sleeps record but mostly they just spaced out with long winding jams with spacey keyboards (a bit too low in the mix), cool groovers and intertwining psychedelic guitar solos and riffs. People were in a trance and really liking it. One thing we really missed was some cool lights or projections tonight. All the bands just stood in white lights the entire night. This would have made the entire experience so much better. I think they played for about 70mins. The last band was from Århus Narcosatanicos, playing a sort of psychedelic DOOM. My friend Jens was very disappointed I was leaving but the smoke had just done me in and I could not be trapped inside the ashtray any longer. I was getting a head ache, my lungs hurt…. I hope they were great. They were trying to set up some visuals but it was going to be late. It was nearly 2 now.. A very successful night. Thanks Sven, Kasper and Jan for arranging this.

HILLS

http://www.kildemosefestival.dk

The OSC- Mantric Muse German Tour November 2013

Tuesday Nov 26^th

21:45 I met up with Peter and picked up the huge Mercedes Sprinter (6.95m long and 8 seats and huge space for the gear). This is by far the best van we have ever toured in. IT was very hard to find a place to park it and I had to park it illegally so I hope I don’t have a ticket in the morning. The back left tire is looking a bit low but Peter did not seem to be worried and just said we should check it in the morning and add air. He had checked the entire van etc.

Weds Nov 27^th
7:10 I woke up at 5 this morning. Too much on my mind. I was a bit anxious about getting a ticket. I hope the Swedes are on the way soon…

8:40 No ticket.. Phew.. The packing is going slowly and we had hoped to be on the road by now. The back tire is really looking low. It must have a leak. Søren is still not here yet but we are packing all the MM stuff now. It is wet, cold and this is not good for all the boxes with the merch but we try to protect it.

8:50 We are packed but we all agree we have to deal with the tire. Søren is not here, he is stuck in traffic.

9:41 We had no choice to but to get the tire repaired. The tire had a nail in it! I called peter and it was all cool and they agreed to pay for the tire repair (250kr). Now, we are delayed about an hour. People are in a good mood and relaxed despite the set back. We only have to get to Hamburg and we have a GPS on søren’s phone so we are less likely to get lost.

12:03 We just reached the ferry now.

13:03 The ferry trip is over and we got some food. Schniztel is the usual band favourite except the vegetarians. We bought a case of coke and two cases of beer. I did some stretching of my back (I have really bad lower back problems). Jocke is driving and we are listening to the new Taylor’s Universe- Evidence CD. everyone is really liking this one..

13:55 We are about 75km from Hamburg. Weather is not very nice. Cold, windy and light rain. We are hearing the new Korai Öröm 2013 CD. Cool stuff.

14:51 We missed the exit and went 5km too far. We are finding the right way but it is small roads and lots of traffic. Should be at Sabine’s house in 20mins. We will eat, bring in our sleeping stuff and relax for an hour or so. So far we have heard Papir- Studum, Scorpions- In Trance, Funkadelic- S/t, Sasquatch IV, Robin Taylor- Evidence…..

16:30 We had some very nice Indian food at Sabine’s and everyone is in a good mood and having a beer. Today is Sabine’s birthday and I bought her a small gift and we sung her Happy birthday. I am also lying down and got a massage which is really helpful. Tak Sabine.

17:00 We are stuck in terrible traffic and listening to GONG-Live etc..

17:55 It was tricky to park the van but we made it and are setting up. The stage is a very strange shape and this DJ booth thing takes up a lot of the area. We will manage. The Sound guy and club people are really cool here at Guner Jager. The room is quite small so even if there are only 30 people it will feel like a good crowd.

19:15 People are coming now. We did a soundcheck and it will be an intense show in this small place. The bass is really massive and modulates like crazy in the small rooms so people better be in the main room. A guy named Jan gave me some money to burn him copies of the previous Hamburg shows. I will include this one as well.

20:50 Wow.. Mantric Muse played a great set and people really seem to enjoy it. I guess there are about 35 people here. Sounds was very good but a lot of bass. I recognize quite a few people from the last Hamburg show including one of our biggest fans, Kirsche and his wife.

