Rocket DJ's at London's Fumaca Preta show

Chris from Rocket has been invited to play records at the up-and-coming Fumaca Preta show that takes place at London Fields Brewhouse on 19 January.

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

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Gnoomes announce stunning new album 'Tschak!' – listen to first track via The Quietus

We are overwhelmingly proud to announce the new album 'Tschak' by Russian band Gnoomes. It will be released on all formats on 10 March.

You can listen to 'Cascais' – the stunning first track taken from the album exclusively via The Quietus: The Quietus

You can preorder the album on Ltd edition Green Vinyl and CD here: Rocket Bandcamp

Or preorder the digital version and receive 'Cascais' straight away here: iTunes

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The press release reads:

Gnoomes - Tschak!
From adversity can come triumph, and from catharsis inspiration. Such has been the case for Gnoomes, the threesome hailing from Perm, Russia, whose second release for Rocket Recordings, ‘Tschak!’ arrives in the wake of considerable turbulence and tumult within their city and lives, all of which has only been fuel for a creative epiphany that has seen them create a deeply evocative work rich with vibrant experimentation and saturated in a widescreen sense of wonder. 

It may only have been eighteen months since ‘Ngan!’, the band’s first release for Rocket, whose self-styled ‘stargaze’ approach marked a glorious collision between melodic sweetness, skysurfing guitar experimentation and motorik magnificence, yet the band have already moved on to a sonic landscape still more adventurous and ethereal on ‘Tschak!’, not to mention an emotionally resonant approach that’s bewitching to witness. Taking in torrents of guitar noise and electronic extrapolations both blissfully kosmische and aggressively abrasive, it exists outside of all or any convenient genres, a vivid and singular work by three dreamers-at-heart forced to manifest their vision into a psychic defence to the circumstances surrounding them. 

Working in splendid isolation thanks to a studio space provided by their work for a local radio station, the band had time and space for the alchemical process of creating ‘Tschak!’ entirely on their own terms. Central to the this were a collection of Russian synths that they gathered, whose eccentric arpeggios and analogue textures form crucial ingredients on songs like ‘Severokamsk’ and the title track, arriving at a sound that forms a star-crossed and timeless marriage between the experimentation of krautrock and the lineage of Warp Records.

Forging forth into unknown realms both physical and metaphysical, the band recently completed a UK tour - including an appearance at Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia. Yet with the dreamlike radiance of the potent and otherworldly ‘Tschak!’ on their side, this adventure is already well on its way.

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Teeth of the Sea writing new music

News just come in that Teeth of the Sea have started work on their follow up to 2015's Highly Deadly Black Tarantula. We have no more information to give yet, but we at Mission Control are as always excited by this news!

Teeth of the Sea are supporting Chrome on 8 February at the Dome in Lonon, tickets can be purchased from here: Baba Yaga's Hut

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Echoes and Dust reviews

It reads:

When the rest of the world fell into a black hole in 2016, Newcastle for whatever reason was spat back out. The multifaceted scene building there in recent years blended doom metal, stoner rock and modern psyche music to create a distinctive sound channeled by the likes of Blown Out, Grotto and of course Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs. The scene gradually got more and more stellar releases this year and more and more recognition but the reason why it is one of the only reasons I’m excited for 2017 is that Newcastle next year will give us more releases from the nascent label Eggs in Aspic whose bands Oulo Space Jam Collective, The Cult of Dom Keller and Skyjelly have been solid in 2016 as well as the first ever Newcastle Psyche Fest and of course the debut of Pigs x7 on Rocket Recordings; arguably the best independent label on the planet. I also know that we haven’t heard the last of Newcastle’s own Rail Cables whose seasonal releases and radio shows have entertained me for years now...

Read the full review here: Echoes and Dust

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Plenirockium reviews Flowers Must Die's Sista Valsen

It reads:

Flowers Must Die
“Sista Valsen”
Rocket Recordings (12″EP)
Two decades after the founding, the geo-musical vision of Rocket Recordings exposed in recent years triggered the late 2016 chapter with an all-Swedish nordic saga. After the new albums of Goat and Josefin Öhrn + Liberation, here are the Flowers Must Die collective from Linköping already magnified among the Plenirockium favourites of 2015. “Sista Valsen” enriches an exclusive 12″EPs vinyl series with maze artworks issued by the Bristol label in the matter of kosmische-space rock and expands the band line-up to a sextet with the arrival of Lisa Ekelund (voice, violin and theremin, also active in Katla from Stockholm recently highlighted with the first album “Embryo”). Together with Jonas Höglund (guitar, synth), Lars Hoffsten (drums), Martin Daun (bass), Rickard Daun (synth, trumpet), Sven Walan (guitar, glockenspiel, accordion) play their first recording sessions that are worth this EP entitled from the opening track.

‘Sista Valsen’ (The Last Waltz) is immediate and speeding between tribal percussions into a deep acoustic-electric-electronic interstellar with oriental glows background reactivated afterwards by ‘ Kruta in the mantra ‘Psychedelic Underground’. The journey decelerates to contemplate cosmic dawns and inebriated in weightlessness with the magnetic fluid of ‘Taskig Stämning Annars’ and the subsonic jazz essences of ‘Varför’. After the participation to the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, Flowers Must Die are at work for the new album in the legendary Silence studies of Koppom (where recorded also Kebnekajse, Älgarnas Trädgård, Träd, Gräs och Stenar).

