31 Jul 2018

Rocket Probes – July playlist



Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Cake of Light
(First track to be revealed off Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs forthcoming killer album King of Cowards)

Julie's Haircut – Karlsruhe / Fountain
(New self released 12" by the Italian collective)
Julie's Haircut 

Kilchhofer ‎– The Book Room
(Really great organic, tribal-techno grooves n' drones
Kilchhofer 

Ultramagnetics MCs - A Chorus Line
(SO HEAVY!!!!)
Ultramagnetics MCs

Deaf Kids – Espiral da Loucura
(New digital single by our fave Brazilian bad...great psyched tribal-noise)
Deaf Kids

Cave – San Yago
(First new music from the mighty Cave in a few years...nice repetitive krautfunk grooves)
Cave 

Elektro Hafiz - Elektro Hafiz Dub
(Psyched out dub from Istanbul)
Elektro Hafiz

Loop – Array
(This Loop EP that came out in 2015 sort of passed us by at the time, but it is well worth a listen!) 
Loop

Byron Westbrook – What We Mean When We Say Body Language 
(Another track that we keep coming back to...on the ever great Hands in the Dark)
Byron Westbrook

Blurt – The Ruminant Plinth
(Blurt in Can mode)
Blurt

Spectrum - Geração Bendita
(Weird and at times great Brazilian psych from 1971)
Spectrum

Zohastre - Pan And The Master Pipers
(2/3 of H.U.M have created another fine album of avant repetition)
Zohastre

Massive Attack – Mezzanine
(Still a killer track from possibly their best album)
Massive Attack 

Mkwaju Ensemble - Ki-Motion
(Addictive repetitions from Japan '81)
Mkwaju Ensemble

Colin Stetson - Hereditary OST
(Amazing and immersive soundtrack that is the true star of the film)
Colin Stetson

Fancy Rosey – Punk Police
(Love this...GNOD gone glam from '77?)
Fancy Rosey

Sun Ra & His Arkestra - Where Pathways Meet
(Grooved Jazz from the mighty Ra!)
Sun Ra & His Arkestra

Beak> – Brean Down
(Kraut-pop new single)
Beak> 

Giant Swan – High Waisted
(Banging...)
Gian Swan

Theo Verney – Heavy Sun
(What happens when you mix Sabbath with The Kinks...this guy has loadsa amazing unreleased tracks from this era that needs to be heard!)
Theo Verney

N.O.I.A. - Stranger In A Strange Land (Club Mix)
(Repeato Italia)
N.O.I.A.

Varelser - Return To The Beginning
(Huge track of drones and repetitions from this Japanese band)
Varelser

Hand & Leg – Tie
(Fuzz-punk repetition)
Hand & Leg

Jonathan Wilson - Trafalgar Square
(Very 70s sounding fuzzy, glam/prog rock)
Jonathan Wilson

Life Education – Beyond the Red Waste
(Psyched-kraut-noise)
Life Education 

Cannibal Ox – Battle for Asgard
(Psyched hip-hop)
Cannibal Ox

Sunwatchers – II
(Fuzzed jazz grooves)
Sunwatchers

Kikagaku Moyo – Gatherings
(Great new track)
Kikagaku Moyo

Anthroprophh – Omagavillle
(An album that does not leave our record deck!)
Anthroprophh

Listen to our updated monthly 'Rocket Probes' Spotify playlist here:


 
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Gigwise reviews Julie's Haircut's new self released EP


They say:

Julie’s Haircut - Karlsruhe
Last year Italian psych outfit Julie’s Haircut released the nigh on flawless ‘Invocation and Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin’. Expectations for its follow up are high. Unfortunately, that might take a while, but in the meantime they’ve delivered us ‘Karlsruhe’. At just under seven minutes ‘Karlsruhe’ is an ethereal bluesy jam that slowly winds and waves its way along. It never really breaks a sweat as the layers of hypnotic psych build and build until we under its trance.

