SOPHIA DJEBEL ROSE und PLASTIQ live im M1, Hamburg (09. März 2025)

Es ist immer schön, wenn man kurzfristig die Möglichkeit bekommt, gerade erst entdeckte spannende Musik live zu sehen. Im Fall von Sophia Djebel Rose, deren neuestes Album "Sécheresse" ich vor kurzem auf Veil of Sound rezensiert habe, war dies eine besonders glückliche Fügung, nicht nur aufgrund des praktischen Wochenendtermins, sondern auch angesichts der Tatsache, dass die französisch-marokkanische Solokünstler ja nur drei Shows in Deutschland spielte, was an sich alles andere als eine Garantie dafür ist, dass der (echte) Norden auch abgedeckt wird.

Schauplatz war das Kulturzentrum M1 in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg. Unter hoher stuckverzierter Altbaudecke erwartete einen wohnzimmerhaftes Ambiente und weiche Sitzgelegenheiten. Und wer auf den Sofas keinen Platz mehr fand oder näher an der Musik sein wollte, der schneidersetzte sich einfach entspannt auf den Boden.

PLASTIQ

Den Anfang machte die hamburger Gruppe Plastiq, anscheinend regulär ein Trio, doch zumindest an diesem Abend als Duo in der Bücherecke aufgestellt. Mit Elektrogedöns, Loops, unkonventionell gespielter Geige und Kalimba erinnerte der klanglich popaffine, allerdings sehr experimentelle Auftritt in seiner kauzigen Leichtigkeit ein wenig an Spill Gold, war jedoch im Vergleich filigraner. Hundertprozentig abgeholt wurde ich hier zugegebenermaßen nicht immer, doch im Großen und Ganzen gefiel mir die Geschichte. Gerade die Gesangsharmonien und die On/Off-Beats waren sehr interessant.

SOPHIA DJEBEL ROSE

Alleine, nur mit Gitarre, Mikrofon und Effektboard trat danach die moderne Avantgarde-Troubadorin (oder heißt es Troubadoresse?) Sophia Djebel Rose auf und verzauberte mit ihrer spannenden Mischung aus Noise und Chanson, atmosphärischen Fragmenten und berührendem Songwriting. Das war nicht immer leichteste Kost, soll es aber auch nicht sein. Dass sich hin und wieder, teilweise für ganze Lieder auf den Boden kniete, um neben Gesang und Gitarre auch ihr Effektboard ins Spiel zu bringen, funktierte im Setting dieser Location natürlich gut, da sie sich dadurch ja auf Augenhöhe mit dem Publikum begab. Wie erwartet bildete die mittelalterliche Ballade "Blanche Biche", mit dem sie ihr Set abschloss, auch den Höhepunkt des Abends. Was für dramatisches Lied!

Auch wenn es von meinem Parkplatz aus weit zu laufen war, tut man dies für so ein schönes Konzert natürlich gerne. Klanglich könnte ich mir durchaus vorstellen, diese Künstlerin noch einmal beeindruckender zu erleben, da das Setup passend zum intimen Umfeld ja recht sparsam ausfiel. Und ich bin einfach mal zuversichtlich, diese Gelegenheit  eines Tages auch noch zu bekommen. Liest der Booker der MS Stubnitz mit?

Und hier das Konzertposter - in der Wildnis und domestiziert:

PAINKILLER - The Equinox

Rejoice! We have a trilogy!

PAINKILLER - The Equinox (CD) (2025)

Last year's return and reimagination of the John Zorn / Bill Laswell / Mick Harris cult trio PainKiller wasn't a one-off, but only the first of three releases with the new less improvisational approach of ex-drummer Harris laying down a foundation of Electronic beats and sounds and the other players adding bass and saxophone on top. "The Equinox" totally follows this blueprint introduced on "Samsara", but!

Well, to be completely honest writing this review is one of those rather futile excercises, where you cannot really add anything not already covered by the album's own hype text on the OBI strip. And I even accidentily got two of those in my copy, as if Tzadik thought they weren't mocking my attempt enough already.

