MONKEY 3 - "S/T"
Buzzville Records
Star-gazing heavy psych instrumentals from
Switserland's very own Monkey 3.
This new disc from Monkey 3 epitomises the sheer power of jam bands that get it right. The fully-instrumental
album weaves simple melodies and riffs into tight tapestries of dense psychedelic sound, similar to 35007's
more recent instrumental excursions. The influence of the latter band is evident, especially on standout
track "35007"! However, Monkey3 have enough tricks of their own up their sleeves and
cuts like "Bimbo" and "Chillao" keep the listener oscillating between mellow chill-out and
furious air-guitaring. A highly recommended release for fans of all things instrumental and psychedelic.
a.
MUDMAN - "CRACK OF DAWN"
Duneland Records
It's all about the vibe.
This sound has been heard a million-trillion times before, but the process of time will bring us to
points where desert-dry jam sessions are needed again [that's when I bust out my Kyuss and Fatso Jetson
records - ed.]. With "Crack of Dawn", Mudmen have used every weapon in their arsenal to bring
listeners into their world; "Tune to the Dune" they say. And, what do these dunes bring? Just what you might
have guessed: Hazy atmospheres and lazy vibes, lots of singing guitars and harmonious bass. There's no
ground breaking music being played here, but that hardly matters. It's all about that scrumptious
desert vibe, and "Crack of Dawn" has it.
dr.jones.
NOVADRIVER
Small Stone Records
Sophomore album from ill-fated Detroit space lords.
"Deeper High" is the sophomore album from the ill-fated Novadriver, out of Detroit. Their stunning
debut, "Void", released in 2001, was a twisting, turning hard rock/psychedelic riff-rock extravaganza, and
it fused the effective simplicity of "Detroit Rock" [think Iggy, MC5 etc.] with interstellar psychedelica
[think Hawkwind, Kyuss]. Internal disputes led to the departure of singer Mark Miers; the band couldn't
find a proper replacement over the past few years, and their struggle to break in a several vocalists
led to cancelled tours and lost opportunities.
Fortunately, "Deeper High" marks the return of Mike Miers, and his distinctive, soaring voice is
among the high points of the album. The same can be said for the songs; grabbing your attention
with massive, high octane fuelled riffs, and then fleshing things out with acid-induced guitar leads.
This is one helluva cosmic freak-out, pairing classic psychedelica to groove-laden, heavy rock.
"Deeper High" will force the listener to indulge oneself in serious amounts of mind-altering substances, or
at least make them feel like they did.
It seemed Novadriver was set for a bright return on the scene, but, unfortunately disaster has
stuck. The sudden death of bassist James B. Anders, the band's driving force behind all the songs
and lyrics, casts a dark shadow over the band and the release of this enthralling album -life is
very hard hard for Novadriver.
walter
OM - "VARIATIONS ON A THEME"
Holy Mountain Records
The long awaited return of Sleep's Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius.
The debut album by OM was always going to be a difficult one to review. The band consists
of ex-Sleep members Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, and that brings heavy baggage and high
expectations. OM's overall sound is still in the vein of Sleep's "Dopesmoker" epic, but "Variations..." features
repetitve bass-only riffing with monotonous chanted vocals weaving in and out of the wall of sound. As the
title suggests, the three tracks are variations on a central type of riff.
The opening track "On the Mountain at Dawn" clocks in at just over 20 minutes
and is hypnotically awesome. Heavy bass lines form a solid core and Hakius' percussive
drumming powers the track along relentlessly. Cisneros has chosen a clean vocal style
which works wonders in this instance. The downside of this record is that the closing
two tracks are fairly weak, in my opinion. A recommended purchase, if only for the
first track and to see how a spare sound can still be massive.
a.
OMEGA LORD - "HAMMER DOWN"
Self released
Stoner metal at its finest.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. So, if you're going to self-release an album, you better
be damn sure that the music can hold its own weight. Omega Lord has unrepentantly thrown "Hammer
Down" in our faces with a "take it or leave it" attitude. Without even hearing the album, that action
speaks volumes [just take a look at the sleeve art -ed.]. Regardless, TAKE IT! DON'T ASK QUESTIONS! JUST TAKE IT!
Granted, there aren't any new musical barriers being torn down, but that doesn't mean anything. This is stoner
metal at its finest. Think of Omegalord as America's answer to Orange Goblin. There are
walls of thick guitars playing at interstate speed. Gruff vocals barking praises of
bong hits and easy women... and then some.
The band plays together like the engine parts of a well-tuned Harley. "Hammer Down" is a brute of an album that only sinks in deeper
the more you listen to it. Polish your spiked armbands, cut the sleeves off of your Iron
Maiden shirt and get ready because once the music starts, you're in it for the long haul.
dr.jones
ORANGE SUNSHINE - "HOMO ERECTUS"
Leafhound Records / Motorwolf
Forget the host of retro-rock bands
wandering about in their paisley shirts and bellbottom jeans, Orange Sunshine has the real
LSD-driven, late 60's sounds and man do they rip!
