Rocket Recordings
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Sold outAsk many self-styled music aficionados, and they'll tell you that rock in the early to mid 70s descended into a mire of boundless self-indulgence and instrumental virtuosity.Visit product page →
Not so in Sweden. For there, the egalitarian spirit that many thought revolutionary to punks in the UK was nothing new for the heads to be found enjoying the cult Swedish psychedelia of bands like Träd, Gräs och Stenar or Þlgarnas Trädgård. It's exactly this lineage forty plus years later where one can find Flowers Must Die, the six-piece Swedish outfit whose Kompost'- their full-length debut on Rocket Recordings, home of Goat and Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation - is a landmark moment for an outfit pursuing an improvisationbased approach removed from the codified realm of contemporary psych, and exploring uncanny and unhinged territory fuelled by diverse record collections yet unique to their own collective headspace.
The band may have taken their name originally from an Ash Ra Tempel song, whilst both the strains of Amon Düül II and the repetition of Can lurk within these overgrown sonic pathways. Yet Kompost'shows them honing their improvisatory excursions into coherent songcraft amidst spectral techno and cosmic disco shapes, as the angular post-punk pop of The Sugarcubes sits alongside the narcotic clangour of prime Royal Trux, and one-take spontaneity locks horns with nocturnal revelation.
Here the outward-looking spirit of 1971 and the anything-goes mentality of the Scandinavian freaks of yore is transposed elegantly to a modern era in need of new horizons, and in a manner refreshingly bereft of retro chic.
What's more, who's to say what dimensions this alchemical force have yet to explore.
Tracklisting:
1. Källa till ovisshet
2. Hit
3. After Gong
4. Why?
5. Hej DÃ¥
6. Don't you leave me now
7. Hey, Shut up
8. Där blommor dör
9. Svens song -
Sold outVisit product page →Gnod's Chaudelande Vol 1 & 2 vinyl only albums on Tamed Records (tamedrecords.com) have become a thing of infamy as two of the greatest slabs of beat driven, shamanistic space noise to of been released over the past few years and we at Rocket Recordings are proud to announce that we have brought these two mammoth LPs together for the first time on CD and download. The collective that is Gnod has risen out of the DIY ethic of Manchester's Islington Mill.
Central to the ethic is alternative approach to musical creativity and freedom of expression with no regard to established opinions. Gnod is a state of mind. Those who seek Gnod, will find Gnod, the universe is centred on neither the earth nor the sun. It is centred on Gnod.Recorded in Studio Chaudelande, France, 'Chaudelande' takes Gnod's convulsive vision, straps on electrodes, charges the amps, then overstimulates the vital organs as a torrent of contorted sounds akin to the likes of Pil, Hawkwind, and the Butthole Surfers lignite like an arc-flash repetitive blaze.
The epic pilgrimage that is Chaudelande will take the listener on a ride through the narrow chinks of the cavernous mind in the frenzied spirit of This Heat, Sunburned Hand of Man and the repetitive beats of Krautrock via Wax Trax.So come join the cult that is Gnod's 'Chaudelande' as once again the band deliver another jolt to the unsound mind..
Tracklisting:
1. Tron
2. Visions Of Load
3. The Vertical Dead
4. Man On The Wire
5. Entrance
6. Genocider -
As 2016 dawns , it's a fool who predicts the next move of Gnod, seemingly less a musical collective and more a psychic force fuelled by maverick spirit and fearsome willpower. Their mind-frying 2015 triple-album Infinity Machines'stood proud as a towering work of experimental expansion, acidic invective and nihilistic abrasion.Visit product page →
Yet as an outfit whose restlessly uncompromising nature is matched only by their unflinching anti-establishment drive, Gnod set about creating a diametrically opposed aesthetic. Just as dramatically as their restless disposition morphed their sound to a binary-driven direction for their last work, now Gnod were to strip their electronic setup to a vicious, viscous attack, as redolent of the primal punishment of early Swans as the angular clangour of prime Public Image Ltd, yet shot through with a mercurial power and fiery intensity that could come from no-one else.
The opening title-cut of Mirror'seethes with lithe energy and dubbed-out vitality, whilst elsewhere the eighteen-minute closing track Sodom & Gomorrah'may be the most dystopian piece of music the band have yet created; a harrowing yet fiercely compelling colossus of bleak abjection. 'The tracks were pretty much written on the road in May 2015' elaborates Gnod's Paddy Shine. 'The final versions of the tracks on the album are a reaction to the results of the recent UK election and also some shit that was happening to us and our friends during that period.
Lyrically it deals with mental health issues and how things like social media are a vehicle for our split personalities and egos - that and being under the thumb of forces and power structures we can't really fully understand, or even if we understand them we feel helpless to change the situation.
