29 Sept 2011

Rocket Probes September 2011 Playlist


Serpentina Satelite - Nothing to Say
(The South American Stooges in space 1st album, the best band of its kind we've heard from that continent)

Pulp - Space
(Spacey synths, fuzz wah guitar, free drumming and monotone Jarvis dialogue on space travel that morphs into a kraut/glam stomp)

Dwarr - Animals
(Lost 80s metal album that’s recently been unearthed by Drag City...sounds like a slightly prog'ier Sabbath with added moog squelches and wah)

Motorhead - On Parole / 1977 Peel Session
("You can call me Motorhead, alright!")

Belong - Come See
(US shoegaze that sticks a thick haze of guitar/keyboard fuzz and ethereal vocals over a motorik drum machine and looping bass)

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
(For usual readers this may seem like an odd choice for the Rocket playlist, but this lp has been on Mission Control’s decks a lot this year...a great album where more than once she and her band tip their hat to ‘Can’)

Ashtray Navigations – 3 Rockets Thicken
(Another great 7" from the fantastic Trensmat records)

Hawkwind - Leave No Star Unturned
(You're trying to fly, you get nowhere)

Pipedream - The Journey from Hamburg to Iceland
(Del Dettmar's mid 90's space rock voyage)

Cave - Neverendless
(Motorik exertion's)

Dinosaur Jnr - You're Living All Over Me
(Pivotal album for Rocket, along with Mudhoney, this is where we first heard Fuzz guitars)

Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
(A plethora of YLT sides, moods and shades)

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White Hills European Tour 2011



WHITE HILLS EUROPEAN TOUR DATES 2011

30.09. NL Den Bosch W 2
01.10. B Leuven Het Depot
02.10. GER Cologne Underground
03.10. GER Heidelberg Kosmodrom
04.10. A Wien Arena
05.10. A Feldkirch Graf Hugo
06.10. GER Stuttgart 1210
07.10. GER Weimar E Werk
08.10. GER Cottbus Blue Moon Festival
09.10. GER Berlin White Trash
10.10. GER Hamburg Molotow Bar
11.10. GER Bielefeld AJZ
12.10. GER Nürnberg Kunstverein
13.10. CH Olten Coq d´or
14.10. GER Würzburg Cafe Cairo
15.10. GER Darmstadt 603 qm
17.10. ITA Savignano Sul Rubicone (RN) Sidro Club
18.10. ITA Roma Sinister Noise Club
19.10. ITA Quero (BL) Plettro Alternative Sound
20.10. CH Martigny Les Caves Du Manoir
21.10. F Besancon La Cour des Miracles
22.10. NL Maastricht, Musikgiterij
23.10. UK Birmingham, Supersonic Festival
24.10. UK London, Corsica

Keep your eye out for the up & coming re-release of 'Heads On Fire', available on Rocket in all good shops on the 24th of October.

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28 Sept 2011

GNOD confirmed for Roadburn 2012



After many rumors of an impending epiphany, the all-mighty GNOD are finally confirmed at ROADBURN 2012.

Here’s what Roadburn have to say:

It’s really hard to pin down Salford UK’s psych/metal renegades Gnod, their distinctive take on psychedelia is not just otherworldly, but also grounded in terrestrial styles like Afro-beat, krautrock, drone, jazz, space rock and even dance music. Gnod excels at the illusion of repetition whereby its motorik rhythms underpin a myriad of shifting hypnotic textures. As of now, Gnod have released approx. twelve full-length albums, each seemingly materializing from the aether, as the band is surrounded in mysticism. Their lengthy live-jams are created by an ever changing cast, of which there is hardly any information available.

However, Gnod will leave their collective residency at Salford’s Islington Mill — a creative arts space where they live and rehearse — to fog our brains and eyeballs with a wash of hallucinations, while enticing our bodies to lose control to the propulsive, repetitive beats at the very same time. Gnod will play Roadburn 2012 on Friday, April 13th.


Check further details here:
roadburn-2012

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26 Sept 2011

Pre-Sale ONEIDA / MUGSTAR - Ltd Grey vinyl available




ONEIDA / MUGSTAR - Collisions II (LAUNCH044)
Release Date: 03 October 2011

INVADA RECORDS have been provided with a limited amount of GREY O/M vinyl's - these are NOT available in the shops - only black version will be, so once they have sold out, that is it.

Pre-order your limited GREY vinyl here:

For more information e-mail:

Teeth of the Sea - Aquarius Records review



Possible one of the the best record shop's in the world Aquarius Records (in San Francisco) have written the following about Teeth of the Sea - 'Your Mercury'.

The AQ review is to coincide with the US availability of the LP which was only available on import up until now & we couldn't have agreed more with their comments.