It's actually hard to believe, but Orange Sunshine isn't a powerhouse trio from the late 60's, and
their debut album called "Homo Erectus" wasn't presumed lost until a miraculous unearthing
and subsequent release by Leafhoud Records. Orange Sunshine was conceived in a squat
in Holland just a couple of years ago, although the band can easily pass as a
very sought after relic from another era.
They play a heady, explosive, fuzzed-out mix of garage-acid-punk and proto hard rock with Detroit-rock
simplicity and the very soul of amphetamine driven blues.
There aren't any gimmicks, just three guys and a whole pile of killer riffs [influenced by the
likes of Blue Cheer, MC5 & Stackwaddy].
Not to diminish all the other solid bands in the forefront of retro-rock, but Orange Sunshine
absolutely rip, genuinely sounding like something from anotherr time, and like today, it was a
time when the world was in turmoil.
walter
Orange Sunshine's Guy [vocals/drums] talks
about "Homo Erectus."
Recently Leafhound Record's released a re-issue of "Homo Erectus", including two bonus tracks. What was the
original record like?
"A lot of work: a self-made 3D sleeve with self made gibson-flying-V-shaped 3D glasses to cut down on the
costs, but Leaf Hound will re-release the vinyl-version of the LP with shaped 3D glasses very soon!
We sold "Homo Erectus" as a re-issue from a 'recently excavated acetate'[all 500 copies sold out in a few
months!], otherwise nobody would have ever been interested in us -nobody bothers about new
unknown bands, and no one would take it seriously that we actually made a record that really sounds
like it's from 1969, unlike many retro-productions of the last 20 years.
It was quite a lot of work and experimentation with the mixing as well and once it was
released we couldn't listen to it anymore for more than half a year, we thought it was
still shitty sounding! after so much exposure we could never be objective about it..."
How did you get that distinctive, vintage sound?
"All the equipment in our studio, both recording and instrumental gear, is from before 1980, a sort of museum.
Also the recording techniques we used were rather old-fashioned: hardly any close-miking, no noise
gates and compressors, mainly recording the space [a.o. with a stereo microphone that the
BBC uses to record philharmonic orchestras]. Therefore we placed the instruments
[bass rig, guitar stack and drumkit] in such a way that you would also hear them in the
same location on your stereo mix, so that listening to the record would be like standing
in front of a live show of us. And of course by recording everything far in the red on the
mixing console and the one-inch tape recorder!"
What's next for Orange Sunshine?
"We will start recording very soon for a new album, but it might take some time, first Leafhound and
Motorwolf will release the never released second album "Ruler of The Universe/Beyond Being [Love=Acid is our
third album!). It's more than half an hour of sheer madness that we recorded 4 years ago in the same
recording session as "Homo Erectus", so it's the very same sound, but much more freaked-out, heavy, psychedelic
motor-punk instead of the relatively classic blues rock on "Homo Erectus", and if I dare say [IMHO], very, very
extreme!"
PENANCE - "THE ROAD REVISITED
psycheDOOMelic Records
Re-issue of Penance' legenday debut album, "The
Road Less Travelled."
A real no-brainer this one, since doom obsessives the world over should be quaking in their
musty cowls over the release of the much anticipated 'original' mix of the first Penance album [released
in 1992 as "The Road Less Travelled" on Lee Dorian’s Rise Above Records].
Within the thunderous chords of the explosive opening track, "The Unseen", I knew this would ultimately
become my favourite Penance album thus far, and should, in a just world feature prominently in
numerous 'best metal album' lists this year.
Simply put, this is powerful, strident, bowel-loosening, old school doom metal where Brian Lawrence's & Terry
Weston's tar-black guitar tones slither over your skull plate like rotund Sabbath slugs, leaving a delirious trail of infectious, hallucinogenic
sludge in their crystalline wake.
While the subsequent Penance albums are decidedly more polished, with more attention to song
craft and nuance, their current incarnation also has pronounced psychedelic / stoner rock leanings, whereas Penance
circa 1992 is a more primal, devastating entity where all the requisite naivete's and enthusiasms of
youth translate into some truly crushing, damned-for-eternity doom.
Not having heard "The Road Less Travelled", I cannot state which mix has the
more merit but as a stand alone album, Penance's "The Road Revisited" is an essential doom
purchase; eight bracing excursions of vintage, muscular, scum-tuned doom, which should
have lovers of thee slowe nodding out like heroin-soaked mandrills.
