Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation – Take me beyond (Gnoomes remix) (Amazing krauty techno remix of the great JO+TL single by Gnoomes ...hope to get this out in 2016!) Negra Branca – O Anzol (Another great track from Marlene from Gnod...taken from the next Rail Cables compilation) Negra Branca AYN SØF – AYN SØF (Great new project by Paddy from Gnod) AYN SØF Minami Deutsch – Minami Deutsch (Great album of psychkraut sounds from Japan on the great Cardinal Fuzz, maybe the labels best ever release!!) Minami Deutsch Coldnose – Zeon light tape (Really great psyched out acid techno) Coldnose Radioland - Radio Activity revisited (Nice reimagined version of the Kraftwerk klassic) Radioland The Comet is Coming - Prophecy (Psyched synth n' sax grooves from Melt yourself Down members) The Comet is Coming Cut Hands - Festival of the dead (Another great album of tribal techno) Cut Hands Drmcnt – Teenager (Hey Colossus's Drmcnt creates a new track that's taken from a forthcoming compilation called KVLT ACID) Drmcnt The Chipmunks - On 16rpm (Silly yes, but also rather bloody good...like Earth meets Low) The Chipmunks
The review reads: The vast majority music that I listen to is, for want of a better word, dirty. It usually has lots of fuzzed up guitar and other effects: sonics that are foggy and dense. Every so often though a record comes along that is clean and clear that I just really take to my heart. Such a record has to be bloody good to drag me away from my fug-filled reverie because why would I want to move away from what I like and know I like. The latest in a very short line of albums to do this is the new release from Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation, yet another innovative ‘psych’ combo from Stockholm (like Goat, Les Big Byrd and Hills to name just three). In one way it stays within my comfort zone, being released by Rocket Recordings: a label who very rarely release something that I do not like. This, however, is something else. While it is an album that most definitely has psychedelic leanings with its motorik beats and Can/ Neu intensity in places, there is more than that going on here. This is also a pop album, and an album that is as cool as fuck. This is no manufactured X Factor shite, this is the real deal... Read the rest here: BackSeat Mafia – Also, check out their Top 20 Psych Albums in the year as it features Teeth of the Sea, Gnod, Hills and Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation See the full run down here: Top 20 Psych Albums ---
The great Baba Yaga Hut are putting Hey Colossus on at London Fields Brewery on with support from the band Ill on 10 March. You can buy a ticket here: Baba Yaga Hut ---
The latest BBC Click programme is all about music technology and the show features an live footage of Teeth of the Sea from their recent album launch at London Fields Brewery...plus some words of wisdom from Jimmy.. You can watch the episode (dated 28.11.15) here: BBC Click ---
Oneida's new EP Positions is released today. You can buy LTD Vinyl only from here: Rocket Bandcamp
- ONEIDA - Positions Possessed of a restless spirit and an uncompromising approach, Brooklyn’s peerless experimental rock iconoclasts Oneida have been delighting and perplexing the wider world for some eighteen years now, never once settling into a recognisable style on a continuing mission that has blown minds, furrowed brows and spun heads at every turn. Informed by the art-orientated mindset of krautrock, the chutzpah of post-punk and the radical ethos of minimalism, yet never falling prey to cliche or homage along the way, this is a band who’ve always seen predictability and comfort as sworn enemies, relentlessly forging forward with a fierce experimental drive . With this in mind, the fact that their new EP ‘Positions’ on Rocket Recordings sees them hammering out two cover versions might initially seem like a look backwards for the band, as they take on work from those artists whom they’ve drawn succour and inspiration. Yet as ever with this outfit, things are not that simple, and this 29-minute opus is anything but. In selecting songs by This Heat and Chrome - two bands who have affected the band as much in reckless adventure and synapse-shifting