Telegraph Hill is the third album by leftfield psychedelic folk rock artist Jack Ellister. He's originally from Poland and I've been following his career since his Yordan Orchestra days in Holland nine years ago. As a solo artist Jack Ellister has been releasing stuff on Fruits de Mer since 2012. Telegraph Hill was first put out in May for the Fruits de Mer 10 year anniversity show as a hand-numbered CD-R in a tin box limited to 100 copies. On the 27th of this month it will be also released on vinyl and digital download on You Are The Cosmos.
What we have here are nine original compositions by Jack, so no 60s covers this time. All these simple little tracks have a warm, home-made vibe and apart from drums and percussion on a few tracks all instruments are played by Mr. Ellister himself. The mostly acoustic album is only 28 minutes long and was originally intended as an EP. "Roots" is a short but sweet folk ballad with just acoustic guitar and vocals. "High Above Our Heads" has more instrumentation like drums, bass and electric guitar and has a more psychedelic feel. "Maureen Feeding the Horses" is a short instrumental, and "Fill Another Glass" an acoustic, Irish styled folk piece also including some violin. "Mind Maneuvers" has a bit of a jazzy vibe and grows along the way getting more experimental and also including some weird effects. The title track opens the B-side and it's a great, short and simple folk piece, like the beautiful "Reminder". "Icon Chambers" is a cool, relaxed but trippy instrumental with cool synthesizers. The last, instumental track "Condors" is the longest at 7:23 and it's a deep, hypnotic and psychedelic journey with acoustic guitar, didgeridoo, percussion and nice synth melodies and also some lead guitar towards the end. Very nice! Fans of Jack Ellister will be happy with this release, although it might end a bit too fast. But you can always put it on again!
I was really looking forward to play Jönköping Space & Rock Festival in Sweden in 1997 with my band Dark Sun. Okay, there were legendary Welsh rockers Man who were very cool to hang with, my idol Nik Turner who we had already met and played with the previous year at Hamburg Hawkfan meeting and lots of great space rock bands like Darxtrar... But then there was The Spacious Mind! They had already released five albums by the time and were absolutely one of my favourite bands, they still are. Somehow these psychonauts from the middle of Northern Sweden had came up with a totally unique psychedelic rock style that really amazed me. Their music has a strange, dreamy quality and you were immediately transported into totally different space and time. Sure, they had their West-Coast/psych/space/kraut/acid/rock and folk influences, but they also had something out of this world. It was nice to meet these quiet, a bit shy and spaced-out guys (and also help them look for their van keys all over the festival site after the festival...). Their gig (feat. Nik Turner, like most of the other bands there as well!) was pure magic. We kept in touch and I was also introduced to their other myriad projects and bands as years went by. Of course we also invited them to play in Helsinki with Dark Sun, Circle and others in 2002 which is story of its own.
Anyway, during the recent years there has not been that much TSM activity. Gentle Path Highway was released on CD on their own Goddamn I'm A Countryman Records in 2007, and then I thought that was it. I was pleasantly surprised when Greazy Green And Stoney Lonesomes Vol.1, an excellent new album, was released in 2014 on Kommun 2. If you don't count Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies 2LP, their first vinyl outing including two side-long tracks from the first CD with three new ones and put out in 1995 by Gates of Dawn in the U.S., there were no TSM compilations available. This is where Trail Records came to picture wanting to make one. The Drifter is a 62-minute CD comprising of six tracks from various sources. All of them have been previously released, but you'd have to be one of the lucky 50 true fans like myself to own the limited live CD-R two of the tunes are lifted.
The fifteen-minute "The Drifter" that starts off the disc was originally the A side of their sole 10" release Reality D Blipcrotch in 2002. I just love this track! The first half is hypnotic, instrumental stuff that speeds up and gets more intense until the beautiful, dreamy and slow end part with soft vocals begins after the spacey middle. The extensive use of ebow and organ are perhaps the most characteristic sides of this band. The long instrumental "Euphoria, Euphoria" is another favourite of mine from The Spacious Mind catalogue: it rocks in its completely own universe but you can still totally fly along. Wonderful! "The Players In The Band" (the B-side of Reality D Blipcrotch) is a pleasant example of a softer, more folky but still totally spaced-out side of TSM. "Floatin' Down The River Whistlin' On A Tune" is taken from the Various Artists CD Copenhagen Space Rock Festival 2002 (other artists are Dark Sun, Darxtar, Gas Giant, Mantric Muse and Pseudo Sun). This festival sadly never happaned, but I'm glad that the CD still exists. This track is a slow instrumental jam that has some pretty weird, experimental and trippy stuff going on... Some people have been complaining that the CD also includes a live version of "The Drifter". I personally don's have any problem with that, since this is a pretty different, faster version and after all, that's the title of the compilation. These guys always left quite a lot room to improvisation, so none of the tracks were played the same way twice. This version misses the slow ending with vocals. The CD is finished with another live cut "Spirit Roots" that has never been released as a studio version. For some reason, on this release the 20-minute track was edited for a 10-minute version, but it works great as it is.
