Sometimes German, sometimes English. • The title of this blog used to change from time to time. • Interested in me reviewing your music? Please read this! • I'm also a writer for VeilOfSound.com. • Please like and follow Audiovisual Ohlsen Overkill on Facebook!

2023-06-06

Grüne Wochen in Sulas Zoo mit PERMANENT CLEAR LIGHT und TETRAO UROGALLUS


Bei Sammelreviews ist es ja immer schön, wenn einem ein roter - bzw. in diesem Fall grüner - Faden an die Hand gegeben wird.

Ok, wahrscheinlich hätte ich diese beiden Platten auch so in einen Post gepackt, denn abgesehen von der Gemeinsamkeit der farblich aufeinander abgestimmten Faunamotive auf den Covern, sind die neuen Alben von Permanent Clear Light und Tetrao Urogallus natürlich auch beide auf Sulatron Records erschienen und jeweils auf schwarzem recycleten Vinyl zu haben.  





PERMANENT CLEAR LIGHT - Right As Rain (2023)

Das zweite Sulatron- und insgesamt dritte Album der Finnen beginnt im Grunde ganz ähnlich wie "Cosmic Comics", mit einem modern produziertem, musikalisch allerdings sehr in den Sechzigern und Siebzigern verhafteten Grenzgang zwischen progressivem Rock und psychedelischem Pop. Der zunächst größte Unterschied ist, dass zwar nicht alles laut und deutlich Beatles schreit, paradoxerweise aber irgendwie sogar noch britischer klingt.

Im Vergleich zum Vorgänger, der nach der Halbzeit ja klar den Schalter umlegte und eine eine deutlich andere Spielweise offenbarte, ist "Right As Rain" insgesamt ein subtileres Album, auf dem die unterschiedlichen Ideen eher im Detail liegen. Abgesehen vom kurzen Zwischenspiel "Conspicuous By Its Absence" basieren die ersten sechs Stücke allesamt balladesk auf akustischer Gitarre und werden insbesondere von Matti Laitinens entspannt melodischem Gesang, Mellotron und anderen analogen Synthesizerklängen bestimmt.

Die Wende kommt auf diesem Album auch, doch sie kommt später - mit den letzten drei Tracks - und sanfter. So lässt das Instrumental "Mole In A Hole" als erstes die akustische Gitarre weg und konzentriert sich mehr auf elektronische Sounds, bleibt der trippigen Retroprogausrichtung allerdings treu. Im Prinzip könnte man das auch vom nun vollends elektronischen "I'm Gonna Turn Your Castles Into Sand" sagen. Dass man der Band hier allerdings ihr Equipment durch das der frühen Depeche Mode ersetzt hat, macht natürlich schon einen erheblichen Unterschied aus.
Danach kehrt das finale und längste Stück, das wiederum gesangslose "Iron Gate" zwar zum klassischen keyboardlastigen Prog zurück, kommt zwischen durch allerdings auch mal mit artifiziellen, die retronostalgische Grundstimmung rekontextualisierenden Trip-Hop-Beats um die Ecke.

Das alles ist trotz hörbarer Experimentierlust ziemlich leicht verdaulich. Der Abwehrhaltung des Frosches auf Cover zum Trotz ist "Right As Rain" ein angenehmer, nach der Dürre höchst willkommener Niederschlag. Schon leicht melancholisch, aber die Sonne blinzelt immer hindurch.

Definiv ein Sommeralbum.










TETRAO UROGALLUS - Gulo Gulo (2023)

Vom Frosch zu Auerfraß und Vielhahn, bzw. den beiden Hamburgern Dennis Rux und David Nesselhauf, welche sich beim fröhlichen Wühlen in der Spielkiste der modernen Musikgeschichte vor allem bei den Bausteinen Jazz Fusion, Funk und Black Sabbath-Doom der Siebziger Jahre bedient haben, um mit vier weiteren Spielkameraden ein äußerst kurzweiliges Instrumentalalbum zusammenzubasteln.

