Spurious Transients - Something Strange Came Out of the Skies

 Self-released CD/LP

Spurious Transients is a Welsh psychedelic project formed by Gavin Lloyd Wilson. I have reviewed their debut album and single in 2015 but missed their second album somehow. They have also been actove on Fruits de Mer Records, like on the recent Head Music 2 compilation. Anyway, this CD had been travelling for months before it reached me in my new address, but I'm glad it finally arrived. The theme of the album is alien encounters and UFO's as reported by the eye-witnesses, so a sort of Welsh manifestation of our own project UFO-tutkimuksia. The music is rather different, though!

The album starts off with the eight-minute title track that has a chilled-out, spacey ambient vibe, similar to some of the Astralasia stuff. There is also some sitar sounds to add even more other-wordly vibrations. I of course love it! Then we get some short testimonies with spooky background sounds. "Freak Weather Woodpecker" is a mellow piece with spoken-word about one very interesting case in the 70s, then we get some more testimonies. "The Welsh Triangle" has a cool dub vibe, the weird "Bovine Bilocation" kicks off with some cows mowing and also has female vocals, nice. There are 14 tracks in total with lots of original testimonies, alien sound effects and psychedelic, experimental, mostly electronic backing with some more musical stuff thrown in for good balance. If you are interested in extraterrestrials and psychedelic, electronic music then this is exactly your cup of alien tee! The album is available on vinyl and CD, just go to the band's Bandcamp site to order.

spurioustransients.bandcamp.com

 

Pink Floyd - In the 1970s (book review)

Sonicbond Publishing

"What, yet another book on Pink Floyd?", you might think. Oh yes, we never get enough of the Floyd. This 144-page paper book is released in the Decades series and although it concentrates on their activities in the 70s it actually briefly tells the band's story all the way from the hazy mid 60s to the year 2020 also including the band members' solo careers. It's no small task to fit it all into so few pages but Georg Purvis does a great job on it. 

Everything concerning the band's landmark 70s albums gets most of the attention. Even though I'm a big Pink Floyd fan I have not read even a friction of all the books written about them so I learned many interesting, cool, funny and sometimes also depressive details about the recording sessions and the ever growing drift in between Waters and Gilmour. It never stops to amaze me how grown men can't put their difficulties aside and work together. Maybe it is the superstar egos, I don't know. Sort of sad, anyway. The main emphasis here luckily still is on the music so we get details of out-takes, abandoned projects etc. which was very interesting. The book is very well written and keeps the reader in its grip. I would recommend it to any fan of the band and also as an introduction to those who are only just dipping into the world of one of the greatest bands in history.

www.sonicbondpublishing.co.uk/

Astral Magic - Electronic Vol. 4 released!

Check it out:

More Astral Magic videos at YouTube!

 These new videos are from the Electronic Vol. 4 album to be released at darksun.bandcamp.com/ on next Friday 5.2.2021:

 

 

Custard Flux - Oxygen

 Self-released (CFX002)

The third Custard Flux album Oxygen was released last September so I'm a bit late with my review, sorry about that! Anyway, Gregory Curvey (currently living in Detroit, Michigan, from the band The Luck of Eden Hall) continues with his acoustic psychedelic prog project in a style similar to the previous albums Echo and Helium. So the main instruments are ancient harmonium, acoustic guitars and acoustic drum set. There are also some electric guitar leads and some guests on sax and violin, for example. You might thing that this is some kind of folk music, but it is in fact still rock music, just played almost completely with acoustic instruments! This fact gives the music a rather fresh, original and interesting twist. Oxygen is one of those albums that were made during the great covid-19 lockdown of 2020 and you can see that for example on some of the songs like "Quarantyne".

Curvey uses lots of different time signatures which adds progressive vibe although the music is never TOO difficult or hard to follow, on the contrary very enjoyable and nice. There is a certain pop element in most of the songs, sort of like The Beatles had, as well. But there are also lots of unusual chord progressions and darker moments for sure. I also really like the dreamy, peaceful parts. Curvey has a great sense for melody and harmony and all the playing is top-notch. I like his unique and instantly recognizable singing voice but the instrumentals also work great. Oxygen was featured on several best of lists of 2020 and I can understand why since this really is a masterpiece. I think the two very limited vinyl editions might be pretty much sold-out everywhere but the CD should still be available. At least you can buy the digital download also including two extra tracks from the Bandcamp site! Curvey has also agreed to record some stuff to a few of my Astral Magic songs, can't wait to hear what he comes up with...

www.facebook.com/custardflux/

New Astral Magic video on YouTube

 New Astral Magic video on YouTube and Facebook! A spacey ambient instrumental called "Moons of Jupiter" from the next album Electronic Vol. 4:

Top 10 2020

Best albums of 2020

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! It's been a strange and lousy year in many aspects and I didn't have that much time to listen to other music since I started my solo project Astral Magic to keep about sane in lockdown. Sorry for all the reviews I failed to wrote, but this had to be done. Anyway, here's my Top 10 lists, both from Finland and abroad as usual. In no particular order, just random just the way I like it...

Finland:
 

Pharaoh Overlord ‎– 6

Hexvessel ‎– Kindred

Dark Buddha Rising - Mathreyata

Polymoon ‎– Caterpillars of Creation

Desert Lord ‎– Symbols

Oulu Space Jam Collective ‎– Harvest Sage

Permanent Clear Light ‎– Cosmic Comics

E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr ‎– Non Plus Ultra

Mara Balls ‎– Ratina Live '18

Soft Power ‎– Brink Of Extinction




Foreign:

Slift ‎– Ummon

Øresund Space Collective ‎– Experiments In The Subconscious

The Spacelords ‎– Spaceflowers

Helicon ‎– This Can Only Lead To Chaos

Aquarius Lux ‎– The Infinite Korridor

Korb ‎– II

Inkal ‎– Futuropolis

Taras Bulba ‎– Soul Weaver

White Manna ‎– ARC

Yuri Gagarin ‎– The Outskirts Of Reality