The Blue Buzz- Oh I 7” (Self Released 2017)

The Blue Buzz is a new young Danish band playing old school rhythm and blues music.  This is the bands first release and features 4 tracks. The band is a four piece with bass, drums, guitar, harmonica and vocals. Jonathan, the lead singer, also plays the guitar on some songs live. Oh, I starts things off as a slow blues number and well executed and mellow but then really picks up and goes back and forth between this relaxed and uptempo rhythm and a dash of harmonica thrown in. Hey Hey is a bit more of a foot stomping bluesy dance number and features some nice harmonica to compliment the track. Anyway, the B-side Peggy has a real old school sound with garagy drums mixed far in the back, and a raw guitar but clean vocal. Jonathan has this smooth voice.  If you just found this 7” in an old box you might think it was recorded in the 60s.. Pretty cool…

I recently got to see the band play a two set live concert and it was mostly all original material except a small anti-war (Country Joe and the Fish) speech and a Muddy Waters cover. I really enjoyed them. Good chemistry and a real retro sound.

http://thebluebuzzofficial.com

Kopf Musik 3CD set (Fruits de Mer Crustaean 79)

This 3CD set is a great selection of tracks taken from many of the different compilations that the band has released. Some of these on vinyl, others are special releases for the subscribers of the label, festival promo cds, etc..  CD 1, all the tracks (covers of classic Kraut rock bands (many from the Brain Label) was released on the FdM double LP, Head Music. CD 2 contains the rest of the Head Music, plus the Shrunken Head EP, a few from Roqueting through Space (4) and Vespero’s Juniper by Faust, from the FdM annual 2013 CD.   Finally CD 3 has a great version of Brainticket by Astralasia, Starship Memory by Ax Genrich and Sunhair and finishing off with the 22min version of China (Electric Sandwich) as covered by the Bevis Frond!! 

http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/kopfmusik.html

Nathan Hall and the Sinister Locals- The Volga Sturgeon Face EP (The Hip Replacement )

Nathan Hall is the front man in the cool UK band, the Soft Hearted Scientists. This is a 4 song EP of 60s inspired tracks. The opening track if it had a more analog sound to it, would have fit perfect in 1967 with the harpsichord and strangeness. A really lovely song about everyone burning Effigies!  You can hear it below. Song for the Flowers features the harmonium and a bit of a folky flavor to it with intense backing vocals. Powerful lyrics about pant genocide. Like a Setting Sun is a mid paced track with a slow build as the instrumentation gets more and more layered as we move along in this 5min track. Catacombs of Camden Town ends this EP. The lyrics are great and I like the double tracked vocals. A simple but effective emotional psych track. If you like the Soft Hearted Scientists, you will for sure like this. My only disappointment here was that their were no more cool songs to hear!!

https://www.facebook.com/Nathan-Hall-And-The-Sinister-Locals-407647262904741/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf

The Sonic Dawn- Operaen, Christiania April 15th, 2017

The local Copenhagen psych band, the Sonic Dawn were having a release party for their new LP called Into the long Night (out on Heavy Psych Sounds on April 21^st).  I had not seen them play since the Kildemose Festival 2 years ago and wow, what a development. I had seen the bands previous band, The Mind Flowers once or twice but this is a band that has made a huge development.  

I showed up early and was able to hang out with the band (Jonas, Emil, Niels, Erik and Morten) before all the people arrived and chat. This was a very special show as both of the extra musicians that have played on their records were going to perform live with them today; Erik, keyboard player from Siena Root (and Dean Allan Foyd) and Morten on vibraphone and percussion. They were both really cool guys.

I had some time to catch up with some of my friends, Tom, Scott, Lone, Mogens (it was his birthday!), Jiri, Kasper, Joachim, ET and many others. The band hit the stage at 23 and the place was about ¾ filled with people. The vibe was really great but it was a pity they did not have any light projections today, just pretty boring red and white lights that rarely changed much.

