Playlist Drew

The Roadburn playlist is a monthly update from the Roadburn staff reflecting what we are spinning here in the head office. These are the records that get us through the day as we work on Roadburn Festival business and our much delayed review section.

Much as you’d expect, our playlists feature heavy rock, psych, and space rock from the 60’s to immediate present. This month it’s Drew’s turn.

The Atomic Bitchwax - 4

The Atomic Bitchwax – “4″
Meteorcity: http://www.myspace.com/theatomicbitchwax

TAB return with a new record of peppy stoner/alternative rock laced with great guitar harmonies and catchy vocals (yes, you read that  right, vocals). When they want to, they can still throw down  ridiculous riffage (check “Super Computer” for evidence), but they really focus on their songwriting now and TAB 4 is ultra-listenable as  a result. Tracks like “Daisy Chain”, “Sometime Wednesday” and “Middle Man” are the type of songs you wish they would play on the radio, catchy and hooky rock music. Has a great cover of “Astronomy Domine”  for a nice psychedelic tinge…
TAB 4 also has the distinction of coming with an optional downloadable  protools session so all you wanna-be audio engineers can mix your own  TAB tracks.

Colour Haze - All

Colour Haze – “All”
Electrohasch Records: http://www.elektrohasch.de/

A fine new record from Colour Haze… not their best record ever  musically, but  the tone and the recording are sheer perfection. Absolutely gorgeous. While the songs are pretty good, the songwriting  seems a bit low key and lacking some of the inspiration of past Colour  Haze efforts. A little more fire and a bit more purpose and this would  be one of the great records of the last 10 years. As it is, it’s still  a really good record — and without a doubt the best sounding Colour  Haze yet. Long time fans will find the molten universal riffs they’ve  come to expect with a fair dose of retro psych for good measure.

Elder - Elder

Elder – “S/T”
Meteorcity: http://www.allthatisheavy.com/

Boston’s Elder answer the eternal stonerrock question — what would  happen if you crossed Fu Manchu and Sleep? — by dropping an amazing  album of pure stoner rock. Actually, limiting Elder’s sound to just Fu  and Sleep is selling them way short as they have many subtleties at  work in their music like amazing background keyboard textures and  cleverly layered guitar elements to vary the space and density of  their work. There is also a bit of a “classic” metal influence to be  found in their guitar work. Rest assured though, these erudite elements only serve to buttress the  main point — stoner rock riffs rule. Elder may not be the first to  make that point, but they just might be the best there is right now.

The Heads - Tilburg

The Heads “Live In Tilburg”
Self Released: http://www.theheadsrock.com

Are The Heads Roadburn’s favorite band? We’re not allowed to say. They definitely make our short list though. Their latest is a live record  from the 013 venue in Tilburg (home of the Roadburn festival) and it  captures the band at their chaotic, psychedelic best. The sound  quality is very good, and the set list is great. Recent cuts like  Bedlam, Cardinal Fuzz, Could Be It Doesn’t Matter let the band get  weird and stretch out, while classics like Widowmaker and Spliff Riff  stoke the stoner fires. This has everything a Heads fan would look for in a live record, and since live is really the way to experience The  Heads, this also makes a great starting place for the uninitiated.

Sabazius - Sabazius

Sabazius – “S/T”
Self Released: http://www.myspace.com/sabaziusband

Just when you thought that funeral doom might be getting tapped out as  a creative source, U.K.’s Sabazius arrive on the scene to turn the  page. This is sloooooow funeral doom here, 4 tracks spread over 2  cd’s, with the shortest track being more than 27 minutes long. What  first sets them apart is that the riffs aren’t vicious stabs of hate  like Khanate or Moss, instead they are more organic and flowing. The  next thing you notice are the vocals. They sound like they are being  done by the Witch-King of Angmar in The Lord of The Rings. Nothing but  spine-chilling whispers and the echoes of screams distant and  tortured. As a testament to their songwriting, Sabazius comes off as  compellingly listenable despite the extremely long songs. They make  good use of tempo and rhythm changes and really mix things up with  everything from mellow acoustic picking, to drum-only breaks,  narrative voice-overs, and ultra-repetitive kraut-metal, as a  complement to their glacial riffs.

Ulaan Khol - II

Ulaan Khol  – “II”
Soft Abuse: http://www.softabuse.com/catalog/SAB032.html

Blissed out fuzz in the vein of the best Bardo Pond offerings from a  guy (Steven R. Smith) better known for (musically speaking) frolicking  with wood nymphs and bookworms in pastoral fields. Smith has spent his  time in freak folk bands with lofty intentions like Thuja, Hala Strana and Mirza, but has decided to get organic and explore some psychedelic  space/drone with his new Ulaan Khol project. He does bring the  ambient, tonally minimalist side of those other projects to Ulaan  Khol, but this is unmistakably a guitar album of the psychedelic  (albeit mellow) variety. This is one of those “instant winner” records where you drop it in the disc player and wonder how you ever lived  without it. Gorgeous and nuanced, Ulaan Khol explores the morning  sunrise rather than plunge directly into the heart of the sun. This is  instantly calming and transfixing, a welcome break from the daily grind.

Umbra Nihil - The Borderland Rituals

Umbra Nihil “The Borderland Rituals”
Epidimie Records: http://www.epidemie.cz/en/

Finnish doom of the weird variety. I guess that’s a self-fulfilling  prophecy — since it’s Finnish doom, of course it’s weird! At times the music feels almost acoustic because of the big spacious mix, although there are definitely electric instruments being played. Other  times there are more traditional heavy distorted guitars vying for  attention with some over the top theatrical vocals. I guess this ends  up being some sort of prog-doom record, less avant-garde than Aarni  (speaking of really weird Finnish doom), but definitely in the same  general genre. Despite the complicated classification, the open,  uncluttered sound of the music makes it extremely easy  to listen to  and this record has seen near constant play here over the past few  months.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 12:36 pm and is filed under 2009, Playlists, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.