Rocket Probes August 2010 Playlist

Les Rallizes Denudes – Heavier Than a Death in the Family / Blind Baby has it’s Mothers Eyes

(Great to finally hear these on vinyl!!!!! If you get the chance check out the guitar sound Paddy from Gnod is peddling at the moment....has a good touch of Denudes to it...noisy!!!!!)

Rother and friends – Live at Primavera

(Was lucky enough to actually catch this live, but nice to of found a download of the whole set)

One Unique Signal – Villians to Man EP

(To say they sound like the Heads is an understatement, even though they don’t hit the ‘third layer of fuzz’ you get from The Heads, they do make a bloody good fuzzed up noise, looking forward to seeing them play with Part Chimp on September 4th!!)

Boris with Michio Kurihara – Rainbows

(Bring on the FUZZZZ!!!)

Animal Collective – Oddsac soundtrack

(Repetitive and sometimes very surreal psychedelic pop...bit like what they were doing at their ‘Song Tungs’ period)

Amanaz - Africa

(Zambia’s 70s “Zamrock”, fuzz guitars, stoned chants and funky drums)

Witch - Lazy Bones

(More Zamrock Pop)

Gnod - Deadbeat Disco In Paper Error Shocker!

(Ok, incredibly biased here as this track featured as part of the Supernormal set, but this version (recorded in Bristol) from the Science & Industry cassette has been on rotation on our decks, keep your ears out for a studio version of Tony's.....to be released on Rocket in the future!)

Wolfgang Dauner - Et Cetera

(Far-out-psych-out, Kraut Jazz)

Count Ossie & The Rasta Family - Man From HIgher Heights

(Chants....Drums....Fuzz....Chants....Drums....Fuzz)

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Gnod's supernormal set

We have just about recovered from this years Supernormal festival which was a right blast...

Gnod's set were amazing, absolutely brain crushingly brilliant, best live experience this year if not in a few years, they came across like an early Hawkwind meets a Kraut Happy Mondays! Also Rocket's own Johnny O' became their dancer for the evening dressed like someone out of the Arkestra, however John's performance was not quite Stacia or Bez...more like an S1W with a sudden burst of Michael Barrymore thrown in....all I can say was it was amazing!!!!

If anyone has any more photo's of this amazing performance please let us know as we want to put them up here!!...email them to: rocketrecordings@yahoo.co.uk

Other great performances of the weekend came from Bong, Faust, Thought Forms, TOTS DJ set, Big Naturals, Sunday Mourning, Alexander Tucker, Hyrst, Gnods DJ set, Imbogodem, Proxy Music, The A-band and a big shout out to Rex Remo and the Psychick Selfdefenders who's set on the saturday created one of the most surreal live experiences we have ever witnessed, astounding!!!

You can read a great review of the weeekend here: http://rottenmeats.blogspot.com/2010/08/supernormal.html

& some more photo's of the event:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254415&id=306641226279

See you next year

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RELAX........Purchasing The Heads Reissue!

Relaxing With... is the first Heads album, its reissue, remastered and boosted with extras has been a long time coming:

Rooster is mightily proud to announce its release at last.. The Heads had self-released a couple of 7, and then Cargo UKs inhouse label Headhunter UK got to release a further 7, and then the Debut album in 1996. Amidst a world suffocating in Britpop smarm, The Heads cut a timely swathe with their unkempt rock psychedelique.

The album contained 10 tracks of guitar driven, amp destroying rock, with cues taken straight from the US underground, Stooges, MC5, Mudhoney, Pussy Galore, early Monster Magnet too but with a disitinctly British stamp, some of the drone and fuzz from Loop / Spacemen 3, some of the attitude of the Fall, Pink Fairies and Walking Seeds and overlaid with the spaced rock of early Hawkwind. It was obvious that the four members of the Heads were music obsessives.

