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12 feb 18

DeRank™: 0,00

Our favorite Swedish friends @ALFAMA are back.

#buzz

Harvester - Hemat (Decibel, 1969)

I was thinking about how the music world is full of lies and false myths, or at least half-truths. While undoubtedly the Velvet Underground were and still are one of the most influential bands in music history, this is clearly largely due (besides the band's talent) to promotional factors that – it must be said – were decidedly avant-garde for that time. The presence of a godfather like Andy Warhol was not something insignificant, and it should be noted that he practically made every right move, including pairing the band with a talented and beautiful vocalist like Nico. Of course, everyone can have their own opinions, but if I say that, for me, the first album by the VU has practically worn me out in the long run, I'm not definitely trying to provoke. Nor do I think I'm lying if I say they were only relatively experimental compared to what was happening on the other side of the USA or in good old Europe. I believe that an experience like that developed over the years by the three greats of Swedish psychedelic music, Trad, Gras & Stenar, has few comparisons. Here, the group releases under the name Harvester an album ("Hemat," 1969) completely recorded live in 1968 in a small venue owned by the Swedish Young Communists, named after Karl Marx. In eight tracks, the band showcases its entire range. Mystical rituals such as "Nar Lingonen Mognar" and moments of delirious recovery of traditional sounds like "Kuk - Polska," the hallucinatory psychedelia of "Kristallen Den Fina," "Bacon Tomorrow," "Och Solen Gar Upp," "Hemat," and the wild fury of "Nepal Boogie," up to the cover of "Everybody (Need Somebody To Love)" that anticipates the sound of Devo by about twenty years. For me, it's a fundamental album like all the others I've stumbled upon recorded by this genius ensemble of musicians. PS I almost forgot: the recording quality isn't the best, but do you really want to pay attention to such an irrelevant detail? As if that mattered... There are bands today that would pay a lot of money to sound this way.

#harvester #hemat #svezia

Harvester - Hemåt (Silence Records) [Full Album]
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5 feb 18

DeRank™: 0,84

Suggested by @ALFAMA, I have once again walked in the footsteps of "Kuba" Ziolek and his project Alameda.

#buzz

Alameda Duo - The Luminous Guitar Craft of Alameda Duo (Instant Classic, August 31, 2017)

The latest chapter from Alameda (released under the name Alameda Duo), the project of Jakub "Kuba" Ziolek and his long-time collaborator, guitarist Mikolay Zielinski, is titled "The Luminous Guitar Craft of Alameda" (Instant Classic). Recorded in an evangelical church in Ziolek's hometown of Bydgoszcz, in northwestern Poland, the recording benefits from the exceptional acoustics of the venue, utilized at its best only during the nighttime hours to avoid external interference. The recording sessions took place exclusively at night, a characteristic that has clearly influenced the sound of the album, which is practically a kind of journey into the culture of Greek musical tradition that Kuba was introduced to by Rafael Iwanski (his collaborator on "Duch Tornada," 2015) through listening to an audio cassette of "Music of Ancient Greece" by Christodoulos Halaris (1946), a contemporary musician dedicated to the study and reconstruction of compositions from the classical era. Ziolek mentions Robbie Basho aka Daniel L. Robinson Jr and explains that the roots of his works are the same that have driven him on this adventure to recognize traces of American primitivism in the very sounds of ancient Greek music. Recorded exclusively in acoustic and with the Greek-Turkish bouzouki, the album consists of four tracks in which the two musicians demonstrate their great technical skills and build ecstatic harmonic compositions that resonate with light like crystals lost in time, where details such as the use of synthetic instruments and winds, in addition to the sung parts and the use of choirs, clearly make a difference and further enrich a work that reveals new aspects with each listen. I think I will listen to it for a long time to come. The fact is that in front of an artist like Ziolek, one must take off their hat for how talented he is.

Alameda Duo - The Luminous Guitar Craft of Alameda Duo (Full Album)

#alameda #kubaziolek #anticagrecia
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5 feb 18

DeRank™: 3,00

Last chapter of the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard saga from 2017.

