29 Oct 2021

Rocket Probes – October 2021 playlist

GNOD – Regimental
(Second track from GNOD's humongous album Let Mort Du Sens)
GNOD

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Hot Stuff (feat. The Lovely Eggs)
(Pigs take on Donna Summer!)
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

Aging / Land Trance – Embassy Nocturnes
(Great new collaboration release featuring the incredible Land Trance
Aging / Land Trance

Kikok – Speedway
(New album of wonky rave grooves from ex Gnoomes drummer)
Kikok

Octopus Ride – II
(New album by this Swedish collective featuring Uni from Flowers Must Die)
Octopus Ride

Tara Clerkin Trio – In Spring
(New sounds from Bristol's TCT)
Tara Clerkin Trio 

Charlemagne Palestine & Grumbling Fur – Omminggg And Schlomminggg
(How did we miss this when it came out – stunning stuff!)
Charlemagne Palestine & Grumbling Fur

Kondaktor – Afrikanochetos
(Thanks to Iggor from Petbrick for turning us on to this sublime slice of tribal techno)
Kondaktor

Vanishing Twin – Ookii Gekko
(A nice trip into VT's world)
Vanishing Twin 

Embryo - A Place To Go
(Great to hear Cherrystones playing this out on his NTS show)
Embryo 

Wasted Cathedral – I'm Gonna Love You 'Til The End Of Time
(Psyched drones'n rhythms)
Wasted Cathedral

Mind Maintenance – Mind Maintenance
(New immersions from Joshua Abrams)
Mind Maintenance

The Swallows – La Ngomber
(You really go me...)
The Swallows

Repulsion – Horrified
(Classic fuzzy grindcore from '89)
Repulsion

RP Boo - All My Life
(Electro sounds)
RP Boo

Rokurokubi – Katie Levitating
(Psyched folk heavy'ness)
Rokurokubi

Ennio Morricone - Escalation
(Eclectic but great soundtrack from the master)
Ennio Morricone

The Myrrors – Invocaciones : Singles and Strays (2014 - 2016)
(New 'old' Myrrors immersions)
The Myrrors 

Rapoon – Dahina Ta
(Meditations)
Rapoon

Yoga – Seventh Mind
(Black metal psych)
Yoga

Suicide – The Second Album + First Rehearsal Tapes
(Been a while since delved into their world of avant pop)
Suicide

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley – The Message
(Great West African groove)
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

DJ Nigga Fox - Hwwambo
(Portuguese repetitions)
DJ Nigga Fox

Syntoma - No Me Puedo Controlar
(Mexican 'krauty' electro pop)
Syntoma 

Hope – Shame
(Nice Melanie De Biasio meets Portishead sounds on this)
Hope 

Sensations' Fix – Barnhause Effect
(From Garry the Tall's NTS show)
Sensations' Fix

Lice – Wasteland: What ails our people is clear
(Interesting album from this Bristol band that recalls the sounds of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282)
Lice 

Eloy – The Light from Deep Darkness
(A golden oldie)
Eloy


Listen to (and follow) our updated monthly Rocket probes Spotify playlist here:


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Smote's first album 'Bodkin' gets a digital release


Smote's released their first album 'Bodkin' on ltd edition vinyl via the great Weird Beard Records in early 2020. And for the many who were unable to pick-up this now coveted record, you can now listen to the album in full via all the main streaming sites as it has it's official digital release today:

Spotify

Smote's second album 'Drommon' can also be purchased here – we hope the delayed vinyl will be touching down soon!

Bandcamp

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28 Oct 2021

Watch footage of Paisiel performing Unconscious Death Wishes Live


Paisiel, the incredible duo of Julius Gabriel and João Pais Filipe are famed for their powerful live performances, sadly due to all the live restrictions we have out there and the individuals continually busy schedule it is near impossible to see the band live.

So, we are really happy to share with you a great live 'in the studio' video of Paisiel performing an 18 minute version of their latest track 'Unconscious Death Wishes'.

Head over to Backseat Mafia now to immerse yourselves:

Backseat Mafia

Unconscious Death Wishes is available to buy on vinyl here:

Bandcamp

27 Oct 2021

Birthday Cake For Breakfast ask Chris from GNOD some questions


They say:

Remember the days of the old schoolyard? Remember when Myspace was a thing? Remember those time-wasting, laborious quizzes that everyone used to love so much? Birthday Cake For Breakfast is bringing them back! 

Every couple of weeks, an unsuspecting band will be subject to the same old questions about dead bodies, Hitler, crying and crushes.  

This Week: In the run up to the release of their new album ‘La Mort Du Sens‘, Chris Haslam of GNOD answers a series of inane questions!

-

Have you ever seen a dead body?
Funnily enough this question came up the other day in a conversation I was having. I can’t remember for sure but I have a vague memory of seeing my step granddad in an open casket when I was very young but that could just be my imagination, creating the memory from family stories I overheard?? If I have it would have been in that situation i.e. in a church at a funeral.

Who is your favourite Simpsons character?
Homer is my favourite main character and the guy who claims to be the real Michael Jackson is my favourite smaller character.

What T-Shirt are you wearing?
GNOD Infinity Machines. Ha! I wear GNOD t shirts a lot cos I get them for free innit.