See the full piece here: Gigwise

Listen and order from here: Bandcamp

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Tickets for Julie's Haircut UK tour in September































You can buy tickets for these up-and-coming Julie's Haircut shows here: Julie's Haircut

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Watch IMPATV footage of Negra Branca performing at Woodland Gathering




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27 Jul 2018

Golden Cabinet 5th Birthday – GNOD takeover


The great Golden Cabinet celebrate their 5th birthday this year and hey have invited GNOD to curate a very special event...

Golden Cabinet  say:

Our 5th Birthday bash will be on October 6th at our beloved home Kirkgate Centre and will be curated by the mighty GNOD. 

The full line-up will be announced soon...

100 tickets available at £14 + £1 booking fee

Tickets: Golden Cabinet

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Rock.IT interviews Lay Llamas


It reads:

Lay Llamas is the equivalent of Nicola Giunta. His project, his fatherhood of "Østro" as "Thuban" , the most recent record of the Sicilian musician (published last June 15), which took the coordinates of the predecessor and then overcome them, expand them, offer them new goals. An undeniable evolutionary line, crossed under the aegis of Rocket Recordings, which Nicola Giunta proudly underlines in this interview.

What changes did you have to face after the departure of Gioele Valenti? 
Lay Llamas is a project founded and managed only by me since its beginning, spring 2012. At the same time, however, I have always used external collaborators - both live and in the studio - who have participated in various capacities. Gioele Valenti has collaborated with me for only one year, from 2013 to 2014, contributing to the writing of "Østro" . So, to answer your question: no particular change, only the choice of new collaborators.

What criteria did you choose the musicians who played on "Thuban"? 
Some of these - Andrea Davì (drums, percussion), Nicola Sanguin (vocals, guitar), Mirko Brigo (guitar) - were part of the second live formation of Lay Llamas, active between 2015 and 2016, and now dissolved. With everyone else - from Luca of Julie's Haircut to Guido Broglio, Goatshee from GOAT to Clinic etc. etc. - instead there is a relationship of mutual respect and collaboration that has lasted for years. No specific criteria, therefore.

Can "Thuban" be considered an evolution of "Østro"? 
I would say yes, at least to a certain extent. I consider "Thuban" an evolution that goes to refine certain ingenuity of writing and arrangement that were present in "Østro". For this reason I like to consider "Thuban" a point of arrival from which to change direction and to evolve further...

Read the full interview here: Rock.IT 

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The Quietus Reviews GOAT at Citadel Festival


They say:

Goat, too, have little need to prove themselves as a live force, but back in the Clash / Last FM tent they do so anyway. The quasi-mystical air that surrounded their early shows and first inspired the word-of-mouth cult fervour that made their early days so exciting has now faded with familiarity, but there’s still something so irresistible about their relentless, globetrotting psychedelic chug. Their twin masked priestesses, leaping, shrieking and dancing sometimes in sync, sometimes in a duel, wield a dark intensity that soon overcomes their audience, while the band behind them are on ferocious form.

Read the whole review here: The Quietus

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Floga-SE reviews Lay Llamas album Thuban


It reads:

"Thuban" is the second album by the Italian duo Lay Llamas. Launched on June 15, 2018, via Rocket Recordings, it arrives four years after the debut with "Østro", from 2014 ( listen here ).

The eight songs further enhance that offered on the initial disc. They are space music with good doses of afrobeat permeating the " kraut root", as the most attentive listener can graciously point out.

And calling these songs "space" is not a common place glued to the musical style. "Thuban" is a star in the constellation Draco, seen in the northern hemisphere and long served as the north polar star, an orientation on Earth. It has the shape of a serpent, or "dragon's tail," and carries some symbolisms with it. Lay Llamas tries to translate into his music this esoteric logic that is associated with certain laziness to themes of this mountain. But perhaps it is the only mistake of the pair.

