Maat Lander / Sounds of New Soma - Split LP

Tonzonen Records (TON075)

This is a marvelous new split album by two of the most interesting modern instrumental psych/space/krautrock/ambient/electronic bands. On side A we get more of the rock thing with three previously unreleased tracks by Russian's Maat Lander. When you have members from bands like Vespero and Re-Stoned you just can't go wrong and Maat Lander definitely does the job with flying colours again. SONS is for sure one of the leading acts in the more "kosmisch" school of mind-altering ambient music at the moment and I have loved their every release.

At first, Maat Lander show us the "Maat's Way" with a peaceful beginning that shortly builds up into a cool Ozrics styled groove. The Fedotov brothers tight rhythm section and cool, spacey electronic sounds is a perfect match to Ilya's very fluent, soulful and imaginative guitar playing. "Volga Dream" is a slower, atmospheric trip deep into your mind, just close your eyes and let the music take you on a journey. "Lunar Module" has a cosmic vibe from the beginning, the hypnotic beat starts after the two-minute-marker. Very nice yet again, we are floating in space!

SONS deliver us three a bit shorter (for them, anyway!) tracks all in between 5 and 6 minutes in length. "Auf Fart" starts off their side with beautiful, tranquil synthesizers staying rather minimal and ambient all the way. "Radweg ins Glück" is next and this time we also get some Tangerine Dream styled sequencers and laid-back guitar. Very mellow and pleasant stuff! "Ab Fart" ends the B side in similar mode, but now there is also some faint electronic beat. These three tracks seem like three parts of a one long piece since they flow together so nicely and put you in a cosmic dream state. Wonderful! If you want this superb split LP you'd better hurry up since it's limited to just 300 copies and already sold-out at source.

maatlander.bandcamp.com/music

www.facebook.com/SoundsOfNewSoma

Psychic Lemon ‎– Freak Mammal

Drone Rock Records ‎(DRR030)

Freak Mammal (must mean us humans?) is the third studio album by Cambridge based space/kraut/psych rock group Psychic Lemon. It follows the splendid live album Live At The Smokehouse that the band released earlier this year. I've been a fan since I first heard the band's little more prog oriented, eponymous debut album in 2016 and have loved all releases. Psychic Lemon's brand of psych/space/krautrock is never a direct clone of any other band as they do have a direction of their own to go and I like it.

This new album released on two limited vinyl editions, CD and digital download has seven rather long instrumental tracks on it. The space party begins with the over 10-minute, hypnotic "Dark Matter". I love the heavy, modern krautrock style here. Things get pretty fuzzy and wild so this is not for the faint-hearted. The even longer "Seeds of Tranquility" is a bit more peaceful, dreamy and also very hypnotic track with repetitive bass line, psychedelic guitar and cool percussion. There's also some spacey synthesizer for a good measure of course. This long cerebral jam reminds me of some of the old White Hills stuff a bit. "Afrotropic Bomb" is a more explosive, wild thing again, for fans of The Heads and A.M.T., perhaps! Also "Free Electron Collective" is an energetic, freaky mind-blaster that works really well. "White Light" is fast, pounding & powerful space rock the way it should be. Mugstar at their best comes to mind, wow! Another killer album by this great band. I hope I get to see them live one of these days.

www.facebook.com/psychiclemon