GNOD- Presents… Dwellings and Druss (Trenmat Records TR034)

GNOD are back with another release. I buy and collect all that I can by the band but I have to say the last couple have really let me down. I think they are just starting to release everything no matter how interesting it is or not. Anyway, this a pretty cheap production with just black and white artwork and a black label (hard to tell which side is which), on a  thin gold vinyl pressing. Dwellings- Revalation 9 starts the record off and it about 15-20 min drone drum machine piece. Quite repetitive and you really lose interest after a while. No guitar, no bass, no vocals, … pretty boring stuff. Flip the record over and you have Druss- 20 sides a Minute. It starts with a repeated synthesizer loop and does not really go anywhere or do anything interesting besides speed up and it is over. The next piece called Dwellings- Defeatism is by far the most interesting and evolved track. The only one really worth listening to. After the synth loop a simple kick drum pattern is repeated over and over. Eventually, a like snare edge is added to make the rhythm more complex and more synth layers start to appear as well as it builds up into some a bit more interesting. it becomes almost tribal the rhythm but the rest is just not very interesting. Pity… I also did not like the split with Shit and Shine very much so did not review it. This is nothing like the great records they have released with Rocket.

http://ingnodwetrust.tumblr.com/ http://www.trensmat.com

Flowers must Die (Kommun2:21/RYR017)

The Swedish psychedelic rock band, Flowers must Die are back with a new double vinyl release on the Kommun2 label. It features 8 instrumental songs spread over the 4 sides. The material on this LP is a mix of old and new material with some recorded as long ago as 2008. The record starts off with Jamfota which gets you into the comfort zone of the band but then when Enio starts it gets very tripped out stuff with strange sounds, intense bass lines, driving rhythms, and just damn freaked out! Ennio jam sort of fades away, just before you think you have had enough…  Spindlarnas Träd has quite a heavy riff and is lead by the violin and later the electric guitar along the mighty path of destruction. Köket Brinner maintains this dark brooding theme. Hörsägen brings things back down to earth in a floating style but still freaky. Gkenvandring is a side long track that has a lead by a heavy bass line but then slowly takes on its on universe as the guitar drive the melodic and also noisy aspect and the synths and sounds create the intensity. Make sure you are strapped in properly. Side D starts off with Blågylta and is another intense one lead by a repetitive rhythm-groove. IT kind of freaks you out the way they raise some of the instruments volume quite dramatically without notice to keep you on guard. Now, the trip is ending. FMD are a quite special psychedelic experience travelling in their own special musical universe sometimes alongside groups like the Spacious Mind and Hawkwind and other times in a more tripped out universe. I have seen them three times live and they are always cool and interesting. Freak out..

http://www.flowersmustdie.com http://www.motljud.com

Elevatorfører- Opkald era ukendt Etage (Levitation Records LR002)

Elevatorfører is a new Danish psychedelic rock band. They are a large and quite funny band and all the songs are sung in Danish and the band dresses in cool attire for their live shows. This album was recorded live at the Copenhagen venue, Amager Bio. The band was opening up for Young Flowers and Spids Nøgenhat. Den Magiske Skala opens the record up with a pretty rocking uptempo track where as on most tracks, the farfisa is the lead instrument. Søsangen (The Sea Song) starts with the sounds of bubbles being blown into a large bucket as the singer tells the audience it is ok to smoke your joints now. This is a beautiful floating song. Ukendt Etage (Unknown Floor) starts with a real 60s style guitar line and the farfisa again takes the lead. Skovtur (Forest Trip) features some acoustic guitar but is a track you could imagine at the Matrix in San Francisco in the 60s. Side B starts with Den Hypnotiske jakke (The hypnotic Jacket) features a more psychedelic keyboard and is one of the longest, best and most psychedelic tracks on the record. Vertikal Bus (Vertical Bus) is back to your straightforward farfisa driven 60s track. Samerens Rejse (Same’s Trip) is a quite spacey track as the band meanders and the different instruments add to the slow moving soundscape and the singer gives his best vocals. Now the trip is over, about 35mins. If they had used some vocal effects, more liberty with instrument panning,etc.  it would make the music quite a bit more psychedelic. While the mix is really good, the ones mixing don’t really have that much of a sense for the psychedelic even though that is the genre this music is in.  Cool release, especially if you understand Danish and are fans of 60s organ driven psych. The record is released on vinyl only in 500 copies but also comes with a coupon for the digital version as well and a large full color booklet with great photos of the band and event and all the information.