innovation as in revolutionary sonics, the fivesome use the rhythmically intense mantras of the former’s ’S.P.Q.R.’ and the latter’s interstellar trash-trawl of ‘All Data Lost’ - rendered here as a thrilling and intimidating 16 minute psychic voyage - as mere jumping-off points for searing blasts of kaleidoscopic invention and white-hot intensity that destroy boundaries and defy categorisation at every turn. Adding their own sinister drone-based mantra ‘Under Whose Sword’ for good measure, the result is a work as potent and intense as it is fierily forward-gazing. Rocket Recordings have been fans and friends of Oneida for some time, having released a vinyl version of their ‘Anthem Of The Moon’ record back in 2003, and they’re delighted to be releasing the latest chapter of the storied history of a band who still stand apart from most any reductive genre tags, maintaining a freshness and vitality that render them a unique and inspirational force, reinventing the soundworld and spirit of psychedelia for all to bear witness A band who continue to exist outside of scene, time and place, with their feet firmly on the accelerator in search of oblivion and the unknown, to which ‘Positions’ bears mighty testimony. ---
It reads: Concluding their series of ‘Rocket Shop Exclusive’ EPs, venerated psych rock label Rocket Recordings are set to issue Positions, by Brooklyn psych-prog outfit Oneida on November 27th. Home to US psych rock maximalists Hills and Italian space rock crew Lay Llamas, the release will be the third in the sequence. The new Oneida release follows in the steps of Italian proggists Mamuthones who issued an impressively irreverent cover of The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For the Devil in September. Succeeding the Liverpool Psych Fest alumni were Capri Informis, an offshoot of GOAT, who played a legendary set at the festival in 2012. The first music released by the Swedish experimental rock group, the released by Capri Informis was the first music from the project, established by GOAT’s unnamed djembe player. Oneida's new EP Positions sees the group covering two treasured influences, late 1970s London experimentalists This Heat and San Fran industrial pioneers Chrome. Representing the former is an intense version of S.P.Q.R. (check out the Soundcloud link below) and a 16 minute psychedelic voyage into the latter’s All Data Lost. A new Oneida original, the mantric drone of Under Whose Sword completes the set. Read the full piece here: Bearded And preorder the ltd vinyl that is released tomorrow only from here: Rocket Bandcamp ---
We are VERY excited to announce that Goat will be playing Field Day Festival next year...joining artists like PJ Harvey, Thurston Moore, Ata Kak, Four Tet and more. This is the first show the band have confirmed for 2016! Field Day London Victoria Park Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 June Tickets from here: Field Day ---
So as mentioned in previous posts Resident and Rough Trade featured Rocket releases in their End of Year charts. Well now we have Sister Ray, Normans and Piccadilly: Sister Ray No.3 / Hills – Frid No.37/ Teeth of The Sea – Highly Deadly Black Tarantula Normans No.7 / Shit & Shine – 54 Synth-Brass, 38 Metal Guitar, 65 Cathedral Near miss / Teeth of The Sea – Highly Deadly Black Tarantula Near miss / Gnoomes – Ngan! Piccadilly No. 94 / Shit & Shine – 54 Synth-Brass, 38 Metal Guitar, 65 Cathedral ---
It reads... Columnfortably Numb: Psych Reviews For November Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation - Horse Dance Like Dream All Over, Horse Dance has a strong opener in 'Dunes'. The track's repetitive backing throbs make it virtually impossible to resist nodding along. What do you call it when you end up nodding along with the whole of your physical frame? A full body nod? That's what I was doing anyway. As with Gun Outfit, there's a Neu! thing going on here but this time it's executed in a far cleaner, less ragged and fuzz-free way. It's the kind of glistening psych you'd imagine that bloke from LCD Soundsystem streams through his 4G lapel button while designing luxury furniture or whatever he does these days. The music floats along like a Phil Manley or Jonas Munk solo release, albeit