Gioele Valenti and Nicola Giunta, based in Rome, come from Sicily, the main island of the Mediterranean, to the south of Italy, and with important navigation history. The orientation of the first explorers by the stars refers directly to a safe point, something that Lay Llamas music does not seek...

Read the rest here: FLOG

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Echoes and Dust reviews Supersonic Festival


It reads:

HOUSEWIVES
...unfortunately mean we miss the first half of Housewives set. They are dressed in white t-shirts; at a glance they hold the form of a rock band but they are not rock. They’re playing something slippery and improvised. A shirtless sax yogi wails on the far side of the stage. It’s percussive, abstract and rhythmically compelling. And then they’re done. It’s all too brief but it’s a fine start.

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GUM TAKES TOOTHH
...By comparison Gum Takes Tooth is like watching the world cup of Battleships. They’re joined by Wayne Adams (Big Lad, Death Pedals etc) another of the Moog residency artists, forming a trio of men in caps bent over a table of switches and wires. One day they might ride a bathtub down a hillside. What they lack in performative spectacle they more than make up for in their music – a soaring, rough-and-ready jumble of techno and krautrock. It gets so wild, a man throws his crocs on stage comically highlighting the gap between the rushing abandon of the music and the gentle afternoon swaying of the assembled. In the oppressive heat of the Warehouse, an unlikely looking congregation are about to take this issue on. 

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GNOD
GNOD are riding a wave at the moment. Long-serving, shape-shifting, sonic explorers they may have assumed their ultimate form. There’s been no shortage of noise over the weekend, but when they open with ‘Donovan’s Daughters’ it’s clear the dial’s been turned right up to 11. The volume hits you and pushes your internal organs about; when they reach the drop into the last section they properly shake the walls, raining dust and flaking paint down on us like Swans a few years back. It’s a wall of crushing sound but they work depth and breadth and texture into it; it’s not just sludge. As you start to wonder if they should ease off the accelerator or press down further, they drag out the central section of ‘Bodies For Money’ into something open and exploratory without dropping the intensity. It spirals out and washes back and forth creating space and expectation for that massive riff to come crashing back in. When it does, it’s just ridiculous; an intense and joyous storm of noise. They’re magnificent, and before they can spoil it they’re gone.

-

Read the full write-up here: E&D

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20 Jul 2018

And we are off...





































Just to let you all know that we are going to be shutting-up shop for a week as we take a well earned break...so please be wary of this regarding any shop orders.

We will be back on the 30 July and we have some very exciting new releases to share with you in August!

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Watch Julie's Haircut's Laura Agnusdei perform a Rewire Session




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GOAT feature in BBC6 Music's piece on 'How psychedelia inspired a new generation of artists'


It says:

4. Goat
True psychedelic disciples, Sweden’s Goat exemplify the shamanic trance power of the repetitive groove. They’re also a masterclass in the psychedelic power of myth and image-making. Led by the enigmatic, yarn-spinning Goatman, they claim that the band is thousands of years old, has 2,500 members and hails from remote Korpilombolo in the north of Sweden, a town they claim to be steeped in the practice of voodoo.

One thing that definitely isn’t apocryphal, though, is the power of the masked Swedes’ live shows, where their combination of psych, psych-funk, drone and wild heavy rock comes alive in a communal, cathartic ritual experience worth sacrificing a lot to experience.

Read the full article here: BBC6 Music

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Also nice to see GOAT's Let it Burn feature on a Tom Robinson 'Psychedelic Playlist' for BBC 6 Music. Listen here: Tom Robinson

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19 Jul 2018

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs shows in Portugal and Spain


Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs are heading over to Spain and Portugal for some shows, finishing at Get Mad Festival in Madrid!

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18 Jul 2018

Anthroprophh and GNOD in The Quietus's '100 Albums of the Year so Far'


They say:

48. Anthroprophh - Omegaville
We enter the world of Omegaville at breakneck speed. This massive, conceptual double album does not begin with any grand overture or introduction – Anthroprophh require no scene setting. There is no pause, no time to gather your senses, just layer after layer of pummelling and freewheeling guitars – hectic squalls caterwauling over churning riffs, the momentum constantly searing upwards.

