Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Friday, September 19, 2014
THE MACHINE
This is a statement of
love and affection...
Once upon a time I got
in contact to the stoner family and discovered some of the greatest music I
ever heard. Coming from late sixties and seventies rock, being pushed by bands
like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath, but most of all, of course, there
was the spirit of Jimi Hendrix that has influenced my musical taste over so
many years. So in 2010 I discovered a little power trio from Rotterdam, called
The Machine, and I lost my heart from the first second I heard that fantastic
kind of music. It was the time when the band started to prepare for their third
album, simply called „Drie“. Yes, indeed, this is the third CD of the band.
They started in 2007 with a self-release named „The Shadow Of The Machine“,
which obvious seem to be unknown to many people. It never released as a vinyl
and even the band today loughs a bit about their first tries I can tell you it
is worth to listen to every minute of that songs.
How can I describe the
style of The Machine easily? Imagine the music of desert rock collides on an
astral path with the genius of Jimi Hendrix´ guitar, and then you will be close
to The Machine. Wonderful inspirited guitar workout, rising up some of the
coolest improvisations in modern times the licks will carry you into your
personal nirvana, totally fired by the deepest and hardest rhythms of thick strings
and powerful drumming. A journey through times of Rock´n Roll, taking its roots
in the first and greatest period of our culture and develop it into a modern
way, that is timeless, full of passion and fun. So it´s not a surprise, that we
can tell The Machine a fantastic live band. On stage they will show you their
emotions in a way that can really hypnotize you. Every time I saw them
performing it was pretty dangerous for my back and neck, but this music has
ever fulfilled every cell of my being and it will bring my bones to move, even
if I want or not.
First time I met The
Machine live in Holland, I was thinking of much older people, only knowing
their second album „Solar Corona“ on CD, so I was totally surprised when I
realized that all of them were so young that they could be my sons. Such young
guys that make such great music that can transfer old buddies like me into the
heaven of rock? Yes, they can!
It was a kind of
religious feeling when they started their set with „First Unique Prime“, my
absolutely dearest song of the band and one of the four or five greatest pieces
of music I heard in the last twenty years. Shivers, showers and a lot of
bouncing up and down floated through my body and brain, a totally symbiosis
between the music and my own impressions. Yeah, I think that´s exactly the
reason why I love that band so much.
David Eering on guitar
and vocals, Hans van Heemst on bass and Davy Boogaard on drums gives the term
power trio back its deepest meaning. It´s pure energy and power which they can
create on stage, but every time in a native, nice and modesty way, they will
win your heart with their pure music, not an overloaded show.
Looking back to the
releases of the band you can follow their musical development. In early times
the songs could be called a complete picture of the crazy jams they produce on
stage. Outracing, long improvisations started their career and led into second
album, which was the first official release on Nasoni Records, „Solar Corona“
and culminated in fantastic „Drie“, now on Elektrohasch. Step by step the songs
got a bit more structure, but the greatest step for the band was the way to
album four, named „Calmer Than You Are“. This phrase you should know from
cinema, yeah: „I´m calmer than you are“, once said Walter Sobchak to The Dude
in one of the funniest movies of all time, the Coen Brothers “The Big Lebowski”,
a movie that especially David loves very much. So the title is a kind of homage
to a great movie, something you can find also in the history of my other
deepest loved band, Monkey3.
But let´s have a look
back to „First Unique Prime“ from Drie. Surely this song is perhaps the best
example for fantastic improvisations and spontaneous composing. But you would
simplify that wonderful song too much, if you only had a look on the great
jamming parts. This 18 minutes monster is an absolute clever combination of
styles, starting with some of the best psychedelic sounds the band ever
produced and taking time to let the music breathe. Then it gets its break by
fantastic and stone hard stoner riffs and licks, culminating in a kind of blues-rock
inferno. This song was born really in a jam, the band once told me. Hans
started a riff which remembered on a song of The Sword and the band followed
that way. The main theme and most of the entire outracing end, David thought
back, were in his head for a longer time, only waiting to become set free. The
result is a song that can show you the way into a better world, giving you strength
and hope, a song that takes you away.
As named in „Calmer
Than You Are“ the band first time went over to more structured songs. My
favorite from this album is „Sphere (Or Kneiter)“, a fantastic musical
adventure with deep psychedelic workouts, also one of the greatest live
experiences of the band.
Last work on vinyl and
silver rounding was the split album with their mates from „Sungrazer“, also
from Holland and no longer existing (sad, sad...), where the band showed some
of the deepest riffs in their history, most of all in „Awe“, but also created a
very short, but heavy punk song.