What did your last text message say?
Sounds ace (thumb up emoji)

What’s the last song you listened to?
Oh god, I suppose that has to be the one I’m listening to now while I’m doing this. I’m gonna be honest with this & I hope you respect my honesty in telling you that it’s Move Closer by Phylis Nelson. In my defence I have got my ipod on shuffle! (Honesty respected – Ed)

How did you meet the people in your band?
I met Paddy through my ex girlfriend Kim, who worked with him at 8th Day Café in Manchester. He was in a band, I was in a band & we went to see each other’s bands. I don’t remember it being an immediate bond, I think we were probably both a bit wary of each other for a while but eventually found out that we both respected each other and each others’ music. I met Alex, Jesse, Jon & Raikes either seeing them at gigs, from hanging around at Islington Mill or through mutual friends. I met the other 40 odd people who’ve passed through GNOD over the years in 40 odd other ways...

Read the rest here: Birthday Cake For Breakfast

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26 Oct 2021

The Holy Family announce London show at the Lexington


Following the earlier announcement from The Holy Family about their up-and-coming appearance at next years Roadburn Festival, the band have now announced their first London show as well – which takes place on 21 April at The Lexington.

Tickets can be bought from here: Baba Yaga's Hut

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The Holy Family to play Roadburn Festival 2022


We are over the moon to announce that The Holy Family have announced their first live date – at the always amazing Roadburn Festival in 2022

Information about the festival and tickets can be bought from here: Roadburn

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Sentire Ascoltare reviews Smote's Drommon


It reads:

For about a year in business through releases mostly self-produced and distributed digitally or in limited edition and hidden behind the pseudonym of Smote , the British multi-instrumentalist Daniel Foggin practices a personal form of instrumental, ritualistic and tribal rock drone. With this Drommon the musician reaches a wider audience supported by the Rocket Recordings brand , for the occasion by re-proposing the title track - until now available in a single version on cassette - divided into two very long and intense jams and which for this occasion are interspersed by Hauberk and Poleyn, two more concise ethno-acoustic digressions. Despite the larger scale of the publication, the sound of this mysterious musician demonstrates how on his part there is no willingness to compromise easily accessible. Its nature as a hallucinatory electric sabbath is only tempered by flashes of folk psychedelia, bucolic and at the same time disturbing. Highly hypnotic and to be taken with extreme caution.

See the review here: Sentire Ascoltare

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God is in the TV review's Nova Express's Twenty One


It reads:

There is a lyric that starts: “It was 20 years ago today”. You probably know it. The song is probably in your head now. Sorry about that. I would like to re-write it, correctly, for you now. I thank you. Ah-hem. “It was 20 years ago today, Henrik Kihlberg taught the band to play. They’ve been going in and out of style, but they’re guaranteed to raise a smile. So may I introduce to you. The act you’ve known for all these years. The Nova Express.” Now, it might not have the same ring to it, but it is now factually correct. Twenty years ago, a Swedish post-prog band called Nova Express released an album. It was, and still is, glorious. It was their debut album and was called One. Sadly, it turned out to be their only album, to date. It disappeared into the annuls of cult, legend and all those other words that mean not a lot of people bought it, but the ones who did were in raptures once they did.

Now, twenty years later, it is being released by the good people at Rocket Recordings. On the surface not as lot has changed. There are no new songs, in fact there are less songs. ‘Nova 7’ and ‘Jens’ have been omitted. Their lack of involvement is disappointing, but it does sound like the remaining songs have been remastered, and re-sequenced, and sounds like something different to the original album. ‘Fredhäll’ now

Read the rest here: God is in the TV

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Noel Gardener reviews Smote's 'Drommon' album for The Quietus


It reads:

Drone-rock that seems to favour the rock over the drone while utilising both keenly, Smote’s second long player of 2021 puts a sound I’ve not heard many great recent examples of back into my ears. Drommon (Rocket) is actually a half-hour tape (on the Base Materialism label, whose steez is normally way noisier than this) pressed to vinyl with ten more minutes of wiggin’ from Daniel Foggin – another Toon resident who, on record at least, does everything Smote.

‘Drommon’ parts one and two, which comprised the tape, lean respectively towards White Hills-ish rifferama and incense-choked doom raga. The jazzish wailings of the second segment elevate it beyond Krauthippy kitsch, if not quite eliminating its presence entirely. ‘Hauberk’, one of the two shorter pieces in the middle, goes for broke with hand drums and flute which eventually coalesce into extremely buoyant psych-folk; ‘Poleyn’, the other, straps up a slow, insistent bass riff and groovy basement-prog organ. 

See the review here: The Quietus

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25 Oct 2021

GNOD 'Just Say No...' classic vinyl reissued with new 'flipped colour' art


Thanks to the demand from GNOD fans we are reissuing the bands classic album 'Just Say No to the Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine' album, but this time with new inverted colour scheme artwork which will be on sale from the 3rd of December.

The album will be released on Ltd 'Hole in the Head' Red & Black vinyl and is available for pre-order from Bandcamp here:

Preorder ltd vinyl

Copies will also be available to buy via all good vinyl retail shops on release too.

