Cosmic Americana. That’s what Chris Forsyth terms his music, with its roots as deep in American blues and rock n’ roll as much as they are in the cosmic psychedelia of European space explorers and the entrancing epics of Mike Oldfield.

Citing diverse influences such as the Grateful Dead, Brian Eno and Television, Chris creates four pieces, all parts of the grand suite which takes the title of the album (apparently named after a legendary derelict (and now vanished) structure in New Jersey). Each piece is built on, initially, a single guitar riff, before it expands outwards with multiple layers, not just from Chris, but also from Mike Pride on drums and percussion, from Peter Kerlin on bass, and from Shawn Hansen on organ, piano and keyboards. Part 1 begins with a loping guitar rhythm that slowly builds, looping around itself in mesmerizing helixes. As droning keyboards along with driving bass and percussion enter the scene, they let Chris cut loose to freak out on his guitar, a style that finds a mid-point somewhere between the raw emotional wail of the blues and the far out and trippy soundscapes of psychedelic rock. Things get downright weird towards the end with a calliope of twisted sonics whirling around in a haze of smoke and mirrors before the music gently segues into Part 2.

Part 2 has the hypnotic pulse of electronic music, without actually being electronic music. Think a drier, dustier, grittier and more slowly throbbing variation on Manuel Göttsching’s Echo Waves from Inventions for Electric Guitar and you start to get the idea. Chris’s guitar playing can get way out there, but he peppers it with delicious and original hooks, so it never gets lost in the haze. Combined with the rhythmic pulsations of the other instruments, it keeps drawing you in and in on its spiral journey.

After the nearly 22-minutes that comprise Parts 1 and 2, Part 3 slows things down a little, with a mellow, melodically evocative guitar pattern that sidesteps the driving rhythms for a dreamier excursion, perhaps this time into the nostalgic and mysterious past of the title structure. But it builds slowly, ever so slowly into a deeply acidic jam, with Chris’s echoed guitar going for both edgy shrieking and extreme twang, letting us down finally into the distorted and hazy soundscape of Part 4. Here Chris and his compatriots go nearly ambient, but the guitarist continues to throw in the spellbinding hooks he is a master of, to always keep it interesting, right to the very end.

Solar Motel is like the landscape reflected in a desert mirage. It digs deep to find the soul of America, but then presents it as if seen through a kaleidoscope. As much balanced as it is delirious, Solar Motel is a ballpark hotdog topped with ambrosia, a feast for lovers of cosmically inclined yet down to earth instrumental, psychedelic music.

For more info, visit http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald

Lisbon, Portugal’s Beautify Junkyards came to my attention last year with their 2-song single on Fruits de Mer Records, and then earlier this year with their contribution to Fruits de Mer’s Hollies tribute. They did such a stellar job with the cover songs on those releases that they’ve decided to make their debut full length an all covers set.

There’s quite a variety here, including the songs from the single: The electronic and spacey keyboard colored rendition of Nick Drake’s From The Morning, and the flowing folk-psych with symphonic backdrop take on Os Mutantes’ Fuga No. 2. Other songs that are stylistically ripe for Beautify Junkyards’ interpretation include Vashti Bunyan’s Rose Hip November, which is treated similar to the Nick Drake cover, being largely faithful to the original, but spicing things up with spacey effects, plus some potent choral vocals. Bridget St John’s Ask Me No Questions goes into trippy dreamland with the instrumental break. Linda Perhacs’ Parallelograms is one of the most tripped out avant-garde folk songs I’ve ever heard, and Beautify Junkyards do a decent job with it but can’t outdo Perhacs’ experimental chutzpah. I love the drifting flow of Donovan’s Song of the Naturalist’s Wife. The covers of Heron’s Yellow Roses and Roy Harper’s Another Day convey the gentle acoustic-folk of the originals. But the single best track of the set for me is the out-in-left-field dreamy acoustic-folk interpretation of Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity. This is my idea of a cover song, with the band taking the original and making it completely their own. Really beautiful.

In summary, it’s clear that Beautify Junkyards are an outstanding acoustic-folk-psych band, and they’ve got my attention, but now it’s time for them to get crackin’ with some original songs. I did notice in the promo sheet that they are working on an original score for the 70s animated movie Fantastic Planet, to be presented live in film festivals. Now that could be interesting.

