Tuesday, January 31, 2012
You Should Be Listening To .. .Tuber!
"Tuber grew up in a sunny place, south of Greece, in an island called Crete. They were hiding from the sun, jamming in dark studios and playing their music in rock caves. As they moved north, sounds became lighter, since they started miss hot ground. Balance came as a result of smash, dark embraced light and improvisation turned into an effortless and instinctive process. Tuber moved their interest into new forms, founding themselves experimenting with compositions that combine mixed styles and sounds from different ground. Focus is now on rock aesthetic flirting with psychedelic atmosphere and a touch of romantic mood. At this time Tuber live in Serres, forming their feelings and thoughts into music and words, still learning how to leave with reality and reinventing it with love."
A heady blend of meditative instrumentation, sand blasted stoner rock riffing, and an expansive, immersive atmosphere, Tuber are forging their own path in the already impressive Greek stoner rock scene. One not to rock out to maybe, but definitely one to burn one to , and let one's mind wander.As BAN's partner in crime , Fuzzed Out, might state:
"Revel In The Riff".
Stephen O ' Connor
For fans of: Kyuss, Red Sparrowes, Karma To Burn, Pink Floyd.
Listen/Download here : http://tuber.bandcamp.com/
Saturday, January 28, 2012
You Should Be Listening To . .. Songs For The Sleepwalkers!!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Album Review - Heavy Glow-'Midnight Moan'
Monday, January 16, 2012
Album Review, Axxicorn 'War with the Giants'
Continuing the Greek theme with 'Prometheus'. Back to the Sabbath inspired work but with a slightly more modern approach, think Sleep's 'Holy Mountain' rather than Sabbath themselves. The long and winding instrumental choruses give the drummer room to display his flare. Next up, 'Revolt of the Titans/Wasteland' begins with a nod to 'Snowblind' and continues into pure, distilled stoner metal. Just short of three minutes, it all breaks down into an OM-like mid-tempo, distorted bass groove and a dissonant guitar solo follows closely behind. So far this is the best result of the rough production of this record.
'Typheous' opens with utterly bleak sounds of Western movie dialogue, mouth organ sirens and clean lead guitar. This is soon over taken by a snappy, immediate beat and bass to match. Almost as soon as the guitar returns with distortion in tow, we're back in familiar territory but with a new feel to the movement of the music, not a million miles from an early anarcho-punk sound. 'Theseus and the Minotaur' is a broken and heavy dream of The Obsessed at their best, and features some of the best riffing on the record: it picks you up and doesn't let you down until the very end. Finally we finish up this rough ride appropriately with 'Hades'. All the stops are pulls on the punk rock for this one, like an Amebix house party in the mid-eighties. The minimum vocals contain the some of the hardest belted out shouts we've heard from Axxicorn yet.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Album Review, Daymoon, "All Tomorrows"
"All That We've Learned is Bound to Be Wrong"
Daymoon. This is a full on progressive rock outfit that has been knocking around since the early 90's. The international lineup, spanning Germany, Brazil and Portugal to name just three countries, mix up just about every style they can get their hands on in this, their debut full-length record "All Tomorrows".
All Tomorrows opens with its namesake track. Descending bass and organ immediately brings good old Deep Purple to mind, but things quickly expand into ever changing areas that never seem to repeat but manage to be fresh and memorable. The bulk of this track is ambitious prog rock in all its glory, finishing up with a lush, folky outro that seems to come out of nowhere, and the ear splitting sound of a flat heart rate monitor to see it out. Classy stuff! Followed by the short and fierce 'TrancendenZ', the intro of which is the heaviest piece of music you're likely to hear made by woodwind and Spanish guitar. Hard riffing electrics and sax come into the melee before long in a Steve Vai style jam.
'Human Again' is reminiscent of all the things I love about Popol Vuh (watch old Werner Herzog films and you'll see what I mean): rich and winding and always taking you somewhere. Luis Estorninho's penetrating bass sound shines through here, as does drummer Bruno Capelas' inventivness with his beats. Things go all Dark Side of the Moon in the last few minutes before the return of a motif from the song's beginning, and close.
'Marrakech' begins with a few moments of spoken word tension before turning in a Syd Barrett direction. A disorientating array of instrumental and nature sounds make this a track you wouldn't want to hear when severely stoned...or maybe you would, I dunno! Next up is the dark and remorseful 'Sorry' which twists and turns slowly as if moving through a musical mist.