Einer der stärksten Eindrücke nach erstmaligen Hören ist sicherlich die wiederholte Kombination von heavy Proto-Doom-Gitarrenriffs mit Bläsersätzen aus Trompete und Saxophon, was mich sofort mehr als nur einmal an die brillianten Seven Impale erinnert hat (welche übrigens auch gerade nach langer Pause ein fantastisches neues Album veröffentlicht haben). Insbesondere fällt dies zunächst in "Lupus" auf. Und der mit über einer Viertelstunde deutlich aus der bis dahin herrschenden durchschnittlichen Fünfminütigkeit der Tracks ausscherende Abschluss "Vetus Imperium" könnte ebenso komplett eine Komposition der Norweger sein.

Doch daneben gibt es auch leichtere, licklastigere Passagen, reichlich Anlehnungen an den Horrorfilm-Rock von Goblin und die bei einer derart breit gefächerten Seventies-Schau natürlich unvermeidlichen Floydismen. Das alles vermengt sich zu einem grünstichig bunten Strauß, der schon auf Anhieb packt und in wiederholter Rotation nur noch besser und besser wird. Kurzum: auf diesem Album wird gerockt, gegroovt, georgelt und gemoogt, dass es eine reine Freude ist.

Ebenso wie Permanent Clear Light zelebrieren auch bei Tetrao Urogallus Festlandeuropäer einen auffallend britischen Sound. Abgesehen von den genannten italienischen Soundtrackeinflüssen und den von mir jetzt einfach mal nach Bauchgefühl in Chicago verorteten funky Anteilen, sind sowohl der frühe Heavy Metal, der Jazzrock, als auch die Psychedelika in der hier präsentierten Ausprägung ganz klar von der Insel gekapert. Das sagt uns dann wohl, dass der Kulturimport trotz des bekloppten Brexit immer noch irgendwie läuft.

Endlosschleifenkompatible Suchtgefahrmusik.






2023-06-04

TEMPLE FANG - Live at Freak Valley / Live at Slachthuis


TEMPLE FANG - Live at Freak Valley (CD) (2023)
TEMPLE FANG - Live at Slachthuis (Tape) (2023)

It wouldn't really make much sense to separate these reviews from each other. One album has been released on vinyl and CD (I chose the latter this time) by Stickman Records, the other one in limited quantity on cassette by the band's own label Right On Mountain. And both are of course available in digital form. Their content however is very closely related.

Every write-up about the Dutch quartet Temple Fang comes with the risk of sounding like a broken record, but it is what it is. And that is that Doctor Strange seems to have put a mighty spell on the whole world, so we all forgot about what could have been one of the 1970's greatest groups alongside Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, if they had just put out some studio albums, instead of only concentrating on playing their asses off in epic live shows, which consisted almost exclusively of enormous longtracks beyond the twenty-minutes mark.
Only in recent years with the advancement of restauration techniques live recordings of that time have started to be released. Luckily I already had the privilige to see these guys in action in the Netherlands four times since 2019, and they also proved that they are not allergic to recording inside a studio with their "Jerusalem / The Bridge" EP, so I can easily debunk my own theory.

Temple Fang live at Right On Mountain Festival
But seriously: Temple Fang sound familiar from the get-go, since they are consciously wading in all kinds of knee-deep in Hard Rock / Psychedelic Rock traditions, but you're not once wondering wheather you're listening to some cheap copycats. They are just too freaking good for that to happen. There is an almost spiritual conviction and artistic confidence in their performance, and of course just the sheer class of their instrumental work, but also fantastic emotional and harmonic vocals, which in my humble opinion puts them in the circle of the best ROCK live bands around today.

So what's the deal with these two new albums? What sets them apart from "Live at Merleyn" (2020) and "Fang Temple" (2021) Well, most obviously Temple Fang are deviating from their established formula of one song per side of the record, raising (or reducing?) it to only one fourty-five minute song per show / album.

At Freak Valley Festival that hadn't even been the plan. But since the band felt that there was something in the air on this hottest weekend of the year in the middle of June (I remember the heat too, since I was in Berlin to see BjörkKikagaku Moyo and a Classical chamber quartet at the time), they spontanously ditched their original setlist only minutes before they went on stage and instead played the new unreleased mammoth piece "Grace", which they had just developed on tour. One of the shows where they had played it just a week before the festival was the one in Haarlem, which they released a little bit after "Live at Freak Valley" on "Live at Slachthuis".