I think, fun and humor
is a basic fact in the music of The Machine. Once I saw them in Cologne, and
they played one of their totally thrilling jams, when David suddenly started
the theme of „Daddy Cool“, old pop song from the seventies. The jam
incidentally started with Jimi´s „Machine Gun“, so I think there is only one
band on planet earth, that is able to combine Jimi Hendrix with Bonny M. in a
way, where you can say: Yes, that fits! Crazy and funny, but with deepest
empathy and devotion to the music.
The Machine has rocked
a lot of stages, playing great festivals as Roadburn, Desertfest and Burg
Herzberg. They have a strong fan community and the concerts of The Machine will
always show you the deep respect of all band members to the music, they will
ever do their best to satisfy the audience with energetic and powerful music.
So where ever you get a chance to watch them live, just take it and have a
great time. Yeah, and the guys are always prepared to have a lot of fun, so get
in touch and find it out yourself.
The Machine is:
David Eering – Guitar
and Vocals
Hans van Heemst – Bass
Guitar
Albums:
The Shadow Of The
Machine – Produced by themselves
Solar Corona – Nasoni
Records
Drie – Elektrohasch
Calmer Than You Are –
Elektrohasch
Split With Sungrazer -
Elektrohasch
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Alterna-Sounds-Festival
Alterna-Sounds-Festival, Münster 05.04.2014
World can be great and far, even everything seems to be so near. What would you call it, when an old rocker from the Ruhr area goes to Westphalia just to visit his favorite bands from Bavaria and Switzerland and later talks about it on Stoner Rock Austria – that´s desert rock feeling made in Europe. One evening, cruising through the orbit of Monkey3, just to continue your journey into universe with Colour Haze is a privilege of first class happening. And somehow this has its special connection to the Lake On Fire festival, because the headliners from last year and the upcoming event shared that stage at Münster.
 |
| Alterna Sounds Festival was located at the amazing Sputnik hall, a cool location which reminded me a bit on Astra Kulturhaus Berlin. The event was created for two stages and five bands. From Münster and the surround came Wooly Antshake and Mindreader and as special guest from Rostock our old buddies Coogans Bluff took part on this night (I saw them several times) and remember one Friday evening, shivering together with guitarist Willi for our soccer teams (Rostock and Duisburg) playing just before concert. But this evening now, I had only a little time, so I concentrated on the two headliners, I´m sorry that I can´t talk about the other bands this time. |
 |
| MONKEY3 (C) Michael Since I first time heard a song called “Jack” I lost my heart to the music of Monkey3. Meanwhile I visited them a lot of times live on stage and so it was great joy to meet the band again. As Boris told me later they had just arrived from Lausanne, only to perform this one event – great enthusiasm I would say! |
 |
| MONKEY3 - (C) Michael I was very excited waiting for one of my all-time favorite songs which is of course "Icarus". And after the announcement was done, the keys in the background started muttering the intro to that epic song. The four guys took the stage, first time for me to see Kevin, the new bass player and after Walters starting shots Boris took the lead and led us to the stars with his wonderful clear and emotional licks, floating in elegance over the powerful sound carpet of Guillaumes keys. I will not explain my complete emotions about this unbelievable song which has to do with some happenings last year, but I never have heard a piece of music that produces so much positive energy and emotion, a song about enthusiasm and the might of human dreams and wishes. It was my cure after a hard time, the hand of Gods of Rock´n Roll that was offered to me. Yeah, somehow a religious experience. So you may imagine that I banned myself taking photos during this magic song, there is no time for anything, when I listen to "Icarus". The set was mainly oriented on the current album “The 5. Sun”, perhaps the most compact and powerful album in the band´s history. And the cool bass intro to “Jack” sounded great as ever, Kevin has taken his part in the band as if he had never done anything others. So in the end it was a wonderful concert of world´s greatest instrumental rockers, just another mosaic stone in the picture of my deep adoration to this band. |
 |
| MONKEY3 - (C) Michael So coming back from the planet of the apes (although the pictures in the background during the concert were influenced by Kubrick´s 2001, of course) it wasn´t easy to calm down and there is only one band, I think, that I was able to inhale after Monkey3 – that´s for sure Colour Haze! |
 |
| MONKEY3 - (C) Michael |
In times of RTL and Bild newspaper you should be careful with the word cult. In our society this term is often used for strange things I will never understand. But if cult comes from class and capability then Colour Haze deserves it to be cult. In the European underground scene this band is surely the most admired trio, fantastic solo musicians who founded an origin and authentic style, that a complete generation of musicians like to imitate. Philipp, who plays the fat strings harder than anyone other, a sound, that kicks your ass like thunder and lightning; Manni, who rushes over the skins like a wizard, with energy that never seem to stop; and of course Stefan, who plays the guitar in a way only Stefan does, a style that would make old Jimi smile on his cloud when he passes by. And together they change between fascinating psychedelic workouts and the hardest riffs in the universe. Thanks again to Gods of R´n R that they have put them three together.
