Dreamy, sexy, danceable, and, yes, fun, Brijean‘s new album, Feelings, will give you plenty of feels – all of them good.
“Day dreaming about you. I’m falling, it’s true (for you),” Ms. Brijean sings on the opening track – “Day Dreaming,” a lovely electro-pop track that blends dance percussion and Bossa nova vocals. “Softened Thoughts” mixes video game sounds and thick bass to create a somewhat trippy effect. “Pepe” is a short and sweet track full of bright bells and bubbly synths.
“Wifi Beach” is an instant house music classic with cool retro synths and hot percussion. The title track is full of electro-bubbles that tickle your whole body. “Ocean” takes us to a tropical jazz lounge where the local DJ is playing stuff he found at a 1960’s Bossa nova record mogul’s estate sale. “Paradise” adds some groovy psychedelia to Feelings, and it’s a welcome addition to the album’s color palate.
“Lathered in Gold” is not only a lush, exotic track, but it’s also a good way to describe Brijean‘s sound. Everything has an exotic feel to it, and this song sounds like it emanates from a Tiki bar in Brazilian spy movie set in 1962. “Chester” is another short but sweet bridge between songs and leads into “Hey Boy,” which is going to be a massive hit at dance clubs once they’re open again (hopefully) this summer. The album closes with the thumping and bumping (and humping?) “Moody” – a flirtatious, groovy track that sends us off with a nice afterglow.
This will easily be one of the best make-out albums of 2021, let alone one of the best dance records and lounge records. It works on all levels.
I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but Star Wars-themed stoner / cosmic metal is a thing. I don’t know how much of a thing it is, but apparently it’s a thing in Warsaw, Poland – home of Bantha Rider. The name lets you know that the members envision themselves as Tusken Raiders on the desolate desert wastes of Tattooine. Their newest album, Binary Sunset Massacre, is as fierce as the album’s cover and subjects appear.
The title track is a brief instrumental introduction (the album is entirely instrumentals) that unleashes the power of “De Wanna Wanga” (a phrase known to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi fans) like a horde of charging Sand People attacking a surprised Storm Trooper outpost near the Sarlac pit. The bass alone on “The Gammorean” (the horned “boar-men” of Star Wars) hits as heavy as an axe sharpened on the bones of its enemies.
The guitar solo on “Boonta Eve” is positively cosmic, and the song starts with what sounds like spacecraft revving up for travel. “Sagittarius” is also pure cosmic rock. “Rancor’s Delight” starts with sounds of the massive beast’s footfalls and roar before it erupts into heavy, heavy riffs that channel the sense of dread Luke Skywalker felt upon being dropped into a pit containing the monster.
I love the way the bass and drums seem to stumble around a bit at the beginning of “March of the Banthas.” Banthas are huge, horned, furry beasts who take their time across the desert, and the song takes its time with chugging riffs and hefty beats. The album ends with “Pazuzu” – a psychedelic trip enshrouded in dark mystery (it is named after the Mesopotamian king of demons, after all) that lasts over thirteen head-trippy minutes.
It’s a wild ride, and enjoyable for Star Wars and stoner metal fans. It’s a win-win if you like both.
There are times when YouTube’s algorithms make a good call. Ummon, the latest album from Slift, is a good example for me. I kept seeing this record and live performances by the Toulouse, France cosmic rockers in lists of suggested videos. I finally gave Ummon a listen several months after it was released and was about knocked over by how damn heavy it is. The cover image of a naked man dragging a massive sword across what looks like a hot asteroid sums up the heft of this album pretty well.
The title track opens the record with guitars and drums sounding like ancient warriors taking armor off racks and strapping it on before charging over a drawbridge to repel invading ogres…on Titan. The lyrics about an army emerging from the Earth’s core (“Set the controls for the Earth’s surface. From the night we have waited. Bring the fire to your sleeping brothers.”). How much more metal can you get? “It’s Coming…” is a bright, shining epic tale of a white city in heavens that rushes to greet us. Is it a song about death? Probably, but it’s lets us know that death is a cosmic journey we will all find fascinating…and loud and crazy if the song’s end is any indication.