11. GNOD - Chapel Perilous
As you would imagine, this level of almost berserk creative restlessness is matched by a constant adjustment in sound and process. Which might leads you to ask the very sensible question: do I need to wear a crash helmet when listening to Chapel Perilous? Where is God's great golden shovel? Being swung with great force straight at my noggin or hanging neatly from its peg back in the Arcadian potting shed? The answer is: both.

See the full rundown here: The Quietus

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Photos of Hirvikolari and Heldon


Last weekend Teeth of the Sea offshoot Hirvikolari supported the legends that is Heldon at Cafe Oto and the very talented photographer Jose Ramon Caamaño was there to capture this amazing night

See here: Baba Yaga's Hut

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17 Jul 2018

Pop Matters reviews Supersonic Festival


It says:

Then I moved to Stage 1 as Housewives were preparing to take the stage. The experimental post-punk/noise rock entity came to the stage amidst brilliant purple lights that created a very hazy ambiance. The setup on stage was also unusual, with the band utilizing less space and playing tightly close together. The two guitarists were opposite each other, while the drummer was placed just behind them. Their unique blend of Swans-ian no-wave with their use of unconventional instruments (saxophone being one of them) produced a brilliant result. The performance was transcendental, and the focal point soon became the rhythm and its various manipulations. Through their experimental post-punk scope, they created these impressive build ups and then completely break them down with erratic renditions. To enrich the towering rhythm section, the band explores sonic textures through the heavily processed instruments and vocals. With a great grasp on dynamics, it felt like the music came alive through their performance.

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After Group A's performance Gum Takes Tooth began exploring the boundaries of what is sonically possible in Stage 3. At that point, I was moving between Stage 1, where Modern Ritual was taking place, and Stage 3 so I did not get the full extent of Gum Takes Tooth performance. For the part that I saw it was an exercise in extreme electronica, taking on techno structures and reconfiguring to a dramatic extent. Filled with energy, the band moved confidently through this maniacal set and set the bar fairly high.

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After a break for the Dennis McNett procession, the stage was set for Gnod. The Manchester band is renowned for some of their early performances, which have included a dizzying 15 band members on stage to perform their hypnotic drone music. Today, however, they have cut down on this expanding outlook and instead provide a more condensed and direct assault. Gnod's sound was heavy as shit, with the amps kneeling under the heavy riffs. The sound comprises many diverse colors, from the grey sludge weight of the guitars, the bright lights of the psychedelic rock scene and the ultraviolet essence of Krautrock. Tribalistic pacing and a grunge influence complete the band's sound and the first part of their performance was truly astonishing.

Read the rest here: Pop Matters

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Soundblab say some words about Julie's Haircut up-and-coming UK tour and new EP


They say:

Italian Psych collective Julie's Haircut have announced a new limited edition 12" on their own Superlove label. Following last year's Invocation and Ritual Dance of My Demon Twin on Rocket Recordings, the two new tracks, Karlsruhe and Fountain are a perfect companion and you can stream both below. Available on limited edition red vinyl to just 300 copies, you can pre-order it here.

Both tracks were previously available as a download only on the deluxe edition of their 2014 album Ashram Equinox.

The band will be on tour in the UK in September:

4th Sept - Manchester / Night People
5th Sept -  Leicester / The Musician
6th Sept - Brighton / The Hope & Ruin
7th Sept -  London / The Shacklewell Arms
8th Sept -  Bristol / The Crofters Rights

Read the full piece here: Soundblab

Photo by Al Overdrive

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Backseat Mafia reviews Bristol Psych Fest


They say:

The first band I catch are Anthroprophh, comprised of Jesse Webb, Gareth Turner (The Big Naturals) and Paul Allen (The Heads), who are a huge draw on today’s bill following the success of their latest album release, OMEGAVILLE, on Rocket Recordings. Their set is loud and heavy from the offset, like we would expect anything else, and it has an almost instantaneous head bobbing effect. Don’t let the volume fool you though, there are finer elements at work here from the motoric drumming leading to Can invocations, to the guitar runs, the intense bass lines and all overlaid with a distinct vocal drawl. They are a solid starting block for what is to follow.

