Rocket Probes – April 2021 playlist

Sex Swing – Passover (IDLES Remix)
(Great to have this and many other rare Rocket remixes coming out on vinyl for the first time, on our Record Store Day exclusive 'Aphelion Vol.1/2' LPs)
Record Store Day

De Witte Kunst – Op Zee (KIKOK Remix)
(Gnoomes drummer takes it nice and slow on this remix)
KIKOK

Dwellings – Three new tracks
(Three new tracks from Chris GNOD)
Dwellings

Yann Gourdon – Yann Gourdon
(Hurdy gurdy drones)
Yann Gourdon

Flowers Must Die – Ejefjallajökull
(Great track from one of Sweden's finest)
Flowers Must Die

Spires That In The Sunset Rise – Psychic Oscillations
(Centrum recommended immersions)
Spires That In The Sunset Rise

Machinefabriek – SF AL JW
(Good track from an interesting album)
Machinefabriek

Lebenden Toten – Static
(Thanks Jimmy from TOTS for turning our brains on to this)
Lebenden Toten

Pharaoh Sanders – Let us go Into the House of the Lord
(Spiritual awakenings)
Pharaoh Sanders

Godspeed You Black Emperor – Fie at Static Valley
(Droning repetitions)
Godspeed You Black Emperor

Mamma Sani – Unreleased Tapes 1981-1984
(Lofi synth/drum machines grooves n'drones)
Mamma Sani

Steve Reich & Musicians – Drumming
(Lost in the rhythms)
Steve Reich

Adam Janota Bzowski – Saint Maud Soundtrack
(Bit of an Under the Skin vibe to this in places)
Adam Janota Bzowski

Cobra Family Picnic – Moody Mountain
(Psyched sounds)
Cobra Family Picnic

Gore Elohim – Ritual Abuse
(Hail Satan!)
Lord Goat

Visitors – Joyo can you hear me Part 1
(Kosmische italo disco)
Visitors

Satan's Children – Wonderful Cycle Of Life That Never Fails
(Doomed)
Satan's Children

Witch – Home Town
(That guitar!)
Witch 

Golden Palominos – Victim
("The last thing I hear is...")
Golden Palominos

Nico – Janitor of lunacy
(Classic)
Nico

Urthona Power Trio Quartet – NO​-​FI ALIVE!
(Lo-fi abuse)
Urthona Power Trio Quartet

Beyaz Kelebekler – Esmerim
(Turkish wah sounds)
Beyaz Kelebekler

John Dwyer and Co. – The War Clock
(From the man who never sleeps)
John Dwyer and Co.

Work Money Death – The Space In Which The Uncontrollable Unknown Resides, Can Be The Place From Which Creation Arises
(Pharaoh worship)
Work Money Death

Kvartetten Som Sprängde – Gånglåt Från Valhallavägen
(Swedish psych from '73)
Kvartetten Som Sprängde

Pasteur Lappe – Na Real Sekele Fo'Ya
(Afro disco banger)
Pasteur Lappe

Rudimentary Peni – Great War
(New Peni)
Rudimentary Peni

Tuluum Shimmering – Waterfall Arcing in the Still of Night
(Another great immersive mantra...worth explore all)
Tuluum Shimmering

Listen to our updated monthly Rocket Probes Spotify playlist here:

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Gnoomes launch new label 'Zonned'

This is what the band say about it:

We’re really excited to announce that we’re launching a music label «Zonned». The idea of the label appeared during the first wave of the pandemic when we realised how it is actually easy to loose the ground. Thoughts were spinning in my head: what could possibly become an oasis of calm and peace at these tumultuous times? When clubs are shutting down, when you’re not able go touring anymore and visit your pals, is there still music going on? I believe it was still playing but its frequencies were not easily got caught.

The answer came to my mind when I was listening to something at the 5% volume. What if not ambient could bring you from the flight - fight state to a zone of comfort and warmth!

