German improvisational ensemble Space Debris return with their 10th album – She’s A Temple, which consists of 8 instrumental tracks and a full 77 minutes of music. The band are the quartet of Tommy Gorny on guitar, Mitja Besen on bass, Winnie Rimbach-Sator on keyboards, and Christian Jäger on drums & percussion.

Space Debris are proudly retro in their approach, mining late 60s – early 70s Progressive, Hard Rock and Krautrock as their inspiration. The album opens with the 15 minute Palmyra, parts of which bring to mind the Jimi Hendrix Experience with the addition of swirling Hammond organ. One of the things I’ve always liked about Space Debris is the way they exemplify Prog infused Hard Rock, with free-wheeling, exploratory jams that transition through multiple musical themes, and Palmyra seamlessly shifts from heavy rocking to gently introspective. Cloudwalker lays down a cool Bluesy foundation for Tommy Gorny’s ripping guitar, which is both spaced out and stoned rocking, as well as Winnie Rimbach-Sator’s electric piano, which traverses Blues and Jazz, and even gets into some tripped out Sun Ra styled efx. This track speaks volumes in less than 5 minutes.

Creation is a 2-part, 18 minute piece. Glimpse Of A Dying Sun is the first part, consisting of spacey soundscape guitar and keys, and subtly intricate drumming. Each musician seems to be operating in his own individual yet communal space, creating a delightfully upbeat Prog-Jazz-Ambient journey. This melts into the second part – Everdrifting Particle, which starts off as anthem fueled heavy rocking Prog, and then veers into wildly swingin’ and groovin’ Soul. KILLER keyboards on this one, and the keyboard-guitar duel at the end makes for a monstrous finale. Skinflight is a brief piece that puts Christian Jäger’s drums front and center. Time Traveller starts off as a shit kickin’ hard riff rocker, with lots of great solos and melodic hooks. After a few minutes the mood calms and we’re treated to some of the most freaked out keyboard sounds of the set, which sounds really cool along with the ambient-Hendrix styled guitar. She’s A Temple starts off with an intriguing blend of Prog-Jazz and King Crimson Red-styled heaviness. The band soon transition to a Funky jam with spaced out guitar leads, before launching into a high intensity heavy rocking Metallic assault that makes for yet another ass kicking finale. The set winds down with the nearly 17 minute Supernova 1604, named after the supernova observed by Johannes Kepler. This sucker jams along nicely, hitting highs of heaviness, meditative yet hard rocking passages, and funky psychedelic segments.

In summary, while Space Debris may be in their usual stylistic territory on She’s A Temple, there is a huge amount of variety, the musicianship is top notch and the performances sweetly inspired.

For more information visit the Space Debris web site at: http://www.spacedebrisprojekt.de

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Giöbia are an Italian band I first discovered years ago through their 2004 Beyond The Stars album. In my review I described them as like Ozric Tentacles or Ship Of Fools being more song-oriented and with female vocals. Fast forward nearly a decade and we have their new album on Sulatron Records – Introducing Night Sound. Still with the band are Stefano Bazu Basurto on guitars, sitar, bouzouki and vocals, Paolo Detrji Basurto on bass (he played percussion and synths on the earlier album), and Stefano Betta on drums and percussion. And we now have Saffo Fontana on organ, synth, violin and vocals.

The Giöbia on Introducing Night Sound is very different from the music on Beyond The Stars, and not just because of the transition from female to male vocals. The title track sets the tone for the album with its combination of 60s influenced psychedelia and heavy space rock with loads of very cool effects, and the bouzouki and beats giving the music an ethnic flavor. A powerhouse kick off to the album. Can’t Kill is totally trippy, with sci-fi atmospherics, classic 60s organ providing hypnotic swirl, more of the same ethnic influences, and a throbbing marching drum beat. Karmabomb has one of the best melodic hooks of the set, with a mind-bending combination of sitar and keyboards. I love the dual screaming anguished guitar melodies on A Hundred Comets, and its potent spaced out wind tunnel vibe. This song has a contemporary feel that would make a good “single” release. The first couple minutes of Orange Camel are among the heaviest rocking instrumentals of the set, and only in the last minute does it launch into the song portion, which still rocks hard and has a great combination of spaced out guitar and 60s organ. Electric Light is another trippy 60s styled psych song with a great catchy melody, a spaced out vibe, and another killer combination of guitar and organ. Silently Shadows has a stoned, lysergic love song feel, but with a strangely surreal mid-section that’s like a mixture of organ grinder and traditional Italian music. Rounding out the set are two covers. One is a rousing, spaced out take on the Electric Prunes’ Are You Lovin’ Me More (But Enjoy It Less). The other is a pulsating, spaced out, heavy psych rocking interpretation of Santana’s No One To Depend On, that takes the song into entirely new realms. Now THIS is my idea of a cover!