So the short and probably sufficient version is that the album does everything its predecessor does, but more refined, more dynamic and with more variety. Harris' groundwork is significantly more complex, Laswell's Dub and Fusion bass lines sit tighter on his even wilder breakbeats and even deeper and more atmospheric Ambient textures. And Zorn is just... really everything he can be on the saxophone, delivering a plethora of both shrill outbursts and achingly beautiful warm melodies.

But where's the news here? You know these guys are masters, legends even in their fields. "Samsara" was the already amazing warm-up in their new Ambient Electronic Jazzcore Techno Noise constellation. "The Equinox" shows their further adaption and improvement of the workflow. The result is Future Jazz PainKiller, part 2: The Masterpiece?

I'm very curious to hear how in hell and on Earth they will follow this up with "The Great God Pan" next month!

A spectacle of Sorcery with FLUFLAFEN, KHUNATHI, MAGRAVA, TORU, ZAÄAR and ZAGUŠLJIVI DIM

You know it by now, there are few releases by the French-Chinese one-man label WV Sorcerer Productions I can resist. So most of the time Ruò Tán sends me a package in contains albums from different pre-orders, just what has come out of the pressing plant recently.

Well last time I received my biggest bunch so far, as my purchases had accumulated to eight releases - so what you're seeing above isn't even all! I have already reviewed the Ghostmass tape in the latest edition of my cassette craze chronicles and the fantastic new album of Sophia Djebel Rose over on Veil of Sound.

So here's - only - the rest of this bunch:

MAGRAVA - Et Attendre (CD) (2022)

Yes, this is one album I didn't buy immediately, since it is a pricy one for a CD, especially if you choose the version which includes photographic artwork on glass plates - which I didn't. Still the presentation of the Black Edition in a black envelope with stamped in print and two thick cardboards, of which one also holds the CD, is quite special. It's not the most practical thing I must admit though. Especially getting the disc of its mount can be a pain in the ass.

The musical reward however is at least worth it. It's the live recording of improvisations by the Experiminental musicians Rodolphe Laubatière (drums) and Cyril Meysson (guitar), which is obviously a direction other artists on WV Sorcerer have explored before. But besides Sheng Jie with Shen Jing or Li Jianghong I also feel reminded of works from thisquietarmy, Jörg Schneider or the Free Post Rock duo Miira. Especially the twenty-five-minute centerpiece "S'Inverser Entre Soi" is an expressive tornado of Noise, while the following "Hors Séparateurs" almost abstractly explores the deepest depths of minimalist Drone.

ZAÄAR - Ovules (CD) (2025)

Recorded in three sessions in Belgium Zaäar's "Ovules" is a new mini live album by the improvistional primeval Jazz collective. The 7" sized packaging of the CD suggests a kinship to the similarly presented "Musique Cryptique" and indeed this almost feels like a continuation. But while the quintet line-up is the same there are some key differences in how the cosmic creative chaos emerges this time.

We're not following them inside a natural cave and back with an electric bass instead of an amplified santur - and generally a slightly lower proportion of folkoristic sounds - Zaäar commit themselves more to the huge and heavy side of their sound, with several passages crossing the threshold to the Industrial/Noise intensity and droning Doom Metal of their sister collective Neptunian Maximalism. Which of course still puts "Ovules" way outside of your conventional Jazz or Rock experience.

Zaäar are planters of surreal megafloral fern gardens. Wandering in them is a passage to timeless raw spirituality, pre-civilizational freedom. Or maybe just an awesome Psychedelic Jazz jam. Music before music, once more.

FLUFLAFEN - Sorcery Sauce (Lime Green vinyl LP) (2023/2025)

We're still staying in the field of completely improvised music with the vinyl reissue of FluFlaFen's self-released debut album. The line-up of the Chinese trio consists of drums, electric guitar and clarinet, a constellation which reminds me of the Polish Avantgarde project -S-. And indeed there's a certain kinship in aethetics and spirit. For the most part however the music on "Sorcery Sauce" must be labeled as Heavy Free Jazz with Classical and Progressive Rock influences.

FluFlaFen are not the types for endless jams with slow changes. No, they have the ability to contain their improvisations from beautifully emotive motifs to chaotic outbursts with chugging guitar and screaming clarinet in relatively small doses with many twists and turns. This leads to the fascinating effect that while created on the spot a lot of stuff happening within these eleven tracks could easily be the result of weeks of compositional Math.