This album won't change the situation or start any revolutions but it felt good for us to write some music to let the rage out' Reflecting and refracting the uncertainty of a darkening era, Mirror'is a work of bold reinvention and raw renewal, sculpting chaos and discord into a formidable statement of intent. Only one thing is certain - wherever Gnod choose to go next, their ire and inspiration blaze as brightly as ever.
Tracklisting:
1. The Mirror
2. Learn To Forgive
3. Sodom & Gomorrah
4. The Mirror (RAIKES PARADE REMIX) -
Gnoomes, the Russian outfit who blend a potent mix of psychedelic stargaze, kraut techno and kosmiche pop return with a brand new album, MU! their third for Rocket Recordings.Visit product page →
Since the release of their last album Tschak! the three piece has turned into a quartet with synth player Masha Piankova joining the band. And it was the success of their tours in the UK and Europe that subconsciously created a template and tone for where the band would go next with this new album; to capture that surging drive and throbbing assault of their pulverising live shows.
'We decided to make this record more live and less electronic,' Sasha, singer and guitarist from Gnoomses said. 'We were thinking about how to make it sound more dynamic.' Masha's introduction was a key one, with her replacing Sasha on synth bass whilst he moved over to second guitar to add a fuller and more impactful sonic crunch. MU! has been part recorded in the same old soviet radio station where the band recorded Tschak! part in a professional studio and then part at home. This was to ensure the best capture of Gnoomes live assault.
The results brim with a magnitude and sense of coherence that belies some of the environment it was created in. Fuzz-driven guitars shift in engulfing waves, resembling shoegaze giants at their most ferocious, whilst elsewhere layered vocals stack on top of one another, weaving between pristine melody and augmented discordance.
Whilst the glacial electronics and coldwave tendencies that soaked much of their previous album may be more absent here, this record pulses with an electronic tinge that bubbles more subtly under the surface of immersive guitars
The title Mu! has Japanese origins and comes from Zen Buddhism - something Sasha began to practice during past trying times - meaning both 'no' and 'nothingness' and the understanding that the acceptance of this concept can lead to enlightenment. 'For me personally it's a spiritual record,' he says.
Although any sonic warbles of new age blandness couldn't be further from the end results here. This is a cleansing record, no doubt, but one that washes over you with both brutal force and deft subtleness. With the completion of this album, it also wraps up a trio of records all connected via punctuation - Ngan! Tschak! Mu! - but with one each distinct in its own tone and sense of evolution.
From Bowie to The Cure to Moderat, musical history is peppered with great musical trilogies and now Gnoomes'Exclamation Mark Trilogy can be added to that.
Tracklisting:
1. Utro
2. Sword in the Stone
3. Irma
4. Glasgow Coma State
5. Sine Waves Are Good For Your Health
6. Ursa Major
7. Progulka
8. How Do You
9. Feel Now -
The Russian city of Perm takes its name from the Finno-Ugric word para ma'meaning Faraway land'. Indeed, despite being a centre of both culture and industry for the Ural region, at seven hundred miles from Moscow it was far enough away from the heart of the Russian empire to be used as a place of exile in the nineteenth century for those who fell out of favour with Alexander I. Even whilst dwelling in an era two centuries on in which such exile is now more metaphysical, and in which electronic connections have effectively made the world a smaller place, it can nonetheless be easy for an artist to feel the burden of geographical isolation, The three musicians who form Gnoomes hail from Perm - and have a deep connection with their home - indeed their drummer Pacha is descended from the Komis, the indigenous pagan people of the area before Russian culture and orthodox religion overtook it in the the late 15th century.Visit product page →
Yet rather than being confined or frustrated by their surroundings, the three-piece outfit have used their origins as a springboard to the unknown, via the skysurfing radiance of their debut album for Rocket Recordings, Ngan!''We think about isolation as a dream trigger, and sometimes a dream becomes a motivation to do something cool' Gnoomes relate. 'Being in a band is the one thing that keeps us from Russian madness.'
Ngan!'is an album suffused with a potent sense of wonder - it's bookended by the enormous twin psychic monoliths of Roadhouse'and My Boy', which form dreamlike aural travelogues clocking in at around a quarter-hour each, and take influences as diverse as the fiery avant-six-string scree of Atlas Sound, the classic motorik of Neu! and Kompakt label techno, and sculpt them into a wide-eyed, kaleidoscopic sweep of sound that the band themselves, keen to break free of generic convention, dub stargaze'. It's a style which nods to the melodic sweetness of The Flaming Lips or Tame Impala as much as the synapse-shifting dynamics of Animal Collective or My Bloody Valentine. Myriads'is nothing less than a sweet and somewhat slightly dazed pop song - distantly related to the muse of Syd Barrett, yet filtered through the band's ambitiously hallucinogenic soundworld and propulsive rhythmic drive.
Elsewhere,on Moognes'the collision of melancholy vocal harmonies, luminous guitar melody and in-the-red intensity makes for a sound as bracing as it is beatific.