The album is being distributed through Clear Spot: http://www.clearspot.nl
Digital distribution will be through iTunes, Spotify and Amazon

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Sauer Adler are the Polish duo of Kacper Wojaczek on keyboards and vocals and A.J. Kaufmann on guitars and vocals, and I believe Revelation is their debut. Sauer Adler cover a lot of ground across the album’s 10 tracks. Bokonon is characterized by a Syd Barrett Madcap Laughs brand of stripped down whimsical folk-psych. Axona is a 60s inspired psych song, with cool piano and acoustic guitar interplay, later transitioning to organ and electric guitar. Wormhole Blues and In the Silence of the Morning Sunrise bring to mind lo-fi Peter Hammill. Gray City and Ascension / Vikings of the Sunrise have an intense, emotional, spaced out Prog feel. And Get High and See is a 12+ minute constellation of lysergic twists and turns. It begins as a fairly normal song, but after a few minutes veers off into an avant-psychedelic exploration that seems to switch gears every moment or two, from freaky songs to spaced out improvs, which despite the weirdness is all creatively strung together.

Revelation may be a lo-fi living room affair, but Wojaczek and Kaufmann are doing a lot with a little, writing damn good songs and putting together impressive instrumental arrangements. Add a couple more musicians and give these guys some quality studio time and we might have a Prog-Psych powerhouse on our hands.

For more information visit the Sauer Adler web site at: http://saueradler.bandcamp.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Based in New Haven, Connecticut, Landing are the trio of Aaron Snow, Adrienne Snow, and Daron Gardner, who are celebrating their 15th anniversary summer tour with this 5-song, not quite 30 minute EP, released as a cassette and digital download.

Gathering is a dreamy tune with a motorik beat. I like the combination of gentle drift and underlying dense, aggressive noise-drone on Tending and Time. Adrienne’s vocals are hypnotically soothing and recorded and layered beautifully on both these songs. Aaron sings on the remaining tracks and I like how the two trade off vocal duties as both have voices that are complimentary to the music. Cyst is an atmospheric space-pop song that would be a powerful meditative dreamscape even without the vocals and percussion. Two Veils and Sphere II are the heavies of the set, largely due to the commanding bass and rock drumming. Two Veils has a spaced out 80s feel, with a mesmerizing alien synth melody and flowing guitar, but also sparse leads, and an introspective landscape. Sphere II is a remake of Sphere, originally on the 2004 album of the same name. I love the bass/guitar counterpoint… the aggression vs. mind massage dialectic as the bass chugs away while the guitar focuses on tender melodies. Lots of cool space electronics color the proceedings on this one too. 15 years and still going strong, Landing continue to explore Space Rock’s dreamier realms.

For more information visit the Landing web site at: http://www.landingsite.net
Listen to and purchase downloads of lots of Landing albums at: http://landing.bandcamp.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

What do you call a poet without a girlfriend?
Homeless…
— Thom the World Poet (Strange Daze Space Rock Festival)

First, this is not a new Spirits Burning album. It was released in 2009 and while preparing a Spirits Burning radio special a few months ago I realized it’s one I missed, so I’m filling in the review crack.

Thom the World Poet will be known to Aural Innovations readers through his association with Gong and Mother Gong. I had the pleasure of experiencing Thom’s freeform improvised poetry when he played M.C. at the Strange Daze Space Rock Festivals and the Quarkstock 2000 Space Rock Festival. In the CD notes, Spirits Burning ship captain Don Falcone says, “Thom’s ability to vocally riff on the spot will forever amaze me!” I know exactly what he means. Thom’s delivery, band intros, announcements and chats at the festivals were compelling and FUN.

Golden Age Orchestra is very different from any Spirits Burning release to date, mainly because most of the tracks were recorded with a group of musicians actually performing together, rather than the usual Spirits Burning method of Don Falcone assembling multiple contributions from around the world. Joining Thom were David L. on acoustic and electric guitars, Jay Radford (University of Errors, Mushroom) on electric guitars and electric conga, Michael Clare (University of Errors, Weird Biscuit Teatime) on bass, and Don Falcone on organs, horns, piano, string and electronic driven things.