In the last few years we’ve heard so much cool stuff from our friends all over the globe. Sometimes they lack of understanding what they’re supposed to do with this? Sometimes they don’t quite find a belief in themselves. And we thought: Oh, my God! This is so beautiful, what if nobody will hear it ever?

We decided that it’s not fair in a way. It’s become our driving force alongside with the desire of creating healing content for people.

For me a label is not only a signature music style, but it’s always an aesthetic and design. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Vitalic Ten who’s in charge of visual content at Zonned. I’m really proud that he’s in our team.

We’re gonna release a digital comp soon with the artists all over the world! Watch this space! Please sign to our social media, etc!”.

Sasha

Follow here: Facebook   Twitter   Instagram

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Rocket bands announced to play next years Desert Fest in London

GNOD, Petbrick and Bonnacons of Doom are joining Hey Colossus, Part Chimp, Shuck, Slift and many, many others at next years Desert Fest in london.

Info here: Desert Fest 

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The Obelisk gives Master Sleeps by Hills some praise

It says:

Much like the elusive Theory of Everything in physics, with Hills‘ universal psychedelic premise is underlined by almost unaccountable gravity. Released in 2011 through Intergalactic Tactics and Transubstans Records following a 2009 self-titled debut, Master Sleeps basks these 10 years later in its breadth of influence and establishes its aesthetic on a per-track basis, presenting two vinyl sides of resonant, spaced-out intergalactic fare with an awakened nature that’s nothing if not contradictory to the title. It’s a record about which much was said at the time by the in-the-know-telligencia, and that’s cool, because it’s cool, and, hey man, cool, but any and all past hype aside — it’s amazing how the years turn these things into wisps of recollection; the fervent talking-up of records fading to echoes even as attention spans are criticized for their shortness; hypocrites to a hyperlink, everyone — it’s a cool record and to deny it is to deny oneself the pleasure of a 35-minute, mostly instrumental outward journey of jams and in-on-it-early-next-gen heavy psych. Suffice it to say, if this shit was due in June instead of a decade gone, you’d still see as much desperate preening of feathers in order to curry its vaunted favor. And fair enough.

I have the CD, which was the Transubstans version, that I apparently picked up later in 2011, but I’ll be damned if Master Sleeps doesn’t hold up. It was ahead of the game on vinyl structuring, presaging the larger-platter-as-format-of-record (pun absolutely intended) explosion by a year or two, and each of its two sides brought three tracks in a nearly even break of structure to what seems to be utterly fluid throughout the listening experience, opener “Rise Again” and closer “Death Shall Come” creating a loop from one to the other that feels all the more geared to encourage multiple listens in a kind of sonic reincarnation. Accordingly, the more you hear Master Sleeps, the more you hear in it. First? Swirl. “Rise Again” fuzzes and unfolds a careening spaciousness that calls out early space rock and psych drift with shoegaze vocals buried in the mix à la The Heads where you wonder if anything’s really being said or you’re just imagining it and does it really matter anyway. I don’t know...

Read the rest here The Obelisk

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Gnoomes announce Russian dates

Gnoomes have announced a tour of the homeland...

The bands three albums Mu!, Tschak! and Ngan! are all avaialable to buy from here: Bandcamp

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Read Impatto Sonoro introduction to the world of GOAT

It reads:

The Goat is a Swedish group, who debuted in 2012 with the album " World Music ", reached number 8 in the charts of their country. Their second album, " Commune ", hit the Billboard 200 and placed number 47 in the UK. To date they have produced 3 studio albums, 2 live and several singles and EPs, all available on your trusted streaming platform.

Without disregarding the (essential) 60s-70s, with references to King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Talking Heads among others, they nevertheless offer an extremely modern and ancient musical discourse. Theirs is precisely World Music in a broad sense which, starting from hard rock and progressive rock, draws from the East, Scandinavia, Africa, Latin America. Tribal, hypnotic and pulled rhythms. Distorted guitars, keyboards that play like a church (any one), instruments of various origins that suddenly appear in the sound fabric. Once, perhaps even today, it was called psychedelic music. But it would be an understatement...

