Witch Mountain: Mobile of Angels

Svart Records (SVR328)

Witch Mountain is a slow and heavy doom metal band from Portland, Oregon, and have a great, powerful female singer. I have not heard their previous albums, but the new one released by Svart this month on LP and CD sounds pretty interesting and cool. The LP has only five songs, but four of them are rather long. "Psycho Animundi" starts the album with slow, heavy riffing and powerful vocals, but there are also a few more atmospheric, beautiful and melancholic moments. "Can't Settle" starts off like a long lost Saint Vitus number, but is rather bluesy as well, mostly due to the excellent vocals and solo guitar. Too bad that the singer is no longer with the band. We also get some very dark moments in the middle. "Your Corrupt Ways (Sour the Hymn)" is the longest track on the album and very slow, sad and forlorn. Again, I get some bluesy vibes but I like it! The title track is just three-and-a-half minutes of more experimental, droney funeral soundscapes and spoken-word plus angel-like singing, very nice. The last track on the LP is the beautiful "The Shape Truth Takes" and it's again very slow and melancholic stuff, but at first there is no heavy guitar, but things get heavier for a while in the chorus. Here the singer really shines, she has a wonderful voice indeed! The digital download and CD also have an extra track called in form of a Mountain cover "Don't Look Around" but I don't have that unfortunately. This is a great, bluesy and melancholic doom metal album with excellent vocals and great production so check it out if you into stuff like that.

witchmountain.bandcamp.com

3rd Ear Experience: Incredible Good Fortune

Thousand Thunders Music

Yes, it feels so good to be exposed to a new space/psych/prog rock band as great as 3rd Ear Experience! I have somehow totally missed this amazing band from the States, even though they have released a couple of albums before this one. Recorded live in the Furst Wurld Performance and Art Gallery in the Mojave desert, this 76-minute-long space trip includes just five long, hypnotic, cosmic and psychedelic instrumental tracks of highest quality. This is the kind of music that you will want to get into a trance with.

The album begins with the almost 20-minute instrumental "Tools" that has a soothing, tranquil intro before the tight space rocking starts. There's plenty of synthesizer space sounds going all over the place and I really love that. The track also has some killer solo guitar work, and a soft, floating ambient part with some saxophone, that also continues until the end. What an excellent opener! Another long trip "One" is next, and we are transported into space with this one. Again a mellow, spacey intro, and then some hypnotic, heavy space rocking! This one also has vocals and a sort or mysterious vibe. The end is very quiet and meditative... Another killer track! On "Parsley" the band gets more progressive, but they still stay spacey and psychedelic as well. You are allowed to totally chill out at the end. The shortest track "White Bee" is next and it's very relaxing, slow and mellow stuff with female vocals and some heavier moments later on. The last track "Shaman's Dream" rocks hard again reminding me of Hidria Spacefolk from Finland or even Ozric Tentacles. I'm loving the shaman chanting! The song has a more progressive, slower verse  that brings to mind Hawkwind's "Dying Seas" with its chord progression. Another superb track, and it's impossible to say what's my favorite since I love them all! Good news is that this CD will also see a vinyl treatment by the excellent Space Rock Productions so you can soon buy this beauty on 2LP as well. I know I will...

www.facebook.com/3rdearexperience

Underdogs: S/T

Go Down Records (GODLP104)

This is a 10-year-old band from Italy playing a mix of desert rock, grunge and some hard core, so not really my kind of thing. They have previously released at least two albums and one EP, and played with the likes of Nebula, Josiah, Brant Bjork and Colour Haze. The trio plays well and have pretty interesting songs, and I do like some of the album, like the second track "The Quilt" that is also the longest song in just under five minutes. The more grunge oriented stuff sort of annoys me to tell you the truth, but they always have sense for good melodies and it makes the album flow by anyway. They even have some pop qualities, so it's not just hard, heavy rocking. Especially the talented vocals and some of the more atmospheric parts might go down with mainstream music fans as well, there is even some electric piano and synths. One of the most radio-friendly tracks might be "Time Fighters" that has some beautiful passages. The Cardigans cover "My Favorite Game" is probably the heaviest piece, and the album is finishes with the acoustic "The Closing Song". Not bad at all, just not exactly for me.

underdogstown.bandcamp.com

 

 

Soft Hearted Scientists: The Slow Cyclone

The Hip Replacement 

The latest promo package from Fruits de Mer also included the forth-coming new CD by Soft Hearted Scientists from Wales. These folk/psych/prog masters have been doing their thing for some time now and this is already their sixth album. For me and many others the first contact with this band was Fruits de Mer's 2013 2LP + 7" compilation called What Ever Happened to the Soft Hearted Scientists that gathered together some of the best tracks from their CD releases. Right after that we got the fantastic CD False Light, and since then they have released two limited, more unofficial type of demo compilations.

