This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..
Our first Doctors of Space concert of the year and also our first gig as an electronic duo..We have been doing this since November and getting good but never for an audience.Martin sketched out 6 drum-bass ideas that we will try to work with and see how that goes…5 bands on the bill. I managed to get all my gear into the smart car. I really hope we can park close by and this does not go too late!!!it is Portugal so probably no one even starts before 18!!!
We arrived at 1515 and found the place.. There was a big poster on the wall but the door was locked. After 10mins or so we could hear drums in the basement and they eventually came and let us in and helped load all the gear in., Interesting long and skinny hall with a bathroom, kitchen-bar and backyard…It was supposed to start at 16 and it cost 3€ to get in and by 16, there was already 40 people and double that by 17 and still nothing had started.A guy that had something critical only got off work at 16 and he did not get there until 1730.Anyway, they had added a 6th act now..
Penumbra started things off. They were a three piece of drums, bass and Miguel on pedals, phone and noise making. They had a microphone and later the bass player would make insane voices thru the effects pedals and stuff. Intense. 12min set…
Druida
Druida was just one guy playing doom style guitar with an E-bow. It was pretty basic and not very interesting at all. I think he did one 15-20min piece.People had lost interest pretty fast.. He needed to use his pedals more and change the sound, do some looping or something to make it less the same all the time..
Rense, a 3 piece death metal act were next and they were intense and had a more punk energy at times… I think they played 25mins… We actually enjoyed them quite a lot. They gave it 100% including the death metal facepaint, candles, etc.. Cool...
Doctors of Space, we were next and it was already 20 and the place was supposed to close at 22 and still 2 more acts. We tried to set up as fast as we could but it was a lot of gear.We managed in 15mins or so… We played 4 pieces in 50mins and we had never played anything like this before. It was very noisy, chaotic and crazy….. I felt like we had to fit more with the vibe of the night so I just went for it!!!!People loved it.. I guess there were about 25-30 people up front…
We did not get to see the last act, Maximum Stress Cooperation but we could hear them as we were packing the car. Wow. that was maximal insanity… The guy had a table of home made spring reverbs, metal sheets with contact mics, and some pedals and he went mad with a guy doing some crazy vocals..
Fun night. I guess about 80-100 people…. Good turn out….
This is a proper CD digipack release (in 100 copies) with some really cool artwork by Piet Koster, who has done quite a few covers for Santtu.Anyway, this CD features 9 tracks.As is quite common these days, Jonathan Segel plays guitar, electric sitar and mastering.Shane Beck is featured on 2 tracks and Alisa Coral (Space Mirrors) plays some synth pads on the opening track, a very Nik Turner inspired track (in fact I think the whole album is).Monsters from the ID is a more happy track and also quite uptempo. Fantastic guitar playing. Dawn of a new Age is more spacey and relaxed. The drum programming is a bit more complex as well.Message from Within, is another HW inspired track, with this laid back, Nik Turner singing style. Good message in the lyrics. The Colour of Adoration starts with a synth sequence and is quite psychedeluc. It features Shane on spoken words but you really have to listen carefully to hear them all… Only in my Dreams is very Hawkwind like with a nice guitar riff and vibe. Autumnal Equinox is a very nice moody piece with the sitar guitar. Lovely….. One of my favorite tracks.. Shimmer brings the melodic uptempo rock back!!!The Inner Light has a quite funky bass line and cool vibe and the return of the Last American poet. A very solid and perhaps one of the best Astral Magic releases. Get it before it is gone!! It was released on bandcamp Friday in March 2023 and still available!