#zot2017

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Gumboot Soup (Flightless, December 31, 2017)

On December 31, the work was completed, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard hit five for five by releasing the last album of 2017: "Gumboot Soup" (Flightless). It’s been an unprecedented year for the band led by Stu McKenzie, who has certainly written one of the most significant chapters in the psychedelic rock genre of recent years, apparently before taking a break (as it seems...) to rest after the super-productivity they've demonstrated up to this point. In summary, out of five albums, I would say that "Flying Microtonal Banana" and "Sketches of Brunswick East" are two little gems, but the quality level is still very high, and this album here is no exception, even if it was received more lukewarmly by listeners and critics who may have unjustly felt they had had enough after listening to the previous four. Instead, this album is not only very beautiful, but it also offers additional insights that don't come so much from the more typically "freak-psychedelic" tracks ("Greenhouse Heath Death," "Muddy Water," "The Great Chain of Being," "All Is Known") or from jazz fusion moments similar to those of "Sketches..." like "Superposition," "The Last Oasis," or "The Wheel." I think instead of this almost pop-soul psychedelic sound of songs like "Beginner's Luck," "Barefoot Desert," the funk of "Down The Sink," and the groove of "I'm Sleepin' In," the most interesting moments of this last chapter in this great and incredible epic journey of this crazy yet brilliant band that continues to expand its horizons with positive results. It will be difficult to ask for more in the future because with these records they have truly gone beyond every possible and impossible expectation.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Gumboot Soup (Full Album)

#psychedelicrock #neopsychedelia #gumbootsoup
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4 feb 18

DeRank™: 0,84

Hippie community, what a passion. @ALFAMA, this one seems to be a mix between Reverend Jim Jones, Howlin' Wolf, and Charles Bukowski.

#buzz

Zendik - Zendik (Zendik Soundz, 1998)

Wulf Zendik (1920-1999) was an American author, poet, musician, environmentalist, and bohemian. Part of the hippie culture, Zendik founded the community of the same name (also known as Zendik Arts Farm) in various locations across the American continent: Florida, Southern California, Texas, North Carolina, and West Virginia. An experience that continued even after his death, it was born with the aim of promoting the arts and embracing an environmentally respectful lifestyle. One of the main experiences in the history of the American hippie movement, the community had a broadcast on television networks and adopted the slogan, "Stop Bitching, Start A Revolution." I don't know the whole story well, but from what I've gathered, there have been some troubles and scandals involving the community for various reasons in recent years, and I’m not sure if it still exists. Anyway... Anyway, the fact is that Wulf Zendik was truly an interesting artist. At least when it comes to music and this album recorded between the late sixties and early seventies (completed in 1972, but I don't know much about what the first release might have been) in which Zendik also plays an eight-string instrument of his own invention. "Zendik" is an album composed of seven tracks where, ten years before the Suicide, Zendik proposes hallucinatory garage blues sounds and performs a series of rituals somewhere between Jim Morrison and Alan Vega. Accompanied by minimal but compulsive percussion, powerful vibrations from the bass, and acid guitars and synthesizers sounding in a repetitive manner creating a precursor of drone atmospheres, Zendik's interpretations are morbid gospels, infected with blues virality and vibrating as if shaken by delirium tremens. Absolutely impressive is "Jewelsand Things," where he uses tricks from an experienced bluesman and employs his voice accompanied by the guitar sound that changes tuning just like the tone of his voice, creating an incredible hypnotic effect. He was practically a shaman who knew how to express the torment of his demons and manipulate the forces of nature.

Zendik - The Album Wulf Zendik (1972)

#zendik #rock #blues
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3 feb 18

DeRank™: 0,00

A David Grubbs album is always the right opportunity for a journey towards new frontiers of experimental music.