 |
| COLOUR HAZE (C) Michael |
We got a classic set with the bands most played live acts, connected with two completely new songs. Yeah, and the rumors are right, Stefan confirmed that the band is working on a new album, wonderful outlook for future. “Aquamaria” and “Moon” were a traditional start of a Colour Haze concert, but too late I noticed that I got problems with my camera, so I had to do a lot of shots at the end of the concert. But similar to Monkey3 there is a song during which I will never put photos, that is “Transformation” from latest album “She Said”. This epic is an energy fountain of first class. Coming from a smooth and leisurely rhythm Stefan develops a solo, that increases its intensity more and more to an ecstatic feeling, a float of optimistic and positive electricity, that lead you to outer worlds but also to the best ghosts into yourself. This song sets you free, it´s hypnotic in best way.
 |
| COLOUR HAZE (C) Michael |
Certainly “Peace, Brothers And Sisters” was also a main part of the evening with a particularly virtuosic solo of Stefan. And the new stuff have taken all my senses and anticipation to the new album, whenever it will release.
 |
| COLOUR HAZE (C) Michael The audience was highly satisfied, same as for Monkey3, when they got “Love” and “Temple” in the end. And although the band members had some problems with illness the days before they gave us an encore with “Get It On”. |
All visitors of Lake On Fire 2014 can feel happy to see this great band performing live, one of the biggest highlights of the year. And Stefan has promised to give us an interview for Stoner Rock Austria just before the festival, so let us be curious for what he will tell us. For all who can´t wait until that event in summer, there is Desertfest coming up at last weekend of April in Berlin with a fantastic line-up, three days of Stoner, Doom and Hardrock, I´m looking forward to that.
by Michael
Saturday, March 22, 2014
ALBUM REVIEW - MONSTERS OF THE ORDINARY
Monsters Of The Ordinary – Mirror
Nach Besuch der fulminanten Album Release Show nahm ich mir
dieses Album mit hohen Erwartungen mit nach Hause, um diese Review zu
schreiben. Gleich vorweg, es wurden alle Erwartungen zur Gänze erfüllt!
Der Opener „Lines“ öffnet mit einem kurzem Intro und geht dann sofort in die Vollen. Druckvolle verzehrte Gitarren legen sich gemeinsam mit einem knurrendem Bass über ein druckvolles Schlagzeug, so wie es sich gehört! Spätestens beim Einstieg der Stimme verführen MOTO dazu sich das Album durchgehend anzuhören. Der zweite Song und zugleich der Titelsong „Mirror“ steht dem Opener um nichts nach. Hier imponiert vor allem das Songwriting. Coole Breaks und intelligentes Sounddesign schrauben sich genüßlich ins Ohr. Das gesamte Album setzt sich auf hohem Niveau weiter fort und ist bei jedem Hören ein Genuss.
Der Opener „Lines“ öffnet mit einem kurzem Intro und geht dann sofort in die Vollen. Druckvolle verzehrte Gitarren legen sich gemeinsam mit einem knurrendem Bass über ein druckvolles Schlagzeug, so wie es sich gehört! Spätestens beim Einstieg der Stimme verführen MOTO dazu sich das Album durchgehend anzuhören. Der zweite Song und zugleich der Titelsong „Mirror“ steht dem Opener um nichts nach. Hier imponiert vor allem das Songwriting. Coole Breaks und intelligentes Sounddesign schrauben sich genüßlich ins Ohr. Das gesamte Album setzt sich auf hohem Niveau weiter fort und ist bei jedem Hören ein Genuss.
Mein Lieblingstrack auf Mirror ist „Just a Little Bit Like Me“,
hier stimmt einfach alles, das Gitarrenspiel ist hier besonders beeindruckend.
Besonders positiv fällt Sänger Oliver auf, dieser versteht es,
sich nicht wie viele seiner Genre Kollegen, hinter den Gitarren zu verstecken
und weiß sich mit ausgefeilten Linien auf die Musik zu setzen. Aber auch die
andern drei glänzen auf ihren Instrumenten.
Da dieses Album an Orten wie Wohnzimmern, Kellersauna und
ähnlichen Orten aufgenommen wurde und vom Schlagzeuger Christoph zu Hause
gemischt und gemastert wurde, verdient es zu dem noch die Bezeichnung
HOMEGROWN!