We apologise for reproducing it on our blog, but as we feel they totally hit the nail upon the head, it just had to be used.


Teeth of the Sea - Your Mercury

This is the second lp from UK psychedelic instrumental space rockers Teeth Of The Sea, their third record over all, and another twisted batch of heavy twisted psych, it makes sense that it would be on Rocket, home to other aQ fave space rock heavies like The Heads and Gnod, and these guys traffic in a similar sound, but one that is most definitely all their own, just check out opener "The Ambassador", one of THEE heaviest, trippiest slabs of space psych we've ever heard, thick low slung bassline, weird burbling electronics, tripped out processed vox, all hazy and buzzy and gristly, it sounds like a spaced out dirge rock Butthole Surfers almost, the guitars thick and distorted, the song a lugubrious crawl, until a second guitar swoops in, playing a slithery stoner riff, and the horns, the HORNS, bleating out a dark funereal drone, those freaky voices making everything way more druggy and demented, the drums come pounding in, it's not until about halfway through, that the guitars unwind wild peals of psychedelic leads, the drums grow more tribal, and yet, it never full explodes into conventional space rock, this is something else entirely, the song blisses out part way through, weird sci-fi squelches and more horns drifting in an expanse of distant guitar shimmer, and muted rhythms, everything gradually fading out leaving just tabla like drumming, subtle organs and swirls of electronic bloops and bleeps, and hell if that's not the way to start a record...

And the rest of the record, defies convention still by never quite settling down into anything even resembling proper space rock or psych rock, even compared to their last record we reviewed, this is as about far out as it gets. The next track is all drum machine, weird industrial electronics, processed voices, swirling synths, almost like some heavier take on Goblin / Carpenter soundtrack stuff. The title is all horn flecked slow burn drift, a gradual build to a more post rock crunch, building to a sort of Godspeed climax, but one that's all super high end guitar tangles draped over the otherwise seemingly sedate sonic background, dramatic and tense and surprisingly cinematic. The rest of the record continues to take the concept of psychedelic space rock and twist it all up, from pulsing kosmische synths, to almost cheesy, eighties sounding soundtrack music, like a more metal Beverly Hills Cop or Miami Vice (!), to murky hazy washed out ambience, all muted processed guitars and blurred gauzy melodies, to a weird final track that's a hazy shoegazey soundscape of minimal drumming, chiming guitars, and lots and lots of horns, again very haunting and cinematic, and really quite gorgeous.

Weird these guys seems to still lurk so beneath the radar, might be cuz they're just to far out and freaky for the psych/space rock crowd, which is a shame really, cuz this is some of the coolest stuff we've heard in ages.

Check out another Rocket favourite 'Gum Takes Tooth's review, plus load more cool stuff here:


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GNOD & HIGH WOLF (Annapurna illusion's alter ego) - Live



To assist the currently available Annapurna Illusion - Life is an Illusion relaese, Rocket have posted this Soundcloud collaborative live set by GNOD & HIGH WOLF (Annapurna Illusion's alter ego). The gig was recorded in support of Teeth of the Sea's 'Your Mercury' album Launch - in 22nd November 2010 & we rather like it.



Annapurna Illusion - Life is an Illusion is available in all good record shops.

See & hear:
Take a look at the vinyl images:


Serpentina Satelite - Nothing to Say - available 28th OCTOBER



On the 28th of October 'Serpentina Satelite - Nothing to Say' 'will be available through Trip in Time in all its 12" Rocket designed artwork glory.

Check out these South American Stooges in space & especially the Rocket released LP 'Mecanica Celeste'.


Trip in Time:

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GNOD - INGNODWETRUST - Concluding Rite - Drumcunt Remix & Psychotropic Zone Review



The psychedelic music club 'Psychotropic Zone' have reviewed INGNODWETRUST, read it here:


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Listen to the Drumcunt remix of Vatican


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GNOD have posted some of their back catalogue for your listening pleasure:

soundcloud.com/gnod

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19 Sept 2011

Annapurna Illusion - Life Is An Illusion - LAUNCH!




Annapurna Illusion - Life Is An Illusion (Launch043)

!!!!!!!OUT TODAY!!!!!!!

In the highs of the Nepalese mountains, the spirits of the dead
are alive and well, their mantra’s chant atop mossy ruined
temples to the Kosmische jams brewed by the melted soul
of the mysterious Annapurna Illusion.

Rocket Recordings are proud to introduce the pyramidal
meditationist ‘Life is an Illusion’ album by France’s
Annapurna Illusion, the evil twin of Not Not Fun’s High Wolf.