In conjunction with the flipped album sleeve we've decided to produce some more 'Just Say No' T-shirts with the same colour scheme which can also be purchased exclusively via Bandcamp here:

Buy ltd T-shirt

The band will have vinyl copies to sell on their up & coming UK tour too, so check the list of dates below if you want to see them.

Oct 29-31 / Salford / Fat Out Fest
Nov 11 / Preston / The Ferret
Nov 12 / London / Studio 9294
Nov 13 / Margate / Elsewhere
Nov 14 / Brighton / The Hope and Ruin
Nov 15 / Bristol / The Lanes
Nov 16 / Cardiff / The Moon
Nov 17 / Leicester / The Soundhouse
Nov 18 / Leeds / Mabgate Bleach
Nov 19 / Glasgow / Nice & Sleazy
Nov 20 / Newcastle / Brave Exhibitions Festival
April 29 (2022) / London / Desert Festival 



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22 Oct 2021

Nova Express album 'Twenty One' out today – vinyl delayed sadly


"Quite possibly the best Kosmische album never to have come out of Germany."

Terrascope

"Unheralded purveyors of timeless cyclical repetition and trance-inducing soundscapes."
Psychedelic Baby Magazine

"Gorgeous piece of kraut and psych, layered and extremely trippy."
Fuzzy Sun

"Mysterious sounding danceable recurring rhythms and jazz influences."
New Underground Music 

"Most original, most beautiful, most interesting and engaging record I have heard." 
Sonic Magazine


Today sees the digital release of the incredible album 'Twenty One' by the Swedish collective Nova Express.

Sadly, like our other recent release by Smote, the album has been caught up in these horrendous manufacturing delays that are plaguing us at the moment. However, we do hope this delay will only be a few weeks and we hope 'Twenty One' will be hitting the shelves in mid November.

In the meantime you can still preorder the album on red vinyl via the Bandcamp link below or via your local record shop:

Bandcamp

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Somewhere along the rich lineage of Swedish psychedelic music – the type forged in communes and smoky rooms alike on a kosmische continuum that spans over half a century, lies Nova Express – unheralded purveyors of timeless cyclical repetition and trance-inducing soundscapes. Torbjörn Abelli of national icons Träd, Gräs Och Stenar was even heard to remark in 2001 on the release of ‘One’ - their sole album - that “This album will mature and be perfect twenty years from now”. Somewhat serendipitously, two decades on, ‘Twenty One’ – the remastered and resequenced version of this maverick gem on Rocket Recordings - make it clear he wasn’t kidding. These free-flowing extrapolations take minimalist shapes and expand them into dizzying spirals of improvisatory abandon and heat-haze atmospherics. Redolent of the serene celestial shapes of Can’s ‘Future Days’ and the summer sunset climes of Cluster’s ‘Sowiesoso’ alike, tracks also blossom from mechanical.

Casio rhythms into Terry Riley-esque bursts of beatific abandon (as on the fifteen minute long title track) not to mention Organic Music Society style exaltation. On the closing ‘Spektra’, a majestic drone-odyssey even takes flight that connects the interstellar dots between the classic earthy strains of International Harvester, the droogy bliss of Spacemen 3 and the devotional mind-melt of Catherine Christer Hennix. 

Yet at all times, Nova Express essentially sound like no-one but themselves - an unassuming band (whose members have also reared their heads before and since in outfits like The Janitors, Klotmystik, Audionom and Josefin Öhrn & The Liberation) whose ability to alchemically transform simple ingredients into psychic monuments has only gained potency as the years have rolled by. Indeed, the buried audial treasure that is ‘Twenty One’ - like all truly transcendent music - exists beyond time and space alike.



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21 Oct 2021

Poster for GNOD's Bristol show


Here is a great poster for GNOD's up-and-coming show on 15th November at The Lanes.

Tickets here: Headfirst

Full list of dates are:

Oct 29-31 / Salford / Fat Out Fest
Nov 11 / Preston / The Ferret
Nov 12 / London / Studio 9294
Nov 13 / Margate / Elsewhere
Nov 14 / Brighton / The Hope and Ruin
Nov 15 / Bristol / The Lanes
Nov 16 / Cardiff / The Moon
Nov 17 / Leicester / The Soundhouse
Nov 18 / Leeds / Mabgate Bleach
Nov 19 / Glasgow / Nice & Sleazy
Nov 20 / Newcastle / Brave Exhibitions Festival
April 29 (2022) / London / Desert Festival

New album La Mort Du Sens is released in all good record shops on 5th November

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20 Oct 2021

Terrascope review's GNOD's La Mort Du Sens


It reads:

And so it comes to pass, a new Gnod album. In case it appear that they now come around seasonally rather than annually (a bit like Christmas seems to) it’s worth bearing in mind that our last encounter with them, just a few months hence, was the time-marking career retrospective Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy. In fact it’s hard to believe that it is more than three years since their last non-collaborative full-length release.