„Mirror“ ist durch und durch ein gelungenes Album und hinterlässt
in keinster Weise negative Eindrücke.
by Funkhead
MOTO auf Facebook
Free Album Stream:
Saturday, February 8, 2014
REVIEW - Timestone
Timestone – EP
Die Wüste ist immer und überall. Auch im Donautal. Was im Zeitalter des Klimawandels vielleicht auf den ersten Blick erschreckend klingen mag, versetzt die Gemeinde der Stonerfreunde in Verzückung, denn aus dem Orbit der Österreichischen Chef-Metropole startet ein neuer, heißer Komet direkt ins Herz eines alles rockenden Universums. Getragen von den schönsten und melodiösesten Riffs, die ich seit langer Zeit gehört habe, entwickeln Jakob an der fuzzigen Gitarre und dem Gesang, Johannes am besonders tief gestimmten Viersaiter und Walt als treibender Schlagmann drei fantastische Songs voller musikalischer Raffinesse und vorwärts gerichteter Energie in eine Welt aus versengender Sonne und glühendem Wüstensand. Stonerrock vom Feinsten, dafür musst Du nicht in Texas geboren worden sein, das beweisen unsere einheimischen Freunde wieder einmal aufs Trefflichste.
Die Wüste ist immer und überall. Auch im Donautal. Was im Zeitalter des Klimawandels vielleicht auf den ersten Blick erschreckend klingen mag, versetzt die Gemeinde der Stonerfreunde in Verzückung, denn aus dem Orbit der Österreichischen Chef-Metropole startet ein neuer, heißer Komet direkt ins Herz eines alles rockenden Universums. Getragen von den schönsten und melodiösesten Riffs, die ich seit langer Zeit gehört habe, entwickeln Jakob an der fuzzigen Gitarre und dem Gesang, Johannes am besonders tief gestimmten Viersaiter und Walt als treibender Schlagmann drei fantastische Songs voller musikalischer Raffinesse und vorwärts gerichteter Energie in eine Welt aus versengender Sonne und glühendem Wüstensand. Stonerrock vom Feinsten, dafür musst Du nicht in Texas geboren worden sein, das beweisen unsere einheimischen Freunde wieder einmal aufs Trefflichste.
Mal psychedelisch getragen, mal in
spacig kreisenden Soli kulminierend und immer wieder in wunderschönen
Riffs breakend führt die Band den geneigten Freak durch ihre
faszinierende Welt der tiefen Töne, stets garniert von Jakobs
leidenschaftlicher Rockröhre. Sie ziehen alle Register guter
Rockmusik, empfangen uns im ersten Song „Meridian“ mit einer
Überraschung aus klassischen Südstaatenklängen, einer schönen
tragenden Twingitarre. Und dann gleich wieder diese brutal geilen
Riffs. Es knallt und rockt wie Sau, so muss das sein. Du liegst
sofort auf den Vibes der Band und lässt Dich mühelos in den
nächsten Kracher hinüber grooven, „Shadow“ betitelt. Herrliche
Tempowechsel und ein fantastisches, melodiös rotierendes
Gitarrensolo spacen Dich ab, der Flug hat längst begonnen.
So präpariert bist Du bereit für den
ultimativen Showdown „All Wrong“, einer gut elf minütigen
Stonerhymne, bei der mir ganz unwillkürlich der Titel eines
berühmten Albums dieses Genres in denn Sinn kommt, Into The Sun.
Genau dahin scheinen uns die Drei nun entführen zu wollen.
Die Abmischung der Songs ist perfekt,
ein wahrer Hörgenuss, der Dir alle Nuancen seines akustischen
Universums transparent und voller Energie vermittelt. Diese EP ist
ein Kleinod geiler, moderner Rockmusik und weckt den Hunger auf ganz
viel mehr, vor allem aber auf die eine oder andere Liveperformance –
aber da hoffe ich mal auf den Vorteil, mit der Band bekannt zu sein.
Jungs, ich rechne mit Euch!
Timestone sind:
Jakob „Chewie“ – Gitarre, Gesang
Johannes – Bass
Walt - SchlagzeugSunday, February 2, 2014
INTERVIEW - THE MOVEMENTS (SWE)
Last autumn the European
psychedelic music scene became highly attentive to the new album of
Sweden´s “The Movements”, called “Like Elephants 1”. It´s a
wonderful homage to the music of the sixties, but it sounds also very
fresh, cool and psychedelic.
We got the chance to talk
with the band about their music, so say HEY to “The Movements”:
Hey
guy´s, great to have you here for an interview. First of all,
congratulations for creating such a great album. Do you think it is
your best, yet?
Thanks! Ever since we
decided to do this album the intention was to do an album that was
way much better than anything we recorded before. For some years we
were very restrictive to do tours, so we could focus on songwriting.