The production is very immediate and satisfying, especially the panning of the drums - just listen to the drum solo which starts "German Shepherd"! Exciting brain-swirling stuff.

TORU - Velours Dévorant (Smoke vinyl LP) (2025)

In typical WV Sorcerer fashion we're flying back from China to France with a band at least equally as mental as FluFlaFen. Toru however are both more chaotic and more systematic - it's like the same spirit, but channeled by Noise Rock / Math Metal band. This is loud, wild, bonkers. New York Jazz Metal vibes meet Brötzmann meet Aluk Todolo and Ni.

And these five instrumental tracks are not rapidly firing on full attack all the time. There's not only room for beautiful Post Rock layering or jazzy freakouts, but also for long quiet deep listening passages, after which the next assault hits all the harder. Toru just get the hang of pulling off a perfectly balanced, unpredictable mess of the musical and the ridiculous. "Velours Dévorant" is a killer album. And what is it about France with all those amazing Avantgarde Metal bands there?

ZAGUŠLJIVI DIM - Durchfall der Lebensmaschine (Purple Doom vinyl LP) (2025)

"Diarrhea of the Life Machine" - now that's an album title. This combined with samples from 1970's Croatian horror fantasy cinema as well as German-American psycho analyst Erich Fromm and a Russian Patriarch already indicates that Zagušljivi Dim are not your usual let's get high and jam band.

Not long after "Dolina Kralja Viktora" Suffocating Smoke are back with their special take on Psychedelic Rock and once again it feels as if the Croations are reinventing themselves twice as often as there are songs on the album (which is four this time). The trio actually doesn't even keep its line-up for the whole forty-two minutes, as two different bass players are credited and the electronics-heavy second track "Milost Za Milost" is performed solely by guitar / synth player Martin Geček and a drum machine.

"Durchfall der Lebensmaschine" is a kind of weird and enigmatic, but always catchy roller coaster ride which includes ecstatic uptempo freakouts, jaunts into Düsseldorf and Berlin school and almost Industrial Electronics as well as rumbling Stoner Rock / Metal, Library Music sounds and even the folk-ish spaghetti western Waltz ("Trinaesterokutno Krivnalo") you never knew you desperately needed in your life.

This is a fantastic fearless Neo-Krautrock album and definitely a step up from the already great debut.

丘瑙底河 KHUNATHI - 潮氣吹過後山破廟時 Misty Mountain Pagoda (Smoke vinyl LP) (2025)

Last but not least in this frankly pretty spectacular selection of albums Khunati's "Misty Mountain Pagoda" fully embraces both a powerful Rock sound and the dreamy escapist side of Psych, which is aided by instruments like the Japanese shakuhachi, overtone flute, tabla, dagu and singing bowl on the all-Asian side and mandolin and udu on the European and African sides. With inspirations borrowed, but not strictly authentically derived from ethnic traditions, this album is all about vivid imagination, a positively naive fantasy journey through strange beautiful lands and exciting adventures.

The Chinese quartet is by the way also only the second band after Zaäar here with (not sampled or narrated) occasional lead vocals. In its excellently delivered purity - both in the mystical experimentalism and the straight-forwardly rocking, sometimes surprisingly punkish parts "Misty Mountain Pagoda" is just an enormous inspiring joy to listen to.

In the center of the expectedly harmonious cover artwork there is a noticeable empty area. My take is that this a canvas we're meant to fill in our heads with the images Khunati are painting. Luckily those are plenty.

The black and transparent vinyl Smoke pressing of this gem are already sold out, so WV Sorcerer has just released a new Silver Stone edition. 

MARCH attacks! with ALITILA, GHOSTSMOKER, MINERALL and ODDATEE

Yes, it's quite possible that these kinds of all over the place monthly previews become a regular series. But then also maybe not. Really depends on how much promos I find attractive. These four definitely fit the bill:

MINERALL - Strömung (release: March 14th 2025)

I recently listened to Minerall's debut "Bügeln" again after a hiatus of give or take two months - and I must admit I had forgotten how good that stuff is. The two new longtracks from the Krautrock "super trio" consisting of Marcel Cultrera (Speck), Tommy Handschick (Kombynat Robotron) and Dave "Sula Bassana" Schmidt have been glued together and pimped with synths and effects by the man behind Sulatron Records from material recorded on the same weekend in January 2023 which birthed "Bügeln".