-

After a fantastic day of live music, most call it a night but those who do miss out on Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs who conclude proceedings at The Lanes. The somewhat, it has to be said, ridiculously named band have a reputation for the quality of their live performances and having not seen them before curiosity gets the better of me. The Newcastle entity have travelled some distance to be here today and do not disappoint with tracks taken from 2017 LP Feed the Rats and forthcoming album King of Cowards. There heavily guitar focused sound is the perfect conclusion and their placement was a stroke of genius.


Read the rest here: Backseat Mafia

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The Fat Angel Sings reviews Lay Llamas - Thuban


They say:

Lay Llamas essentially is Italy’s Nicola Giunta creating multi-textured psychedelic rock. On Thuban he has a few guest to help him out including Goat and Clinic, but this is his show of rhythmic dalliances into north Africa, Thailand and the Beta Band’s Edinburgh.

Dwelling in the night sky of the Northern hemisphere, Thuban (named after the Arabic for ‘snake’ also known as Alpha Draconis, and sometimes as the ‘dragon’s tail’) was the star closest to the North pole from the fourth to the second millennium BC. Yet in a migration that perhaps allows us to consider our own insignificance in the realm of the cosmos, its never-ending trajectory will mean that it will once again become the polar star by 20346AD. It’s a star system powered by mystical significance enough for both Matt Groening to include it in Futurama and for David Icke to consider it the homeland of the shapeshifting reptiles that he maintains secretly control Earth. For Nicola Giunta of Lay Llamas however, this mysterious point in the night sky offers pause for thought. “A polar star is something that drives the travellers towards a safe place. But in the age we’re living now it seems hard to recognise a polar star. Do we have to wait for that? How many times? Do we have to look in another direction?”...

Read the rest here: The Fat Angel Sings

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The Shonk reviews Bristol Psych Fest




They said:

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS 
Within the first few seconds it felt like the band were trying to kill us off deliberately, like they knew that people were flaking and they wanted to see how much magic was left in us all, well nice try Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs we had your number from the beginning and we were going nowhere. Although to be fair they extracted every last drop of what we had left and they chewed it up and spat it right back at us, it was a perpetual cycle of giving and taking that could have easily carried on to the present day.

Every audible frequency was filled to the brim with vitriolic madness, from deep within these Newcastle-Upon-Tynians drew upon everything of that day and regurgitated it back to us leaving no room for anything else. My entire self was possessed and taken over by the sweetest sludge I’ve ever tasted as this rip roaring 5-piece demolished the building and everyone in it.

Misleading breakdowns provided safety for brief moments before they took another turn and threw us into bottomless caverns towards the belly of the beast that was the Psychademon. The sheer joy I felt when they played another one at the point that we thought they were done has been unmatched to date. It was like suddenly having room for pudding even though you struggled with the mains, take it, take it all! Bleed me dry and cast me out in the night I soggy, ruined mess. Which is exactly what they did!

See the full review here: The Shonk

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16 Jul 2018

Poster for Anthroprophh show in Plymouth



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Louder than War say some words about Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs new track 'Cake of Light'


It says:

Newcastle’s almighty Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs are back with their new album, King of Cowards out 28 September on Rocket Recordings. 

In anticipation of this release, they release their first single from it called Cake of Light which is an enormous slab of pummelling stoner riffage, pained strained vocals and monolithic heaviness. Absolute fucking heaven.