with a charismatic Swedish lass whispering over the top, Josefin sounding cool to the point of jaded disinterest. I realise I'm unintentionally making Horse Dance come across as an odious hipster elevator soundtrack, a maliciously gentrifying corruption of the nebulous Rocket label, but it's actually really neat because you can't just listen to hairy males stomping on distortion pedals all your life, mate. Historically, psych-rock has been a proper sausage fest and the likes of Josefin Öhrn (and Carrie Keith, see above) show there are viable alternatives to the vacuous psych of the Cyruses. Capra Informis - Womb Of The Wild I am reliably informed that Capra Informis is Latin for "shapeless goat", which is apt because this is a new project from one member of the Swedish world-music psych-fusion collective Goat, specifically their "unnamed djembe player".......Maybe it's too early to judge from this slight EP but I may like its shapeless side-project more than the proper, solidly-formed Goat. The latter band can be excessively exuberant at times, whereas Womb Of The Wild stays slow, understated and om-like. The first song's a meditative chant with blurred edges. The title piece is more riff-based and nasty-sounding, with sinister hints of Dead Skeletons or the Tomahawk tracks where Mike Patton channels his Native American ancestry. The organ-licious final number, on the other hand, sounds like a missing scene from Phantom Of The Opera where Erik naffs off to a Moroccan hippy retreat for some much-needed holistic bongo therapy. See the full piece here: The Quietus ---
It reads... Here we are then, around fifteen years late, but it finally feels as if the end of the millennium has arrived. As the forces of power and terror mass within and without a great dystopian darkness seems to be falling on the land. As while the mainstream media continues to spew out ephemera to keep the masses diverted away from it all, at the margins of culture there seems to be an awakening of macabre meaning. The new Teeth of the Sea has arrived like no other, by anyone. This is an album that has a ‘fuck you’ strength to it, yet closer inspection reveals an altogether more subtle and fragile sense of reality that suggests a real fear for the present and, I am sure, the future.
The album’s opener ‘All My Venom’ begins with a monotone, indeed monochrome, chord through which the lightness of a trumpet shines through. This is overpowered by a huge electronic beat and the sound of a far more sinister trumpet, and guitar. There seem to be two things competing here, hope and alienation. As the track plays out the whole track becomes more and more sombre, building into a huge crescendo and the scene unfolds with even some guitar reminiscent of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds: they are here! Who they are is not clear, more alienation than alien, but at just past five minutes into the track it explodes and the venom pours out: you can feel the anger and the despair in this huge moment of catharsis. This is music at it’s most powerful, music designed to overcome! I am exhausted and only at the end of track 1. Read the rest of the interview here: Back Seat Mafia ---
Paul Hanford will be airing an interview he did with Josefin Öhrn this Thursday on Hoxton Radio between 4-6pm. He’ll also be playing music from their debut album album 'Horse Dance'. More info here: Hoxton Radio
It reads: ...We spotted Josefin in amongst people drinking a beer whilst her fellow band members set up their gear onstage. With only minutes to spare things got off to a shaky start: one of the guitars was dropped and smashed, writing it off completely. But being one instrument down wasn’t going to hold things back for Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation; brushing aside the incident in style, they wasted no time at all, tearing into the introduction of their set. It began with a simple kick drum, and bass that evolved into one hell of a groove, with spooky, delayed guitar sounds glazing over the surface. Josefin, centre stage, was dressed immaculately in black and looked slick to the bone with her hair skimming the microphone as she swung from side to side, wholly immersed in the moment. It was a cool sight indeed.
