Ever since I started buying records split releases have
always been something of novelty that gives you the feeling that they are rare and
collectable in some way. In the cast of most of them, they’re not, but ever
since the first split 7” that I possessed, the coming together of different
styles and ideas adds to the magic and mystic of what you hold in your hands.
Fast forward over 25 years and the two separately produced
pieces of photocopied artwork has long been replaced with full sleeve artwork
that encompasses the whole feeling of the record, with Six.D.Six supplying the
bands and the label with an illustration that stretched through space and time.
Released by Australian based label Psychedelic Salad
Records, they have brought together fellow countrymen Comacozer, a band who I
have been a big fan of for quite some time, and Mexico's Vinnum Sabbathi, a
band who I have known about but have for one reason or another never crossed
paths with before, so here we go off in to the unknown.
If I had the chance to put music on one side of a 12” record
then my method of delivery would be just one long song, and that’s exactly what
Comacozer have done with their single 19 minute track Sun of Hyperion. Quoting
the press release, Sun of Hyperion is journey that continues on from their
debut track Helios Hyperion, written and recorded in 2014. A regular feature of
their live shows, Sun of Hyperion was recorded at the same time as their last
album Mydriasis.
The track starts slow and distant, buried somewhere in the
realms of deep space. The guitar is slight and meanders through the dark paths,
backed with space like samples and voices talking about taking trips on LSD and
never coming back. From here the guitar line the song keeps returning to over the next 19 minutes, starts. Building and building, the bass, then the drums enter the picture as
the keyboards pull you in and out the atmospheres of the different moons and
worlds this trip is taking you too. Sounding uniquely like Comacozer, I can also
hear the atmospheric build up’s that Electric Moon are oh so good at creating.
There is vast sound to the recording and that the guitar lines keeps repeating itself almost hypnotically and you know it is taking you to a place deep within the outer reaches, then at around ten minutes everything turns up several notches as though the journey is crashing through a meteor shower or the remnants of an exploding star.
From here onwards Sun of Hyperion soars through the night
sky as the guitars take you up and beyond, and as the journey concludes through
more cosmic turbulence, the 19 minutes could have really been 19 million light
years.
Like I said earlier, this is the first time I have properly
connected with the sounds of Vinnum Sabbathi, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Reading in to the story here, the tracks HEX IV and HEX V are the latest tracks
contribution to the bands HEX series, from the Base 16 or hexadecimal numeral
system, with a goal of writing 16 songs in total to contribute to split
collaborations, like the one we have here. Now that is quite some plan, which
will really show their talent in expanding the musical boundaries, which the band
look to definitely have, shown by the recording here being done in one take.
HEX IV: Cassini’s Last Breath starts slowly and interacts
with the space travel communications between base and satellite, which I’m
guessing is taken from real life recordings. As the raw feeling of the guitars
play out in a Sleep like way, it doesn’t take long before their space travel slowly
picks up some speed and sounds HUGE. Big riffs and cymbals that are recorded to
tape this well really are something special. After the communication talk
mentions about being proud of an amazing accomplishment, the bass line kicks in
like Geezer Butler would, and the spacewalk drifts off into the dark realms of
the cosmos.
HEX V: X-15 Research Project starts with early space travel text spoken over a slow bass line, then drum beat, then a big stomping riff that will have all of your head’s nodding in time. Over the 9+ minutes here you have a massive sounding beast of a slow mix of something between stoner rock and doom metal that sounds as though it is being played live right in front of you, it’s that good.
With both songs being the first time I have taken a trip on
space cruiser Vinnum Sabbathi to their corner of deep space, I’m hooked and will
be going back in time to visit the rest of the HEX.
The split 12” records is a format that more and more labels
seem to be putting out at the moment and this one stands up with the best of
them. Both bands are thousands of miles apart and have contrasting styles, but
both versions of instrumental “heavy” really do complement each other and fans
from each band will have no problem diggin’ what’s on the other side of the
record.
Psychedelic Salad Records have done a fine job in putting
out a couple of different colored versions which can be ordered from their
website.
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