Seven is the magic number. This is about more than the number of days in the week or continents in the world – psychologists have theorised that the human memory’s ability to calibrate information on a short term basis is mostly limited to a sequence of this length. Thus, it seems strangely fitting that Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – the Newcastle-based maximalists whose riffs, raw power and rancour have blazed a trail across the darker quarters of the underground in the last five years, have made a second album in King Of Cowards which does its damnedest to take consciousness to its very limits...

Read the piece here: Louder than War

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The Obelisk reviews Bonnacons of Doom S/T LP


They say:

Heavy psychedelic experimentalism pervades the Rocket Recordings-issued self-titled debut album from Liverpool collective Bonnacons of Doom, rife with tripout ritualism and exploration of sound as it is, all chasing light and getting freaky in any sense you want to read it. Five tracks, each a voyage unto itself – even the bass-fuzzy push of shortest cut “Rhizome” (5:55) is cosmos-bound – feed into the larger weirdness at play that culminates in the undulating grooves of “Plantae” (8:39), which is perhaps the most solidified cut in terms of choruses, verses, etc., but still a molten, headphone-worthy freakout that pushes the limits of psychedelia and still holds itself together. If the album was a to-do list, it would read as follows: “Eat mushrooms. Get naked. Dance around. Repeat.” Whether you do or don’t is ultimately up to you, but Bonnacons of Doom make a pretty convincing argument in favor, and I don’t generally consider myself much of a dancer. Among the most individualized psych debuts I’ve heard in a long time.

Read the full piece here: The Obelsik

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14 Jul 2018

Bristol 24-7 reviews Bristol Psych Fest


It reads:

Anthroprophh (SWX) built up tension with drums and percussion, before belting out the first of their tar black, monolithic constructions. The three piece managed an array of sounds: bass played / discarded / played; extra percussion pounded; samples and effects all over the place with primal vocals and all decorated with quicksilver solos. The perfect blend of space rock and metal with invigorating post-punk tribal drums. The tunes were not straightforward, but were free from artifice and it was easy for the listener to lose themselves in the crushing edifices pounded out without let up or mercy.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (The Lanes) ended the night with the heaviest set of the day, their unique sound owing much to classic Sabbaff and yet they’ve forged their own monstrous, mesmerising take on metal. It was a minimal set with simple components but the less is more (MUCH MORE) riffs and bombastic rhythm section were welded together with an unerring sense of dynamics and topped by the vocal performance of the day. The room was rammed with the most animated crowd of the evening: despite the heat all present were carried away by the skull crushing riffs, a pit threatened to form but never quite took off but then the room was packed from wall to wall. A raucous finale from one of finest exponents of modern metal.


Read the full review here: Bristol 24-7

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13 Jul 2018

Vote for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs


Louder have put a list of the best singles of the week and you can vote for your favourite one!

So do us a favour and give these swines track 'Cake of Light your vote

Vote here: Louder

And this is what they say about the track:

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Cake Of Light
The curiously-named Newcastle riff-lords are at it again, with this track which is said to "do its damnedest to take consciousness to its very limits". It's heavy, it's sludgy, it's horrible – in short, it's infinitely enjoyable. On the new material, the band say: "For a long time I've questioned how and where guilt can be used as a form of oppression... When can guilt be converted into positive action? After typing all of the lyrics up I realised I'd unwittingly referenced every one of the seven deadly sins throughout the album. That's the fire and brimstone Catholic teachings I picked up at school coming into play there!"

You can preorder their new album King of Cowards on ltd green vinyl here: Bandcamp

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Clash say GOAT are one of the bands to watch at this weekends Citadel Festival


They say:

Part of the Scandinavian psychedelic underground, Goat match relentless rhythms to wholly immersive songwriting. An incredible live act, the intensity with which Goat attack each show leaves nothing behind.


With those impeccable outfits, rain sticks, and colossal moves, Goat are ready to cast a spell both literally and musically over West London.