In summary, this is a solid set of spaced out psychedelia. It’s got a great variety of instrumentation, with the bouzouki and sitar adding a tripped out ethnic style, and excellent organ and keys. I was reminded at times of Vibravoid, and at others of the late great Purple Overdose. Hot stuff. The album is being released in CD and LP editions, and vinyl junkies should note that the LP is being pressed on heavy orange vinyl (edition of 500).

For more information visit the Giöbia web site at: http://www.giobia.com
Visit the Sulatron Records web site at: http://www.sulatron.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

The latest from German cosmonauts Electric Moon is a 10″ vinyl release in a pressing of 500. The band are the trio of Sula Bassana on guitar, organ and synths, Komet Lulu on bass and vocals, and Michael Orloff on drums.

The Inner Part opens side one, propelled by a motorik beat, haunting vocals, hypnotic drones, liquid trip guitar and searing acidic space effects. Very intense acid drenched Space Rock. Your Own Truth has a bass pattern and off-kilter rhythmic pulse that reminds me of the Finnish band Circle before they went Metal. Lulu’s vocals are a cross between chant and space whisper, which once again adds a cosmically hypnotic dimension to the music. And I like how both tracks are deep space but rhythmically distinct from one another.

Side two consists of the nearly 12 minute No Escape From Now. The first few minutes are a spaced out, tension laced introductory build up which doesn’t fully explode until around the 4 minute mark. I love how the bass and drums lock horns in intense rocking battle for a while, before the band settle into a still rocking but more sedate, acid drenched groove. The guitar veers from acidic drone to bubbling trippy licks, and Lulu’s vocals serve as a cosmic meditative mantra. File under absolutely freakin’ excellent. Electric Moon really are one of the best of the contemporary instrumental space/psych rockers.

For more information you can visit the Electric Moon web site at: http://www.electricmoon.de
Visit the Sulatron Records web site at: http://www.sulatron.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Excerpt from the Soft Hearted Scientists Manifesto:
“WE WILL create music with a sense of wonder: like the sound of stars flying off the end of a wand or, if it were possible, the sound of plucking a spider’s web encrusted with dew drops. Nothing less will do.”

Earlier this year, Fruits de Mer Records released Whatever Happened To The Soft Hearted Scientists, a 2-LP + 7″ compilation of songs from the band’s four CDs, songs from their now released new album, False Lights, some previously unreleased demos, and a title track exclusive to the compilation. I had never heard of the band before but was instantly smitten by the magical, and, sometimes mystical blend of Psychedelia, Folk-Psych, Pop-Psych, traditional influences, Progressive Rock, and so much more that makes the music accessible to all, but ultimately difficult to adequately describe.

Soft Hearted Scientists are the Welsh quartet of Nathan Hall, Dylan Line, Paul Jones and Michael Bailey. They formed in Cardiff in 2001 as the duo of Hall and Line, making cassette demos in Hall’s house. Both had played in bands that performed live but not released any recordings. Hall explains that, “it’s only when I took time out from bands for two years and really concentrated on my songwriting that I started to crack it around 2000. And then Dylan came along with analogue synthesizers and helped to arrange some songs I’d written and it was clear they were better than anything I’d done before.”

Did any particular vision, goal or common interest bring the two musicians together? “To escape from band practice rooms and amplifiers, quiet things down and experiment with any instrument or sound and to create something we truly liked that had some kind of magic dust on it and was influenced not just by music but by books, films, anything at all.”

Magic dust indeed. I’ll continue the story by way of an overview of the Soft Hearted Scientists discography. All quotes are from Nathan Hall, who I conducted an email interview with, as well as some taken from the band’s web site…

Uncanny Tales From The Everyday Undergrowth (2005)

Soft Hearted Scientists debut started life as three EPs released in 2004 – Wendigo, Bethesda, and Midnight Mutinies. Why release three EPs and then bring them together for a first full album? “We worked so intensively on them that we could not face a quick follow up album so released them as our debut album. At first it seemed like an anti-climax to just glue them together, but then they took on a life of their own and the album completely took over from the EPs in our heads.”