Ngan!' is the sound of a band looking above and beyond modern archetypes of guitar-fuelled noise in search of a strange and beguiling personal vision, and dissolving barriers of distance, cultural context and geographical inconvenience with a confident and warm-hearted flourish. 'For us this is the main mechanism of psychedelic music' the band explain. 'to connect things, to join this particular experience into a global one.' On the evidence of Ngan!'Gnoomes would appear to be on the verge of doing just that.
Tracklisting:
1. roadhouse
2. myriads
3. moognes
4. my son -
From adversity can come triumph, and from catharsis inspiration. Such has been the case for Gnoomes, the threesome hailing from Perm, Russia, whose second release for Rocket Recordings, Tschak!'arrives in the wake of considerable turbulence and tumult within their personal lives and society itself, all of which has only been fuel for a creative epiphany that has seen them create a deeply evocative work rich with vibrant experimentation and saturated in a widescreen sense of wonder.Visit product page →
It may only have been eighteen months since Ngan!', the band's first release for Rocket, whose self-styled stargaze'approach marked a glorious collision between melodic sweetness, skysurfing guitar experimentation and motorik magnificence, yet the band have already moved on to a sonic landscape still more adventurous and ethereal on Tschak!', not to mention an emotionally resonant approach that's bewitching to witness.
Taking in torrents of guitar noise and electronic extrapolations both blissfully kosmische and aggressively abrasive, it exists outside of all or any convenient genres, a vivid and singular work by three dreamers-at-heart forced to manifest their vision into a psychic defence to the circumstances surrounding them.
Working in splendid isolation thanks to a studio space provided by their work for a local radio station, the band had time and space for the alchemical process of creating Tschak!'entirely on their own terms. Central to the this were a collection of Russian synths that they gathered, whose eccentric arpeggios and analogue textures form crucial ingredients on songs like Severokamsk'and the title track, arriving at a sound that forms a star-crossed and timeless marriage between the experimentation of krautrock and the lineage of Warp Records.
Forging forth into unknown realms both physical and metaphysical, Gnoomes recently completed a UK tour - including an appearance at Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia (full European tour planned for spring 2017).
Yet with the dreamlike radiance of the potent and otherworldly Tschak!'on their side, this adventure is already well on its way.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Super Libido
2. Maria
3. Cascais
4. Severokamsk
5. Tschak!
Side B:
1. City Monk
2. In the Park
3. One Step
4. ADSR Eugraph
5. B-Day -
Goat return with Commune, the eagerly awaited follow up to their astonishing debut album World Music. Commune continues on with World Music's acidic grooves, hypnotic incantations, and serpentine guitar lines but also introduces a darker, more angry edge to the band, not seen before on previous releases.Visit product page →
Starting with the layered percussive groove, Eastern guitar flourishes, and convoking vocals of Talk To God, it re-establishes the trance-inducing rhythms and exotic blaze of guitar that characterized their debut so well.
That spellbound pulse delves into darker and more propulsive territories on Words and Goatslaves, while Goatchild veers towards the transcendental pop of '60s Bay Area rock. The vintage psychedelic vibe permeates through songs like The Light Within and To Travel The Path Unknown'?tracks that suggest that these rural Swedes operate on the same wavelength as the Turkish psych-folkies recently rediscovered by reissue labels like Finders Keepers. Commune reaches its apex when Goat's hymnal invocations meet a heavy doze of proto-metal fuzz on Hide From The Sun and Gathering of Ancient Tribes.
Tracklisting:
1. Talk To God
2. Words
3. The Light Within
4. Travel The Path Unknown
5. Goatchild
6. Goatslaves
7. Hide From The Sun
8. Bondye
9. Gathering Of Ancient Tribes -
New music from Goat is always a time for celebration, and we are excited to announce the bands return with a 7' of brand new material.Visit product page →
Last year Goat released the single It's time for fun which saw the band experimenting with drum machines, which brought a different pulse to their tribal psych. And this desire to explore new sounds continues with their new single I Sing in Silence. But instead of plugging in'new instruments the band have unplugged'and created an addictive groove with mostly un-amped, acoustic instruments.
Elastic guitar lines, woodblock percussion, and flutes which drive the song are enveloped by one of the strongest vocal deliveries by the bands enigmatic singers, resulting in a powerful and catchy psych-pop number.
The B side is an instrumental called The Snake of Addis Ababa, is a looping North African mantra played on a teasing fuzzed guitar underpinned by a djembe groove. The repetitive mantra is disrupted by piano that freely solos over the groove, and a pounding drum lifts the song to a seriously head-nodding conclusion.