http://elevatorforer.bandcamp.com  LevitationRecords

Dean Allan Floyd-Road to Atlas 10” (Crusher Records)

 Dean Allan Floyd is a new four act from Sweden featuring a Canadian on lead vocals and guitar.  This is their 2^nd release following up their debut from March 2012 called “The sounds can be so Cruel”.  I never heard the LP but it got great reviews. The EP starts off with Sadness of Mankind. IT has a 60s style vibe with the vocal, organ and cool drive of the ethereal organ. The guitar break section has quite a psychedelic mix. Insects is a special track with quite a lot of stuff happening and lots of different spaced out and cool sections in this generally UK inspired psych song. Leave me Be is a short blues track. Hwy Lost (Revisited) has a great guitar riff and groove that drives this track. It gets really psyched out at the end. Far out. The title track, Road to Atlas ends this 22min EP and it is a more laid back track with some backwards effects. Pretty psychedelic stuff.. The band starts off their 3 week European tour in Copenhagen on March 1^st. Hope to see you there to support this cool jamming psychedelic rock band. They are supposed to play different sets every night and do some jamming.

http://www.crusherrecords.com http://www.facebook.com/deanallanfloydmusic

Ayahuasca Dark Trip- Mind Journey (Cosmic Eye Records Eye001)

DT are a Dutch band and this is the first release on the new Greek Label, Cosmic Eye. The material on this LP has been previously available on the bands web site, where I had listened to it several times. The band has made 3 releases on bandcamp but this is the first on vinyl. There is 100 copies on dark red vinyl and 200 on black. It also comes with a A1 size poster that is very cool. Astral Sunset starts the record off on its hypnotic and heavy trip. The music is mostly just heavy guitar, bass and drums but at different times, organ, didgeridoo, flutes, floating vocals, enter into the picture. Very spacey and trippy at times. Mind Journey raises the intensity level as the trip becomes darker and more dangerous.. Lucky, you get a break as you need to flip the record to hear To the Holy Mountain! It starts with some backwards parts over the bass line that goes on for several minutes before the drums kick in and the haunting psychedelic voices creep into the picture. The guitar slowly takes the lead as the track just keeps drawing you in further and further from your reality. Space Raga ends this amazing space trip.

Fans of Lamp of the Universe, Dark Budda Rising, and BONG, will dig this band…

http://ayahuascadarktrip.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/ayahuascadarktrip  http://cosmiceyerecords.blogspot.dk/

All them Witches- Our Mother Electricity (Elektrohasch 159)

If I am not mistaken, this is the first US band ever released on Elektrohasch Records. The three piece band hails from Nashville and you can hear some of this influence in the music for sure. While the band is a three piece there is much more than just guitar, bass and drums on the CD. Sometimes Hammond organ, like on this opening track, Heavy like a Witch. This reminds me of Sgt Sunshine but with a more bluesy edge until the organ kicks in. This is one of the heaviest tracks on the record so don’t be misled but this one as the record has a lot of diversity to follow. The Urn is lead but a simple foot stomping rhythm and slide guitar. Bloodhounds, has a more intense in your face guitar in this really bluesy track. Guns is a slow stoney track with cool lyrics but then it really picks up at the end into a heavy groove. Elkblood Heart is slower heavy ballad a bit like US Christmas but with a laid back vocal. Until it Unwinds is a slow building track which features some cool spacey delay guitar along the trip. Some piano can also be heard low in the mix but higher towards the end when they sort of jam this one out. It is the longest track on the CD at 8½mins. Easy goes back to the late 60s early 70s sounds of Neil Young and features some nice slide guitar. Family Song for the Leaving is another laid back track before the excellent and emotional Right Hand track that ends this enjoyable album.  At times, the band plays a very cool bluesy version of stoner rock and other times more 70s styles blues rock with a lot of slide guitar. Fans of the Flying Eyes will probably dig these guys but maybe not think they are psychedelic enough.

