cassette craze chronicles XXXV feat. BRÍI, DIABOLIC OATH, ERSHETU and HAVE BLUE

Hey, finally! It's tape spinning time again. So without further ado let's start with  blasting some sick Blackened Death Metal!

DIABOLIC OATH - Oracular Hexations (2024)

Oh, I worded that wrong: Let's start with that one of these mini reviews I could totally skip! Because yes, I've already written about this slab of disgusting fretless Dissonant Death Metal back in April. As with most releases from Sentient Ruin Laboratories it just took a while until it was available in physical format in Europe.
Of course this album is still a sick blackened nightmare of awesome performances deliberately drenched in cavernous abysmal chaos. It's absolutely delicious!

And as nice as it had been to have the digital (promo) copy, it felt a little too convenient and untrve that you're actually able to read the tapeworm track titles like "Rusted Madness Tethering Misbegotten Haruspices" on the screen. No, this needs to be in a challenging font, printed red on black!

DIABOLIC OATH - Aischrolatreia (2022)

Well, if you love the album you will also love Diabolic Oath's previous EP. It's the same brand of Technical Death Metal which doesn't care to showcase its Progressive chops, but just uses those as one of various elements to create stress and exhaustion. It also features the band's trademark of exclusively using fretless guitars to even enhance the twisted nature of their maelstrom invocations.

The song titles alone are pure Death Metal bliss again:

"Thrones Before Slobbering Gods"
"Grand Atrocities Through Foul Miscreations"
"Poisoned Bodies of Swine Imbuing"

The arrangements are not quite at the point they achieved later with "Oracular Hexations", but on the other hand this is even a bit more filthy, raw and chaotic. This dunks your bones in demon blood soup, makes you bathe in it and feeds the fire under the kettle. Blessed are the diabolic.

BRÍI - Último Ancestral Comum (2023)

It took quite a while until the latest Bríi was finally released on cassette. So long in fact that I thought there maybe just wouldn't be a tape this time and ordered it as a CD from the Chinese label Pest Productions. And of course even before that one arrived the cassette came out. Ordering it too admittedly was collector's greed, just because I already have the three previous albums of the Brazilian project in that format. If you can get your hands on the disc - that one's absolutely fine as well.
On the other hand the cassette is quite a beautiful item and definitely features my favorite shell of this bunch.

And musically? In four long tracks once again Bríi hallucinates its weird dream of Ambient powered up with Electronic club sounds infused with Post Rock and smashed down by brutal epic Black Metal. Many movements on this album flow into each other very smoothly, others are sudden absurd bursts. And both approaches work on this exciting, highly unpredictable album.

The only thing which bothers me is that the production of the Metal parts could really be clearer. Low-fi attitude or not, the way the musical richness is drenched in swampy dullness sometimes is just too much. Especially since the Electronic grooves can be so satisfying (love the trance of the final track "Cada Canto Du Universo") that makes the production feel unbalanced. The only solution as a listener is to compensate with volume. And if you boosted "Alienígena Interior" enough to enjoy it, you will surely also have a great time with all the rest. The unique genre mix this artist is once again presenting here deserves it.

ERSHETU - Xibalba (2023)

On the level of being something different Ershetu can surely rival, if not even beat Bríi. The concept of the band which among others features vocals from Solefald and guitars from Blut Aus Nord is the meaning of Death in different cultures. The debut album starts this exploration with the Maya.

So yes, between the blasting cinematic orchestral Black Metal with harsh and clean vocals you should expect some pan flutes and other ethnic sounds, which are probably as authentically Mayan as Wardruna are Viking. Has anyone heard Central American music from that epoch? There you have it, let's rather file this under fantasy!
And that's not meant as a downgrade, because this stuff actually is super creative, unique and epic. Actually, had I endulged in this earlier it maybe could have been among my favorite releases of 2023. 

A nice bonus to the cassette is that the digital download also includes all six tracks as instrumental versions.