“Thousand Helmets of Gold” has Slift leaving the Earth for better times in space (“We’ve left this world of violence. Stars aren’t that far at all.”), propelled there by the power of rock riffs. What lies there in space? Well, according to “Citadel on a Satellite,” it’s a “calm and serene vista of wonders” where “time signifies nothing.” I can’t argue with that, or with the psychedelic guitar solo that weaves throughout the song. The way it softly drifts out and then slaps you awake with “Hyperion” is stunning. The song is about either an ancient warrior or an elder god – or both – and epic enough for either.
“Altitude Lake” is a psychedelic tale of a warrior seeking a mystic sword in a forsaken land of mist and mystery. The track moves back and forth between hypnotic jams and epic shredding. “Sonar” is a cool instrumental suitable for your next video game session or late night drag race with a UFO. “Dark Was Space, Cold Were the Stars” is a tale of death told by a groovy bass line, spacey synths, lock-tight drumming, and booster rocket guitars. “Aurore aux Confins” (“Dawn at the Edge”) is another wild, trippy instrumental that sounds like a laser refracted through a lava lamp.
“Son Dông’s Cavern” is a short, trippy affair that leads into the Oh Sees-like “Lions, Tigers and Bears,” which clocks in at thirteen minutes and eighteen seconds – and it’s worth every moment of that running time with its massive riffs, guttural vocals, and wild drums as they sing about a cosmic race of lion-pulled chariots across the cosmos to usher in a glorious age throughout the universe.
Ummon is an impressive piece of work, and one of those albums that makes you say, “How are three people putting out this much sound?” I don’t know the answer. My guess is that they tapped into some sort of cosmic energy well while meditating in a cave full of ancient crystals placed there by aliens. You’ll understand this when you hear it.
Keep your mind open.
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There are many albums that convey a sense of place. Sometimes the place is an entire town or nation, other times it’s a small bedroom. Nick Schofield‘s excellent new ambient music album, Glass Gallery, conveys the energy of part of Ottawa’s National Gallery of Canada. The gallery is full of high ceilings and massive windows, creating a space full of light, air, and meditative quiet.
“Central Atrium” immediately puts you into the right headspace for the record with its warm synths and simple, relaxing chords. Listening to “Mirror Image” is like listening to a prism with light shining through it. I’m not sure I can describe it better than that. “Getty Garden” blips and bleeps like a happy robotic cat. “Water Court” seemingly drifts along without effort, and “Molinarism” sounds like the theme to a Blade Runner spin-off TV show.
“Travertine Museum” and “Snow Blue Square” are luxurious meditations. “Ambient Architect” is a good way to describe Schofield himself, as the song weaves intricate yet relaxing patterns of synth chords over and through each other. “Garden Court is a nice compliment to “Water Court.” “Kissing Wall” is as intriguing as its namesake and a perfect song for androids who want to make out, with humans or other synthetic beings. The album ends with the subtle, but no less hypnotizing, “Key of Klee.”
What makes this album even more impressive is when you consider it was made with just one synthesizer – a Sequential Circuits Prophet-600. I couldn’t make this with ten synthesizers if he, Gary Numan, and Giorgio Moroder were coaching me. It’s a lovely piece of work.
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Gabriel at Clandestine Label Services.]
The opening track of Psymon Spine‘s new album, Charismatic Megafauna, “Confusion,” is pure dream / synth-pop bliss and lets you know that you’re in for a treat. The whole album mixes dance grooves with synth hooks and funk and inspires you to move and / or chill.
Bright synths, cool bass, and sweet disco beats are all over this record. Psymon Spine’s founders, Noah Prebish and Peter Spears, describe the slightly dark “Modmed” as a break-up song about leaving their previous band – Barrie. The bass on it is as thick as a dozen donuts eaten during a self-pity binge that becomes a “You know, what? Screw it. I’m eating these donuts because I’m moving on.” celebration. “Jacket” moves and sways like it has some junk in the trunk.
“Jump Rope” is a sexy romp with female vocals about meeting and defying expectations. “Milk” features Barrie – the lead singer of Prebish and Spears’ former band – doing backing vocals on another cool, bass-heavy track. “The game is called ‘Channels,” they sing on “Channels” – a fast dance-punk track about the drudgery of work and going along with the crowd when you really want to go off-road, forge your own path, and tell your doubters, “Get the fuck out of my face.”