Sure enough, the dozen songs on Uncanny Tales From The Everyday Undergrowth transition seamlessly, and one would never know they were actually taken from three different releases. It’s a psychedelically pastoral set of songs. The album opens with the song that has become one of my favorites in the entire Soft Hearted Scientists catalog – Mount Palomar. If I wanted to turn somebody on to the band and could only play one song, this would be it. It’s acoustic driven, but with a full band backing, including rhythm section, organ and freaky electronics. And when the chorus kicks in it’s like an acoustic-orchestral explosion with a joyously uplifting feel that borders on the spiritual. Its part 60s Pop-Folk-Psych, with beautiful harmonies, dashes of Progressive Rock, and wee bits of playful experimentalism. This acoustic lead, yet full band sound, utilizing various instruments and sounds characterizes much of the album. The melodies, instrumentation and arrangements will hook you on the first listen, but there’s so much going on that attentive listeners will be rewarded on multiple listens.

Along with the enchanting music, Nathan Hall’s lyrics are crucial to what Soft Hearted Scientists are about. Topics can range from bucolic, to thoughtful, to wildly surreal, and just pure fun. Diving Bell is a musing toe-tapper that includes a spoken word segment describing a dream, part of which is about Billy Ray Cyrus sitting in Satan’s waiting room and being forced to play Achy Breaky Heart surrounded by demons with flaming mullets, all retribution for the misery he inflicted on humanity with that horrible song and boot scootin’ phenomenon. Pretty wild, huh? Demons appear again in the form of the Wendigo. I love the combination of guitar melody that sounds like a Morricone soundtrack, oddball warbling synths, and multi-part vocals. I like the strange but seductive ooh-wee-ooh synths and acoustic guitars on Brother Sister. The Yongy Bongy Bo is another highlight of the set, with its blend of Pagan-Folk and Celtic, and the lyrics based on a poem by Edward Lear. Isabella (Keep Riding The Road To The Sea) is another standout, sounding like a Folk-Prog take on a gypsy influenced show tune. But then halfway through the song the band shift gears and settle into that mixture of rhythmic toe tapping, traditional pub gathering and Pop-Folk-Psych that Soft Hearted Scientists are so adept at. Dig that banjo. And Midnight Mutinies is a stunning blend of Folk-Prog and spacey freakiness.

Take Time To Wonder In A Whirling World (2007)

The A470 Song opens the album and combines radio wave electronics, luscious picking acoustic guitars, and plucked strings, and the backing vocals have a thrumming drone quality, an intriguing marriage of contrasting elements that is a common thread throughout all Soft Hearted Scientists albums. This leads into I Wanted You, which despite its delightfully bouncy feel good groove, tells of love that wasn’t meant to be. Light Years To Nothing features more of Soft Hearted Scientists brand of Pop-Folk-Psych, with the addition of more spacey electronics and atmospherics.

I shared with Nathan Hall how difficult I find it to describe their accessible yet challenging music. “I think I just wanted to get the same feeling from my own songs that I got from, say, See Emily Play, but also that feeling you get from watching some creepy old movie or seeing the face of a praying mantis – that something otherworldly was happening. And everything from psych music, to Hammer horror films, to my guilty childhood pleasure of Marvel comics all combined somehow to fuel that rather melodramatic and surreal stuff that we do. Dylan likes a lot of electronic music and BBC Radiophonic workshop stuff too.”

This response resonated with me and I think goes light years toward explaining the sense of wonder to be found from immersion in Soft Hearted Scientists music. Other highlights of the set include Siberia, with its mixture of Pop-Psych, traditional influences and Progressive Rock, plus fun strange sounds scattered throughout. Rockford’s Return is a cool grooving Space-Prog song, the only lyrics being the repetitive invitation to, as the album title says – “Take Time To Wonder In A Whirling World”. Eyes is another one of my favorite songs in the Soft Hearted Scientists catalog. It’s got a beat that will make anyone want to dance. And it takes time to wonder, as the chorus says – “When I look at you I see a lifelong dreamer. It’s in your eyes. It’s in your eyes.” And then the narrator flips it back around with – “When you look at me you’ll see a lifelong dreamer. It’s in my eyes. It’s in my eyes.”