This single is further proof that, in a world of similar sounding and similar looking psych bands, Goat are standing completely out on their own and we are all the better for it. This summer the band will be busy writing, recording, and blowing people's minds across Europe's greatest stages.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
I Sing in Silence
Side B:
The Snake of Addis Ababa -
Sold outVisit product page →
In a culture obsessed with content, saturation, and continual exposure, it's rare to find artists who prefer to lurk outside of the public eye. Thomas Pynchon is perhaps the most notable contemporary recluse'a virtually faceless figure who occasionally creeps out of hiding to offer up an elaborate novel steeped in history and warped by imagination'but for the crate digging audiophiles, guitar mystics, and third-eye visionaries, Sweden's enigmatic rock outfit GOAT may qualify as the greatest modern pop-culture mystery. Who are these masked musicians? Are they truly members of a remote tribe in the Arctic community of Korpilombolo? Are their songs actually a part of their communal heritage, passed down through generations in their isolated homeland? Their third studio full-length, Requiem, offers more questions than answers, but much like any of Pynchon's knotty yarns, the reward is not in the untangling but in the journey through the labyrinth.
Western exports may have dominated the consciousness of international rock fans for the entirety of the 20th century, but our increasing global awareness has unearthed a treasure trove of transcendental grooves and spellbinding riffage from exotic and remote corners of the planet. GOAT's previous albums World Music and Commune were perfect testaments to this heightened awareness, with Silk Road psychedelia, desert blues, and Third World pop all serving as governing forces within the band's sound. But GOAT's strange amalgam isn't some cheap game of cultural appropriation'it's nearly impossible to pinpoint the exact origins of the elusive group's sound. Whether or not the enigmatic collective truly claims Korpilombolo as their home, the fact that they pledge allegiance to a spot on the periphery of our maps'a spot so distant and off the grid that it feels fictitious'bolsters the nomadic quality of their sonic explorations. With Requiem, GOAT continue to rock and writhe to a beat beholden to no nation, no state.
GOAT's only outright declaration for Requiem is that it is their 'folk' album. For the initiated, such a proclamation seems almost unnecessary'GOAT has always vacillated between electrified exuberance and unplugged tribalist hymns. But Requiem does find GOAT focusing more on their subdued bucolic ritualism than on the psilocybin freakouts. Opening tracks 'Djorolen/Union of Sun and Moon' and 'I Sing in Silence' both set the stage for GOAT's rustic approach, with the guitars laying down simple chord progressions and pan flute providing the primary hooks. From those very first notes, the piper leads us down a path where GOAT relies less on acidic guitar lines and more on sun-bleached psych-pop. 'Trouble in the Streets' carries all the jubilance of classic African highlife. 'Try My Robe' bares the group's signature ceremonial hip-shaking rhythms, but eschews guitar for a mandolin line that would make John Paul Jones proud. But GOAT hasn't completely foregone their fiery charms'tracks like 'All-Seeing Eye' and 'Goatfuzz' conjure the sultry heathen pulsations that ensnared us on their previous albums.
Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Requiem comes with the closing track 'Ubuntu'. The song is little more than a melodic delay-driven electric piano line, until we hear the refrain from 'Diarabi''the first song on their first album'sneak into the mix. It creates a kind of musical ouroboros'an infinite cycle of reflection and rejuvenation, death and rebirth. Much like fellow recluse Pynchon, GOAT doesn't offer up any explanations for their strange trajectories. But like Pynchon, they have managed to create a world of their own where the line between truth and fiction is so obscured that all you can do is bask in their cryptic genius.
Tracklisting:
1. DjOrOlen / Union of Sun and Moon
2. I Sing in Silence
3. Temple Rhythms
4. Alarms
5. Trouble in the Streets
6. Psychedelic Lover
7. Goatband
8. Try My Robe
9. It's Not Me
10. All-Seeing Eye
11. Goatfuzz
12. Goodbye
13. Ubuntu -
Visit product page →Following the original, digital only, release of Goat’s score for ‘The Gallows Pole’ TV series, we are now thrilled to announce an expanded, ltd edition vinyl version, which will be released as part of Record Store Day 2024.
‘The Gallows Pole’ is a three-part Element Pictures production, written and directed by Shane Meadows which was aired in the UK on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
This new vinyl version of the ‘The Gallows Pole: Original Score’ differs from the previous digital release as it now only features the music which was specifically written for the series itself – it doesn’t include the three, previously released back catalogue tracks. Instead, this vinyl edition contains three ‘unused/unreleased’ tracks: ‘Goat Witch’, ‘Timeless Awareness’ and ‘Kampsång (Instrumental)’.
These tracks have not, up-to-now, been heard by anyone apart from Shane Meadows himself. The themes and imagery of Benjamin Myers’ source novel are the perfect fit for Goat’s mystical, pagan aesthetic. The story, based in rural 18th century Yorkshire, tells a fictionalised, psychedelic tale based on the true story of David Hartley and the Cragg Vale Coiners, which became the biggest fraud in British history.
