You bought a twelve-string bass. Not with twelve strings in a row, but with the regular four strings and two thinner extra strings attached to each of them, so every note you play automatically has two overtones. What do you do with it?
Let's play some doom metal! Yeah, that sounds nice. I wish I could also sing three notes at a time, that would fit so perfectly. Oh wait, there are singers out there who can exactly do that!
Ok, this is not exactly how producer Marc Urselli's many years long journey of creating this album started. But there's also a bit of truth in it. If you want to know more about how this "all star" project of doom and indigenous throat singing came to be, I recommend you consider checking out the artbook CD version of "SteppenDoom"!
AND SINCE I'VE ALREADY WRITTEN ANOTHER AT LEAST MEDIUM-IN-DEPTH REVIEW OF THIS ALBUM HERE ON VEILOFSOUND.COM, I will treat this following text more as an addendum and mainly focus on the haul of the awesome physical product.
MARC URSELLI'S STEPPENDOOM - SteppenDoom (white/müritzblau marbled vinyl LP + clear 7" + artbook CD) (2022)
Yes, I went full let's get myself an early Christmas present from Magnetic Eye Records on this one and purchased the box set, which contains most of the other available formats and adds a couple of extras.
Obviously the most basic version - the digisleeve CD - is missing in the box, but I can tell from afar that it's probably a miniature variant of the LP gatefold with the disc containing the same six regular tracks as its big relative.
On its own the vinyl is available in black and two different coloured version based on red and yellow, while the one in the box set comes in a mountaintop style marbled mix of light blue and white. The gatefold looks great and comes with a sheet for the basic credits.
So if you dig records and are mainly interested in the music, you already have a great album with this.
On its own the vinyl is available in black and two different coloured version based on red and yellow, while the one in the box set comes in a mountaintop style marbled mix of light blue and white. The gatefold looks great and comes with a sheet for the basic credits.
So if you dig records and are mainly interested in the music, you already have a great album with this.
What you're missing though are the two bonus tracks. And with one of them lasting for thirty-three minutes that's quite a respectable amount of music.
The only physical format which gives you the whole eight tracks is the luscious artbook CD. So if you don't want to go for the whole box, this version of "SteppenDoom" is the one I would recommend the most. Not only the music, but also the photographic art plus the extended credits and liner notes really make this item the heart of the whole release.
The only physical format which gives you the whole eight tracks is the luscious artbook CD. So if you don't want to go for the whole box, this version of "SteppenDoom" is the one I would recommend the most. Not only the music, but also the photographic art plus the extended credits and liner notes really make this item the heart of the whole release.
There's still a little bit more in the box though! In fact those are the first things you'll see when you open it: prints of three photographs, which also appear in other places of the artwork and photobook - and a neat transparent 7" which again features the two bonus tracks.
And before you're doing the math: Yes, the second one of those - which features the most guest musicians of all tracks, including Dave Chandler (St. Vitus), Wino (The Obsessed), Norman Westberg (Swans), Anders Møller (Ulver) and Alexey Tegin (Phurpa) - is of course not the complete half-hour version, but edited down to a tenth of the original length. That doesn't capture the whole well... Phurpa/Ulver/Swans style meditative grandiosity of it, but it's still something, right? Ok, one could argue why this isn't a 12" extra LP, but since we already have the CD I'm down with this ehm... radio edit.
And before you're doing the math: Yes, the second one of those - which features the most guest musicians of all tracks, including Dave Chandler (St. Vitus), Wino (The Obsessed), Norman Westberg (Swans), Anders Møller (Ulver) and Alexey Tegin (Phurpa) - is of course not the complete half-hour version, but edited down to a tenth of the original length. That doesn't capture the whole well... Phurpa/Ulver/Swans style meditative grandiosity of it, but it's still something, right? Ok, one could argue why this isn't a 12" extra LP, but since we already have the CD I'm down with this ehm... radio edit.
So, since I've now finally started to mention some of the participants, I will quickly summerize, what this project actually is.
"SteppenDoom" is the more than successful merger of the worlds of droning doom - think Bong and Sunn O))) or recently Bong-Ra and Rinuwat - with the primeval power and astonishing diversity of the world's indigenous throat singing traditions. Not all of those are covered, since there are also for example forms of overtone singing in South Africa, Sardinia or famously among Tibetian monks. But we have features from the Russian republic of Tuva, where this form of music is the most common, Mongolia and Tanya Tagaq as a representative of the North-American Inuit.
Other big names on the throat singing side are Huun-Huur-Tu, Yat-Kha and the Alash Ensemble, while on the instrumental doom side you're very likely to recognize players from Paradise Lost, Cult Of Luna, Neurosis and Sleep.
"SteppenDoom" is the more than successful merger of the worlds of droning doom - think Bong and Sunn O))) or recently Bong-Ra and Rinuwat - with the primeval power and astonishing diversity of the world's indigenous throat singing traditions. Not all of those are covered, since there are also for example forms of overtone singing in South Africa, Sardinia or famously among Tibetian monks. But we have features from the Russian republic of Tuva, where this form of music is the most common, Mongolia and Tanya Tagaq as a representative of the North-American Inuit.
Other big names on the throat singing side are Huun-Huur-Tu, Yat-Kha and the Alash Ensemble, while on the instrumental doom side you're very likely to recognize players from Paradise Lost, Cult Of Luna, Neurosis and Sleep.
The basic skeletons of all tracks were provided by the Swiss-Italian producer Marc Urselli himself. You don't need to care about his Grammy fame, but over eighty-five albums with John Zorn or examples like his work with Toby Driver, Arthur Brown and the jazz metal trio Kilter should indicate that the man knows what counts.
Production-wise alone "SteppenDoom" is an immersive listening experience full of fantastic details. This whole project is more than a well-produced conceptual idea. No, this amplification of ancient vocal art with deep and slow metal transcends the premise of its ingredients and lays bare the deepest roots of doom in a profound place far beyond Black Sabbath.
This is magical stuff. And the doomiest doom of 2022. (But since I've bought this box you probably already guessed that I like it quite a bit.)
Production-wise alone "SteppenDoom" is an immersive listening experience full of fantastic details. This whole project is more than a well-produced conceptual idea. No, this amplification of ancient vocal art with deep and slow metal transcends the premise of its ingredients and lays bare the deepest roots of doom in a profound place far beyond Black Sabbath.
This is magical stuff. And the doomiest doom of 2022. (But since I've bought this box you probably already guessed that I like it quite a bit.)
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