And if you take me with you I'll bring my latest three tapes:
CHAINED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN - Let Us Not Speak Of Them But Look And Pass On(2026)
CTTBOTO live in Hamburg
This mini album came to me during my last visit aboard the MS Stubnitz, where Chained To The Bottom Of The Ocean where supporting Sumac. Speaking of: Sumac's Aaron Turner also created the cover artwork for "Let Us Not Speak Of Them But And Pass On".a
Between wails of feedback and distortion the release contains four boundlessly angry tracks of buzzing, droning, absolutely crushing Sludge Metal to suck all air and joy out of every room. This is nasty business - and it slays!
NADJA - Seemannsgarn (Church In Session)(2026)
In case you're not speaking German and you wondered about the nautical reference of this tape: "Seemannsgarn" directly translates to "Seaman's Yarn".
The over fourty minutes long single track of this album had been released before and presented on video for Roadburn Redux, the 2021 pandemic online edition of the festival, so I knew without a doubt that this new live performance from January 2025, recorded in the Genezareth Church in Berlin, would at least be worth checking out.
And of course it was! The slowly building piece is dark foreboding Drone Metal in flawless perfection and for sure one of my favorite works in (the beknown to me part of) the huge discography of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker. Brilliant from start to finish.
The mint green cassette itself is anonymous, but it comes with a nice cover inside a slipcase with a punched out logo. Feels like an item found in an antiquarian treasure chest.
WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN - Embrace The Ineluctable(2026)
The French Post Rockers are back - and not back, because they are still on a planned hiatus - with a new three-sog EP. Eighteen minutes of their epic longing sound packed into a beautiful cassette shell. Everything like you would expect, yet still a bit different.
"Embrace The Ineluctable" was recorded as a trio and the tracks are... not smaller or significantly shorter then all songs from the past, but a little more intimate. The chair circle draws closer together - and it has moved from the bottom of the ocean to sun-filled waters near the shore. Where Mermaids Drown hug you in a meaningful embrace, putting an understanding hand on your shoulder in a world of perpetual melancholy.
Das Gute an verzögerten Veröffentlichungen durch Stau oder sonstige Probleme im Presswerk ist ja, dass es zu kleinen Überraschungen führen kann, weil man die Details seiner Bestellung inzwischen vergessen hat. So wusste ich, nachdem sich der physische Release von Nadjas (immer noch?) neuestem Album bis ins neue Jahr verschoben hatte, z.B. gar nicht mehr, dass ich ja auch noch ein großartiges Album von thisquietarmy und Tom Melmendiervon Midira Records mitgeordert hatte. Nice!
Auch daran dass "Cut" eine Bonus-CD enthält, konnte ich mich nicht erinnern. Und tatsächlich wurde jene wohl erst im Laufe der Wartezeit als Dankeschön für die Geduld dazugepackt.
Trotzdem war ich nach dem Auflegen der ersten der beiden cremig weißen Schallplatten zunächt einmal enttäuscht von der Qualität der Pressung, knackte und geräuschte es doch mächtig laut und störend in die leise(?) Musik hinein. Zum Glück erwies es sich aber nur als holpriger Start, während man Großteil der restlichen Laufzeit ohne Beeinträchtigungen hören kann.
Warum habe ich hinter "leise" ein Fragezeichen gesetzt? Nun ja, Nadja sind eine Band, die gerne mit der Wahrnehmung von laut und leise spielt, z.B. wenn man live im Dröhnen von Bass und Gitarre badet und der Drumcomputer zwar laute Anschläge simuliert, aber aus weiter Ferne zu kommen scheint.
