Slip into the Vortex is the 6th CD (7th release) by the all improvised space rock band from the Copenhagen-Malmö region of Scandinavia (Øresund). It is a wordless drama where friends meet up to have fun and tell a story with music. It is a beautiful ritual without safety-lines where musicians paint on an empty canvas with brushes of sound. Thumbs up -to the control room, hit the record button and off we go! Where will we go? No one knows, but you are welcome to come along for the ride.

This artistic expression was captured at the massive Black Tornado Studios in October 2008 and featured new members on drums, bass, and saxophone that had never been in the studio with the band before. Stefan, from the Danish band Gas Giant and now Sumo Sun was joining to play guitar. Stefan was teamed up with Magnus on guitar from Mantric Muse and now also in Sumo Sun. Anders G. from the Swedish band, Bland Bladen, was playing drums and he had played on many of our early jam sessions but never in the studio.

On bass we had Jocke and Pär from the Carpet Knights. Jocke has played on most of our studio records but Pär brought in some new blood which helped to push some of the jams in a cool direction. Finally, Anders H. from the Danish band, The Univerzals joined us on saxophone. Mogens and Dr. Space created all the keyboard and space sounds, and have played on all the bands releases but as with every session, had some new synthesizers and sounds to add to the mix! The music is of a more progressive and laid back nature but the journeys and interactions between the musicians are amazing and create a fantastic aural experience where one can get lost and return to find new things with ever listen.

The CD was mixed by Tobias (The Carpet Knights) in Malmö, Sweden and the CD was mastered by Henrik Udd, who had mixed and mastered some of the band’s previous albums.

The band on this release was: Stefan- guitars; Magnus- guitars; Jocke- bass; Pär- bass; Anders G.- drums; Anders H.- saxophone; Dr. Space- Synthesizers; Mogens- hammond and synthesizers.

Update:  The votes are in, the points have been awarded and the math has been done. More than 150 of you have taken the time to forward your Top 10 list for the Roadburn Album of the Decade.
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As the year and the decennium is coming to an end (and no, we are not getting into the discussion if the decennium includes 2010 as well) we at Roadburn HQ thought it would be a nice idea to let our readers, visitors, friends, acquaintances and people who just passed by accidentally put together a Roadburn Top 10 of the Decade, replete with stoner, doom, drone, heavy ‘70s, psychedelica, post rock and spacerock delights.

How does this work? Please put your top 10 of Roadburn-related albums in the comments and we’ll do the math just before Christmas. Your last chance to send in your lists will be Thursday, December 24^th, and we’ll announce the definite list between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Starting off with our own lists:

Neurosis - Given To The Rising

Jurgen – Roadburn

Neurosis – Given to the Rising (2LP)
For me their return to form after my 90s favourites Enemy of the Sun and Through Silver in Blood.
Wolves in the Throne Room – Two Hunters (2LP)
Dark, warm and textured, black metal does not get any better than this for me. Is it true BM? Who cares!
Sunn o))) – Black One (2LP)
After a few Whites, Black One got to me more with it’s more diverse mixture of black, ambient and drones. Maybe Monoliths and Dimensions will top this one in time but for now this is the one that made feedback a proper artform.
Serena Maneesh – Serena Maneesh (2LP)
At the time My Bloody Valentine was a thing of the past but these Norwegians were the closest thing to pre-Loveless MBV you could get.
Electric Wizard – Witchcult Today (2LP)
Most bands deliver their best goods at the beginning of their career but for me WT is just as good or even better than Come my Fanatics or Dopethrone. The resurrection of the Wizard!
High on Fire – Death is his communion (LP)
HoF are true descendants of Motorhead and this album is where they show it best. Agression coupled with melody makes a mean potion in the hands of Matt Pike and co.
Various – John Barleycorn Reborn (2CD)
The odd one out in this list. JBR compiles dark and somethimes heavy psychedelic UK folk songs made by mostly unknown contemporary bands.
Down – Over The Under (2LP)
They know their craft and they do it well. Nuff said.
Jesu – Jesu 2LP
Envision shoegaze and dark pounding psychedelica meeting on the dissection table. Leave it to Justin Broadrick to find another niche of his own.
The Angelic Process – Weighing Souls With Sand (2LP)
Where My Bloody Valentine and Neurosis finally meet. Haunting and mesmerizing music, with a sad story behind it to boot.

