Rocket Probes – May 2021 playlist

The Holy Family – St Anthony's Fire
(Second single to be revealed from their debut album electronic fuzz-fueled kosmische folk...with accompanying video by John O'Carroll)
The Holy Family

Various – Zonned Records Vol.1
(Gnoomes's Zonned Records debut release – a great comp featuring J. Zunz, Midas Rex, Varvara, Kikok, Sasha Piankov, Of Mist, Landing etc etc)
Zonned Records

Smote + Forest Mourning – S/T
(Collab of drones)
Smote + Forest Mourning

Græns – Björkarnas Sus
(Kaleidoscopic jazz sounds from Sweden)
Græns

Heimat – Ita
(Noise-pop repetitions)
Heimat

Yoko Ono – Woman Power
(Do you know that one day you lost your way, man?)
Yoko Ono

Acid Twilight – Acid Twilight
(Argentinian devotional psychedelia on Not Not Fun)
Acid Twilight 

Mustard – Good Time Coming
(Another Cherrystones recommended glam banger)
Mustard 

Tara Clerkin Trio – Retro Cranial Kit
(The great Tara Clerkin Trio album remixed)
Tara Clerkin Trio

Skeleton – Skeleton
(Texan Thrash...courtesy of Head Drop's Kev Wells)
Skeleton

Action 13 – More bread (to the people)
(Nigerian psych groove from '73)
Action 13

Domovoyd – Oh Sensibility
(Hazed-out doom) 
Domovoyd

Francis Beby – Psychedelic Sanza (1982-1984)
(Eclectic collection of Beby grooves)
Francis Beby 

Seefeel – Rupt and Flex (1994 - 96)
(Lots of great stuff to immerse into)
Seefeel

Seefeel – Plainsong (Sind Bubble Embossed Dub)
(All the recent reissues made us dig this classic 12" back out...one of the all time faves!)
Seefeel

Lower Slaughter – Some things take work
(Reconnecting with this great album)
Lower Slaughter

The Byrds – C.T.A.102
(Signals tell us...)
The Byrds

Fire! – Defeat
(More greatness from Fire!)
Fire!

Alice Coltrane – Eternity
(Harmonic convergence)
Alice Coltrane

The Jimmy Cake – Tough Love
(Cheers to Spud Murphy for turning us on to this great album of dark ambience)
The Jimmy Cake

Gary, Indiana – Alien 3
(Playing Raw Power in August...should be good!)
Gary, Indiana

Dr. John – Black Widow Spider
(Hits the groove)
Dr. John 

Robedoor – Entity undertow
(Sludged sounds)
Robedoor

Trees Speak – Posthuman
(Probably our fave album they have released so far)
Trees Speak

Various – Doing It In Lagos
(A couple of bangers on this comp of early 80s Nigerian disco on Soundway)
Doing It In Lagos

Mandingo – Black Rite
(Classic banger of fuzzed funk to welcome in some sun)
Mandingo 

Follow our updated monthly Spotify playlist here:

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The Sleeping Shaman reviews GNOD's 'Easy to Build, Hard to Destroy'

It reads:

The prolific monarchs of drone sit atop their throne. Nothing if not prolific (they’ve twenty substantial releases on Bandcamp) this addition to Gnod’s menagerie of psychedelic-space-drone-jazz-rock birthlings is surely welcome to old hands and neophytes alike. Rightly billed as ‘the sound of an uncompromising devotion to rapture through noise and repetition’ this collection of the rare, the odd and the unreleased is a worthy addition to Gnod’s impressive discography.

Occasionally, as I’m sure you good people already know, compilations of this type comprise pieces that are unknown, unreleased and unloved for a reason – they should’ve been consigned to the floor of the tape room shortly after birth such is their unloveableness. The chimeric albums that they comprise are disjointed, inconsistent and unsatisfying to all but the fanatical hysteric. What makes Easy To Build… all the more impressive is that, not only is the filling good but the pie is a tasty congruent, one whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

We ease in with the raga infused, percussion driven Elka, a simmering piece of tinkling space drone that takes the listener on a journey through the hypnopompic state experienced as one wakes gently from a beautiful dream. With glockenspiel accompaniment...