The leanness and ferocity here carries the blazing torch of 2018’s seismic Chapel Perilous and indeed the brace of offerings before that. Well if things looked pretty grim up North back then, they look a damn sight bleaker all over, now. Appositely, the title translates as ‘The Death Of Meaning’ which for the fatalists among us kind of resonates, n’est-ce pas? The fact that it’s French may be the contrarian Gnodders thumbing their noses at a certain tousle-mopped Ear Flicker in Chief who’s overly fond of his Gallic goading. Or perhaps not, either way, it works both as a brutalised statement of art and of intent.

‘Regimental’ sputters into life with scrambled radio broadcast samples before being borne aloft by riff, power chords and trademark shouty vocal. So far, so viscerally Gnod. On the aural screed of ‘Pink Champagne Blues’, the two-drummer propulsion resurrects Twink-era Pink Fairies (previously Jesse Webb had only sounded like two drummers...

Read the rest here: Terrascope

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Listen to brand new Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs track featuring guests The Lovely Eggs


Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs return with the first new music since the release of their mighty third album ‘Viscerals’, and what a treat for your ears this is!!

‘Hot Stuff’, the famous Donna Summer track gets the Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs treatment and not only that, Lancaster duo The Lovely Eggs jumped into the vocal booth and contributed their vocal talents on this incredibly unique version.

Head over to The Quietus to listen to 'Hot Stuff' and read an exclusive interview with the band:

The Quietus

“When we’re writing we always begin with a single riff, it seems to us that Hot Stuff began life the same way. It’s an untouchable song in a lot of ways but well, here we are.” said Adam Ian Sykes, from Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. “...and The Lovely Eggs are just as their name suggests. So easy to work with to boot. They were exactly what we needed.”

The eye-popping art for the single was created by the extremely talented Drew Millward, the artist who also created the sleeve for the band’s 2020 12” release The Wizard And The Seven Swine – a re-mixed and remastered version of their debut track release.

All income made from this single is to help raise money for Pop Recs in memory of Dave Harper. Adam said “Dave was a hero to a lot of people and rightly so, his contributions to music in the north east were enormous. Pop Recs is such an important place to the area and a legacy that needs and deserves a great deal of support.”

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs are finally able to head out for their ‘Viscerals’ album release tour, and The Lovely Eggs are also joining them as special guests at their show in Nottingham. As well as their good friends Blom, the band have invited Richard Dawson, Obey Cobra, Kulk and others to join them on various dates on the tour. The tour dates are below, but visit www.pigsx7.com for full details:

Oct 23 / Stowmarket / John Peel Centre
Nov 12 / Norwich / The Waterfront
Nov 13 / Swansea / Sin City
Nov 17 / Belfast  / The Empire Music Hall
Nov 18 / Limerick / Dolans
Nov 19 / Cork / Kino
Nov 20 / Dublin / Whelan's
Nov 23 / Manchester  / Albert Hall
Nov 24 / Bristol / Motion
Nov 25 / Birmingham / The Mill
Nov 27 / Brighton / Concorde 2 – SOLD OUT
Nov 29 / Southampton / Engine Rooms
Nov 30 / London  / Electric Ballroom – SOLD OUT
Dec 1 / London / Electric Ballroom
Dec 2 / Leeds  / Stylus
Dec 8 / Nottingham  / Rock City
Dec 9 / Edinburgh / Summerhall
Dec 10 / Glasgow  / St Luke's
Dec 11 / Aberdeen / The Lemon Tree
Dec 17 / Newcastle Upon-Tyne / The Cluny – SOLD OUT
Dec 18 / Newcastle Upon-Tyne / The Cluny – SOLD OUT
Dec 19 / Newcastle Upon-Tyne / The Cluny 

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J. Zunz sadly postpones UK tour


Sad to announce that J. Zunz has had to postpone her up-and-coming tour once again due to Covid flight restrictions from Mexico.

But we promise she will make it over in 2022!

And excited to announce we have heard some new music she has made…and wow, it is sounding incredible.

You can buy J. Zunz latest album Hibiscus here: Bandcamp

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19 Oct 2021

New Underground Music reviews Nova Express's Twenty One


It reads (In Dutch):

The album begins with "Fredhäll", in which Nova Express is a wonderfully calm song with avant garde and light jazz influences, which has a catchy rhythm and is followed by "Wave To Each Other", a lovely piece of music with a medium tempo, a mysterious sounding danceable recurring rhythm and jazz influences.

Then follows "Trees Grass And Stonehenge", an excellent song with a moderate tempo, which has slight psychedelic and spatial influences, has a recurring rhythm and tempo changes and "Nova Express", a fantastic uptempo electronic track, which has a recurring rhythm. contains jazz and krautrock influences and swings like a train.

In "Buses" Nova Express presents me a beautiful quite calm song, which has light jazz influences and contains a catchy rhythm and in "Spektra" I get to hear a great mix of electronic music and free jazz in an average tempo, which is experimental influences and has a recurring rhythm.