Read the rest here: Impatto Sonoro

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Julie's Haircut announce first show in New York (sort of)

Julie's Haircut have been announced as being a 'Showcase Artist 2021' by Mondo NY

The band say this about it:

"So we will be playing New York City for the first time. And yet we won’t. Just streaming. But it’ll be cool: we’ll probably premiere some new music, so save the date."

Info about the event can be found here: MONDO

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Indie Rocks interviews J. Zunz

They say:

The force Lorena Quintanilla imbues Lorelle Meets The Obsolete is unique, her stage presence and how they connect with the audience, show us the commitment to the music, but he listen to his solo project J. Zunz us It allows us to get into it in an intimate way, to know their concerns and their desires, finding ourselves as you also listen to them.

Under the pseudonym J. Zunz , last year Lorena presented us with Hibiscus , the second production of this project born in 2017 with the album Silente . In this new album with electric melodies he shares a support for all his listeners, he presents us with eight songs that with deep atmospheres accompany anger, desire and the illusion of letting society make us feel less. I was able to chat a bit with her and this is what she told me about the short summary she wrote about her latest material...

Read the rest here: Indie Rocks

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Paisiel announce show

Paisiel have announced a show on 4 July in Barcelos, Portugal.

Tickets can be bought here: Triciclobcl

The band latest album Unconscious Death Wishes is out now: Paisiel

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MOWNO reviews DJINN's Transmission

They say:

Notice to fans of auditory cosmic trips and other hallucinogenic instrumental wanderings: the psychedelic jazz group Djinn is back with a second album with a high psychotropic content that should satisfy more than one. While their first opus saw them walk an often bitter and rough free jazz road, the perched Swedes, who would share members with the shamans of Goat and Hills, here resolutely left dry land to eagerly explore the cosmos.

Refusing to choose between spiritual jazz, world influences, freak folk and kosmische muzik, Djinn combines on Transmission all these ingredients in the present tense in contemplative jams with a saxophone and drums as main guides.

Time slows its course from the first minutes of the disc on Sun Ooze , which summons the spirit of Poppy Nogood and her Phantom Band to insidiously alter our consciousness with a lot of sax trills and throbbing percussions. And now we accidentally find ourselves floating on the edge of dreams to the rhythm of a long languid five-beat ballad dotted with distant lamentations and frenzied whistles, at the risk of losing their mind definitively ( Creator Of Creation ) . The journey continues through a cottony interlude made of celestial choirs in a blink of an eye more than supported to the Germans of Popol Vuh, to regain a foothold with reality on Nights with Kurupiand his mischievous flute accompanied by a numb bossa nova guitar...

Read the rest here:  MOWNO

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Listen to Steve and Kavus on Gideon Coe's 'Late Night Book Club'

Listen BBC 6 Music's Gideon Coe's 'Late Night Book Club' where he talks to Steve and Kavus about their new book and The Utopia Strong.

Listen here: Gideon Coe

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Ransom Note interviews Steve and Kavus about their new book

It reads:

It’s hard to say which plotline is more ridiculous: a gang of diseased bats and a fish market become responsible for the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II, or Steve Davis touring the festival circuit as part of a DJ duo and live act… and he’s actually good. From what started as a bit of laugh, the musical journey of Steve & Kavus has taken them to serious critical acclaim as part of The Utopia Strong: a tough-to-pigeonhole psychedelic mindfuck (with Steve on the modular synth) that Steve Hillage rated highly enough to invite onto his band's first tour for 40 years. It’s little wonder they wanted to write a book about it. Who wouldn’t?