It was a hard, if not even totally impossible, task to try to put the essence of this rather prolific band with some very long tracks into just one CD. What this band really needs is a CD box set as well as all their CD-only albums reissued on vinyl! Having said that, I do think that Trail Records did a great job combining some of their best tunes on this CD and making them available to the public again. I'm sure there is a whole new generation of spaceheads who have not yet experienced the mind-expanding qualities of this amazing band, and now is their chance. Enjoy the euphoria!
Kris Gietkowski was first found by Fruits de Mer's Keith when he accidentally bumped into Kris's versions of tracks by the first Egg album on YouTube. Keith fell in love with them and of course just had to release them on vinyl resulting in the first album by Kris called Songs From The First Album By Egg. This wonderful looking slab of vinyl was soon sold-out and a reissue in different coulours was in order. Keith also released a massive 3CD-set Three of a Kind with the Egg album, tracks from the first album by Atomic Rooster and tracks from the first album by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, all three discs also including bonus material. Phew! By this time it was obvious, that this Polish guy was very talented as well as obsessed with early progressive rock and Canterbury scene.
Symmetric Communication is the second LP release by Kris Gietkowski and the first to also include his own music. I'm glad it does since his closer to 20-minute composition "F/X)" on side A is just as good as the original masterpieces that he has been covering. Using just keyboards, bass and programmed drums and modern technology Kris can create a wonderful, fresh and innovative musical palette. Some might think the sound is a bit too clean or clear compared to the hazy prog pieces of the late 60s/early 70s , but I like it a lot. This is not really that psychedelic, but it's weird and experimental enough. The whole track is a wonderful, adventurous journey and you wonät get bored on the way. On side B we have two covers. "A Visit to Newport Hospital" originates from the Egg's second album The Polite Forfe and Kris gives us a truthful but fresh version. I really enjoy this wonderful, jazzy tune! The Baking Research Station's version that Fruits de Mer released in 2012 was pretty much different... It's a very rare occasion that they release two cover versions of same track, by the way! "Divided by Zero" ends the vinyl version and it sounds like another marvellous instrumental early Egg cover, but it's actually a composition of his own! He has somehow perfectly sucked in the early 70s Canterbury/prog vibe and has a way of reinventing it, nice. The promo CD-R and pretty split colour LP end here but there is one more track on the official CD version (also rare for Fruits de Mer!) so I just think I need to get my hands on that one as well. Great stuff!
Úzgin Űver is group from Hungary who have been making and releasing their brand of psychedelic electronic/ambient/word music for over two decades now. This is the first time I have heard them, though. This CD version of their latest album has been brought to us by the German label The Lollipop Shop, always eager to introduce exotic and Eastern artists to the West. Just do yourself a favour and check out bands like Korai Öröm, Ole Lukkøye and Nu & Apa Neagră if you haven't already. World Music really can be mind-expanding and adventurous.
Like Ole Lukkøye for example, Úzgin Űver uses modern technology along with rock instruments and a variety of ethnic acoustic instruments to create wonderful, heady soundscapes. Their music is a magical witch's brew of now and the past and it's very easy to get lured into their hypnotic, spellbounding universe. The album starts off with the 16-minute title track that has amazing atmosphere. The going gets more intense along the way and you get sucked deeper into the mysterious void. Amazing! "Gázló" is a groovy, shorter track and "Shirat HaYam" has excellent female vocals on top of the psychedelic, mesmerizing music. Great rhythms. "Sodrás" is perhaps the most danceable of the tracks, very nice. The swirling "Örvény" has mantra-like male vocals, a steady beat and cool ethnic instruments and somehow creates ancient vibes and visions of a tribal cathering, dance and feast. Bring forth the holy soma, please. The melancholic "Nádas" finishes off the album in a bit more progressive and melodic way. Great stuff! Also available on vinyl on Hungarian Mana Mana Records.
Like Automatism (check out my review) Fanatism is another new Swedish psych band related to Kungens Män. Compared to Automatism Fanatism is probably less jam-based and their tracks have vocals in Swedish and English. Both have psych/space/krautrock vibes but in a bit different way. Automatism is improvisational, more mellow and and sort of jazzy while Fanatism has a darker, harder hitting rock edge and clear compositions.