"Twenty One" by Nova Express is a delightful record, in which the band combines avant garde, jazz, electronic music and infectious rhythms and I can highly recommend this disc, with the song "Nova Express" as the highlight, to every lover of one or more of these types of music. 4/5

See the review here: New Underground Music

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JR Moores reviews GNOD's La Mort Du Sens for the Quietus 'Comfortably Numb' column


It reads:

Some bands are so comfortingly productive that when there's any gap between releases you can start to get itchy and irate. That's how I feel about GNOD, who can never put out too much music often enough, as far as I'm concerned. Their presence has been sorely missed over the last year or so. All we had to settle for was a collaboration with João Pais Filipe, a couple of split seven-inches and a rarities LP. Where were you when we needed you most, oh mighty GNOD? I'm reminded of that story about Bruce Springsteen, who was driving around New Jersey in the days after 9/11, when a passenger in another car rolled down their window and shouted, "Bruce! We need you now!" The Boss did as instructed and quickly set to work on The Rising. Just a few months ago you might have spotted me wandering around the deserted streets of Salford and remote roads of rural Ireland, plague mask clinging to my sore ears, litre bottle of hand-sanitiser in my front pocket (no, I am not pleased to see you), while repeatedly muttering, "Where art thou, GNOD? Where art thou?!" Fear not, for GNOD hast not forsaken us. They were busy working on La Mort Du Sens (translation: The Death Of Meaning). Lo and behold, it's a lurching slab of cathartic post-psych ferocity. Like all the best noise-rock records, there are two drummers pounding pneumatically, who everyone else in the line-up has to strive to out-loud. The guitars saw relentlessly into the base of your spine. There's the odd jazzy flourish but their main mission is to grind out the no-wave grim-rock. The vocals are yelled with all the pent-up frustration of a seething Rollins, although not in an American accent, obviously. "I live in a grey town," groans Paddy Shine at one point. It's a grey nation, fella; one that's only getting greyer. GNOD began working on this record in late 2019 and completed it during lockdown, so it straddles both ye olde world and the new normehl. Mr Shine says an appropriate alternative LP title would be What The Fuck? It's a similar attitude to Mild High Club – discussed above - albeit in a very different mode of psych.

See the piece here: The Quietus

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Watch Gnoomes premiere brand new track live in the studio for СВОД


Russian site СВОД have published this great footage of Gnoomes playing live in a studio.

The footage features two tracks, a slightly updated version of the song 'Irma' and a brand new track called 'Eternal Transsiberian' – the first new music from the band since the release of their last album Mu!

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13 Oct 2021

NEOLYD reviews Smote's 'Drommon'


It reads:

For Smote from Newcastle, “Drommon” is the first release on Rocket Recordings. Here they extend their enigmatic and feverish journey into unfathomable depths, which began with their limited work "Bodkin". “Drommon” is surrounded by a psych and doom-laden atmosphere with a mid-eastern touch that you can get lost in if you submit to it - because that's the only way to rediscover yourself.

Summoned from the lightless corners of the subconscious, the four songs of this work wind their way out of a nebulous and dark rambling with a playing time of around 40 minutes in order to embark on a mystical journey. Ceremonial, repetitive and trance-inducing sounds of dreary origin, wrapped in a cloak of dim dignity; this is how Smote take up their office and deliver messages of exile, loneliness and enlightenment set to music. "Drommon" is the trip over the Styx, the oppressive séance in an abandoned psychiatric hospital and a brief look through the third eye.

See the review here:  NEOLYD

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12 Oct 2021

Listen to massive new GNOD single 'Regimental' – taken from forthcoming album 'La Mort Du Sens'


GNOD have just revealed the video for 'Regimental' the second track to be taken from the forthcoming album 'La Mort Du Sans' which is released on 5 November.

You can watch the John O'Carroll made video, plus read an interview with the band exclusively via the great Cvlt Nation website:

Cvlt Nation

'La Mort Du Sens' is available to preorder now on LP and CD – all ltd LPs come with a diecut sleeve.

The Rocket vinyl version has sold out but here is a special numbered Dinked version that has a different diecut sleeve, Clear with Red/Blue splatter vinyl and poster featuring exclusive art by Helen McDonnell:

Dinked Edition

Also available to preorder via your fave record shops is a ltd Blue vinyl version.

If one overarching feeling has dominated the last two years on this orbiting rock, it’s uncertainty. A sense of an old order in ruins, and nothing lined up to replace it. With societal strife, psychic warfare and sheer boredom assaulting us from all fronts in this still-fresh decade, co-ordinates have been hard to place forging a path forward. Therefore, who better to turn to as a soundtrack for this tumultuous new era than GNOD - longtime chroniclers of discord.

Masters of an approach which manages to be both unmistakable and unpredictable. GNOD are now well established as prophets of the dispossessed. ‘La Mort Du Sens’ is no less than another relentlessly invigorating stop-off on their wild ride to who knows where.