HAVE BLUE - Minus Minus (2024)

And now a more recent album again! Is the title a Jazz reference? And didn't I only just feature Have Blue's last release "Trübe" in the previous edition of my cassette craze chronicles?

Recorded in the beginning of 2024 in the band's rehearsal space, the eight German and English tracks on "Minus Minus" once again show us that Punk shouldn't be defined solely by sound, but mostly by attitude.

Because while the raw immediacy, D.I.Y. sound and spirit of their music always screams Punk, Have Blue are not afraid to add proggy time signatures, bluesy or funky parts, Garage Space Rock, Noise Rock and Metal influences whenever they see fit. In some fast and heavy instances the trio even reminds of the punkish side of Voivod including chord choices and the gnarly bass sound.

And all that happens without Have Blue never actually not being Punk anymore. I have absolutely not been raised on the genre, but this blend just is the shit for me. I think I still slightly prefer "Trübe" though, but that's above all a matter of quantity, since that album simply was twenty minutes longer than this quick half hour.

  

cassette craze chronicles XXXIV feat. DARSOMBRA, HAVE BLUE, KARKARA, SUNRISE PATRIOT MOTION and WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN

Tomorrow I'll be on my way to Copenhagen for the next festival, so it's time to review at least a part of the haul from the last two, right? Plus two new other recent releases... Here we go: part thirty-four of my cassette craze chronicles!

DARSOMBRA - Dumesday Book (2023)

Ok, no beating around the bush, that big VHS case is of course the most intriguing object in this picture. So what is it? The duo Darsombra played an absolutely fascinating, very fun and DIY, but also immerse and magical multi-media show at Roadburn - and this two-tape boxset represents the band's balance of home-made charme, humour and actual art / great music perfectly.

The box contains two cassettes in slipcases, a high format booklet, a poster, a sticker, two pins and a miniature "thing", which resembles the one on the album cover. And - which sadly seems to get less popular these days - also a Bandcamp download card. Not knowing what to expect I was very happy when I opened this box. How can you not love independent artists, who put so much love into their releases?

And the music matches the visual side. The seventy-five minutes consist of mostly instrumental tracks based on loops, synth and guitar and very few actual rhythmic instruments. But you actually don't miss those, because everything here sounds exactly like it's supposed to sound. A gorgeous mixture of Space Rock, Ambient soundtrack elements and drone in a somehow very personal, but still wide open and epic format. Yeah, this is weirdo stuff. This is hippie shit. This is White Hills, Earth and Sula Bassana summoning the Kraut spirits of old and binding them into a dreaming Roboter. Call the doctor and sing along!
I am so freaking glad that I took the plunge of buying "Dumesday Book". It's really everything I wanted it to be - and more.

SUNRISE PATRIOT MOTION - Black Fellflower Stream (2022)

No, visually the other tape I bought at Roadburn definitely cannot keep up with Darsombra. The music however is more than fine; a dark and desperate take on Post Punk / Gothic Rock with lots of keyboards, lead guitars and a big industrial building echo, made by dudes coming from a Black Metal background. While mostly staying in the same up-tempo (or the half-time of it) the band comes up with enough variety to make this half hour fel like only twenty minutes.

The memory of the drummer playing with so much feral energy as if he was trying to smash his kit into pieces is for sure helpful to enjoy this mini album. But even without that aid this is damn good stuff from a group positioning itself comfortably in their own sonic niché.

HAVE BLUE - Trübe (2023)

Yet another merch table purchase, but this time from the much smaller Dazed & Spaced Festival in Hamburg. We're starting from a similar musical point somewhere in the early Eighties, but then the mostly German-language "Progressive Punk" of Have Blue from Berlin takes on a completely different life on its own. In spirit and at the base of their sound is indeed raw Punk, but interspersed with Funk and Surf licks, creative bass lines and some surprisingly elaborate rhythmic ideas. Above all however all this makes just one half of Have Blue's sound with the other half being firmly rooted in various flavours of Psychedelic Rock. No, these guys aren't afraid of experimenting and actually playing their instruments, while still keeping a believable Punk attitude.

