Carlton Melton – “Smoke Drip” 12″

A recurring theme with most of bands I choose to review is that I don’t happen to live on the same land mass as them. Therefore I have to take to Youtube to find concert footage from which I then attempt to suss out the band in question. Searching for Carlton Melton lead me to a video of a punchy three piece classic rock/heavy metal band playing in a back yard somewhere. The guitarist wrings feedback from his trusty hollow Gibson guitar, the drummer (who looks like he just came from a biker rally) pounds the skins enthusiastically and somewhere in the background the bassist stands motionless beside a vintage acoustic bass amp in a stance honed by a certain John Alec Entwistle. The drummer pounds, the bass plods and the guitar solos up into the proverbial back yard cosmos and all have a good time. I was surprised then to find that the Smoke Drip EP contains an entirely different music, suitable for an entirely different occasion.

Track one consists entirely of one chord. In fact, it reminded me of an ‘art’ piece I once took part in during which, over the course of half an hour, weights were placed on the keys of many Casiotone keyboards placed strategically around a small venue until the air was thick with a single tone. Here the band lay down a solid drone in the key of A. There are some bubbling sequencer synths, and some slightly rough guitar solo parts, but overall this track is one happy drone. Electronic organs and echoing guitars carry this one thread of noise along, whilst a low-tempo drum part keeps the music flowing. This track gets louder until the whole stereo field is filled with droning A chords, soloing guitars and swirling phasers.

Track two, Smoke Drip, is slightly darker by contrast. Moody guitar parts, orbiting synthesizer lines and slow phasers work together to paint a portrait that seamlessly blends the space age, the jet age and the American Mid-West in some sort of bizarre retro-futuristic landscape. Again the structure is sparse (I think this time the chosen ‘lost chord’ is G major, but don’t quote me on that). The track slowly cycles through periods of heavier synth sounds and periods of slow Zenned out and bluesy guitar work.

The final track is Against the Wall. To my ears this sounds like either a live recording, or at least a live-in-the-studio outing. I would liken this track to one of the many early-1970s Hawkwind bootlegs in existence. It is difficult to tell exactly what is going on between the sheer fuzz of the guitars and the swirling synth work. In the middle the drummer struggles to find the beat, but once dialled in the band find a crude Motorik that is equal parts Hallo Gallo and X In Search of Space.

Carlton Melton – “Photos of Photos”

Thumbing through a recent CD sale, I chanced across Carlton Melton’s Photos of Photos release in a major high street music store. Not only did this make me realise I had a small stash of albums to review back home, it made me realise how strange the world is; this store had Carlton Melton albums but didn’t stock a single Pink Floyd album.

Photos of Photos was released in 2012 on the Agitated Records label, and contains six tracks, though vinyl copies exist with bonus tracks. Notably, some copies carry a version of the unloved Pink Floyd off-cut When You’re In which ploughs up a solid two and a half minutes of the equally unloved Obscured by Clouds album. Musically the album is more adventurous than the Smoke Drip EP, with the band exploring a few different textures on the way. Album opener Nor’easter plods along with a two-chord progression that slowly builds to weighty climax. The power of these two simple chords seems to have an almost talismanic quality, as the band layers on more and more effects and bubbling synth sounds. However, by keeping this recurring theme playing in the background, they lend the track an impressive gravity.

The title track features an altogether dreamier quality, with backwards (and forwards) synth melodies flowing over a dreamscape of mellow synth pads. In the background a bass, or baritone, guitar mines deep and guttural melodies that too sound like they’ve been manipulated to a lower tempo. This serious down tuning and speed correcting gives the track an underwater quality.

Track three, Space Treader, builds from elongated guitar chords. This track builds to become quite an epic guitar workout, with various overdubs vying for attention. The music here is similar to that of the Smoke Drip EP, relying on a barely existent structure and limited palette of chords. Instead the heavier use of dynamics is employed, as this track too builds in volume. Post-peak, the track winds down with some wistful Moog soloing akin to Richard Wright circa Wish You Were Here. Apt but not flashy, and adding a mournful edge to the music.

Overall Carlton Melton provide something of a musical paradox in that they are all-out garage rockers on the surface and calm introspection underneath. The Floyd cover, and an obscure one at that, hints at a band that studied Careful With That Axe Eugene and took the track to heart as an entire concept of composition. All the tracks build in intensity, but rather than building to visceral screams the band instead map out vast tundras, river deltas and glacier-scarred scenery musically. The band make use of guest musicians (on ‘Echoplex’, because Maestro’s much loved tape echo is an instrument in its own right in the hands of George Duke and co) and studio overdubbing to paint the cinematic vistas of their music, whilst maintaining their live show as a medium for straighter hard rock compositions.