The debut album was recorded at Foel studios (owned by Dave Anderson from Hawkwind) and engineered by Corin Dingley, it was mastered by John Dent at LOUD. For this reissue, the album has been kept on disc one in its entirety, and remastered by Shawn Joseph (he mastered their second album) and Simon Price, with the bonus disc featuring unreleased tracks (including Spliff Riff from 1991) , all the early singles tracks, a selection of their Radcliffe / Radio One Rock Show session tracks, and their first John Peel session in its entirety.

The artwork has been re-tooled and expanded excessively and obsessively by longtime art collaborator Johnny O with Simon Price to collate an appreciation of the Heads penned by a former tour manager, and dozens of fliers, unseen photos, clippings etc. A 27 track release that confirms The Heads status as a national treasure.

Released on the band's own Rooster imprint, and with all material available digitally for the first time. A limited vinyl pressing of the album only will be released in the near future. Second album & 'Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere' will be re-launched later in the year also..

To all who have contacted us enquiring where to buy the new Heads Relaxing with CD reissue, please use the link to the Heads webshop. theheads

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ON THE DECKS # 15 - Catching Up...

Catching up is a thing that I try to avoid. Even though there were 5 weeks last month…somehow time flew by without me being able to get my installment of On The Decks done. This is not due to the lack of amazing sounds that I’ve been listening to but due to some WH project deadlines. So, here we are almost at the end of August and I’m finally getting my shit together!

Over the next few months…basically from the middle of September through the middle of December I will be a busy bee with White Hills touring the US, Europe and putting together our next album.. Seeing that I might be absent around these parts until the new year, I’ve decided to come up with a list of tasty bits to tickle your ears until then…enjoy!

HIGH WOLF – Animal Totem (Not Not Fun NNF158-CS)

Debut cassette only release by this one man band from France. Amazing use of loops and layering that create ambience of the highest order. Mind altering to say the least…the perfect music for a proper mental flossing.

highwolf

WOVEN HAND – The Threshingfloor (Sounds Familyre)

Eerie, reflective, contemplative, and down right inspiring. Woven Hand has once again created and album that is beautiful and haunting at the same time. More acoustic than the last record, Ten Stones, but rocking none the less. Tracks like His Rest, Behind Your Breathe, and Raise Her Hands are some of the best David Eugene Edwards has penned to date. I can’t recommend this release enough.

wovenhand

DA CAPTAIN TRIPS – S/T (self released)

I was given this demo on a recent trip to Italy by my friend and drummer of the band Sappah. Riff heavy thundering jams is what Da Captain Trips is all about. This is some heavy ass Prog…not the Prog of flutes and wanky organ solos…but downright guitar driven Prog. The track Down These Grey Clouds reminds me a bit of High Tide. Excellent musicianship all around…these guys really know how to burn down a tight jam!

dacaptaintrip

MARK McGUIRE – Tidings/Amethyst Waves (Weird Forest Records)

Mark is a member of the fantastic group Emeralds. On this album we find Mark exploring the stratosphere alone. Ethereal echo guitar passages reminiscent of Manuel Gottsching and Gunter Schickert mixed with lush synth and a bit of down right noise provide an engaging listen from beginning to end. Highly recommended for all space travelers.

weirdforest

STEEL POLE BATHTUB – Unlistenable (Permanent Records)

Recorded in 1996 but not released until 2002 and thankfully once again in 2010 by the people at Permanent Records, Unlistenable was declined for release by the band’s then label London Records, pronouncing these recordings as “unlistenable”. The funny thing is these recordings just might be the most listenable tracks they ever recorded. For those not familiar with the SPB, they were a noise rock band from San Francisco during the 90’s that were, like many others, swept up by a major label during the Indie Rock feeding freenzy that preceeded Nirvana. The difference with SPB was they never sacrificed their vision in the process. This was a band ahead of their time and this is proven by how fresh Unlistenable sounds today. Any fan of the Melvins should track this LP down. This is a relic that should be relished today.

permanentrecords

TERMINAL LOVERS – As Eyes Burn Clean (Public Guilt)