#zot2017

David Grubbs - Creep Mission (Drag City Records, September 22, 2017)

It is certainly always worth revisiting and listening to every new album by David Grubbs, an artist with a colossal history who continues to churn out new works that showcase his great inventiveness and technical skills, experimenting in the dual direction of the tradition of American primitivism and his great master John Fahey, as well as the minimalism of John Cage. "Creep Mission" is one of the best works he has published recently, for which he enlisted a series of collaborators (the same ones from the album "Prismrose"), such as drummer Eli Keszler and trumpeter Nate Wooley, along with an experimenter in the field of electronics like Jan St. Werner. The album is a work poised between primitivism and experimentation. "Slylight," "Creep Mission," "Jack Dracula," and "The C In Certain" are three compositions in which Grubbs constructs spectacular guitar arpeggios, creating sonic suggestions accompanied by prolonged vibrations in the space between drone nuances and blues echoes in the style of Ry Cooder. "Return Of The Creep" amplifies the effect of the guitar sound further, creating open distorted sound waves layered atop minimalist arpeggios. In other tracks, Grubbs' guitar sound is immersed in sonorities ("The Bonapartes of Baltimore") and accompanies experimental synthetic sound vibrations ("Jeremiadaic"). The leitmotif of the album is precisely these sound overlays and layers, combined each time in a different way but always with great style and elegance.

Creep Mission | David Grubbs

#avantgarde #primitivism #davidgrubbs
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2 feb 18

DeRank™: 0,00

PROGRESSIVE ROCK MADE IN BAVARIA.

#BUZZ

Ougenweide - Ohrenschmaus (Polydor, 1976)

An album with a very peculiar sound that, for its uniqueness, might even bring a smile to listeners, regardless of the sound quality. This is a progressive rock band from Munich, Bavaria, called Ougenweide. Formed in 1970 and active throughout the decade until the early 1980s, they released this LP titled "Ohrenschmaus" in 1976 under contract with Polydor. One must consider Bavaria's geographical location in this context, being distant from other centers in West Germany where more experimental music movements flourished. The album is indeed a progressive music record that clearly incorporates traditional Bavarian folk music elements, which at times can evoke certain Celtic traditions and Northern European sounds. This characteristic emerges in both the more progressive rock tracks and especially in the folkier ones like "Eines Freitags Im Wald," "Engelboltes Tochter Helft Mir Klagen," "Om Wie Jaemerliche," and "Pferdesegen Contra Uermes." Of course, Canterbury shades are also present, and as is often the case with groups from this period with such sounds, the vocal performances of the "prima donna" Minnie Graw should be noted. It’s worth a listen, at least to debunk some myths about Bavarian music and Bavaria in general.

Ougenweide - Ouwe wie jaemerliche

#bavaria #progressive #krauti
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2 feb 18

DeRank™: 3,84

Psychedelia from Greece on Fuzz Club.

#zot2017

Acid Baby Jesus - Lilac Days (Fuzz Club Records, September 29, 2017)

Formed in March 2009 by Noda Pappas, Markos Mazarakiz, and Tili Stronis, Acid Baby Jesus is a garage psychedelia band from Athens, Greece, which released their third LP on Fuzz Club Records last September 2017. Although the name might evoke mystical sounds and acid rock, the band actually has a typically straightforward garage sound and alternates more rock-driven tracks with what I would describe as delightful psychedelic ballads and glimpses of pop serenity. The album opens with the title track, a garage psychedelia piece with the atmosphere and flavors of the California west coast. "No Such Thing As Twice" is a kind of psychedelic rock and roll ballad featuring delightful and minimal horn arrangements, while "Me & Panormita" and "Guide Us In" are garage rock tracks with brighter tones and rougher sounds. "Faces of Janus" is a psychedelic pop ballad built on guitar arpeggios and straightforward yet effective synth arrangements, "Down The Ley Lines" is clearly inspired by the visions of Syd Barrett, "Birth" resembles a swaying lullaby, and "Vile Man" heavily recalls the sound of Avi Buffalo's first album. "Love Has Left My House Today" is the standout track of the record alongside the title track, where west coast sounds reappear in a more arranged and "complex" piece compared to the others, featuring a very evocative piano outro. Overall, it’s not a transcendental record, but truly very, very pleasant and catchy.

Acid Baby Jesus- Lilac Days (Full Album)

#psychedelia #athens #fuzzclub
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1 feb 18

DeRank™: 3,84

Very vintage proposal from Northampton, England.

