I’m excited about the upcoming year. Oh yeah, people who know me may be rolling their eyes because I say that every year. But each year does in fact prove itself to be an exciting year for music. New bands crop up in the underground every day, flexing their creative muscles and releasing new albums, or just making their music available on their web sites or Myspace pages. Let’s take a peak at how Space Rock benefited from 2006...
The major record companies LOVE this thing called 'crossover.' In the pop music world that usually means dumbing
down music to ensure its appeal to a mass audience, rather than just the country & western crowd, or the rap crowd, etc etc etc. But the positive side of crossover is when there’s a recognition that a certain type of music would appeal to fans of other types of music and an effort is made to expose an audience of one type to the other. And in 2006 there were some important
festivals that did just that for Space Rock.
I’ve long argued that there is much in Space Rock to appeal to Stoner fans, and my friends at Roadburn have continued to be THE big supporters of that belief. Roadburn 2006 featured no less than the mighty Hawkwind, along with Ozric Tentacles and Spacehead. You can’t get anymore Space Rock than those bands and it was exciting and inspiring to know that these heavyweights were showcased in such a forum.
And things are getting even hotter this year as Roadburn 2007 will highlight both pioneers and young bucks, with 70’s krautrock-space-acid greats Guru Guru in the lineup, along with Sun Dial, and one of my personal favorites among the crop of current bands – Earthling Society. Top it off with Causi Sui, an outstanding stoner-space band, and you’ve got a cosmic contribution to the Roadburn 2007 lineup to be genuinely excited about. Big thanks to all at Roadburn for their support and willingness to include these worthy bands. [Oh, and while Circle may be known for their Metal tendencies these days, they are a truly genre defying band who have incorporated lots of cool Space / Kraut Rock influences into their music in the past. Explore that bands back catalog and be amazed].
New on the scene in 2006 was the Eastern Haze festival held in the eastern UK. Check out their website and you’ll see that they feature music styles all over the map, from Reggae, to Trance, Hip Hop, Acoustic, Dance and... Space Rock. Among the pioneers that performed were Hawkwind, Tim Blake and Here & Now, as well as Dream Machine [Ozrics spinoff], recently reformed 80s UK festie psych rockers Nukli, along with Modal Logic, BubbleDubble, Day Shift and another of my personal favorites among the modern day heavy Space Rockers – Litmus.
I’m sure many Roadburners know the great German based Nasoni Records label, home to all kinds of space / psych / stoner bands. 2006 marked Nasoni’s 10th anniversary and the label celebrated with a festival that featured such luminaries as Atomic Workers [with Sun Dial’s Gary Ramon], Zone Six, Darxtar, Earthling Society, Polytoxicomane Philharmonie, and the absolutely fantastic La Ira de Dios.
Another German festival, and a HUGE and long lived one that has been Space Rock friendly, is the Burg Herzberg festival. Among the 2006 participants was Psychedelic Monsterjam [Mani & Ax from Guru Guru, plus Dave Schmidt of Zone Six & Sula Bassana], Space Debris, Kraut Rock legends Kraan, Hidria Spacefolk and Polytoxicomane Philharmonie. Sadly, 2007 at this point seems far less space friendly, though Electric
Orange is notably in the lineup [and I would LOVE to see Van der Graaf Generator!!!]. But I think it’s still in the planning stages so bookmark their web site and cross your fingers.
WOW, I feel really isolated here in the US from all these great festivals! But, all is not lost, as there is some significant activity here in the US. 2006 saw the eighth year that the Nearfest Progressive Rock festival was held in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Though primarily a PROG rock festival, I think the organizers surprised themselves when Finnish space rockers Hidria Space Folk proved to be a hit at the 2004 fest. And in 2006 Ozric Tentacles were a headliner, the success of which has lead to Hawkwind being a headliner for the upcoming 2007 fest in June.
Honestly, before I discovered the internet, I was completely unaware of all these genre labels. Space Rock, Kraut Rock... it was all Progressive Rock to me. But I find it VERY encouraging to see bands like Hawkwind and the Ozrics in the lineup, and as headliners no less, at a major Prog fest such as Nearfest. This is serious exposure for these bands to an audience that would, to a large extent, be aware of them, but not necessarily have heard their music.
Finally, my good friend Carlo DeShouten down in Alabama, continues to host his annual Space Rock Con. The Con doesn’t get the big names, but Carlo is an underground stalwart... a mover and shaker with a passion for the music who makes things happen. And among the bands who performed in 2006 were The Subliminator, Dharma Son Collective, Unus Mundus and more. If you’re located in the southeastern US you’ll want to check it out at www.myspace.com/spacerockconcarlo.
And here we are, well into January of 2007, and already I’ve got some hot new releases. I’ll leave it to upcoming
Roadburn playlists to share my thoughts on the albums burning up my CD player. But I can’t resist mentioning one
band that I predict will be one of the hot acts of the year, and that is Brooklyn, New York based Titan. These guys play an incredible blend of Space Rock, Kraut Rock, Stoner and Progressive, with their roots firmly in the 70s, and their hearts & souls in the present. Their monstrous new album has been burning up my CD player and iPod ever since it arrived. The CD will be released by Tee Pee Records in February so keep your eyes peeled.
SO much happening and LOTS to be excited about!
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