After the release of Drama Pit and Loan (which still gets regular spins at WH central) I wondered how they could top that record. Then they released 2 Cdr’s Release Valve Rattle and Basement Tapes Vol. 2 that saw the raw energy of DP&L taken to the outter reaches of experimentation. Then I anxiously awaited the release of As Eyes Burn Clean which just happens to be a perfect mix of hard edged guitar driven rock and experimentation. Concise and to the point. This album is immediate and a great listen from beginning to end. It is time this band gets the noteriety they deserve. The world needs more rock bands like the Terminal Lovers!

terminallovers

Dave W (White Hills)

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Teeth of the Sea unfortunately pull out of Supernormal

We have just received the following message from Teeth of the Sea:

"Teeth Of The Sea are gutted to relate that, due to Sam being involved in a bike accident that’s left him with a broken collarbone, we’ve been forced to pull out of Supernormal Festival at Braziers Park next weekend, We’d been looking forward to this show for months, and want to extend our apologies to Supernormal and to anyone who was planning on coming to see us. Rest assured our absence will only inflict very minimal damage on what’s going to be a stellar festival, including live sets from the likes of Faust. Diagonal, Gnod, Bong. Alexander Tucker, Mary Hampton, Emily Breeze, Thought Forms, Proxy Music, Maria And The Mirrors, Hyrst alongside a whole host more thrills besides, with braincells being vanquished and pulses raised in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

To compensate for our absence, Mat and Jimmy TOTS will be performing a special DJ set at the caravan bar of the festival in our old spot to help prepare the assembled for the mighty Saturday night headline act, Faust. Expect a particularly potent selection of rippers that spans from psych-rock righteousness via disco hedonism to nameless interstellar freakout and all points in between.

We’ve also unfortunately been forced to pull out of our Death Trip show at CAMP on Friday August 27th with Peepholes and The Way Through. Many apologies to anyone involved in that night, which will also doubtless continue to rule in our absence. We’re hoping to return to CAMP under the Death Trip auspices at some point in the not-so-distant future.

However, fear not, we’ll be back for the attack at the Offset festival on Sunday September 5th, where we’ll be appearing alongside another fabulous line-up including Atari Teenage Riot, Eighties Matchbox, Chrome Hoof, Cluster, Rolo Tomassi, Factory Floor, Bo Ningen, Liquid Liquid and about a hundred more killer combos.

However, most exciting of all, after a gestation period that saw up losing our marbles in Manor House for six months of intensive jamming, writing, and frenziedly consuming movies of dubious origin, our second album is finished, and just awating its final master, ready to be released in November. It’s entitled ‘Your Mercury’, and it sees up spinning into a whole vertigo-inducing new orbit, above and beyond anything we’ve committed to posterity before. Rest assured you’ll be hearing a whole lot more about this opus in the weeks and months to come, as Teeth Of The Sea boldly traverse into dimensions unknown with little more than their wits and six-for-fives of premium lager to guide them.

Adios Amigos And Adversries Alike, We’ll all see y’all at Offset, but we’ll be there at Supernormal in spirit, and in some cases in body if not in mind,."

Teeth Of The Sea.

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Torbjörn Abelli RIP

Just heard the sad news that Torbjorn Abelli, bass player from International Harvester, Parsons Sound and Trad Gras och Stenar recently passed away.

Was lucky enough to catch Trad Gras play at the Luminaire recently and great to see that he was psyching out 'till the end...our thoughts go out to friends and family.

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Teeth of the Sea play Offset festival 2010

After their amazing set last year (probably their best ever show) Teeth of the Sea have been invited to play Offset festival again, alongside great bands like Cluster, Liquid Liquid, Atari Teenage Riot, Bo Ningen.....