Since doom metal has remained unmolested by the vagaries of fashion, "The Road Revisited" has lost
none of its charm or vitality... so revisit now! Brain quaking doom for slow junkies the world over.
[It's interesting to note that the tracks "The Unseen" and "A Wayfarers Tale" also appear in demo form on the
superb Dream Death "Back from the Dead" album].
jason
PIO MAZZOTTI - "TEENIE FANTASTIC"
A Cottage Industry Records
A musical lesson in quantum physics.
Be wary, Pio Mazzotti has just wrung my brain out like a sponge -"Teenie Fantastic" is a
spastic manifesto of complexity and total friggin' bewilderment. From alpha to omega, this album
tests your abilities as an active listener. Yes sir, how well do YOU think you can do? Well, I tell ya, it
ain't an easy feat, but "Teenie Fantastic" is something everyone needs to test
out.
The songs are solid yet very unrestrained by form. To Pio Mazzotti, the time span of 30
seconds is ample time for plenty of time-changes, tempo-changes, mood-changes, key-changes, dimension-changes, etc.
And yet, through all these changes, there is still room for foot-tapping.
I am reminded of Red Giant's "Ultra-magnetic" album because there's lots going on: Lucid jazz drumming, clean
guitar picking, melodic vocals, heavy-hearted guitars, rubber-band bass tones, wailing guitar
leads [sometimes 2 or 3 at a time], and most importantly, the sound of TEAMWORK!
Pio Mazzotti, as a unit in this world, and beyond, has released an album that is
intriguing and challenging. A most welcome conundrum!
dr.jones
Pio Mazzotti rambles on to Roadburn about "Teenie Fantastic:"
It seems that you guys made the album for you own personal amusement, what's the band about?
Mycal: "How very astute of you -amusement is a accurate word. When we listen to this record, it makes us
laugh really hard. But after about 5 minutes the laughing subsides and we just start crying. There's a lot of
complex emotions going on here. My shrink says it's "just a part of being a teenager." Then I remind him
that I'm 57.
Shuggy; "Shut up Mycal!"
Pio Mazotti's songs are solid yet very unrestrained by form, what's a good song according to the band?
Jakeus: "That "unrestrained form" you referred to is actually our crippling incompetence. Seriously, this
record was the best our puny minds could come up with. We had no choice in the matter."
Orson: "He's not lying. We were actually trying to make a Bee Gees cover record here -it just
so happens that we are absolutely horrible musicians. When we were done, we played it for our "lawyer" and
she said that she couldn't hear any similarities to the originals. At first we were upset but
then she said "well at least you won't have to pay publishing." Then Mycal said "Screw it, let's put it out
anyway!"
Shuggy: "Shut up Mycal!"
Mycal: "I didn't even say anything that time!"
Where can Roadburn readers find a copy "Teenie Fantastic?"
Orson: "I heard that Axl Rose bought a copy at the Itunes Store but then Buckethead deleted all
his shit by accident. I guess it was the straw that broke the camel back or whatever."
Jakeus: "The record wasn't even out when..."
Orson: "Blah! Blah! Blah! Time is an illusion! When will you finally grasp this concept?"
Mycal: "It's available at CDBaby also or you can get a free copy by coming to one our shows. So
if you don't live in NYC, move here immediately. A free CD is plenty of reason."
Shuggy: "I hate all of you."
RAMESSES - "THE TOMB"
Hcp Industries
Grade A dirge metal.
Tricky one this, as I have been nonplussed by all previous Ramesses releases as they struck me as being
a tad unfocused, lacking both idiosyncrasy or earth-shifting dynamics doom requires to lift it above the
moribund. And their sound thus far was generally prone to an innocuous muddiness, and quite
frankly I was expecting much of the same from their latest platter, "The Tomb", but this has the added
incentive of the somewhat ubiquitous Billy Anderson at the controls, which I feel has spawned
their most entertaining outing thus far.
After a few spins I began to succumb to the bludgenous charm within, as Tim Bagsham’s monstrous guitar
noise is profoundly doom-laden and gritty; his gloriously skewed, funereal drones burble
out of the speakers with the sickening pungency of a suppurating cadaver, and Adam Richardson’s
malevolent, subterranean bass lines provide Ramesses with a rock-solid, oppressive and doomier-than-thou
anchor.
This is Grade A dirge metal and the titular track is a riotous sludge-fest, where rabidly down-tuned
bass and guitars tear through the brain folds like a ravenous tumour. Ramesses deserve kudos for
this bone-wrenching work as it is a superlative example of imaginative, British doom
metal and this ungodly Tomb should be desecrated by all lovers of cavernous horror-dirge ["All rise Masters of
Depression" now that’s what I call a doomed-to fuck lyric!].
For fans of: Electric Wizard, Crowbar, Goatsblood.
jason
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