#buzz

Axe - Music (Kissing Spell Records, 2002)

There are fragmented and conflicting reports about this band from Northampton, England. The name is supposed to be Axe, but they were also known as Crystalline or Axe Music. The group consisted of the very talented vocalist Vivienne Jones (also known as "Countess Vivienne"), Anthony Barford and R. Hillard on guitars, M. Nobbs on bass, and S. Gordon on drums and percussion. Their only release also has an uncertain title but is most commonly credited simply as "Music," dating back to 1969. Initially, it comprised only five tracks, but a reissue from Kissing Spell Records has recovered additional material and released the album in 2002 in a version including eight tracks and a live recording. The band’s sound is typically psychedelic rock, but contrary to what one might think, it evokes more the experiences typical of the West Coast than those commonly associated with Britain, at least not without some nuances. At times, one might even think of the Doors, although the sound of Axe is much more focused on guitar usage, which features sudden accelerations that unleash their full acidic and rock-blues vigor. There are evident references to the prevailing hippie culture of the time (for example, listen to "Peace Of Mind"), and the album also includes a cover of Arthur Lee's Love ("A House Is Not A Motel"). Keep an eye on the long three-act session of "The Child Dreams" and the live version of "Here To There." Partly due to the less-than-ideal quality of the recordings and partly due to the band's inclinations, the sound of the guitars is particularly raw, almost garage-like, which combined with Vivienne’s incredible and angelic voice results in a very, very unique combination.

#northampton #vintage #viviennejones

Axe - The Child Dreams (1969)
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1 feb 18

DeRank™: 0,00

SPACE MUSIC SPACE MUSIC SPACE MUSIC SPACE MUSIC SPACE MUSIC - - - - - - - - - -

#zot2017

Domboshawa - Minds Electrix (Drone Rock Records, August 26, 2017)

Released last year on Drone Rock Records, "Minds Electrix" is an LP by Domboshawa, a space-rock collective led by Anders Brostrom hailing, as often happens, from Northern Europe, and more precisely from the vibrant and psychedelic land of Sweden, Hagersten district in Stockholm. The album consists of six tracks of acid and psychedelic space music mostly inspired by the usual Ash Ra Tempel matrix or the long-standing revival of Acid Mothers Temple. However, it must be said that the album opens with a track, "Saturdaze," which closely resembles the David Gilmour-era Pink Floyd. But fortunately, the sound is more garage-oriented and less polished than that of the Floyd, and in any case, the album then evolves into a kind of long meditative trances, mantras made up of prolonged Spacemen 3-style sound waves, acidly repeated, where we catch drone elements ("Quicksilver," "Karlavagnen"...) and notable, imposing bass lines ("Far Beyond"...) along with a use of synths that, inserted into this dimension, produces vibrant echoes and reverberations that reach their pinnacle in "Aces High," composing a wonderful sound. The result is an album that I wouldn’t consider “essential” within the vast range of offerings in this genre, but it is a beautiful trip of psychedelic and space music that I can only suggest to enthusiasts of the genre or anyone in need of diving into an acid dimension for whatever reason. After all, we all need that from time to time.

Domboshawa - Minds Electrix(Full Album)

#SPACEMUSIC #ACID #PSYCHEDELIA
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31 jan 18

DeRank™: 0,84

Since we're on the subject of art-rock and lo-fi recordings, here's this beautiful album for the #buzz showcase, devoted to and rightly drawing on the wise suggestions of @ALFAMA.