Rather than 'writing to picture' in the traditional way, Goat approached the creative process differently, explaining: “In the beginning, we would get inspiration just through reading the book, trying to get a sense of its vibration and then translate that into music, with passages from the book as a springboard for the initial jams.”
Goat were already fans of Meadows’ work, in particular ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ and the various iterations of ‘This Is England’, and understood the importance of music to him, noting that: “Music is a central part to everything Shane has created” and describing the opportunity as a “blessing” when they were approached about the project. Working on the score for ‘The Gallows Pole’ also provided an ongoing inspiration for Goat, resulting in the germs of music that formed the bands most recent album, the critically acclaimed ‘Medicine’.
“Although it may seem an abstract or unorthodox way to work with film, a lot of interesting new ideas and music came out of those sessions that went beyond just the score.” said the band. Sometimes, the results of musical exploration are best heard (and seen). As Goat themselves conclude, “music is never easily explained with words”.
‘The Gallows Pole: Original Score’ is ltd to only 3,000 copies worldwide – the package comes as a colour vinyl LP + 7” and is housed in a special gatefold sleeve.
Tracklisting:
Vinyl LP
Side A
1. Mind is Like the Sky
2. Field Raga
3. JazzmanSide B
4. The Gate Is Open (The Temple Lies Within)
5. Vallåt
6. Goat WitchVinyl 7"
Side C
7. Timeless AwarenessSide D
8. Kampsång (Instrumental) -
Sold outVisit product page →For those who are unaware, Goat are a collective of musicians who hail from a small and very remote village called Korpolombolo in deepest darkest Sweden. Legend has it that for centuries, the inhabitants of the village of Korpolombolo were dedicated to the worship and practices of Voodoo.
This strange and seemingly unlikely activity was apparently introduced into the area after a travelling witch doctor and a handful of her disciples were led to Korpolombolo by following a cipher hidden within their most sacred of ancient scriptures. The reason it led them there is unknown, but their Voodoo influence quickly took hold over the whole village and so they made it their home - there, they were able to practice their craft unnoticed and unbothered for several centuries.
This was until their non-Christian ways were discovered by the Church and they were burned out by the crusaders, the survivors cursing the village over their shoulders as they fled. To this day, the now picturesque village of Korpolombolo is still haunted by this Voodoo curse; the power of the curse can be felt throughout the grooves of this Goat record.
The nine track album follows the underground success of the now sought after 7 Goatman, which is also included in this selection.
The band takes in many influences, from the Afro groove that is central to the album, through to head nodding psych, post-punk, turkish rock, kraut repetition and astral folk
Tracklisting:
1. Diarabi
2. Goatman
3. Goathead
4. Disco Fever
5. Golden Dawn
6. Let It Bleed
7. Run To Your Mama
8. Goatlord
9. Det Som Aldrig Förändras/Diarabi -
H.U.M. marks the convergence of a triad of kindred spirits with a common goal of expanding consciousness.Visit product page →
On Trinity Way their debut release for Rocket Recordings, the cosmic/terrestrial musician/magician triumvirate of Héloïse Zamzamrec, Olmo Uiutna and Mark Wagner delve into ritualistic audial travelogues which unite mantric repetition, concrète noise and kosmische explorations, the better to transform and enrich the soul.
All three acolytes of H.U.M. arrive at this destination from a rich history of experimental music and art - Héloïse and Olmo found renown running the cult label Zamzamrec whilst Mark Wagner, meanwhile, has involved himself in a diverse and vibrant litany of projects, most recently touring as a member of GNOD, and Ahrkh Wagner and is an active practitioner of music as a spiritual medium.
These trance-like meditations and illuminating visions draw on a plethora of earthly parallels, from the iconoclastic writing of Rimbaud or Artaud to the occultist sound-world of Coil, from the invigorating DIY ethos of the Not Not Fun label to the anarchic sprawl of The Faust Tapes, and with Wagner's stream-of-consciousness incantations inviting comparisons to Robert Calvert or Genesis P-Orridge.
Using primal rhythm, earthly resonances and devotional oratory as pathways to uncharted dimensions and higher metaphysical realms Trinity Way emanates on another wavelength from most of which is dubbed psychedelic music in the second decade of the 21st Century, Trinity Way is a free-flowing odyssey of vivid, hallucinatory intensity. Yet through a marriage of simple ingredients, these three have created an off-the-map album which nonetheless places its feet on the ground and its gaze on the cosmos.
