A spectacle of Sorcery with FLUFLAFEN, KHUNATHI, MAGRAVA, TORU, ZAÄAR and ZAGUŠLJIVI DIM

You know it by now, there are few releases by the French-Chinese one-man label WV Sorcerer Productions I can resist. So most of the time Ruò Tán sends me a package in contains albums from different pre-orders, just what has come out of the pressing plant recently.

Well last time I received my biggest bunch so far, as my purchases had accumulated to eight releases - so what you're seeing above isn't even all! I have already reviewed the Ghostmass tape in the latest edition of my cassette craze chronicles and the fantastic new album of Sophia Djebel Rose over on Veil of Sound.

So here's - only - the rest of this bunch:

MAGRAVA - Et Attendre (CD) (2022)

Yes, this is one album I didn't buy immediately, since it is a pricy one for a CD, especially if you choose the version which includes photographic artwork on glass plates - which I didn't. Still the presentation of the Black Edition in a black envelope with stamped in print and two thick cardboards, of which one also holds the CD, is quite special. It's not the most practical thing I must admit though. Especially getting the disc of its mount can be a pain in the ass.

The musical reward however is at least worth it. It's the live recording of improvisations by the Experiminental musicians Rodolphe Laubatière (drums) and Cyril Meysson (guitar), which is obviously a direction other artists on WV Sorcerer have explored before. But besides Sheng Jie with Shen Jing or Li Jianghong I also feel reminded of works from thisquietarmy, Jörg Schneider or the Free Post Rock duo Miira. Especially the twenty-five-minute centerpiece "S'Inverser Entre Soi" is an expressive tornado of Noise, while the following "Hors Séparateurs" almost abstractly explores the deepest depths of minimalist Drone.

ZAÄAR - Ovules (CD) (2025)

Recorded in three sessions in Belgium Zaäar's "Ovules" is a new mini live album by the improvistional primeval Jazz collective. The 7" sized packaging of the CD suggests a kinship to the similarly presented "Musique Cryptique" and indeed this almost feels like a continuation. But while the quintet line-up is the same there are some key differences in how the cosmic creative chaos emerges this time.

We're not following them inside a natural cave and back with an electric bass instead of an amplified santur - and generally a slightly lower proportion of folkoristic sounds - Zaäar commit themselves more to the huge and heavy side of their sound, with several passages crossing the threshold to the Industrial/Noise intensity and droning Doom Metal of their sister collective Neptunian Maximalism. Which of course still puts "Ovules" way outside of your conventional Jazz or Rock experience.

Zaäar are planters of surreal megafloral fern gardens. Wandering in them is a passage to timeless raw spirituality, pre-civilizational freedom. Or maybe just an awesome Psychedelic Jazz jam. Music before music, once more.

FLUFLAFEN - Sorcery Sauce (Lime Green vinyl LP) (2023/2025)

We're still staying in the field of completely improvised music with the vinyl reissue of FluFlaFen's self-released debut album. The line-up of the Chinese trio consists of drums, electric guitar and clarinet, a constellation which reminds me of the Polish Avantgarde project -S-. And indeed there's a certain kinship in aethetics and spirit. For the most part however the music on "Sorcery Sauce" must be labeled as Heavy Free Jazz with Classical and Progressive Rock influences.

FluFlaFen are not the types for endless jams with slow changes. No, they have the ability to contain their improvisations from beautifully emotive motifs to chaotic outbursts with chugging guitar and screaming clarinet in relatively small doses with many twists and turns. This leads to the fascinating effect that while created on the spot a lot of stuff happening within these eleven tracks could easily be the result of weeks of compositional Math.

The production is very immediate and satisfying, especially the panning of the drums - just listen to the drum solo which starts "German Shepherd"! Exciting brain-swirling stuff.

TORU - Velours Dévorant (Smoke vinyl LP) (2025)

In typical WV Sorcerer fashion we're flying back from China to France with a band at least equally as mental as FluFlaFen. Toru however are both more chaotic and more systematic - it's like the same spirit, but channeled by Noise Rock / Math Metal band. This is loud, wild, bonkers. New York Jazz Metal vibes meet Brötzmann meet Aluk Todolo and Ni.

And these five instrumental tracks are not rapidly firing on full attack all the time. There's not only room for beautiful Post Rock layering or jazzy freakouts, but also for long quiet deep listening passages, after which the next assault hits all the harder. Toru just get the hang of pulling off a perfectly balanced, unpredictable mess of the musical and the ridiculous. "Velours Dévorant" is a killer album. And what is it about France with all those amazing Avantgarde Metal bands there?

ZAGUŠLJIVI DIM - Durchfall der Lebensmaschine (Purple Doom vinyl LP) (2025)

"Diarrhea of the Life Machine" - now that's an album title. This combined with samples from 1970's Croatian horror fantasy cinema as well as German-American psycho analyst Erich Fromm and a Russian Patriarch already indicates that Zagušljivi Dim are not your usual let's get high and jam band.

Not long after "Dolina Kralja Viktora" Suffocating Smoke are back with their special take on Psychedelic Rock and once again it feels as if the Croations are reinventing themselves twice as often as there are songs on the album (which is four this time). The trio actually doesn't even keep its line-up for the whole forty-two minutes, as two different bass players are credited and the electronics-heavy second track "Milost Za Milost" is performed solely by guitar / synth player Martin Geček and a drum machine.