Officer! - Dead Unique (Blackest Ever Black, April 21, 2014)

We're once again faced with another worthy retrieval work that recaptures a piece of music history from the nineties that, for various reasons, had never seen the light before 2014. "Dead Unique" is an album recorded in 1995 between Baltimore in the USA and London (UK) by Officer!, a project put together by Mick Hobbs, a London-based musician active since the late '70s and involved in various projects like Work, Lowest Note, Lo Yo Yo, and Momes, in addition to his work with This Heat and especially for his friendship with Jad Fair and collaborations in the Half Japanese scene. The conceptual and visionary closeness to Jad Fair (one of the many guests on the album, which revolves around Mick Hobbs) is evident in the various songs of the album (18 in total!) that combine art rock and garage music with UK-inspired psychedelic pop, referencing Beatles-esque experiences and the sixties. With experiments in jazz music and a minimalist, histrionic use of synthesizers, cabaret setups, horror theater, and distinctly This Heat-esque bass grooves, "Dead Unique" is an unpredictable record, bordering on insanity while also being as listenable as the latest albums from Half Japanese or the more pop releases from Flying Nun Records during their golden years and Elephant 6. If I were you, I wouldn't wait a second to listen to it: I'd dive right in "like a fish."

Officer! Someone At The Door

#halfjapanese #mickhobbs #jadfair
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31 jan 18

DeRank™: 16,62

The #zot2017 review takes you around the world with this project by Francois Cambuzat released last year on Glitterbeat.

Ifriqiyya Electrique - Ruwahine (Glitterbeat, May 26, 2017)

An incredibly interesting project published on Glitterbeat last May. The idea comes from Francois Cambuzat, leader of the Putan Club, a Frenchman, but historically connected to Southern Italy. "Ifriqiyya Electrique" is more than just a band; it could be described as the moniker he has adopted specifically for this project in which - accompanied by his long-time collaborator, bassist Gianna Greco, and Pierpaolo Leo - he literally gazes out over the Mediterranean and looks towards the adorcist ritual culture of Sidi Marzuq practiced by the Banga community, which constitutes an annual event in the black communities of Southern Tunisia. They are descendants of the Hausa slaves brought there from sub-Saharan Africa: it is a ritual of worship towards the spirits. A kind of ecstatic rite that Cambouzat has defined as post-industrial, developing it in this album titled "Ruwahine" (just like the spirits of the invocation), blending experimental and avant-rock sounds with the Sufi rituals of the Tunisian desert and the voices of Ali Choucen, Youssef Ghazala, Tarek Sultan, and Yahia Choucen, along with the indistinguishable sound of the tabla. The post-industrial fury and the powerful bass sound compulsively dominate all the compositions, combined with no-wave experimentation and the verve of the interpretations, evoking the roar of large sub-Saharan felines, akin to artists like Lydia Lunch. Yet, in some rituals beyond the arrangements, we can recognize that distant blues matrix which later develops in the new continent, and I wouldn't be surprised if some mantras and Sufi rituals recited vocally and without any instrumentation, like "Mawwel" or "Sidriiya," could ultimately make you think of Leadbelly. One world, one species, the same roots.

Ifriqiyya Electrique - Arrah arrah abbaina - Bahari - Tenouiba

#ruwahine #tunisia #glitterbeat
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30 jan 18

DeRank™: 3,48

Record from the ever-flourishing psychedelic scene of Portland (Oregon) by a group within the Dandy Warhols circle, etc.

#zot2017

Daydream Machine - The Show Must Not Go On (Picture In My Ear Records, March 07, 2017)

"The Show Must Not Go On" (Picture In My Ear Records) is the second LP by Daydream Machine, a band from Portland (Oregon) composed of Jsun Adams, Josh Kalberg, B. Mild, and Jonathan Mono. Jsun Adams is a fairly well-known musician in the Portland psychedelic scene for being the leader of the Upsidedown and for his closeness to the Dandy Warhols, particularly Peter Holstrom, with whom he shares the project Pete International Airport (they recently released a new LP). Peter Holstrom is one of the many guests on the album alongside Colin Sheridan from Federale, Matt Moore from the Upsidedown, and Nathan Junior, keyboardist for M. Ward and Rick Bain. Recorded in Gregg Williams' studio (The Trench) and mixed by Jonathan Allen, the album conceptually fits within the contemporary geopolitical context. The sound is what I would call typically psychedelic-rock, with a certain devotion to the Velvet Underground evident in songs like "Falls Out of View," the title track "The Show Must Not Go On," "Modern Prophecy," and the acoustic ballad "Tiny Galaxies." The distorted use of vocals and some darker atmospheres evoke Singapore Sling, while the rock and roll attitude is clearly the same as the Dandy Warhols, who share many points of contact. Notably, the use of synths in some cases recalls more "pop" moments of the kraut-rock sound (an element also present in the vigor of the bass sound and the repetitiveness of the patterns) of groups like Kraftwerk ("The Show Must Not Go On," "Ciggy Stardust"), creating harmonious and almost triumphant symphonic atmospheres. A great vintage-flavored rock and roll music album that will surely please fans of the Dandy Warhols and catchy psych sounds.