Appearantly the three were in a glorious jam mood back then, because these new forty minutes are just as strong. Even while not basically being one uninterrupted recording like the predecessing record, this doesn't feel like an assemblance of leftovers at all. "Strömung" ("current") and "Welle" ("wave") seem to have more variety and cosmic vibes - and damn, do I dig the Noise Rock attack in the last third of the finale! -, but ultimately it's close to impossible to judge which album is better than the other one. And who cares? For fans of improvised powerful Psychedelic Rock checking this out should pretty much be a no-brainer. 

GHOSTSMOKER - Inertia Cult (release: March 21st 2025)

On a heavier note from the other side of the globe Australian Sludge crawlers Ghostsmoker combine their bonecracking take on primitive Conan caveman battle Doom and colossal Bongripper riff worship with sick bodyvoidish throat disease vocals and atmospheric  Ambient / Post Metal influences, Drone and Noise for good measure. The bass sound of this album alone - purring like a galaxy-sized space cat resting inside a black hole - would make listening to "Inertia Cult" a satisfying experience.

But fortunately that isn't quiet enough for the quartet yet, so they also filter their eery brutal sound into six well-written songs. Asphxiating and cathartic. That's probably how it feels to actually smoke and inhale an undead spirit.

ALITILA - Spruce (release: March 25th 2025)

The most abstract and puzzling album of this bunch comes from the Finnish-American Electronic trio Alitila. Glitches and waves of Ambient weaved together in progressive experimental arrangements are equally as important as chaotic Noise, brutal uneven rhythm attacks and harsh vocals of the Blackened Industrial variety.

Clustered and fragmented it's hard to definitely make sense of what these seven tracks might mean, but they carry a self-consistent, demanding yet not unnerving dark energy in them, which I just find very compelling, especially since half an hour is just the right length for this sound not to overstay its welcome.

ODDATEEE - Rabbit Season (release: March 26th 2025)

Oddateee is an ex-member of crushing Hip Hop crew Dälek, so even though his solo work surely isn't home in the Industrial / Drone / Harsh Noise realm of heaviness, you can be sure the rumbling bass on this twelve-track album will still make your stomach vibrate in synchronicity with the Earth's core. You can also be assured that "Rabbit Season" is as real and political as anything the group has ever done. The flow of Oddatee and his guests, and the groove and production of the beats however feel very much more like a throwback to the Nineties.

Now please don't accuse me of pretending to be an expert, because I'm clearly not and  know it. The genre as a whole is not my comfort zone. But there have always been those artists that immediately made my head bop and think yeah. And what those - from the "Judgement Night" collaborations to Clipping. - ultimately all have in common is what a lot of mainstream Hip Hop lacks: compelling instrumentals. Usually if the music cannot stand on its own, the best raps won't save it for me.

And damn, this shit is on fire: The raw, often minimalist Golden Age foundation is not only produced satisfyingly fat, but also adorned with purposefully placed atmospheric sounds from pianos, synths, samples and guitars, providing gripping eeriness and elevation. So yeah, this "Dumb Shit" comes with a "Bang". There's serious sonic depth, a dangerous rabbit with plenty of meat on the bone.

MARSHALL ALLEN - New Dawn

Just by still being an active musician Marshall Allen naturally breaks or expands records all the time now, no matter what he's doing. And one record that will be especially hard to break for anyone else is the recording and release of his debut album at the respectable age of 100 years. Naturally this kind of news also reaches an unfamiliar audience, so I found it quite amusing to read gratulating social media comments from people who clearly thought the man has only just discovered music as a new retiree's hobby, without knowing that in truth he already entertained his fellow soldiers during the Second World War and without any hyperbole can be counted among the most legendary Jazz musicians alive.

MARSHALL ALLEN - New Dawn (LP) (2025)

It's easy to forgive the uninitiated, because the saxophonist has never gained a household name status of the Parker/Davis/Coltrane/Monk kind, which even people not interested in music at all would somehow recognize. And the reason for that certainly is not a lack of achievements or recorded works, but rather that most of those just manifested in the shadow of a greater name: groundbreaking visionary and Aftro-futurist Sun Ra.