Read the rest here:  The Sleeping Shaman

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J. Zunz announce European tour

We are extremely happy to announce that J. Zunz will be heading over to Europe to finally play some shows:

November
24 / UK / Bristol / Rough Trade
25 / UK / London / Werkhaus
26 / UK / Birkenhead / Future Yard
27 / UK / Manchester / The Peer Hat
28 / UK / Newcastle / The Cluny
29 / UK / Todmorden / The Golden Lion
30 / BE / Antwerp / Het Bos

December
1 / DE / Bremen / MS Loretta
2 / DK / Copenaghen / Råhuset
3 / DK / Odense / Pataget
5 / DE / Dresden / Club Debil at Alte Feuerwache
8 / CZ / Prague / Underdogs
9 / HU / Budapest Aurora
10 / AT / Graz / Cafe' Wolf
11 / SLO / Ljubljana / Gromka
12 / IT / Padova / Nadir
13 / IT / Roma / Fanfulla
14 / IT / Bologna / Venue TBA
16 / IT / Busto Arsizio / Circolo Gagarin
17 / IT / Torino / Living Room
18 / FR / Lyon / Le Sonic
19 / DE / Mannheim / Der Mannheim Kult

Her latest album Hibiscus, can be bought on vinyl here: J. Zunz

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Les Oreilles Curieuses reviews DJINN's Transmission

They say:

In the spring of 2019, we got to know Djinn's cosmic and trippy jazz with a first record. The group from Gothenburg has succeeded in establishing their completely hallucinogenic universe which will also be heard with their second album called Transmission.

Here come new compositions where Djinn will therefore combine spiritual jazz, world music and kosmische musik to make an impressive and oh so hypnotic mixture. Transmission opens with a "Sun Ooze" brilliantly synthesizing hypnotic and haunting atmospheres where the quartet favors saxophones and frenzied percussions just like "Creator of Creation" much more energetic. There is no doubt that this musical trip will be completely memorable.

We will just as well dream with the celestial “Nights With Kurupi” as we will have our feet stamped with the frantic looks on “Jaguar” and the experimental “Urm The Mad” in psych-folk-jazz colors. Djinn will move away from the groove to draw much more mystical atmospheres with also the last psychedelic moments that are "Love Divine" and "Orpheus" showing that the Swedish cosmic jazz collective has been able to awaken its spiritual instinct on this relentless second disc. 

Les Oreilles Curieuses

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The Holy Family reveal shroom infused second video – plus announce launch party

The Holy Family have revealed their second single - a haunting, fog-draped voyage of kosmische polyrhythms and psych folk wonder called 'St Anthony's Fire'.

The track is taken from their self-titled debut album which is released on 2 July 2021. Watch the incredible John O'Carroll made video for the track above.

The band have also announced a very special album launch party that with take place on the day of release, 2nd July at The Servants Jazz Quarters in Dalston, London. There will be a full album playback plus a special DJ set from Kavus Torabi and Steve Davis. Things kick off at 7pm and the event is free (poster below) – and rest assured, full COVID safety measures will be in place, following Government guidelines. 

The album is released on ltd edition 2xLP and CD. We have sold out of the frosted clear edition, but there is a grey vinyl version available to preorder from your local record shops now. You can also preorder the ltd edition CD from here: Bandcamp

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The scope of The Holy Family - an auditory Rorschach test across thirteen tracks rich in adventure and intrigue - is boundless. It’s an intrepid voyage through sound-worlds that takes in all manner of incarnations, as spidery zeuhl, oceanic kosmische, blissful pastoral and celluloid-score tension are visited here in search of some greater universal truth. Yet all of these stylistic forays are married with relentless dream logic into one unifying kaleidoscopic vision.

Mercurial and mystical yet charged with primal energy, this is a classic double album as forum for chimerical experimentation - shifting in form and structure every time it travels from the record racks to the stereo, and revealing yet more psychic landscapes with each listen. 

Submit to its spell, and join The Holy Family.

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Gnoomes new label Zonned Records reveals first release

Gnoomes new label Zonned Records have announced their first release - a great compilation featuring lot’s of artists you all know and love...

