Wo ich hier gerade schon ein Festival-Merch-Sammelreview gepostet habe, scheint es mir passend doch gleich mit meinem letzten Clubkonzertmitbringsel nachzuziehen. Eine feine schnelle laute 10"-Platte, eingesackt neulich bei Wormrot im Logo:
WORMROT - TNT (10" vinyl) (2025)
Dies ist im Grunde keine Veröffentlichung, die ich langatmig kommentieren kann und will: Eine Studio-Livesession zur Feier der Wiederzusammenkunft von Wormrots Originalbesetzung. Drei Grindcoregroßmeister, die letzte Bastion aus Earache Records' großer Grindvergangenheit, prügeln also in knapp zwanzig Minuten zwölf brachiale Schädelspalter vom feinsten ein. Saugeil. Schau's dir an, wenn Du mir nicht glaubst! Ist ja im unten verlinkten Video komplett zu sehen.
Zehn Zoll ist hier auch irgendwie das passenste Format. Klar, als Freund weißen Vinyls hätte ich natürlich auch gerne die limitierte Version statt Standardschwarz gehabt, aber das Ding hatte die Band nun einmal dabei. Auch gut.
Auf dem Cover der Scheibe, so meine ich mich zu erinnern gelesen zu haben, ist übrigens der Gründer des TNT, anscheinend so eine Art John Peel von Singapur, zu sehen. Thanks, K.K. "Ah Boy" Wong for supporting these sick F**s!
Expertengeprügel auf Weltklasseniveau. So mach Krach Spaß, oder was? Und zur Listensaison gegen Jahresende darf ich mich dann entscheiden, ob ich "TNT" in die Kategorie EP oder Live-Release packe...
It's summer and I'm slow, falling behind with my to-review list again. But then it's also summer and page impressions are slow, too.
But anyway, I have to warm up again at some point, so instead of a proper insightful music review here's my "look what I've got!" from two weeks ago at Esbjerg Fuzztival in Denmark:
CAUSA SUI - In Flux (random colour ecomix vinyl 10" 2LP) (2025)
Ha, busted! You got me! I didn't even buy this in the merch room. In fact for some reason Causa Sui weren't able to bring stuff to sell there. So no, I already had their latest studio album before.
"In Flux" doesn't lay out a radically new path for the instrumental quartet, but pretty much continues right where last year's "From The Source" or the latest live release "Loppen 2024" left off. There's no twenty+ minutes multi-part Psych Prog epic on here (well, "Astral Shores" at least cracks the sixteen-minute mark), but all in all it's the same perfectly balanced mix of fuzz and wah-wah heavy Stoner Rock, Latin Fusion ease and cool Americana, which - performed by these players - at this point has become such a signature sound, that you could almost talk about Causa Sui by the numbers.
Of course that sounds unnecessarily disparaging. But you know that these numbers are super creative and high, right? So yeah, no doubt that "In Flux" is awesome. Presenting the album in agatefold cover as a double 10" record is the icing on the cake. The vinyl comes in random colours and I got green and teal tones which fit the artwork quite well. Beautiful!
I already lamented starting my merch spree a couple of minutes too late, so I missed the last vinyl copy, which Skyjoggers brought with them on their sixty-day tour. But hey, music's the same on the CD! So here comes a sweet thirty-six minutes injection of heavy, crunchy, fast and fuzzilicious Space Rock for fans of Karkara (who had sadly cancelled their Esbjerg show), Slift, "Nonagon" era King Gizzard and their likes.
While the studio recording in all its raw explosiveness cannot even convey the full extend of the Finnish trio's on-stage energy, "12021: Post-Electric Apocalypse" undeniably is a veritable Kraut banger. Hop onto the rumbling Psych'n'Roll express train now!
GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE / FUCKWOLF - Let's Split (裂けても) (LP) (2025)
Let's continue with the last vinyl copy which I could score: It's a colourful Psych Rock split featuring two bands from Tokyo and San Francisco.