Medical Grade Music is part-memoir and part-excuse-to-wax-lyrical about the (often obscure) musical acts and creative characters that have inspired the duo throughout their lives. If this sounds like the indulgence of a couple of ageing rockers then you’d be right, but rather like their musical performances, they carry it off with such authenticity and manic energy that you can’t help but join in the fun with them. In among the funny anecdotes and musical trainspotting, there are also some surprisingly poignant human stories.

Steve and Kavus first met in 2009 at a Magma gig in Paris. Although Steve was rather busy being a world champion and TV personality, he had actually been Magma’s UK promoter for a time in the late 80s. He lost a fortune, so it was a nice twist of fate that Magma became responsible for his next (and infinitely more successful) career in music...

Read the rest here:  Ransom Note

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Norman Records 25 Anniversary release of GOAT's World Music

To help celebrate 25 years of Norman Records the shop has an exclusive version of GOAT's World Music for sale, ltd to 300 copies and is a tri colour vinyl in the shops three colours.

Buy from here: Norman Records

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The shop have also written a great appreciation piece about the album:

Anniversary Retrospective: Goat - World Music

Goat's 'World Music' might well be our best-selling album of all time. It's only fitting, then, that Daoud should run the rule over this masterpiece of modern psych-rock as part of our 25th anniversary retrospective series.

Though I’m not a fan of professional wrestling, I have long been fascinated by the concept of kayfabe. Kayfabe is wrestling’s unwritten rule, it’s a posteriori belief. Without kayfabe wrestling is nothing - just some strong people pretending to beat each other up; with kayfabe, wrestling becomes its own world, its own reality. Kayfabe is that core suspension of disbelief, the mutual agreement between all involved that everything happening is real, that everything that is happening matters. Fundamentally, kayfabe turns its audience into participants - The Rock and John Cena and your local DIY wrestling scene (support them!) need you to believe, to feel every punch, to jeer at every heel turn... 

Read in full here: World Music

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Raven Sings The Blues reviews DJINN's Transmission

They say:

In an acrobatic leap over their debut, Swedish duo Djinn explore the boundaries of psych-jazz on their latest LP Transmission. Formed from members of Hills and Goat, the pair scrape the foam from works that explored both the cosmic pulse and the earthen shake of bone on bone. As they creep into the record, howls in harmony with the sickened ether begin to rise from the speakers. The pair shake out rhythms that wax wounded before the sax starts to crawl in from the corners. Though this is by no means and album untethered from the groove. It’s always there thrumming from the heart, steaming for the ground, hiding in the shadows. The band grab at the mantras of Don Cherry, Popul Vuh, Herbie Hancock, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago, though they also name check Arbete Och Fritid from their home turf as well.

As they sidle to the side of the pulse proper, the pair prove hypnotic, letting the rhythm wash in waves while they scratch, yowl and burn in a soul-soaked groove that proves they’ve been paying attention to the creased corners of their favorite records all along. Alongside their sax and drums setup the record lets in a raft of flutes, guitar, piano and percussive shakers. The album unfolds as a longform landscape, funk-dinged one moment and awash in elegiac tones the next. They sew in sweat, letting the listener get swept along in the patterns of turbulence and calm. While the debut set them apart from their past, the new record digs into their desires, walking the cut path of masters before them. They might not be cutting the path anew, but they’re keeping their footing with deft skill. This one has found its way onto my speakers again and again over the past few weeks, and the pulse tends to burn into the veins with a new fire each time.

See review in full here: Raven Sings The Blues

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Update on delayed Hills and GNOD releases

We have now been provided dates by our manufacturer's for delivery of the 'Hills - Frid (Re-issue)' & 'GNOD - Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy' which have both been delayed for months from their initial release dates.

Hills - Frid (Re-issue) should be shipping from around the 26th of April.

GNOD - Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy will now be released on 7th May and shipping around that time too.