And then there’s the 10 minute epic The Caterpillar Song, which in my review of the Fruits de Mer label compilation I described as starting off as a spaced out Folk infused Pop-Psych song and eventually builds into full blown Progressive Rock, with BIG keyboards, a ripping tripped out guitar solo, and oscillating UFO effects. It’s a monster of a track and so much is happening in 10 minutes. I thought I had read somewhere that Nathan Hall said he would like to do a 20 minute song sometime and asked him about that. “Well, we are actually working up a 12 and half minute song at the moment. But it’s really a loose collection of short bits like A Quick One or the second side of Abbey Road rather than that big song on Floyd’s Meddle which is seamless. So it does not try to hide the joins at all and starts with a quiet verse and chorus repeated twice and is very poignant, but then jumps into a faster bit with a silly lyric, then a darker bit, then a really spooky folky bit, then a very dense lyrical Beta band type bit and then ends on a more strident end part, a massive stylophone solo, and then a very quiet reprise of the second part that fades out in a really ghostly way! So God knows what a 20 minute one would do.” I’m confident they could pull it off…

Scarecrow Smile: Home Demos Volume 1 (2009)

Scarecrow Smile is precisely what the sub-title says. In the CD notes Nathan Hall humorously describes how he was pestered into releasing this set by neglected songs, complaining that they deserved to be heard. These are recordings mostly dating from 2001-2005; lo-fi songs intended to showcase a side of the group that differs from the multi-layered studio recordings. To be sure, Soft Hearted Scientists studio albums are beautifully produced and arranged. But as the 16 songs on Scarecrow Smile demonstrate, the lo-fi home recordings in no way detract from the band’s charm.

The country-like bounce of Effervesce feels like something from The Beatles’ Let It Be. Simple keyboards are put to good use on songs like Man Overboard!, Twilight Eyes, The Impossible, and Return Of The Black Dahlia. I’m a fan of the 1980s homemade music cassette culture scene and have been captivated by some pretty raw stuff, so hearing simplicity manifest itself in such well-crafted songs is a pleasure. Garden Song is one of the most dreamily somber songs I’ve heard from Soft Hearted Scientists, with its vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar, piano, and eerie keyboards. Evil Eye achieves a delicate balance between frantic rushing and Psychedelic drift. There’s plenty of experimentation too as evidenced by songs like Scarecrow Smile and Totem Pole Blues, with its alien electronics rising and falling to lulling acoustic guitars. And Manta Ray on Main Street sounds like a spaced out experimental Simon & Garfunkel.

Give these guys a couple acoustic guitars, bass, drums and a simple keyboard and I’m sure they could captivate an audience all night. Which makes me wonder if this more lo-fi sound is what a live Soft Hearted Scientists experience might be like? Though primarily a studio band, I asked Nathan Hall about live performances. “Our live thing is four of us but we have not played for 18 months. It is inevitably more stripped down but that’s not a bad thing as live is different. We have never had a live drummer on a regular basis and we are considering getting one. They are like ducks teeth in Cardiff. Don’t know why.”

Calling Scarecrow Smiles: Homemade Demos “Volume 1″ implies there will be another, which I asked Nathan Hall about. “I did plan a 22 track follow up but that might be a bit much. There will be a volume 2 at some stage. There are lots of demos sitting about.” Bring it on Nathan…

Wandermoon (2011)

Wandermoon is Nathan Hall’s word for elevation and escape. As he explains on the band’s web site: “When the drudgery of life is biting I escape to beautiful places like Nash Point Lighthouse or a John Steinbeck book like Travels With Charley or the film Stand By Me. They are all Wandermoon. It’s everything important in life reduced to a single word.”

Wandermoon is the one album that includes track-by-track notes on the band’s web site, providing the listener with a bit of insight into Hall’s lyrics. It’s also a relatively short album, with six songs at just over 30 minutes. Mountain Delight is a beauty of a song about several trips Hall took to Bethesda in North Wales. “Oh brother there’s a world to see. It’s overflowing in its mystery. And when I gaze into infinity. I melt away. Life is stranger than a dragonfly. Constellations floating in the night. I sing this song to set these miracles… to memory”. The song is almost Prog style epic in its multiple thematic transitions, despite being six minutes long. The Trees Don’t Seem To Know That Its September is a lament for the end of summer, with whimsical music that conjures up images of an old variety show performance. Tornadoes In Birmingham is what Hall describes as an “ecological hallucinatory ballad”, a term I kept repeating over and over in my head because the phrase sounds so cool. I like the music’s crossover between acoustic pop and dreamy vibe . Arrival Song is about going off on holiday to sort one’s head out, communicated through gracefully fanciful music. Road To Rhayader consists of a hypnotic melody and vocals, interweaving acoustic and electric guitars and marching rhythmic pace, and all-around beautiful instrumental arrangements. Westward Leading opens with trademark Soft Hearted Scientists acoustic guitar and vocals, plus a cool sci-fi synth line, but quickly launches into a bouncy, seductively melodic Pop-Psych song. There are lots of fun effects, and I love the keyboards, which range from organ, to synths, to classic Prog style. And at 10+ minutes the music switches gears frequently, from the opening song, to cosmic Prog instrumental interludes, and more. I love the multi-part vocals backed by hypnotic organ in the last minute. Yeah, I think these guys could do interesting things with a 20 minute song.