When we started to record the album we had to work very hard to get
the sound we wanted and when we finally found it we were so into this
progress that we just kept on going and made two albums instead of
one. We started to record these albums in 2010 and then we worked
ourselves through it in various sessions. Everyone in the band makes
songs and we have become much particular in choosing the material to
work with. That´s why these two new albums are superior to our old
ones, the songwriting is much more solid and the composing of the
album is much more carefully planned. We have worked a lot harder
with our lyrics as well. During the years we also learned a lot
about recording and producing so for the first time we really made
the album(s) that we intended to do.
The reactions to your
album are fantastic, all over Europe. Many print media have
discovered your band after the release of “Like Elephants 1”. Did
you expect such a big reaction?
Well... We really like
the album ourselves and have never doubted that it's a good one. But
on the other hand: to hear and read nice words about something you
spent hours, money and energy on making is something you want but
never can expect. We're happy that people like it, what more can I
say?
The first songs are
floating into each other and it seems like the band is totally under
stream and passion to play. Is there a special meaning why the songs
are connected?
We have worked a lot at
the flow of the music through the albums. Everything floats together,
as you hopefully have noticed. The important thing for us is that
every song fits in a good context with the other songs on each album.
It was important for us to create strong albums and not just
compilations of songs, and that the albums would to create a whole, a
kind of continuity, together. But the challenge was also to make
songs that could stand on their own as well. We tried various order
of songs but at one point or another, the albums created themselves
you could say.
Sweden seems to be an
unbelievable fountain of great rock music, especially for retro
stuff. This is completely different for example to Norway, as the
guys from Lonely Kamel once told us. What do you thing, what could be
the reason for that?
I have hard to believe
that it's something in our water or school system that make great
rock bands. Or the politics for that matter. One of the reasons might
be that retro sounding bands get a better or second chance if they're
Swedish. The "Sweden-brand" gives bands wind under their
wings and that makes it easier to keep working, do shows abroad and
so forth. Bands from outside Sweden also play great music but maybe
they don't get the same attention right away if they're Norwegian,
Danish or German. It's a positive spiral for Swedish bands, starting
decades ago. That's my guess, anyway.
To clarify: I'm not
saying Swedish band get more attention than they should, I'm saying
people should pay more attention to what bands sound like than where
they come from, which unfortunately isn't always the case.
What where your most
important influences?
On these albums we were
influenced by elephants. I don´t know if you know this but elephants
have ways to communicate which goes beyond our understanding. They
can communicate with some kind of sixth sense. We humans don´t
really believe that we can do that but I think that music is exactly
that. A way to communicate with each other. Sometimes it works much
better than all other forms of communication and tells a lot more
about a person playing or a person listening. The albums are about
how we can sometimes glimpse that spiritual communication but we seem
to have a problem opening up fully to it. To get the whole picture
you can say. With these albums we hope to achieve some kind of deeper
understanding of who we are to the ones listening to the albums, if
they are interested.
We also have some
musical influences, for example these records:
Morgan Delt - Barbarian
Kings / Black Tuna Gang 7"
Entrance Band – Face
The Sun
The Pyramids – King
of kings
John Coltrane –
Interstellar Space
Gene Clark – No other
Bombino - Nomad
Bo Hansson -
El-Ahrairah (Music Influenced by Watership Down)
Do you listen to sixties
music yourself or do you prefer more the modern versions of
psychedelic rock, bands like Vibravoid for example?
I don´t know if I
would classify Vibravoid as a “modern band”, even if they are
from nowadays, he he! But they are a great band that we really like!!
For us it´s not
important if a band/record is new or old. We like to listen to good
music and then its unimportant if the recording are from 1929 or 2014
as long as it´s good.
As we said, German psych
fans have reacted very positive to The Elephant. Can we hope for some
live shows in Germany soon?
Yes, we are gonna do a
tour in Germany in February so check our calendar for when and where
in Germany we will be. You can expect us mainly performing songs from
these two album´s, we have so many songs now we like to perform so I
think it will be a very cool set this time.
What about Like Elephants
2, is it already written or are you going to create new songs and
compose some new stuff just in future?
It will be released 7th of
March 2014. Both of the records are recorded in same studio sessions
and have a similar sound and concept, but with different songs of
course. Some days ago I got the test press of “Like elephants 2”,
and it sounds terrific.
Thank you very much for
you being so kind to give us this interview. Like Elephants 1 was the
first time for me to get in contact to your music, but surely it will
not be the last. I´m looking forward to meet you on stage next time
and of course to Volume 2 of The Elephant!