A Silver Mt. Zion - Horses in the Sky

Leslie – Roadburn

A Silver Mt. Zion – Horses in the Sky
Difficult to choose just one by this thankfully prolific bunch. They kicked off the decade with what is now an eerily prescient declaration, “Let’s kill first the bankers, with their professional demeanor” and then went on to write the liner notes to the entire decade.
The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree
Feel-good hit of the decade refrain: “I am gonna make it through this year, if it kills me!”
Rasputina – Oh Perilous World
I dream of the day that Melora C. manages to drag her cello over to these shores.
Celtic Frost – Monotheist
Too scary to play at home. Actually, the gig in San Francisco was a strong contender for best of the decade, except the overall vibe of the night left me pining for Dutch audiences. Social encounters included a teen Goatwhore groupie in Sarah Palin glasses droning about how “killer” they are, and a guy with eroded teeth pestering me for my email so we could “make mad bux sellin’ old punk flyers an’ shit in like Holland, and Germany, man, Germany” backed by the claim he had hung out at the Verbal Abuse house in the old days. I declined the offer.
Motorpsycho - Little Lucid Moments
The more than a decade-long affair was withering on the vine in 2004 and by 2006 the thrill was officially gone. “It’s not you, it’s me.” Then suddenly in 2008 it was time to dust off the old psychonaut suit and enjoy
the return of the sparks.
CocoRosie – Noah’s Ark
Light the candles, fill the tub with bubbles and trip away.
Low – The Great Destroyer
The VPRO documentary on the band was deeply disturbing and added an extra dimension to the already uneasy listening Low provides.
Marissa Nadler – Songs III: Bird on the Water
As my friend said after seeing her in concert, “I wanted to take her home and build her a little dandelion-filled graveyard out back to haunt.”
DoMakeSayThink - Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn
Tis the season to break this one out again. It’s like icicles and hot cocoa all in one. I can’t think of any other record that alternates between sparkling chills and comforting warmth with similar grace and charm.
Firewater – The Golden Hour
The soundtrack to the only blog I followed from start to finish during this decade. Observations by Tod A. include “most of Calcutta ain’t much worse than the Lower East Side on any given Sunday morning following a
Lower East Side Saturday night. You would just have to add a few cows to the picture.” [source: http://postcards.blogs.com/postcards_from_the_other_/]

Bonus
Best gig of the decade: Neil Young, Antwerp’s Stadsschouwburg, 11 February 2008. There he was, all by himself on stage in that big theatre during the acoustic half of the gig, singing “Ambulance Blues.” Beautiful.

Electric Wizard - Dopethrone

Drew – Roadburn

Electric Wizard – Dopethrone
35007 - Phase V
The Heads – Everybody Know We Got Nowhere
Entombed – Uprising
Boris – Flood
Pharaoh Overlord – The Battle of the Axehammer
Church of Misery – Master of Brutality
Agents of Oblivion – Agents of Oblivion
Graveyard – Graveyard
Gorilla – Maximum Riff Mania

Walter – Roadburn

Electric Wizard – Dopethrone
Earthless - Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky
OM – Conference of the Birds
The Heads -  Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere
Celtic Frost - Monothiest
Down – Over the Under
35007 – Liquid
Neurosis – Givin to the Rising
Witchcraft - S/T
The Hidden Hand -  Mother, Teacher, Destroyer

White Hills - Dead EP

Lovingly pinched from SILive.com: At first blush, names can be misleading. Take White Hills, for example. If you were to think of white as sterile and hills as rolling mounds, you’d have the wrong impression. But if you think of white as in “white hot” and hills as “infinitely sprawling masses,” you’d be right on the money with this group of Brooklyn musicians.

While it seems that more groups than ever are exploring spacey drone and heavy ambient metal, White Hills has shown remarkable panache and a distinctive dexterity in this genre. Its appropriately titled debut,  Heads on Fire, was an impressive space rock tour de force — a mix of Hawkwind’s swirling psychedelic boogie freakouts and Pink Floyd’s more pastoral astral explorations.