While preparing interview questions for Nathan Hall I labored over a lot of far too detailed questions about his lyrics, and then Wandermoon prompted me to distill them down to a single question about the inspiration he draws from his surroundings. “I spent several years in Bethesda in North Wales and the countryside there had a big impact on me. The mountains and woodland. I’ve lived in Cardiff for many years but I have to get out of it most weekends for walks in special places like Nash Point and Tintern Abbey and Garwnant Forest Centre near Merthyr Tydfil. There is no doubt these walks and places have helped fuel the songs.”

False Lights (2013)

False Lights is the new Soft Hearted Scientists album, released in mid-May and consisting of 14 tracks at 56 minutes. The web site describes it as a companion album to Wandermoon, as well as being a darker album than previous releases. I asked Nathan Hall to elaborate on this. “False Lights has a lot of songs containing anger and darkness that necessitate the escape to the countryside to clear my head and so on. But after some darkness the clouds part at the point that Night of the Hunter suddenly speeds up and continues through Panorama. They are two very hopeful songs, and in both of them I find myself back in the countryside, with a head full of light and thinking anything is possible again despite all the unpleasant things going on in the world. So it is ultimately hopeful and those last 2 songs are companions to the much more innocent songs of Wandermoon.”

If this is a darker album you sure can’t tell from the music. Seeing conjures up images of a lively rural village festival. There’s a bit of George Harrison in the guitar, plus some trippy licks from a second guitar, both of which sound great alongside the banjo. The brief Seeing Further serves as a deep space synth dominated coda to the song. I love the Folk-Prog, haunting Psychedelia, traditional influences and electronic effects that come together so strangely but nicely on the title track. Golgotha has a lulling dreamy feel, with a body swaying rhythmic pulse and flittering space electronics, and a finale that brings to mind some of the more lysergic moments from The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. I like the combination of grooving jazzy-tribal percussion and catchy guitar and piano melody on Song From The River. But listen to the lyrics, talking about Starbucks in the tomb of Tutankhamun, Tesco stores in the sphinx, and McDonalds inside every pyramid. Now those are dark thoughts!

Other highlights include Seaside Sid and the Giant Squid, with its great groove and Mellotron-ish sounding melody line. Trees In The Wind is a mind-bending song with beautiful vocals and choral backing. “I felt my world was spinning too quickly. So Pegasus flew me away.” And then, “The Chinese army were riding on horseback. Charging at atom bomb clouds.” Monsters Of The Id combines a threatening tone with spirited music and a banquet of fun sounds and effects. Night Of The Hunter is one of my favorite songs on False Lights, largely due to the feel-good transition from trippy psych song to majestic Pop-Prog-Psych with killer melodic hooks. Panorama is similar, starting off as one of the most playful songs of the set, and ending as part Pop-Psych song and part effects laden experimentation. In fact, synths and electronics make their presence especially prominent throughout False Lights.

Having immersed myself in these albums I’m struck by the variety of instrumentation and sounds and the fullness with which Soft Hearted Scientists bring it all together. The songs are beautifully arranged and produced and I wasn’t surprised to read on the band’s Facebook page that it took 250 hours of studio time to complete False Lights. I asked Nathan Hall about what it takes to record a Soft Hearted Scientists album. “The songs are fully composed beforehand. A lot of the detail of the arrangements is worked out and demo’d at home in advance so that it is a case of transferring the vision to the studio, to minimize cost and stress. However, stuff does happen spontaneously too. Seeing Further, Paul’s solos on Seeing and Panorama, the whole extension to the end part of Panorama happened in the studio at the mixing stage. Lots of the detail on Halloween People and Trees in the Wind was written after the mixes seemed to be lacking to me so I got busy with a singing saw and cheap sitar sample. Oh and the beat on Halloween People was kind of a send up of Mumford and Sons.”