Das neue Doppelalbum treibt dies nun mit vielen ungewohnten Produktionsentscheidungen auf die Spitze. Und es sind nicht nur die Wände und Texturen aus Leah Buckareffs Bass und Aidan Bakers Gitarre, Drummaschine und gelegentlich auch Saxophon, sowie die säuselnden Stimmen der beiden, die miteinander in einer Weise vermengt werden, dass man oft nicht weiß, ob ihr Zeitlupensound nun eigentlich eher Doom, Noise und Drone oder experimenteller Ambient / Shoegaze ist. Nein, neben dem Paar bereichern noch mehrere musikalische Gäste die vier Longtracks von "Cut" mit Harfe, Horn und Gesang, letzterer u.a. von Bakers Partnerin im semi-akustischen Slowcore-Trio TavareTristen Bakker und der wie immer magischen Lane Shi Otay:onii, die hier wie aus der Ferne eines in den Wolken kaum erkennbaren Berggipfels an der Grenze zwischen bewusster Wahrnehmung und Traum herüberschwebt.
Nadja live in Hamburg 2024
Angesichts meiner immer noch großen Lücken in der unüberschaubaren Diskographie von Nadja ist es natürlich eine etwas gewagte Aussage, doch ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass dies zu ihren filigransten, am sorgsamsten arrangierten und mit den größten Deep-Listening-Qualitäten ausgestattenen Werken zählen muss. "Cut" ist zwischen zartem Wohlklang, brutalem Crunch und fiesem Flüstern (gerne alles gleichzeitig) ein außergewöhnliches, natürlich sehr kopfhörerfreundlichs Hörerlebnis.
Und dieses lässt sich - bei Nutzung von Bandcamp-Download und Bonus-CD - über drei Stunden lang in wechselnden Varianten genießen. Denn auf dem im schicken Gatefold-Cover verpackten Vinyl gibt es nicht die selben Tracks zu hören, sondern exklusive, jeweils ein paar bis einige Minuten längere Versionen der vier Songs. Das ruhigste Stück "She Ate His Dreams From The Inside & Spat Out The Frozen Fucking Bones" ist sogar noch ein drittes Mal enthalten, und zwar als über 59(neunundfünfzig)-minüte "Forever Version".
Und alle insgesamt neun Stücke funktionieren. Die Standardversionen sind bereits großartige, sich vollständig anfühlende Songs, die von den LP-Versionen aber ohne Ballast wunderbar erweitert werden. Der einstündige CD-Track fühlt sich in seiner ewig wie das Meeresrauschen mäandernden Form allerdings schon wie eine komplett neue Komposition an. Hier wird man dem normalen Fluss von Zeit und Raum vollkommen entrissen und gleitet zu cinematischen Klängen zwischen Earth und dem Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble erhaben durch das eigene Bewusstsein. Traumhaft!
Egal in welcher Form, aber umso mehr in maximaler Vollständigkeit lässt Nadjas "Cut" nur ein Fazit zu: Doomgaze-Meisterwerk.
I must admit that I procrastinated this edition of my tape series for a while, because my tape deck (a modified Sony from the 90's) has gotten a bit erratic, just refusing to play one cassette - or just one side of a cassette - while allowing others without any discernable logic behind it. And sometimes trying back and forth multiple times until the desired music finally plays takes me out of the mood to listen to it... so yeah, I'm caught between that annoyed frustration and not wanting to look for a replacement player yet again.
Meanwhile the new tapes are beginning to pile up and I don't want to wait until I have to review a double-digit number of reviews at a time, so here we go:
RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON - Vomitorium(2024)
Let's begin this with a raging banger! But wait, I already used the Rage Against The Machine comparison with the phrase "Radar Men Against The Machine" when I talked about the Dutch Psych/Drone/Noise/whatevertheywanttodonow collective RMFTM's previous album "The Bestial Light". "Vomitorium" pushes into a similar direction and reprises the line-up with two guitars, bass and two drummers, yet introducing a new vocalist with Niels Koster.