The music consists of spacey, jazzy, bluesy, cool grooving acoustic-electric rock, all functioning as support for Thom’s vocals. I like the spacey jazzy rock, with tasty leads from both acoustic and electric guitars on Golden Age of When. I don’t know who David L. is but I love the guitar interplay between him and Jay Radford, with Only One Question being a standout for dual leads. Other highlights include the spacey sultry blues of Retirement Blues. I dig the psychedelic jazzy blues with trippy flute-Mellotron sounding leads on Santa Somewhere (Beach Blanket Waltz). Both The Light And The Dark is the most psychedelic tune of the set and also the only instrumental, with cavernous Eastern flavored atmospherics and percussion. And River of Xperience (Only One Questions) is the one traditional Spirits Burning track, including global contributions from Kev Ellis (Dr Brown, BubbleDubble, Sonic Arcana) on killer blues harmonica, Chris Hopgood on guitar, and the late Mychael Merrill (Melting Euphoria) on conga.

Golden Age Orchestra may not appeal to all Spirits Burning fans, but to Don’s credit, the project has taken multiple twists and turns over the years and this is certainly a twist. The musicians are outstanding and I’m assuming they were improvising along with Thom. And to really appreciate Thom you have to keep in mind that he’s improvising the lyrics throughout. Pretty impressive.

For more information visit the Spirits Burning web site at: http://www.spiritsburning.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Austin, Texas based Book of Shadows always have a fluid lineup, sometimes consisting of up to 5 -6 members, though always including founders Carlton and Sharon Crutcher. Their latest album, Ritual of Joy, was recorded in a single day by the quartet of Carlton on keyboards, Sharon on vocals, Douglas Ferguson on guitar and modular synthesizer, and Steve Marsh on guitar and electronics.

I like the dual guitars on the 25 minute Stone People. Searing, droning, wildly pulsating and fluttering, harsh Industrial acid-noise Psych, gently melodic… the guitars are dramatic theme builders, led by Sharon’s trademark “vocalizations”, which reach banshee levels of intensity. And Carlton colors and supports with electronics that are alien and atmospheric, but also coldly machine-like, laying down single toned noisy drone lines that oscillate ever so slightly and unnervingly. The title track is a relatively short but beautiful mood piece, with spacious, meditative atmospherics, slowly soloing guitars and light vocals. New Abilities starts off with a nifty combination of chanting witchy vocals, fun and freaky sci-fi electronics, and warbling acid-noise and melodic guitars. Around the 7 minute mark the music eases into a ghostly, rumbling bowels-of-the-spacecraft segment with Space Ritual electronics and some of the trippiest guitars of the set. And the 20 minute Purification is an Avant-Psychedelic sound exploration, with some of the most varied and interesting electronics of the set. Near the 12 minute mark the guitars start cranking out chunky Metal chords, then shift to Hendrix style hard Psych, all of which sounds great combined with Sharon’s wails and the space electronics. This would make a great soundtrack. To what, I don’t know, but it’s got a powerful narrative feel.

Note that Ritual of Joy is a limited numbered edition of only 50 copies.

For more information, visit the Reverb Worship web site at: http://www.reverbworship.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

IndigoM was the second Book of Shadows album, recorded live on KVRX radio Austin, Texas in 2005, and released as a CD that year. The Reverb Worship reissue consists of the single 50+ minute piece of music that comprised the original, and as a bonus adds the brief intro that preceded the performance and the 7 minute interview that followed.

IndigoM was recorded by a trio version of the band – mainstays Carlton (keyboards) and Sharon (vocals) Crutcher, plus Douglas Ferguson on guitar and electronics. The music is a guitar and electronics exploration. It’s deep in space, but also harsh and sonically devastating, with floating alien soundscapes that evolve with an edgy aggression. This is spacecraft engine room avant-garde sound creation, and the trio do an impressive job of gradually navigating the journey on an aurally picturesque course. The interview is a nice addition, and however trivial this many sound, after hearing Sharon’s unique vocals over 20+ albums, it was great hearing her “talk”.

Note that IndigoM is a limited numbered edition of only 50 copies.

For more information, visit the Reverb Worship web site at: http://www.reverbworship.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Vespero are on a creative tear. I described last year’s Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier as a cross between Korai Orom and Ozric Tentacles, and at one point made a reference to a classic Prog sound. Their new album, Droga, draws much more heavily on the Progressive Rock influences, planting it all in the band’s trademark Space Rock grounding.