“Different Patterns” mixes acoustic guitars with Knight Rider bass for a weird, dreamy effect. “Real Thing” bubbles and pops with synths that remind me of God Lives Underwater tracks and electric drums hit so snappy they could be a breakfast cereal. “Solution” bounces with a wicked house music beat that builds to a floor-filling frenzy. The album ends with “Unwound” – a bit of a psychedelic treat to send us off on a trippy note.
It’s a pretty cool record that blends its multiple influences well – making you dance and think. That’s not an easy task, but they make it seem easy.
Recorded barely a month after King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released their breakthrough album, Nonagon Infinity, Live in San Francisco ’16chronicles the band playing a small club before they would soon be filling large concert halls and curating their own music festival. The power of a KGATLW show is on full display, and it’s great to hear them still with a raw edge and eager to promote Nonagon Infinity to the world.
A good chunk of Nonagon Infinity is here for us, including the opener “Robot Stop,” which is a pleaser to the eager, appreciative crowd. KGATLW come out like a flame thrower unleashed on an audience made up of hungry fire elementals. “Hot Water,” with its happy flute solos, keeps everyone bouncing. There’s barely time to breathe by the time we get to “Big Fig Wasp,” which has great double-teaming of guitars and drums that must’ve blown the audience’s minds as good as it sounds on this.
As wild as that is, “Gamma Knife” is somehow crazier – launching the show, audience, and venue like a cannonball across the California salt flats. There’s a brief pause as they build into “People Vultures” to let the audience cheer and hydrate for a moment before thunder rolls over them.
By the time lead singer Stu MacKenzie asks, “What’s goin’ on?” before “Trapdoor,” I imagine some of the answers he got included, “I can’t feel my face!” and “I feel like I’ve run a marathon!” “Trapdoor” slows things down a bit, but not by much as its groove is made for dancing. The double-shot of “I’m in Your Mind” and “I’m Not in Your Mind” makes for a wild trip. “Cellophane” moves back and forth between psychedelic grooves and flat-out punk rock screams. Everyone agrees that “I’m in Your Mind Fuzz” pretty much sums up how the audience feels by this point – fuzzed-out and tripping. Someone in the audience has lost their glasses by this point, but thankfully the band finds and returns them to the owner.
“Yeah! Fuck yeah!” a woman yells at the beginning of “The River.” I agree with her, as it’s a great live rendition of the happy psychedelic tune that last almost eleven minutes. The song drifts into space now and then, leaving the audience thinking the song is over before coming back to further hypnotize them. They follow it with “Evil Death Roll” to kick out the jams once again and blast the paint off the back walls. They close the show with over twenty-two minutes of “Head On Pill,” which lulls the audience into premature cheering multiple times as it winds across a desert dune like a sidewinder that’s just eaten a psychedelic mushroom.
It’s one of the best of multiple live albums KGATLW have put out in the last couple years, and a great addition to any collection of psych-rock or live music.
My wife and I recently hired a young woman to tutor us in French via Zoom. She asked us what we hope to do with the language. We mentioned being able to travel easier in Europe and other parts of the world, of course, but I also thought, “I’d like to be able to chat with all these stoner and doom metal bands coming out of France and Belgium right now.”
Cavaran, hailing from Belgium, is one such band, and their five-song EP, Bulldozer, is another fine example of the European stoner metal scene putting out some of the best examples of the genre right now. Opening track “Walter” is led by Patrick Van Der Haegen‘s groovy and heavy bass groove while Lieven Tronckoe‘s guitar soars like a peregrine falcon one moment and burns through the cosmos like a Moebius-designed spaceship the next.
Not to be outdone, drummer Gert D’hondt gets “Dino” off to a roaring start with hits as hard as a stampeding brontosaurus. Tronckoe and Van Der Haegen are just as aggressive, sounding like gunships flying over a raging wildfire. “Holy Grail” is another furious rocker, sounding like something Foo Fighters could’ve made if they’d kept a harder edge and didn’t worry about their next big single.
“Wörner” has a wicked groove to it that gets your head banging, but not so hard you’ll have whiplash by the end. Van Der Haegen’s bass again leads the charge and it sounds like D’hondt’s drum kit has a dozen cymbals attached to it at some points. The closer, “Bigfoot,” is as heavy and mythical as its namesake with Tronckoe shredding like a chainsaw in a Pacific Northwest forest, D’hondt using fallen trees to beat his kit, and Van Der Haegen stalking you the whole time like some kind of beast.