As Héloïse herself says; 'Trinity Way is a magic door, a sonic portal. Trinity Way is not an escape of the everyday realm but an entrance, a mode, an invitation - ¦'
Tracklisting:
1. L.O.V.E.
2. L'Ame Agit
3. Cat-Man-Do
4. Welcome To The Sea
5. A Maze In Grace
6. Under Neith
7. Eternally Yours -
Emerging in a haze of demented riff science and booze-addled abandon, Hey Colossus have carved out a notable niche for themselves in the British underground's murkier quarters. They've dished out a formidable array of wax over the last decade, specialising in a primordial barrage of abject noise from overheated ampstacks.Visit product page →
Yet for all the grit and gnarl of their output thus far, it's seemingly only been a warm-up for their latest opus, which sees their monstrous assault finely honed into an album as beguiling as it is bulldozing. In Black And Gold', their eighth album proper and first for Rocket Recordings, ushers in a new incarnation of Hey Colossus.
Marrying malevolent attack to expansive celestial splendour, In Black And Gold'marks a point whereby Hey Colossus map out a sonic trajectory that expands on their trademark ornery overload. The songs herein may be leaner and more artful than the fearsome sound by which they made their name on albums like 2008's Project: Death'and the monstrous 2013 opus Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo', but they remain possessed of the wrath both Stoogian and Stygian that fuels their noiserock transgression.
Yet meanwhile, and with 2015 looming large, an evolutionary process has led to their maximalist tendencies being replaced by a sharp focus on space and restraint, not to mention a refreshing stylistic diversity, resulting in a strange aural alchemy. Here, they sound as comfortable tackling electronically-fried dub mantras like Lagos Atom'as they do the Cluster-esque lullaby of the opening Hold On'. Yet there's no shortage of primal rock action to be had on In Black And Gold'; on Sisters And Brothers'they summon up a swaggering, demented groove that sashays like a zombified Gun Club, whilst on the dramatic spaghetti-psych of the title-track a revelatory cinematic sprawl of sound sees The Bad Seeds and The 13th Floor Elevators engaged in a psychic duel in the noonday sun.
The vital and Spinal Tap-approved fine line between clever and stupid'has been a location that this London-based tinnitus machine has made fine work of dwelling on for the duration of their life thus far. Yet with In Black And Gold', in a laudable leap of faith, they've stepped beyond, and the result is both vicious and visionary. These unpretentious underworld overlords have emerged from the shadows to create an avant-garage pièce de résistance, and moreover it turns out that the sunlight suits them better than they ever realised.
Tracklisting:
1. Hold On
2. Sisters And Brothers
3. Hey, Dead Eyes, Up!
4. Wired_Brainless
5. Black And Gold
6. Lagos Atom
7. Eat It
8. Sinking, Feeling -
Available on Blood Red Vinyl and CD.Visit product page →
Initially lurching from the UK noise underground in 2003 like a bedraggled audial creature rendered from toxic waste in a VHS horror movie, the musical growth rate of Hey Colossus has been quite a spectacle to observe. Yet from the nightmarish murk of early driller-killer works such as 2004's debut Hates You'and 2008's Happy Birthday'to more recent nuggets of perversity like 2013's Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo', this beast has mutated and evolved into something uncommonly alluring.
The six-piece London-via-Somerset troupe began 2015 with February's release of In Black And Gold'- in which the brawny repetition-driven raunch they built their sound on was furnished and burnished by dub-derived spatial awareness and cinematic drama, making it both a bold reinvention and an uncommonly compulsive avant-rock document. Yet not content with this, the band immediately set about following it up with their second album of the year, and one that further ups the ante on their savagely graceful assault.
Radio Static High'is the sound of a confident outfit honing their attack to become a veritable force of nature. With the band citing - tongue presumably firmly lodged in cheek - inspirations as diverse as Jane's Addiction, Fleetwood Mac (Tango In The Night era) and Cypress Hill, songs were constructed at a fierce rate of knots, yet with a focus and intensity partly instilled by band members living hundreds of miles apart, and partly by the relentless passage of time.
'We have noticed a small wave of incredible goodwill towards us. We want to give as we receive.' notes guitarist Jonathan Richards, whose chiming lead guitar plays a notable role in the album's Paris,Texas-esque midday ambience..'Maybe the knowledge of our 12 years together makes us aware of our mortality. Time is limited. A band's purpose is to create' Songs took shape from demos, exchanged riffs and drunken text messages alike -one such from guitarist Bob Davis to Richards demanding an homage to Neil Young's Cortez The Killer'resulted in a demo to that effect a mere 20 minutes later. which eventually became album centrepiece Memories Of Wonder'.
Elsewhere, Hop The Railings'takes the powerfully propulsive groove of Can and cross-pollinates it with Beefheartian interweaving triple-guitar skronk to make a heat-haze-dwelling juggernaut of intimidating proportions, whilst the closing double-drop of Hesitation Time'and 'Honey'hits like Joy Division repurposed for the soundtrack to True Detective. 'After 12 years functioning in a Noiserock/Doom/Kraut/whatever scene of sorts and being aware of unwanted repetition, we feel it is more subversive for us to compose songs with rigid song structures than it is to absentmindedly clang off another riff-athon.'