Throughout their catalog, Soft Hearted Scientists prove themselves to be masters at bringing together contrasting elements and making it all sound absolutely scrumptious. Theirs is a world where synths and spaced out electronic effects become soul mates with banjos. Maybe they should have called themselves Soft Hearted Alchemists?

What’s next for Soft Hearted Scientists? “We start a new album in the next month with a view to completion at the end of next summer. We might even play live again if we get offered any decent shows. There is a vast disparity between what we have achieved in the studio and what is on offer to us live as we do not have an agent or manager. It would take more time and energy and probably cost more to do a tour than to record the next album so unless and until someone steps in to sort that kind of thing out for us we are mainly a studio entity.”

Soft Hearted Scientists would like to extend their gratitude to Fruits de Mer Records for all their support.

Visit the Soft Heated Scientists web site at: http://www.softheartedscientists.com

By Jerry Kranitz

The latest from Houston, Texas’ psychedelic, stoner, metal, ass kickin’ rockers LP4 is a three song 7″ vinyl EP they call Find What You Love And Let It Kill You, which apparently came from advice given to the band by Kinky Friedman. Side 1 consists of The Road, a mellow but rocking psych song with a nice melody and a dreamy flowing vibe. The bell-like keyboard melody gives it a “gentler” feel than what’s usually heard from the LP4. Good song. Side 2 includes two songs, starting with USA, which dispenses with the mellow stuff and punks out for a brief 1.5 minutes. The band shift gears again for La Jetée, an even mellower and again melodic song that’s almost folk-psychy, and has pleasant dual vocals by Ramon Medina and guest Mlee Marie. Three songs, short and sweet. The record will be released on July 8th, so mark your calendar to get a chunk of LP4 wax. Note that if you’re in the Houston area there will be a record release show on July 20th at 7pm at the Vinal Edge record store.

For more information visit The Linus Pauling Quartet web site at: http://www.worshipguitars.org/LP4/

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Mind! are a new spacerock quartet from Algeciras, Spain. Riding in on a wave of rolling chords and motorik beats, Mind! epitomize the traditional spacerock sound, drawing on influences such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd.

A rush of cosmic noise ushers in the first song, Sundrun Hreyfingarlaus, an instrumental based around a simple but effective chord progression, with various effects and layers of sound building one upon the next till the lead guitar finally takes over, bringing a bit of somewhat belated melody to the sonic textures. Battery Licker is the most overtly Hawkwind styled song on the album, built again on a simple chord progression, but with some cool lead guitar interspersed between the Dave Brock like vocals. Things catch fire on Cucumbers From Mars, to me the real centerpiece of the album: a menacing baseline reminiscent of early Floyd is paired with trippy 1960’s style organ swirling through creepy passages of sound, all building, after almost 9-minutes to a deliciously chaotic conclusion. Magallanes is a dark and spooky desert piece that reminded me a bit of the kind of sound the band Earth have been exploring. It’s unfortunately brief, clocking in at just over 2-minutes. I thought it would have made a nice intro to a longer piece, but it ends all too soon with a quick fade out. The band redeem themselves, however, with the trippy Cosmic Tide, a slow and drifting wave of spacious vibes, dreamy guitar and blissed out vocals. Time to Fly is the longest track on the album at just over 10-minutes. The first half is a pulsing, march-like odyssey, that brought to mind the weird, rocky alien landscapes from the covers of those old sci-fi novels of the 60’s and 70’s. It gives way to a very Floydian turn, reminding me of something perhaps from the Wish You Were Here period, with lush strumming acoustic guitars, lysergic singing and a soaring, Gilmouresque lead guitar. The album concludes with the brief Senallagam. As its title would suggest, it’s basically Magallanes played backwards.

The band has a good vibe going, but at times seems a bit derivative to me. The other thing I felt was that the songs got a bit repetitive at times. Not that the songs sound the same as each other; each one definitely has its own feel, but within the songs, riffs get repeated often, as well as vocal lines. The band write some affective melodies, but I kept waiting for it to change, for perhaps a chorus to come, but it was all verses. These are little nitpicky points, meant not to put down but to encourage. There’s certainly talent here, and I`m sure the band will find its own sound as they develop. Stunde Null is definitely worth a listen, though. Perhaps not a spacerock classic in its own right, but a definite step in the right direction with some cool sonic ideas happening.