Their breakthrough single, ‘Take Me Beyond’, saw people in the crowd edging closer to the stage and from this point onwards the room was pretty much packed out. The ever-present thud of its motor drum rhythm went on in ceaseless effort and in response a flock of heads… Read the rest of the glowing review here: Disorder ---
French website Hartzine interviewed us and asked us to put together a mixtape of music we are currently listening to. You can read the full interview (in French) here: Hartzine – However, here is the interview , mixtape and track rundown of the playlist here: 01.Tell me how did Rocket Recordings get started? What was your main motivation in this project? Is it always intact? CHRIS: Rocket was born at a Heads show at the Louisiana in Bristol in 1997. Myself and Simon Healey (who unfortunately left Rocket in 2008) were there and our close friend Gareth Turner (now in Anthroprophh/Big Naturals) was in a band called Lillydamwhite who were supporting. And after the 'Damwhites' scuzzy, psych-punk set, myself and Simon drunkenly said to each other that we should set up a label and release a 7" by Lillydamwhite. Then the next morning once the nights excesses had faded we chatted again and realised that it was a damn fine idea and we should set up a record label. Apt then that our first release 6 months later was a split 7" with The Heads and Lillydamwhite. Then soon after the first couple of releases (7"s by Sawdust Caesars and Thee Hypnotics) were out there John joined Rocket which was great as we all worked full time so we could spread the running of Rocket out between the three of us. And what was the motivation? A love for independent records, a love of 7"s, and probably because of just wanted to be involved in the world of music!! 02. Chris & John, you are visual artists. Can you explain to us the link between your label and your art? Have you realize yourselves all the artwork of your label? CHRIS: Well the 'art' of music has always been important because sleeve art has always been a big influence on us. The way a record looks is what first connects you to the music. Well it used to be more - before the internet age most musical discovery was done in record shops and seeing sleeves on the racks was what pulled you in. But also the fascination of the sleeve art when you first listen to a particular record, you study the sleeve and it's inserts as the music blasts out, it visualises the world the music soundtracks. And as we are both visual artists we try and ensure a good aesthetic in all our sleeves, as it is very important to us!
03. The label is seventeen years old. Can you indicate us the big dates of this adventure? CHRIS: Well there have been some big chapters for us, can't remember exact dates, but some key events are: – Release of Launch001 our first release in 1998 – The release of our first album, by Bristol band Suncoil Sect – Due to hitting rock bottom financially and by being sevearly let down by a certain (unamed) person we joined forces with Geoff Barrow's Invada Records for a few years which was a massive help for us. We are forever indebted to Geoff, Paul and Redg for the support they gave us and continued support today!! – Our 10th anniversary party where The Heads, White Hills, Notorious Hi Fi Killers, Big Naturals, Teeth of the Sea and Sawdust Caesars played – Leaving Invada in a really healthy state and very soon after discovering Teeth of the Sea and Gnod – Curating the second Supernormal Festival and filling the bill with Rocket bands and close friends. – The release of Goat's World Music and seeing them blow peoples minds livd around the world – Releasing our 15th Anniversary compilation which was a mix of bands in our roster and future stars of the world of psych infused noise – Curating stages at Liverpool and Eindhoven psych fests and seeing thousands of people losing their shit to the music of our bands – Seeing Goat's Commune album go top 30 and seeing them sell out London's Roundhouse and headline major festivals – Goat's It's Time For Fun 7" going straight to No.1 in the Official UK vinyl singles chart.
04. What's the artistic guideline of the label? Is there a musical aesthetics, a concept which you try to keep at every release? There is an evolution compared with the origin, no isn't it?