With over fifty minutes this album offers a lot and not too much, because this is just very cool stuff. And don't bother about the language barrier, if you don't understand German; I'm confident you'll enjoy this anyway!

KARKARA - All Is Dust (2024)

This is probably the "biggest" release here - at least in Kraut afficionado circles. After their evolution from "Crystal Gazer" to "Nowhere Land" I was pretty confident in the French trio Karkara to give us another uptempo banger for fans of (old) Slift, (old) King Gizzard or (recent) Servo, but with many new impulses to keep it fresh and exciting.

The nine minute opener "Monoliths" may not deliver the biggest originality yet, but it already leaves no doubt that these dudes have grown golden hands for this style. It's just so fucking good. I even really like the vocal performance now. And for my taste it gets even better in the more aggressive second track "The Chase" - especially when you think the song has told us everything it has to say, but then breaks down to a slower tempo and lets a sick guest saxophone burst into the space it has just made. Fucking excellent!

I won't go through all six tracks here, but be assured, those are all bangers! Great bass and guitar tones, cool Desert Rock orientalisms blowing through the dust, tasty analogue synth sounds and B-movie spoken word passages...
If you wanted just one song suggestion to check out "All Is Dust" it would probably be "Anthropia" with its killer earworm chorus and guitar licks. Or the title track? So majestic here, wo unhinged there- and it has a Mexian trumpet solo.

Great album and a nice orange tape shell. The coloured vinyl versions are probably more spectacular than this cassette, but this is fine, it was was cheaper - and a more exclusive limited edition, if we're talking in collector's value.

WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN - Stellar Frequencies Session (2024)

And finally... those Post Rockers from France again? Is it something new? No. So just familiar songs played live... again? Yes,, it's a studio session though. And you can also watch it on YouTube. So there's actually no reason to buy this on cassette, is what you're saying? Well, is having it on cassette not reason enough? I guess so.

There you have it: the "Stellar Frequencies Session" is far from a quintessential release, but the Mono style epic instrumental Post Rock of Where Mermeids Drown hasn't stopped being great, the recording sounds flawless, the tape doesn't cost much, has a beautiful shell again... and if you already have three tapes a little bit of collector's greed might play a role, too.

DAZED & SPACED Festival in der Bar 227, Hamburg (27. April 2024) • mit HANSAPHONICS, HAVE BLUE, SKYJOGGERS und SULA BASSANA

Attention: The team here at Audiovisual Ohlsen Overkill global headquarters is taking a short break from our Roadburn Festival coverage with a quick German review of a much smaller event which happened in Hamburg on the following weekend!

Das Dazed & Spaced Festival in der als letzte Location an der sterbenden Sternbrücke ausharrenden Bar 227 lief über zwei Tage, ich war allerdings nur am Samstag dort, da auch noch den Freitag mit Snakes Don't Belong In Alaska und Kombynat Robotron mitzunehmen mit Tilburg in den Knochen - und im Portemonaie - einfach zu viel gewesen wäre.

HANSAPHONICS

Um sechs war Einlass, um sieben ging's auch schon los. Brechend voll ist dementsprechend anders als das Bild, welches sich während des lokalen Openers bot. Die Stimmung war aber gut. Und in der Tat ziemlich hanseatisch, denn mehr Hamburger Jung als die die drei Typen in den Hansaphonics kann man wohl kaum sein.

Musikalisch gab's aber keine Seemannschantys, sondern duh! Psychelic Rock in einer ziemlich bluesigen aber auch lässig funkigen Variante mit viel coolem Gitarrengetue. Ein launiger lässiger Einstieg in den Abend.