It's impossible to safely say which of the two is the better live album. "Freak Valley" has the higher production values, while "Slachthuis" sweats with an extra amount of that more intimate club adrenaline. What I can confirm via my first-hand experience of the song at Right On Mountain Festival later in October is that "Grace" might be Temple Fang's crowning achievement so far. And even if it's not and only continues on the same level as previous releases - who cares? This is just majestic, elevating, transcendent Rock'n'Roll bliss!

And if you're that guy who somehow doesn't like live albums and rather waits for the studio release instead... hmm... this band probably isn't for you then.

However there is a slim chance that one day the band might actually grant your wish this time, because unlike their previous albums a studio recording of "Grace" actually exists somewhere out there. Temple Fang just liked the live version(s) more. And honestly, since these guys are so damn good on stage, I doubt that with these two renditions already at hand a third one without the energy from the crowd can really add something significant.

Two live albums = two hundred percent excellence.









2023-06-02

Roadburn 6x6

Maud The Moth / Brutus


Yes, I'm not done with festival content yet!

Last year I revived the Roadburn 6x6 series (=me taking 6x6 cm live shots with an Adox Golf folding camera on Ilford Delta 3200 film). This year I continued the tradition - and next year I'll probably bury it. 

Why? Well, last time I stopped after Friday, because my shutter cable was broken. This time I just wasn't feeling it enough.*
It's just a bit too much of a hassle. You always have to consider whether a show can be shot with it, then you get the thing out, you have to fumble the shutter cable out of your pocket without losing any of all the other stuff you keep in there in the process... Then you don't want to contemplate an eternity when to take your precious picture - and right after you have taken it something visually more interesting happens.

You forget to spool to the next frame after Maud The Moth, which leads to an actually very cool double exposure with Brutus. (see above) But then in a brain fart you're so determined to not do that again that you spool forward twice and waste one of your only twelve  frames.

Nah... of course I like some pictures, but I think I will rather shoot smaller shows on medium format again instead of Roadburn. Already got enough stuff on my overstimulated mind there anyway.

But that being said here's the rest of the bunch of pictures I took:

The Shits

Poison Ruin

Yrre

Judasz & Nahimana

Esben And The Witch

Julie Christmas

Bo Ningen

France

Ad Nauseam

Bell Witch

Under the Surface & White Boy Scream





* What I only realized the next morning was that after I had decided to quit shooting with the Adox I probably dropped and forgot my shutter cable in the Paradox anyway.



 

2023-05-30

ESBJERG FUZZTIVAL 2023 • PART 2/2: Saturday, May 27th • feat. CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC, DEATHCHANT, ECSTATIC VISION, FATSO JETSON, HIGH DESERT QUEEN, SLOWJOINT, SLOWJOINT and SLOWJOINT


Read PART 1 here:

ESBJERG FUZZTIVAL 2023 • PART 1/2: Friday, May 26th • feat.CAUSA SUI, EDENA GARDENS, KANAAN, NEBULA, VALLEY OF THE SUN and VESTJYSK ØRKEN




FAIL: Oh, come on! We are doing this again?

Don't worry, I won't start every paragraph this way again. Saturday had one big in fail in store though, and that was the cancelled flight, which hindered the first band from coming. So the second Fuzztival day didn't start at 01:30 PM with Kryptograf, but over an hour later.

With even more time at hand than expected I started the day slow with breakfast, a morning walk to the harbour, a nap before checking out of the hotel and stashing my stuff in the car, a good lunch, yet another walk... or in short: boooring, just tell us about the freaking bands!


Ok, I hear you, enough with the tourism!

My three reasons to come to the festival had all already played, so apart from one band which I had seen before once seven years ago, this whole day was just a bonus to hopefully surprise me with some new discoveries. 







The last time I saw a singer going out into the crowd to give people long hugs like these? I think that was Prog reverend Neal Morse back in 2015. Certainly didn't expect that at a show of a Desert Rock band from Texas.

And speaking of both singers in that genre and my fucking prejudices: More often than not in Stoner Rock my reaction to the vocalist is Dude, shut up! Can't you do this purely instrumental? But even though the frontman of High Desert Queen didn't do anything out of genre - just like the whole band - I dug this whole show very much. Guitar player certainly is a Dimebag worshipper. Gave those vibes. Cool guys, kicking riffs and power drumming... still not the stuff I would spin endlessly at home, but certainly a good band!