CHRIS:Our sound definitely has changed over the years, but I would say there is a loose 'psych' thread that has gone through all our releases since Launch01 all the way up to the latest Launch089 release I would say we have become more subjective as when we started there weren't too many psych bands where now there are so, so many. Before we would of released, maybe a more 'trad' sounding psych band where now we only really go for bands that bring something new to the table, bands that don't just copy the music they hear in their records in their collection, they take the sounds they like and create something new grom them!! 05 What kind of labels inspired you in your approach? For you, fight for a label as Rocket Recordings, is it always a philanthropic approach? CHRIS: Well when we started it was labels like Sub Pop, Sympathy for the Record Industry, Amphetamine Reptile, Alternative Tentacles that influenced us the most. But since our birth many other labels have influenced us. For me personally it has been old labels like Vertigo, Brian, Sky, Rough Trade, Factory etc and labels who have been going while we have been around like Warp, Lex, Mo Wax, Domino, Drag City, Not Not Fun, Invada, Finders Keepers, Diagonal etc Basically the labels who influence us are the labels who have always taken risks, labels who have not been afraid of championing the bands that don't fit into boxes, labels that see the importance of the art of the music and try to push the design and packaging beyond the norm. 06. As label owners, does the DIY have a strong influence on your work? Do you still consider Rocket Recordings like a home-made label? CHRIS: Of course, DIY is still extremely important, as that is what we are!! Myself and John are the labels A&R, we are the labels designers, we are the labels managers, we are the labels accountants, we create our own videos, we create light shows for our bands, we DJ at our shows, we do everything. So yes, we really are a home made label...yes we have a studio/warehouse in Bristol where John is based, but I still work from my kitchen table at my home in Hackney Wick in London! 07. According to you, what artists shaped the direction of the label? How did you meet Gnod, White Hills or Craig Clouse? CHRIS: Well, we have met all our bands different ways! But for the ones you have mentioned - Gnod we met at a Lava Thief (label/promoter run by my now wife and member of the Invada band Thought Forms, Charlie Romijn) all-dayer in Trowbridge where Teeth of the Sea were playing. We had spoken to Gnod a few times via email but never met and but when we did we hit it off straight way. Then when we saw them live we knew we had to work with this band. They are and have been an amazing bunch of people. White Hills was again via email, they contacted us asking if we would be interested in working with them, so we met up, had a chat and again, really got on well. Shit & Shine, well I remember seeing them supporting Part Chimp in the Buffalo bar years ago and we just got chatting a year or so later as we had lots of mutual friends, mainly all centred around Notorious Hi Fi Killers and the South London noise scene. As for what artists have shaped/are shaping our direction? Mmmmmm, I would say, in order of discovery: The Heads Oneida Ufomammut White Hills Teeth of the Sea Gnod Goat Shit & Shine Hey Colossus and now the sounds of Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation and Gnoomes
08. How do you choose the artists with whom you work and what are your relations with them? CHRIS: I don't think we choose our artists really, they usually choose us!! And as for relationships, tbh we have amazing relationships with most our bands past and present. We have been VERY LUCKY indeed. The people we met along the way has been the greatest success of the label I think. We genuinely have made some friends for life through the label, which we are extremely proud of! 09. What are the different musical approach/styles who motivate you most today? The playful and experimental electronics of Shit and Shine is for you one of the perspectives of the label? CHRIS: Well as said earlier, we try and avoid the cliche. We want to work with bands who do things their own way, bands who want to push things. Some do it subtly and some like Shit & Shine and Teeth of the Sea are completely on their own and carving a unique musical journey. We are really proud of every releases we have put out, and I think if you took a track off all of the albums we had put out and put them on a compilation it would make a very unique listening experience...and not like any other label out there I don't think! And I would say we are motivated by bands and labels who have a simillar approach and ethos. 