This album saw the light of day as a limited vinyl edition on the excellent Drone Rock Records, who have brought us some amazing delights by bands like The Space Spectrum, Psychic Lemon, GNOB, Domboshawa and Culto l Qondor, all on limited vinyl of course. The Future Past has four tracks on each side and I just love them all. Most of the music is performed with guitars, bass, drums, percussion and vocals, but there is also freaky/jazzy sax on three of them. Some of the album like the sort of post-punky "Upon the Gross" rocks out pretty hard and I like it. There are also more melodic, beutiful moments including acoustic guitar like the almost instrumental, melancholic "Tiden Rinner". "Nackögon" borrows its bass line from "Love Supreme". My favourites maybe still are the mystical opener "När Man Allting Sett" that brings to mind some of the 90s UK psych bands, the hypnotic, a bit Goat or Flowers Must Die styled "Shiv-Li-Yeah", the psych-rocking "One Of Us Can Not Be Me" and the trancey title track that ends the great album. One of the best psych rock albums this year so be sure not to miss it! Also available on CD on the band's Bandcamp site.
This is a limited 2LP version of the first half of an improvised 2CD-R set Unterwasser - Live 2002 that the band released on their own in 2002. The Vol. 1 in the tittle suggests that the rest of this recording from Bad Sulza, 6.4.2002, shall see the day on light on another 2LP release. I'm glad that Adansonia Records is now releasing at least some of the stuff that the band self-released on CD-R in the early 00s since the original pressings were highly limited (under 100 copies each) and I didn't get any of them at the time. Plus it's SO much cooler to have this stuff on vinyl anyway!
On this great sounding release the German electronic kraut/psych heads take us on a rather minimal and ambient journey. The line-up this time was just the "Double D": Dirk Jan Müller on synthesizer, organ and tape and Dirk Bittner on electric guitar, synthesizer, drum machine, vocoder and voice. So the performance is quite different to some of the other live albums like Live at Roadburn 2012 that featured a full band. On the other hand, the use of pre-recorded tapes and drum machine still gives it a fuller sound at times. Apart from some hand-clapping there is no clear evidence that this is a live recording. The going is very hypnotic and electronic and the use of voice and vocoder in the background adds more psychedelic vibes. The band has released quite a lot of different stuff along the years and this is one of their most ambient/Berlin School releases for sure and great for meditation or relaxing. There is still some beat and melody in there to keep things interesting, but this is not their groovy party album. There are six tracks on the album and I find them all very enjoyable and magical. Check this out!
Rusto-Osiris / Kiarama Records (PTAH1701 / KRM001)
Okay, this time I might be later with my review than for sometime since this split 12" EP was already released in April 2017... But I did receive it a bit late as well and totally accidentally (or was it predestined?!). Anyway, Fuzzifer is a Helsinki-based experimental and psychedelic occult/doom/noise/black metal outfit with four bass players that I've been aware of for years but not really got into or properly checked out even. They have released one limited live tape called Square Wave Godhead, Soap Bubbles And Goat Head before this split EP. Veil of Isis is even more obscure and I can't really find much info on them. Very mysterious indeed...
"Lepus Infernalis" by Fuzzifer on side A is slow, doomy, harsh and crushingly heavy track with tons of ultra distorted bass, drums and weird, experimental analogue synth sounds. The "vocals" are growled in the black metal style and also very manipulated. At times the piece cools down for a bit and you can hear more melodies, but mostly it's just simple doom metal styled riffing and ear-splitting noise for over eleven minutes. I have not heard anything else quite like this and I got to say its pretty scary and impressive! The Veil of Isis track has a slow, quieter beginning but don't let that fool you. This one also turns into experimental noise feast even though the slow drum beat stays in the background. In the end it's all peaceful again.
The digital download also includes five joint jams featuring both bands as Fuzzy Veil of Isifer and these are actually rather enjoyable! "The Outsourced Executive Agents of the Black Arts" in particular is very tasty, although chaotic and noisy psych jam. "Starship Satan" is a darker affair and very heavy as well. This will fry your brains! The hilariously named "Sniffing Glue From Various Orifices at the Tar Pits of Sodom" continues along the same (left hand) path. "Flying Pillows of Seething Hatred" is an almost 15-minute, gloomy chaos-monger getting totally noisy by the end and "ICH LIKE IKE" very noisy black metal stuff. Phew! This music is definitely for the faint-hearted but if you are looking for extreme experimental dark noise doom, look no further. You can experience Fuzzifer live on the 14th ot November at Semifinal, Helsinki. www.facebook.com/fuzzifer www.facebook.com/veilofisismusic