Set List: DMU, Nanoid, Wobbegong Wookie, Cinope, Sinbad Søfareren, SFunx

Mantric Muse

23:30 My back is killing me. I think the concert was pretty cool and people really liked it. Room was totally full of people (44 paid) and we had some good dynamics, starting quite slowly. Magnus played both synths and guitar. Seems we sold a few copies of the new record, etc.. Michael did not play the bass tonight, maybe tomorrow.  It was a really cool concert and we all had a good time. A good first start for the tour...

Øresund Space Collective

Listen to this concert!

Day 2

8:30 I woke up at 8:15 to charge the batteries in my recorder and get some water. Some of the guys stayed up quite late after we got back to Sabine’s smoking and drinking. Klaus, Michael, Sabine and I are all up now. Totally grey and cold and people are outside having coffee and smoking. I slept like a rock last night and my back is feeling better so far today but I quite stiff. I hope I can get a massage before we have to sit in the van for 5 hrs to get to Koblenz. We need to try to leave by 11.

10:15 We heard the Great Khan record and everyone is up now and in a good mood. We sorted out the money and merch from last night. We also discovered that the entire band on this tour are left handed except myself!

10:55 We are about to take off now. We had a great breakfast with coffee, tea, juice, bread, cheese, meat, etc.. We will start the drive off with me as the driver and we will hear the Carolina Funk- First in Funk 1968-1977. A great compilation. In fact, the entire series Florida Funk, Texas Funk, Midwest Funk and California Funk are all great.

14:15 We are near Osnabruck now and still at least 2-3hrs to go we estimate. We heard the new Shpongle, Lynryd Skyryd’s first and now the new Rovo-System 7 CD called Phoenix Rising. It is great.  My back is aching. Magnus took over as the driver now. The drive has been pretty smooth but it took nearly an hour to get out of Hamburg.

15:50 This drive is really taking much longer than we had expected and we had originally said we would go to the local promoter’s house for some food and then to the venue but we might have to go straight to the venue. We will see. It is very foggy on parts of the drive but good when we listen to Frank Marino- Tales of the Unexpected. A great record.  Magnus is driving as fast as he can. People are going to be really hungry and we have no time to stop and buy some food. We picked straws (cigs) and Sebastian lost so he is the driver after the gig tonight. One has to stay sober. The only non-drinker, Michael, also does not drive! What luck!

16:50 We had to stop as people were too hungry. We heard Irish Coffee in the last drive. Cool band from Belgium from the early 70s. Traffic is still very heavy. This drive is going to take like 7hrs to go 450km. Just too many people on the roads in Germany. It was not this bad 10 years ago when I toured with Gas Giant. We could do a drive like this in 5hrs max.

18:15 We arrived at Andreas’s finally in a suburb of Koblenz, cool small old village, dropped off our sleeping stuff, ate some pasta with gorgonzola sauce and then we had to go pretty fast to the club. Sound check was supposed to be at 18. Show is supposed to start at 20.30 so it will all be quite a rush tonight.

20:30 Everything has been a huge hassle today. Turns out we could multitrack record the show so that was great and Mantric Muse will play a bit longer set as well. No many people yet (maybe 15?). We had to park the van like 500m away from the club. Andreas is a very cool guy and relaxed, which is good as it has been a rough day.

21:05 I did an introduction for Mantric Muse. There were only 7 pre-sale tickets and 21 total tonight, it seems.

22:00 Mantric muse are such an amazing band. Wow.. what a set. They changed the set a lot tonight and blew me away. Audience seem to like them as well. The sound is very good and loud in this club. Sound guy was great and super helpful with everything.

Mantric Muse

Set List: Sinbad Søfareren, Wobbegong Wookie, Nanoid, Deep Sea Cheaps, Azur, Gnoxience, Dr. Tit’s Kittel, DMU, Armh

01:00 Far out show.. People were pretty tired and I had some issues with my modular synthesizer. I will need to check it out. The small crowd seem to really like it a lot. I think we only played about 100mins tonight. All seem to go well with the recording. Jocke was killer on the bass today. Sebbe seem to be off today and stuggling but still played some cool stuff. magnus just blew the roof of the place with super psychedelic and awesome guitar. Ola was also cool and I could hear him tonight. 