http://www.elektrohasch.de  https://www.facebook.com/allthemwitches?ref=tn_tnmn

Mantric Muse and Storskogen- Operaen, Christiania, DK Feb 9th, 2013

          Mantric Muse, the Copenhagen instrumental progressive psychedelic rock band are back playing gigs once again in support of their new CD, which came out in December 2012. I used to hang out and see the guys play all the time but they stopped playing live in 2006 and are not back. It was a cold, snowy night but some people decided to leave the house. The doors did not open until 22 and MM started playing about 22:45. Stefan and Thomas from Gas Giant came and they had never seen Mantric Muse back in the day. Tom, as well as some of the regulars that come and see the band out in Dragens Hule were here as well. I guess about 35-40 people were in the audience. The band opened with an older song in a new arrangement called DMU. Next was Sinbad Søfareren and this sounded great. The sound was good upfront to the stage but further back in the room, it was a bit boomy and the drums had a special sound. We stood up front. Cinope was next and I filmed this one. See below. Nanoid was next but they had to stop about one minute into the song as the computer synth sequences and the band were slightly off. Magnus stopped everyone and they reset and off they went. They play a great version of Azur, Sfunx, the ambient track Gnoxience and ending the set with a long jam on Deep Sea Cheops. They also played a new song that they have not recorded yet called Armh. It was a cool set and some people were dancing and into it while most sat in the corner not sure what to make of it since they were here to see the Swedish Reggae band that was next!

Set List: DMU, Sinbad Søfareren, Cinope, Nanoid, Azur, Gnoxience, SFunx, Armh, Deep Sea Cheops

          Next up was Storskogen (Large Forest), a band described as Swedish Forest reggae. I was not sure exactly what that was until the band started playing and then I understood. They are a 7 piece band with bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, percussion, sitar and a lady who played violin and flutes. I really liked the opening track (see video below) and now I could understand why it was forest-folk reggae. The violin really made it cool and the sitar was a nice compliment. The sitar player only played on every 3^rd song or so and they mixed instrumental songs with ones with Swedish vocals. The guitar player and female violin player did the singing. I actually thought they were quite good and unique and I don’t think I have seen a band quite like this. It has been some years since I saw a reggae band and I enjoyed it. Cool evening..

http://www.mantricmuse.com 

Jiri's 30th Birthday Party- Den Grå Hall, Christiania jan 18th, 2013

This was our first concert of the year and what a cool party it was on this cold winter night. Jiri the bass player from Fri Galaxe, Univerzals was turning 30 and throwing a party at Den Grå Hall in Christiania.  He had arranged for 5 bands to play and we were supposed to be the last band at around 23:30 but of course it rarely works out right. Sabine and I showed up about 21:30 or so and it was a damn cold bike ride (about -5C outside plus some wind). When we arrived the 3^rd band was suppose be starting but the first act was only just finishing! I also did not really know what the line up of the band was going to be tonight and we might only have one guitar player. People slowly showed up though. Jocke, then Nick and last Mogens after midnight. PIB was there and wanted to play drums so we said yes.

          Jiri’s band Fri Galaxe played a nice set and really had the crowd of about 80 people dancing and very happy. A cool band that plays melodic blues rock with all Danish lyrics and some hippie and political themes. They also have a wonderful female singer. They played about an hour and then a band I don’t know what their name was.

Fri Galaxe

Set List: Legaliser, Total til Grin, Johannes, G13, Blommesangen, De Eneste, Når Fr Heden Tår Os, Alle Vores Drømme, Fredselsker, Gadefest, Soldans, Politiei Tror, Blomster og Kys

They had a female singer who also played a beautiful Les Paul (played nearly the same chords on every song), another guitar player, bass and drums. They played high energy pop music. Someone said they sounded like Juliana Hatfield but I don’t know who she is. I got pretty bored with them and they had a hard time getting anyone interested either. I liked some of what the bass player played but they were just not that interesting. They were having fun, which was great.

Set List:Good Intentions, If, You in Me, Anything but Ordinary, Bitter Taste, Liar, Another Night, Tenfold, Forget Me, Until you Said, Oxymoron

KIC

KIC (Kids in Christiania) were next and they rocked the place. They have a really powerful female singer and two guitar players, neither played any lead guitar to speak of. Now people were up front and singing and having a good time again. It was getting fucking late though and I wondered when they would finish. I heard the music had to stop at 02:30 but then Jiri’s said no, it was cool to play longer.  People really enjoyed their set and then most of the people left.

Set List: Leaving You, Catch Me, hard 2 Understand, Waste my Life, Like you and Me, Home, Fear Me, Vanity, Follow Me, Old (dedicated to Jiri!), Pretty

          It was around 01:30 when we finally got started and it was a mixture of pretty wasted people by this time and a total of maybe 40 people. We had PIB on drums to start the show and I don’t know how long he played before Martin from Fri Galaxe took over and as I recall the drummer from KIC even jumped in during the 2^nd jam, which was like 57mins long! We had the horn section from Fri Galaxe (Tobias-Sax, Ole- Trombone) join and that was great. Nick was all alone on the guitar so it was good to have the horns, which I think worked great. Nick was amazing this night though. Playing really cool stuff. The concert was a bit crazy to start as Mogens was still setting up when the concert just sort of started on it’s own.. Jiri would pop up now and then and he played the lead synth at the very beginning, helped on bass (by knealing below Jocke and playing some stuff on the neck), played the floor tom, and even the trombone. Wild stuff… Some of the concert was really cool and I am not sure about the rest but it was damn fun…. as always.. You can hear the show below. Enjoy…

http://archive.org/details/OSC2013-01-18.FLAC

Traveling Circle- Escape from Black Cloud (Nasoni Records NASONI121)