"Durchfall der Lebensmaschine" is a kind of weird and enigmatic, but always catchy roller coaster ride which includes ecstatic uptempo freakouts, jaunts into Düsseldorf and Berlin school and almost Industrial Electronics as well as rumbling Stoner Rock / Metal, Library Music sounds and even the folk-ish spaghetti western Waltz ("Trinaesterokutno Krivnalo") you never knew you desperately needed in your life.

This is a fantastic fearless Neo-Krautrock album and definitely a step up from the already great debut.

丘瑙底河 KHUNATHI - 潮氣吹過後山破廟時 Misty Mountain Pagoda (Smoke vinyl LP) (2025)

Last but not least in this frankly pretty spectacular selection of albums Khunati's "Misty Mountain Pagoda" fully embraces both a powerful Rock sound and the dreamy escapist side of Psych, which is aided by instruments like the Japanese shakuhachi, overtone flute, tabla, dagu and singing bowl on the all-Asian side and mandolin and udu on the European and African sides. With inspirations borrowed, but not strictly authentically derived from ethnic traditions, this album is all about vivid imagination, a positively naive fantasy journey through strange beautiful lands and exciting adventures.

The Chinese quartet is by the way also only the second band after Zaäar here with (not sampled or narrated) occasional lead vocals. In its excellently delivered purity - both in the mystical experimentalism and the straight-forwardly rocking, sometimes surprisingly punkish parts "Misty Mountain Pagoda" is just an enormous inspiring joy to listen to.

In the center of the expectedly harmonious cover artwork there is a noticeable empty area. My take is that this a canvas we're meant to fill in our heads with the images Khunati are painting. Luckily those are plenty.

The black and transparent vinyl Smoke pressing of this gem are already sold out, so WV Sorcerer has just released a new Silver Stone edition. 

MARCH attacks! with ALITILA, GHOSTSMOKER, MINERALL and ODDATEE

Yes, it's quite possible that these kinds of all over the place monthly previews become a regular series. But then also maybe not. Really depends on how much promos I find attractive. These four definitely fit the bill:

MINERALL - Strömung (release: March 14th 2025)

I recently listened to Minerall's debut "Bügeln" again after a hiatus of give or take two months - and I must admit I had forgotten how good that stuff is. The two new longtracks from the Krautrock "super trio" consisting of Marcel Cultrera (Speck), Tommy Handschick (Kombynat Robotron) and Dave "Sula Bassana" Schmidt have been glued together and pimped with synths and effects by the man behind Sulatron Records from material recorded on the same weekend in January 2023 which birthed "Bügeln".

Appearantly the three were in a glorious jam mood back then, because these new forty minutes are just as strong. Even while not basically being one uninterrupted recording like the predecessing record, this doesn't feel like an assemblance of leftovers at all. "Strömung" ("current") and "Welle" ("wave") seem to have more variety and cosmic vibes - and damn, do I dig the Noise Rock attack in the last third of the finale! -, but ultimately it's close to impossible to judge which album is better than the other one. And who cares? For fans of improvised powerful Psychedelic Rock checking this out should pretty much be a no-brainer. 

GHOSTSMOKER - Inertia Cult (release: March 21st 2025)

On a heavier note from the other side of the globe Australian Sludge crawlers Ghostsmoker combine their bonecracking take on primitive Conan caveman battle Doom and colossal Bongripper riff worship with sick bodyvoidish throat disease vocals and atmospheric  Ambient / Post Metal influences, Drone and Noise for good measure. The bass sound of this album alone - purring like a galaxy-sized space cat resting inside a black hole - would make listening to "Inertia Cult" a satisfying experience.

But fortunately that isn't quiet enough for the quartet yet, so they also filter their eery brutal sound into six well-written songs. Asphxiating and cathartic. That's probably how it feels to actually smoke and inhale an undead spirit.

ALITILA - Spruce (release: March 25th 2025)

The most abstract and puzzling album of this bunch comes from the Finnish-American Electronic trio Alitila. Glitches and waves of Ambient weaved together in progressive experimental arrangements are equally as important as chaotic Noise, brutal uneven rhythm attacks and harsh vocals of the Blackened Industrial variety.

Clustered and fragmented it's hard to definitely make sense of what these seven tracks might mean, but they carry a self-consistent, demanding yet not unnerving dark energy in them, which I just find very compelling, especially since half an hour is just the right length for this sound not to overstay its welcome.

ODDATEEE - Rabbit Season (release: March 26th 2025)

Oddateee is an ex-member of crushing Hip Hop crew Dälek, so even though his solo work surely isn't home in the Industrial / Drone / Harsh Noise realm of heaviness, you can be sure the rumbling bass on this twelve-track album will still make your stomach vibrate in synchronicity with the Earth's core. You can also be assured that "Rabbit Season" is as real and political as anything the group has ever done. The flow of Oddatee and his guests, and the groove and production of the beats however feel very much more like a throwback to the Nineties.

Now please don't accuse me of pretending to be an expert, because I'm clearly not and  know it. The genre as a whole is not my comfort zone. But there have always been those artists that immediately made my head bop and think yeah. And what those - from the "Judgement Night" collaborations to Clipping. - ultimately all have in common is what a lot of mainstream Hip Hop lacks: compelling instrumentals. Usually if the music cannot stand on its own, the best raps won't save it for me.

And damn, this shit is on fire: The raw, often minimalist Golden Age foundation is not only produced satisfyingly fat, but also adorned with purposefully placed atmospheric sounds from pianos, synths, samples and guitars, providing gripping eeriness and elevation. So yeah, this "Dumb Shit" comes with a "Bang". There's serious sonic depth, a dangerous rabbit with plenty of meat on the bone.