31 Dec 2019
Rocket Probes - December 2019 playlist
Och – Pelennor's fält
(Really special new sounds from Sweden...first track to be revealed from their forthcoming album 'II', one for fans of The Utopia Strong and Hills)
Och
The Utopia Strong – Strange Alter
(Fantastic unreleased 10min track that is accompanied by a great film/video)
The Utopia Strong
Angel Bat Dawid – Impepho
(Really special track of rhythmic jazz)
Angel Bat Dawid
Roberto De Simone – Secondo Coro Delle Lavandaie
(Killer Italian tribal punk grooves from '76)
Roberto De Simone
Fennesz – Agora
(A fog of drones)
Fennesz
Fä – Färd Till Sollerön
(Another great Swedish psych gem revealed to us by Centrum)
Fä
The Savage Resurrection – Expectations
('68 fuzz)
The Savage Resurrection
Heimat – Afrikistan
(Repetitive and fuzzed post punk sounds)
Heimat
Tarotplane - 358 Oblique
(Ggreat kosmich synthscapes to fall into)
Tarotplane
Open Mind – Magic Potion
(An oldie but a goodie)
Open Mind
Stormtrooper - I'm a mess
(Hawkwind'ish sounding punk from '77)
Stormtrooper
Jon Hassel & Farafina - Flash Of The Spirit
(Another great album from Jon Hassel
Jon Hassel & Farafina
Blues Creation – Just I Was Born
('71 ROCK!)
Blues Creation
Glen Velez - Sweet Season
(More global repetitions)
Glen Velez
Il Cloro – Sponga
(Twisted grooves n' soundscapes)
Il Cloro
Снежный мед - Стук Бамбука в XI Часов
(Gnoomes sent us this slice of minimal post punk – bit of a Bark Psychosis vibe)
Снежный мед
Buffalo – Freedom
(More classic rock to see out the decade!!)
Buffalo
Radie Peat – Dark Horse (This Ain’t No Disco)
(Droning folk recommendation by Beak guys)
Radie Peat
Tribe Of Colin – Creator God
(Lofi minimal techno sounds)
Tribe Of Colin
Kungens Män – Män med medel / Måttanpassad minneslucka
(Some nice fuzzwah guitar abuse and a great little groove on these two tracks)
Kungens Män
Listen to the updated monthly Rocket Probes Spotify playlist for over 56 hours of music:
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24 Dec 2019
40% off Rocket Sale - one week only!
All you have to go is input the code XMAS19 when you place an order on the Rocket Bandcamp here: rocketrecordings.bandcamp.com
See you all in 2020 where we will be releasing even more new sounds for your audio pleasure!
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23 Dec 2019
New Musical Social reviews The Utopia Strong live at Cafe Oto
hey say:
My last gig of the year, the first time seeing the Utopia Strong and the first time I’ve been to Café Oto. I’d arranged to meet a couple of old University mates at the nearby Victoria pub in Dalston for a couple of pints, so we arrived at Café Oto in good spirits and chatted convivially to the chap who took our tickets, only to be shushed by a member of the audience. In fairness the support band Valve were on and the volume could have done with being a lot louder, but I was somewhat taken aback by this welcome.
Picture
Valve finished and we awaited the Utopia Strong. We were chatting with some friendly strangers during the interval who mentioned that the band purely improvise and don’t play their recognised tracks, which made for an intriguing prospect ahead.
The band took to the floor (Cafe Oto doesn’t have a raised stage) and began their set, and it was mesmerising. Accompanied by a fantastic light show, the music was positively trance inducing. The idea of electronica combined with guitar and bagpipes probably sounds really naff, but it worked and was absolutely spell binding. As with all good psychedelia, Kavus Torabi’s occasional vocals were submerged well into the mix, creating a wonderful music and light performance. When the album was released, I made a comment that some of the songs could have been longer, as they stopped before they really got going. In this set each piece of music seemed far more developed and in a long form state, which really let their sound breathe...
Read the rest here: New Musical Social
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Midnight to Six reviews Gnoomes – MU!