The album opens with Steppe. A Middle Eastern flavored intro conjures up images of a desert oasis in space, with screeching yet seductively melodic violin, a steady drone and flittering electronics. Around the 4 minute mark the band launch into a blistering Space-Prog rocker that brought to mind a marriage of King Crimson and The Spacious Mind. The rapid-fire and angular Maul includes Robert Fripp styled guitar patterns, melodic violin, and classic Prog keys, nicely elevated into space by the darting alien synths. It’s like each musician is playing lead and it all gels wonderfully. Red Pitfalls consists of soaring gliss guitar, bubbling liquid psych guitar, monster rocking leads and more King Crimson references. There’s lots of variety, all congealing into a lusciously rocking whole. In the last few minutes the music transitions to a blissfully dreamy cross between Shoegaze and spaced out Jazz. Thymus is similar, rocking out like a Hell-brewed firestorm, and then shifting to an intriguingly dissonant yet pleasantly melodic segment. We’re treated to lots of seamless thematic shifts and a mercury bursting intensity level that keeps the action zipping along. Oboo goes in a different direction, with funky, tribal, rhythmic floating Space-Jazz, grooving electronica and mind-melting Rock. I love the King Crimson inspired guitar patterns accompanied by wailing guitar leads and pulsating electronics. I also dig the high powered intensity and whimsical meandering explorations of Halo. Marine benefits from the addition of acoustic instruments, plus a killer combination of percussion, guitar and keys. The first half of Frozen Lillies (Melt in Heaven) is like a deep space take on the early Genesis sound, and for the second half Vespero switch to frenetic drumming, tempered by cosmic keys and intensely rocking yet lulling guitar leads. The title track is an electronic and soundscape driven mood piece, with haunting scat-chants from Elena Belozyorfova, Steve Hackett in space guitar, and astral sax, making for a mind-bending finale to an outstanding set.

Droga has got to be the most compositionally sophisticated set of music I’ve heard from Vespero yet, and the musicians have the chops to execute it. Imagine a cross between King Crimson, Djam Karet, Ozric Tentacles, and early Genesis, and you might get something like Droga. Vespero continue to be one of the most exciting, interesting and compelling instrumental bands on the contemporary Space Rock scene. Highest recommendation.

Note that the CD comes housed in a thick cardboard folder with silkprinted artwork. There is also a limited edition 2-CD set that includes the Liventures bonus disc, featuring alternative versions of the band’s live favorites, cover songs, and compilation exclusives.

For more information visit the R.A.I.G web site at: http://www.raig.ru
Streams and downloads of all R.A.I.G. releases are available at their Bandcamp site: http://raig.bandcamp.com
Visit Vespero on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Vesperomusic

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Belgium based Cosmic Trip Machine return for their first album since 2010’s The Curse of Lord Space Devil. The band are the quartet of Will Z on keyboards, Majnun on guitar, oG on bass, and Sammy on drums. The new album is titled Golden Horus Name, and has an interesting theme so I’ll quote from the promo sheet:

The album tells two different stories: the celestial cow Egyptian myth in broad outline and the story of Barrington, a cursed rock star, a great Pharaoh reincarnation, who lived in Swinging London and fell into a deep depression. The character is directly inspired by the life of the musician Ramases who recorded during the 60’s and 70’s some singles and two beautiful albums.

That alone gets Cosmic Trip Machine an A+ for imagination in my book. The album consists of 10 songs, most in the 4-5 minutes range, give or take a few minutes. The music is firmly rooted in late 60s-early 70s heavy Prog-Psych, with a classic, and quite luscious, Hammond organ sound, and ripping guitar leads.

Aristophanes opens the set and is like a mixture of The Doors and Purple Overdose. Let Your Eye Come Down starts with chanting voices and swirling space synths before launching into a chunky rocking slab of high intensity hard Prog-Psych. For great songs, Flower is one of my favorites, with propulsive guitar and organ, sitar-like chords, a killer melody and great guitar solos. If this came out in 1968 it would be remembered as one of that era’s great psychedelic songs. The pace slows for the title track, which is a trippy acoustic led tune. A Part Of Me is another slower paced song, this one a pleasant drifting melodic psychedelic rocker. The vocals and guitar solos are excellent! This song is sheer beauty, and at nearly 8 minutes takes plenty of time to stretch out and explore. Celestial Cow is a short, spacey, Progressive Rock instrumental, that despite its pastoral nature manages to fit in, quite seamlessly, yet another ripping guitar solo. Reincarnation Blues is a straight-forward though pretty killer heavy Blues rocker. Rising From Its Ashes is a 2 minute doomy showcase for Majnun’s guitar shredding. Song Of Rising Preacher Man is another monster, transitioning though multiple themes, including cool grooving funky Arthur Brown-like tribal bits and some of the most powerhouse 70s rockin’ Prog-Psych of the set. God damn, these guys kick ass! The Lady From Nowhere Land closes the set and is another longer stretch-out track, at just over 8 minutes. This is another of the more heavy Prog oriented tracks, though very spacey-trippy, with seductive keys and yet more impressive guitar.