Radar Men From The Moon live
It's hard to ultinately pin down references which apply to all eight tracks, but most of them are definitely on the aggressive side, mixing influences from Industrial Metal, Heavy Psych and Post Punk, which in the case of the second track "Psychic Warfare Now!" can lead to some strong Voivod vibes or on the title track takes us back to Temple Ov BBV, the fantastic collaborative project with Gnod. Overall however a lot of this album takes me back to classic Ministry. Especially "Altered States" with its shift to more Electronic sounds instead of guitar walls has some delicious "The Land Of Rape And Honey" flavours.
The whole album feels like Radar Men From The Moon have descended onto Earth and are rampaging through a dystopian scenery, aggressively waking people up and screaming into their faces. Undoubtly a proper soundtrack to our times!
The cassette edition comes in the familiar Tartarus Records cardboard sleeve.
THE NAUSEA - Requiem(2024)
This album I picked up after a show onboard the MS Stubnitz in September. The Nausea is a solo project of the Canadian violin/viola/cello player Anju Sing, who mixes powerful haunting Neoclassical string loops with Dark Ambient and Harsh Noise sounds and occasional evil vocals.
The Nausea live
Do you know Laibach's "Kinderreich"? If not: Drop everything right now, get your hands on the album "Kapital" and then return here! If yes: Well, you already know the general mood of "Requiem".
I called it "Pharmakon with violin" in my live review, and it's hard to come up with a better short description, even though the music feels more layered and nuanced in the studio recording. Most of all the atmosphere The Nausea is creating here is incredibly strong. If you want an album to reach its arm out of the morass, grab you and pull you down to be completely engulfed by a Dantean purgatory - this is for you!
NADJA - Querétaro (2024)
On the night I saw The Nausea I could have also grabbed this tape from the merch table. Unfortunately I had already ordered it from Zona Watusa before, so that meant waiting a couple of weeks longer.
Nadja live
There isn't much to say about this one. "Querétaro" is a recent live recording (February 2024 in Mexico) of the Doomgaze / Drone Metal duo Nadja. Four songs including the "Luminous Rot" title track and "Blurred" from "Labyrithine", all in completely instrumental rendititions. A crushing wall of rumbling bass, distortion and levitating feedback, driven by a surprisingly elaborate drum machine. The special kind of Godflesh/Jesu worship we know and love from Aidan Baker and Leah Bukareff. Over fifty minutes of hypnotic slow heaviness. What's not to like?
Maybe that the tape misses a clear indication of side A and B side, yeah. On the other hand I really dig the photo on the front, which might really be one of my favorite cover artworks of this year.
TEMPLE FANG - Live at Krach am Bach(2024)
We're staying in the realm of live music with a tape I bought at the Lazy Bones Festivalin October. And it's a really good one. How can it not be, when it's coming from the Dutch premium epic long format Psychedelic Rock masters Temple Fang. The two track setlist of their performance at the rainy Krach am Bach Festival looks pretty familiar, because it consists of the two pieces "Gemini" and "Not The Skull" from their 2020 debut "Live at Merleyn".
Temple Fang live
But already the latter being ten minutes longer tells you that this is far from being a mere rehash. The new drummer, reworked arrangement and the band's general approach of making each show its own unique beast with all the space for varying improvisations make sure of this.
I've seen them from up close five times now and from that experience alone I can assure you that Temple Fang are one of the most amazing pure, all centered around the music itself Rock'n'Roll experiences out there today. And this is a recording of a show which felt special even to their standards. I've already said it: It's a really good one!
I could be lazy and just point to my previous review in my last Veil of Stuff roundup about the last four albums I have reviewed over on Veil of Sound. Unfortunaly I had already been lazy there and pointed to the next issue of cassette craze chronicles. Damn. Well, I could still just tell you to read my VoS review, right?
Midwife live
Once again Madeline Johnston brings us a mesmerizing collection of minimalist Ambient Shoegaze. Slow clean guitars, subtle noises, far-away washed-out ethereal vocals. Beautiful songs from the road, watching America pass by through a Lynchian haze of melancholic longing. Despite being made of simple parts Midwife's Heaven Metal, as she calls it herself, occupies a unique sonic space. And it's a place you want to linger and float in for eternity. Eery, peaceful, sad and dreamy at the same time. A sound like clouds of breath forming on a cold winter day.