Links:
by Michael
Friday, January 31, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
BAND YOU SHOULD KNOW
Band #9: Ivy Garden Of The Desert
The center of European stoner scene seems to be in countries like Sweden, The Netherlands or Germany. Most people may not think that from behind the big wall of The Alps there are some fantastic and ambitious bands are prepared to rock and just wait to enter the stages of our heart. One of my favorite bands are one of them, let´s talk a bit about Ivy Garden Of The Desert from Trevisio, Italy. The band consists of Diego on guitar and vocals, Paolo on bass and Andrea on drums.
Starting in 2011 they built up three EP´s, The trilogy of The Ivy, each with a very special character. It could be described as the progressive, the stoner and the psychedelic one. In principle the music of The Ivy melts together a doomy atmosphere with some stoner riffing and a lot of heavy psychedelic, culminating in the absolute fantastic voice of Diego´s singing. The band is able to create a lot of different moods and feelings, but one thing is present at all songs and any time. You can feel the fun they have and the enthusiasm of that music easily takes over to the crowd beside stage or album listener. Yeah, and the sound of that three EP´s is totally superb, every single nuance will reach your ear, clear like crystal.
The first album, “Docile”, brings four pieces of big independence and the first song, “Ivy”, opens with a smooth and hypnotic part, kind of dialogue between bass and lead guitar, developing a mystic atmosphere of post rock. But with the powerful entrance of drummer Andrea the mood changes into a guitar drunken outbreak of hard and heavy rock music. My personal favorite, and for me one of the greatest songs composed in the last years, is “Enchanting Odyssey”, a twelve minutes monster of creative changes and the most emotional, but strong and powerful vocals, perfectly made for goose bumps on the listener´s skin. To me this voice sounds like a stoner version of Pearl Jam´s Eddy Vedder, absolutely authentic and full of expression, and it´s followed by an ecstatic guitar freak out that blows you away. Totally untypical for stoner rock the band breaks after that wonderful power song and leads to the melodic and acoustic stoner ballade “Hang Glider”, opening with cello. Fantastic, you can feel the warmth of evening sun during you glide across a golden colored ocean. This song you will find on the third EP, covered with another curtain of electric energy and hard stoner riffs. That´s also a characteristic attribute of the band, just to build bridges between their albums and songs.
Have a look on “Enchanting Odyssey”, played live just a few months before, it´s tremendous:
When they composed the music for second album “Love Is Blood”, they took a stylistic change back to the fathers of desert rock. Lots of heavy riffs, dark bass lines and hypnotic gloomy rhythm showed a deep relationship to great old Kyuss, as you can hear probably best in “Ghost Station”, which is basically one chord of the guitar with deep drums and Diegos fantastic voice. But The Ivy always like to experiment, here on Love Is Blood shown in the very complex sound of “Glicine”, which could be understood as a refer to Docile, the first album. A slow pace and some acoustic guitar give once again a great example how they are able to play with emotions and moods. I think, this changing between hard, aggressive parts and that slow rough sounds is one of the biggest virtues in the music of Ivy Garden Of The Desert.
2013 the band finished their trilogy of EP´s with “I Ate Of The Plant And It Was Good”. This album is full of quotes to the first one, Docile. As named before you find a new version of the wonderful acoustic Hang Glider, now as an amplified cracker. In the middle part you find as a big contrast to the first version some of the hardest riffs of the band ever, a monotonous beaten chord, which is a stylistic reference to album two. And the first song Ivy, which started the first album, now gets it´s continuation in “Ivy2”. The Ivy trilogy begins and ends with Ivy, sounds easy and logically, but between this songs you learn a lot about the feelings of the band and their musical language.
The opener “Deeper Than Deep” starts very bass oriented and with hoarse voice and crooked guitar, later slowing down to a doomy, a bit post rock like atmosphere with shivering psyched guitar, in my opinion also a hint back to the days of Docile.
A new EP is ready to take off and the first long player will follow next time. Here you can see the first official video of the band, with Diego and Paolo performing a cool and funny adaption of Frankenstein, a song called “Life?” from the upcoming EP:
Ivy Garden Of The Desert will perform Freak Valley Festival in Germany at the end of May, we have waited a long time to see them live on stage.
The music of The Ivy is pure passion and devotion, the songs are fulfilled with intensity that let your mind rotate and your neck and legs move. An electrifying journey across an everlasting pasture of the worlds greatest music, rock´n roll.
“We are a band searching new experiences all the time, we don´t want to repeat us, just find new ways and walk on…” Diego has told us some times before. That´s what they did in the past and I´m sure they will do in future. And I know that it will be a good way to bring the desert feeling to us all.