For more info, visit http://mindspacerock.bandcamp.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mindspacerock

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald

Late last year Nasoni Records released Earthling Society’s ZodiaK on vinyl, consisting of 2 side long 20+ minute epics, plus a brief 2 minute space jam. The new CD reissue by 4 Zero Records doesn’t include the 2 minute space jam, BUT it does include 4 tracks not included on the vinyl, and the 25+ minute title track has 4 additional minutes to make the “full version”. ZodiaK is the band’s seventh album and features the core trio of Fred Laird on guitars, synths and vocals, Jon Blacow on drums, and Kim Allen on bass.

The title track starts off with a lead bass melody, totally trippy exploratory 60s San Francisco era psych guitar, and flittering, syncopated alien electronics. Around the 5 minute mark it shifts gears, with the drums being far more up front and the guitars retaining the 60s sound but veering into a combination of Grateful Dead and Indian stylings. But this is a mere transitional bit as the band soon launch into a rollicking space rock jam that reminds me of the first Tribe of Cro album. Yet nothing stays still for long on this monster, which includes some of the most powerhouse and intense space-psych rock I’ve heard from Earthling Society yet, as well as peacefully trippy 60s styled psychedelic jams. There’s lots of great rocking grooves and it all feels fantastic, but pay attention to the lyrics and you’ll realize how disturbing the subject matter is. It starts with “I need a witness. To document my sickness”, and ends with “Jesus can’t save me. A shadow baits me. I hate all human kind”. I suspect this is about the Zodiak killer who terrified northern California in the 60s-70s.

The Astral Traveller also covers a lot of musical ground. We’ve got steady grooving space-psych jams with trippy guitar leads and cosmic keys, and some deep space segments that focus on soundscape and effects creation like early Pink Floyd and, as Jeff pointed out in his review of the LP, Nektar’s Journey To The Centre Of The Eye. And we’ve got more killer powerhouse space ROCKING. Like the title track it all feels great but has lyrics that are more akin to doom metal than the music I’m hearing, like “Oh my darkly sweet, sweet Satan. I kiss your hoof”. Wow, serious stuff, but then I see the promo sheet description of ZodiaK‘s theme of “six portraits of alienation, serial killing, occultism and urban decay.” The contrast between the music and the subject matter is disorienting and kudos to Earthling Society for pushing my buttons in this way.

So those are the two tracks that made up the lion’s share of the Nasoni LP. The CD has 4 additional songs that round the set out at a full 71 minutes. I started off by describing the lengthy tracks but the album opens with the short The City Of Resurrections, an introductory piece that features an interesting combination of tribal percussion and spaced out minimal keys. The other three tracks add guests Neil Whitehead (of Vert:x) on synths and Lew Dickinson on sax. I Don’t Know Myself has the trademark Earthling Society style of song and jamming spaced out psychedelia. It’s a hip shaking rocker with lots of freaky electronics and the sax injects healthy doses of swing. Desolation is the most pleasantly melodic song of the set. And The Elevator Does Not Stop At This Floor is a cosmically grooving Dub infused instrumental that closes the set.

In summary, Earthling Society are at 7 albums and going strong, always doing something a little different but always recognizably themselves. And on ZodiaK we’re treated to different sides of the band’s blend of space rock and various flavors of psychedelia, both the lengthy stretch-out jams and the more concise songs.

For more information visit the Earthling Society web site at: http://www.earthlingsociety.co.uk
Visit the 4 Zero Records web site at: http://4zerorecords.co.uk

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Ambisonic, the innovative Canadian space prog duo returns with their third release, Manitou, to once again blow your mind. Ambisonic consists of Erik Culp on keyboards, pedals, and guitars and Paul Barry on drums and piano. The music on Manitou represents two musicians operating at the peak of their powers. Complex, riveting rhythms propel lush synthesizers and vintage Moog electronics around in tightly controlled sonic environments where not a single note is wasted. Drawing on not only progressive and space rock as influences, but also on jazz, electronica, and film soundtracks, the duo weave these influences together into seamless, tightly knit compositions. And although the music may have been very challenging for the players to perform, they imbue it with enough top notch songwriting, catchy little pop hooks and intriguing sounds to make it quite accessible to any listener. Although Ambisonic always had a kind of keyboard oriented vibe to it, this outing supposedly has less guitar on it. Maybe I’d have to go back and listen to ARP and their self-titled debut again, but it still sounds like business as usual to me. Not that they’re treading over previous ground. It’s clear that these two musicians really enjoy challenging each other and pushing their sound forward with each release. But there is still a definite and very distinctive quality to their music that makes it uniquely Ambisonic. My favourite tracks on the album are the opener Manitou, with its cool staccato keyboard vamp and High Ideals, with its sumptuously melodic electronics, manic electronica like drum-vibe (played on real drums though!) and psychedelic wah-wah guitars. Other standouts are the funky electro-rock of Buzwah and the spiralling beauty of Slow Wave. But every track on Manitou has something to offer and will surely please any fan of progressive rock, space rock, or electronic music.