The artwork suits the cassette format, so it's a nice companion to "Luminol".
MIDWIFE & VYVA MELINKOLYA - Orbweaving(2023)
On the occasion of ordering the new Midwife album I also finally caught up with her last release from the previous year, which is a collaboration with Shoegaze artist Angel Diaz aka Vyva Melinkolya. Since both artists are on very similar musical wavelengths, "Orbweaving" actually doesn't sound radically different than regular Midwife albums, especially the first two songs, which were written by Madeline Johnston. The spare quiete arrangements and dreamy atmosphere are both definitely there. There are a couple more soft layers of synths, guitar and vocals though. And of course there is the title track, which stands out as a twelve minutes long excercise in pure textural Ambient music.
All in all this doesn't feel as different as I would have expected, but it still is a beautiful, soothing and captivating mini album. The artwork / layout of the tape is also a plus.
TEUFELSKELLER / TORU & CR3C3II3 - Split(2024)
But now let's get to some good old - or rather new - senseless destruction!
"Tour de Force" is quiet an apt title for the ride the exile Russian trio Teufelskeller has us saddling up for. Demon-excercising drums, relentlessly pumping bass, rumbling electronic Noise and one of the glitchiest saxophone performances in the history of instrument abuse give us thirteen minutes of raw improvisation. It's actually not as harsh as Anton Ponomarev's other project P/O Massacre, yet a bit more naturalistic somehow. Ultimately however it plays in a similar ballpark of cathartic aural assault.
Side B of this beautiful split EP belongs to the French experimental trio Toru in collaboration with Noise artist CR3C3II3. And their two tracks "Rattles Are Out" and "Rattles Are Back" are actually even wilder and more erratic, giving us their own spin of Mr. Bungle's "Disco Volante" mindset. Or they just tapped into the overheating brain of a robot on a psychotropics overdose. Very sick shit, and astonishingly rewarding, especially on headphones.
CHAT PILE - Cool World (2024)
And last but probably biggest and most-awaited... Chat Pile! This new heap of bleak misery and frustration is definetly hard to judge in comparison to its predecessor "God's Country", since the new album certainly cannot have a second "Why" or another insane bad trip like "grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg". But then "Cool World" is exclusively made out of bangers, too. Beginning with the opener "I Am Dog Now", "Camcorder", "Tape", "Masc", "Milk Of Human Kindness"... so much killers, I already know that I'll have to miss great tracks for a lack of time when I'll hopefully see them live again.
Chat Pile live
I also think that on this album it's even more appearant that probably no other band has internalized the raw sound and brutal precision of Godflesh's rhythm section as much as Chat Pile - with a very real drummer instead of a machine, mind you. Yet while the Oklahomans carry this influence openly on their sleeves, it never comes of as a copy, because it's applied too creatively and always combined with all those Post Punk, Hardcore, Grunge and Noise Rock influences which form Chat Pile's distinct sound. And on top of that there's of course Raygun Busch's no fuck's given narrative vocal performance, which pulls it off to be so resigned yet fascinating at the same time.
Chat Pile are bleak and bitter, but also just brutal fun. Their "Cool World" feels old school, but actually offers a sound of our time. And echo of rage and anger from the Eighties and Ninetines, still perservering and even amplified by the ongoing shitshow of the present. The hype remains deserved!
Puh, ich weiß gar nicht, was ich mir als Einleitung aus den Fingern saugen soll... Gestern gab es edle dröhnende Töne auf meinem liebsten Konzertschiff. Das muss als guter Grund reichen, dass ich meinen Hintern nach Hamburg bewegt habe. Und auch wenn es an Bord nicht brechend voll war, sahen dies für einen Mittwoch Abend doch eine stattliche Anzahl mit exzellentem Musikgeschmack gesegnete Besucher ähnlich.