In the late 1950's Allen became Sun Ra's protégé and a key player in his Arkestra, his signature style not only on sax but later also electronic wind instruments being a major component of the ensemble's sound ever since. For the last thirty years since Ra's ascendence he has even led the Arkestra himself, only during the last couple of years being absent from live shows far from Philadelphia. I'm lucky that I could witness him here, abroad in Germany, twice at the age of 94 and 95 - and his performance was still absolutely on fire!

Marshall Allen live 2019 

Obviously the idea for this record didn't come up because Marshall Allen felt that he still had to prove anything. It's pretty safe to assume that this humble gentleman didn't care at all about the fact that he had never recorded anything solely under his own name. But when the idea was brought to him, he was joyfully onboard. So just a couple of days after his first three-digit birthday he went into the studio with a premiere selection of musicians - many also members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, among them multi-intrumentalist Knoel Scott as arranger - to bring seven of his compositions to life.

And "New Dawn" has become a great showcase of his musical spectrum.
After a sweet short cosmic "Prologue" we are immediately exposed to the warm light of the "African Sunset", which combines a classic big band sound with longing strings and Allen's electronic trills as a retro-futuristic Space Age juxtaposition.
For the rest of the album he mostly switches to alt saxophone and a mostly warm harmonious performance, which especially compliments the guest in the title song, a beautiful Vocal Jazz piece sung achingly smoothly by Neneh Cherry.
"Are You Ready" then closes the first side on a more upbeat note with a tradional big band swing with bluesy guitar, in which several players take the spotlight for solos. Marshall Allen only positions himself as one among many players, always putting theteam above himself. Certainly the piece here which would fit... second most seamlessly into a classic Arkestra setlist.

The most exciting stuff however happens on side B. "Sonny's Dance" begins much more intimate, like a Free Jazz performance in a small smoky club. It's a rhythmically much more complex and feels more self-indulgent in the best way that makes Jazz haters take to their heels.
Sprawling over almost ten and a half minutes the following "Boma" is a careless jam over a funky Latin groove which I could enjoy forever.
The album closes with the smallest instrumentation and a very familiar bass line, unmistakingly belonging to a tune written by Allen and Ronnie Boykins in the 1960's, "Angels And Demons At Play".

If you want to criticize without class you can complain that this is neither the hugest nor the most innovative Jazz record ever - it his however an absolutely fresh sounding reminder of the fact that this guy has actually co-innovated all this stuff long before most of us were even born. So no, I won't look for hairs swimming in this soup. It tastes way to delicious for that! 

CAUSA SUI - Loppen 2024

It hasn't been too long since Causa Sui's studio record "From The Source", which came out only last year. And even the Danish Psychedelic instrumentalists' last live album from the location Loppen in freetown Christiana, Copenhagen, "Loppen 2021" has only just been released in 2023.

But here we already go again with "Loppen 2024"!  

CAUSA SUI - Loppen 2024 (randomly coloured ecomix vinyl 12" + 10") (2025)

Without the particular circumstance of following a long pandemic-caused pause in live music events, this show surely took place under different omens, back to just freely jamming without additional pressure. So the general vibe certainly is a little different. The further and obviously more important reason to justify this release however is the completely different tracklist.

While there's the similarity of prioritizing the band's heavier, fuzzier Rock side, not a single song from "Loppen 2024" is repeated from "Loppen 2021". Instead a big part of the show obviously consists of the strong material "From The Source", including a twenty-two minutes long rendition of the multi-part epic "Visions Of A New Horizon". And with that varied journey along you also get plenty enough of the dreamy, playful, jazzy sides of the band. The rest of the tracks haven't been part of a live album for long - or ever - too, so any chances of Causa Sui finally beginning to bore you remain waferthin.
So if you're thinking of sitting this one out - sorry, this is too good!

Besides the timeless, very well-recorded (especially love the drum sound and the swirling keys here) musical greatness the typical El Paraiso presentation of the double LP is a beautiful argument pro adding this to your collection as well.
The running order of the digital/CD version is a little different, since the spots of "The Spot" and "Visions" have been changed on the vinyl release, which allows this to be a combination of a 12" and a 10" record. Visually I can only judge my personal copies, since these come on eco-friendly randomly coloured wax. So in this regard my favorite side is the very vivid B, while the dark green of C and D is ok, but not the most exciting specimen I've seen.