So sorry it's taken so long to get this one to you, it was never our intention that it was delayed this amount of time, Brexit & Covid have thrown a lot of issues across the whole of the industry, I know some of you have have enquired & have shown great patience to these delays so we appreciate that.

Again thanks for your patience.

Rocket

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Listen to Matt from Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs on Loud and Quiet's 'Sweet 16' podcast

It says:

As this photo suggests, this episode of Sweet 16 is a particularly fun one, with Matt Baty, frontman with sludge metal band Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (who also runs the brilliant DIY label Box Records).

Based in Newcastle, the start of Pigs can be traced back to the scenic town of Richmond in the North Yorkshire Dales, when a 16-year-old Baty formed his first band, No Fouling, with Pigs bassist John-Michael Joseph Hedley.

It was a time of nu metal, surviving Fear Factory at Newcastle SU, entering Battles of the Bands and some inspiringly confused lyrics, all shared here by Matt through tears of laughter.

Listen here: L&Q

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Announcing 'Aphelion Vols.1 & 2' – two ltd edition LP compilations of rare Rocket remixes exclusively for Record Store Day

Record Store Day returns this year on 12th and 17th June and we have news on some exclusive albums to share with you.

‘Aphelion Vol.1’ and ‘Aphelion Vol.2’ are two LPs that bring together a selection of rare remixes from the Rocket Recordings back catalogue - all but one track are being released on vinyl for the first time.

The LP’s bring together tracks by Rocket favourites like Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation, Sex Swing, Gnoomes, Bonnacons of Doom and many more. 

These classic Rocket tracks have been pushed, pulled, stretched, dissected and some, completely re-imagined by an eclectic mix of incredible artists. These include some of the current leaders of electronic exploration like Nyege Nyege’s Nihiloxia, Bristol’s Giant Swan and Oliver Ho’s Broken English Club.

Remixes from the post-punk royalty of IDLES, to the untouchable, experimental sounds of Tomaga – the albums also includes contributions from two of NTS Radio’s most acclaimed DJ’s, Optimo’s JD Twitch and the ‘godlike’ Cherrystones, both exploring addictive bass churning sounds.

The albums also see Rocket artists remixing their fellow label mates – Mexico’s J. Zunz unexpected remix of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, GNOD’s Negra Branca remix of Greece’s Kooba Tercu, and one of the stand out tracks, the 9 min+ Gnoomes remix of the Flowers Must Die song ‘Hey, Shut Up’. Aphelion Vol.1 also includes a brand new, unreleased remix by Cage And Aviary’s Jamie Paton and his krautdub take on J. Zunz track ‘Four Women and Darkness’.

The results are a cauldron of repetitive sounds across two LPs – taking in everything from psych, techno, krautrock, afro, noise, dub and all the other ingredients you would expect to find on a compilation released on the ever reliable Rocket Recordings.

Each LP is ltd to 500 copies, with only 420 going to record shops worldwide (the other 80 are going to all artists/band members involved).

Visit RSD's website for more info about this years event: Record Store Day

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DJINN's new album 'Transmission' is out today

"Perfectly commands an increasingly colourful palette" 9/10 Backseat Mafia

"A greater breadth of listening experience." Terrascope

"It is clear we are dealing with some quality musicians here." Weirdo Shrine

"A sonic mainline straight into your veins." Fragmented Flaneur

DJINN the duo featuring members from Sweden's finest troupes GOAT and Hills have their latest album called 'Transmission' released on ltd edition vinyl today.

The album is ltd to 400 copies on Orange/Red Swirl vinyl. We have just put the last 15 copies we have up on Bandcamp but some shops still may have copies left.

All copies will receive a free download code of the album + the bands 2020 cassette release 'Avant de servir'.