They say:
MU! is album number three for Russian band Gnoomes, who set up shop right on the spot where narcotic noise-pop and experimental krautrock grooves meet. It’s a dandy of a psychedelic journey start-to-finish, squeezing as much color as possible out of traditional rock instruments, taken to new brain-busting heights by heavy digital post-production. If you love sonic experimenters like Eno, Can, Kraftwerk, MBV, Wire, and Spacemen 3, then you’ll get where the band is coming from, but there’s something really alien about the way Gnoomes contort those influences into a new whole. Take the song “Irma” for example: The tight rollicking beat could have come from Tago Mago, and Slowdive heads would approve of those beautiful guitar sounds; but there’s also dense layers of vocals snippets placed atop one another that create a highly disorienting effect. By the time the song kicks into its’ psychotic double-time crescendo it sounds downright futuristic. What I find most interesting about MU! is that most of its nine songs barely seem rooted in any kind of traditional song-structures. What that means is that, unlike the bands that influenced Gnoomes, the songs on MU! would be almost impossible for another band to cover (“Glasgow Coma State” is perhaps the only exception). MU’s songs are built to deliver a certain type of sonic nirvana and I just don’t see a way a band could take a song like “Sine Waves are Good For Your Health” – which is basically six minutes of kaleidoscopic headfuckery over rolling tom-toms – and do anything to make it their own. It’s exciting, heady stuff, and I’m pretty sure it will place high on my year-end list of best albums. I’d also imagine it sounds devastatingly good when you’re frying up on your favorite drugs.
See the piece here: Midnight to Six
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Ship in the Woods put's Teeth of The Sea's WRAITH in their Albums of the Year
Great to see Ship in the Woods putting Teeth of The Sea's album WRAITH in their Albums of the Year list alongside lots of other great artists.
See the rundown here: Ship in the Woods
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22 Dec 2019
Bonnacons of Doom announce Manchester show
Bonnacons of Doom have announced Manchester show at the great Soup Kitchen on 3 April.
Tickets can be bought here: See
The bands up-and-coming shows are now:
3 April / UK / Manchester / Soup Kitchen
01-02 May / NL / Nijmegen / Sonic Whip Festival (w/Gum Takes Tooth)
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20 Dec 2019
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs to play Independent Music Week
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have been announced to play Independent Music Week in Sunderland on 27 January, tickets can be bought here: wegotickets
The band full list of shows, now reads:
16 Jan / NL / Eurosonic Festival / Groningen
27 Jan / UK / Independent Music Week / Sunderland
13 Mar / US / New York / St Vitus
15 Mar / US / LA / The Moroccan Lounge
16 Apr / UK / Manchester - Gorilla
17 Apr / UK / Birmingham - The Mill
18 Apr / UK / Bristol - Thekla
24 Apr / UK / Leeds - Stylus
25 Apr / UK / Glasgow - St Luke’s
29 Apr / UK / Nottingham - Rescue Rooms
30 Apr / UK / London - Electric Ballroom
01 May / UK / Brighton - Concorde 2
01-03 May / DE / Berlin / Desertfest
9-11 Jul / SK / Trenčín / Phonda Festival
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19 Dec 2019
Psych Against Cancer compilation
A great compilation featuring lots of Rocket friends has been put together to raise money for Cancer treatment charities.
The comp features the likes of Terminal Cheesecake, Stereocilia, Lower Slaughter, Big Lad, Black Tempest, Ill, Oscillation, Dark Fog, Psychic Lemon, Casual Nun and many, many, many more..
Buy here: Psych Against Cancer
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16 Dec 2019
Listen top Iggor Cavalera mix for EXE Project
Iggor from PETBRICK has put this killer mix together called Black Meditation for EXE Project - listen here: EXE Project
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Cvlt Nation put PETBRICK in their Albums of the Year
Great to see the mighty Cvlt Nation putting PETBRICK's debut album 'I' in their Avant Garde Albums of the Year list.
See the full rundown here: Cvlt Nation
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12 Dec 2019
Treblezine puts Paisiel in their 'Top 10 Jazz Albums of the Year'
They say:
It’s not necessarily always true that the best jazz albums have the best album covers—things definitely started to get dicey in the ’70s—but every S. Neil Fujita design for Columbia and every Reid Miles design for Blue Note makes a pretty strong case. Portugese psych-jazz group Paisiel are another one to add to the “listen if the album looks cool” pile, the abstract paint swirls on their eponymous second album reminding me more of the eerie painting on the cover of Daughters’ last album. The music, however, isn’t industrial mathcore but rather a unique sound that infuses Ash Ra Temple and Tangerine Dream-style krautrock sprawl into the textural realm of jazz fusion. Which, naturally, means this is perfect listening when not completely sober. Then again, the music itself is a hell of a drug, with furious rhythmic progressions, increasingly intensifying instrumental performances and a lot of utterly stunning groove. And yeah, the album cover’s pretty cool too.