See the full piece here: Clash

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Turn up the Volume puts MIEN in their albums of the year so far


They say:

‘Mien’ by MIEN
Contrary to countless other side-projects these four compelling musicians didn’t get together just to kill time. Their magical collaboration is nothing less than amazing. A five-star psych pop rainbow with starry-eyed waves and moony vibrations. Stellar!

See the full list here: Turn up the volume

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10 Jul 2018

Clash Magazine say some words about Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs new album 'King of Cowards'


They say:

Seismic rock outlaws Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs are set to release new album 'King Of Cowards' on September 28th.

A live experience like no other, the Newcastle band's maximalist take on brown acid psychedelia has pummeled craniums across the country and beyond.

New album 'King Of Cowards' arrives on September 28th, and it's set to take their Sabbath-style riffing to frenzied new levels.

New song 'Cake Of Light' is online now, and it's a mighty chunk of avant rock futurism with a deep-rooted physicality.

Check it out now.

Read the full piece here: Clash

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Poster for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs & Bonnacons of Doom show in Manchester



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9 Jul 2018

The Quietus say some words about Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs new album 'King of Cowards'


They say:

The mighty Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs will release their second album this September and tour throughout the end of the year

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have announced a new album. The followup to 2017’s Feed The Rats is entitled King of Cowards and features contributions from folk musician and Quietus favourite Richard Dawson. You can listen to the single ‘Cake of Light’ below and pre-order the full record here: Rocket Bandcamp

Guitarist Adam Ian Sykes gave an account of the recording of King of Cowards, which did involve actual pigs. He explains that the group “hired a remote, converted barn in the Italian countryside and spent a week there writing the bulk of the album and trying to make friends with wild boar.”

King of Cowards is out 28 September on Rocket Recordings. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have also announced a tour, with two album release shows set for 27 and 28 September...

Read the rest here: The Quietus

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Poster for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs London Album launch show



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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs reveal 'Cake of Light' – the first track from their forthcoming new album 'King of Cowards'



Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs return with a new album 'King of Cowards'. It is being released on 28 September, listen to the first track to be revealed  'Cake of Light' above:

The album is being released on three different versions. You can preorder the ltd 'Green with Envy' version from the bandcamp link below. You will also be able to preorder a ltd 'Pink with Lust' Indie shop exclusive version. And for those who wan't to keep it black, we are doing a ltd ' Black with Wrath' version.

Preorder the 'Green with Envy' version here: Bandcamp

Stream Cake of Light:  Spotify  Apple Music

The band are heading out for some gigs, including two special album launch shows:

Sept 27th Star and Shadow, Newcastle (Album Launch)
Sept 28th Moth Club, London (Album Launch) *
Oct 25th The Georgian Theatre, Stockton On Tees * 
Oct 26th Soup Kitchen, Manchester *
Oct 27th South Street, Reading 
Oct 30th Tom Thum Theatre, Margate
Nov 22nd Picture House Social, Sheffield
Nov 23rd Hope and Ruin,  Brighton
Nov 24th Temple of Boom, Leeds

Nov 29th Fulford Arms, York
Nov 30th The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool
Dec 1st Nice 'n  Sleazy, Glasgow

*Support from Bonnacons of Doom

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The press release reads:

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS
KING OF COWARDS

Seven is the magic number. What’s more, this is about more than the number of days in the week or continents in the world - psychologists have theorised that the human memory’s ability to calibrate information on a short term basis is mostly limited to a sequence of this length. Thus, it seems strangely fitting that Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - the Newcastle-based maximalists whose riffs, raw power and rancour have blazed a trail across the darker quarters of the underground in the last five years, have made a second album in King Of Cowards which does its damnedest to take consciousness to its very limits.

Moreover,  another notable seven is dealt with here - that of the deadly sins. As vocalist and synth player Matt Baty notes “In terms of how the theme came together I’d relate it to throwing paint at a canvas in a really physical and subconscious way, then stepping back to analyse it and seeing it all as one piece. It wasn’t until then that I saw there was this continual thread of sin and guilt in the lyrics throughout the album. For a long time I’ve questioned how and where guilt can be used as a form of oppression... When can guilt be converted into positive action? After typing all of the lyrics up I realised I’d unwittingly referenced every one of the seven deadly sins throughout the album. That’s the fire and brimstone Catholic teachings I picked up at school coming into play there!”

