Weites Luftmeer- SiebenuddreiBigachtundvierzig (Tonzonen Records TON020)

Tonzonen is back with another release, their 20^th. This is a label I have only discovered fairly recently and I really am enjoying their releases a lot. This band hails from Munich, Germany and have been around since 2012. The duo have been described as making instrumental psychedelic shoegaze music…  The album features 4 long tracks and is released on black and magenta coloured vinyl in 500 copies total. Side A starts off with a track that borrows a guitar line from You know your only Dreaming from Hawkwind. Nice grooves and bass lines as the guitars are more floating and ambient.  Cool song with quite a build up at the end. Buoyancy another nearly 9min track starts with some bass and then a slow spacey build again.  Clearly the guitarist, Jochum is a big fan of Dave Brock,even though he does not do very make solos and is more of an atmospheric guitar player. Anyway, after 3mins a more melodic strummed guitar section kicks in and it goes like this until nearly the end but with a cool build with the drums and bass. Trail of Thoughts is an 11min mellow journey that slow builds up with a few more effects on the guitars here and there but overall very mellow. Oxykotin starts with a bass line and some spacey effected sounds as the guitar slowly fades up with a nice riff and then the drums kick in! Nice groove and later some cool flanged out wah guitar. What a great number. Cool record but I could use some more guitar solo!!! 

https://weitesluftmeer.bandcamp.com/

http://www.tonzonen.de

Megaritual- Mantra Music (White Dwarf WHD006)

Megaritual is the solo project of Australian multi-instrumentalist Dale Walker (from the band of Sun Of Man).  I have never heard of Dale or his band Sun of Man. The album features 8 tracks and is a sort of compilation of several of the tracks from his different band camp releases. Dale played all the instruments as he is credited for everything including the artwork.  Is the heart of the Mystery starts things off and I am immediately reminded of Lamp of the Universe. A very mystic, sound, with drones, sitar, different kinds of drum sounds.  After a few mins, the drum set kicks in and Dale does some vocal chants, while the rest continues in the background as a sort of loop. Later a more doomy guitar kicks in and the previous recorded stuff is off and now it is heavy guitar, drums and vocals, primarily.  Just as he starts to slow, it all sort of fades away and back into the sitar, eastern vibe again and then the heavy guitars and soloing is back again!  A new section now begins as all the tracks so far just sort of melt into each other. Now the heavy riffs are combined with some strummed acoustic guitar. The drums have nearly disappeared in the sound. A more dense sounds returns with the electric guitar being heavier but the strummed guitar is still in the forefront of the sound as the drums are nearly gone again.  Pretty psychedelic as it all fades down to use a vocal and acoustic guitar for the ending but comes back again. A very cool musical collage.  Side B continues in much the same way with some dark eastern stuff but a new drone and extra delays. This track becomes really heavy doomy stuff with some lead guitar in the background during the heavy riffing after the first vocal section. It comes back down to earth after a few mins. The mid section is really cool. I love the psyched out guitar and hypnotic stoned eastern vibe. After the comedown, we are still focused on the guitar. Wow.. side 2 was quite an amazing trip…….. I look forward to hear more.

https://megaritual.bandcamp.com/

DER BLUTHARSCH AND THE INFINITE CHURCH OF THE LEADING HAND- SUCHT & ORDNUNG CD (WKN 49)

This is a very special band and I was lucky to catch some of their great show at Roadburn festival last year.  Their previous album that I reviewed was pretty strange but I liked it. This group has 28 releases on their bandcamp site. The artwork is minimal and so is the information, a small insert in the CD, with cool art but no info about songs, who played what or anything, really..

Anyway, this album is only three tracks and the opening track is just a total killer heavy instrumental psychedelic rock number. I love the guitar riff and soloing while the bass and drums just keep a great groove going and then a space out and then back into some melodic guitar soloing.  Track 2 also starts off with a quite heavy guitar riff but a slower pace and some female spoken word vocals in German. The music is heavy and dark and very psychedelic and intense at times. Track 3 starts slowly and then a moto-electro groove kicks in and off we go!! A lovely spacey guitar section follows before the female vocal (in English) kicks in on this sort of space rock track. The track slowly dissolves around 11mins and you think it is over and then it comes blasting back… A really cool album.. Wow…

https://derblutharsch.bandcamp.com/

The Machine- Shadow of the Machine (White Dwarf WHD 005)

The Machine is from Holland and have released 4 full length albums and a split album since their debut vinyl in 2009. IT turns out that the band had released a limited CD (pretty hard to find) in 2007. White Dwarf or someone decided it was time this was out on vinyl. It was all recorded live on one day in Nov 2007.  This has been remastered and has better sound for sure (I have the original CD!). The double album is pressed in 1000 copies (350 magenta and 650 black). You can hear the entire album below on you tube.

http://www.themachineweb.com/

http://whitedwarfrock.com