10. With records of Shit and Shine, Gnod, Hey Colossus and Goat, 2015 is a massive year. Can you speak to us about your next releases? CHRIS: Well yes, 2015 is easily our biggest year to date with releases. After the ones you have mentioned we also put out a new album by the great Swedish band Hills. We have a new album by Teeth of the Sea called Highly Deadly Black Tarantula out in November. A second album of the year by Hey Colossus called Radio Static High that came out on 2 October. Plus a second EP of the year by Mamuthones plus an EP by New Yorks finest Oneida coming out in Movember. Plus we have debut LP's by Swedish band Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation and Russian band Gnoomes, plus the debut EP by Goat offshoot Capra Informis. So yeah, pretty busy!! We also have several releases in the pipeline for 2016 but it is too early to start talking about them, but rest assured, more seriously great things coming out! 11. Can you present us your mixtape? CHRIS: Of course...here is a killer mix full of grooves, fuzz and repetition...enjoy!! 01 Bitchin Bajas – No tabac One of our favourite tracks of the year so far. A great slice of cosmic, afro, psych and, jazz repetition...on the great label Hands in the Dark. 02 Container – Complex This is a banger of a track...one of the best example of kraut infused techno we have heard in the last few years. 03 Sunroof – Zero On the surface it appears to be just a noise track, but the kraut groove that runs through it is infectious. I love DJing this out at gigs and see people confused at the start but shuffle dancing by the end of it. 04 Holden – Go Feral A electronic-acoustic primitive driving beat loops against visceral dissonance oscillations, melody and rhythms switching places into more distorted territories as the track proceeds. 05 Cave – Arrow's Myth They are a band who have been around for several years now and their last album 'Threads' that this track came off seemed to come out without any fanfair at all which is a shame as we believe it is easily their best album and we could of picked any of the tracks off of it for this mix. 06 African Head charge – Elastic Dance Throw together some percussive ritual drumming performed as a communal meditative practice, with heavy chugging post-punk bass lines, this hypnotically moves out of your typical Dub world and toys with your like a Avant-Garde Krautrock rubber band yo-yo. 07 Powell – The Ongoing Significance Of Steel And Flesh One of the most exciting artists around at the moment, this and the track 'Fizz' are works of postkraut/postpunk/posttechno genius! 08 Fabulous Diamonds – Downhill We love this Australian band's obsession of repetition...just hope they make it over to the UK for some shows someday, love to see them live. 09 Urdog – Ice on Water Great US band from the mid/late '00s...sadly they split up after only making 2 albums, but what great albums they are. 10 Funkadelic - The rat kissed the cat on the navel Not many people know this track as it is billed as U.S. (United Soul), but infact it is an unreleased Funkadelic track and it was recorded at the time when the band were at their most ferocious best....all we will say is, you wait for that fuzz to kick in...a perfect climax to the mix.
Resident, the great Brighton Record shops have published their albums of the year and we are flattered to say that Gnod – Infinity Machines, Teeth of the Sea – Highly Deadly Black Tarantula and Hills Frid have all been included. Truly a shop with impeccable taste!! See the full countdown here: Resident ---
Who is this Swedish Goatman of Goat? Anthony Carew talks to a strange anonymous fellow about why none of the unnamed members of Goat use social media, and finding the spirituality of music. Goat are a mysterious, psychedelic Swedish collective, whose latest LP is suggestively called Commune. Their membership is kept secret; the band wearing masks on stage and in photos, their names never divulged. They don't tour much, and almost never do interviews. When offered the unexpected opportunity to talk to one of Goat's members, we're only given the name 'Goatman', which doubles as the title of the band's first single. When dialling his number, we wonder who we're calling, where they might be, what they'll be like to talk to. It turns out Goatman is jovial and affable, in Gothenburg, and "at home doing some vacuum cleaning". If that sounds mundane, so is Goat's reason for anonymity, which is preserved so they can go about daily lives that involve kids and jobs... Read the rest here: The Music ---
It reads... First up is Josefin Ohrn & The Liberation, a band from Sweden who have graced the stage with the likes of Goat and Les Big Byrd (as well a nomination in the Swedish Grammys). Their album 'Horse Dance' has been released by the veritable Rocket Recordings and is a joyous mix of influences both old and new. The intro to opener 'Dunes' smacks of Suicide (the band, not the....well, you know) and evolves into a motorik stomper with some beautiful vocals from Josefin. The rest of the album follows suit, taking cues from the old (the motorik rhythms and of Can and Neu!) and more contemporary artists (the trance inducing guitar drones of Loop). Josefin's vocals veer from the ethereal to Siouxsie-like stridency. It is a fantastic album, and one that I'm sure has passed underneath some people's radar, which is a real shame. It is psychedelic, but not in the 'turn the amps up to 11 and fuzz out' manner -it has a more refinement and imagination than that; it has an elegance and a fragility that endears it to the listener. 'Horse Dance' can be purchased via the Rocket Bandcamp page. Read the full piece here: Dayz of Purple and Orange ---
