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

Mothership- High Strangeness (Heavy Psych Sounds HPS049)

This is an album I had been really looking forward to. Met these guys a few times and they are super nice people and rock like a motherfucker. The album starts off with the title track, an instrumental with some great playing. I love the spacey effects, double tracked guitars and great bass line. Super cool way to start the record before they kick in with Ride the Sun, a killer rocker and I really like the laid back vocals of Kelley. Midnight express starts off with some drums (highly panned) and then the main riff kicks in on this slower almost doom rocker. Crown of Lies has a bit of a gallop to it and later classic metal riffing and some great solos later. Killer song.  Helter Skelter (not a cover of the Beatles) has another hell of a catchy riff in this short track. Eternal Trip starts off with just Kelley on the guitar (with a bit of delay) and then the bass comes in with a great back up and Kelley goes for a melodic solo and they do some nice panning of the guitars. A beautiful instrumental. Wise Man is another mid paced track but with a real headbanger feeling in this short 2 ½ min track. Speed Dealer is the last track and another one where Kelley plays some great guitar and I like the use of effects, double tracking, etc..  I was really gladly surprised to see the band slow things down a bit and write some killer mid paced tracks as I felt they had too many high speed tracks and it could all start to be a bit too much the same but man, this record opens it up wide for the band to create more diversity in their live set. Excellent record, Guys…

http://mothership.bandcamp.com

http://www.heavyspsychsounds.com