For more information, go here

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Nothing is... spotify playlist on Quietus

Check out our Nothing is... Spotify playlist at the Quietus's website here

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IN SEARCH OF HAWKWIND

To conclude the Trensmat Sonic Attack series, friends of Rocket, Mugstar, have brainstormed this tribute to Hawkwind compilation CD, further manipulating Johnnyo's original homage to Barney Bubbles artwork. (Thanks to Jason for our copies).

The following is what Critical MASS had to say about the album:

IN SEARCH OF HAWKWIND
A Tribute Album

Release Date – Monday 27th September 2010

Critical MASS release this tribute to Hawkwind – the pre-eminent space-rock-punks who emerged in the late sixties, scorched a trail through the seventies and continue their voyage in various forms to the present day.

An impressive array of bands pay homage –Mudhoney, Bardo Pond, Acid Mothers Temple, Kinski, Magoo, Moon Duo, White Hills and Mugstar.

This CD release is the culmination of a long running project initiated by Mugstar in 2005. Originally conceived as a split 7”, or a double 7” package featuring two or four bands. The format grew over time to album length due to the fantastic response and enthusiasm from artists from around the globe eager to be involved and contribute.

First up were Seattle’s Kinski and from Japan - Acid Mothers Temple, performing Master Of The Universe and Brainstorm respectively. From Philadelphia, Bardo Pond recorded Lord Of Light. Then Mudhoney’s version of Urban Guerilla - originally recorded as a session track for the late great John Peel - was re-discovered, Mudhoney were immediately excited to have the track included. At this point, Trensmat Records, hearing of the project, mentioned that they had New York’s White Hills lining up a cover of Be Yourself for a 7” vinyl release and that it would be an excellent addition to this tribute. Trensmat then also offered to release a set of the tracks recorded so far on vinyl. This was quickly put together (with edited versions to fit the 7” format) and released as the very limited and much sought after “Sonic Attack Trilogy”. Wooden Shjips offshoot Moon Duo of San Francisco then added Hurry On Sundown. Meanwhile, back in the UK, Magoo recorded Space Is Deep. Mugstar themselves perform Born To Go and Paradox. Both recorded at Dave Anderson’s Foel Studios in Mid Wales - Dave, of course, being Hawkwind’s bass player on In Search Of Space in the early seventies. Mugstar recorded two tracks with the intention of using the most successful one. However, pleased with the way they both worked out, decided to include them both.

Interestingly, the contributors were originally asked simply to record a Hawkwind track of their choice, yet all nine selections are drawn from Hawkwind’s stunning first five releases – Hawkwind, In Search Of Space, Doremi Fasol Latido, Space Ritual and Hall Of The Mountain Grill, - a classic era.

So, finally here it is, beautifully presented in silver and black digipak, the full-length versions of all the recordings brought together to deliver over an hours worth of super-charged space-rock assault.

1. KINSKI – MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE
2. MUGSTAR – BORN TO GO
3. MAGOO – SPACE IS DEEP
4. BARDO POND – LORD OF LIGHT
5. MUDHONEY – URBAN GUERILLA
6. ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE COSMIC INFERNO – BRAINSTORM
7. MOON DUO – HURRY ON SUNDOWN
8. WHITE HILLS – BE YOURSELF
9. MUGSTAR – PARADOX

Critical Mass Recordings

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SERPENTINA SATELITE - MECANICA CELESTE New Record Sampler

SERPENTINA SATELITE - MECANICA CELESTE

Launch038

New Record Sampler

While Mission Control finalise the last details of 038, here is a taster of what is sitting on the launch pad. The album will be jettisoned within a cyan foil sleeve & is due for take off on the 6th September 2010 (weather permitting).

Tracklist:

1. FOBOS
2. SANGRE DE GRADO
3. MECANICA CELESTE
4. IMAGINEZ QUEL BONHEUR CE SERA DE VOIR NOS CHERS DISPARUS RESSUSCITÉS!
5. AI APAEC
6. SENDERO

SERPENTINA SATELITE - MECANICA CELESTE new record sampler by SERPENTINA SATELITE

For further music and information visit:

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SPREAD THE WORD!

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