Here is Hey Colossus's full set from Leicester on 24 September this year. You can still buy their two albums from this year 'Radio Static High' and 'In Black and Gold' from here: Rocket Bandcamp ---
After playing at Roskilde Festival this year, the name Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation started to appear more and more. It’s safe to say that it was a good year for them, especially now with the release of their debut album called “Horse Dance”. With Josefine’s upcoming gig at Ideal Bar in Copenhagen in January next year, I met her for a quick and dirty Q&A session. Josefin, would you rather describe yourself as an introvert or extrovert, and why? I think that I have a strange contrast with that. I’m a very private person and I might seem introvert. But as I’m putting my self on a stage and showing my work and art to the public I guess it’s a rather extrovert action. What’s Josefin like on stage and in real life? Are there any (major) differences? In real life I guess I can be very dreamy, but on stage I feel a very strong energy of the present. What’s your least favourite thing to talk about in an interview? Haha. Hard question. What was your first memory that includes any form of music or when did you first come in contact with music? Read the rest of the interview here: Bitchslap ---
'Get into this' have put a top 50 albums of the decade so far together and we are flattered to have two albums in the list: #12 Goat: World Music (2012) Psychedelia’s renaissance has been one of the defining trends of the decade thus far, and all the while Goat have held their place as the movement’s shamanic spearhead. Wrapped in voodoo myth, World Music was a record of otherworldly brilliance. Struck through with seizing eastern grooves and monolithic hooks of overdriven guitar it remains utterly unique in its globetrotting brew, and the band themselves have already passed into psychedelic fable. Their live appearances have done nothing but strengthen their status as one of the decade’s greats thus far; genuinely legendary gigs such as their appearance at Psych Fest 2014, where shrouded by kaleidoscopic masks their dual high-priestess vocalists commanded the Camp and Furnace like no other band the festival’s ever seen. It’s a show still discussed on Merseyside today. Patrick Clarke – #25 Teeth of the Sea: MASTER (2013) If their name wasn’t suggestive enough (French for JAWS), a cursory listen to their music should reveal how much Teeth of the Sea are true cinematic aficionados and MASTER unravels with widescreen ambition, an extraordinary attention to detail and the craft of Coppola and Kubrick. Cataclysmic percussion trades with weighty textured ambience, bombastic neo-metal riffing, triumphant Trojan-like brass and wave after wave of locked grooves – regularly in one song – check the 10-minute leviathan Responder for starters. Perhaps Teeth of the Sea‘s most endearing nature is their expansive ideas; like the Mars Volta before them, they sometimes stray into daftness, but who cares? There are few contemporaries straddling such progressive musical planes. With so much going down you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d lost the plot, however, Teeth of the Sea never lose sight of their ultimate goal: to ramp up the tension before unleashing a blockbusting finale. To see MASTER unfold in the live arena was a true joy. Their MelloMello and Kazimier shows will last long in the memory and, as the final horns and walloping beats to Black Strategy subsided, all attending bore witness to a band at the peak of their powers. Peter Guy See the full list here: Get into this ---
I’m glad I got my scabby fingers on this, Teeth of The Sea’s last album Master was a strong candidate for album of the year a couple of years ago and Highly Deadly Black Tarantula is no doubt a suitable successor. A dark track with an eastern sound always reminds me of ‘the war on terror’ and how fucked up the world has gotten. It’s songs like this that become cathartic when so much seems wrong with the world; the UK grows more and more corrupt every day, austerity cripples the poor and the media simply smears anyone who criticises them leaving us with some bizarro Robin Hood anti-christ that steals from the poor and gives to the rich. It’s hard not to be angry. It was only two years ago that Teeth of The Sea’s Master came out and look at the leap they’ve made in terms of tone. This album is infinitely darker. In fact, the overall music scene has