Daydream Machine- Modern Prophecy

#daydreammachine #dandywarhols #portland
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30 jan 18

DeRank™: 0,00

Polska Radio One Go America. A neo-psychedelic group from the Ural region, here recording a simply spectacular psychedelic music album.

#buzz

Polska Radio One - Cosmos Inside (Trail Records, 2014)

This album by Polska Radio One (Dmitry Kutnyakov, Andrei Golubev, Stepan Jee, Alexander Naumow, Feodor Sanatin) is truly of singular beauty. The group hails from Russia, specifically from the city of Ural, Ekaterinburg. The album is titled "Cosmos Inside" and was released on Trail Records in 2014. Produced by Alex Tsalikhin and Vlad Milyavsky and recorded at Rukami Sound Studios in Ekaterinburg, Russia, the album consists of nine compositions that mostly take shape as true psychedelic mantras, rich in acidity and references to Eastern sounds and quotes from Indian music typical in psychedelic music, which made me think, among the more recent groups, of Rishi Dir's Elephant Stone. However, in this case, the sound is more distinctly garage and at the same time space-rock. The title track is probably the moment that encapsulates all the elements of the album: a long ten-minute session featuring obsessive, almost tribal percussion, and the repetitiveness of kraut-rock accompanied by vibrant keyboard sounds and the powerful tones of bass and electric guitars. Filled with echoes and reverbs, and at times with dub nuances ("Morosim (2 C-P Dub)") immersed in a dimension made of liquid nitrogen, "Cosmos Inside" can be considered a sort of ideal journey through the Trans-Siberian Railway, taking us from Europe deep into the depths of Asia on the other side of that vast continent we call Eurasia. A wonderful journey.

Polska Radio One - Cosmos Inside (Full Album)

#psychedelia #russia #polskaradioone
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28 jan 18

DeRank™: 0,60

A very particular album that reveals new aspects and details with every listen.

#zot2017

Sparks - Hippopotamus (BMG Rights Management, September 08, 2017)

The return after almost ten years since their last record release from Ron and Russell Mael's Sparks (excluding the collaboration with Franz Ferdinand in 2015), one of the longest-standing bands in the history of pop-rock music and active since the early seventies, is this album titled "Hippopotamus," released on BMG Rights Management last September. Recorded in Los Angeles, the album is a collection of songs belonging to the art-rock genre, featuring a distinctly pop and easy-listening sound. Fun and imaginative, as is customary for the duo, the album alternates between chamber pop songs ("Edith Piaf," "Bummer," "A Little Bit Like Fun," "Life With the Macbeths") and more glam pieces ("Missionary Position," "Unaware," "I Wish You Were Fun," "The Amazing Mr. Repeat"). Rich in inventiveness and unique arrangements that draw from cabaret elements and delve into the realm of musicals, "Hippopotamus" is a work more theatrical than cinematic, incorporating vintage characteristics typical of a seventies sound while modernizing it in some way for today’s times. It’s an album that by its nature will likely be loved by a few, amuse many, and leave hardly anyone indifferent (especially on the first listen). So, it’s definitely a success.

#sparks #hippopotamus #artpop

Sparks - Hippopotamus (Official Video)
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28 jan 18

DeRank™: 3,00

An interesting composer of neo-classical and minimal electronic music.