In summary, the musicianship on Golden Horus Name is solid and the vocals outstanding. And these guys have a flair for rocking hard with catchy melodic hooks. Much of the album is a retro experience to be sure, but if you pine for the sounds of the late 60s – early 70s, these guys have NAILED IT. And if you recall the stories the album is based on… those sounds are what the theme of the album is all about.

Note that the album is a vinyl only release on Nasoni, download code included. It will also be available from iTunes in September.

For more information visit the Cosmic Trip Machine web site at: http://www.cosmictripmachine.be
Visit the Nasoni Records web site at: http://www.nasoni-records.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

With the current band of occultist Golden Dawn “usual suspects” Edward & The Silverman, and Erik Drost, an otherwise beatnik-new wave era band of gothic Euro-rock old schoolers, the current Dots in their 33rd year of existence are now, since Niels and Martijn, left in 2010, a trio with Hawkwind engineer Raymond Steeg as the shadow fourth member, as they seem to be finding their sound more solidly planted in a more consumable reality and back on their feet since their recent Chemical Playschool 15 album, which I slagged so harshly here on the Aural Innovations blog, last winter, a release which lacked focus and I thought was an outright bad album.

The Gethsemane Option is a gem of a release, refreshing and fun, albeit one with many flaws. I will point out the negative aspects first, one being the noisy electronic drum beats and white noise blurring the finer melodies which also fade in and out rather irritatingly, as if the band never know how to start or finish a song properly. Now, the good stuff. I mentioned melodies. Here is some stellar and melodic songwriting skills displayed with smart lyric writing, gliding through the mystical and magickal as it may be. There is little of the abstract “noise sculpture” stuff found here, thankfully. The opening track, A Star Is Born, is a majestic song about a chosen infant of sorts, “This is Holy Magick”, Edward Ka-Spel, the singer, wails as the magical child is born, “laying in an unmade bed in a shabby flat in Nowhere Town”, as it may. Escher Everywhere is a traditional Dotz outing as well; psychedelic and a throwback to the 80’s pop era (if you can call it gothic underground psych pop) of the band. It may be a reference to The 13th Floor Elevators LP Easter Everywhere mixed with the hallucinogenic ordered architectural and optical illusion art of M.C. Escher. One More Dimension is a longer echoey psychedelic track I also enjoy immensely. What strikes me here is that the LPD’s are finally writing songs. Personally I just wish the production wasn’t so shabby, noisy or compressed, like recorded at home on a laptop. Maybe they have gotten too comfy at home with their recording techniques. The cover art is a Muslim woman with four arms naked covered in blood underneath in a fruit bearing tree; quite unsettling. As mystics with religion, it may be interpreted as an image of Eden, or an oasis and a Islamic militant female with four arms as if a diety out of Hinduism, sitting in Lotus position underneath, with blood spattered everywhere, and a anti-nuclear peace symbol on her chest in blood. LPD’s are not strangers to Islam, it seems, being East Majick druids on their magic carpet and their mystical echoes of The Old Man in The Mountain and the Hashishins; the LPD’s are “dagger-music”, as it may be… brandishing daggers and stoned immaculate as medieval Hashishins. Or they can crunch angelic or celestial observations with any modern or ancient religion, yet claim to be Gnostics and Atheists, or more likely, also Wiccan.

Its a nice effort. I have been listening to The Gethsemane Option all summer, only after getting the download only LPD’s album Taos Hum which is less successful yet sounds very similar with the noisy electronic drums and irritating fades. LPD and relations are very active on Bandcamp with exclusive recordings there, so much fantastic early cassette and early live shows and other stuff now availible for download. Seek them out, turn on, and work that Mojo, The LPD’s are a band for the mystical seekers out there. I give this album a solid 7 and 1/2 out of 10 on the scale. Good place to start your LPD collection, if you want to start with the new stuff. Myself, the 80’s-90’s eras are where the most magick still resonates Dotz-wise. Sing While You May, for another 33 years, Edward, and the other merry band of Dotz who otherwise make the sounds! There is no other band that sound quite like these guys.

For more information visit http://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com AND http://legendarypinkdots.org AND http://brainwashed.com/lpd

Reviewed by Christian Eric Mumford