Stone Oak Cosmonaut- One Evening in the Desert (Self Released)

Stone Oak Cosmonaut is a three piece heavy space rock band from Utrecht, Holland. This is the bands third album in about 8 years or so and the first after a 5 year break. The last one, Into The Multiuniverse was like the bands heavy 2112 like album.  This album features 9 diverse tracks. Edwin has a very unique voice but the bass driven, heavy guitar and spacey synth layers are intact as the band starts off with the title track.  Cosmic Messenger has a very heavy guitar riff and reminds me if Wino, made space rock.  A bit doomy, spacey, but rocking. Outside, took me back to 1979, with that pure Motorhead sound of Bomber/Ace of Spades.. What a great sort of tribute to that early Motorhead sound..  My favorite tracks are the longer Mind full of Capsules and Voyagers. This combines heavy rock, spacey sounds, longer solo sections and a lot of cool dynamics. In Mind, about 4mins in he takes a good long solo before the track enters into a really spaced out section. It slowly builds up again. Stone and Light slows it down and contains another great heavy guitar riff for the space synths to float in and over at times. Voyagers is another long track and starts with floating space sounds and a eerie synth before the beautiful guitar line enters. I am sure this line was on another of their records as well??? Anyway, a beautiful start for an amazing track with a lot of cool dynamic sections and really intense drumming at the end. The Sun is a more groovey track with some guitar double track harmony guitars. You have your head banging lightly after the guitar riff on this one. Incident in Galaxy Nine starts with some space synth bullets as they fadeout and the heavy guitar riff takes over, a sense of brooding sets in, like something bad really happened. The track is an instrumental one. Festival closes out the album and is a more laid back track and the singing voice is quite different.  He reminds me of someone but I can’t place it. Anyway, another really cool record.. 

The only way to get the CD at this time is to write to the band at:  edwin_van_wanrooij@hotmail.com or contact them via Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stone-Oak-Cosmonaut/140829682654697?fref=ts

Tir na Nóg- Ricochet (Fruits de Mer Records Crustacean 65)

The Irish duo of Sonny and Leo have recently released their first new album of material in over 40 years. This opening track is on that album, which I already reviewed last month and it is called the Dark Dance. Ricochet is a sort of darkish track with a mid tempo, hand drums, two guitars and some spooky vocals and an interesting story. The b side is a live version of the bands name from their debut album from 1971! Fantastic.. I hope I can see these guys live one day.

http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

http://tirnanog-progfolk.com

Suyra Kris Peters- Status Flux (Electric Magic Records, 2015)

This is Christian from Samsara Blues Experiment’s 2^nd solo release. In 2013 he released the cool, relaxed and spacey Solitude CD, which I reviewed and quite enjoyed. Before reviewing this one, I went back and listened to Solitude again and I have to say, the new one is really an incredible leap in a totally another direction but musically still very interesting. While Solitude was very guitar, sitar based with some strange sounds and samples, this new one is very focused on keyboards (synths, organ, fender Rhodes)! Ragamah starts things off with a nice synthesizer melody and some light sitar in the background for ambience (rather than the other way around). He also uses the Fender Rhodes on this one but the lead synth is the primary instrument you follow. L only in Berlin has multiple layers of synths going on as it slowly grows. Too Young Too Soon features a nice acoustic guitar work out while the synths modulate and drone in a more deep frequency range. It works really well.  Passage to another World has sitar, acoustic guitar and even harmonica! This is a really happy long track especially when the harmonium like keyboard comes in.  I like the ending as it comes back to the way it started (with sitar and harmonica) and includes some like forest samples for a small section. Discovery of Ithaca is another track with sitar, drones and a nice lead synthesizer line as the rest of the sound sort of “sizzles” in the background. Sounds really cool.. The track takes a dramatic twist when the hand drums enter and a dark, bass synth drone kicks in and for the first time you hear this voice… Very cool track. Wow.. Nothing else like this on either solo record.  Snow Feathers is a light floaty track with mainly piano. Winterbottom starts with some guitar and then it is taken over by an organ but the main slowly played theme still remains. Ermitage ends the record with a quite intense track with a repetitive drum beat (mixed very low), a heavy drone and pretty spacey….. A very cool record. I liked it a lot.. This should be released on a proper CD or vinyl for sure… Enjoy at the link below..

https://electricmagicrecords.bandcamp.com/album/status-flux

Magic Bus- Seven Wonders 7" (Fruits de Mer Records Winkle 20)

Magic Bus are super cool band from the UK that sound like they were from 1972 or something. A real authenitic Canterbury prog sound and they write great songs. I loved both these tracks and need to hunt down their previous two albums (only on CD so far).  Anyway, the opening track is a song from their latest CD release called Transmission from Sogmore’s Garden.  Just a lovely track with such a classic sound with great solos on organ, flute, guitar and beautiful singing as well and a happy vibe. Next up is a cover of the Byrds song, Eight Miles High and a great version. It has a totally different beginning and and I love the Doors like organ solo in the middle. What can I say.. I am really impressed with this band..

http://magicbusband.co.uk/

http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

The Machine- Offblast! (Elektrohasch 170)

The Dutch band, the Machine is back with their 5^th studio album and it is a fantastic record with a lot of diverse elements to it and plenty of intense guitar and a lot of instrumental music. I have been pretty blown away by this one. The opening track will remind you of Earthless with the super intense guitar soloing. Wow. Dry end starts slowly and bluesy with a nice wah solo and then the intensity of the riff that has been played slowly just gets massive and the guitar solo more intense as David really goes for it. This is really David’s baby as he recorded, mixed, mastered and produced the record! Anyway the tracks ends slowly just as it began. Next up is Dry End and sounds just like QOTSA, nearly a cover song, if I did not know better. The guitar sound gets a bit heavier but the way it is sung and played. The vibe is 100% QOTSA…  Coda Sun starts off with a high tempo and a sort of an eastern vibe until the vocal kicks in and  a lot of different dynamics and changes happen in the track. Very cool song and great bass and drums on this one. Gamma really get reminded of the hardest edge Nirvana sound the way the vocal and the guitar riff work. The vocal is mixed a bit low on purpose on this track (I guess). Cool double tracked guitar appears later. And the track goes into some really cool spacey stuff.  Off Course, brings the Nirvana feel back again but they do it in their own very cool way.  This track has some really intense wah guitar with an additional delay on it so it makes it more spacey and psychedelic than previous guitar solos. Come to Light is the 16min track and the highlight of the record.. This one just blows me away, heavy, rocking, psychedelic, dynamic, spaced out.. I first saw the Machine back at the Munich Swamp Room Happening when they only had one album out and they blew me away.. Still going strong today… Great band…

http://www.themachineweb.com/

https://www.facebook.com/themachine.nl