Strange Vibrations- Higher Dimensional Beings (Astral056)

Santtu, is on a role with his 56th release which now includes this new project as a duo with Shane Beck (spoken Words) and on this one Jonathan Segel (guitar and other instruments). This is the 4th release in this project. This CD features 10 tracks and while it sounds a lot like Astral Magic at times, it is a bit more spacey and relaxed in general. I love the fluid guitar layers that Jonathan adds and the poety is nicely mixed in here and there. Some great song titles here as well like Children of the Perpetual Echo, Whispering Oracle, and Misguided Sunrise. 

Fans of Astral Magic will for sure dig this..

http://astralmagic.bandcamp.com

Strange Vibrations- III (Astral055)

Volume III in this series continues with 10 new tracks but this time Santtu plays all the instruments and even does some of the spoken word parts (tracks 5&7).  Crystal Starship starts things off with an uptempo rocker. Shane comes in pretty quickly after the track starts.  Lots of interesting keyboards.  Perpetual Change keeps the tempo high and opens with a nice synth sequence, that is quite hypnotic at times. Lots of stuff going on in this track at times but driven by the synths at all times. Desert Winds starts off really spacey, like a 1972 Hawkwind track. Master of Mystery has a bouncing bass line to drive it forward and is a fun one. Thought Projections Acquisition is another strange electronic one and features Santtu on vocals.. Trippy…Sacred Geometry has a sort of dark mysterious feel to it. Passing the Knowledge is another fully electonic on with whispered words by Santtu.. Dream Quest features some guitar and I really love the vibe on this one. Cool track and the longest on the album as well!  Frequency Waves is another beatless electronic piece. The CD ends with The Druid´s Temple.  A bit like Astral Magic and a bit different as well with the help of Shane, doing what he does best.. Only made in 50 copies. Peace..

http://astralmagic.bandcamp.com

Tabernas Desert Rock Festival, Spain Oct 2-4th, 2025

I had heard about this festival a few times but this was the first time I got a ticket and decided to make the journey. It was a 12hr drive (I stopped for a day and 1/2 to see a friend near Malaga to break it up. Tabernas is way down south near Alimeira on the coast.  It is where a lot of the spaghetti westens were film. The concerts are just outside the main salon of the film sets. Really cool. Festival is organised by a German guy Marco and a bunch of other German folks. 70% of all the people here are from Germany and Belgium. Not many Spanish and I only met 3 people from Portugal. about 300 total. A very cool and unique place to have a festival. Everything is very relaxed and easy going. Two places for food, only one drinks bar which can get a bit crowded but is ok. They still put on the shoot out at the saloon twice a day and normal people can stil pay and come talk around and eat at restaurants, etc.. 

I arrived about 1330 and found a place in the parking lot near a couple of young German guys with their car and tents. 16hr drive for them to get here.. Had some lunch and then walked all around the western town and took pictures. Met a group of Belgian folks associated with Sara and Benni and Down the HIll festival (including Dries).. Super nice people. 

First band was supposed to be Nightstalker from Greece but they were too stoned to play so  Kal-El from Norway played first instead.  Both bands I was really looking forward to see.  Kal El rocked and had good grooves. Singer sounds like he is singing right at the edge of his range most of the time, so it feels a bit strained somehow.  Both guitar players did solos, the one on the right seem to play the same one every or something close most of the time. They grooved but not a lot of variety in their stoner sound. They played mostly their new album Astral Voyger Vol 1 (4 of the 6 songs) and a new single, JUggernaut, as the encore. I enjoyed the set a lot and talked with the guys which were really cool folks.

Set List: Mothership, Cosmic Sailor, Moon People, Temple/WOM/ANUB, Cloud Walker, BTDSC, Astral Voyager, Juggernaut

Nightstalker, I was looking foraard. I have 4-5 of their records but never seen them live. They had a lot more variety to their songs which were shorter and they were totally into it as well. By now, the sun was hot and the stage is in the direct sun!!!  I think it was 28C…..   It was a diverse set but a lot from the last album, I think…  I dug their set and they had the biggest crowd today..

Set List: Trigger Happy, Baby God is Dead, Forever Stoned, Just a Burn, Heavy Trippin, Uncut, Return from the Point, Sweet Knife, Cursed, Never Know, The Dog that no one Wanted, Zombie Hour, Dead Rock Commandos, Children of the Sun

High Desert Queen from Texas were next and they really ripped thru their set of high speed stoner grooves and ripping solos.  Singer had a Texas flag on his back for the first few songs and was a chrasmatic guy. Crowd really dug em as well. Their set went by fast somehow..  They only played 2 older songs and the rest was from their latest album. Jason from Sasquatch was filling in on bass for the tour.  He was awesome.  They had a few doomy moments like the last song but it ended in a high energy blast!!  Cool… Spoke to Jason and he said they had done preproduction demos for enough material for a new Sasquatch album but had no idea when it was going to be recorded properly. All depends on Keith…. 

Set list: As we Roam, Palm Reader, Time Weaver, Head Honcho, Tuesday Night Blues, Mountain, Solar Rain, Ancient Aliens, 

Tankzilla (DE) was an intense drum and distorted nasty guitar duo. It was very blusey, punky, stoner, nasty rock and roll.. Crowd seem to know them a bit. A lot of people were eating at this time (including me), so I did not see the whole show but they rocked for sure.   