For more information visit the Carlton Melton web site at: http://www.carltonmeltonmusic.com
Visit the Agitated Records web site at: http://agitatedrecords.com

Reviewed by Alan Bragg

Sunwolf are a post rock band, of sorts, comprising a drummer and guitarist. The band hail from Leeds in West Yorkshire which has, in previous times, given us the brooding goth of The Sisters of Mercy, the uncompromisingly grinding funk of Gang of Four and those great bastions of unreconstructed lad culture; The Kaiser Chiefs. I say that Sunwolf are a post rock band of sorts because they also cite their music as being ambient, progressive and stoner. I would probably categorise their music as originating in the same camp as Neil Young’s Dead Man soundtrack; a special kind of selfless guitar music that worships and renounces rock and roll in a single sweeping gesture.

Track one, Genesis, opens with buzzing guitar lines that loop and layer to create a constant velutinous soundscape.. A fairly simple but sombre guitar line is played over the top. Musically this is very similar to the works of the band Earth circa Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I, where simple and clean guitar lines are coupled with phenomenally slow drum work to create a vast landscape of music. Whilst not the easiest of listens, this music is evocative and seems to carry a great emotional weight. In my opinion music of this nature is always a little unfinished, needing either bonafide visuals or slightly more structure to truely work. Neil Young had the visuals of Dead Man to work with, and this similarily empty guitar work somehow cries out for a storyline of similar pathos to complete the picture.

Track two follows a near identical pattern; ambient buzzing guitar lines, clean (neck pickup on some obscure ’70s Fender guitar, no doubt) guitar work of a brooding and intense nature and slow drum patterns. What is interesting is just how processed the drums of Sunwolf tracks are. Whilst the guitars sound organic and are typically saturated in reverb, the drums have a dry but distant quality that makes them sound boxy and cloying in contrast with the sheer range of the guitar parts.

Morose Land would perhaps indicate, from the title alone, another dense mining of Dylan Carlson’s psyche, so comes as a shock when a fairly standard rock tune leaps out the gate. Like the inclusion of the constantly unfolding track Talahassee on Earth’s Pentastar: In the Style of Demons, this simple and circular rock track seems weird precisely because it follows such a straight and grooveless meter and varies little from the script. It isn’t drone rock, yet the music has a dervish repetition. The next track, Beyond the Sun, still sounds very much like Earth and could even be mistaken for non-album Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars-era track as a hand a handful of Iommi riffs (and tasty riffs at that) are coupled with an almost machine-made drum pattern. This track again feels slightly unfinished (or perhaps needing a bass line?) as the heavy guitar parts don’t seem underpinned by heavier earthworks. However it could be argued that the heaviness of the track is achieved through this slightly dehumanised and unfinished sound.

The final tracks return again to melancholia of the first tracks. Perhaps here the influence sways more towards the God Is An Astronaut, Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Mogwai camp. Free from the limitations of the blues this genre perhaps becomes a little too morose, and self congratulatory, for my own personal tastes, though it is easy to admire the determination by which these bands exit the long path of blues-orientated music to find new musical landscapes. Sunwolf appear to accurately tap into this genre, perhaps by way of the sometimes bleak and sometimes industrial landscapes of their own surrounding countryside. Whilst some slightly more adventurous or fulfilling instrumentation would not have gone a miss, the hammond organ and lap steel guitar of Time Stands Still provides a tantalising glimpse of richer orchestrations. This music is bleak in many ways, but beautifully delicately constructed.

For more information visit the Sunwolf web site at: http://sunwolfuk.tumblr.com

Reviewed by Alan Bragg

Herd of Instinct’s 2011 debut was a fiery set that covered a range of styles, from complex instrumental progressive rock that recalled both Discipline and Red-era King Crimson, ambience and soundscapes, gothic prog and dark, doomy ragas. On the first album the band were the core trio of Mark Cook on Warr guitar, guitar, and fretless bass, Mike Davison on guitars, and Jason Spradlin on drums, plus a variety of guests on various tracks, including veteran drummers Jerry Marotta, Gavin Harrison, and Pat Mastelotto, and Djam Karet’s Gayle Ellett on guitar and Mellotron (both albums are released on Djam Karet’s Firepool label). The first thing that jumped out at me reading the credits for the band’s sophomore effort – Conjure – is that Gayle Ellett is now listed as a fourth member, playing Moog, Mellotron, Hammond organ, Rhodes and dilruba (which I think is something of a cross between a harp and sitar).