01:40 Was a late night. We sold about 140€ in merch. It was only 21 paid people, so we will have to take a reduced fee. We can’t do this every night or we will be screwed at the end.

Listen to this concert!

Day 3

10:00 Sabine and I seem to be the first people up. I suspect that when we got back at 2 that people were smoking and drinking until late. I had a shower. It is totally gray again. No sun for the 3^rd day now. It will be about a 5hr drive to Jena. Get in at the club is at 17. We need to hit the road by 12 at the latest.

11:15 We sorted out the money with Andreas.

12:51 I start off the driving everyday which is good for my back, etc.. so… We just had some lunch, as there was no breakfast. I had a couple of muesli bars and some juice and tea. We had to go back to Andreas’s house 2 times after we had driven away. First we left a box of records and then Magnus discovered he forgot his guitar after we were 1km away a 2^nd time. Shit….

16:00 I drove for like 4hrs. We heard Causa Sui- Pewt Sessions, Buffalo-Volcanic Rock, Antibalas- Dirty Money, and ØSC-The black tomato as we discussed trying to have a jam on Black Tomato Pt 3 at one of the gigs. We will see. It is cold out and there has been some valleys with massive fog and snow on the hills. People are in a good mood after a joint. Seems we are about an hour away and people are in a good mood and joking around a lot. I will have a beer now since someone else is driving the rest of the way.

17:30 Black Night in Jena is a cool club and really nice people. Mark is super cool and this gig tonight is there 2 year jubilee and he is so happy we are here to play. We were able to get the backdrop up again tonight and Mark has some cool projections as well. We did not have any lights or projections for the first two gigs.

18:15 All is set up for soundcheck now and the soundman is setting up all the mics. We got some fresh fruit, 4 cases of beer, water, etc… we joked we can’t leave until we drink it all! They allow smoking in the club and backstage room (no window or ventilation at all so I basically can’t be in there, as nearly everyone in the band smokes!).

19:35 Soundcheck is over and the sound is good but really loud in this club. Wow.. Mics are set up and they will also do multitrack recording. Sabine video taped the show in Hamburg and will also do this show (only OSC). People are in a good mood. I got a back massage and feel much better.

Mantric Muse (Ola and Michael)

20:15 The food came quite late and people were really hungry. The 3  lasagnes (meat and veggy) were really good. Show must start at 20:30 and end at 23:30. Mantric Muse will play for 1hr tonight. Sebastian is drinking and smoking a lot but seems in control. He had a great sound on stage tonight so I think he will be on fire. Not a lot of people here yet but mark said they usually come just before 20:30..

21:30 About 40 people and I met Favio from Brazil who is an artist who says that ØSC inspires him a lot. Cool to meet him. I will dedicate a jam to him later. Mantric Muse played a killer set again. Massive sound tonight. Soon space time…

Set List: DMU, Sinbad Søfareren, Sfunx, Azur, Wobbegong Wookie, Cinope, Encore: Nanoid

Dr Space and magnus

00:05 Wow.. what a killer crowd and we played the best show of the tour so far. People were really into it. Michael played bass for the first two jams and we started off with this Black Tomato pt3 jam but Sebbe had not remembered the parts at all so it was a bit of a mess but still a cool riff to jam on. Søren was so intense this night and working really hard. Michael misses jamming in Mantric Muse since the material is so sequenced and computerized these days. I hope they can find the balance and introduce some more improv into their set like the old days. I am sure they will. Great concert and the heaviest one this tour.

Søren on the drums

01:00 Very fun night. Backstage people are really getting blasted and super high. We only have to walk 50m to the sleeping place but the guy is passed out at home and we can’t get in now. We only have 3hr drive tomorrow.

Listen to this concert!