GNOD are hitting the UK with these confirmed live dates:

Oct 29-31 / Salford / Fat Out Fest
Nov 11 / Preston / The Ferret
Nov 12 / London / Studio 9294
Nov 13 / Margate / Elsewhere
Nov 14 / Brighton / The Hope and Ruin
Nov 15 / Bristol / The Lanes
Nov 16 / Cardiff / The Moon
Nov 17 / Leicester / The Soundhouse
Nov 18 / Leeds / Mabgate Bleach
Nov 19 / Glasgow / Nice & Sleazy
Nov 20 / Newcastle / Brave Exhibitions Festival
April 29 (2022) / London / Desert Festival



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Smote to support The Oh Sees


Smote have revealed another live show, this time supporting The Oh Sees (currently called Osees) 

Tickets can be bought from here: The Cluny

The bands November shows re:

Nov 9 / Newcastle / Boiler Shop (w/ The Oh Sees)
Nov 19-21 / Newcastle / Brave Exhibitions Festival
Nov 27 / Manchester / The Talleyrand

Preorder the delayed vinyl of the bands album Drommon from here: Bandcamp

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11 Oct 2021

Terrascope reviews Nova Express's 'Twenty One' album


The say:

When Torbjörn Abelli of Sweden’s renowned Träd Gräs Och Stenar said of Nova Express’ One album on its release in 2001 that "This album will mature and be perfect 20 years from now" he was bang on the money. As long term forecasting goes this has to rank as the gold standard. A shame he never got to see it bear such fruit.  Forward twenty years later and the original double album has received a re-master, a re-sequence and has been trimmed down to a single disc. And it’s all thanks to Rocket Recordings and their frighteningly impressive and efficient Swedish underground network.

What is it with Rocket and Swedes? No, that’s not an on-trend recipe out of the Guardian Saturday food supplement, by the way.  I mean what is it that Chris Reeder and John O'Carroll have tapped into , a sort of sonic Scandi noir (except the vinyl is so rarely black these days) Twenty One continues a recent trend of breathing fresh life into what would otherwise have continued to be neglected gems - see Terrascope’s Urdog review from March 2021. If anything, this one is even more special. In fact it’s a truly remarkable reminder of the days when the ears were fresher and the mind still malleable and receptive. Verily, we have returned to the sunlit uplands of yesteryear.

If you can imagine organic, psychedelic riffing on a basic theme of Moondog’s ‘Bird’s Lament’ then you are already some way towards appreciating Twenty One. It seems a strange thing to admit, coming from a rudimentary guitarist very much attached to his strings, but there is a refreshing lack of reliance on guitars throughout. It serves to free the sound and allows for greater exploration on the part of the listener and, one might daresay, the musicians. Lars Ydgren’s clarinet may be an unlikely lead instrument in the rock canon but, together with his sax and flute and with, Henrik Khilberg’s keys, can lay claim to being the defining sound of Nova Express. Acker Bilk it ain’t. The clarinet provides a warmth and mellowness that lends the album this a laid back and almost pastoral feel...

Read the rest here: Terrascope

 

Weirdo Shrine reviews Smote's Drommon


They say:

Take a look at the carvings on the totem that eyes you in the face on the new Smote album Drommon. What is a drommon you say? Well, can’t you see it when it hits you in the face like a smote?! Now take a look at this totem overhere and realize that this is a drommon; it is a piece of ritualistic, savage, unrestrained art, and Smote have just created a perfect soundtrack for it.

The album consists of four pieces: the lengthy droners Drommon parts 1 and 2, and two shorter songs Hauberk and Poleyn squeezed in the middle. It is probably best to just take your daily dose of Drommon as a whole though, because it works best as a forty minute meditative mindfulness journey.

All along the trip the mind wanders through distant lands, sweaty jungle swamps, and dark rituals around blazing camp fires, but never through Newcastle or Northern England. And yet that’s where these master cinematic repetitioners stem from. It is a testament to their ever expanding imagination that their take on instrumental music offers such wild and exotic images nevertheless. Makes you in part want to be witness to a live ritual, and in another part to stay far away from it to keep on visualizing these sounds in your own mind. Like reading a good book and being harrowed by the idea of distortion in the movie version.

So onwards reader, don’t let my mental images taint yours while listening to Smote’s excellent instrumental mind movie. Go forth and create one of your own.

See the review here: Weirdo Shrine

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7 Oct 2021

Rocket bands on tour in November and December


November and December are busy times for several of our Rocket bands, GNOD, J. ZUNZ, PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS, SEX SWING, TEETH OF THE SEA, THE UTOPIA STRONG are all heading out on tour, dates are below.

But as well as those tours we have GOAT, PETBRICK and SMOTE also playing one-off dates:

GNOD 
Oct 29-31 / Salford / Fat Out Fest
Nov 11 / Preston / The Ferret
Nov 12 / London / Studio 9294
Nov 13 / Margate / Elsewhere
Nov 14 / Brighton / The Hope and Ruin
Nov 15 / Bristol / The Lanes
Nov 16 / Cardiff / The Moon
Nov 17 / Leicester / The Soundhouse
Nov 18 / Leeds / Mabgate Bleach
Nov 19 / Glasgow / Nice & Sleazy
Nov 20 / Newcastle / Brave Exhibitions Festival
April 29 (2022) / London / Desert Festival
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J. Zunz
Nov 24 / UK / Bristol / Rough Trade
Nov 25 / UK / London / Werkhaus
Nov 26 / UK / Birkenhead / Future Yard
Nov 27 / UK / Manchester / The Peer Hat
Nov 28 / UK / Newcastle / The Cluny
Nov 29 / UK / Todmorden / The Golden Lion
Nov 30 / BE / Antwerp / Het Bos
Dec 01 / DE / Bremen / MS Loretta
Dec 02 / DK / Copenaghen / Råhuset
Dec 03 / DK / Odense / Pataget
Dec 05 / DE / Dresden / Club Debil at Alte Feuerwache
Dec 08 / CZ / Prague / Underdogs
Dec 09 / HU / Budapest    Aurora
Dec 10 / AT / Graz / Cafe' Wolf
Dec 11 / SLO / Ljubljana / Gromka
Dec 12 / IT / Padova / Nadir
Dec 13 / IT / Roma / Fanfulla
Dec 14 / IT / Bologna / Venue TBA
Dec 16 / IT / Busto Arsizio / Circolo Gagarin
Dec 17 / IT / Torino / Living Room
Dec 18 / FR / Lyon / Le Sonic
Dec 19 / DE / Mannheim / Der Mannheim Kult 
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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs 
Oct 23 / Stowmarket / John Peel Centre
Nov 12 / Norwich / The Waterfront
Nov 13 / Swansea / Sin City
Nov 17 / Belfast  / The Empire Music Hall
Nov 18 / Limerick / Dolans
Nov 19 / Cork / Kino
Nov 20 / Dublin / Whelan's
Nov 23 / Manchester  / Albert Hall
Nov 24 / Bristol / Motion
Nov 25 / Birmingham / The Mill
Nov 27 / Brighton / Concorde 2 – SOLD OUT
Nov 29 / Southampton / Engine Rooms
Nov 30 / London  / Electric Ballroom – SOLD OUT
Dec 1 / London / Electric Ballroom
Dec 2 / Leeds  / Stylus
Dec 8 / Nottingham  / Rock City
Dec 9 / Edinburgh / Summerhall
Dec 10 / Glasgow  / St Luke's
Dec 11 / Aberdeen / The Lemon Tree
Dec 17 / Newcastle Upon-Tyne / The Cluny – SOLD OUT
Dec 18 / Newcastle Upon-Tyne / The Cluny – SOLD OUT
Dec 19 / Newcastle Upon-Tyne / The Cluny
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Sex Swing 
Dec 01 / Leicester / The Soundhouse
Dec 02 / Manchester / Yes
Dec 03 / Bristol / Crofters Rights
Dec 04 / Cardiff / Clwb Ifor Bach (w/ Part Chimp)
Dec 5 / London / Moth Club
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Teeth Of The Sea
Nov 13 / Manchester / The Carlton Club 
Nov 14 / York / The Crescent
Nov 15 / Barrow In Furness / Barrow Underground Music Society
Nov 16 / Newcastle / The Cluny 
Nov 17 / Glasgow / Broadcast 
Nov 18 / Bristol / Strange Brew 
Nov 19 / Cambridge / Mash 
Nov 20 / London / Lexington (MATINEE AND EVENING SHOW) 
Nov 25 / DE  / Copenhagen / Lopen (w/ Hey Colossus)
Nov 26 / NO  / Oslo / Bla (w/ Hey Colossus)
Nov 27 / DE  / Aalborg / 1000FRYD (w/ Hey Colossus)
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The Utopia Strong 
Nov 13 / Manchester / The Carlton Club 
Nov 14 / York / The Crescent
Nov 15 / Barrow In Furness / Barrow Underground Music Society
Nov 16 / Newcastle / The Cluny 
Nov 17 / Glasgow / Broadcast 
Nov 18 / Bristol / Strange Brew 
Nov 19 / Cambridge Mash 
Nov 20 / London / Lexington (MATINEE AND EVENING SHOW)
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+

GOAT
Oct 23 / SE / Malmo / Plan B
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Petbrick
Nov 19-21 / Newcastle / Brave Exhibitions Festival
Dec 15 / London / Electrowerkz
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Smote
Nov 19-21 / Newcastle / Brave Exhibitions Festival
Nov 27 / Manchester / The Talleyrand

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6 Oct 2021

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs announce further support acts on up-and-coming tour


Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have announced further support acts for their
 up-and-coming 'Viscerals' tour!'

Tickets available from here: Tickets

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Petbrick announce London show


After a massive performance at this years Raw Power, Petbrick have announced a London show at Electrowerkz on 15 December with Kulk in support.

Tickets: Dice

And buy Petbrick's face melting debut album here: Bandcamp

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5 Oct 2021

Kuro announce London show with Sons of Viljems


Kuro have announced a rare London show on 20 January at Camden Assembly (Former Barfly), playing with Italian/London band Sons of Viljems.

Events page

Tickets

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The Sleeping Shamen review's GOAT's Headsoup


They say:

Somehow it feels like a different world back in 2012 when Goat’s debut World Music was released in all its syncretic technicolour glory. Tapping into some of the hokey semi-ironic occultism that seems to surface with each wave of retro-revivalism, they threw in a slightly provocative blend of exoticism, drawing on influences from other musical cultures. Whether they were prepared for this to also be a relatively big commercial success is something we’re unlikely to find out from the purposefully mysterious group, who maintain anonymity in an effort to preserve the mythos.

Regardless of intent it wasn’t long before Goat were extremely high profile for what may have started as the side project of obscure Swedish psych-rock musicians. And with that has come some uneasy criticisms of what may be seen as cultural appropriation in their work. The band seem largely to have ridden this out however, and while I would like to hear more from them about their influences so that those with curious ears might dig deeper into the West African traditions, Ethio-jazz and afrobeat they tap into, I broadly feel that their intention is no more than making a good noise that pleases them...