Bulldozer packs a lot of power into just five songs, the longest of which is just over six minutes. You can either jump onto the scoop shovel and race into battle with it or let it crush you. It’s your choice.
Margaret Sohn, also known as Miss Grit, confronts impostor syndrome, Midwest living, the benefits and annoyances of technology, and more on her second EP Impostor. Even the cover art shows her unease with being in the spotlight. She’s actually trying to hide behind it.
I’m here to tell her that there’s no need for that, because Impostor is a nice piece of work. Opening track “Don’t Wander” is like something you’d hear while in orbit and has hard-hitting, simple lyrics like “There’s no more reward for winning. There’s a bigger toll for missing.” Sohn’s guitar on “Buy the Banter” is fuzzed and funky while Gregory Tock‘s drums are solid drops like heavy, scattered rainfall. The song is a brutal wake-up call to anyone who seeks power (“If you think you’re somebody, you’ll have to prove you’ve got what they want, and they want.”).
“Blonde” is a sad tale of Sohn confronting identity issues as a half-Korean woman growing up in a majority Caucasian Michigan town. Zoltan Sindhu‘s bass line on the track is a deceptive one, lulling you into a warm groove before the track blooms / bursts into a fuzzed-out fireworks display. Sohn’s guitar prowess is on full display on “Grow Up To,” with plenty of shredding and arena-ready riffs.
“Dark Side of the Party” is a great track, with Sohn mixing guitars and synths well and singing about being stuck at a party full of people who, on the surface, appear to be sure of themselves, but who are actually as frightened as her (or more so) of being discovered as an impostor. The title track ends the album, bubbling with hard rock guitars before simmering with ambient synths to drift us out into the world again, ready to face our own doubts with a little more confidence.
Keep your mind open.
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Ritual Divination, the new album by Afrobeat / metal / funk / psych / who gives a damn band Here Lies Man, is the first one they’ve recorded as a full four-piece (Marcos Garcia – guitar / vocals, Geoff Mann – drums, J.P. Maramba – bass, and Doug Organ – keyboards) and the power and chops of their heavy groove live shows comes through on each track.
The opening guitars in “In These Dreams” is straight-up classic metal with keyboard stabs to shove you into the first scene of the “movie” that is Ritual Divination. In case you didn’t know, each HLM album (and live show) is essentially written and performed like a soundtrack to a film that’s different for everyone hearing it. With “In These Dreams,” you’re already thinking, “Well, this is a bad-ass movie and we’re still in the opening credits.”
The next track deals with one of HLM’s favorite subjects – mortality. “I Told You (You Shall Die)” starts out with a slow, trudging rhythm and then transforms into an epic space rock jam with the band both reminding us of our impending departure from this reality, but also telling us to not fear something we cannot truly comprehend. “Underland” is the shortest track on the album, clocking in at just under two-and-a-half minutes, but it packs a lot of guitar power into that short (compared to the other tracks) time frame.
The riffs on “What You See” immediately make your whole body sway forward and back with them. It’s a certain groove that HLM do so well and gets your attention at the outset. As good as it is, somehow the groove on “Can’t Kill It” is even better – possibly because it ups the funk and stirs it up with killer bass and keyboard work. “Run Away Children” is almost hypnotic with its trance-like vocals.
“I Wander” is a standout, with Maramba’s bass hitting hard, Mann’s jazz background being on full display, and Organ and Garcia working so well together it’s difficult to tell where one of them ends and the other begins. HLM let us know that you can cut and strut all you want, but “night comes all the same” on “Night Comes” – another reminder of our mortality and to embrace impermanence. “Come Inside” chugs along like a train powered by onyx instead of coal.
“Collector of Vanities” could be a song for most of us. How much junk do all of us have? How many selfies do we take? How many do we filter, polish, and recolor in order to project an illusion to the world? HLM encourage us, through the power of fiery rock, to de-clutter our collection and focus within instead of on the surface. The title of “Disappointed” is repeated almost like a mantra through the track. As for what HLM is disappointed in…well, they did record the album in 2020 so it’s anybody’s guess.
