cassette craze chronicles XXVI feat. EYES, OTAY:ONII and WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN

Tapes, tapes, tapes! This is a post (or rather inbetween) festivals edition with three cassettes I bought at the merch table of A Colossal Weekend and one, which I did not buy at Roadburn, but at least the artist played my favorite show there this year.

OTAY:ONII - 夢​之​駭​客 Dream Hacker (2023)

But while the performance of Elizabeth Colour Wheel singer Otay:onii was an absolutely breathtaking experience unlike anything I've ever seen before, it was all about her previous album "冥冥 Míng Míng" and didn't feature one note of this recent work yet, which in parts goes into more pop-affine, easier accessible segments, but on the other still disturbs those with droning, noisy or just plain "weird" electronic experimentalism.

Instrumentally as well as vocally a lot of different exciting things are happening on this collaged album. So if you're listening to this tape - which is available with a transparant shell or in Aegean Blue - for the first time, you might not even notice that both sides feature the same half hour of adventurous artistic expression. And you won't mind at all enjoying this fantastic stuff twice.

For a more detailed description please check out the review I did as part of Veil of Sound's pre-Roadburn special! [MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

EYES - Congratulations (2023)

Speaking of Veil of Sound: I still have to get back at that sneaky son of a... Thorsten there! Just one day after I set the record for the shortest introduction paragraph ("No way, Norway!" for Wizrd) he started his Eyes review with "Congratulations." Admittedly that's the obvious low hanging fruit. But I'm going to take that shortest introduction title back again, promised!

At least the Danish Post Hardcore commando deserved those congrats, because the album is a killer indeed. Not as deadly as watching their full craziness unfolding on stage live, but still a pretty maniac teardown, which flies by incredibly fast.
Of course "Congratulations" only has a total playing time of half an hour. But then most of its tracks are two and a half minute Hardcore bangers with several little sprinkles of Mathcore and Noise, so that's absolutely fine. This fucks!

WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN - And The Raging Winds Do Blow (2021)
WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN - Reminisce (2023)

Admittedly it is a bit weird to talk about "And The Raging Winds Do Blow" as an EP after just calling the same half-hour length an album in the cases of Otay:onii and Eyes, but it probably depends a lot on the music, what kind of format you feel it to be be. For the brand of epochal instrumental Post Rock Where Mermaids Drown are playing it certainly is short. But at least you can rule out the risk of being bored from the start.

Not that the music would give you any cause for that, because the beautifully layered, very dreamy and elevating sound of the French group, which effectively utilizes voice samples to underline its score nature, sits comfortably between the likes of Mono and Bruit ≤ and has enough profound substance to easily carry you on its waves if you let yourself fall into it. Unless you're a mermaid of course.

"Reminisce", the first full album (which actually isn't that much longer, but who cares) continues right where the splendid EP left off. The careful yet determined exploration of atmospheres, prolonging self-control to build tension, bursting into mountainous climaxes... It's all still here, with even refined love to detail and put into shorter, yet more numerous tracks, putting it a little bit closer to the works of Wang Wen for me, but that's probably only because my resources of references within this field are still rather limited. Or I'm just not thinking hard enough. I can assure you though, that Where Mermaids Drown are premium players in their scene - of course not in terms of renownedness / popularity, but the class to justify them getting more attention is there in spades.

Both releases are beautiful items. These tape shells are among the loveliest in my collection. One should also emphasize that the band sells them with download codes, which is always a plus in my book and sadly still not the accepted norm.
All in all Where Mermaids Drown definitely keep the promise of their live performance, and vice versa their studio work makes me want to see them on stage again. Luckily there's a good chance that I can do that at a small open air festival pretty close to home next month.  

A COLOSSAL WEEKEND in Copenhagen • PART 2/2: Saturday, May 13th 2023 • feat. ASTROSAUR, BORIS, EYES, POLY-MATH, SUM OF R, TEARS OF FIRE, WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN and WYATT E.

Read PART 1 of this review here:

A COLOSSAL WEEKEND in Copenhagen • PART 1/2: Friday, May 12th 2023 • feat. MESSA, MOE, NORNA, SHAAM LAREIN, SHY LOW, SOLDAT HANS and YEAR OF NO LIGHT

Hi guys, it's me, I'm a tourist. It has been... let's see... damn!

It has been over ten years already, since I've been to Copenhagen the last time (when Laibach were playing in the National Art Gallery of Denmark), so of course I used the time until day three (for me day two) of A Colossal Weekend started to stroll around and take some pictures. (Of course also some film stuff, which is still in the laboratory for development and will probably take weeks to return to me.)

Even though I still had a little time left to rest before I returned to the Vega, it's absolutely no exaggeration to say that my feet and legs hurt more than during the whole Roadburn week this year. Luckily you could always find a place to sit down to still properly enjoy the music. So it remained a very manageable task to watch two thirds of the bands on the running order.

As if someone wanted to double down on the contrast of bright summer outside and gloomy darkness in the dungeon of the Basement, which had started the previous festival day, Tears Of Fire were a significantly deeper shade of Goth than Shaam Larein.

Or let's be a little more precice: The Iranian / German band played a slow mixture of Funeral Doom and Black Metal with Persian-flavoured Neoclassical elements and more variety in both clean and extreme vocals than I would have expected. Very grave. Very good.

A Colossal Weekend started mostly as a Post Rock fest and the name closest to those roots on today's roster undoubtly was Where Mermaids Drown. The French instrumental quartet played that kind of close your eyes and spread your arms to embrace the world Post Rock, which puts great emphasis on its layered lead guitars, patiently meandering atmospheres and cathartic climaxes.

That might not be as original as the combination with Prog brainfuckery we heard from Shy, Low the night before, but I can easily forgive the lack of a more distinct and innovative identity, if the execution is done as amazing as here.
Where Mermaids Drown expertly took all the dreamy and uplifting stuff I love about Wang Wen and Mono and put a mesmerizing spell onto the Basement. This really felt like wandering through a surreal underwater world.

What was that? And do I even mention the name? Better not. It's easier to forget that way. I don't know what happened there - and why - but the first band upstairs in the Ideal Bar seemed like it showed up by accident. Dudes looked liked caricatures of a Stoner Rock gang, but when they stumbled into their first song their sound wasn't even that. Hard pass, left quickly. 

The first show on the cramped Little Vega stage, where most of Boris' gear was already set up in the back, luckily spoke a different language. While the festival's promo text (by force of habit or the band being on Pelagic Records?) tries to sell it as Post Rock, the satisfyingly chunky fuzziness of Astrosaur's guitar tone immediately made me feel like I was at a Desertfest. Or maybe the Esbjerg Fuzztival, which I will actually attend a week from now.

I'm not a Stoner Metal guy by default at all, but the heavy instrumental riff worship of this Norwegian trio won me over in an instant. This just rocked! And ok, there may actually have been some Post Rock passages here and there. But also lots of other stuff like Psychedelic space bits or even a little Thrash Metal. Anyway, this was flawless shit.

Back in the dark underworld things got weird. I have seen Sum Of R before - and I have not. Because the instrumental Drone Doom duo I saw on the smallest Roadburn stage five years ago has undergone some shifts and changes since then. The Swiss / Finnish group is still at home in that genre and spices is up with electronic noises, but now they are a also a trio with a singer?

Yes, the question mark is intentional. I said that things got weird - and the effect-modulated vocals of Marko Neuman, who you might know as part of the Waste Of Space Orchestra, were most definitely included in that term. It also doesn't happen everyday that you see a bass player simultanously step on a whole octave of a keyboard lying on the ground. And it made musical sense!

I still don't exactly understand what this special brand of Doom is and what it wants, but for sure it was something and I would watch it again.

How do I find the right words for this? It was about time that I finally stroke Boris from my bucket list - and boy they blew my mind to pieces! So far my favorite versions of this prolific and many-faced band had been Shoegaze, Drone and Dream Pop Boris, but fuck yeah, I'm so happy that I could witness them in Heavy Rocks mode, with a fourth touring member on the drums while Atsuo stepped to the front of the stage as an immensly charismatic frontman alongside Wata on guitar and Takeshi on bass / guitar doubleneck.

Dressed in white with platforms, fishnet, leopard scarf and lots of tiger textures the Japanese band looked like a crazy manga fever dream fantasy of rock stars and especially Atsuo embodied that spirit during every second of the show as an untiring crowd steerer and master of ceremonies.

When the band had to wait a minute for Takeshi due to some technical problem, there wasn't even a comment on it. The guitar was checked, someone in the audience yelled "hellyeah", the singer replied "hellyeah" and they went on. That kind of show this was. Boris rocked - and they indeed rocked ridicuclously heavy beyond eleven, always on the verge to complete Noise or Drone overkill. It was pure Rock'n'Roll bliss.

And while most of the show consisted of high-energy up-tempo bangers - one of those with a guest appearance of Pupil Slicer's Kate Davies - there was also room for some more ritualistic Drone and experimental electronic shenanigans.

The greatest highlight however waited at the end, when between "Loveless" and the trio encore "Farewell" Wata was finally using that keyboard on the edge of the stage and the band juxtaposed their whole performance with the (not completely) ballad "(not) Last Song" from their latest "Heavy Rocks" album.
Atsuo's hoarse vocals were incredibly emotional and when he scream-sung them into the room without a microphone, followed by a bone-crushing return to full heaviness I knew that this was one of the greatest song performances I have ever witnessed! Or at least it wiped away a lot of previous memories. And on the album they don't even finish this masterpiece! It just cuts off before the finale... Absolutely insane. As was this show. What a band - what an experience!

Any show trying to be a wild Rock'n'Roll ride naturally would have lost now, but luckily Wyatt E. went into a far more meditative direction with their mythic Oriental Doom, fulfilling the promise of their fantastic album "Āl Bēlūti Dārû".

With immense multitasking skills, including some pretty advanced parallel-to-guitar bass pedal playing  and a very characteristic percussive sound palette, the Belgian trio led their listeners far away from Denmark, on a cosmic caravan straight to the prospering empire of Babylon. Entrancing Doom wizardry at its most mystical!

But now back to rioting and smashings things!

Even though I had looked onto the schedule often enough my inner clock was somehow already one hour too far in the future, so I thought there was only one band left to watch. But when that band wasn't even setting up their gear in the Ideal Bar yet, I realized that I could still watch the full performance of Copenhagen's own Eyes!

With amps and drums far in the back the Little Vega stage felt almost empty compared to the shows of Astrosaur and Boris before, but these Post Hardcore maniacs, especially the permanently speeding and running shouter, needed that space to release all their angst and energy.

I have no idea how many of their short outbreaks Eyes fired into the audience, yet I can say that they were all killers and despite being brutally in your face always also interesting beyond the genre's standard diet. A formidable no-bullshit demolition!

But now it was really time for the actual last band of the day. Since I had already seen Boris' touring mates Pupil Slicer in Tilburg before, my choice was to end the festival in the Ideal Bar with the Jazz Fusion brainfuckery Rock of Poly-Math.

The funky deliverance of the Brits' complex arrangements between Bop, Prog and Mathcore brought a whole new flavour to the Colossal menu and it was delicious. The bass grooves, the saxophone licks, the whole direct conversion of stellar musicianship into both mind-melting madness and pure fun was a blast. If you love the most proggy and jazzy instrumental passages of bands like Thank You Scientist or Seven Impale, these men in black are your guys! Ending the festival with their joyous blend of insanity in the most intimate available setting was just perfect.

The post festival blues set in almost immediately after getting outside into the warm night, carrying my merch bag plus my sore ass to a soulless hotel room.

Would I visit A Colossal Weekend again? In a heartbeat! Will I actually do so? Well... probably not every year, that's for sure. It's just so close to Roadburn and crossing that 18 km Storebælt Bridge twice already costs over seventy Euro... Right now I also still have another music weekend in Denmark ahead of me before the next paycheck. So yeah, I'm not sure of such an unhealthy stretching of my budget should be an annual April/May thing.

However something tells me that the Vega will see me again one day.