Annapurna Illusion's dark Krautrock aesthetic reveal itself in
tracks showered in shamanic dust and rolled tight in a soupy,
psychedelic batter. Life is an Illusion is scattered with fizzing
electric guitars and ambient ragas which unfurl with the might
of a psychedelic blizzard, fogging the sponges of the brain and
eyeballs with a wash of hallucinations where Ash Ra Temple
jam for hours on end with Loop.

Tropical repetitive rhythms drone and drift, guided by a swarm
of breezy effects and celestial layered synths that engulf the
base of the mountain in hypnotic swirls of colourful head
spinning rituals before zipping airborne to glide in a state
of tranced euphoria.

Escapism is bottled and prescribed with each dose of these
6 entrancing mysteries, Life is an Illusion draws from the
same smoke filled breath as fellow explorers Emeralds,
Stellar Om Space, Dylan Ettinger as well as those great
Kosmische artists, AR Machines, Klaus Schulze
and Harmonia.

Proceed from the dream outward and encounter the
Annapurna cinerama in its full illusion.


Tracklist:








Annapurna Illusion - Life Is An Illusion is available from all good record shops.



Annapurna Illusion - Life is an Illusion - Album Sampler by Rocket Recordings


Take a look at the vinyl:

The Ransom Note: Nothing Is Volume 1 - featuring exclusive Teeth of the Sea remix



For those Rocketeer's with a more open mind, check out The Ransom Note website Nothing Is Volume 1 mix and short interview with co Rocket's Rik Motör DJ, Jamie Paton.

The mix features an exclusive Cage & Aviary remix of Teeth of the Sea's - Sentimental Journey

theransomnote.co.uk/Jamie-Paton-Exclusive-Mix/

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Rocket Recordings - Label Review by Hawkwind Biographer


Does exactly what it says on the tin... Hawkwind biographer Ian Abrahams reviews all things SpaceRock related, from CDs and DVDs to Demos and Myspace Pages. Plus Psych, Stoner, Garage, Krautrock and whatever else strikes a power chord or two!

Read Ian's reviews for the latest Rocket releases:

Annapurna Illusion - Life is an Illusion
Mugstar / Oneida - Collisions 02
Gnod - INGNODWETRUST


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Supernormal Review - The Wire


The Wire magazine have done a write up of this years Supernormal Festival, here is a link to a 2 page PDF of the event:


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17 Sept 2011

Branchage Festival 2011 - Teeth of the Sea



The Guardian newspaper has written a short review of the up & coming Branchage Festival, this one sounds like a perfect Rocket event & of course features our very own Teeth of the Sea, 'an eclectic mix of music-backed movies', read it here:

guardian.co.uk/film/2011

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Branchage Festival 2011
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Teeth of the Sea presents REAPER
[a re-imagining of Neil Marshall’s DOOMSDAY]

Saturday, 24th September
Jersey Arts Centre
20:30 - 21:30

Teeth Of The Sea, London's most intrepid and adventurous psychedelic rock band, have always looked to the extraordinary and outlandish for inspiration, and been as influenced by books and films as by music. With this in mind, some of their biggest influences include the films of Neil Marshall: Dog Soldiers and The Descent have both made their marks on the band's psyche, but by far the closest to the band's collective heart is Doomsday, the hyperreal, volatile and audacious 2008 Frankenstein's monster of a movie that follows a perilous journey to the maws of Armageddon via a killer virus, a retro-futurist medieval society ruled by gangs of marauding punks and/or Malcolm McDowell, and no small amount of blood and gore, putting the viewer in mind of the very best classic 2000AD scripts.

One of the most attractive facets of Doomsday for Teeth Of The Sea has always been its freewheeling approach, not to mention its disregard for conventional notions of narrative structure and a disregard for genre. With this in mind, the band have decided to offer a re-imagining of the movie, taking the most visceral, dramatic and colourful debacles and denouements and turning them into a riot of disorientation that they could then match with a soundtrack that would do its damnedest to challenge it for sheer chutzpah and otherworldly allure. The result, Reaper (named after the movie's killer virus) is a kind of psychedelic reconfiguration that the band will interact with musically to create something truly original and nightmarishly thrilling. Indeed, if there is such a thing as hell on earth, this will hopefully be it.

For full programme line up and further details visit:

13 Sept 2011

Introducing: ONEIDA / MUGSTAR - Collisions II



ONEIDA / MUGSTAR - Collisions II (LAUNCH044)


TRACKLIST:

01
ONEIDA
SHAHIN’S BONG
(15:32)

02
MUGSTAR
EUROPEAN NIHILISM
(16:39)

Release Date: 03 October 2011


For millions of years a signal emitted earthbound. It had circled the heavens, awaiting a moment of destiny that might never come. Now the long wait is ending, an ancient experiment is about to reach it’s climax.... time we left this world today.