CD´s:
Docile (2011)
Love Is Blood (2012)
I Ate Of The Plant And It Was good (2013)
Like them on Facebook!
by Michael
 |
| (c) by Vic Balica |
Starting in 2011 they built up three EP´s, The trilogy of The Ivy, each with a very special character. It could be described as the progressive, the stoner and the psychedelic one. In principle the music of The Ivy melts together a doomy atmosphere with some stoner riffing and a lot of heavy psychedelic, culminating in the absolute fantastic voice of Diego´s singing. The band is able to create a lot of different moods and feelings, but one thing is present at all songs and any time. You can feel the fun they have and the enthusiasm of that music easily takes over to the crowd beside stage or album listener. Yeah, and the sound of that three EP´s is totally superb, every single nuance will reach your ear, clear like crystal.
The first album, “Docile”, brings four pieces of big independence and the first song, “Ivy”, opens with a smooth and hypnotic part, kind of dialogue between bass and lead guitar, developing a mystic atmosphere of post rock. But with the powerful entrance of drummer Andrea the mood changes into a guitar drunken outbreak of hard and heavy rock music. My personal favorite, and for me one of the greatest songs composed in the last years, is “Enchanting Odyssey”, a twelve minutes monster of creative changes and the most emotional, but strong and powerful vocals, perfectly made for goose bumps on the listener´s skin. To me this voice sounds like a stoner version of Pearl Jam´s Eddy Vedder, absolutely authentic and full of expression, and it´s followed by an ecstatic guitar freak out that blows you away. Totally untypical for stoner rock the band breaks after that wonderful power song and leads to the melodic and acoustic stoner ballade “Hang Glider”, opening with cello. Fantastic, you can feel the warmth of evening sun during you glide across a golden colored ocean. This song you will find on the third EP, covered with another curtain of electric energy and hard stoner riffs. That´s also a characteristic attribute of the band, just to build bridges between their albums and songs.
Have a look on “Enchanting Odyssey”, played live just a few months before, it´s tremendous:
When they composed the music for second album “Love Is Blood”, they took a stylistic change back to the fathers of desert rock. Lots of heavy riffs, dark bass lines and hypnotic gloomy rhythm showed a deep relationship to great old Kyuss, as you can hear probably best in “Ghost Station”, which is basically one chord of the guitar with deep drums and Diegos fantastic voice. But The Ivy always like to experiment, here on Love Is Blood shown in the very complex sound of “Glicine”, which could be understood as a refer to Docile, the first album. A slow pace and some acoustic guitar give once again a great example how they are able to play with emotions and moods. I think, this changing between hard, aggressive parts and that slow rough sounds is one of the biggest virtues in the music of Ivy Garden Of The Desert.
2013 the band finished their trilogy of EP´s with “I Ate Of The Plant And It Was Good”. This album is full of quotes to the first one, Docile. As named before you find a new version of the wonderful acoustic Hang Glider, now as an amplified cracker. In the middle part you find as a big contrast to the first version some of the hardest riffs of the band ever, a monotonous beaten chord, which is a stylistic reference to album two. And the first song Ivy, which started the first album, now gets it´s continuation in “Ivy2”. The Ivy trilogy begins and ends with Ivy, sounds easy and logically, but between this songs you learn a lot about the feelings of the band and their musical language.
The opener “Deeper Than Deep” starts very bass oriented and with hoarse voice and crooked guitar, later slowing down to a doomy, a bit post rock like atmosphere with shivering psyched guitar, in my opinion also a hint back to the days of Docile.
A new EP is ready to take off and the first long player will follow next time. Here you can see the first official video of the band, with Diego and Paolo performing a cool and funny adaption of Frankenstein, a song called “Life?” from the upcoming EP:
Ivy Garden Of The Desert will perform Freak Valley Festival in Germany at the end of May, we have waited a long time to see them live on stage.
The music of The Ivy is pure passion and devotion, the songs are fulfilled with intensity that let your mind rotate and your neck and legs move. An electrifying journey across an everlasting pasture of the worlds greatest music, rock´n roll.
“We are a band searching new experiences all the time, we don´t want to repeat us, just find new ways and walk on…” Diego has told us some times before. That´s what they did in the past and I´m sure they will do in future. And I know that it will be a good way to bring the desert feeling to us all.
CD´s:
Docile (2011)
Love Is Blood (2012)
I Ate Of The Plant And It Was good (2013)
Like them on Facebook!
by Michael
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
BAND YOU SHOULD KNOW
BAND #8 ETERNAL
ELYSIUM
ETERNAL ELYSIUM is a Heavy Rockband from Japan.
They
are deeply influenced by the 70s Heavy Rockbands like the early Black
Sabbath and also Doomstars like Saint Vitus. They released five
albums and a few split Eps. Every release stands on its own. Some are
containing Doom and some are classic Stoner creations.
ETERNAL
ELYSIUM is one of the leading Bands of the Doom/Stoner scene in
Japan. There are some bands related to Doom/Stoner but they created
the scene with Church Of Misery out of nothing.