“You Would Not See from Heaven” gives a strong nod toward their Black Sabbath influences – in both the sweaty, heavy groove and its somewhat doomy title – although I suspect the song is more about how, in heaven, you would not see your desires, vanities, and illusions because you are free from them. “I want to run, I want the night…” Garcia sings on “The Fates Have Won.” They always do. You might not think they will, but they have infinite patience. “Out Goes the Night” is a song that is both heavy as stone and yet uplifting as the sunrise at the same time (“In comes the light, out goes the night.”). The closer, “Cutting through the Tether,” puts down a slick drum groove (with extra hand percussion to boot) as Organ’s keys, Garcia’s guitar, and Maramba’s bass slither in the background like asps waiting to strike.
It’s another solid record from Here Lies Man, who continue to put out work that is hard to define, but once you hear it you want all of it you can get.
Keep your mind open.
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What do you do when you spend a good chunk of your young adult life as a touring rock band, build your identity around said band and said touring, and then have all of that yanked away from you by a pandemic?
If you’re British rockers Shame, you look inward, ask yourselves “What the hell were we thinking? We’re more than…whatever we were during nonstop tours and parties.”, and refocus on how they (and the rest of us) were going to deal with reality in 2020 and beyond. You also write and record an outstanding record like Drunk Tank Pink.
Named after a color used in jail cells to calm, you guessed it, drunks, Drunk Tank Pink has Shame taking their angry, bratty punk sounds down multiple avenues that include post-punk influences like Talking Heads and pop icons like Elton John.
“Alphabet” starts off with snappy drums and singer Charlie Steen telling us flat-out “What you see is what you get.” He and his mates are through with perceived notions and crafted images. They’re just as pissed and antsy as the rest of us, and Sean Coyle-Smith‘s guitar certainly amplifies that notion. “It just goes on,” Steen sings on “Nigel Hitter” – a song about repetition and how life can and will continue whether you want it to or not. “Born in Luton” has Steen raging about feeling trapped alone in his own home (“There’s never anyone in this house!”). The song dissolves into a slow burn of boiling anger at a world that botched its collective response to the pandemic and thus left millions feeling like him.
“I should just go back to sleep…In my room, in my womb, is the only place I find peace,” Steen sings on “March Day.” It’s a rather plucky song about depression, with Steen poking fun at himself and realizing that self-medicating his way through the pandemic wasn’t a good idea. “Water in the Well” has a deceptively wicked bass line from Josh Finerty and some fun horror movie imagery and great percussion from Charlie Forbes that runs around the room like a cackling gremlin.
“I live deep in myself, just like everyone else!” Steen yells on the wild “Snow Day” – a barrage of punk and prog fury that has great, sly lyrics like, “I know what I need, I just haven’t got it yet.” Finerty’s bass is at the front of “Human for a Minute,” which would be a great name for a Gary Numan song but sounds more like a slightly heavy EdwynCollins track with its groovy swagger and lyrics about finding a new identity with a new lover (“I never felt human before you arrived.”).
“Great Dog” builds and builds to wild, mosh pit-filling riffs and then plunges off a cliff at the end to leave you breathless. “6/1” has Steen proclaiming, “I pray to no God! I am God!” He’s determined to be in control of his own destiny / fate / life, even more so as he watches so much of the world tear itself apart over petty things while the rich get richer. Coyle-Smith and Eddie Green‘s guitars on “Harsh Degrees” come at you from so many different angles it’s like you’re being attacked by a a dozen Shaolin monks. “I need a solution, I need a new resolution and it’s not even the end of year,” Steen lazily sings on the closer, “Station Wagon.” He’s looking for something, anything, to turn a lame year into something worthwhile. We were all doing that in 2020 and still are not even a full month into 2021. “Look up there. There’s something in that cloud. We’ve seen it before,” Steen says. “Won’t someone please bring me that cloud?”
Drunk Tank Pink comes to us in 2021 to remind us that, yes, 2020 was one of the worst years ever (“No one said this was going to be easy,” Steen says on the final track.), but, you made it here if you were lucky. You survived. You have the moment, the moment all of us have had and ever will have, to move forward and emerge stronger.
You can come out of the drunk tank with a new perspective. It’s okay to acknowledge what you suffered. There’s no shame in that. This album reminds you to put that rage down after you’ve acknowledged it, to learn from it, and to keep moving ahead.