'Transmission’ is an intrepid step into new terrain for DJINN - the mantric rhythms are hypnotic here, the freeform extrapolations hit new peaks of vivid abandon, and the moments of calm are blissfully meditative. Yet their sound palette extends into refreshing collisions of intent and metaphysical intensity that echo across the psychic landscapes of Sunburned Hand Of The Man-style freak-folk, as well as the polylingual fusion of jazz, European and Asian music that Don Cherry essayed on 1969’s ‘Eternal Rhythm’ and 1973’s ‘Organic Music Society’.

Amidst these intoxicating and richly eclectic soundworlds, the band are just as comfortable invoking Popol Vuh (as on the mellotron-abetted title track) Art Ensemble Of Chicago and the lineage of Swedish underground music that found epiphanies in the radical folk-psych of Arbete Och Fritid whilst also sounding - crucially - like no-one but themselves. 

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Celebrating April's Bandcamp Friday

It is Bandcamp Friday once again!

We are sure you are as fatigued by lockdown as you are fatigued by these Bandcamp Friday's...but these monthly events have been life savers for us and most DIY labels like ourselves, so all your support for us and our bands is greatly appreciated

Here's some of the things we wanna shout about:

The Holy Family – The Holy Family 2LP/CD
This is a mesmerising debut double album from a group of very talented musicians, ltd frosted clear vinyl

Land Trance – First Séance LP
One of our favourite releases of 2020 which we needed to own on vinyl, so make it happen we have pressed it ourselves

Urdog – Long Shadows: 2003-2006 LP
Ltd edition Ice Black splatter vinyl version of this incredible retrospective compilation, if you are a true lover of psychedelic music then you will love this, essential jams

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Off Cuts LP
We have a handful of copies of this album on Purple/Black splatter – this is the band sounding at their most ferocious best

VED – Ett visst fängelse 7"
Banging two track ltd edition 7" from these Swedish master of repetitive psych rhythms

GOAT – World Music LP/CD
Our best ever selling album, now on ltd 'Sacrificial Blood' vinyl, plus on CD in mini LP gatefold packaging

GOAT – Requiem (Single LP edition)
Ltd Edition repress on 'Red Flame' vinyl

Pharaoh Overlord – 6 LP/CD
The immensely epic album '6' is available on 'Snake Bite' Yellow vinyl edition

Paisiel – Unconscious Death Wish LP
Stunning second album, only a handful of copies lest ltd Red/Black 'colour-in-colour' vinyl

Anthroprophh – Toilet Circuit EP 7" 
Our 200th release – epress on yellow vinyl 

GNOD/Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs/GOAT – T-shirts
Reprints of classic Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, GOAT and GNOD t-shirts available

+ there are loads of other great albums, shirts and posters to pick up from the Rocket or individual bands Bandcamp stores:

Rocket Bandcamp

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Backseat Mafia say some words about The Holy Family debut single 'Inward Turning Suns'

They say:

MASTERFUL psychedelic imprint Rocket Recordings has added another string to its bow with the signing of the hallucinatory collective The Holy Family, with an album due in July.

The band is the feverishly brainchild of David J. Smith, otherwise of Guapo and Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses, and thus a name well appreciated by voyagers out into more esoteric sonic landscapes.

The Holy Family, the album of the same name, presents as a 13-track, double-album explosion through worlds of psychedelia, pastoral psych-folk, kosmiche and more, ever-shifting, ever-seductive.

“I guess if I had to try to put it into words, it’s my attempt at a musical interpretation of a very trippy and psychedelic murder mystery tale, or otherworldly dream/hallucination,” reflects David.

The Holy Family’s very particular aesthetic evolved naturally from initial improvisation and then sharp-eyed honing of this raw material alongside longtime friends and musical travellers from Guapo, Kavus Torabi, Emmett Elvin, Sam Warren and Michael J. York, who retreated to the countryside to get it together and allow the vision to form.

And you can watch the glorious video for a first track reveal herein: “Inward Turning Suns”, the track itself a delicious longform riot of backwards masking, chanted lyrics, flutes trilling in flight...

Read the rest here: Backseat Mafia 

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