Set List: Crossroads, Lucifer, UFO, Brother from another Mother, Rubberman, Wolfpack, Down Below, Saw Surfer, Hard Way, Wrong Place, 

Up to this point I had recorded all the bands but some asshole spilled their drink on my edirol recorder. I started to recorded Scrotem, another German band, quite intense front man who sang in many styles and was great.  Solid bass and drum grooves but sinple, not that interesting guitar so that was a bit of a let down. They had a lot of fun and people up front were into it for sure but lack of interesting guitar riffs and the guy could not solo (he only tried on 3 songs).  Anyway, recorded died completely during their recording and I could not restart it. 

Set List: Smile, Mislead, Curfew, The day that never ends, Lay your bombs down, Little by Little, Lifeline, Sweet 16, Stoned, Enemy, Let you Die. 

Last band of the night was Psychogarden (DE) and I really liked these guys. IT was like a bit like The Devil and the Almighty Blues but very bass heavy sound and sadly the guitar player had a very dull sound and you just blurred into the bass and you had a hard time hearing him. Pity as I think he did some interesting stuff.  THey played a bit more than an hr and ended about midnight. 

Set List: Blues, King Bee, Octa, Shadow, Song 1, Song 2, SOMA, Three, New

Saw Nick Oliveiri, some of the guys from Temple Fang around said hello and went to bed…

Day 2 (Oct 4th)

Very sunny so far. Got up around 9… Sun comes up late here…  had some breakfast, cleaned up, charge the phone (which died) and the camera. Listen to the Grace and Space CD. What a great one. Listening to Fusing your Synapses. I also enjoy this one a lot as well. More relaxing way to start the day.  Writing up this diary. Trying to dry out the Edirol and hope it comes back to life. Really unhapy about this. I can still record on the Zoom video camera but it is more difficult and not as good quality and I do not have the wind screen. It was very windy yesterday until the sun went down. 

Anyay, Nick Oliveri´s Mondo Generator is first, Unida (not seen them since 1999!), Rotor, also not seen then since we toured together back in 2002!!  Temple Fang, and I do not know the rest of the bands. Going to be a fun day..

Mondo Generator more or less started on time and totally rocked.  Mostly his solo stuff, a couple of Kyuss numbers, a QOTSA song and the crowd was digging it. He was clearly happy to be here and has played here a few times, I believe.  It was hotter today and the stage is in the direct sun so they worked hard…

Set List: 13th Floor, Rubber Room, Supa duppa (Kyuss), Fuck it, FYIF, Gonna Leave, Turboner, Sharner, Void, Green Machine (Kyuss), Death March, Nowhere Man, ?, For a Day, Blast off, Listening to the Daze, I never Sleep, Dead Silence, Millonaire (QOTSA)

Unida, a band that I have not seen since 1999, when Gas Giant opened for them was next and they rocked…  Sound has not changed much and they have a monster bass player. Wow. He was killer, probably the best at the festival..  I think the guitar player and drummer are the only original members left. The new singer (not John Garcia but sounded a lot like him at times) was very good and cool front man, from the band Riotgod. He was covered in tattoos…  They played two brand new songs (Unbound) and the encore, which he said they wrote last week…

Set List: Left, Red like a River, Unbound, Tanglo, Human Tornado, If Only, Stray, Sweet, Hand, Energy, Black Woman

Rotor, from Berlin, I had last seen in 2009 but played some gigs with them way back in 2002 when they opened for Gas Giant.  They now were a 4 piece band but damn, what a cool change from the normal stoner rock we have been getting. Lots of interesting songs and they can do a bit of Colour Haze like stuff but it was a great set. I loved it.. Still an awesome band..  It was super cool that they played Ennio Marconnie (Time in the West)..  Most of the set was from their last album in 2023. 

Set List: Costa Verde, Reibach, Reblansoul, Schabracke, Volllast, Kahlschlag, Druckverband, Ennio, Oktagon 

Godsleep (Greece), I had never heard of were a four piece band with an intense female singer, who also played a bit of guitar.  The drummer ran some samples and programmed stuff to mix into their stoner punk vibe.  The 2nd song, the one I filmed, had a riff like Dinosaur Vacuum by Monster Magnet. She could do punk, very clear singing, very versatile.  They had some great songs for sure. After the 2nd song, she asked if anyone had some weed and she got a joint from someone and smoked the entire thing. Could be dangerous if it was really strong!!  I missed some of their set though as I had to get something to eat!!!

Komatsu from Eindhoven, NL were next and doing the tour with Mondo Generator since Ritual King had to cancel. I was looking forward to see them. Anyway, they were a trio played a sort of stoner doom stuff with some really spaced out guitar. His guitar had no prescene or treble, so it was hard to hear him when they were just riffing. Bass player was very intense and into it but seem to play mostly the same riffs over and over..  They rocked..

Temple Fang, were next and the band I was most looking forward to see.  I think they are one of the best bands in Europe at the moment.. Love them! Such nice people and they came on and just were amazing. Very spacey start and then into the River.  The rest of the set was either new stuff or ideas and from the latest album. Very cool set and people were really into it as well.  Love these guys..

It was now nearly midnight and I was very tired. I saw Balâte setting up. They are a Spanish band and apparently play ever year…  Convoy was after that but I did not hear them either. 

Super cool festival in an amazing place. Would love to come back again.. We will see… 12hr drive for me though. 900km!!