Day 4

10:00 We did not get into the apartment until 02:15 and the guy was really sorry. It was their 2 year anniversary and it all got a bit carried away. We left the gear locked in the club so we could load it in the morning. We agreed to meet at the club at 10:30. Still totally gray. No sun for the 4^th day. I think the gig last night was very intense. Both guitar players were awesome. Magnus is always amazing. There were some issues with the multitrack recordings though. The high hat mic is missing for two songs of the MM set and they had to replace it. Not a big deal as I am sure you can hear it on some of the other mics. For ØSC it is a bigger problem though as the kick drum mic died so half the concert it is missing. Unlikely we can do much about that.  I am curious how the audience recording is. I just had a shower am pretty relaxed but did not sleep that well compared to the night before.

11:25 We stood outside the club for 45mins for the owner to show up (11:15). It is cold out but we are finally loading up the van and then we will do all this GEMA stuff and have some lunch (breakfast) and hit the road.

Mantric Muse and ØSC in Jena

Papir with Nik Turner

12:52 We are finally on a real highway after all these small roads and some construction. We heard the new Hawkwind- Spacehawk CD, which is basically a cool compilation of new and old stuff, different mixes and rerecorded tracks. Pretty cool. We are now hearing the Taylor’s Universe-Evidence CD again. Good way to easy into the day as people partied pretty hard last night. I think tonight will be the highlight of the tour for sure. Café Cairo is so cool and the crowd at the Psychedelic Network is amazing. A short pee and smoke break and we are on the road again. GPS says 1hr 10mins.. This means we are there about 14 and can maybe hear some of the Papir set! 

18:00 Papir played a killer 2hr set and Nik Turner joined them for the last jam. People really seem to like them as well. I have seen them many times but never play for hrs.. Kozmik Klaus’s visuals are amazing!

20:00 I am a bit stressed as we only have about 1hr to set up all the gear and soundcheck before Mantric Muse and OSC start. Camera played a cool set, very hypnotic stuff.

Camera

21:15 Mantric Muse is playing now and it sounds great. Massive huge sound. I am mostly resting up so I can give it all during our show. I have been sharing Nik Turner’s backstage room where there is a couch that I can lay down on. Sabine gave me a massage as well which really helped me out. I spoke to Nik about a lot of different things and he will come out and join us at 23:00. We talked about the current Hawkwind issues with Dave Brock and himself. It is all pretty sad. I think he wishes they would just call him up and talk to him. Anyway, it is not my business. He is a very nice person. I also chatted a lot with the guitar player from Space Invaders (either Dirk or Tipi). Nice guy. I have talked with a lot of the fans as well and spent a lot of time selling merch, etc..  Now that I have heard the gig, I think we played a really cool gig and Nik fit in very well on all the jams except the last one, he was dominating a bit too much and was in his own world. Great people and Awesome festival and thanks Nik...

Listen to this concert

Day 5

What can I say, just a totally amazing festival. I think we played a strange and very spaced out set. Magnus played a lot more synthesizer than at any of the shows, leaving Sebastian alone on the guitar but he was pretty creative. The crowd was into and as usual it took a while but then we really played pretty cool. It was strange when Nik appeared as I did not even see him and then there he was! He played with us for about 50mins, which I think was too long but people seem to like it and said he played his best of the entire festival with us. We will see. It was a bit to short only playing less than 2hrs but that is the way it goes.

Anyway.. a great tour and despite my back issues I also had a great time and we are all such good friends for so many years how and playing music together on and off for nearly 10 years. It will be 10 years in April this line up started jamming!

Nik Turner

The line up on the tour was: jocke and Michael- bass, Magnus- Guitar and Synths, Sebbe- Guitar, Søren- Drums, Ola- synths, Dr. Space- Synths, Nik Turner- sax and flute (only Würzburg gig)

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us and bought merch, etc… See you again one day… Peace..

http://www.mantricmuse.com http://www.oresundspacecollective.com

http://www.sapphirerecords.de (Nearly all photos by Sabine!)