Yet even if all four sides looked like a turd swimming in sullage, I'd be very happy with this album, which certainly boosts my anticipatory excitement of seeing Causa Sui live at Esbjerg Fuzztival again in a couple of months.

digital delights with COLLIGNON, SENYAWA, SUBSCUM and THE LORD

Yeah, this combination of artworks looks weird. And no, I'm not exactly looking for coherence when I'm putting together quadruple reviews like this. These are just four of the most recent digital additions to my collection.

SENYAWA - Samudera (2025)

The Indonesian Experimental duo has started a series of releases containing previously unreased tracks, And that's really all the information we get about this EP. No backround about when and where "Samudera 01" to "Samudera 04" were recorded, just the pure music.

And that music is a bit atypical, since the insane vocal shenanigans of Rully Shabara are absent for half of the tracks, where instead we get a chaotic backdrop of Ambient sounds and samples, above which the Industrial or soft acoustic instrumentation of Wukir Suryadi.
The third track however is a slow Drone which heavily relies on multiple layer of vocals, before we go back to a rhythmic sound collage closer to the beginning again.

Even for Senyawa's standards this EP feels very unconventional, more like a collection of aural sketches than actual songs, and at times surely closer to Suryadi's solo stuff than what we're used to from the band. This material frankly isn't as strong as their albums, but it certainly is interesting and expands the context of their creative work.

THE LORD - (like) Christ Naked Ice (2025)

Inspired by French composer Olivier Maessiaen comes a new eleven-minute track by Sunn O)))) member Greg Anderson aka The Lord.

The rich Drone Metal tone of his crawling guitar is paired with a clerical atmosphere and... not really a really big melody, but a very pronounced sense of it. There is a curve, a build-up, as if the song was reaching for a mountain ridge it never quite reaches. A suspenseful piece of Drone goodness from one of the prime masters.

COLLIGNON - Bicicleta (2025)

Ok, I hear you! Let's get some happier, easier digestable stuff! Collignon from Portugal are a musically colourful, Progressive but very danceable Instrumental World Psych trio. Incorporating influences from all over the globe (Latin, Afro-Beat, Asian Disco) into their very percussive upbeat Rock they sound somehow like a halfway stop between Yīn Yīn and Mohama Saz with a strong focus on a wide array of keyboard sounds.

Written on tour "Bicicleta" exudes a lot of positive travelling vibes, making this a perfect summer party album. So maybe the release in February is a little early? Nah, I guess people have to be made addicted to this before the outdoor chillaxation season begins. This is just fun - and prove that party music definitely doesn't have to be stupid.

So far "Bicicleta" is the only release of this bunch, which is not exclusively digital, but also available on vinyl.

SUBSCUM - Massgrave Summit (2025)

The name of the band in connection with the cover artwork strongly suggests an inspiration by Napalm Death's classic "Scum" and that this is not for the (always right-wing) Keep-poltics-out-of-music! crowd.

And how could a Grindcore / Extreme Punk quartet from Kiew of all places possible not be political and vocal against the authoritarian powers which now seemingly want to divide Ukraine among themselves?

The language of Subscum's outcry is a pure heavily grooving and explosively blasting brutal Grind attack of five tracks in ten minutes with titles loke "Genosiege", "Radical Infantilism" or "Cognitive Massacre". So don't expect any reiventions of the wheel here; you'll get exactly what the cover promises, which is absolutely fine.

And since all proceeds are forwarded to victims of Putin's war, you're also supporting a good cause.

WYATT E. - zamāru ultu qereb ziqquratu Part 1 / WYATT E. - Live at Roadburn 2022

Belgian Mystic Drone Doom entity Wyatt E. is back with a new work so biblically epic, it cannot be finished on just one album.

(If you order that album directly from the band however, you might get a free live recording on top of it.)

WYATT E. - Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu Part 1 (gold vinyl LP) (2025)

Where "Āl Bēlūti Dārû" consisted of just two mammoth tracks, the trio now spreads its ideas on five songs. And since each one explores a different direction - with some being garnished with guest viola or stunning vocal performances by Nina Saedi and Tomer Damsky - the overall impression is that the familiar epochal vibe may be chopped into smaller pieces, but with the album certainly being more versatile that makes the story it tells even bigger.