The album opens with Praxis, which kicks off with a Discipline-era King Crimson styled intro, but quickly switches to an ambient-jazz rocking sequence. Porcupine Tree’s Colin Edwin contributes fretless bass to this track. There is a tremendous amount of gymnastic level transitioning throughout this 5 minute piece, and I love the balance and integration of rock and ambience. There’s also a piano segment that brought to mind Goblin’s Suspiria soundtrack as played by King Crimson, if you can imagine that, and there’s a killer flute solo near the end. Other highlights on this 12 track CD include Dead Leaf Echo, which sounds like a combination of Djam Karet at their most rocking and mid-70s King Crimson, but there’s also chunks of heavy metal hurled about, and I like the brief teasing moments of ambience and quiet. Vargtimmen is a similar combination of Djam Karet and King Crimson, though easier paced and more focused on rhythmic variation. We’re treated to killer guitar licks on this track, both efx’d rocking and Frippoid, and in the last minute the intensity level goes sky high. Ditto for Malice, another high powered dual guitar and keyboards workout.

Herd of Instinct explore different territory on Alice Krige Pt. 1, which opens with spaced out soundscapes and blurpy bleepy electronics, soon joined by Pink Floyd-ish ambient guitar licks, ethnic grooving percussion, trumpet and flute. It’s all very understated and meditative, given the potency of the previous tracks, yet there’s still multiple elements interweaving with one another in fascinating ways. Solitude One is quite different, being something of a prog rock and often highly cosmic take on Indian pop-dance music. Near the end the band get back into King Crimson mode, which makes the Indian dance motif all the more fun. I really dig the haunting beauty and doomy power-prog of Mother Night, and the spaced out effects are a nice touch too. Parts of New Lands conjured up images of Herd of Instinct playing a combination of surf rock and old time sci-fi TV show theme, while retaining their own core sound. A Sense Of An Ending starts off as light (for these guys) prog-jazz, with more fretless bass from Colin Edwin, and gets increasingly intense and even a bit doomy as the track develops. Then right around the halfway mark it veers into classic prog territory, with a beautiful combination of ripping guitar solo and heavenly orchestral keys, eventually returning to the opening theme for a peaceful finale. And in similar spirit, The Secret Of Fire closes the album in full blown heavy prog mode, with a variety of stunning guitar sounds, organ, Mellotron, and spacey ambience, all coming together like a symphonic blend of everything that came before for a monster finale.

In summary, analogies are easy with Herd of Instinct but they are ultimately difficult to describe. King Crimson is a strong influence, but Herd Of Instinct are by NO means a clone act. That is, the influence is overt but these guys are making it their own and drawing on a synthesis of all kinds of elements and styles. This is complex instrumental progressive rock, both compositionally and in execution, yet Herd of Instinct manage to make it accessible. Recommended.

For more information visit the Herd of Instinct web site at: http://www.herdofinstinct.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

I arrived at about 9 PM and discovered to my surprise that the venue was seated. Yet not so strange I guess, with Sentrum originally being a movie theatre in the 80s. I have seen everyone there from Motörhead, Cathedral, Faith No More, Monster Magnet and many other acts and there had not been seats present. Anyway, as I arrived, ghostly synth sounds set on loop accompanied by a light projection of the moon on the latest CD The Raven That Refused To Sing And Other Stories went on for about 20 minutes until the band arrived on stage. They kicked right into Luminol, the opener off the latest album. The place was nearly packed with people who all seemed familiar with the material. Then there was Drive Home, a lengthy piece which I enjoyed as well. When the band were about to play Postcard, from the Grace For Drowning album, Wilson sat down by his keyboard and explained it was his attempt at writing a 3 minute pop song, with some success. The Holy Drinker was on next if I am not mistaken. Before the band started on The Watchmaker we were treated to a nightmarish psychedelic film featuring the characters from that song. I believe Lasse Hoilie is responsible for this as well. The song started when the film clip ended. An hour and a half into the show had gone and I needed to catch the last bus home as I live an hour long bus ride outside Oslo. It was an immensely enjoyable show, with a full band, both Wilson on guitar and keyboards, another keyboard player, Theo Travis on flute and saxophones, another guitar player and a chick on bass as well as a drummer who looked a lot like Christian Vander. I wish I had stayed another hour to see the whole performance, but that would have meant waiting for the 12:30 bus for an hour outside. Wilson at the start of the show promised the band would play the entire new album through, so I guess in addition to some added older material I missed about half the show. Catch them on tour if you can.

Reviewed by Christian Eric Mumford

British singer, song-writer, musician and author Paul Roland has released over 15 albums since 1980, covering a range of Psychedelic-Pop, Gothic-Psych-Baroque, Gothic-Prog, Prog-Psych, Dark-Folk, and every imaginable cross-section of these styles. I’ve heard scatterings of Paul’s music over the years but the 2-CD compilation, In Memoriam: 1980-2010, is my first immersion into what his music is about.