Green Milk From The Planet Orange (the band which actually played in Esbjerg) occupies the first half of this LP with a nineteen minutes long live recording of just one track called "Concrete City Breakdown". Just like during the festival listening to this trio feels like a continuation of Skyjoggers, but even wilder, stylistically wider, more skilled and more emotional. And this is not a jab at the former at all; I saw their drummer watching his counterpart here laughing with a wide open mouth. No, Green Milk are just an unbelievably crazy force Psych Punk Prog'n'Roll with that special spark that feels distincitively Japanese and must have something to do with something in the volcanic water over there. And this recording is a nice raw document of what a show of them feels like.
Fuckwolf spread their creativity over more tracks, presenting six song between two and a half and slightly below seven minutes length. And each one of those shows a different side, from atmospheric analog synth moods to punkish noisy Kraut explosions, from desert hike soundtrack to journeys towards the event horizon and beautiful dreams of love and peace under the burning Frisco sun. Neat.
GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE - Tragedy Overground (CD) (2025)
The highlight of Green Milk From The Planet Orange's show was a new, over twenty-two minutes long Prog piece, and this is the single / EP, which contains it. After a slow pinkfloydishstart "Tragedy Overground" escalates through multiple wild crescendos of burning Prog Punk, Noise Rock (and even small bits with a jazzy vibes, which you might miss as you're hurrying along with this) before finally returing to the opening theme and - of course reprising all the madness that happened before once again in a wild synopsis. It's brilliant, for sure one of my my favorite tracks of 2025 so far!
WYATT E. - Mount Sinai / Aswan (3 colours striped vinyl LP) (2015/2025)
The Belgians for sure brought a lot of merch, including new pressings of some older albums which were missing in my collection. And who can say no to coloured vinyl releases by Heavy Psych Sounds? I know, normally I prefer my coloured vinyl to have some connection to the artwork, but come on, this pink/yellow/blue thing was just too tempting!
Musically the two instrumental longtracks "Mount Sinai" and "Aswan" already point to the direction the Psychedelic Doom trio would go later, yet they don't add as many electronic, vocal and percussive elements beyond the realm of hypnotic Drone and Doom Metal yet.
On the B side however a certain Near Eastern groove, bass pedal synths and bongos already come into play. And even though Wyatt E. later evolved beyond the sound we're hearing here, it doesn't diminish this earlier work in any way. The aesthetics were already set, this is just the first chapter in a (so far) front to back captivating discography.
Great album and reissue!
WYATT E. - Exile To Beyn Neharot (transparent black and orange splatter LP) (2017/2025)
Well, aren't they economic? Two years after "Mount Sinai / Aswan" Wyatt E. followed it up with another album of two epic tracks, which just reused the same cover, just horizontally flipped. As if the drawing on the inlet wouldn't have been a dope alternative. I guess there was some conceptual meaning behind this decision, making these two sister releases. The new splatter vinyl reissie definitely is nice to look at as well.
The deep Drone, the mystical sounds and Oriental elements, the Krautrock vibes and cosmic Berlin electronics, the undeniable Dead Can Dead influence, they have all entered the temple and are here to stay now. The drum performance gets more advanced, as well as the production of it all. Noone is singing yet, but this is just the step you'd retroactively expect between the debut and "Āl Bēlūti Dārû" in 2022. A flawlessy beautiful hypnotic Doom ceremony.
DAEVAR - Sub Rosa (CD) (2025)
Last but not least - following the Fuzztival running order - here's the latest album from the German trio Daevar. Call it Shoegrunge or call it Dream Doom! Whatever. Dont call it female-fronted, because despite being technically correct that term is somehow dumb and icky. Listen to it and enjoy great songs with catchy melodies and rumbling Stoner riffs!
Good morning, Esbjerg! Shower, breakfast, going on a photo walk, milking the time to relax in my hotel room until shortly before check-out at eleven... and still three hours left before the first show starts...