Read the rest of the review here: The Sleeping Shamen

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4 Oct 2021

Sleeping Shamen review's Smote's Drommon LP


They say:

Coming to us on Rocket Recordings with a certain amount of mystery, this is a re-release of the original Parts 1 and 2 of Drommon, bookending two newer and shorter pieces of similarly murky and crepuscular droning psych. Driven by an insatiable need to know, and empowered by the endless memory-palace of the internet, I had a rummage about for a meaning in the song titles, and while it appears the two central tracks are items of medieval armour, the eponymous bookstops are not quite a kind of medieval ship. Make of that what you will, all is equally valued, and significance/insignificance is probably not a useful category.

Smote sets the scene with some field-recording type birdsong and drone, several minutes pass in this pleasant glade. We’re not permitted to rest here indefinitely however, with a percussion building force that almost becomes an air of menace. Rich, jangling layers build on the rhythmic core of this percussion and bass. Repetition offers a steady onward drift and unfolding, the prospect of a sudden break into coruscating riffing in the vein of defunct Boston pummelers 5ive CRP remains a tease, as Smote delivers head-down psych conjuring, where the spiral turns ever inward, even as the noise reaches outward...

Read the rest here:  Sleeping Shamen

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Shit and Shine announce London show


Shit and Shine have announced a new show at Cafe Oto on 23 February.

Tickets can be bought from here: Dice

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1 Oct 2021

Rocket acts on 'Wrongpop/Running Punks for Single Homeless Project' charity album released today


As it is bandcamp Friday, dip into your pockets and pick-up this digital charity album  'Wrongpop/Running Punks for Single Homeless Project' that features lot's of incredible bands including Rocket acts: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Kooba Tercu,Julie's Haircut, and  Gum Takes Tooth featuring Wayne Adams.

Buy the album here: Bandcamp

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Smote's 'Drommon' is released today


"A mountainous storm of guitar like a deluge from the heavens."
Radar Sings the Blues

"A mystically-aligned voyage into abandon and epiphany." Psychedelic Baby Mag

"Wow this album is quite a trip…" Fragmented Flaneur

"A deliriously absorbing psych odyssey with an immense totemic potency."
Backseat Mafia

"Vigorous, mesmeric and trancelike, it pummels remorselessly." Terrascope 

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Newcastle band Smote's album 'Drommon' is released today!!

Though frustratingly due to the vinyl manufacturing chaos we find ourselves in at the moment, the ltd edition LP has been delayed and won't be in the shops now until late October early November. 

You can still preorder a copy from your local record shop or via Bandcamp here:

Bandcamp

The band have announced the first live dates, starting at the incredible Brave Exhibitions Festival in Newcastle:

Nov 19-21 / Newcastle / Brave Exhibitions Festival
Nov 27 / Manchester / The Talleyrand

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Summoned from the murkier reaches of the subconscious and summoning a powerful aura of twilight communion, Smote’s ‘Drommon’ is here to intimidate and enchant. The first Rocket release for this enigmatic Newcastle-based entity is no less than a mystically-aligned voyage into abandon and epiphany.

Replete with doom-laden atmospherics and crepuscular intensity, this is an intimidating denouement to return to time and again. Join the ritual, and submit to ‘Drommon’.

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Today is October's Bandcamp Friday!


Bandcamp have decided to run their Bandcamp (no fee) Fridays again, from August until December.So as previously, it is a great time to buy some ltd Rocket albums and shirts.

No new releases this month but we do have:

GOAT – Goatman Tshirt
Back by popular demand we have made some more of these classic shirts in women's and men's sizes.


We still have a handful of these presales and recent reissue available:

Nova Express – Nova Express LP
Red

Smote - Drommon LP
Green/black splatter

Teeth of the Sea – WRAITH (Repress) LP
Moss Green and Black

The Utopia Strong – The Utopia Strong (Repress) LP
Radiant Yellow and Black vinyl


Plus we have raided the archives and found some ltd amount of copies of these gems:

The Holy Family – The Holy Family 2LP (+CDs)
Frosted Clear 

GNOD - Easy to Build, Hard to Destroy 2LP
Pink/Black Splatter

GNOD - Chapel Perilous LP
Colour unknown

GNOD - Just Say No LP
Red Vinyl

Hills - Frid LP
Fire Orange Splatter with Poster

Hills - Alive at Roadburn 2LP
Cream & Yellow vinyl

Shit & Shine - Malibu Liquor Store LP
Red/Blue Swirl

Pharaoh Overlord - 6 LP
Blue/Black Splatters

Autotelia - I LP
Black & White

Kooba Tercu - Proto Tekno LP
White/Blue Galaxy Swirl

Goat - Double Date 10"
Clear/red

Goatman – Rhythms LP
Black

Gnoomes - MU LP
Pink/Blue Swirl

Housewives - FF061116 LP
Blue

Lay Llamas - Thuban LP
Orange/Black Swirl

Hey Colossus - Radio Static High LP
Red Vinyl

Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation - Horse Dance LP
(Unknown Colours)

+ 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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