Listen to the first track to be revealed by Kikok here: Zonned

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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Rough Trade in-stores have been rescheduled

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Rough Trade in-stores have been rescheduled for September...

20th – Rough Trade Bristol

21st –  Rough Trade East

22nd –  Rough Trade Nottingham

The band will be playing live and signing records. Contact each shop about details.

Tickets for the bands November/December tour are also on sale via: pigsx7.com

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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs interviewed by Signature Brew

Ahead of their Big Foot Festival performance, the band were interviewed by stage sponsors Signature Brew about beer and music.

Read the interview here: Signature Brew

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The Quietus reviews GNOD's 'Easy to Build, Hard to Destroy'

They say:

Issued from the wrong mouth, “diving into the archives” is a term fit to strike fear into the most hardened heart. Take Gene Simmons, whose comically overblown box set, The Vault, was recently angled not so much as a retrospective cash-in as an “experience”. The experience in question? For $50,000, the cow-tongued eejit in question would hand-deliver ten CDs, a Gene Simmons action figure, a book and a medallion to your door. Tragic, really.

Of course, not all chancers are created equal, yet the point remains: archival releases are occasionally misplaced hustle masquerading as revelation. On Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy, Salford cult heroes Gnod couldn’t be less concerned with such half-assed subterfuge. A compilation of obscure and unreleased material from the band’s early years, pressed to vinyl for the first time, it’s a chronicle of dank, cosmic transubstantiation from one of the most outright believable bands around.

Calling a band “restless” can imply a certain aimlessness. In the case of Gnod, whose synapse-searing noise has consistently declined to predict the future, it’s been a deeply intuitive urge to eke out exultation from repetition. Much like Bardo Pond or Acid Mothers Temple at their most peaky, highlights from the band’s catalogue (take ‘Tony’s First Communion'’ or ‘Drop Out’ with White Hills) hauls Pete Kember’s edict of “three chords good, two chords better, one chord best” to the outer confines of autosuggestion. Across eight tripped-out tracks, totalling eighty minutes, Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy cracks light upon just how they’ve gone...

Read the Rest here: The Quietus

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Terrascope review's GNOD's Easy to Build, Hard to Destroy

It reads:

What, already? It seems like only yesterday that we all frothed excitedly about the new outcrop of experimental acts, crudely lumped together as “new psych”. Yet here we are, pouring over a staging- post retrospective befitting one such outfit that has truly weathered the test of time - can it really be fourteen years? Now that’s a double itch we think worth scratching, for Terrascope likes Gnod. Well enough, in fact, to have hosted them on the postage stamp stage at The Moon, Cardiff in 2017, an occasion hijacked by a General Election; almost sunk by a thunderstorm of biblical proportions and memorable for delicious home-made curries, prepped and served in conditions that would have been considered grim even by the standards of WW1 trenches. Still, nobody died and, with a favourable wind, I can still pick up that incendiary performance in my good ear, that’s how indelibly loud it was.

Typically, the now dispersed Islington Mill collective’s idea of a compilation eschews the more obvious cuts with which, let’s face it, fans will already be familiar, and instead homes in on a collection of  obscurities and never-before released material. Trading on repetition and metronomic, perpetual motion, Easy To Build... is neither overtly experimental nor is it possessed, for the most part, of the bludgeoning intensity with which Gnod have often been associated. If not exactly striking a happy medium between the two, it at least glowers warningly both right and left. As befits the band’s early DIY ethic, some of this sounds like it was recorded in someone’s sock drawer in the next street, with the vocals relayed via a cardboard tube attached to a piece of string. No matter, therein lies its period charm and intoxicating atmospheric appeal...

Read the rest here:  Terrascope

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GOAT and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs to play Palp Festival

GOAT and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs are to play Rocklette – an 8 day event part of Palp Festival, high-up on a mountain in the Swiss Alps.

GOAT play on the 11th August and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs on the 14th.

Obviously we do not know if this will 100% happen, we really do hope it does though!