What we have here is a brand-new album recorded in three home studios. The album is divided in four parts, and the parts are divided in 24 actual songs and shorter passages. Some of the interludes/jingles are under one minute in length, and even the longest song, the folky "Drifting Away" clocks in at just over five minutes. It's also one of the best tracks with superb vocal melodies, acoustic guitar work and keyboards. The wonderful chorus brings to mind The Beatles or Syd's Pink Floyd. The track "You There Standing in the Shadows" (as well a couple of other tracks) has some cheap drum box sounds that give a cool effect. "Hermit Crab" sounds like a lost Syd Barrett outtake, and some of the other highlights include the melancholy "Away", the atmospheric and sort of Yes styled "Sonar Rays", the hypnotic and soft "Cobra Clouds", the droney "The Unknown Tide" and the final, gentle piece "Before I Was Born" that brings to mind Magna Carta. Like everything that I've heard by the band before, The Slow Cyclone needs some time to really get it and appreciate it, but after a while you just can't help falling in love with it. It's emotional, a bit spooky and weird but very deep and charming stuff. The CD is scheduled for release on 3 November 2014.

www.softheartedscientists.com

Sendelica: Live at Crabstock

Friends of the Fish (FOF 01)

Here's one more Fruits de Mer related release. This is the first official live album by the great Welsh space/psych rock band Sendelica recorded at the first Crabstock - The Fruits de Mer Festival of Psychedelia in Cardigan on April the 26th this year. There was also a Finnish and American versions of the festival later on. The CD version has one more track (the 12:31 long "Spaceman Bubblegum") that couldn't fit on the vinyl. The short "Standing at the Edge" starts off the set like usually and we're in for some heavy psych rocking. The 16-minute "Manhole of the Universe" sees the band jamming more and there's some excellent sax and electronic space sounds too. Very nice! The Pink Floyd inspired "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Buddha" is next and we are transported into some mystical, alternative reality. "Motorik Jam" shows the band's love for kraut rock and gets pretty wild later on. Then it's time to chill out with the beautiful and mellow "Screaming and Streaming into the Starlit Nite" and "Return of the Maggot Brain", both more or less homages to Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain". Wonderful solo guitar from Pete as always! The vinyl ends here, but CD and download also include the encore "Spaceman Bubblegum" and it's worth it to get this one way or the other since it is one of their best tracks/jams in my opinion and very spacey. The sound quality on this disc is not perhaps just as good as on the band's studio albums but still very good and I'm really glad that this instrumental live album got released on this new Fruits de Mer of-shoot label. Warmly recommended!

sendelica.bandcamp.com

Various Artists: 7 And 7 Is

Fruits de Mer Records (crustacean 51-57)

Wow, what a marvelous and beautiful single box by Fruits de Mer! This superbly assembled 7" box includes seven singles of new cover versions of classic US garage psych songs from the 60s. The bands could pick their favourites form the Golden Era themselves, and we get some Love, 13th Floor Elevators, The Byrds... I think you got the picture.

First, we have The Bevis Frond interpreting two songs by Clear Light, a band that I'm not that familiar with I'm afraid. The Frond of course has been one of my idols for decades so I'm totally excited about this! The short but sweet "Night Sounds" fits perfectly for Nick and sounds pretty much like some his original tunes. There's lots of wonderful fuzz guitar in there too, but organ is playing very important role here. And don't you just love Nick's vocals? Well I do, anyway. "Sand" has a nice march beat and again killer guitar and organ work. Another winner! The Higher State (great band name, by the way!) give us two (not that known) tracks by The 13th Floor Elevators ("Wait for My Love" & "You Don't Know"), and do an excellent job at it too. The wonderful Chemistry Set have chosen Love songs "A House Is Not a Motel" and "Live and Let Live", and it's easy to hear that Love is one of their biggest influences. The first one starts off in an acoustic mode which is nice. Also "Live and Let Live" honors the original and sounds just amazing. Lovely vocals harmonies on both of them! United States of America never was as big or well-known than The Elevators or Love, but they still are an important part of 60s US psych history. Sendelica are the perfect group to interpret them, and the groovy and psychy "Hard Coming Love" and the pretty, strange and dreamy "Love Song for the Dead Che" also have great female vocals. Absolutely stunning! King Penguin gets to play two songs by The Byrds, "She Don't Care About Time" and "5D (Fifth Dimension)" and they sound superb with rich, lush instrumentation. San Francisco's Moby Grape gets treated next by The Gathering Grey resulting quite different, but very good versions. On the last 7" there are Black Tempest doing a very nice version of Spirit's "Nature's Way" and finally The Seventh Ring of Saturn doing their best on "Cream Puff War" by The Grateful Dead. These band's just had to be covered here too!

There are only 700 copies of this beauty including coloured vinyl (red, white and blue) and a folded poster and I'd like to tell you to get it right away before it's too late!

www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

DJ Astro's Hotlist of the moment!

Okay, here's what's hot in the Zone right now:

Chrome: Feel It Like a Scientist 2LP
Chrome: Inwards 12"
White Manna: Live Frequencies LP
Sendelica: Live at Crabstock LP
Various Artists: Seven and Seven Is 7" Box Set
Goat: Commune LP + 7"
Simones: Majic Ship 7"
On Trial: Head 10" (finally...)
Farflung: So Many Minds, So Little Time... CD
Various Artists: Friends of the Fish - A First Collection CD-R