Richards adds:
Indeed, with all the bulldozing primal drive of heavy AmRep-style rock and none of the cliches, and a sound infused with leftfield sleight-of-hand yet hitting home like hammer to anvil, Hey Colossus prove themselves as potent as they are prolific. What's more, 'Radio Static High', in all its sunkissed widescreen glory, is set to leave most all their contemporaries eating their dust.
Tracklisting:
1. Radio Static High
2. March of the Headaches
3. Hop the Railings
4. Numbed Out
5. Memories of Wonder
6. Snapping Undone
7. Another Head
8. The Mourning Gong
9. Hesitation Time
10. Honey -
Hey Colossus have undergone a spectacular metamorphosis in the last three years - the 2015 Rocket Recordings double-drop of In Black And Gold'and Radio Static High'displayed not only a band with a work rate to put most all their contemporaries to shame, but one arriving at an atmospheric and rewarding sound with as much flair for the beguiling as the barbaric.Visit product page →
Changes may have been afoot in the Hey Colossus camp, yet their latest transmission The Guillotine'marks another peak for an innovative force in the realm of heavy amplification. Darker and more brooding than their recent work, it's also perhaps their most richly melodic to date - the interplay of their three guitar lineup has never sounded more fluent than on these eight songs, nor their songcraft more well-defined.
This is a record whose alchemical charge arrives from a reinvention of loud rock shapes into forms both feral and fresh - whilst Hey Colossus can still bludgeon with overamped vigour, as on the hypnotic and devastating krautrock-Jesus-Lizard hybrid of Back In The Room'they can also deliver the dusky and haunting waltz-time serenade of Calenture Boy'with uncompromising fortitude, with the new-found confidence and allure of Paul Sykes'vocals at the forefront.
These menacing and immersive songs chronicle a band exploring a unique sound and invigorating approach in a decade in which cliches and genre pieces in the realm of the psychedelic have frequently surrounded - here the six-piece find themselves transcending the limitations of the underground scene from whence they came, whilst exposing the paucity of inspiration in much of the guitar-rock mainstream.
Hey Colossus are at their sharpest, and none will survive The Guillotine'.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Honest To God
2. Back In The Room
3. Calenture Boy
4. Experts Toll
Side B:
1. Potions
2. Englishman
3. In A Collision
4. The Guillotine -
Visit product page →As has often been noted, psychedelic music can involve causal links between getting out of it and getting into it. Conversely, expansion of consciousness can be found by heading deep into the roots that a band explores, and journeying to the centre of their inspiration.
Thus, a curious paradox is attained, whereby the traditional elements of an outfit's sound are superseded by them blasting their core vibrations into unchartered territory. Such is the case with the new opus from third-eye visionaries Hills, a dizzying journey that traverses through the band's origins and beyond to new dimensions.
The Gothenburg-based Hills are entering their ninth year of existence, in which they've released two full-length albums, the second of which, Master Sleeps'saw a vinyl outing on Rocket last year. Part of a rich scene in their homestead also including friends and Rocket Recordings label mates Goat, they form the new chapter in a tradition of Swedish psychedelia that found its origins in late-'60s and early 70s freakouts and mind-melts by the likes of Baby Grandmothers and Þlgarnas Trädgård - not to mention the unholy trinity of Pärson Sound, International Harvester and Träd Gräs och Stenar - before being developed by the likes of The Spacious Mind and Dungen in the last two decades.
These inspirations make their mark on Frid'by journeying inward, via mantric repetition and hip-shaking pulsations as on the ten-minute monolith, Och Solen Sänkte Sig Röd', yet they can also lurch into the unknown via the fuzz/wah odysseys of the aptly monikered National Drone'and the ceremonial exhortations of the closing Death Will Find A Way.'As they also showed recently at a rare and spellbinding appearance at Liverpool International Festival Of Psychedelia, Hills have landed on a rich and intoxicating sound that sidesteps the cliches and humdrum stylistic foibles that often plague modern-day psych, in the process breathing new life into an approach that can sometimes seem in danger of appearing redundant through lack of imagination.
Frid', their most out-of-mind and out-of-sight effort to date, crystallises everything that makes these Scandinavian satyrs stand out from the global herd; adventurous experimentation and fearless hallucinatory intensity, rendered with brass-knuckle fortitude. The end result is 38 minutes that translate into a feast for seasoned crate-diggers and fresh-faced converts alike. There is, indeed, gold in these here Hills.