He’s a pretty fascinating guy, as I learned from reading the many interviews at paulroland.de. Paul’s first real captivation with music came after discovering Marc Bolan, and was even managed by Marc’s widow June Bolan in the early 80s. Paul was also a music journalist in the 80s, writing articles, reviews and interviews for Kerrang and other UK music and film publications. I got a kick out of the sizable list of subjects Paul interviewed, which included a range of artists including Lemmy, John Lee Hooker, The Velvet Undergound, Slade, Yo Yo Ma, and… get this… Hammer horror icon Peter Cushing! Pretty cool, huh? Paul has also written many non-fiction books on such topics as reincarnation, angels, ghosts, meditation, the Nuremburg trials, murderers, a Marc Bolan biography, and more.

Paul has divided the In Memoriam compilation into two parts. The first CD consists of 17 full band songs. Among the highlights is Blades Of Battenburg, a powerful Prog infused rocker with a symphonic edge. I love the eerie wailing keyboard on the simultaneously dreamy and whimsical The Puppet Master. The acoustic Goth-Prog Requiem is a standout, with its beautiful flute and violin passages. Dr Strange, Gabrielle, and Nosferatu all bring to mind Power-Pop for Goths. High intensity organs are common on many of these songs. As you might expect from the title, In The Opium Den is a mind-bending, atmospheric tune, and just as much of an excursion as it is a structured song. Dig that trippy sitar. Paul invites us to “take a magic carpet ride” and “join my desert caravan” on A Thousand And One Nights, another standout song, being a cool grooving psych rocker that’s nicely acidic and even a little Celtic. Ditto for Cthullu, with its orchestral melloton-ish keys and winding psych guitar trading licks with violin. We’re also treated to plenty of chunky kick-ass ROCK on songs like Witchfinder General, Aleistair Crowley, Gargoyles, and Come To The Sabbat, the latter of which veers off into a killer dueling percussion and violin segment.

The second CD has 19 songs which Paul describes as the baroque chamber pop and Edwardian folk tracks. I like that description, and to my ears the songs fall roughly into two general categories. We have acoustic Pop-Psych with orchestral embellishments and a 60s vibe. Standout tracks that I’ll mention include the beautiful Great Edwardian Air-Raid. Alice’s House stands among the best of 60s orchestrated Pop-Psych, and especially resonated with me as I recently finished reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories for the upteenth time. Ditto for the heavily orchestrated folk based Poets And The Painters. And Captain Nemo is a stunningly beautiful song, being a spaced out Prog-Pop-Psych journey to dreamland.

Then we’ve got several Folk-Psych songs with gently flowing strings, flutes, and keys. Lon Chaney, Wyndham Hill, The Ratcatcher’s Daughter, and Moriarty all grabbed me on the first listen. The horn melody on Journey To The Pole brought to mind the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV theme run through a Renaissance Fair grinder. Lots happening on this 4 minute song. The Sea Captain is a somber song that conjures up powerful images of the crusty old captain telling his tale. The strings on this song will bring tears to your eyes. Dice With The Devil is an upbeat song that’s far more rocking than most of the tracks on disc 2, but one that I envisioned being sung by the same sea captain of the earlier track. Voodoo Doll has a cool beat, yet is dreamily drifting and even a wee bit sultry. And Abramelin is another stunning beauty, with heavenly keys and choral vocals.

Paul is an excellent songwriter and lyricist and has a somewhat unique voice; the only analogy I can think of is Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots. And while he is singing, he has a sort of narrative delivery style on a lot of the songs that I like and helps give him his own distinctive character. The production is outstanding, with top notch musicians, and music that is complex yet thoroughly accessible. Guest musicians that have contributed to Paul’s albums include Robyn Hitchcock, Bevis Frond, Nick Nicely, Knox of the Vibrators and Andy Ellison (of John’s Children), and I’ll say that Hitchcock and Nicely fans are sure to enjoy Paul’s music. Oh, and I should emphasize that despite the In Memoriam title and the wreath on the cover, Paul is very much alive and has released two new albums since this compilation came out in 2010.

In Memoriam and other Paul Roland albums are available at Amazon and CDBaby.com, with CDbaby being a good source for digital downloads.
Lots of information about Paul Roland and his music can be found at: http://www.paulroland.de
Information about Paul Roland the author can be found at: http://www.paulroland.net
Paul’s back catalog has been reissued by the German label Syborg Music: http://www.syborgmusic.de

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

A British band whose career was launched while based in Germany, Nektar released 7 studio albums between 1971-1977, the first 6 of which included the “classic” lineup of Roye Albrighton on guitar and vocals, Allan “Taff” Freeman on keyboards, Derek “Mo” Moore on bass, and Ron Howden on drums. I love these albums, which can vary considerably from one to the next, while retaining a distinct Nektar flavor, and are among the 70s albums I revisit most often. The band would pop up again in the early 80s and have been active again since around 2000, though the 70s albums are, in my opinion, the true classics. Cleopatra Records’ Purple Pyramid subdivision has reissued the first Nektar album – Journey To The Centre Of The Eye – in a 2-CD edition that features the original album remastered, and a 1971 live performance of the entire album.