#buzz

Ryan Teague - Field Drawings (Village Green, February 20, 2012)

I wasn't familiar with Ryan Teague, and it's interesting that I listened to him for the first time during the same days as the release of Nils Frahm's latest album, with whom he likely shares similar attitudes. The album in question is titled "Field Drawings" and was released in 2012 on Village Green. Composed, performed, and produced entirely by the multi-instrumentalist from Bristol (UK), "Field Drawings" is an album of compositions that fall within the neo-classical genre, primarily composed for piano and featuring the use of minimal electronic instrumentation, as well as the typical utilization of strings, which play a central role in some pieces within the grand scheme: "Cadastral Survey," "Games for Two," "Cell Cycle," "Anesidora," "Tetrametry"... Teague's approach is clearly cinematic and visual; his compositions serve as an ideal soundtrack, characterized by solemn yet minimal tones that are almost emotionally glacial, cold, as if they were calibrated and definitively calculated within a three-dimensional schematic dimension, where the notes bounce and oscillate as if programmed within a prism rotating in the empty space. Evocative and simultaneously beautiful.

#minimalism #neoclassical #ryanteague

Ryan Teague - Tetramery
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27 jan 18

DeRank™: 0,00

Three albums in three years and each one more beautiful than the last.

#ZOT2017

Heaters - Matterhorn (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond, October 20, 2017)

The unstoppable rise of Heaters from Grand Rapids, Michigan continues with "Matterhorn," the third LP in three years in a succession of releases, each one more beautiful than the last, all through the legendary Brooklyn label Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records. The psychedelia of Heaters, instead of offering drone and claustrophobic sounds, is open to inspirations filled with positive and bright energy. The compositions are open and airy, harmonious and easy to listen to, with reference points perhaps not so much in the realm of psychedelia, but rather in some of the most evocative moments of bands like Ride or in certain derivative suggestions drawn from the experiences of the Sixties West Coast, successfully reprised by Allah-Las, Mystic Braves, or Levitation Room. Even when the band accelerates, they do not lose their emotional content, and those sound suggestions loaded with effects and reverbs produce sound waves that invite you to ride them with a surfboard and sunglasses. Clearly central to their sound is the use of keyboards, and there are moments that pay homage to kraut-rock with a certain hypnotic repetitiveness of sounds, alongside a ritualistic sacredness with Eastern roots that lends the album a mystically infused variety and originality. Let's say that if Tame Impala weren't so slick and blandly pop and had a garage foundation with inspirations worthy of the best Andy Bell, then they might sound like this. But no.

#heaters #matterhorn #psychedelia

Heaters - Séance
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27 jan 18

DeRank™: 1,27

@ALFAMA has indeed proposed them to me several times, but I only listened to them properly just now. A really great all-Italian album dating back more than twenty years, when I was just a kid with glasses, acne, and had to be careful not to get beaten up in middle school by rising or already grown mobsters since they had repeated so many times that they were 17-18 years old.

#buzz

Starfuckers - Sinistri (Underground Records, 1994)

A band from Lunigiana but adopted by Bologna, the Starfuckers gained some attention in Italy during the nineties but have surely been forgotten. I actually knew very little about them before listening to this album, "Sinistri" (Underground Records), which can be considered a true expressionist manifesto and was also noted by Piero Scaruffi. Indeed, "Sinistri" is an album of true avant-garde and minimal experimentation, more akin to certain expressionistic forms of no-wave than to noise sounds or even alternative tones in the style of Massimo Volume, with which you would definitely want to associate this group for some shared obsessive atmospheres and the communication form through "spoken word," which in this case is still minimal, just like the sound, based on simple expressions, like words lost in the void and destined to resonate in the space of the compositions and repeated only a few times, but without that typical verve of Emidio Clementi. I think of various groups like This Heat or Sir Richard Bishop and an Italian band from those years, the De Glaen, who were definitely more robust in sound but had a certain math-rock root and a certain "whirling" expressionism that is present here, albeit reproduced practically in slow motion. Ambient and synthetic influences permeate the entire work, giving it a dark character and a meditative space-rock depth of a new-age mark. Marked by oppositional themes typical of the garage movement, I can only say that I was personally positively surprised by listening to this album and this group that deserves to be mentioned more often when talking about the Italian alternative scene of those now long-gone years.

Starfuckers - 251.infinito

#italia #alternative #starfuckers
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