The band played started off with a track called Japanese Hills (a digital only song from 2014) and then two songs from their debut album before they started to play the new songs. The sound and vibe was a great. Erik really works great to fill out the sound and Morten played only percussion stuff on these first numbers. Later he would do a killer and long vibraphone solo (don’t remember which track. It was great to see the band stretching out some of the numbers and having a bit of a jam. Emil did not do many guitar solos in the first half of the show and seem to really loosen up and let go more in the 2^nd part. The entire band was playing great and the bass playing on the encore track, where Niels plays nearly as the lead instrument was awesome. We did not get a drum solo but Jonas and Niels have a special feel for each other’s playing. I had a fantastic time and I think everyone was smiling and joyful after that 75min concert. What a great night.

The party continued until 4 in the morning with several DJs. The first guy played very spacey stuff and a lot of instrumental music. A guy named Mogens played a killer selection of 60s 7” records that had the place dancing. It was so smokey in this place that I was starting to feel unwell and had to head home before Lorenzo Woodrose would DJ at 01:45…. After Guf was Aske, the concert organizer from Svendborg, who always dresses in a cowboy hat. Cool guy. It was a great night.. Sorry I did not shoot any video.

Set List: Japanese Hills, Watching Dust Fall, All the Ghosts I know, L’espion, Emily Lemon, On the Shore, An easy heart to Break, Six Seven, Lights Left On, The Mustang, As of Lately, It’s Tomorrow, Summer Voyage.

Encore: Fading Soul

http://thesonicdawn.com

Fribytterdrømme Release Party- BETA Records, Copenhagen April 6th, 2017

Pic by Jimmi Brandt

The local Copenhagen psychedelic rock band Fribytterdrømme had a small party at a local record store to celebrate the release of their 2^nd full length record called Superego. They have previously released a 7” and 12” (one sided) record as well.  I have been friends with the guitar player and main songwriter, Lau, for a few years and it was nice to come out and support him and his band. 

There was about 100 people there and Lau performed 3 tracks from the new record. I think he started off with Seer and then played Solen går Ned (Sun goes down). The last track, Mantra, in a long extended version with guitar loops, Indian drone box, etc.. It was very cool and he sang really passionately. They did not play the record in the store, which was a bit strange. I guess there was about 100 people. You can watch a video from the new LP below. I will soon review the record (when Lau comes by with a copy!). Cool Danish band and nice people.. Peace..

 https://www.facebook.com/fribytterdroemme

Holy Mount- The Drought (White Dwarf WHD008)

The Canadian four piece band from Toronto, Holy Mount, are back with a new record on White Dwarf (Germany).  Side A starts off with a short intro piece (Ground Water) and straight into a heavy doomy track, Division, featuring a quite ethereal vocal (can’t really understand much of what is being sung). The sound production has quite a bit of reverb on it giving it a special sound. Later the track really speeds up and rocks out.  Basalt has a pretty cool stoner rock like groove and this eerie feeling as if something bad is going to happen. Great energy in this track.  Reminds me of Glowsun at times. Omni Cide is a cool and very dynamic track with heavy, dirt parts and cleaner guitar parts but still a pretty heavy crushing sound at times.  Side B starts off with Blackened Log. This features some synthesizer (right channel) at the beginning along with the guitar riff (left channel) before the drums kick in and later the bass. They almost get into a heavy trance on this track with the drums and bass just rocking on and this sort of post rock dreamy guitar lines that are repeated over and over in the background.  Blood Cove (hear below) is a slower and more moody track with a dark brooding feeling and a bit of a distorted bass and doomy horror film like vibe. I really like the stoney wah solo on this track at the end. The album ends with the title track, The Drought. This one features a more clear guitar sound and is a slow almost like ballad to start but then gets more heavy and intense as it grows. The ending is pretty intense. I miss some cool lead guitar at times as when out of riff mode it is all pretty simple melodic stuff and often does not really take me to the next level. Overall, a very cool album and great to see the band grow from the previous releases. I think this is their best stuff yet.

http://www.whitedwarfrock.com

https://holymount.bandcamp.com/