Fuzztival Haul feat. ECSTATIC VISION and KANAAN

I just laid my to-do-list of reviews on the garden table and waited for a bird to shit on it. The poo landed on this post Esbjerg Fuzztival merch haul, which luckily - at least for this occasion - was quite overseeable with just the official festival shirt and one record a day.

KANAAN - Downpour (LP) (2023)

Buying the new Kanaan album from the merch table had always been the plan. And secretely I had also hoped to maybe see a surprise leftover copy of one or two other desired objects here, which were missing in my collection of the Norwegian power trio, because prices, shipping and taxes from outside of the EU aren't the cheapest. Well, at least I got this. And this is of course something!

As expected this album doesn't follow the epic cosmic exploration of the "International Space Station Vol.1" sampler, but rather continues on the heavy and ultra-fuzzy path of their 2021 release "Earthbound". Yet beside the gnarliest evolution of Blues, which opens the record with "Black Time Fuzz" and the Rock guitar ecstasy of "Amazon", which features the amazing Hedwig Mollestad, the instrumental band also goes back to the Jazzrock influences of their debut, not only with the odd santanaesque lead guitar here or there, but especially with the title track. Driven by super fast, sometimes almost chaotic drumming "Downpour" is a feverish Fusion fest, which goes through all stages of smoothness and heaviness Kanaan can offer. Loved this live in Esbjerg and absolutely dig the studio version as well.

Did I say this album is not that weltraumy? Ok, screw that, here comes side B with the "Psunspot" interlude and pulls out the analogue synth sounds. "Orbit" still mostly remains a maximum fuzzy Stoner stomper though.
But "Solaris Pt.1" actually is an elevating Psychedelic Rock trip, before "Pt. 2" closes the album by bringing all its krauty and blackholy elements together in one satisfying banger.

Yeah, these guys just always deliver.

ECSTATIC VISION - Live At Duna Jam (Yellow-Brown-Orange vinyl LP) (2023)

What a scenery! No wonder that Ecstatic Vision are offering their recent live album not only in this absolutely beautiful limited vinyl version, but also on BluRay. And it's also no wonder that after their crazy performance on the Esbjerg Huset stage, this was the record I just couldn't resist buying on Saturday.

With a very similar setlist this is probably as close as I can come to reliving that show in Denmark, even though the a small room full of Psychedelic projections is of course a different beast than a Sardinian sand beach in summer. But no worries, the high Hawkwind energy is defintely present at this rather exclusive Desert Rock tourist event, too. Rumbling bass, screaming saxophone, a never tiring beat and a manic frontman, ready to scream the waves back into the sea.

Ecstatic Vision are as rowdy and rapid as Psychedlic Rock can get. And the quartet knows how to make people "Come Together" for a party for sure. Short but sweet killer live album! 

And yes, yes, to complete the haul... Here's the Fuzztival shirt:

Hope you're happy now.

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.