Und nun ist es auch schon halb neun, die erste Künstlerin wartet auf der Bühne.
THE NAUSEA
Anju Sing spielt in ihrem Soloprojekt The Nausea was man am einfachsten wohl als "Teufelsgeige" beschreiben könnte. Das bedeutet allerdings nicht, dass sie in Lichtgeschwindigkeit mit Bogen und Fingern über die Saiten ihrer Violine flitzt, sondern vielmehr, dass sie mit Loops und Effekten einen sowohl von Klassik als auch extremen Metalspielarten inspirierten Industrial/Drone/Harsh Noise-Koloss schmiedet, über den gelegentlich wenig lieblich stimmlich performt wird.
"Pharmakon mit Geige" wäre vielleicht auch eine treffende Beschreibung dieses ersten Auftritts der experimentellen Kanadierin in Europa gewesen. Das war mitunter ganz schon sperrig und zermalmend - aber so muss das ja auch. Ein mächtiger ununterbrochener Wumms mit Momenten cineastischer Pracht, der vom Publikum wohlwollend angenommen wurde und eine passende Einstimmung auf den Headliner darstellte.
NADJA
Zwar war das Pult der Supportkünstlerin von der Bühne verschwunden, Anju Sing jedoch setzte sich nur ein paar Meter nach hinten, denn Nadja spielen auf dieser Tour nicht als reines Duo aus Leah Bukareff am Bassund Aidan Baker an Gitarre und zumeist nur maximal erahnbarem Shoegaze-Gesang, sondern haben tatsächlich auch ein echtes Schlagzeug im Gepäck.
Nur eine Handvoll langer langsamer, im Schiffsbauch gewaltig dröhnender Doomstücke stand auf der Setlist der Band, die ich bisher nur mit oft weit in den Hintergrund gemischter Drummaschine erlebt hatte. (2022 mit My Disco im Hafenklang und zuvor 2019 mit Esben And The Witch im Molotow) Der Effekt war beide Male gewesen, dass man aktiv in die unwirklich entrückt wirkende Musik eintauchen musste, um dann den Eindruck einer viel größeren Lautstärke als tatsächlich vorhanden zu gewinnen.
Diesmal war das Volumen von Anfang an zweifellos im großzügigen Maße, mit gröberer, organischerer Energie vorhanden. Bestimmt wurde Nadjas Sound nach wie vor vom in die Unendlichkeit wachsenden Berg aus zähflüssigen Zeitlupen-Godflesh- und -Postrockgitarren. Die diesmal etwas andere Note durch den menschlicheren Unterbau gefiel mir allerdings ausgesprochen gut.
Der Auftritt bot ein gelungenes Gleichgewicht zwischen Unmittelbarkeit und Transzendenz. Und da es auch in dieser Show keine wirkliche Pause gab, sondern alles miteinander verbunden war, hatte man bis ganz zum Ende auch viel Zeit sich innerlich in dieser magischen Dröhnmasse auszubreiten, ohne sich mit Anstrengungen wie Applaudieren abzulenken. Den finalen Jubel hatte sich die Band dann aber auch redlich verdient!
Ich freue mich jetzt schon darauf Aidan Baker (und viele andere Musiker) in einem Monat mit dem Hypnodrone Ensemble hier wiederzusehen. Und auf die MS Stubnitz geht es schon in einer Woche mit der nächsten meisterlichen Bebrummung weiter...
Phew, this edition could already feature six new tapes from my collection. But since I've already shot the pictures for these three, the rest will have to wait until part XXII. This triumvirate here is already pretty damn strong on its own anyway.