See the review here: Plenirockium

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Soundblab gives Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Feed the Rats 9/10

It reads:

Feed The Rats is the debut album from Pigs x 7 (it's quicker this way). Made up of members of Ommadon, Blown Out and Khunnt and with the Rocket Recordings seal of approval it promises to be a total headfuck.

There's some feedback, a scream and then a Sabbath riff as Psychopomp gets to its feet and crashes about. For 15 minutes of deep fuzz and loose groove, like a good football team, Pigs x 7 maintain shape and focus. At least until the wah-wah apocalypse at the end. This is forgivable because, as we all know, all songs should end with a wah-wah apocalypse. The single, Sweet Relief (possibly some punning going on here), is a tighter affair matching another classic-sounding, sludgy riff to some skippy drumming and Matt Baty's heavily reverbed holler. It quickly turns into an orgy of shouting and psychedelic guitar, much like Tab by Monster Magnet. Icon is another epic (17 minutes this time). It starts with an Om-like bass intro from John-Michael Hedley, the riff is then taken up by the whole band. Finally, Baty comes in, bellowing into his reverb hole from the edge of insanity. More intense than on previous songs, Pigs x 7 are straining at the leash here until it all slows down so you can hear the crackle of the distortion on the drawn out notes...

Read the rest here: Soundblab 

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Gnod release VERY LTD 10th anniversary box set

This is what the Quietus say about it:

Salford based sonic explorers GNOD mark their first decade of shining existence with the release of a box set.

The GNOD X box celebrates ten years of artistic endeavour but also aims to raise much needed funds for their home base and creative HQ, Islington Mill in Salford.

The band have lived and worked at the Mill for the last eight years and say the role the community/building has played in their development is "more than we can fully comprehend".


There are only ten copies of the recycled/ upcycled/ DIY package in existence and all of the music contained within it will never be available anywhere else. The box contains a lathe-cut vinyl album of new studio material recorded in 2016, a CDR of unreleased archive material, a CDR of a 50-minute long version of 'Vatican' and a cassette of rehearsal jams, not to mention several prints, stencilled cards and pieces of bespoke artwork created by members of the band, which all comes in a suitably distressed box.

To get your hands on this mouth watering box visit GNOD's tumbler account or email ingnodwetrust@hotmail.co.uk. There will be a review of the box set in John Doran's next Vinyl Staircase column.

Read the full piece here: The Quietus

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Psych Insight reviews Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Feed the Rats

It reads:

I first came across Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, one of my favourite band names ever, through their split with the Cosmic Dead back in 2013. I’d just got into the Cosmic Dead and basically bought anything that they had brought out. This was a very good move as the Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs side was, to my ears, every bit as good as the other side; which in itself is a reliable sign of quality. So when Rocket Recordings recently announced that they were putting out a Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs album I assumed that I had probably missed a few releases in between. After a bit of digging it appears that very little seems to have been released in the interim, a mini-cassette album from Box Records  being the only release I could find, and the Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs track on that is to be found on this new release...

Read the rest of the review here: Psych Insight

Album is released on 20 January in all good record stores, or preorder digital now from here: iTunes

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Rocket Probes – December playlist

Cavern Of Anti-Matter - Pantechnicon (Gnoomes Remix)
(Gnoomes create more of their magic on CoAM track)
Cavern Of Anti-Matter

Hills – S/T and Uncollected Sounds
(Amazing reissue of Hills debut and an LP of unreleased music – expertly put together by Cardinal Fuzz)
Hills

Hey Colossus – Dedicated to Uri Klangers
(Amazing compilation of Hey Colossus tracks from 2004 - 2015...essential!)
Hey Colossus

Fatma – The dirty beat
(Great 2 track 7" of electro/dub grooves from this Swedish band on Haga Nord)
Fatma

Oren Ambarchi - Hubris Pt. 3
(Stunning piece of modern krautrock)
Oren Ambarchi

Various – Zam Zam Monstre Compilation
(Great 5 year birthday comp from Zam Zam featuring Anthroprophh, Negra Branca, Black Tempest, Ahrkh. Ayn Sof and many more)
Zam Zam

Anders Stub – In the dark hours
(Kalle from Hills played us this and other albums by Anders when we were in Gothenburg – great stuff on Kommun 2)
Anders

Technicolor Poets ‎– Hadrar Hotel
(Another discovery courtesy of Hills – an album that is also on the great Kommun 2 label)
Technicolor Poets

Björn J:Son Lindh – Abdo
(Great flute driven ethic psych from the album Cous Cous – another discovery from our trip to Goatland)
Björn J:Son Lindh

Rotomagus – The Sky Turns Red: Complete Anthology
(Great slice of French proto metal)
Rotomagus

Lee Hazzlewood/Nancy Sinatra – Some Velvet morning
(Bloody love a bit of of Lee and Nancy)
Lee Hazzlewood/Nancy Sinatra

Noura Mint Seymali - Arbina
(Nice Saharan psych jams)
Noura Mint Seymali 

SNTS – Live in the Boiler Room
(Heavy and deep techno)
SNTS

TAD – Back Catalogue
(Still sounding great!)
TAD

Listen to our monthly updated Spotify 'Rocket Probes' playlist here:




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Flowers Must Die's Sista Valsen – Best EP of 2016

Massive thanks to the website Global Psychedelia for making Flowers Must Die's EP Sista Valsen their EP of the year.

They also give honourable mentions to Gnod and Goat and put Rocket in their Labels of teh year list!

Read the full run down here: Global Psychedelia

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