ELECTRIC MOON: Innside Outside (limited edition vinyl album on The Great Pop Supplement)
This release from 2014 features 39 minutes of growling spacerock.
Electric Moon is: Sula Bassana (on guitar, effects, and Casio organ), Komet Lulu (on bass and effects), and Marcus Schnitzler (on drums).
Two long spacerock compositions...
The first begins with a pulsating diode summoning forth piercing organ, guitar effects, and surging electronics. Drums (starting with cymbals, actually) enter the mix. Things are churning, coalescing, formulating into a gestalt that will slide into a gritty pastiche of sluggish hard rock with a strong spacey undercurrent. That "undercurrent" swiftly dominates the music, coaxing cosmic sounds from the grinding guitar, the slippery keyboards, the crunching basslines, the pounding drums. Everything meshes into a dazzling unity that shines with a fuzzy luminescence. The melody slowly slithers forth, only to be swamped by a surge of intense expression time and again. The grind is delightfully exhausting. The drums swell into prominence for the teeth-grinding crescendo, punctuated by a monstrously crunching bass.
The second track flows right out of the first, continuing to maintain the level of intensity with pounding bass, snarling guitar, and thunderous percussion. It's just amazing how the intensity escalates, achieving altitudes of breathtaking fervor. Outbursts of electronics goad things even higher. We're definitely outside the atmosphere now, tumbling through space, a seething bundle of melodic noise...that keeps getting brighter, more savage, more euphoric.
But eventually, things must come to an end, gradually losing their frenzy and volume for the classic synth-outburst finale. Luckily, you can (and should) listen to it again!
ELECTRIC MOON: Mind Explosion (limited edition CD and limited edition vinyl double album on Sulatron Records)
This release from 2014 features 80 minutes of psychedelic jam rock recorded live at the Graf Hugo in Feldkirch, Austria, at the end of the band's Electric Full Moon Heading to South Tour in 2013.
Electric Moon is: Sula Bassana (on guitar, effects, and Casio organ), Komet Lulu (on bass and effects), and Marcus Schnitzler (on drums).
Four songs offering uber doses of psychedelic rock.
Track one slides into play with each instrument settling into an ascension from tepid meandering to dizzying heights. The drums and bass establish a grinding tempo. The guitar explores snarling riffs that slowly evolve in complexity and puissance, ultimately reaching a state of gritty euphoria, the type that soars high and burns bright. Soon in, however, the drums erupt into frantic rhythms, the bass thunders like a demented beast, and the guitar indulges in some impressive pyrotechnics; the result is pure intensity of a visceral nature. The piece noodles its way to an end, returning the listener to their seat, dazed but satisfied.
The next piece creeps into play with urgent beats and seething space guitar supported by a blurry bass. A passage is reached where the guitar explores some twinkly effects amid a rising tide of emphatic bass; all the while propelled by hyperactive drumming. As the guitar riffs grow more complex, things take an upswing into stratospheric tension with wildly resonant basslines and enthusiastic percussion. A series of quirky effects usher he song to its oscillating conclusion.
A sultry bassline opens the third track, soon joined by growling guitar and pounding drums. As things progress, the guttural melody peals away layer after layer of your psyche, exposing raw cerebellum to the explosive crescendo achieved by all the wailing instruments.
The final song opens with echoing effects that get progressively stranger as the drums become more dominant. The bass flutters deep in the mix. The guitar gets even stranger. The music strains to excessive depths (as expected) and maintains that degree of raw power for an impressive period...before dwindling into a beeping finale.
Some stunning psychedelic spacerock jams here.
SEVEN THAT SPELLS: The Death and Resurrection of Krautrock: Io (CD on Sulatron Records)
This release from 2014 features 47 minutes of trancey power rock music.
Seven That Spells is: Niko Potocnjak (on guitars), Jeremy White (on bass and voice), and Nikola Babic (on drums). Joining them on these tunes are: Albin Julius (on synthesizers, Hammond organ, and kazoo), and Nikola Urosevic (on throat singing).
This power trio's intriguing blend of metal, psychedelic and Krautrock results in tuneage of a mesmerizing nature.
The guitar exhibits nimble-fingered virtuosity as the instrument belts out grinding riffs of a blazing character. The notes sparkle with molten verve capable of melting paint from the hull of a battleship. The chords resound with a blurring echoey quality as they delineate riffs that charm as they stun.
The drums provide a constant powerhouse of percussion, from demonstrative lead rhythms to subtle, knickery tempos lurking in the mix.
The bass contributes a savage rumble equal to the task of guiding this fierce music. This booming undercurrent establishes a durable foundation that refuses to crumble under the music's overall puissance.
While fairly swamped into barely discernable subtlety by the forceful expressions of the other instruments, electronics and other keyboards endure, almost like ghosts haunting the music from within.
While there are some vocals, they mainly consist of repeated chants, lending a pagan spirituality to the pulsating songs.
These compositions offer a curious mixture of high-powered intensity and brutal trance, concocting hurricane melodies capable of riveting the listener and rendering them hapless prey for the stimulating onslaught.
THE SPACELORDS: Synapse (limited edition vinyl album on Sulatron Records)
This release from 2014 features 41 minutes of guttural spacerock.
The Spacelords are: Marcus (on drums and voice), Klaus (on bass, synthesizers and effects), and Hazi (on guitar and effects).
Basic rock instruments are employed to produce dazzling tuneage of a dark spacerock nature.
Scorching guitar, heavy on the echo and fascinated with sustain effects, forcing notes to linger long after their inception. While at other times, the instrument produces chords that bubble.
The electronics are cosmic in character, often hiding in the mix and influencing things in secret. When keyboards finally appear, they are reedy and old-school-sounding, lending a strange mystique to their trembling chords.
The bass establishes a rippling undercurrent of foundation-trembling tones, guttural thumps like the footsteps of giant behemoths.
The percussion almost seems like conventional rock rhythmsÑuntil they are taken in context with the rest of the music, at which point they transform into adept and forceful tempos, generating in-your-face rhythms that rattle the walls.
These compositions explore a grittier side of spacerock, delving past the surface consciousness with dazed melodies that leave shimmering aftereffects. There's a certain glazed-look demeanor to this musicÑnot in construction, but in consequences.
DEEP SPACE: Through the Haze (limited edition vinyl album on Sulatron Records)
This release from 2014 features 45 minutes of psychedelic space rock.
Deep Space is: Robbie B Love (on vocals, guitar and bass), Golden Unknown (on vocals and guitar), and Buddy Hart (on drums).
Guitar-heavy tapestries reek of cosmic disposition The chords squeal and snarl and buzz and erupt with fiery verve. A morass of sheer vitality cascades forth, spitting astral riffs everywhere.
Guttural basslines linger deep in the mix, like lurkers whose influence is felt but rarely noticed.
The percussion has a crude simplicity to it that perfectly fits with the klangy psychedelic sound exuded by each tune.
Echoey vocals contribute the last nostalgic brick in this space-age edifice, crooning of galactic woes in a manner that will drag the audience not just through the mysteries of outer space but also back in time.
Based in Austin, Texas, Deep Space pursue the psychedelic space rock genre with similar passion as Sixties' space pioneers The 13th Floor Elevators. Fans of that old school weirdness will delight in this record.
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