See the full Top 10 here: Treblezine
And buy the album from here: Bandcamp
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Rocket's Chris Reeder's Cosmic Round-up
Rocket's Chris Reeder was asked a few questions about 2019 by Cosmic Collins for his end of year Cosmic Round-up.
Have a read here: Cosmic Round-up
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PETBRICK to play Raw Power
PETBRICK have been revealed to be joining this stellar line-up and playing next years Raw Power Festival!!!
Info and tickets here: Raw Power
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Gnoomes to play Ment Festival
Gnoomes are playing the great Ment Festival in the Slovenian capital of Ljubijana on 8th February and Rocket will be joining them so come and say hi!
Info and tickets can be found here: Ment
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Wayne form PETBRICK gives Birthday Cake for Breakfast his End of Year iPod recommendations
They say:
What’s On Michael Portillo’s iPod – End of Year: Petbrick
Here at Birthday Cake For Breakfast, we like to get to the heart of what an artist is all about. We feel the music they listen to is just as important as the music they make.
In 2019 we’ve had all sorts talk to us about inspirations, including the likes of International Teachers Of Pop, Working Men’s Club, WARMDUSCHER and Die! Die! Die!
With the year coming to a close, we’ve decided to turn it on its head a bit and ask some of our favourite artists what releases from this year they’ve been raving about. With that in mind, we’re chuffed to have producer extraordinaire and noise-maker Wayne Adams of Petbrick talk us through their favourite releases from the past 12 months.
Kali Malone’s album The Sacrificial Code
(iDEAL Recordings)
“Something Iggor (drummer from the Petbrick project we do together) switched me onto whilst we were on tour together. Usually when I’m touring I’m looking for music that suits a mood whilst travelling, and I found myself going back to this a lot. Landing in the drone/neo classical crossover territory, super meditative, stunning pieces!”...
Read the rest here: BCFB
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NARC interviews The Utopia Strong ahead of December dates
They say:
The Utopia Strong have been described as ‘the sound of three guys falling in love’ and you really understand why after spending any time with them. As I meet the band, they’re busy enthusing about the latest Lake Delirium album. I get the distinct feeling that if I wasn’t there, they’d probably be talking about it all night.
It’s a shared musical obsession that makes The Utopia Strong, well, so strong. Steve Davis (yes, that Steve Davis – we’ll get to that later) delights in telling me that “one of the reasons we work so well together is that we’re all on the same wavelength.” It’s a sentiment that has inspired not only the music but also the name of the band. “We came from a very solid base,” guitarist Kavus Torabi (Cardiacs, Mediaeval Babes and Gong among others) explains, “hence, Utopia Strong. The music feels like it comes from another world and as we had such a strong friendship, the name just seemed to fit.”
There was no plan to make an album. As multi-instrumentalist Mike York delicately puts it: “we were just three mates dicking about.” In early 2018 that ‘dicking about’ turned into the start of something special. “We actually decided that we were just going to get together, mess around, have some fun and play some music.” Steve recounts. “Mike recorded it and when we listened back, right away we realised that it was the type of music that we’d go out and buy.” “We made an album almost by mistake” says Mike...
Read the rest here: NARC
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11 Dec 2019
Unreleaed Flowers Must Die video 'Why?' taken from 'Kompost' album
For all 'Swedish psych head' lovers out there we'd like to share a Flowers Must Die video we made for their track 'Why?'
Its one from our archives that was never used for the album 'Kompost' & has not been posted ever, until today, so hope you enjoy it ;)
For those interested in either just listening or buying a copy here is the Flowers Must Die album:
Flowers Must Die: Kompost
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10 Dec 2019
PETBRICK announce NYE show
PETBRICK have announced a special NYE show with Ghold at The Black Heart in Camden for Crypt of the Wizard.