Traveling Circle is a underground band from the USA and released on the German label, Nasoni Records, which specializes in psychedelic rock bands from around the world. They released the band’s first record as well. The band is a three piece and they are not playing long spaced out pieces (maybe live) but the LP features 10 songs (34mins) but they are not that straightforward and they have a special sound with falsetto vocals, plenty of fuzz and echo and a nice analog sound. Higher starts with a repetitive riff and an echoed ethereal vocal that you can hardly make out. One might think a bit of Wooden shjips but the bass is played totally different. The Candlelight Sways is a more heavy number and also features some Theremin. Newborn Shadow is slow and spacey. Green Spider is instrumental and features some guitar not unlike Yawning Man. Closer is nearly instrumental with just 3 lines of words (see the nice color insert) and a fuzzed out guitar played in a quite stoned way. Awesome song. Flip the record over for the Willow Tree Fair. This one has a really cool spacey wah guitar and this really dreamy vocal. Some electric piano really compliments the track well. I love the psychedelic guitar break on this one. Rock this Feeling is really different from other tracks with a interesting vocal approach mixing the falsetto and normal vocal and a nice groove and guitar. Fountain of Time starts with a drum solo, how rare is that? Conduit is Closing is spacey and features some more Theremin. Quite psychedelic stuff. Tears from the Soul closes this 34 min psychedelic experience. This is best to hear when you are stoned…

http://www.nasoni-records.com  https://www.facebook.com/TravelingCircle

Powder Blue- Dream in Black (DubDitch1971-032)

Powder Blue (http://thesheaf.com)

This is a female fronted 4 piece band that plays spacey melodic music. Guitarist and vocalist Shelby writes all the songs. Go on Forever starts the side A with an organ before the guitar and stoned groove takes on and the dreamy vocal takes center place. Cool song. The title track is next is more repetitive and later on some cool organ takes the lead and the guitar changes and attempts a bit of interplay before the track fades out. The Haunting starts with a delay guitar and just floats. Nice track. The Side B starts with Hot Fire, which is an uptempo track with the guitar in the front and a cool vocal. It also features short guitar and keyboard solos. All of his love is more straight forward short rock track with no solos. Turn to Dust lets the keyboards take the lead. This is not some commercial rock. It is melodic, sometimes catchy but it always has this low fi, spacey vibe to it.

http://www.prairefiretapes.com

Timemazine- Issue #7 (Greece)

Timemazine is a super cool magazine from Greece. IT often comes with a CD or 7” record of rare or unreleased material. In this case you get both with a super cool 7” record of unreleased material by the excellent Greek band, Purple Overdose. The CD that comes with the issue features a mixture of released and unreleased material by the bands that there are articles on in the issue. The unreleased tracks are by the Bevis Frond, Permanent Clearlight, Cranium Pie, Sendelica and a rare uncut version of an old Alrune Rod song covered by Spids Nøgenhat! This issue has long, in-depth and great interviews with a wide range of people in the psychedelic music scene, some from the early days like Mark Weitz and George Bunnell from Strawberry Alarm Clock, Keith Law from Jardine to more contemporary people like Lorenzo Woodrose (Spids Nøgenhat, Dragontears, Baby Woodrose) and the Flying Eyes. I have read a lot of interviews with Nick Saloman from the Bevis Frond, but I have to say this was one of the best I have read. The article on Evi Hassapides Watson was very interesting as I had never heard of her.  It is a really excellent magazine and I highly recommend you check it out if you like to read some interesting stories about bands you may know and some you may not know.

http://timelordmichalis.blogspot.com

Vokokesh- The Alchemist’s Tale (Pure Pop PURE13)

Vokokesh is back with another improvised jamming spaced out psychic trip to another strange world. The band is stripped down to just guitar, bass and drums and strange percussion instruments with some spoken word poem thrown in one track. Base Metal Blues starts things off in a slow growing way and Richard really experiments with some super cool guitar effects that sound harsh and metallic at times. Doing a Slow Burn is next and very strange with some guitar tuning torture, percussion and unintelligible samples. The Fuzz God Awakens starts with some mid paced steady drums and guitar that slowly gets more and more effects layered on it as Richard takes the solo further and further. They are strange jammers.