INTERMISSION! On the ground floor, next to the kitchen, around the corner behind the bar, right beside the piano, the three local Bluegrass hopefuls Slowjoint were playing a short and sweet cover set of Danish folk Songs and Shantys. Many peeps joined in and you could easily spot the foreigners now by who didn't know the words. Still a contagious wild little party!












Back upstairs on the real stage it was time for some very intriguing and versatile instrumental Doom Metal. Of course Clouds Taste Satanic covered the mandatory Fuzz quota requirements to be a part of this event, but they could always suddely turn into other surprising directions. Especially the very creative lead guitar work was a crucial part of that. Impossible to put this band into a specific box, as they conjured so many random associations, not only from the world of Metal and Psychedelic Rock.

Here was one riff which out of all things reminded me of "Why Can The Bodies Fly" by Warning (no, not the Doom band of that name!), the jam part in another piece felt like something which could have been on Queen's debut album. A little Americana here, some Orientalisms there - the quartet from New York had all the spices. Great stuff.












INTERMISSION! On the ground floor, next to the kitchen, around the corner behind the bar, right beside the piano, the Smooth Jazz trio Slowjoint offered everyone the chance to take a break from the Fuzz and just relax for a bit. Led by a warm and soothing upright bass performance and the accordingly delicate drumming, their minimal interpretations of Blue Note classics were soulful food for connoisseurs. Chef's kiss!












I just realized that for a small festival and given the overall booking and touring situation there was still a respectable amount of bands from overseas on the billing. One of those were Deathchant from California. For a moment however I suspected them to come from the Netherlands, since there was some serious The Devil' Blood occult Hard Rock energy in the air. It's those Thin Lizzy guitar harmonies, I know!
Up-tempo Rock'n'Roll with strong twin guitar melodies in a cool place somewhere between classic Heavy Metal and raw and evil Punk. Very cool.












INTERMISSION! As a nice little non-musical surprise on the ground floor, next to the kitchen, around the corner behind the bar, right beside the piano, the local knitting group Slowjoint, who regularly meets right here in the Esbjerg Huset every second Wednesday afternoon, gave the interested visitor an easy to follow crash course on how to make beautiful little bracelets out of old shoelaces. This will surely come in handy one day! *












And now it was time for the only band which I had seen before in Tilburg, at Roadburn 2016, so I knew I had to stay at least until they burned down the Huset.

Aided by the addition of their own fast light effects to the usual trippy projections of the festival, Ecstatic Vision immediately jump-started in high Hawkwind gear.
An unstoppable Psychedelic train with a hoarsely shouting frontman switching between playing guitar or climbing onto the PA and playing harmonica. Equally as important was the man to his left, who alternated between wild saxophone blasts, guitar, backing vocals, flute - and even what I think was a Korg Monotron. Or maybe some other analogue mini synth device. Shut up nerd, no one cares!

What you should care about is seeing this band if they're playing near you - or maybe even a couple of hours away like in my case. Craziest show of the weekend and highlight of the day!












Phew... anything I could pretend to know about Fatso Jetson and its Desert Rock scene royalty members I would have to look up, so let's just skip that part where I simulate competence! This was extremely seasoned, profited from three guitar players and... yeah, I liked it.

I still left after half an hour or so, so if you're wondering why I don't write about that mindblowing insane thing which happened during the second part of the show - I just wasn't there to witness it.





So that was Fuzztival 2023 for me. I know, I'm missing the two headliners Greenleaf and The Machine, but since those bands didn't seem to be that much up my alley anyway, I hadn't booked a second hotel night and didn't want to drive home too tired, I left Esbjerg with the sunset in my back.

Great music, great weather - and all in all probably one of the cheapest options to visit a two-day festival outside of Germany for me. I was also pretty disciplined regarding merch, which of course is always a double-edged sword, because at home you regret not having bought all that stuff which otherwise is only available with tons of shipping and taxes on top.
I'm happy with my choices though: the new Kanaan album, the recent live record of Ecstatic Vision and the official Fuzztival shirt.




* And actually... of course in truth Slowjoint played super gnarly and rotten Stoner Sludge with a bass which felt like a radioactive fart ripping you apart from the inside and some hilariously mean and ugly vocals embedded in the burpfest. Nice and sick, just how you want your intermission party music.