Frozen Planet 1969- Electric Smokehouse (Pepper Shake Records PPR-Sk100-007)

This is the 2^nd release by the Australian act, Frozen Planet 1969.  The three piece instrumental band follows in the lines of early Seven that Spells, Earthless, and Black Bombain other instrumental trios, with grooving bass and drums and some out of this world guitar playing. This album features 5 tracks and starts with Ascendant. This 12min track goes through a lot of changes but it is pretty hard hitting with intense bass and drums and some great wah guitar to start.  I like when Paul switches to some delay and it gets more psychedelic about 4mins into the jam. He can really rip it up for sure. The track comes down to a really spacey part but then really builds up again with some super cool spaced out guitars. Supersaturation (7:40) starts slowly and reminds me of a Jimi Hendrix or Radio Moscow like piece. Very cool effects not just on the guitar but also the bass!!  Shores of Oblivion is a shorter track with a more laid back vibe, a bit bluesy and smooth crusin until they start to mess about with all sorts of weird effects pedals and sounds. Sonic Egg Factory (14:29) starts off with an effect straight out of the last jam but then really takes off into an incredible jam. Then the band sort of goes into a totally different way with a lot of guitar strangeness and never really recovers the direction or groove. The album ends with a short piece called Fuse.

The whole album was recorded from improvised jams and if you liked the last one you will dig this one as well. They need to come and tour Europe!!!

https://peppershakerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/electric-smokehouse

http://www.shinybeast.nl/item/438852/frozen_planet_1969_clear_purple_electric_smokehouse.html

Year of the Cobra- Hell over Hammaburg 7” (H42 Records)

This is a one sided 7” produced in 4 versions in a total of 220 copies to celebrate the bands first Europe tour and the Festival of the same name in Hamburg, Germany (where the label is based!). I am not sure but I hope that this track is 100% exclusive to this release, to make people more interested to by this since you don’t get a lot of music. If you don’t know the band, they are a duo from Seattle.    Temple of Apollo is an uptempo melodic hard rocking track lead by the cool female vocals. Pretty short, just cool bass and drum grooves and great vocals. It is all over in 3mins…  Check them out on tour in March in Germany! Only 160 copies of this 7” made, so it will be collectable.

http://yearofthecobra.bandcamp.com

http://h42records.com

Stone House on Fire -Never Ending Cycle (Electric Valley Records, H42-036)

This is a totally new band for me. They are from Brazil and this record was recorded live direct to 2” tape!! It is the bands 2^nd record. Wrath of the Sun starts things off and has a bit of an ominous feeling to it with its dark riffs, vocals and a cool psychedelic wah guitar section with some intense drumming.  The Rush is a strange track with the vocal sung in one way but the music a bit more muscular and what an ending. Purge and Purify is a hard hitting stoner number with a great groove and some nice jamming. The side ends with Anger. This one starts with just the drums and a cool bass line before the guitar kicks in. Great song.

Side B starts with a piano sort of intro piece (Pasaje) before the band kicks in hard with the Steamboat. I like the way the band mix in some strange sounds and weird effects into their strange QOTSA, stoner rock mix.  Electric Sheep is slower and more heavy and doomy. It becomes much more melodic with a nice guitar line along with the vocals before getting very angry and aggressive. The album ends with the long Never Ending Cycle, which features Rafael Inácio on Resonator guitar. This is another dynamic and hard hitting track and also spaced out at times. This band has a great mixture of sounds and styles but still being stoner rock!! Check em out.

https://stonehouseonfire.bandcamp.com/

http://h42records.com

Sula Bassana- Organ Accumulator (Deep Distance DD37)

Sula is back with another solo album to follow up the excellent Shipwrecked. The album features 6 tracks of multilayered space music with a bit of rock throw in on occasion.  Side A starts with Lichtbündel. I really like this track, starting with some spacey stuff, a drum machine but later Dave kicks in with bass, guitars and really takes off.  Morgentau is more floating and relaxed with lots of cool synths and again drum machine as the main rhythm driver along with the bass synth.  The Frogs ends side A. I don’t hear any frogs but I guess you could say one of the repeated synths is a bit curpy!! I love the lead synth on this one with all the delays on it. Very spaced out. The title track starts off side B with some cool effected guitar at start that sort of gets morphed into the next section, where you bounce into a new universe with the organ and drum machine and synth drone. Cool… Grashamster is very chilled like the mid track on side A and very hypnotic and stoned. Nebelschwaden closes the album. It starts with some cool alien sounds (like the first track) but then a really cool groove kicks in (like slow GOA trance!!). I love the piano line that compliments the hypnosis you are going to undergo.. Another brilliant record…

http://sulatron.com