This isolated event observes The People of the Upright Stone: New York’s Oneida and Liverpool’s Mugstar, exert overdriven oscillating forces on an interstellar trip of humming ohm amps and shifting clusters where time shuttles flickering back and forth between eons.

Explore the second in the Rocket Recordings odyssean collisions series; mission operations ‘Collisions 02’ and joyride this twin engine release, immersing yourself wide eyed with dilated pupils into this starry firmament.

The proceedings lift off with Oneida’s moiré patterned ‘Shahin’s Bong’. This pulsating kaleidoscopic maelstrom illuminates Oneida at their most free’est, from its beginning which implodes under its own stress, wherein drums scatter, amps buzz, strings are stressed, and modulators hum, the O’s ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ in reverse, twists and turns, drops in drops out, gradually becoming coherent to the point of no return. Then like an explosive bolt bursting your head to a classic Oneida groove, a dubbed out motorik rush cuts its way through a soup of analogue fuzz and drones. Oneida drive you to an outer limit of the visual field, you have been shown infinity, empty of all stars.


INTERMISSION


Mugstar set chase with their own odyssean endeavor ‘European Nihilism’, the Aurora Borealis viewed from within. With the hum and drone of layered synths, drawing the listener in, these psychedelic warlords hit you hard with a supercolossal Hawkwind’esque rockout like a centrifugal force that twists and turns morphing on a continual humming of valves, into the artifice of repetitive noise until at saturation point the asymptotic curve annihilates you in the quest for the perfect ion. The music then clings on the brink of vertigo and hangs immersed in an ethereal gulf like swarms of sentient electric particles, until eventually breaking through to a blissed out finale with echoed vocals ushering in a new light. We must admit, this could be Mugstars masterpiece!

So celebrate O/M’s twin attributes with us and emerge from your chrysalis, the way out is through the unhinged doors!



For more information e-mail:

GNOD Chaudelande Volume I - Pre-order



Rocket would like to introduce 'Tamed Records'
GNOD - Chaudelande Volume 1.
Having been sent the tracks by the band sometime back they have barely left our playlist & therefore we would like to support the band with our
highest approval
, so order your copy via the French label before they disappear.

PRE-ORDER !!! OUT 20TH OCTOBER 2011 !!!

Mancunians GNOD started their last european tour to date by spending a couple of days in the Studio Chaudelande, a small house made of bricks and passion, somewhere in the Normandy countryside (France). They recorded new songs that are now released as a two volumes LP series on Tamed Records. "Chaudelande Volume I" contains three songs which demonstrated the multi-faceted universe of GNOD. From the heaviest spacerock parts they ever recorded to meditative neo-folk influenced moments of calmness and introspection, this new recording marks a new step in GNOD cosmic procession. "Chaudelande Volume I" is the first release on Tamed Records scheduled for october the 20th and we're happy to start the adventure with such a great record!

tamedrecords.com

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9 Sept 2011

BUY - Kandodo - The Heads side project



Due to one of The Heads members becoming a father again the bands online shop will probably been alittle out of action for a short while.

Congratulations on the news, in the meantime frontman Simon Price's HEADS side project KANDODO is now available on CD via Rough Trade shops here:

Further info is available here:


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Mugstar - 'Collisions 02' preview taster



Liverpool's Mugstar have continued their remarkable journey traversing the sonic galaxy by teaming up with long-time influence Oneida.

The two bands are to collaborate on an epic 12" split vinyl Collisions 02 on Rocket released on Monday October 3rd.

Here is a sneak preview excerpt of the outro section of the Mugstar track thanks to 'Getintothis' website. (please note the wrong artwork is used on the site)

GNOD - Up & coming Gigs


TRANSIENT CONSTELLATIONS
17th September
Gnod, Gum takes Tooth, Dethscalator, Drunk in Hell & More
Windmill Brixton, London
transientconstellations

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14th October
UT!, Gnod & Float Riverer
Yorkshire House, Lancaster
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26th October
SILVER APPLES, Gnod & Nolan Watkinson
Night & Day, Manchester

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HUNTERS MOON FESTIVAL
28th - 30th October
TONY CONRAD & more
Carrick on Shannon, Co. Leitrim, Ireland

8 Sept 2011

Annapurna Illusion - Life is an Illusion - REVIEW



Annapurna Illusion - Life Is An Illusion (Launch043)

Release Date: 19th September 2011

Rocket Mission control has received a second Annapurna Illusion review via The Liminal website, read the full review here:
Read what Julian Cope had to say:
Read the press release:



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