As followers of our blog know, we never do an 'End of year poll', but as it is our 15th year we have decided to put together a list of our favourite (non rocket released) musical discoveries. So it could be a track, an EP or an album and not necessarily released in 2013!!
So here we go, in alphabetical order, both Johnny O and Chris's choices:
African Head Charge - My Life in a Hole in the Ground
(Psychedelic kraut reggae, on Bristol's On-U-Sound label)
African Head Charge
Can - Waiting for the Streetcar
(Neil Fish from Gnod chucked this on the record player at some ungnodly hour...and it has barely left the stereo ever since)
Can
CoH – Strings
(From futuristic dirty electroinics to more string based musical soundtracks)
CoH
Destruction Unit - Sonic Pearl
(Proper Heads punk meets The Horrors shoe gaze psych...one of the best bands live all year too, proper fuzz n roll)
Destruction Unit
Evil Blizzard - Sacrifice
(A firm favourite track of the year...The Fall, Pil, Hawkwind and Gnod all come to mind...stunning live too by all accounts, as this footage shows where they open their set with Sacrifice!)
(Top marks to Rockets Johnny for finding this unknown gem and maybe Funkadelic's best ever tune. Love playing it out and watching peoples faces as that fuzz kicks in...closest Fuzz attack to Beau's 'Silence Returns' I have heard))
Funkadelic
GR & Full-Blown Expansion – s/t
(Bo Diddley meets Faust, polyrhythms, psych surf guitars, hypnotic and chaotic freak kraut)
GR & Full-Blown Expansion
Hey Colossus - Cuckoo live life like Cuckoo
(This came out of the blue...always been fans, but this album has raised the bar...the inclusion of a Hi-Fi Killer, a Shit and Shiner and a Part Chimper created a stunning album of kraut infused noise rock)
Hey Colossus
Holden - The Inheritors
(This album oscillates between buzzing pastoral elegance to harsh rhythmic propulsion)
Holden
Lay Llamas - Tape Crash (Split tape with Eugenoise)
(Big fans of Lay Llamas and the tracks on this tape prove what an exciting and original band they are)
Lay Llamas
The Lijadu Sisters - Danger
(Female psychedelic fuzz guitar afrobeat)
Lijadu Sisters
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe - M'Bondo
(Visionary neo-tantric synth minimalism and afro-futurist rhythms)
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe
Craig Leon - Nommos
(We can't give this album enough praise...how has this stunning piece of work been hidden for so long!!)
Craig Leon
Negra Branca - Duro / Beira Beira
(Marlene Ribeiro from GNOD's avant pop side project)
Negra Branca
William Onyeabor - Who is William Onyeabor?
(Talking about hidden gems…this album is completely jaw dropping amazing, every home should have a copy!!)
William Onyeabor
Powell - Fizz
(Massive fans of Powell, a lot of this new techno stuff that is being raved about brings nothing new to the table in my mind, ok there are some good ones out there, but fronting that pack is Powell...and Fizz is an amazing track! The best kraut rock track of the year...and not a motorik in sight thank fuck!!!)
Powell
Robedoor - Primal Sphere
(This is Robedoor's best work in our view, a great album which to our ears sounds like Gnod meets Massive Attack meets John Carpenter…glad we got to see them play it live too..easily the best electronic live act we've have seen this year)
Robedoor
GA Rodigon - Imagini Din Vis
(Stand out track on the GA Rodigon comp….over the top fuzz n' electronics and heavy breaks makes it a real 'Nothing is…' floor filler)
GA Rodigon
Gunter Schickert – Uberfallig LP
(Imagine if the Necks had a Jam with Can sometime between when they made Future Days and Babaluma)
Gunter Schickert
Various - WFMU Country Fuzz Spectacular Vol 1 and Vol 2
(Two amazing playlists of 60's/70's fuzz filled country music….really, really enjoyable and essential listening)
Vol 1
Vol 2
Theo Verney - TVEP/Heavy Sunn
(Theo's music has not left our ears since we first heard his TVEP tape. His follow up Heavy Sunn, plus the free download tracks and his album demo tracks that we have heard have all blown my mind. This man knows how to rock out in a good Sabbath way, psych out like the Elevators but most importantly he knows how to craft a bloody catchy song like the Kinks…definitely one to watch in 2014 I think)
Theo Verney
Thought Forms – Ghost Mountain
(Stunning album of psych drones and noisegaze pop)
Thought Forms
WHOK - Devisions
(Fantastic album of kraut repetition and psyched out electronics…up there with the best of Gnod if you ask me)
WHOK
Igor Wakhevitch - Hathor
(70's dark synthesizer rituals that sound like they could fit neatly into most modern electronic albums)
Igor Wakhevitch
Barney Willen - Moshi Too
(Great album of afro influenced psych jazz…Little Dirty from 'Nothing is…' played it one month and Chris rushed out and bought it the next day, great album)
Barney Willen
Happy xmas from us at Rocket…see you the other side!!
