ALBATRE at Gârden - livestream, May 30th 2022

Even though "real" shows are a thing again - at least for now -, there's nothing wrong with recommending an awesome livestream, right?

I just watched avant-jazz extremists Albatre live at Gârden and damn that looked and sounded great! The trio which I last witnessed in April at Roadburn Festival even played some new, unreleased material with strong arabichaotical vibes. Mindblowing stuff!

The show can be rewatched HERE! It's well worth it.

ÅRABROT - Live at The Church ("Norwegian Gothic Release")

First things first: Today I finally, finally received my "Feel It On" vinyl bundle of the (still?) new Årabrot album "Norwegian Gothic" and the EP "The World Must Be Destroyed"!

And what can I say? We already know that it's one of the best albums of 2021. But these physical versions of the LP and the accompanying 10" EP are extra dope:

How fitting that when the parcel service brought my Pelagic Records package, I was just rewatching yesterday's premiere of the album's release show. Half an hour of the band in trio format, playing in the church in rural Norway Sweden (damn, you bastards had me confused!), where they not only shot the cover photograph and several videos and played a great unplugged streaming show in September 2020, but where they actually live and preach the religion of Rock'n'Roll.

Even though I'm missing a little of the bass brutality from the record, it's pretty awesome.

Watch it here (as long as it's still online):

MAGMA dans Ground Control (ARTE concerts)

While slowly things begin to happen again and at least the vaccined among us are contemplating where and when to return to some kind of live music live, all with the menacing possibility of new mutations shutting everything down again, watching shows on the screen remains the primal surrogate for now.

Yesterday the French Arte TV premiered a stream of one of the best live bands (still) in existence of all times with a nothing short of mind-blowing rendition of their classic "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh", recorded with a line-up including monster bassist Jannick Top's son Jimmy and six singers (plus one keyboard player on vocals and drummer/mastermind Christian Vander having his Coltrane-worshipping vocal improvisation solo) in Paris on July 22nd.

Just watch the video below my faux (screenshot) live photographs and witness a band founded in 1969 still at the top of their unmatched game!

There is just nothing in the world like it. Period.

VOIVOD - Hybercube Session III - Dimension Hatröss

 

Fuck yeah, here we are again! Just a couple of weeks after them playing "Nothingface" in full, Voivod just presented another stream from their Hypercube, this time dedicated to the previous album classic "Dimension Hatröss".

In itself this isn't quite as big as a deal as the last streaming event, since that album had been performed live before, most notibly of course in Tilburg in 2012, which started my own whole Roadburn Festival history, which led to countless doors to rabbit hole after rabbit hole opening...

This was still more than just worthwhile to watch though, because again the performance and production were just amazing. With all "Dimension Hatröss" songs having been in their setlists before, the band played even more seasoned and confident, while the filming and video production also stepped up a notch.
But above all the sound, man! The sound was just crazy good again. It's no exegarration to say that these tracks have been heard so clearly and powerful before.

This time there was just one break in the middle of the album, in which Snake told the story of old gear boxes, which were stored at Jason Newsted's studio since the last Ozzfest show of the Jasonic era line-up in 2003. One guitar crate of the great late Piggy felt like a time capsule and included two still working space toy weapons.

In the live performance these two guns reappeared when Voivod played that one song they had switched against "Jack Luminous" at Roadburn eleven years ago, the "Hatröss" CD version bonus track, their infamous cover version of the good old "Batman" theme. Big fun including the fitting video projections.

Once again the Canadian sci-fi thrash legends made the absolute most of this whole streaming world we are (almost) all still living in.
Should all these Hypercube Session be released as one Blu Ray/CD bundle or something similiar one day, that might just be not only the ultimate nostalgic release for old fans, but a great place to start the Voivod journey for beginners.

VOIVOD - Hypercube Session II - Nothingface

Even being vaccinated twice and with the voices of bonkers covidiots getting quiter I'm still not convinced that I'll attend an actual live music show any time soon.

And even though everybody knows that a livestream can never in any way be the same thing, it is still amazing to see the amount of effort and love you can actually put into those to make them into something really special on their own. The whole Roadburn Redux has been so spectacular and innovative that I've already decided that no matter how many "real" shows I will or won't see during the rest of 2021, I will surely include a couple of the best streams alongside the hopefully still to come offline shows in my end-of-the-year-list looking back on live events.

Voivod will undoubtly be among the chosen artists - and not just because they are Voivod, but because they definitely walked the extra mile for their full performance of the legendary 1989 "Nothingface" album.

I've only heard the greatest things about their first "Hypercube Session" last year, so I am glad that I could catch this one. Being effected quite a lot by lockdown restrictions Voivod weren't able to rehearse together for ten months, before they met inside a recording studio, where the band, their sound engineer - and later the film and production team - worked their asses off to deliver a complete live rendition of this unique mind-melter of prog / punk / space / thrash metal classic, which also incorporates influences from Strawinsky and even some playfully, almost jazzy parts.

And what can I say - especially given the fact that Chewy and Rocky, whose bass performance was the secret star of this show, were only very young fans when "Nothingface" came out and some of its tracks have actually never been played live by any incarnation of the band, the result is simply stunning. Sound, camera and above all the perfect and joyful performance by everyone set standards hard to be matched.
Since there was no stage - and hardly a real room -, it felt like like being locked in this hybercube together with the band. You weren't sitting on the drumkit like on a certain Ryan Porter album that springs to my mind, but it was as close as you can get without the sound getting bad, haha.

Inbetween some of the songs there were short sequences of each band member telling anecdotes about songs or their connection to "Nothingface", of which especially the enthusiasm of (again) Chewy and Rocky was very infectious.

After the first screening of the stream their even was a Zoom chat with the band including past members Eric Forrest and Jason Newsted. I didn't see that one, but some confirmed rumours from it are that the "Hypercube Sessions" (the next one is going to be "Dimension Hatröss") will probably be released in some physical form one day, and that - just like for "The Outer Limits" a vinyl reissue of "Angel Rats" is being planned.

So despite the grim times... I suppose it's at least good to be a Voivodian, right?