Flip the record over to the Four Elements. It starts off more straightforward with just some guitar riffing as a real track tries to evolve and it is a bit melodic as well and features a really nice solo but it gets really far out. Otto mit dem Barte starts pretty far out with a spoken word piece just as the 2^nd piece on the other side did but you can at least tell it is German! The Philosopher’s Tone is the last track on this pretty experimental LP. Richard plays some cool guitar with a bit of delay and later wah guitar, as they push the intensity. I think some people are not really going to appreciate the very free and crazy approach to this record, others will love it.

http://www.ppfnp.com

Eternal Elysium- Highflyer (Cornicopia CRCD004)

This was a Japanese only release by the cool psychedelic rock band, Eternal Elysium. I had my good friend Hatsumi send it to me. Highflyer" is the theme for Shinya Ishikawa (from Big Japan Pro Wrestling), which I think is pretty cool. Anyway, the EP is only released in Japan for now and will eventually come out on vinyl with some extra material. High Flyer is the opening track. It starts with a riff a lot like Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin but then goes in a different direction when the singing kicks in. Heavy and intense and later the saxophone and trumpet kicks in to make it a bit more psychedelic. Map is sung in Japanese and a bit more melodic but still it has a pretty heavy guitar riff and the occasional slide guitar as well. Tana, the female bass player also sings a little at the end. Circulation is next and this was also on the 10” with Sardonis but it might be a slightly different version here? A really cool psychedelic guitar solo is unleashed as this track really kicks ass. Heavy intense stoned doomy track. High Flyer- Down not Out ends the CD. This is not at all just a reprises of the first track. It is really cool and experimental with piano, trumpet, sax and not much guitar at all.

http://www.cornucopiarecords.com/ee/

EARTHLING SOCIETY- ZODIAK LP (Nasoni Records NASONI128)

The UK Psychedelic Space rock band, Earthling Society is back with a new record. This one was all recorded on one day in July 2012 in Blackpool, UK. The band is stripped down to just a three piece on this release so the main tracks focus on Fred’s spacey guitar, the bass and drums but there are also layers of extra guitar, spaced out sounds, synths, etc.. You hear it is a bit more freeform though. Zodiak starts things off and is a mid- paced and pretty psychedelic track the way the guitar and vocals are mixed. The drums have quite some reverb and the snare is loud and really cuts through the mix. The Silver and the Black really picks up the pace but the sound is quite psychedelic. The section just before the guitar solo is really tripped out. Quite a long track, over 10 mins. The million headed Cobra of Eternity is a shorter song that ends the A side of the record. It starts very mellow and floating but features some great multi-layered guitar. It is mostly instrumental until the end. Great stuff. Now, flip the vinyl over and start the 2^nd part of your journey with Silver Phase. Silver Phase starts in the middle of a jam and is faded up just as you can catch the beginning of the trip. IT has this really heavy effect on the sound which gives it this really spaced out sound but it is over in just a couple of minutes. Strange.. The Astral Traveller takes the rest of the side and it starts off reminding me of the great Hawkwind classic, 7 by 7. Fred plays some fantastic guitar is this great long floating, spacey track. The track seems like it is coming to a end with a lot of spaced out guitar effects but then he kicks back in with a riff and the band comes back driven by a heavy bass line before the guitar really takes the lead again. They return to the 7 by 7 like theme at the end. Fans of early Hawkwind will really dig this record. I should mention that this will also be released on CD by the 4Zero Records label, which has released many of the bands other records. It will include 4 bonus tracks.

http://www.earthlingsociety.co.uk http://www.4zerorecords.co.uk

(Blouse) USA- Tammy Beans (DubDitch1971-032)

This is a cassette only release and features 9 tracks by this mainly one man act (Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy). It features a few live tracks as well as three guests (Nathan, Ryan and Jesse). Side A is mostly all ambient spacey stuff with a focus on just synthesizers. The exception is Ianos, which features the other guys listed above. Dr Shambles starts side B with some fast drums and then the guitar and keyboards kicks in. This is something really different and raw as the instruments don’t really complement each other at first but then they seem to communicate a bit more. The Lateral Power has a the same folks but totally different keyboards and what sounds like a drum machine. Killingsworth is a very dreamy piece. Slow Release sees the return of the other guys again. Interesting release and quite different from the other tapes from this label.

http://blouseblouse.bandcamp.com  http://www.prairefiretapes.com