gotten consistently darker and consistently more narco... Read the rest of the review here: Echoes and Dust – Highly Deadly Black Tarantula is a stripped down, monolithic behemoth of a technoid dystopian ritual psychedelia record, that sounds brave in this Brave New World. Teeth Of The Seas‘ breakthrough third LP, which helped introduce the world to a wider global audience, myself included – was the perfect hybridization of Carpenter-esque synth horrorscores and epic metallic guitar-centric Post-Rock – which offered a much needed re-vitalization to the fields of reissue culture, most notably soundtracks, psychedelia, and post-rock. After all, we all dig the past. We love what we love, and we all want to make something as cool and interesting as our ancestors. There is something noble about the royal vinyl treatments being given to cheapo garage synth horror movie soundtracks like C.H.U.D. where people are probably giving more thought and attention to the music than even the people who made it. Read the rest here Forest Punk ---
It reads... Swedish collective Josefin Öhrn and the Liberation are quickly becoming one of Europe’s most beloved psychedelic acts. We’re proud to welcome them to The Shacklewell Arms tonight in a show presented by Baba Yaga’s Hut. In this Lanzarote Q&A, The Liberation’s Fredrick Joelson talks Sweden, London, and their talented label mates. See his answers in full below! LANZ: It’s your first UK show! What do you think of London so far? FJ: London is one of the great cities, isn’t it? we spend a lot of time in the UK, it’s easily one of our favourite places. in London you constantly have these great chance encounters and amazing random conversations with strangers of any creed or descent or stature or ethnicity, and that’s just priceless. LANZ: Any London acts you’re keen on? FJ: Teeth of The Sea and Hey Colossus are really really great bands, both on Rocket Recordings. LANZ: What do you think of modern psychedelic music right now? Is there a scene in Stockholm? FJ: In Sweden, there’s a scene in Gothenburg with bands like Goat, Hills, Uran and Capra Informis. Stockholm is kind of the antithesis of any “psychedelic” explorations, seems geared to prevent introspection and focus on material progress at all costs. In spite of that there are great bands like Les Big Byrd, I Break Horses and Paper.... Read the rest of the interview here: Lanzarote ---
Teeth Of The Sea, Green Door Store, Trafalgar Arches, Brighton, Tuesday, November 17 Worrying un-Teeth Of The Sea-like sounds emerged from the keyboardist’s bank of vintage synths just minutes before the London four-piece were due to take to the stage on Tuesday. But despite a slight delay and regardless of whether the malfunction was fixed, the band tore through their largely instrumental set, with nothing appearing to sound missing. In fact, it was a case of everything including the kitchen sink that blasted from the PA – trumpet, pedals, bass, guitars, floor drums, laptops and more, culminating in an occasionally terrifying scorch of a sound, part soundtrack, part electro, usually very danceable and more often than not with a murky depth. Often acting on unspoken but wildly flamboyant physical cues from one another as the gents changed instruments and positions onstage, the setlist built to a climactic encore that had lots of the Green Door Store crowd losing their minds dancing, generally forgetting where they were. Many bands try – and fail - to pull off the many atmospheres that TOTS seem drilled in now. That in itself would be impressive, but the fact they managed it while still clearly loving what they do is nothing short of amazing. Five stars See the review here: The Argus ---
Live4Ever In a world where there’s an increasing amount noise – whether it be media or industry – Sweden’s own Josefin Öhrn seeks freedom from the chaos. Öhrn opens herself to the maelstrom of effects that isolation brings within modern society, and together with her aptly titled backing band The Liberation she deciphers the hazy static of modern culture, transfiguring it into a coolly focused work on the subtle, but deeply rewarding debut album ‘Horse Dance‘... Read the rest here: Live4Ever – Gig Slutz From the opening waves and synthetic hums of Horse Dance, Josefin Öhrn’s delicate whisper slices gently through like a voice of reason in a chaotic mind. It’s no wonder she describes her journey to this as “drift[ing] into music, spending more and more time alone in huge cities and out by the ocean”. The expansiveness, the sound of the swarming metropolis, and one loan voice trying to be heard. With this album, Ohrn and her band The Liberation try to make sense of the urban condition. Clever use of song titles lull you into a false sense of security then expose a harsh reality... Read the rest here Gig Slutz – The band are currently playing shows and their first UK show at Shacklewell Arms is on the 18th (Tomorrow)...get the last remaining tickets here: Baba Yaga Hut ---