At this stage, about half way through the record, the band have touched upon so many rock genres that you wonder where they have left to go. The very chilled 'Bell Jar' introduces electronic drums that are unprecedented on the record so far. A Mike-Oldfield-cum-Trip-hop vibe is created as the track progresses. 'First Rain' sounds like a small army of acoustic guitars on a mission to sooth the soul. I don't know if there is a name for it but Daymoon seem to have picked up a little of that Scandinavian musical sensibility, the kind you here with bands like The Gathering. If anyone knows what I mean and whether it has a name or not, please tell me.
'First Rain' moves into 'Arklow' and all of a sudden Daymoon seem very close to home (Arklow being an Irish town), and perhaps the name is influencing my ear but there is a touch of Irish music influence on this track. 'News From the Outside' returns to the Dark Side era Floyd style, with curious use of tremolo effect on the vocals throughout. We're now reaching the end of the record with 'The Sum'. Again my taste for Krautrock is satisfied with a peculiar menagerie of sounds which shift from neo-classical to psychedelic Beatles with ease, with a few Brann Dailor drum fills to boot.
"All Tomorrows" is about as rich and varied an album as you could ask for. Daymoon leave no stylistic stone unturned and to amazing effect. This is clearly a band that is not afraid to write any kind of music that comes to mind. Pink Floyd fans will cream themselves with tracks like 'Human Again' while even some fans of Opeth's 'Heritage' will dig the more guitar heavy work on here. The musicians themselves are a force to be reckoned with: the lead guitar breaks have all the best elements of the traditional and the modern, while the bass and drums keep everything solid as a rock throughout, allowing the keys, woodwind, sax and Spanish guitars to add vivid colour throughout. Follow the link below to Daymoon's bandcamp and you can download the record in full. As well as getting a quality album you'll be contributing to a good cause since all proceeds from the album sales will go to singer Fred Lessing's wife's cancer treatment.
Daymoon, "All Tomorrows"
New Book, From The Minds of Madness: The Origins of Heavy Metal Band Names, by Blair Gibson

Friday, January 6, 2012
Gig Review - Wizards of Firetop Mountain at The Harbour Bar, New Years 2011
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Radio For The Daydreamers: New Music/Site
http://soundcloud.com/radio-for-the-daydreamers
The band have also been collaborating with several producers around the world and compiling a remix album titled Die!Avant Garde , samples of which can be found on the aforementioned Soundcloud, or by following these links :
http://soundcloud.com/radio-for-the-daydreamers/radio-for-the-daydreamers-no-1
http://soundcloud.com/seiswork/radio-for-the-daydreamers-wasted-faces-seiswork-remix
In addition ,the band are also working on a new music video, and have launched their new website:
http://www.radioforthedaydreamers.com/
Looks like 2012 may just be a busy one for the journeyman trio, and we for one are eager to see what comes next for these guys.
Stephen O ' Connor
bornagainnihilist@gmail.com
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
EP Review - Swords Of Texas ' Too Weird To Live , Too Rare To Die'
Five tracks of seething, molten psychedelia, Too Weird To Live , Too Rare To Die is a fascinating exploration in gloomy, almost gothic psychedelic sounds,,and nods to krautrock , most notably in the spacey malevolence of tracks like 'el Cid Zombie Chase',and the eerie burnout of closer ' Valkyrie Hymn', the latter assaulting the listener with some sickeningly low slung , de-tuned sludgy bass sounds, and unsettling , almost chant- like distorted vocals. The overall effect is like having acid dropped into your morning coffee unexpectedly, and then being dragged off to some sort of space rock equivalent to Orwell's dreaded Room 101, to have your mind ripped apart . . .
As an omen of where the stoner/psyche/sludge underground is heading in 2012, it's undoubtedly a good one, as for the EP itself, it's an enjoyably whacked out piece of work, that deserves to be blared from some monolithic speakers as one loses their mind on all manner of nasty substances. Fucked up, and fabulously so.
Rating :8/10
For fans of :Acid Mother's Temple, OM,(early) Pink Floyd
Stephen O ' Connor
bornagainnihilist@gmail.com
Listen here: http://swordsoftx.bandcamp.com/album/too-weird-to-live-too-rare-to-die