I've already reviewed the original digital version of this album two years ago, so let me just quickly translate my old text:
It could be a bad joke, and sure there are fans who basically pull out pitchforks and torches when they hear the premise, but Italian duo Nitelight actually go all in, interpreting the full-length Death album "Symbolic" (1995) new as an instrumental synthwave epic! And what can one say, other than that Chuck Schuldiner would have been overjoyed at this loving homage to his work. It's respectable alone that Nitelight recognized how well the many strong guitar melodies on this album lend themselves to being transferred into their electronic style. But to cobble together a complete nine-track album from this idea, which probably works without any prior knowledge of the progressive death metal classic, that's ingenious grunt work!
And now in its remastered form the album is even better! Plus it has a new cover artwork and it's on fucking cassette! So what's not to love? Yeah, thought so.
OPHIDIAN FOREST - Tales Of Doom And Ignorance(2022)
Drums recorded 2016. Keyboards recorded in 2018/2019. Guitars, bass and vocals recorded in 2020. And now finally released in 2022. Yes, one can say that Ophidian Forest took their sweet time with this album. But then this project featuring Botanist drummer Otrebor is a transatlantic American/Dutch operation, there has obviously been the plague - and the music of these five average ten minutes long songs isn't three-chord garage punk either, but a slightly more ambitious blend pf progressive and black metal. As such it often risks seeking closeness to guitar and keys harmony kitsch, but luckily always either does it with cringe-less class or remembers the joys of dissonance right in time. "Tales Of Doom And Ignorance" is an album on which quite a load of great things are happening - and I must admit that I haven't spun this one often enough yet to process them all. On the other hand I've already familiarized myself enough with this epic creative endeavour to determine its overall greatness. The performances and atmosphere on here are both worth digging into. It's an enthralling take on black metal you don't hear everyday.
The album is out on CD and a cassette edition of not 50, not 100, but only 10 copies. Most of those are still available though, so don't sleep on this one, taperians!
Yes, the prolific duo Nadja has already released another new album! There are different versions of "Labyrinthine" from various worldwide labels out there, and it was a no-brainer for me to choose the WV Sorcerer Productions edition, not only because shipping from the US, Australia or Japan would have been more expensive, but simply because I trusted that this one would surely be beautiful.
The concept of the album is collaborative, with four long tracks, each featuring another guest on lead vocals. Maybe the idea was a more yin yang type of presentation, but WV Sorcerer, also typically adding Chinese ideographs to the titles, changed the sequence of songs compared to the digital copy on Bandcamp, so that both tracks with male vocalists are on A and the female leads are on B. That's also the order in which I'm writing about them - even though the whole works in any shuffle play chronology.
Both versions however start with the incredibly bleak title track. This slow industrial drone metal with vocals as tortured as relentless, contributed by Alan Dubin (Khanate, Gnaw), is the most brutally hopeless Nadja can sound. "Necroausterity 即身成佛" with Full Of Hell's Dylan Walker isn't a sunny walk in the park either. The monotonous slow boom of Leah Buckareff's bass matches the now much more in-the-face misanthropy of the ferocious vocal performance perfectly. This nineteen minutes long has a couple of moments and even a long run where it's interwoven with subtle ambient sounds, but that doesn't make enduring it any less of an ordeal. And don't get me wrong: This is brilliant!
The B side then brings some much needed release with two songs much easier to listen to, featuring two vocalist who I admire a lot, the first being Esben And The Witch's Rachel Davies on "Rue 悔恨". Not that Aidan Baker's guitar is eschewing some incredibly depressing Jesu chords on this track too, but the emotional purity and clarity of Davies' voice make this a much warmer, more intimate experience than the alienating harshness of the previous half of the album. And the climax of the track is just gold. And as you think that the lead vocals couldn't possibly get more expressive on this album, there comes the final piece "Blurred 迷離" featuring an absolutely amazing Lane Shi Otayonii (Elizabeth Colour Wheel, two fantasticsolo albums as Otay:onii on WV Sorcerer), who elevates "Labyrinthine 如迷宮" to new epic, sometimes almost mystical heights.
If you only allow yourself one Nadja release a year - this has to be the one!
