They say:
There are many strange things about Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs (Pigs x7 from hereon) who are releasing their third album Viscerals, but one of the oddest is how they have won such a big following from the 6 Music crowd who normally eschew an out and out rawk act.
Yet somehow they have done what so many great rock bands have failed to do and win broad appeal, which is even more impressive when you consider just how uncompromising this Geordie quintet’s sound is.
It’s been a seven-year road to this third album, and yet again there has been a definite step forward in ambition and songwriting from the critically acclaimed King of Cowards, but retaining their very Northern bloody mindedness. This might be because Pigs x7 only had about 20% of the album written before decamping to guitarist Sam Grant’s Blank Studios, so there is a live feel to the songs which captures some of the astonishing intensity of their shows.
Opener Reducer sets the tone as madcap vocalist Matt Baty’s roars out ‘ego kills everything’ over spacey guitars and solos from Grant and Adam Ian Sykes as their rock solid rhythm section John-Michael Hedley and drummer Christopher Morley lock down a tight groove...
Read the rest here: Louder Than War
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Well look at that, The Utopia Strong are gonna be supporting Squarepusher in Bristol!
Tickets: Boomtown
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They say:
On the release of a new solo album of “psychic entrainment”, GNOD member Alex Macarte speaks to Matthew Neale about sound healing, the origins of creativity, and the glory days of the Salford Mill
Alex Macarte loves talking about the universe. Whether it’s waxing lyrical on string theory or eastern philosophy, he doesn’t take much encouragement; perhaps unsurprising from an artist who previously described the goal of his music is to “traverse the infinite expansive internal panorama within ourselves and discover ultra-dimensional transportation methods via sound.” As far as mission statements go, it’s certainly a world away from the usual spiels about making music for yourself and hoping other people like it.
Macarte has plied his trade across numerous musical projects, notably Manatees, Årabrot and Salford cult heroes GNOD, as well as his current incarnation as AHRKH that’s incorporated collaborations with the likes of HUM’s Mark Wagner. He’s also a qualified sound therapist now, among several other jobs. Put simply, if you need your eardrums blowing or your chakras realigned, you’ve probably come to the right man either way...
Read the rest here: The Quietus
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They say:
Och – II
By the way, the Swedish band Och refuses to live in the 2020s and focuses on the seventies’ experimental space music. Blues under acids and watched through a telescope, the debut album of these musicians breaks the walls between that age of wild experimentation and sonic journeys towards space and the here and now, sounding fresh today as it was then.
Bonnacons of Doom – Compiled (2014-2017)
After the good Esus EP, the kraut band B.O.D. made this “compiled” collection of tunes taken from several mixed compilations, but also a brand new track ( Sgrios ), in order to finance the next album. 48 minutes to lose yourself into psychedelia while being watched by the blankest emoji ever created directly from the cover
See the piece here: Music Pills Horizons in Music
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They say:
We have seen many camouflaged and covered Swedish musicians in these years (just in the Rocket Recordings house the Goats, while outside the alternative landscape we have the Ghosts) and the saga of Scandinavian anonymity is carried out by the Och, mysterious Linköping trio. The British label also backs up this confidentiality and only reveals that one of the three has a relative in another Swedish formation now at home in Rocket Recordings, the Flowers Must Die. But doubts about anonymity aside, the Och appear as the "umpteenth" psychedelic formation of Northern Europe landed in the land of Albion, but in spite of the various post-punk declinations (The Janitors), neo-psychedelic (Orange Revival), acid-rock (Hills, Flowers Must Die) or meditative (Centrum) Och are inclined for cerebral and minimalist music. The mix of electronics and kraut-rock makes the eight tracks of "II" a desperate space travel in an inhospitable and contaminated cosmos.
If Jag's är här engines, jag är häris spoiled by splashes of cold electronics, Baum Baur's synthetic hypertrophy expands in the post-industrial rhythms of Åkkså , in which the sound of a flute first hovers and then disperses into synth mists. Och's music continually points to a prototype for the rock of the future, a gloomy and desolate future: Den Såmm Bor I Tarim's black prayer slowly becomes a post-atomic shamanic ritual; the astral synths of Färgen Ur Rymden are the prelude to the lysergic tribalism of Pelennor's Fält .