SKYJOGGERS

Mehr Gäste trudelten ein und der kleine Raum füllte sich nun doch ziemlich schnell. Ein bisschen aufgewärmt war man ja schon, aber wirklich vorbereitet auf die Skyjoggers waren wohl die wenigsten. Das Trio begann in wildem Uptempo und erinnerte insbesondere bei der Mikrofonaufesserei des Bassisten mehr als einmal daran, dass der Erfolg von King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard gerade weltweit den Underground inspiriert.

Die Finnen variierten bald aber Tempo, Heaviness, Ent- und Verrücktheit. Für ein paar Lieder wechselten gar Drummer und Bassist die Plätze. Jeder der mitunter auch mal etwas komplexeren Tracks zeigte eine andere Seite der Gruppe und bewies, dass diese wilden Spacerocker eine fabelhaft abgehende Liveband sind. Hätte ich mir auch eine Woche vorher in einer Roadburn-Überraschungsshow vorstellen können. Eine unerwartet großartige Entdeckung!

HAVE BLUE

Sehr angenehm überrascht war ich allerdings auch von den zumeist deutschsprachig singenden Berlinern Have Blue, insbesondere da Punk ja nicht so meine primäre Baustelle ist.

Was das Trio macht ist hat aber reichlich Psychrock-Einschlag, ist auch mal surfig, funky und im Rahmen dessen was das Genre erlaubt verfrickelt. Der Bass ranzt schön, die Drums finden eine prima Balance zwischen geradeaus und interessant. Und spacen konnten die Jungs natürlich aus, sonst wären sie bei diesem Festival ja auch gar nicht reingelassen worden. Was soll ich sagen? Wer wie der Sänger/Gitarrist ein John Coltrane-Shirt im Black Flag-Design trägt, kann kein schlechter Mensch sein, oder? Super Ding, insbesondere da die vorige Band ja eine respektable Latte vorgelegt hatte.

Das Tape des neuesten Albums treffen wir dann demnächst an dieser Stelle in meiner Kassetten-Kolumne!

SULA BASSANA

Da war er also wieder! Nachdem er bereits im Februar als Bassist von Minerall in der Bar 227 in Erscheinung getreten war, trat Dave Schmidt aka Sula Bassana heute als Headliner mit seiner letztes Jahr frisch zusammengestellten Liveband auf die zum Glück diesmal etwas geräumigeren Bühnenbretter.
Neben den drei Musiker(inne)n an Bass, Gitarre und Schlagzeug hatte der Meister selbst noch Gitarre, und Synthiegerümpel mitgebracht.

Im Prinzip funktionierte das wasweißichwielange Set nach einem ständig wiederkehrenden Schema: atmosphärisches Rauschen, sechssaitig bzw. effektseitig erzeugte Ambientklänge und/oder Melotronsounds bauen Stimmung auf, bis irgendwann *wumms* die vom Bass stabil gehaltene fettriffige Acid-Rock-Maschine losgroovt. Die hypnotisiert, eskaliert und deaskaliert dann mal als ganzheitliche Weltraumwand, mal als Hintergrund zum Leadgitarren- und Keyboard-Abspacen oder hier und da auch mit gut verhallhallhallhallten Gesang vor sich hin, bis irgendwann dann auch mal gut ist.

Und wenn man das so gut kann wie dieses Quartett, dann ist das auch alles was man braucht. Ein feiner kosmischer Trip!

Und weil ich mit Dave ja ausgerechnet über das Thema übernächtigtes Autofahren geschnackt hatte: Auf der Rückfahrt, die zunächst einmal mit zwei Sperrungen (noch in Hamburg und auf der A23) nervte, habe ich doch tatsächlich einen neuen Notnickerchenrekord aufgestellt, musste ich doch nur fünfzehn Minuten von zu Hause doch noch einmal auf den Rastplatz Kaaksburg fahren und drölfzig Minuten in der Karre pennen, ehe ich safe in die Atmosphäre meines Heimatplaneten zurückbeamen konnte. Aber was soll's? Was muss das muss halt. Auch ein super Abend wie dieser ist kein Blechpetting mit der Leitplanke wert.