Khan: Live at Al’s Juke Bar Bradford 22.05.2022

If you managed to catch Khan on their recent "Monsoons" UK/European tour, then you know how good a band they are live. If not, then enjoy the following.....

Review: Full Tone Generator & Nick Oliveri 7”

Australian rockers Full Tone Generator are back and they’ve brought a friend from the Californian desert with them this time, Mr Nick Oliveri. Listening to Nick talk about this on Kyuss World Radio a few weeks back, you know you’re getting something special here.

Stoner Rock mixed with Punk Rock, that is short, sharp, like a kick in the head, and if you’re wondering what side of the pond the Punk Rock will favour? Think GBH, The Damned and Sub-Humans.

Without A Sound starts with the riff, the slight feedback of the instruments plugging in, the classic drum roll build up, Nick’s trademark scream and we’re off. Imagine Full Tone Generator removing any effects pedals and just plugging in and turning it up to eleven. Classic punk rock riffs pummel you and Nick’s voice sounds even more demonic than normal. The repetitive riff with added clapping appears a couple of times, like what Nick always did with Mondo Generator and Queens of the Stone Age, and I dare you not to clap along. Throw in the odd early 80’s five second guitar solo, and it’s all packed in to two minutes and three seconds.

Clocking in at less than 2 minutes on If You Want Me, there’s full on raw riffs from the beginning with slightly more guitar work this time. Nick’s vocals are abrasive and in your face (like you’d expect anything else?) and the chorus isn’t something you will be blasting out the car window when you’re picking the kids up. There’s even a quick punk rock ‘out of control’ solo in there.

Released between Tuff Cuff Records and Ruined Vibes, there’s a limited vinyl run of black and orange editions and a couple of deluxe versions. By the time you read this I expect everything will already be sold out, so happy hunting.

Full Tone Generator - Nick Oliveri - Tuff Cuff – Ruined Vibes

Review: The Black Heart Death Cult - Sonic Dhoom 7"

I keep saying it more and more and records like this back me up, and I will say it again, Australia must have a perfect alignment of the stars, the earth and the moon, as the amount of awesome psychedelic music coming from down under at the moment is mind blowing.

So here we have Sonic Dhoom, a new two track single from Melbourne’s The Black Heart Death Cult. I guess this is a taste of what to expect from their second album Sonic Mantras that will be released later this year.

Side A’s song Sonic Dhoom is big, glowing and melts away the deeper you feel yourself being pulled into the next four minutes of finally crafted 60’s psychedelia. Whilst floating in a trippy dreamlike state, the wonderful sitar work throughout elevates you to a Middle Eastern time within another time guided by the trance inducing vocal lines. Definitely a song to lie back and lose yourself in.

It’s Getting Heavy on the reverse slowly lifts you with its mix of keyboards that drift in, pick you up and elevate you with a song that sounds heavenly. By heavenly I mean with its choir like vocals through the chorus, making the listener imagine bright white skies and some sort of bright light in the distance that is beckoning you towards it. I can imagine this being their antidote to a previous 20 minute jam they have just fuzzed out live.

Salty Dog Records released a run of 150 blue/yellow splatter 7”’s that look stunning, but as quick as they appeared, they disappeared. If you keep a look out there may be another press. Bandcamp is your saviour though, so you know where to go and what to do.

Sonic Mantras should hopefully be released later this year on Kozmic Artifacts.

The Black Heart Death Cult – Salty Dog Records

Review: Comacozer / Vinnum Sabbathi - Here and Beyond LP

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.

Comacozer - Vinnum Sabbathi - Psychedelic Salad Records 

Review: Nick Oliveri and The Black Armada – Up and Down Under

Australia’s The Black Armada have barely been together a year and have already been dishing out their big groove driven stoner rock supporting the likes of John Garcia & The Band of Gold, Earthless and 1000 Mods. It looked as though music was to be put to tape until the departure of their vocalist a few months back and the current situation around the world has obviously adjusted their plans a bit. I have no doubt through, that after watching their latest live recordings, good things will be coming out The Gold Coast soon.

Back to the song on hand, a twist of fate saw them cross paths and play with a certain Nick Oliveri as he toured Australia last year and a musical friendship was formed, which turned into the track we have here, Up and Down Under.