More info here:

Palp Festival

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Sex Swing announce UK shows

Sex Swing have announced some December dates alongside their up-and-coming Raw Power performance:

Aug 27-29 / London: Raw Power Festival
Dec 01 / Leicester: The Soundhouse
Dec 02 / Manchester:Yes
Dec 03 / Bristol: Crofters Rights
Dec 04 / Cardiff: Clwb Ifor Bach (w/ Part Chimp)

The bands latest album Type II and remix album Passovers can be bought/streamed here:

Type II   

Passovers

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Sex Swing join Teeth of the Sea and Petbrick at Raw Power

Sex Swing have been announced to play Raw Power Festival on 27-29 August, joining label mates Teeth of the Sea and Petbrick, plus a host of other great bands.

Tickets and info here: Raw Power 

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Buzz Magazine reviews GNOD's Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy

It reads:

In their various incarnations, iterations and configurations, Gnod [pictured, top] have been blowing minds and amps since 2006. Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy harks back to those early days, gathering together material from before they were the house band at the Islington Mill in their native Salford or had begun their occasional forays into electronic territory.

In the words of sometime member Alex Macarte, quoted in Harry Sword’s superlative history of drone Monolithic Undertow, Gnod’s specialism is “essentially trance music”. That much is amply exemplified here in the form of everything from mantric Eastern grooves (Elka and Frostbitten, which bookend the album) to impeccably relentless Stooges vs Can psych rock (Inner Z and They Live), lumbering, frazzled doom (5th Sun) and total, uncompromising, far-out headfuckery (both parts of Deadbeatdisco!!!).

Shrouded in joss-stick smoke and speaker steam, simultaneously minimalist and maximalist, Gnod’ll take your face to another dimension. Pay close attention – if you weren’t doing so already.

See the review here: Buzz Mag

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GNOD and Hills LPs out today

After many manufacturing delays we are happy to say that GNOD's 'Easy to Build, Hard to Destroy' and the reissue of Hills – Frid are released to day on vinyl and CD from your local record shops.

GNOD – Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy’

A 2LP/CD compilation of tricky-to-find, obscure and unreleased material from the heady early days of the band, all released on vinyl for the first time is finally out on sale today.

Watch the retina burning video above created by Rocket's John O'Carroll for the previously unreleased track 'They Live' – a just shy of 10 minute psych-out that marries the droned repetition of Spacemen 3 and the punk urgency of early Stooges.

You Tube

'Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy' can be ordered from all good record shops as ltd edition 2LP versions on 'Blue' and 'Black' vinyl. All versions come in a gatefold sleeve.

"...the GNOD that are totally fucking up for it and just don’t want to let go… BY COMPLETELY FUCKING LETTING GO!"

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HILLS - ‘Frid' (Re-Issue)

After the huge demand for the Hills 'Frid' repress (one of the finest psych bands to come out of Sweden) we're are finally releasing the new limited gatefold version.

The repress is out on sale available on 'Blue' vinyl (400 copies) via your local record shop & a new run of CDs which is also be available too.

Hills are part of a rich scene from Sweden which also including friends and Rocket Recordings label mates Goat, Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation, Flowers Must Die, Och etc . This collection form the new chapter in a tradition of Swedish psychedelia that found its origins in late-'60s and early 70's freakouts and mind-melts by the likes of Baby Grandmothers and Älgarnas Trädgōrd - not to mention the unholy trinity of Pärson Sound, International Harvester and Träd Gräs och Stenar - before being developed by the likes of The Spacious Mind and Dungen in the last two decades. These inspirations make their mark on 'Frid' by journeying inward, via mantric repetition and hip-shaking pulsations as on the ten-minute monolith, ' Och Solen Sankte Sig Rod', yet they can also lurch into the unknown via the fuzz/wah odysseys of the aptly monikered 'National Drone' and the ceremonial exhortations of the closing 'Death Will Find A Way.'

Frid has been out of print for several years now, so this gives fans and the curious the chance to immerse themselves in this wonderful and classic album.

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Again, we apologise these have taken so long to be released after the initial presale, we have found it as frustrating as I am sure you have.

But glad you can now enjoy them!

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Bandcamp Friday – May 2021

Today is the last Bandcamp Friday – so thanks to everyone who has bought stuff from us this last year, it has helped us and all our bands tremendously, so thanks for your continued support, means a bloody lot!!