The latest offering from White Hills,  Dead, a very limited, vinyl-only release (1,000 copies), is shorter but reveals more diversity and reference points.

Continue reading: MUSIC REVIEW: White Hills’ new EP ‘Dead’ explores band’s dexterity | Staten Island Entertainment – Music – - SILive.com.

White Hills - White Hills

NY’s White Hills new album, simply titled White Hills, will be released by Thrill Jockey on February 23, 2010. There will be a CD version and an LP version. Both have exclusive tracks and a different art work.  There is  a video for the track ‘Dead’ off of the upcoming album. You can view it here.

Later in 2010 White Hills recent collaboration with Manchester, UK based band GNOD will see the light of day as a 2xLP release by Rocket Recordings . The LP is titled GNOD Drop Out with WHITE HILLS II. “Some of you may  have purchased the CD-r release of Drop Out during our Euro Tour this  past spring”, says White Hill’s Dave,  “DO II will feature remixed and re-sequenced tracks from DO I plus a few more tracks that did not make it on to the first version.”

“Currently I am working on a split release with Der Blutharsch that will see the light of day as a 7″ single. We hope to have this  ready for release by Spring of 2010 at the latest. White Hill’  contribution to this release is a number called ‘Todays I Want To Catch Clouds’. It’s a haunting number, a cry to the universe.”

“Other releases are in the works but are too early to talk about now.  One release I can speak of is the 3rd pressing of A Little Bliss Forever. This pressing is limited to 25 copies and will come in a  gatefold LP jacket. Each cover will be different, hand done by myself.  These copies will be sold via eBay… one by one over the next year. Announcements will be made when they go up for sale.”

“We will also be back in Europe this coming February with our label mates PONTIAK.  The tour will take place from the middle of February through the middle of March.  Following the Euro Tour, in spring we will be doing dates around the U.S. All dates will be posted on our myspace page soon.”

La Ira De Dios - Cosmos Kaos Destruction

(From our archives): Imagine Jimi Hendrix playing with Space Ritual era Hawkwind and getting into the spirit of the thing. Add a healthy dose of psychedelic thrash and doom and you’ve got just the recipe for a band like La Ira de Dios. Cosmos Kaos Destruction is their latest, having switched from Nasoni Records to the World in Sound label.

‘Quemando” opens the set on a quiet note, with doomy sludgy bass and slowly building psychedelic guitar. But after a minute or so the band launch into classic La Ira de Dios steamroller power trio cosmic psych rock. And you never have to wait long for Chino Burgo to crank out a guitar solo.

This is seriously aggressive and intense power rocking psychedelia that conjures up images of a devastating avalanche of molten lava.
The band are a 3-piece on this album and I don’t see any synths in the credits, which is fine because Burga knows how to take his guitar deep into space.

‘Kaos’ is a standout track and couldn’t be a better title for this punked out slab of space thrash. Like ‘Master of the Universe’ on Olympic quality steroids. ‘El Pacto’ is similar, being just over 3 minutes but a total tsunami of rip roaring psychedelic mind-fucking ROCK. Lots of others like this too. Mostly shorter punchier tracks on this outing. ‘Pobre Diablo’ is one that has a slower stoned vibe, but is still as high octane as anything else on the album.

At 13 minutes ‘Jamas Morire’ is the one lengthier track of the set. At times the guitar really has a Hendrix sound, through the overall music is dirty, full body assault power psychedelia. And of course the band stretch out into jamming spaced out instrumental heaven. The track goes silent around the 8 minute mark, lights out for another minute, and then catapults into another delirious space-punk song that winds up the set.

Since their first album in 2005, La Ira de Dios have continued to prove themselves to be one of the best bands on the heavy psych rock scene. Definitely one of my favorites. The energy level on this album is superhuman and relentless. Really worked me up into a frenzy. Don’t listen with any sharp objects in your proximity.
Jerry Kranitz

(Please click here for the on demand audio stream of La Ira de Dios live at Roadburn 2008)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2dbAWnTYPs