Even without the guest appearences Wyatt E. use their regular instrumentation, which besides drums, bass and guitar includes a lot of further percussion, synth and saz, in manifold ways, expanding their own cosmos. It's a sonic Holy Land of Near and Middle Eastern sounds and melodies, fantastic Dead Can Dance and Post Rock atmospheres embedded into a base of droning ritualistic Doom.

Yes, Bong worshippers - yet not only them - should naturally love this band. Beyond that I'm really struggling to explain this album and what makes it special. Maybe it has something to do with its incompleteness. The album title as well as the opener "Qaqqari Lā Târi" are both markes as a Part 1, so how can I possibly judge the whole picture with confidence?

What I can say is that again this music is criminally good and that once the picture will be completed we will hopefully able to affirm that Wyatt E. have outdone themselves. At least the signs are pointing into that direction. The artwork with the golden vinyl of course looks great, together with a multilingual lyric sheet adding up to a beautiful total impression.

And then there's of course the little extra if you order from the right source...

WYATT E. - Live at Roadburn 2022 (CD) (2025)

As a free surprise giveaway my Bandcamp order also included this live CD from a Roadburn show I missed even though I actually was in the front row of the temporary tent version of the Hall of Fame for a moment. How the hell that happened can be looked up in my live report, between the paragraphs about Sólstafir and Zaäar. Luckily I had the chance to see the band in Copenhagen a year later - and I will see them later this year as well, so that pain has eased. (Plus I did see the Atonia show, on which Wyatt E. collaborated with Five The Hierophant at the same Roadburn edition!)

But of course it's still great to experience the Roadburn show now on this official bootleg, which the band intentionally left simple: no elaborate cover artwork, all three (or four if you count the intro) pieces are crammed into one forty-minute track and maybe one or two further steps could have been done production-wise to boost the sound. That being said, the album does not sound bad! It's very listenable on the high and of good bootleg quality.

With the music being the two halfs of "Āl Bēlūti Dārû" bridged by an instrumental version of the hit single "Kol Badai", which features Tomer Damsky in the studio version, there naturally isn't anything to complain about in that regard. As this was an early show in the tour cycle the band claims that their improvisations didn't go as far as later on, but that's ok. Wyatt E. just know how to create a magical, heavy yet meditative atmosphere.

And "Live at Roadburn 2022" captures that perfectly.

EJECT NOISE FIX live im Freiraum Itzehoe (14. Februar 2025)

Spontanes letztes Konzert bevor der dunkle blaunschwarze Merz beginnt. Angemessen, dass es mich dazu in einen ausdrücklich linksversifften, also menschlichen Laden zog. Tatsächlich mein erster Besuch im Freiraum Itzehoe. Ganz klar mein Verlust, ich bin einfach zu wenig in lokalen Krachmacherkreisen unterwegs.

Es spielten gestern Kevin und Roman aka das hyperaktive Spazzcore Duo - oder auch Eject Noise Fix.

Alter! Was? 2017? Manchmal erschrickt man sich ja schon, wenn man in seinem eigenen Blog nachschaut, wann man die Band, bei deren Konzert man gerade gewesen ist, das letzte Mal live gesehen hat. Krass.

Also machen die beiden inzwischen fahrstuhltaugliche Rentnermusik? Nö. Die "Zehn Jahre Proberaum"-Komplettreise durchs Repertoire bestätigte, dass nach wie vor Riffs und Licks aus Noise Rock, Hardcore, Punk etc. mit wilden Bowlingkugel-schmeißt-Mülltonnenpyramide-um-Rhythmen kollidieren und unterhaltsamen arschtighten Instrumentalradau fabrizieren. Geil.

Auch ohne eine neue Pandemie zwischendurch sollte ich nicht noch einmal so lange bis zur nächsten Hirnschüttelrunde warten. Am 15. März kann ich allerdings leider nicht. Da spielen Eject Noise Fix zusammen mit You Guitarprayer und fucking Valborg in der Lauschbar. Geht für mich da hin, Leute!