Tickets that are only £5 can be bought from here: See
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9 Dec 2019
Five Rocket albums in Get into This's Albums of the Year
Teeth of the Sea – WRAITH
Julie's Haircut – In The Silence Electric
PETBRICK – I
Gum takes Tooth – Arrow
The Utopia Strong – The Utopia Strong
In their Top 100 Albums of the Year, see the full list here: GIT
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Andrew Weatherall plays Och on NTS
Andrew Weatherall opened his latest NTS show with the new track by Swedish band Och, listen back here: NTS
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Four Rocket albums in The Fragmented Flâneur's 40 Essential Albums 2019
Massive thanks to The Fragmented Flâneur's for including 4 Rocket albums in their 40 Essential Albums 2019. They included:
Teeth of the Sea – Wraith
Centrum – För Meditation
DJINN – DJINN
Paisiel – Paisiel
See the full run down here: The Fragmented Flâneur
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8 Dec 2019
Best of Rocket Recordings 2019 playlist
We have put a little Spotify playlist together compiling tracks from this years releases... though it's not really a 'best of', more just an interesting selection of sounds Rocket has launched in 2019.
The year has seen new records by Rocket faithfuls Teeth of the Sea, Gnoomes, Julie's Haircut, Mamuthones, Bonnacons of Doom and Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation.
The year has also brought new acts to the Rocket family like Gum Takes Tooth, PETBRICK, The Utopia Strong, Paisiel, Och and debut releases from GOAT/Hills off shoots Centrum and DJINN.
Listen to a selection from these releases here: Rocket Recordings 2019
You can also support the bands and the label and purchase all these on ltd vinyl and CD here: Bandcamp
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7 Dec 2019
Concrete Islands puts Julie's Haircut and The Utopia Strong in their Albums of the Year
Massive thanks to Concrete Islands for putting Julie's Haircut and The Utopia Strong albums in their '50 Albums of the Year' list.
See the list here: Concrete Islands
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The Utopia Strong's 'track-by-track' guide to album + great new video/short film for unreleased track Strange Alter via Louder
They say:
The Utopia Strong take us through their self-titled debut album one track at a time – and unveil the video for Strange Altar
There's a feeling, when hearing members of The Utopia Strong talk about the process behind their self-titled debut album, that no-one's more surprised about how well it came out than they are.
With anecdotes that range from dancing around the studio hugging one another, quite unable to believe what they'd produced, to being barely able to play due to the excitement of the sounds coming out of the studio, the resulting album is a euphoric exploration of complex but accessible psychedelia.
Not that they should've been surprised by its success. Made up of one-part Gong alumni Kavus Torabi, one-part ex-snooker star-turned-synthesizer enthusiast Steve Davis, and throwing in the work of Michael York and his abstract instrumentation, their provenance was always guaranteed.
Here, The Utopia Strong talk us through their self-titled new album, one track at a time...
Read the full piece here: Louder
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5 Dec 2019
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs to play Beakender this Sunday
Beak have just announced that Sundays secret guests at their Beakender this weekend at the Brudenell in Leeds is Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs.
Info and tickets here: Brudenell
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4 Dec 2019
Swedish band 'Och' reveal first track from forthcoming album 'II'
Listen here: '‘Pelennor's fält’'
'II' is ltd to 350 copies on Fluro Yellow / Black splatter vinyl. We have 50 copies that can be preordered here: Bandcamp
The rest will be available in all good record shops or on the bands merch table.
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Och – II
As a new decade dawns, the music obsessive inhabits a claustrophobic modern era of instant gratification in which they’re seemingly so spoiled by online options and easy access that transcendence can be paradoxically hard to find in the melee. With this in mind, it can be reassuring to be mindful of the manner in which a random discovery in the bargain bins of a second-hand record store or a charity shop can set off sparks of inspiration and untold fascination.
It was naturally just this kind of obsessive chasing of avenues beyond the commonplace and the easily explicable that led to the formation of the fabled Nurse With Wound List by habitual £1-bin-haunter Steven Stapleton in 1979. Within this assemblage of exotic monikers were an eternal coded gateway to worlds of experimentation and adventure that were all the more affecting for their mystery.
A full forty years on, rare though it is to come across a new record in the here and now which conjures up the same sense of ‘other’ as the cryptic artefacts of yore, it seems that one is on the verge of crossing our transom. ‘OCH’ - Swedish for ‘and’ - are poised to release their first album for Rocket Recordings (following a self-released EP which saw the light of day six years ago) This trio - of whom little is known other than a kinship to their labelmates Flowers Must Die - have created a collection of beguiling soundscapes and audial epiphanies that can’t help but summon up the freewheeling ‘70s spirit, the small-hours headspace and the broader sense of adventure that has legendarily dominated the areas of the esoteric.