Journey To The Centre Of The Eye is an early example of Space Rock and Prog-Psych that tells the story of an astronaut leaving Earth in a rocket when the planet is on the verge of nuclear world war. Aliens are encountered, new galaxies are discovered, and, ultimately, mind expansion and a new awareness just as the astronaut witnesses the destruction of Earth. Each track on the back of the LP (which I still have) has notes that tell each bit of the story, though they are extremely difficult for these old eyes to read as shrunk down as they are to fit on the back of the CD.

In the CD notes, Dave Thompson writes that the album “earned comparison with everyone from Man to Pink Floyd”, and it baffles me that Hawkwind isn’t mentioned. The guitar and effects on various parts of the album are similar to the freakiest moments from Hawkwind’s early albums. Remember, this is 1971. The experimentalism of early Pink Floyd is also a good analogy, as evidenced on tracks like Warp Oversight, which is like Astronomy Domine and Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun wrapped into one. As the tale starts to unfold we get the trademark Nektar guitar/organ interplay and we’re in classic era prog-psych heaven. Moments of high intensity weave in and out with passages of sheer dream-like beauty. Nektar excel on this album at both thematic development and creating a mind-expanding listening experience. In short, putting this into 1971 perspective, attentive listeners could marvel at the band’s flair for wrapping prog infused hard rock, psychedelia and alien effects into an impressively complex and seamlessly flowing sci-fi tale, and those who just wanted music they could trip out to would have one of the best albums of the year to meet that need. And while in terms of the music this first album is the most overtly space rock, Nektar would explore similar themes on subsequent albums, Remember The Future being the best example.

The bonus CD features the entire album performed live on November 13, 1971 in Darmstadt, Germany. It’s called an “official bootleg”, and while the sound quality justifies the bootleg tag, it’s pretty decent and well worth the opportunity to hear the band live so early in their career. In summary, Journey To The Centre Of The Eye is essential for both space rock fans anyone into 70s prog-psych.

For more information visit the Purple Pyramid web site at: http://cleorecs.com
Visit the Nektar web site at: http://nektarsmusic.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

The blistering power-trio rock sounds of The Space Sharks is a surprisingly fresh mix of Classic Rock and 60’s garage psychedelia with just a tad of tripped out guitary Spacerock in the mix. The band was formed in Baltimore, MD, in 2009, by Lonnie Richards on lead vocals and guitar, Mike Martino on drums, percussion and backing vocals, Bob Bergerson on bass as well as Brian Harrigan on additional backing vocals. On the info promo-sheet the band says they recorded all the songs on first or second take, so not to over work or over produce their sound. It works! The sound is fresh, loud, blistering sunshine acid melody with swirling psychedelic guitars and occasional flute. This self titled, self released, debut CD has 9 songs, the short album clocking in at just about 33 minutes. It is very energetic and melodic sounding, bursting with spontaneity, this is some feelgood summer music I really enjoyed on the very first spin. It’s accessible like Classic Rock and 60’s garage sounds, with some Floydian spacey moments, with acid guitars and phased vocals. The highlight tracks for me are the opener, Run For Cover, as well as Satellites, Apocalypse” and Spinning ‘Round. The album was written, produced and recorded on their own home-equipment, and its beefy and well crafted stuff for those with a sense of psychedelic simplicity, good melody and peaced-out optimism. A highly recommended purchase for all 60’s fans out there who want song based spacyness and acid rock that does not sound dated at all, but refreshing like a cold 7Up on a hot and humid day in July, maybe, after spending hours of a stoned day at the beach gazing at the ocean, just taking in the free time. It was released in 2011. I for one enjoyed the magic feelgood sunshine acid sounds of The Space Sharks, and their far out galactic spacerocking scene of mystical seekers, and we here at AI welcome them aboard our… ‘zine!

The band can be found at http://myspace.com/thespacesharks and http//reverbnation.com/thespacesharks
Order the CD at http://cdbaby.com/cd/thespacesharks

Reviewed by Christian Eric Mumford

Dog Hallucination have here a 23 minute 3″ CD that is an experimental and abstract enigma of industrial / ambient / noise / glitch experimental-ness mapped over 4 tracks. It reminds me a little of German noise-artist Siemers (who also puts out 3″ CD-R weirdness), and Norwegian group Ulver around their ambient period like the Teachings In Silence CD about a decade ago. It is subtly noisy with a subdued psychedelic guitar droned ambience, indeed. The main part of the music is distorted guitar textures and digital beats and washes of atonal white noise. Dog Hallucination consists of Bob on keyboards, sampler, engineering, percussion, manipulations, field recordings, first stage mixing, and self portraits (I can assume the pics of the weird guys on the cover art), while D. Petri is responsible for editing, mixing, photography, design, manipulation and guitars. Doggy P. Lips is the person responsible for guitars and ideas. It was recorded 2006-2007 on digital 8 and 16 track, portable minidisc and 4 track cassette, edited and mixed August 2011. I can only assume this ensemble have hallucinated themselves to beyond description or human abstraction, like bits of synaptic fallout from Savage Republic’s noisy guitar-echoes of ancient cultures and motorik kraut-distortion as interpreted by electro-ambient-glitch-era Ulver, and mixed and assembled by the found industrial machine like noise-architecture of Siemers, maybe. Either way, file this Dog Hallucination EP under “weird”.