Illustration by Kilian Eng
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Head Medicine had made Goat their 'Band of the year' and to clebrate they have interviewed the band about their 2013 and plans for 2014, we worth a read:
Goat - Head Medicine's 2013 Band of the Year
Potential. A lot of artists and bands have it, but few ever dig deep down in and reach it to the fullest. Over the past year, the electrifying Swedish afro-psych collective Goat has been the rare exception. Not only have they continuously met my ridiculous expectations, but they have time and again exceeded them. Goat first came to my attention in the summer of 2012 after the release of their first 7" single and i was instantly mesmerized by their dense, trance-inducing afro krautrock sound. My expectations were deliriously high for their debut album World Music that August by Rocket Recordings. It was an instant classic and, in my opinion, light years above everything else released that year. To make things even more mysterious, the band had never performed live outside of their Arctic Circle commune until that fall with a few exploratory live rituals around Northern Europe. These shows revealed a band hitting the ground at full speed with a blistering live show and stunning stage presence. By the end of 2012, i was fully on board with Goat, hook line and sinker, drinking every drop of Kool Aid set in front of me, excited for what 2013 would hold. No band started off the year with more potential than Goat, but what would they do with it? Would they reach up and grab it or would they remain in obscurity and let things fizzle out?...
Read the rest of this article which includes a revealing interview with the band here: Head Medicine
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We have just found out the Teeth of the Sea's 'A field in England' live remix is coming to the Hackney Picture house on Wednesday 15th January.
This is what the website says:
LSFF present, in association with Cork Film Festival presents:
A Field in England: Remixed, performed by Teeth of the Sea
(featuring the music of Jim Williams)
Wednesday 15th January
Hackney Picture House
A unique audio and visual spectacular, bringing together the cult film of 2013 and one of the most original electronic post-rock bands of recent years for a marriage made in heaven… or hell! Teeth of the Sea have taken the psychic spectres of A Field in England and allied them to the apparitions of their imagination to create a laser-guided metaphysical foray, cinematic in scope. Ben Wheatley’s film is a psychedelic trip into the English Civil War, as a small group of deserters flee from a raging battle through an overgrown field. Teeth of the Sea’s aural and visual remix of Jim Williams’ score and Wheatley's filmmaking re-interprets the film to extend it in a myriad of directions.
Tickets can be booked here: Hackney Picture House
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And this is what they say:
For the second year in a row a Rocket Recording’s product tops our chart. We got very excited when we reviewed it (leading to some wordy twaddle), but we stand by the sentiment we were trying to express. Master is an astounding lesson in genuinely innovative, yet carefully respectful and intelligent, rock music in its broadest definition. Magnificent.
See their full list here: Both Bars On
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Liverpool Psych Fest 2014 #1 from
Liverpool Psych Fest on
Vimeo.
Yes, that is right, we are extremely excited to announce that we have been invited to be involved in next years Liverpool Psych Festival.
Our involvement goes under the banner of 'Transmissions from the Outer Realms' and will feature the cream of the Rocket roster as well as 'Nothing is...' DJ's
£40 early Bird weekend tickets on sale now from www.LiverpoolPsychFest.com
The press release reads:
LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA 2014
26th - 27th September @ Camp & Furnace
With the dust barely settled on 2013’s sell out event, the ‘Psych Fest’ organizers are already gazing into the future. GOAT will appear at the festival as part of 'Transmissions From The Outer Realms' a unique curation presented by Rocket Recordings, featuring the first ever UK shows for HILLS and LAY LLAMAS, plus appearances from TEETH OF THE SEA, ANTHROPROPHH and GNOD.
The festival was lauded in 2013 for its unique take on a throughly modern psychedelic condition. THE GUARDIAN declaring "Liverpool, the great psychedelic capital of Europe", as the festival established itself as a firm fixture in the cultural calendar, simultaneously providing the most progressive line-up and inclusive audience on the festival landscape.
Line-up so far:
GOAT
HILLS
LAY LLAMAS
TEETH OF THE SEA
ANTHROPROPHH
GNOD
Plus
THE JANITORS
ZOMBIE ZOMBIE
LES BIG BYRD
VAADAT CHARIGIM
DARK BELLS
SUDDEN DEATH OF STARS
IN ZAIRE
ONE UNIQUE SIGNAL
CANTALOUPE
Plus
NOTHING IS... DJ's
Rocket Recordings:
'Transmissions From The Outer Realms’ is a unique curation presented by Rocket Recordings. Including HILLS - this will be the iconic Gothenburg group’s first performance outside Scandinavia - and new Italian label signing LAY LLAMAS, who ply a ‘Goat meets Gnod’ brand of afro repetition, shoegaze fuzz and DFA'esque grooves. The aforementioned GNOD play trance inducing commune drone, full on fuzz driven post punk and danceable kraut noise repetition. The band have quickly become known as one of the best live bands in the UK and are joined on the bill by cinematic audioists TEETH OF THE SEA, who’s mix of kraut rock, techno, psych, disco and noise can be heard best on their recently released and critically acclaimed third album Master.
ANTHROPROPHH started off as a solo project by Paul Allen, the guitarist and principle songwriter for seminal cult psych rock band The Heads, but over the last 12 months has morphed into a full flung psych power trio. ‘Transmissions From The Outer Realms’ will feature each of the aforementioned bands alongside DJ collaborations - led by the ever-exploratory NOTHING IS DJs - a kaleidoscopic visual world and multitude of cosmic sins, to be revealed in due course.
Sweden’s GOAT appeared out of nowhere in 2012 with their debut album World Music. The record was quickly heralded as one of the albums of the year, if not the decade thus far. Their rare, shamanic live shows, with a heady mix of afro, psych, funk, kraut and space rock have already become legendary amongst the people who have been lucky enough to bear witness. Their performance at Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia will coincide with the release of their second LP, so expect something very special.
For the uninitiated the Bristol/London based Rocket Recordings has been
releasing psych infused outsider music since it’s unlikely inception in 1998. The label issued a double LP Crystallized just last month, to celebrate 15 years at the psych coal face.
** Early Bird weekend tickets on sale now, priced just £40 **
Available from www.LiverpoolPsychFest.com
And instore at Probe Records (Liverpool) / Piccadilly Records (Manchester) / Jumbo Records (Leeds).
The £40 Early Bird tickets are a limited allocation. An initial mailing list pre-sale last week sold out in 48 hours, so people are encouraged to purchase early to avoid disappointment.
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After Goat’s successful ATP 'End of an Era’ and Koko shows we have a few tour T-shirts leftovers.
There are only mediums and large's left, but we have them in all 3 designs.
Black Goatman
White Goat live Ritual
Grey Stonegoat
Snap them up while stocks last.
For all other items visit here merch
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Nothing is returns after the Goat album playback with a xmas special in a weeks time on Friday 20 December.
Rocket's Rik Motor and Cage and Aviary are MIA this month, but we have a very special guest of Jussi from Gum Takes Tooth bringing a bag his psyched out techno sounds.
Nothing is...
Cherrystones (Brutal)
Little Dirty (Hed Nod)
Jussi (Gum Takes Tooth)
The Alibi – Dalston/London
20th December
9-3
Free entry
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After Teeth of the Sea's amazing performance at this years Incubate festival, the organisers have made MASTER their album of the year. And the Incubate audience voted it their 10th best album of the year!!
Find out what they say here: Incubate
Also, GET INTO THIS, the Liverpool music website by Peter Guy has made MASTER it's number two album of the year, which is a great honour!
See what he says here: Get into this
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Latitude Festival have just announced that Goat will be playing their festival on 21 July 2014.
As you know, Goat shows are rare so it is not to be missed!!
Early beard tickets can be bought from here: Latitude
More info here: Latitude Facebook
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Sound isn't great, but nice to relive this very special show...
And check out this great review of the show: Subbacultcha
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