Tracklisting:
1. Kollektiv
2. National Drone
3. Anukthal Is Here
4. Milarepa
5. Och Solen Sänkte Sig Röd
6. Death Will Find A Way -
In an era in which psychedelia'can often mean merely a grab-bag of influences from which wah-wah pedals and two-note riffs are dispensed as signifiers and signposts into a realm of easy accessibility as opposed to gateways to another dimension, it can be a rarity to come across a band who are genuinely fixated on creating alternate realities for the listener.Visit product page →
Yet this is exactly how Stockholm's Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation view their incandescent art, and it's this sensibility that's led to the kaleidoscopic spendour of their debut full-length for Rocket Recordings, Horse Dance'. The last twelve months have seem a dramatic rise to prominence for The Liberation (who take their band name from the Tibetan Book Of The Dead) with their EP Diamond Waves'leading to shows in their homeland with Goat and Les Big Byrd, a nomination for a Swedish Grammy as best newcomer, and rapturously received appearances at festivals like Roskilde.
These adventures have set the stage for a spectacular movement into the unknown from their earlier work. Horse Dance'is a razorsharp collection of ditties that marry dreamlike radiance with hypnotic rhythmic drive, set alight by a prismatic experimental glow. It inhabits a realm in which a propulsive 60s-tinged pop song like Sunny Afternoon'can be elevated skyward with krautrock-tinged repetition, dub echo and analogue curlicues alike, and one in which a Broadcast-style mantra like You Have Arrived'can tap into a psychic lineage that stretches all the way from The United States Of America to Portishead's Third'.
Yet whilst ghosts of the like of Laika, Cat's Eyes and The Creatures may lurk in the darker recesses of these songs, this is a band paying no homage to bygone glories. The Liberation cite a myriad influences in both their philosophical stance and their aesthetic, from 12th century iconoclasts like Milarepa to 20th century sonic voyagers like Catherine Ribeiro, and from Kandinsky's abstract expressions of synaesthesia to the avant-jazz of Moondog.
Yet at all times their transcendental extrapolations are married to icy and enticing melodic flourishes, making for a revitalising clash between the chic and the transcendental, and a sound as biting as it is beatific. With Horse Dance', Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation step into a world where all such restrictions and taboos are null and void, and this journey is already proving quite the spectacle to behold.
Tracklisting:
1. Radio Static High
2. March of the Headaches
3. Hop the Railings
4. Numbed Out
5. Memories of Wonder
6. Snapping Undone
7. Another Head
8. The Mourning Gong
9. Hesitation Time
10. Honey -
London-based psychedelic stalwarts Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation are proud to reveal their third album 'Sacred Dreams' for Rocket Recordings. Continuing to dive into the deeper waters of experimentation, Sacred Dreams'is both a musically hefty amalgamation of reverb drenched space-rock and retro centric electronics, as well as an emotionally cathartic release for the band, marking a new direction and fresh approach.Visit product page →
Since their critically acclaimed album 'Mirage' was released, Josefin and writing partner Fredrik have relocated from Stockholm to London and have created a new Liberation around them - this new band consists of the powerful and intuitive assemblage of musicians; Maki (Go Team), Patrick C Smith (Eskimo Chain), Matt Loft (Lola Colt) and Ben Ellis, who's worked with both Iggy Pop and Swervedriver.
Sacred Dreams'was largely recorded at Press Play Studios (King Krule, Fat White Family, Yves Tumor, Stereolab, High Llamas and many others) run by Andy Ramsay of Stereolab, who also produced and even programmed his non synced drum machines adding a lot of inspiration to the album. Scared Dreams'invites you into the bands own dimensional soundscape, a world built with transcendental guitars, driving grooves and otherworldly, enchanting vocals, altogether seeped in layers of blissfully produced synths.
Opener and lead single Feel The Sun'encapsulates this new direction perfectly before the anthemic I Can Feel It'makes the bands intentions known. Elsewhere playful 80s electronics sit alongside a shoegaze sensibility effortlessly and amongst the textured flow of the LP emerge pop hooks like the infectiously bluesy Baby Come On'.
Josefin tells us 'This album comes out of a period of heartbreak, loss and dissolution, but also of deep love, warmth and beauty unveiled in the middle of it. A sacred dream, the way we see it, is not necessarily a golden fluffy cloud river, but instead also contains all the shadows that need to be seen and felt in order to drop what has to go in order to truly live. And the dissonance of such a dream may not be immediately apparent, let alone the meaning of it. In a way all of these tracks seem to emanate from that place where we have almost reached a new shore, or maybe we missed it and are headed somewhere else entirely, but there's no way of telling until afterwards.'
'Beautifully controlled, understated, subtle but infectious.' The Guardian
'The Josefin Ohrn record is ridiculously good.' Lauren Laverne (BBC6 Music)
'Mesmerising with a flair for motorik groove and creepy pop grandeur.' Uncut
'An enthralling band.' Mojo
'Music to shine light into our lives.' Vice
Tracklisting:
1. Feel The Sun
2. Honey Slumber
3. I Can Feel It
4. Desire
5. Hey Little Boy
6. Only Lovers
7. Baby Come On
8. New Horizons
9. Caramel Head
10. Let It Come
11. Whatever You Want
12. Floating Away
Release Date: 26/04/2019
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