Contact at http://www.intangiblecat.com/doghallucination or email dhalpetri@gmail.com
Snail mail at P.O. Box 33, Spring Valley, IL 61362, USA

Reviewed by Christian Eric Mumford

Recently, while browsing through bandcamp.com, I stumbled across Space Mushroom Fuzz. They are a new duo from Boston, Massachusetts, consisting of John Belcastro on drums and Adam Abrams on, well, everything else. Adam Abrams is also involved in progressive doom metal band Blue Aside and psychedelic stoner band Palace in Thunderland, but with Space Mushroom Fuzz he and Belcastro take off to the stars for some decidedly trippy spacerock.

Space Mushroom Fuzz – When Time Trippers Collide (self-released 2012)
When Time Trippers Collide (released in June of 2012) is unabashed space rock, inspired by Hawkwind, but infused with its own sense of style and trippiness. The Palace Gates, the opening cut, is in fact practically a mission statement with its intense, pulsing guitar riffs, spaced out vocals and swirling, liquid effects. And with that Space Mushroom Fuzz are off the launch pad and soaring towards the stars. After an extended space intro, second track Watching the Watcher borrows a riff from Hawkwind’s Lord of Light, and just goes nuts with it, layering it with effects and way out there vocals (with Abrams singing completely different lyrics and melody to Lord of Light). It’s a blast of pure, adrenaline fueled spacerock, and perhaps the only direct nod to one of their influences. After that, the duo dives deep into experimental realms with Shine on You Crazy Train Part 1. Amusing title indeed, but it sounds nothing like Pink Floyd or Ozzy Osbourne, instead being a rambling, spaced out free jazz trip through the cosmos. For the first few listens, I found this part kind of slowed the album down a bit. At nearly 12-minutes, the track did seem to go on a bit too long. But the more I listened to it, the more I really got into its ‘birth of the cosmos’ kind of ambience. And when things pick up again with the mid-tempo mantric rocker Space Is Blue, full of freaky, shrieking riffs and apocalyptic lyrics, it all just seems to flow together perfectly. After a shorter return to ambient experimental liquid space territory with Shine on You Crazy Train Part 2, the band dives into the final track on the album, Wavestorm. It’s a real slow burner with hallucinatory, effects laden guitar work and mysterious, ghostly vocals. A deliriously freaked out way to end the album!

Space Mushroom Fuzz – Something Weird’s Going On (self-released 2012)
Not content with just one album in 2012, a little later in the year Abrams and Belcastro put out their second album, Something Weird’s Going On (released in October of 2012). Opening cut, Sitting in Our Thrones, has an assault of frenzied guitar giving way to spaced out vocals singing about corrupted innocence and the nightmare of war. The song leads into a lengthy, mindblowing jam as Abrams and Belcastro totally cut loose, blazing a comet-like trail of heavy spacerock across the sky. Hawkwind influences return in the riff-heavy Living With the Curse of Shame. And then things mellow out for a bit with a trio of tripped out songs starting with Part 1 of the title track, a downtempo meditation on weirdness; the dark and acid drenched Scientist Sparks, with its thrumming acoustic guitars and bubbling, gurgling space ‘tronics; and part 2 of the title track, another moody excursion, this time in the vein of Pink Floyd. The final track on the album, Under Control, gives a nifty little surprise twist by taking the Hawkwind formula and amping it up bit with an early Rush vibe. Another solid album from Abrams and Belcastro.

Space Mushroom Fuzz – Trapped in the Past EP (self-released 2012)
As if two albums in one year weren’t enough, squeaking in just before the end of December, Space Mushroom Fuzz released the two song EP Trapped in the Past. The title track takes SMF into new directions. With the substitution of Belcastro with Black Pyramid drummer Clay Neely, this release delves into a more proggier realm than previous releases. The title track still has some of that Hawkwind riffery going for it, but its acoustic intro and spacey outro and some cool tempo changes give it a more complex dimension. Second track, The Other Side of Life, gets even stranger, with jazzy chords and gentle acoustic guitars combined with oddball vocal melodies and sudden bursts of heavy psych freakouts. In the space of half a year, Space Mushroom Fuzz has already evolved, as their music expands outward, and I for one can’t wait to hear what they do next.