Nu: 64 and Pandemi På Händelöthey create a conclusive kraut-synth orgy. Far from nostalgia for the past, Och imagines future scenarios in which the rhythmic element has returned to the basis of music, while every other element has been discarded or melted into a coherent and fascinating sound. The visionary force, however minimal, is very reminiscent of " Hoopsnake " (2016) by the British One Unique Signal, as well as the idea of reshaping rock languages with unusual results. From the parts of the best Klaus Schultze, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh.
Rating: 8/10
See here: Distorsioni
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The Utopia Strong have announced a new London show at The Lexington in London on 18 June – the day before Och's London debut at the Seabright Arms, so join us for a two night Rocket excursion!
Info and tickets for The Lexington can be found here: Baba Yagas Hut
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GOAT/Hills offshoot DJINN are playing Gothenburg on 29 May, their first Swedish show!
They are playing with Selvhenter and MoE
Info/Tickets: Oceanen
The band are now playing these two confirmed shows:
06 May / Fin / Helsinki / Kuudes Linja (w/ The Cosmic Dead)
29 May / Swe / Gothenburg / Oceanen
The bands debut album can be bought on ltd clear vinyl LP here: Bandcamp
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Northern Monk have created a third beer for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs.
It is a DDH NZ Pilsner called REDUCER.
And this is what Northern Monk say about it:
FOR OUR THIRD COLLABORATION WITH NORTH-EAST NOISEMAKERS PIGSX7 WE HEEDED THEIR REQUEST FOR A CRISP, POST- SET PILSNER AND BROUGHT IN ANOTHER CREATIVE TYPE, ALSO FROM THE NORTH EAST TO ASSIST US IN THIS MISSION; ONE OF THIER FAVOURITE BREWERS - DONZOKO.
We’re all big fans of Reece’s outstanding Helles which has taken the UK beer scene by storm. We had a great time brewing with him for last year’s Northern Powerhouse series, so we went down a similar road with this crisp, hoppy pilsner that showcases some of our favourite NZ hop varieties.
Using Reece’s house lactic culture for mash PH adjustment, we brewed with a grist of Bamberg pilsner malt backed up with Vienna for depth of malt character. We added Motueka in the whirlpool, which brings delightful lime zest notes to underlay the higher hopping levels to come. After fermentation we dry hopped twice at different temperature stages with more Motueka and introduced notes of peach and apricot from Rakau, with the signature gooseberry and Sauvignon grape character of Nelson Sauvin rising over the top.
Buy from here: Northern Monk
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They say:
If a band is first called Och , secondly their albums are numbered and thirdly instrumental Krautrock, then our favorite rocket recordings label can't be far to wrap ourselves up with self-adhesive tapes full of psychoactive substances.
'Och' is Swedish, like the band, and means 'and'. "II" follows an EP released six years ago in self-distribution. There is not much more to report, that's the good thing about it. A train operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe takes us deep into the winding rabbit hole full of circles and umlauts via Mohrenstrasse: "Pandemi På Händelö". The eight pieces sound as enigmatic as it all sounds, but they are fuzzy from time. As if you had recovered old crystal tablets from some grave and played them on a specially made device that nobody really knows how it works.
It all sounds a lot like Goat, but Och is far less committed to grooves, punch and madness. What happens in a Goat song fills an entire album here. The sounds stand in the room for minutes, slowly turn around themselves, are constantly caught in a dense network of drones. Then the material slowly moves and the initially sluggish synthesizer swirls rotate so quickly that they run into one another like colored laundry in the spin cycle. As a listener, you come to the place where you can just let yourself be carried away. Perhaps this is the way to ultimate musical enlightenment. Or maybe only the turntable is at the wrong playback speed.
Read the full piece here: Neolyd
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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have revealed a third SxSW show – this time they are playing a second show on the 19th March at the Alt Citizen+DIY Showcase.
More info here: DIY
The full list of US shows, now reads:
13 Mar / US / New York / St Vitus
15 Mar / US / LA / The Moroccan Lounge
18 Mar / US / Austin / SxSW Festival (BBC 6 Music / BPI showcase)
19 Mar / US / Austin / SxSW Festival (Alt Citizen + DIY Showcase)
19 Mar / US / Austin / SxSW Festival (Third man Records Day Party)
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