But after exploring a huge chaotic second hand shop full of vinyl, CDs, comics, books, DVDs etc... and strangely enough weapons - is this the US? - and leaving with one seventies Jazz Fusion album it wasn't long until the second Fuzztival day finally started.
Unfortunately Karkara from France had cancelled their appearance on short notice, and I think their absence could have been handled a little bit better. Because the official break between bands was now forty-five minutes long, which is already a lot - and given that most groups played shorter than their announced time-slot anyway (as you do for safety), there were full-hour pauses now, which is way more than you need for any activity you could come up with. So even though I benefitted from those breaks a couple of times - like when I brought my merch all the way to my car and bought snacks and energy drink for my drive home before the super markets closed - I would have preferred if the whole thing had just started an hour later, or - even better - if every band would just have been allowed to play an encore!
But with all that being said, this day would still turn out to be pretty spectacular...
GRINDING EYES
The first Psychedelic Alternative Grunge, sometimes also a bit shoegazy trio of the day came all the way from Australia and more than warmed the audience up with a cool style close to what I'd call the festival's default sound. While the bass player also operated synths, it was especially the unpredictable wild and noisy guitar work which stood out for me.
SKYJOGGERS
Since I had seen them before at their hundredth show at last year's Dazed & Spaced Festivalin Hamburg (where they also recorded a split live record with Sula Bassana), I knew that we were in for a wild ride of super high energy uptempo Space Rock. It was the last day of their sixty days tour through Europe, but you couldn't see any sign of them getting tired, no, this performance was absolutely mad, relentless and dirty. Heavy high speed Blues, punkish Prog and an almost overdose of wormhole-crossing Duracell Psych, in which the singing mics were mostly reserved for cheering woos and screams, when the music switched into the next gear. Happy exhaustion!
There was no instrument switch between drummer and bassist this time, but they assured me it wasn't a thing of the past, but just depends on the setlist and will be different again on future tours. I should have waited at least a minute shorter for my merch shopping tour later in the day, because I missed the last vinyl copy of their new album just by a hairbreadth.
GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE
The last vinyl copy I did get was a split LP of Fuckwolf and Green Milk From The Planet Orange. But of course there was a whole show before that.
Even though the Japanaese trio was sitting, it didn't mean things were going to calm down - well, at least not for the whole show. Because even though the band sported yet another absolutely mental drummer, their stylistic trajectory was pretty wide, ranging from funky or Robotik Kraut, eccentric Punk, Noise and unhinged Psych'n'Roll to freejazzy Avantgarde Ambient passages and epic pinkfloydish Prog.
The band also surprised with some extremely pained emotional vocals. All in all Green Milk From The Planet Orange delivered just the slightly weird yet still conclusive sound the band name promised. Definitetly a Fuzztival highlight!
Bass, guitar, synths, bass pedals, drums, percussion and very alien New Age effects on the chanting vocals were the means to an end of mesmerizing hypnotic blend of Psychedelic Doom Metal with 4AD spirit and Near Eastern mysticism. Even having seen the band two years before on the other end of Denmark this was still an equally potent excellent rite of Doom ascension. Primordial and otherworldly.
Flooring the accelerator again with a third high speed Psych chase would have been the ideal change of pace now, but since Karkara weren't there the tempo stayed slower with yet another band I already knew from one previous show at another festival.
DAEVAR
Right between Doom and Grunge, with sometimes shoegazy vocals which also justify the album title "Sub Rosa" if you read it as an homage to the disbanded band of the same name, there isn't really much left to describe about the music of this German trio (yes, all bands of this day were trios). A much dreamier version of Lucifer seems surprisingly accurate - while comparisons to King Woman probably appear less misleading.
However, Daevar were a beautifully rocking festival closer for me. Great riffs and vibes!
Daevar were not the final group on the running order, but with the long breaks staying for Stoned Jesus would have meant driving home - since I wasn't staying for another hotel night - two hours later. And that makes a difference when you're alone in the car for three hours net in the middle of the night.
I certainly was satisfied with this neat little fuzzy festival again.