Space Mushroom Fuzz – Seeing Double Cassette Boxed Set (self-released, 2013)
And breaking news for you cassette fans out there, as this interview goes to publication, the band is just releasing a new cassette boxed set called Seeing Double. It’s two cassettes which include all of When Time Trippers Collide, Something Weird’s Going On, and Trapped in the Past plus one bonus track. Only 20 copies available, so you better grab one of these babies while you can. (The boxed set is also available as a three CD-R compilation, but without the bonus track that comes on the cassette version.)

Wanting to learn more about Space Mushroom Fuzz, I contacted Adam Abrams and asked him a few questions. This is what he had to say…

Aural Innovations (AI): You’re a busy guy, involved in several other bands including playing bass and keyboards in Palace in Thunderland and leading Blue Aside. What prompted the Space Mushroom Fuzz project?

Adam Abrams (AA): I wanted to do a lo-fi recording project to keep myself busy between working on the Blue Aside albums. Blue Aside records take a lot longer to finish because of the amount of overdubbing we do to get our sound. I needed a new musical outlet to keep myself occupied. Music is my favorite hobby so I figured I’d come up with a new project so I could spend my time doing something I love which is productive and will last forever rather than wasting my time watching TV.

We are trying to do something different with Space Mushroom Fuzz. Like releasing more than one album a year. Having all the albums for free on Bandcamp and letting the people decide if and what they want to pay. These days every album can be traded digitally anyways so why not just make it available for free straight from the artist. The world is changing so we figured the structure of a band needs to change. Why press 1,000 CD’s and sit on 600 copies when you can press a very limited amount and sell them out. We are doing a cassette release too. But instead of getting them professionally manufactured, we are going to handmake and customize each copy. This includes special artwork from our favorite contemporary artist Ralph Walters (from Columbus), and an individualized hand-drawn picture by either me or John for each box set. This means not one will be the same, creating a unique numbering system.

Plus, I always wanted to get John Belcastro on tape and collaborate with him musically. He was the original drummer in Palace in Thunderland until we first broke up in 2003. He is one of the greatest drummers I know. His style is perfect for the traditional Space Mushroom Fuzz sound yet he’s also versatile so he can accommodate the different genres we might explore. He’s a really good friend, and when you’re working with friends, you’re in a better creative environment.

AI: There’s been a terrific burst of activity from all three of these projects over the past year, including new releases from all three of them (in the case of Palace in Thunderland, the first in 5 years. What happened in 2012 that made this all happen?

AA: January 2012 Andy and Monte started jamming again, reformed Palace in Thunderland and quickly starting writing new songs. I wasn’t back in Massachusetts until April that year and they already had a few written! Netto (also the drummer for Blue Aside) rejoined in May. So by the fall, Palace was ready to record the ‘Stars, Dreams, Shores’ EP, which we finished in 4-5 sessions. Since then we’ve completed writing the full length and are going to start recording very soon. The new Blue Aside album, ‘The Moles of a Dying Race’ was tracked in 2011 and finished in 2012 but not released until September 2012. I started SMF in June of 2012 and kept busy through December, releasing the ‘Trapped in the Past’ single a couple days before the New Year.

AI: The first Space Mushroom Fuzz track recorded was Shine on You Crazy Train Part 1. It was recorded in a, shall we say, interesting way. Can you tell us about that?

AA: I was looking through my stuff at the studio and found some mushroom powder I had from a while back. It was a nice night, early June in Boston, so I decided to eat them! I took a walk to enjoy the scenery then thought it would be fun to try to record. I already setup the mics on the drums earlier that day to prepare for another band I was recording the next morning. So I established a groove in my head, pressed record and let out all the adrenaline from the mushrooms on the drum set. This was the foundation for Shine on You Crazy Train Part 1. I spent a couple more hours laying down the guitars and bass and pretty much finished tracking that song that night.

AI: I noted in my review that Watching the Watcher seems to borrow a riff straight out of Hawkwind’s Lord of Light. Was this intentional? And does the title have any connection to Lemmy’s Hawkwind tune The Watcher?

Yes, most of the first album was influenced by Hawkwind. Watching the Watcher was named after Lemmy’s The Watcher but Scientist Sparks (ed. From their second album) was inspired by the music.

AI: Listening again to Scientist Sparks I really hear that now.

I find it interesting that Space Mushroom Fuzz lyrics tend more towards psychological and apocalyptic themes rather than outer space and more obvious sci-fi tropes. What inspired these kinds of lyrics for this project?

AA: Space Mushroom Fuzz lyrics are inspired by the thoughts that people have during psychedelic trips. The band was born during a mushroom trip so ideally the listener should be tripping to feel the full effect of the music both spiritually and sonically.

AI: All tracks to date were recorded in Reverse Feed Studios, which if I understand it correctly, is your homemade studio. Can you tell us any more about this?