Starting with a few formidable punk rock chords backed with Nick’s in your face vocals, the riffs kick in early and don’t let up for the next three minutes. Switching between Christian Tryhorn’s big “hit the pedal” driving guitar grooves and the more melodic guitar work entwined with the driving basslines. Up and Down Under tells the tale of Jekyll and Hide which is very fitting for the two musical styles coming together so well, and hearing Nick scream the words is oh so him. Everything is held together with some big drum work from Liam Burgan and the production/mix only makes it sound bigger. I also have to mention how Nick’s voice seems to be getting stronger with every new recording he does lately. 

Head over to Bandcamp to get yourself a digital copy for the collection.

Review: Mt. Mountain – Tassels 7”

I was late to the party with the Australian Psych scene but have had some fun making the time up discovering a long line of killer bands since, with one of these being Mt. Mountain. They first hooked me in with Golden Rise and I’ve been a fan ever since and discovering that a limited 7” with 2 new tracks was imminent, being the predecessor for a new full length to be released this year. 

Knowing that the first batch of the 500 copies went on pre-sale at 7am UK time, the alarm was set just in case, and I’m glad it was as minutes after I had ordered my copy it was already sold out.

Reviewing this, I haven’t got the item in my hands yet, though it looks like a rather special package from the pictures. So thanks to Bandcamp, here we go.

Tassels starts upbeat with levels of guitars and keyboard creating an ever growing soundscape that slowly twist away in the back of your mind. Like on previous records, the vocals quite subtly sit behind the music with a warm near-hypnotic feel to them. The first half of Tassels hangs off a cool psychedelic guitar hook backed with lots of cymbals, before the song bends itself into dreamy hypnotic territory with the organs and synth and the next few minutes are like a magic carpet ride into the unknown. Tassels is the sort of song that could play out for 30 or 40 minutes live.

Deluge is much more of a laid back track like a slow and magic trip into your sub-conscious. The warm dreamy mystical guitar lines walk you out towards the light backed up with hand played drum beats and it is pure magic. You can lie back, close your eyes and feel yourself drifting away, it really is that good. My only complaint is that as quick as it starts, your journey is already over.

This has really wet my appetite for what Mt. Mountain will be bringing us later in the year. I am not sure if the band or Six Tonnes De Chair Records have any copies left, but you need to be getting this from your usual digital platforms.

Mt. Mountain - Six Tonnes De Chair Records 

Review: OKO – Haze EP

There is always something special about the moment you check out a band blindly and within two minutes they’ve already ticked every box, your foot is tapping and a riff has implanted itself in your brain for the foreseeable future.

Hailing from Adelaide Australia, OKO are an instrumental 3-piece that have already set their bar high with the one track EP Haze. You don’t often hear the term one track EP, but the 15 minute epic is my kind of one track.

The players are Nick Nancarrow (Guitar), Tyson Ruch (Bass) and Ash Matthews (Drums) and they bring you a long winding heavy psych jam.

Haze drifts in slowly and softly as though you’re floating out to see under the stars. Over the light percussion, the guitar takes you away, then back, then away again like the waves of the tide would, with Colour Haze being a good point of reference. Everything starts to build with an increase of cymbals before the introduction to one of the main riffs the song is built round, and as the riff really kicks in with its warm fuzzy power for the first time, I defy anyone not to be blown away by it.

Haze keeps rolling with the riff before it breaks for an alternative riff before launching back in. This is a trick that Elder have perfected and what you have here stands up with the best of them.

From here the deep fuzzy warmth of the song keeps rolling along before various musical interludes with breaks and musical depth that has the emotive feel that Rotor have delivered over the years. 

As Haze comes to a close, the last couple of minutes brings you some big soaring guitar solos which live, no doubt, would bring some heavy amplifier worship. 

For a debut song, this is already head and shoulders above what many others have tried to perfect and if this was on a full record, Haze would be their Dead Roots Stirring.

I also have to mention the quality production of the song, mixed by Justin Pizzoferrato (mixer of Elder and Dinosaur Jr).

Haze is available on all the digital platforms and hopefully it appears on something vinyl in the future as its one of those songs that made to be played at 33rpm.

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