Formed
in 1991, they are still putting out Records. They toured the US four
times and Europe once in 2010 with Place Of Skulls. This January they
successfully completed their Australien Tour.
My
favorite album is Searching Low And High, captivated me from the
first to the last minute.
If
you like Stoner and Doom without knowing ETERNAL ELYSIUM, YOU SHOULD!
Check out:
->Website
-> Facebook
Discography:
Faithful
– 1996
Spiritualized
D - 2000
Share
– 2002
Searching
Low & High - 2005
Within
the Triad - 2010
Band
Members:
YUKITO
OKAZAKI
TANA
HAUGO
ANTONIO
ISHIKAWA
by Funkhead
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Album Review - Slingshot
Slingshot - A Period Of Reflection Album Review
Founded in Vienna in 2006 Slingshot recorded a Demo
CD depicting the bands early productive phase. Several reorganisations later with the creative focus shifted from Grunge to Desert and Stoner Rock Slingshot's first LP “A Period Of Reflection” starts off with the catchy blues riff of "Silverdragon Queen". Vocalist Erich carries the track from heavy funk notes back to the blues theme. A dreamy psychedelic guitar solo leads the first track to a down to earth blues rock finish.
Desperate Zombies continues on the same path, offering a unique mix of blues, funk and stoner elements and some voice samples from an oldschool zombie film. Throughout the album the vocals stand out quite well, but to my taste the mastering sounds a bit too clean. The live performance on the other hand matches the general mood of the music with more gritty and raw sounding vocals.
Psychobabble delivers quite literally what the trackname promises - a psychedelic tune with clean guitar and haunting ghost like voices in the background interspersed with heavier parts joined by angry shouts.
The album is rich with with rock-culture references with track titles such as “Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me There” and “Sandburg” playing homage to The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.
Starting off with a warm psychedelic guitar blanket with oriental origins “42” quickly carries you off to an intense journey through the clouds of your mind – will you find the answer to life there? At 8:32 the longest track of the album gives you plenty of time to enjoy the dynamic range of the Austrian quartet: the warm guitar sound of Jonas, rocking bass of Wolfgang and grooving drums of Günther and distinctive vocals of Erich.
“Summerrain” catches the attention with a funky melody and strong vocals while “Ride On It” starts off with a guitar tune reminiscent of an indian raga and quickly develops into a flurry of stoner rock riffs. Alternating quiet and relaxing parts as well as hard rocking elements are characteristic of many songs on “A Period Of Reflection”. The album ends with an acoustic track, looking at the “Morning Sun” a relaxed feeling settles in to conclude Slingshot’s debut album.
like Slingshot on Facebook!
Listen here to this LP!
by Andreas
 |
| Album Cover |
Founded in Vienna in 2006 Slingshot recorded a Demo
CD depicting the bands early productive phase. Several reorganisations later with the creative focus shifted from Grunge to Desert and Stoner Rock Slingshot's first LP “A Period Of Reflection” starts off with the catchy blues riff of "Silverdragon Queen". Vocalist Erich carries the track from heavy funk notes back to the blues theme. A dreamy psychedelic guitar solo leads the first track to a down to earth blues rock finish.
Desperate Zombies continues on the same path, offering a unique mix of blues, funk and stoner elements and some voice samples from an oldschool zombie film. Throughout the album the vocals stand out quite well, but to my taste the mastering sounds a bit too clean. The live performance on the other hand matches the general mood of the music with more gritty and raw sounding vocals.
Psychobabble delivers quite literally what the trackname promises - a psychedelic tune with clean guitar and haunting ghost like voices in the background interspersed with heavier parts joined by angry shouts.
Psychobabble:
The album is rich with with rock-culture references with track titles such as “Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me There” and “Sandburg” playing homage to The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.
Starting off with a warm psychedelic guitar blanket with oriental origins “42” quickly carries you off to an intense journey through the clouds of your mind – will you find the answer to life there? At 8:32 the longest track of the album gives you plenty of time to enjoy the dynamic range of the Austrian quartet: the warm guitar sound of Jonas, rocking bass of Wolfgang and grooving drums of Günther and distinctive vocals of Erich.
“Summerrain” catches the attention with a funky melody and strong vocals while “Ride On It” starts off with a guitar tune reminiscent of an indian raga and quickly develops into a flurry of stoner rock riffs. Alternating quiet and relaxing parts as well as hard rocking elements are characteristic of many songs on “A Period Of Reflection”. The album ends with an acoustic track, looking at the “Morning Sun” a relaxed feeling settles in to conclude Slingshot’s debut album.
like Slingshot on Facebook!
Listen here to this LP!
by Andreas
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)