While I still haven't figured out the right place keep my oversized Wormrot box, which I reviewed in the last edition of this series, I already got myself another multiple-album collection from the merch table at the Nadja show in Hamburg. Thankfully this one's sized a bit more reasonable. This box plus a double cassette in a butterfly case and one just normal tape makes already six tapes again, so damn, this write-up is really overdue.
NADJA + VAMPILLIA - Trilogy (3MC box) (2021)
including:
NADJA + VAMPILLIA - The Perfect World(2013)
NADJA + VAMPILLIA - Imperfection (2014)
NADJA + VAMPILLIA - Artificial Act of God (2018)
"The Perfect World" is a fitting title for the 2013 collaboration between the two prolific bands Nadja and Vampillia. The Canadian drone metal/shoegaze/industrial duo and the Japanese "brutal orchestra" melted guitar, bass and drum machine from one side and piano, strings, occasional extreme vocals and more guitars from the other side together to a ginormous wall of beautiful droning emotion. Jesu meets Subrosa? That works as a hinto into the direction, but the magnitude of this sound goes beyond any comparison of this kind. I get that the partially long lingering on rather formless ambience isn't everyone's cup of tea, but still - rightfully this record, which brings brutal slow motion riffs, cold electronic drums and breathtaking classical elements together so seemigly effortless, should be huge in doom and adjacent scenes! It's no wonder that the collaborators came together for more again.
Where "The Perfect World" finished with the twenty-four minutes large mammoth track "Icelight" its successor "Imperfection" carried the torch with two similarily huge instrumental chunks. Both "Imperfect World" and "NeuPrimitive" present the formula of the joint collective in an even bigger and more consequent way, adding more layers of bombast and brutal Sunn O))) rumbling. With a much longer time between releases "Artificial Act of God" perfected the sound to its grandest form, added the element of partly unexpectedly grind-jazzy live drums and finished the trilogy with touches of even more avant-garde and Mono post rock. Larger than life!
Which album ultimately is the best remains an open question I don't even want to try to answer. But all three together, as compiled by Bad Moon Rising in this box, which is limited to a hundred copies, provide an experience of swansy proportions.
MIDWIFE - Luminol (glitter MC) (2021)
A shorter and much more intimate sound embraces us on Madeline Johnston aka Midwife's mini album "Luminol". Her stripped down singer/songwriter shoegaze sounds exactly like I remember it from her mesmerizing appearance on this year's Roadburn Festival. Minimalistic and veiled by an eery haze, yet ultimately endlessly beautiful this half-way stop between doom and dream pop never fails to pull you close to the artist's soul.
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD - Live in Brisbane `21 (Needlejuice red glitter + blue glitter 2MC) (2022)
Let's end this thing less melancholic with a sonically rather light and jammy side of the hardest working band in Australian psychedelic rock (and beyond)! Can anyone still count even their studio albums? With the material free to use as official bootlegs it gets even harder to comprehend. Well, at least this live recording in itself doesn't present any hard challenge for the listener. Performing mostly pre-"Nonagon Infinity" material (except some songs from the last of the five 2017 albums "Gumboot Soup") King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard go unplugged in this chill live performance, so besides drums, bass and acoustic guitars it's all harmonica, flutes, piano, mellotron and saxophone here.
Fourteen tracks already sound like something, but if you consider that there are also a couple of long jams like the opener "The River" (sixteen minutes) or "The Bitter Boogie" (twelve minutes) in here, it almost seems like a no-brainer to release this gem on double-cassette. I'm not brave or stupid enough to call this my favorite Gizz release of 2022 yet, but being a live show recording it plays in another category then the five studio albums - yes, they're doing that again! - of this year anyway. So just let me conclude this text by saying that "Live in Brisbane '21" is super enjoyable to listen to, the only live album of the band so far, which immediately rang my must buy alert after listening to just one song online. Relaxing good times galore!