The period since Pigs’ Rocket Recordings 2017 debut Feed The Rats - a mighty tsunami 
of rancorous riffage and unholy abjection that wowed critics and wreckheads alike - has seen the band build on their incendiary live reputation far and wide, from the sweatiest of UK fleapits to illustrious festivals like Roskilde. Perhaps the most relentlessly head-caving outfit of an alarmingly fertile scene operating in Newcastle at present, the band have all been busying themselves in a variety of activities, with Baty running Box Records (home of underground luminaries like Lower Slaughter, Casual Nun and Terminal Cheesecake) and both himself and bassist John-Michael Hedley playing in Richard Dawson’s band - indeed Dawson himself guests on King Of Cowards, both on synth and as part of a vocal ensemble on the opening “GNT” - moreover, guitarist Sam Grant has been working hard on a new incarnation of Blank Studios, which began its life with the recording of this very album.

This opus sees the band entering a new phase as a sleeker yet still more dangerous swineherd, with ex-Gnod and Queer’d Science drummer Chris Morley joining the ranks and a new approach being taken to its creation. The Iggy-esque drive to dementia, Sabbath-esque squalor and Motörhead-style dirt may still be present and correct yet the songs are leaner, the long-drawn-out riff-fests sharpened into addictive hammer blows and the nihilistic dirges of yore alchemically transformed into an uplifting and inviting barrage of hedonistic abandon. 

Against all odds, the writing of this record entailed encounters with actual pigs. “We hired a remote, converted barn in the Italian countryside and spent a week there writing the bulk of the album and trying to make friends with wild boar.” notes Adam Ian Sykes. “The results are shorter, more concise songs with, I guess, a little more focus, especially thematically. We wanted to shift slightly from our old jam-based way of working. In places, the album gets darker than Feed the Rats, especially lyrically but we also tried to get a fair amount of levity in there.”

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” So George Orwell noted at the end of a certain slim volume. King Of Cowards is nothing less than just such a metamorphosis, one in which - in a blur of primal urges and beastly physicality - this band shows us just which animals are really in charge of the farm. 




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5 Jul 2018

Reverb for Lovers reviews Lay Llamas Thuban


They say (loosely translated):


Lay Llamas has become the solo project of Nicola Giunta. The Sicilian had to cope with the departure of Gioele Valenti, who is now fully dedicated to his solo project JuJu . For the new record, " Thuban " (Rocket Recordings), Giunta took over for the first time the lyrics and the vocals.

For the rest, he got help from an illustrious round. For example, members of Clinic and The Pop Group are there, and part of Goat's vocal duo also contributed. Together with his ensemble Giunta went on an expedition.

In the Krautrock techno sound he wove different elements. Far-Eastern sounds, African rhythms, free jazz and world music appear in different places. Sometimes they are formative, sometimes adding nuances.

Eye-Chest People's Dance Ritual, for example, focuses on New Wave chic and gently introduces strange sounds. "Holy Worms" is relaxed funky, but also impulsive. Somewhat cooler and technoid looks like "Silver Sun". The saxophone provides tips.

Collaboration with Clinic, "Cults and Rites From The Black Cliff," pushes, is shimmering and threatening. "Altair", on which the Goat singer performs, looks like a forgotten B-side of the Swedish band.

On the eight and a half minute long "Fight Fire With Fire," Mark Stewart of The Pop Group delivers a compelling spoken word performance about clanking beats. "Chronicles From The Fourth Planet" is fuzzy and mystical. The final "Coffins On The Tree, A Black Braid On Our Way To Home" flows multi-layered and almost meditative.

Read the full review here: Reverb for Lovers

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