AA: I got sick of paying money to go to studios and having to rush recordings so some time in 2009 I set one up at my practice space and been recording various projects since. All the tracking for the Blue Aside albums, aside from the drums was done at Reverse Feed. For the Palace in Thunderland, Stars, Dreams, Shores EP, the guitars were recorded at the Palace practice space (which is Monte’s basement) but the drums, bass and mixing was all done at Reverse Feed. Everything for the Space Mushroom Fuzz albums was done at Reverse Feed Studios aside from the drums on the Trapped in the Past single which was done at Clay’s studio – Black Coffee Sound.

AI: I take it that with you playing mostly everything in Space Mushroom Fuzz save the drums, this is primarily a studio project. Any plans to pull a full band together and play the material live?

AA: We played one live show this past August with Old Growth and BerT (both bands released something on Hydro-Phonic) at Radio, a venue in Somerville, MA. Blue Aside was supposed to be on the bill but had to cancel at the last minute. Joe from Blue Aside filled in on bass and we played a few tracks off When Time Trippers Collide with extended space jams in between. We found out that we were playing the show a couple hours before and had minimal time to prepare. We have our first real show March 21st at PA’s Lounge in Somerville opening for Hidden Towers on tour from Vancouver. Me and John have been jamming regularly trying to work out a 2-piece so we can tour.

AI: The new single features Black Pyramid’s Clay Neely on drums instead of John Belcastro. Is this a permanent change or a temporary one?

AA: This was just a one-time thing but it’s very possible for him to be on more SMF recordings in the future. I’m trying to do something different with SMF by not sticking to the traditional band member format and having guest musicians join us for an album here and there. In fact, I want one album to be only guest musicians. Meaning neither John nor I will play at all.

Clay is a great drummer and has a studio in his backyard so it’s very easy for us to collaborate on projects. If not Space Mushroom Fuzz, I hope to record something with Clay very soon.

AI: The new single seems to take a more progressive rock direction. Are you going to explore more of this newer sound?

AA: We’ve already started recording the next album, Man in the Shadow, and it’s definitely not going in the prog direction. I’d say it’s more influenced by 70’s rock like Ted Nugent, Grand Funk Railroad and Judas Priest with hints of Hendrix, Skynryd and Deep Purple. For Space Mushroom Fuzz, we are not sticking to any specific format, aside from incorporating a space rock vibe. Of course we will venture out again into prog territory but more in the vein of the end of Trapped in the Past rather than the jazzy chords used in The Other Side of Life.

AI: We’re looking forward to what comes next for Space Mushroom Fuzz. Thanks for chatting with us Adam!

For more info, visit: http://spacemushroomfuzz.bandcamp.com

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald

Nebulous Amphibians is the trans-Atlantic duo of Leeds, UK based David Sanderson on guitars, bass and synths, and San Francisco based Jon Drukman on synths and programming. This 5 track, 31 minute all instrumental set opens with Ethernet Fry-Up, a space rocker that incorporates jazz and prog elements. Right out of the chute it sets a rapid-fire Ozric-like synth pattern that keeps the music in high energy space rock mode, though they take a break when the first guitar solo kicks in. David is a damn good guitarist and my favorite part of the track is near the end when the duo kick into full band space rock mode with guitar wailing, synths swirling, and percussion rocking. Supernebula is next and opens with heavenly astral keys, soon joined by Bluesy guitar. We float along until around the 4 minute mark when additional synths create a cosmic rhythmic pulse and soon we’re rockin’ and groovin’ in space. The music ventures into dance mode and then David takes off with a blistering guitar solo, soon settling into a hip shakin’ groove that kept my head boppin’ as I watched the comets soaring by. Arza Lint is a high energy space rocker that’s firmly in Ozrics mode, though I’d say Nebulous Amphibians maintain their identity with the grooves that characterize most of these tracks. I like how the music shifts gears and transitions to jazzy spaced out dreamland for the finale. Dimensionless is a short piece that leads into the final track, Binarium. The song starts off dark and moody, but our spirits are quickly lifted when the space synths and grooves kick in. It’s a nice combination of heavenly meditative synths, jazzy guitar and cool grooves, plus a high octane rocking section.

Ozric Tentacles are the closest analogy to what these guys are doing, though Nebulous Amphibians are heavier on the dance grooves while never straying far from the ROCK. I received this CD along with a David Sanderson solo project called Superstring Phobia, and I’d say both must be considered together to get a feel for what he is about. Both are excellent but I’d say that if David got a band together he’d be seriously dangerous. CLICK HERE to read the Superstring Phobia review Pat wrote and note that all this music can be heard at the Soundcloud links below.

The 5 tracks on the CD plus additional tunes can be heard at the Nebulous Amphibians Soundcloud page at: http://soundcloud.com/nebulous-amphibians
Visit the Nebulous Amphibians Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/NebulousAmphibians
Email David Sanderson at: info@echostun.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz