Veil of Stuff feat. EXTERIOR PALNET, FUTUROPACO, SABA ALIZADEH and SOPHIA DJEBEL ROSE

Four reviews of mine on Veil of Sound again. Time for one of these posts again! This time it's a little trip through Europe and beyond and we're starting in Croatia...

EXTERIOR PALNET - Haragma II (2025)

[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

Short but sick is this assault of Dissonant Cosmic Progressive Avantgarde Black Metal, which is heavily inspired by the Sci-fi Thrash Metal of Vektor and old Voivod, including the raw vocal performance very akin to the phase from "Rrröööaaarrr" to "Killing Technology". You'll find playful quirky Virus grooves, Blut Aus Nord sensory overkill as well as surprisingly strong melodies on this self-released killer album. Bursting with creative brutality "Haragma II" surely is among the best Extreme Metal releases of the year so far!

FUTUROPACO - Fortezza Di Vetro Vol.2 (LP) (2025)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

Our next destination is Italy, well California actually. But once again Justin Pinkerton makes his signature mix of Psychedelic Surf Rock, Folk, Funk and Library Music sound so very Mediterranean that it feels as if you're having the most adventurous summer of your youth on a Vespa trip between Venice and Sicilia. Especially the Jaki Liebezeit worshipping drumming and the tasteful dynamic production make this grooving and sparkling journey a highly addictive experience, before you come down to the most relaxed Geir Sundstøl vibes of the title track.

With Jakob Skøtt's typical El Paraiso Records artwork this continuation of Futuropaco's last album from 2023 is of course also a wonderful addition to the vinyl collection!

elparaisorecords · Futuropaco: "Crollo Capitalista"

SOPHIA DJEBEL ROSE - Sécheresse (Ashen White vinyl LP) (2025)

[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

Next stops: France and Morrocco with singer / songwriter Sophia Djebel Rose (who I happened to see live in an intimate show just a couple of weeks ago) and her hauntingly beautiful Chanson Noire. A guitar, organic drones and a mesmerizing charismatic vocal performance are the cornerstones of her feminist Folk between 70's Avantgarde and contemporary Gothic. "Sécheresse" is powerful poetry become sound, a richly minimalist, touching masterpiece beyond genre restrictions.

Released by WV Sorcerer Productions it's a given that the physical copy is beauty, white vinyl, OBI strip and all... a shame that posting the fantastic cover artwork is often prohibited or punished by the bots of our brave new anti-social media world!

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SABA ALIZADEH - Temple Of Hope (2025)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

The final part of this trip brings us far through Northern Africa and the Near East to Iran, home country of composer and masterful kamancheh player Saba Alizadeh. His new electro-acoustic Ambient album, which utilizes the yearning sound of the string instrument alongside modular synths, no-input mixer sound effects, samples and appearances of guest vocalists, is inspired by the events during the "Woman Life Freedom" movement in September 2022, which was brutally shattered by the regime.

With its merging of Experimental Electronic, Modern Classical and traditional Middle Eastern music "Temple Of Hope" paints an intriguing picture of kaleidoscopic fragments, atmospheres and songs. A very serious but all the more beautiful and rewarding album.

Rituals in vitreous psychfeat. FUTUROPACO and IVAN THE TOLERABLE

Hello beautiful Sunday children, here are two amazing krauty albums for you! Both come on black vinyl in simple but beautiful packaging. One's a cooperative multi-label release by Echodelick Records, We Here & Now and Worst Bassist Records, the other should tell you its Danish origin by one look onto its cover artwork. So here we go:

IVAN THE TOLERABLE - Ritual In Transfigured Time (LP) (2023)

Some artists should come with a label "too prolific; don't even try to follow - you won't keep up anyway". Multi-instrumentalist Oli Heffernan aka Ivan The Tolerable, who already released more than the sensational album "Black Water/Brown Earth" this year, is definitely among those.

The credits on this release almost read the same with Heffernan himself being responsible for bass, guitar, synths, keys, field recordings, but now also drum machines, Mees Siderius on drums and vibraphone and Elsa Van Der Linden on flute and saxophone. The additional fourth member is James Putnam on trumpet and French horn. The music however is quite different. Also jazzy and definitely psychedelic, but both a more inwards and meditavely hypnotic experience.

The key for this may lie in the record being more production-driven as the note "electronically re-recorded to simulate Stereo" on the cover already indicates. So these recordings travelled back and forth, being altered and manipulated a lot before they took their final form.

"Ritual In Transfigured Time" is a meticulously mixed headphones album, which synchronizes vibraphone, winds, guitars and analogue electro sounds with your brain waves, and sends soothing vibrations all through your body, while also being exciting enough not to lull you to sleep. At least if you don't want that to happen.

This is just a wonderfully life-affirming organic take on Ambient and Drone, a proper companion piece to "Black Water/Brown Earth". In some instances like the final track "Ritual In The Hall" it even ascends to the same busy Spiritual Jazz Fusion playfulness.

FUTUROPACO - Fortezza di Vetro Volume 1 (LP) (2023)

The credits for the newest El Paraiso Records release "Fortezza di Vetro" (="Glass Fortress") could hardly be shorter: All songs composed, performed & engineered by Justin Pinkerton / Mastered by Jonas Munk / Artwork [and what a beautiful one again!] by Jakob Skøtt. That's it.

Five years after his self-titled debut the drummer and Library Music composer returns with nine new tracks, on which he continues the groovy, trippy, 70's-cinematic shtick, he already seemed to have perfected back then. But it turns out, that there was still some room for improvement - and be it only that Pinkerton sounds even more like a "real" full band now. Which album contains the actually better compositions, that I cannot determine at this point yet. And I won't even bother to try.

Ultimately this is top-tier instrumental Psychedelic Rock, made very unique by its Italian movie vibes and the super funky drum energy. I coined it Fuzzadelic Spaghetti Fusion in my last review and I still think that's what you should tag it in your music collection. I could actually see this becoming my favortite El Paraiso record of the year, which obviously is quite a high bar to clear. And maybe - depending on my given mood - I'll even fall back from this assessment again, who really cares?

But there surely is something special in the way Futuropaco departs from the of course all-around brilliant, timeless sounds of Causa Sui, Edena Gardens and the London Odense Ensemble. Maybe it is its full dedication to the sound of a certain time frame without actually becoming a carbon copy of its music. I'm not sure. All I know is this is cool, fiery, relaxing perfection - and the added "Volume 1" after the title reads like an exciting promise.

elparaisorecords · Futuropaco: "Tirannia Velata"

FUTUROPACO - Futuropaco

Wenn es eine Plattenfirma auf der Welt gibt, welche leichtes Spiel dabei hat, mir Neben- oder Soloprojekte von Musikern, die ich vorher noch gar nicht kannte, zu verkaufen, dann ist es wohl El Paraiso Records. Förderlich ist dabei natürlich, dass man die im Stile klassischer Jazz-Labels von Jakob Skøtt ästhetisch stringent gestalteten Alben des Causa Sui-Labels eigentlich alle gerne im Regal stehen hätte.

Futuropacos selbstbetiteltes Debüt war wieder so ein Fall, wo ich sofort in der Hoffnung, dass die Musik des Covers würdig sein möge, in den Promotrack reinhören musste. Und bald darauf war das Ding dann natürlich auch bestellt.

FUTUROPACO - Futuropaco (3 color striped vinyl) (2018)

Futuropaco ist das Soloprojekt von Justin Pinkerton, der mir theoretisch über ein paar Brücken auch schon hätte bekannt sein können. Nicht für seine hauptberufliche Komponistentätigkeit; der Kalifornier produziert in erster Linie library music, die für die Verwendung in Film, Fernsehen, Radio, Werbung vorgesehen ist.
Allerdings bin ich ja Roadburn-Gänger, habe dort Earthless kennengelernt und hätte mich ja auch mit der zweiten Band von Gitarrist Isaiah Mitchell beschäftigen können. In jener Psychedelic Rock-Gruppe Golden Void nämlich ist Pinkerton der Schlagzeuger.

Beides - der Beruf, sowie die eigentliche musikalische Heimat hinterm Drumkit - ist in Futuropaco deutlich zu erkennen.

Acht von neun Tracks werden von flotten Grooves vorangetrieben, in denen der Multiinstrumentalist zwischen "Funky Drummer" und Krautrock-Robotik eskaliert.

Der filmmusikalische Anteil tanzt in oft einfachen, aber effektiven Melodien aus Analogsynthesizern oder Glockenspiel darüber. Das Hauptmerkmal jener Melodien ist allerdings - nach Ansicht der Songtitel keine große Überraschung - ihr unzweifelhaft italienischer Charakter. Zwar mit Spaß am Klischee, aber dabei stets stilvoll präsentiert, decken sie quasi alle südlich der Alpen erfahrbaren Stimmungen vom Picknick in der Toscana bis zum Morricone-Showdown ab.

Fehlen nur noch Orgeln, Bass und extrafuzzige Gitarrenriffs, alles ebenfalls von Pinkerton eingespielt - und fertig ist der in seiner Zusammenstellung höchst frisch und originell klingende Stil, für den der Herr Kritiker natürlich eine griffige Schublade finden muss. Ich sage mal:

Fuzzadelic Spaghetti Fusion




Yup, das ist es.

Die meisten Stücke auf "Futuropaco" funktionieren dabei im Prinzip ähnlich, als etwa vierminütige, einem Strophe-Refrain-Aufbau folgende Ohrwürmer.
Das macht dieses Album zu einem leicht verdaulichen Hörerlebnis, was aus meiner Feder nicht unbedingt ein positives Atrribut sein muss, ich weiß. In diesem Fall ist es das aber, dafür sorgt schon die hier trotz der teils panischen Drums ausgestrahlte Lässigkeit des Ganzen.
"Futuropaco" ist cooles, eigenwilliges Psychedelic-Album, welches mit 38 Minuten Spielzeit zwar nicht gigantisch groß ist, jedoch für das was es sein möchte, genau das richtige Format besitzt.

Was mir immer gut gefällt, ist wenn eine Platte mit ihren stärksten Tracks abschließt.
In diesem Fall ist es das Doppel aus "Re Di Menzogne" und "Ballare Sulla Tua Tomba". Der erste davon enthält als einziger Song einen Gastmusikerbeitrag. Saxophonist Phillip Greenlief sorgt hier für den jazzigsten Touch des Albums, während "Ballare" als einzige Nummer ohne treibenden Beat so etwas wie die Abspannmusik darstellt, d.h. Justin Pinkerton switcht hier vollkommen in den Soundtrackmodus.


Das Artwork lobte ich ja bereits. Und auch das Vinyl weiß klanglich und optisch wie gewohnt zu überzeugen:

Fazit: Just another day in the office at El Paraiso Records. Haha.

Highlights: Re Di Menogne, Ballare Sulla Tua, Tomba, Bambino Tiranno, Fuoco Palude