There are no new releases from us this month but we have raided the archives for a few rare releases we had buried in boxes:

GÅS – GÅS 7"
Yellow vinyl copies of this sought after 7"

Teeth of the Sea – Wraith LP
Fluro Green vinyl first edition of the bands last album

Deafkids/Petbrick – Deafkids LP
Red/black splatter of the bands incredible collab release

Hills – Alive at Roadburn 2LP
Long sold out vinyl edition of this amazing live album

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – King of Cowards LP
Gold vinyl version of the bands second LP

Autotelia – I
Out of print green vinyl edition

Anthroprophh – Toilet Circuit EP 7" (First press)
First press of our 200th release on pink vinyl

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

J. Zunz – Hibiscus
Exotic Swirl edition of the amazing album by Lorena from Lorelle Meets The Obsolete

Sex Swing – Type II
Clear vinyl edition in heavy weight, high gloss sleeve

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

GOAT – T-shirts
Reprint of the classic GOAT  t-shirt

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

Bandcamp

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Fragmented Flaneur reviews GNOD's 'Easy to Build, Hard to Destroy'

It reads:

When I stumbled into what became known as the ‘psych scene’ around a decade ago, GNOD were already a thing… a collective that was revered by many who I talked and sought inspiration from in terms of taking that next turn down the rabbit hole. At the time my touchstone was the Liverpool Psych Fest, which was my annual introduction to new ideas and new bands. So it was in 2014 that GNOD played the Rocket Recordings stage on that unforgettable evening.

I used to love seeing the list of bands who were playing the festival and really getting into them as a way of deciding who I wanted to see (and yes it did involve the use of spreadsheets). I remember quite clearly listening to GNOD, and especially the ‘Chaudelande’ albums, ‘Ingnodwetrust’ and ‘Gnod Drop Out With White Hills II’ (White Hills were also on the bill, and Dave W played with GNOD that night); and being totally blown away by them.

This was the GNOD that I got into and the GNOD that lives with me to this day – although I have seen many great performances from them since (in various guises) most notably at the Rocket 20th Anniversary weekend – and this is the GNOD that I find here on this compilation of early tracks never previously released on vinyl… a couple only on MySpace! Indeed, it is interesting that I referred to the ‘visceral’ nature of GNOD’s performance back in 2014, because that’s exactly the word that came up for me when listening to this album. There is an underpinning sense of excitement borne from discovery here… you really get the sense of a group of individuals who are pushing the envelope… who are taking it just that little bit further… who are pushing themselves into something altogether more dimensional and spatial...

Read the rest here: Fragmented Flaneur

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The Psych Rock reviews GNOD's 'Easy to Build, Hard to Destroy'

It reads:

GNOD Easy To Build Hard To Destroy is a compilation of hard to find and unreleased materials that are heady droned out rock from the underground heavy weights GNOD. The music thrives in retention, drone, awesome tones and varied instrumentation. GNOD is eclectic and has continuously evolved making music that is always unique and extremely creative. This compilation is not just a piece of fanfare but presents great music that sound hi-fi and is every bit as great as their many albums and collaborations.

GNOD Easy To Build Hard To Destroy is a droning fuzz rock album that is experimental, stoney and relentlessly interesting. Their tones and approach to songwriting are as impressive as ever. It is amazing to think that this band has been making innovative music with such skill for such a long time.

GNOD is from Salford, UK and their first release was in 2007 and they have minted 49 releases including EPs, singles, collaborations and full-length albums. Every year this band graces the blogosphere’s best fo the year lists for psych, drone, stoner, and heavy psych. They are legendary as a live band and they play loud on the stages of the coolest music festivals in the UK and EU. This compilation has the raw energy and inspiration found on their albums and has a live room vibe on many songs giving the audience a taste of their prowess...

Read the rest here:  The Psych Rock

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Zam Zam to release new AHRKH album

Our friends at Zam Zam Records are releasing the a new AHRKH album on ltd vinyl –  AHRKH is Alex Macarte from GNOD. 

You can preorder the album here:

Zam Zam

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