Amidst these eight exploratory journeys, the listener can plot out a psychic course that traverses the likes of the meditative trance-states of vintage Popol Vuh, the chemically-altered mania of Guru Guru. Synth-driven propulsion akin to French iconoclasts Heldon and Lard Free, and naturally the bucolic raptures of the band’s erstwhile national forebears such as Träd Gräs Och Stenar and Älgarnas Trädgård, not to mention more recent exponents of the same lineage such as Hills and Dungen. Yet the entire vision the band conveys on this delirious travelogue is both timeless and paradoxically fresh.
Just as their name invokes an ampersand, so this record is no less than a gateway who knows where; proof positive that these dimensions beyond the everyday - at the hands of OCH - are as accessible in 2020 as ever they were, not to mention still more potent.
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3 Dec 2019
Teeth of the Sea play Quietus Fundraiser
The band, Sly and The 77 Snapped HARRGA Teeth Of The UKAEA!
feature:
Austin (Snapped Ankles)
Russell (Snapped Ankles)
Dali de St Paul (HARRGA)
Matt Cargill (Sly And The Family Drone)
Mike Bourne (Teeth Of The Sea)
Sam Barton (Teeth Of The Sea)
James Allsopp (Nostalgia 77)
Dan Jones (UKAEA)
Tickets are a tenner in advance or £12 on the door and techno legend Regis is DJing!
Ticket can be bought from here: Dice
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Listen to the third of three The Utopia Strong Spotify playlists
The three members of The Utopia Strong are each creating a special Spotify playlist of music they would like to share with you.
The third one to listen to is the playlist curated by Steve Davis which you can listen to now via Spotify
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2 Dec 2019
True Cannabis interviews Julie's Haircut
They say:
Julie’s Haircut: creativity is silence electric
Music as an act of creation: we're meeting bands and artists asking for their approach in finding new paths of inspiration. Let's start with Julie’s Haircut.
Creativity is a movement that changes through time. This is particularly true for Julie’s Haircut - a band from Emilia, northern Italy that keeps looking at the irresistible noisy pop of their early years through an ever-imaginative kaleidoscope. In their ninth album, In The Silence Electric (Rocket Recordings), they bring together rhythmic quadratures and jazzy flashes, blasts of noise and metaphysical oases. We met with Luca Giovanardi, the sextet’s singer and guitarist.
Nick Cave once said: “Inspiration is not the sacred fire that comes down from the sky, but a need that must be nourished”. Do you feel the same?...
Read the rest here: True Cannabis
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Three Rocket albums feature in The Quietus's Albums of the Year
We are always very flattered that The Quietus always acknowledge some Rocket releases in their prestigious Albums of the Year rundown, and 2019 is no different – they have included:
The Utopia Strong – The Utopia Strong
Teeth Of The Sea – Wraith
Gum Takes Tooth – Arrow
See the full 100 here: The Quietus
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Read /listen to Lay Llamas interview/playlist with Fresh Pot Music
They say:
Lay Llamas (Rocket Recordings) is the musical moniker of Italian-based artist Nicola Giunta. Drawing inspiration from Krautrock, psych, African rhythms, Thai funk, and more, Lay Llamas embraces an immersive musical experience.
We talked to Nicola about his musical origins, Italy and of course coffee. Check out his curated playlist and interview below.
Fresh Pots: What’s your origin story? What music was being played at your house while you were growing up?
Nicola Giunta: My name is Nicola Giunta, I was born 40 years ago in a little town called Marsala, in the west part of Sicily. You know, that triangular island in the deep south of Italy (or upper north of Africa if you prefer). Not so much music in my house… a bit of Santana, Elvis, Brazilian music, Spanish flamenco.
FP: What are some of your earliest musical memories?
NG: Japanese cartoon soundtracks and Italian pop music from radio and TV.
FP: Where are you currently located? Do you have any favorite local bands or artists worth checking out?
NG: I’ve lived in Padova for 8 years almost. It’s in the north-east of Italy, close to Venice. There are a lot of interesting local bands and musicians! And some of them are well known outside Italy and Europe also. I’m thinking about Jooklo Duo, Tommaso Cappellato, New Candys, Mamuthones, Jennifer Gentle and many others...
Read the rest here: Fresh Pots
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Rocket releases in Get Into This's 'Best Albums of the Decade'
And we thought picking the best album of the year is tricky, well Get into This have taken on the mammoth task and picked the '100 Best Albums of the Decade' and humbled to have the following in the list:
Teeth of the Sea – Master
GOAT – World Music
Julie's Haircut – Invocation And Ritual Dance...
GNOD – Just Say No...
See the full run down here: GIT
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