I wanted to learn more about Ambisonic and Manitou, and was fortunate enough to be able to discuss those things with the Atomic Cosmonaut himself, Erik Culp, via e-mail. Here’s what I asked and what he had to say…

Aural Innovations: How did you and Paul first end up working together?

Erik Culp: I put an ad in Craigslist and held auditions. He was so into it that he wanted to jam that night.

AI: What was the idea or thought going into Ambisonic? What were you hoping to achieve?

EC: To start with, we wanted to do technical instrumental prog. To see how far two people could go, and how big two people could make it sound. To really challenge ourselves, while still making palatable music. The music progressively became more and more keyboard oriented, but that wasn’t a preconceived notion.

AI: You seem to have drawn on a wide range of influences for the Ambisonic sound. Are there any particular artists that stand out as being very influential on you?

EC: Paul and I have pretty different influences, so he would and does disagree with what I say are our influences. For me it would be Afro Beat like Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Sergio Leone, 60’s Moog albums, Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, Alain Goraguer’s La Planete Sauvage, Pink Floyd’s Animals (Paul strongly disagrees and thinks Dark Side of the Moon is superior, but I can’t get over the conservative playing, saxophones and back-up singers), Sigur Ros, the Flaming Lips, and Tortoise. I also have to throw Godspeed! You Black Emperor in. Major influence. My favorite show ever was at an apple orchard outside of Picton. Godspeed played in a barn. 9 people in the band, 9 in the audience. We camped with them and sat around the fire boozin’ all night.

AI: Those are definitely some pretty interesting influences. You mentioned that Afrobeat and Miles Davis had been especially influencing you a lot lately?

EC: For sure, I’m playing a lot of single note repetitive guitar lately.

AI: What drew you to this kind of music?

EC: My friend Jaqui gave me Bitches Brew for Christmas in high school, because she knew I was into the earlier stuff. It blew my mind. It really scared me at first. People thought Hendrix was weird/revolutionary. Holy crap! Then, I got into the players that he worked with. McLaughlin, Hancock, Corea. I first heard Kuti in a coffee shop about 12 years ago. I had a similar reaction. It was the song Lady and it freaked me out. It was so epic, groovy.

AI: What particular movie soundtracks stand out as being an influence on you?

EC: Hmmm… Logan’s Run, the Man with No Name Trilogy. Those are the biggies

AI: How have Kurt Vonnegut novels been an influence on Ambisonic?

EC: Ha ha! We both really like him. His version of reality is a bit off, and that’s comforting. I don’t really want too much to do with reality.

AI: What’s your favourite Vonnegut novel?

EC: That’s a tough one. I’m going to have to go with Breakfast of Champions. It has it all. I’m lucky enough to have worked on the movie too.

AI: How has the progression of ideas evolved from your previous projects such as Mind of a Squid and your solo work as The Atomic Cosmonaut? Do you see Ambisonic as a totally new sound, or were there any elements of those previous projects that were brought into what you were doing with Ambisonic?

EC: Everything is still me. A fairly natural evolution. Funnily enough, I’m back to doing mainly guitar, jam based stuff now. I remember, after Paul got the gig, we were jamming out ideas and he said “I really don’t like long, slow stuff.” That was a major challenge. My response was “That’s all I do!!!” That was very hard for me to accept, but Paul has been very good at challenging me. We will be jamming on a part that takes everything in me to keep going, and he stops and says something like, “How about we do a dead stop on the three, add another beat in the fourth bar and change keys for the second verse?” I usually figure out a way to do it…I will usually request to work on it, and get back to him next rehearsal. All four limbs are working all the time!

AI: So I guess there’s little chance of Ambisonic doing a 20-minute epic track on your next album then?

EC: Haha! You never know. ARP Parts 1-4 ended up being pretty long. We actually wrote/recorded that song in a day, by the way.

AI: How do you go about creating an Ambisonic album? Is there a lot of improvisation involved, or are the pieces fully composed before recording?

EC: ARP was half created through jams during the recording session, and half written previously. Manitou was all previously written and the drums were recorded last, like the Atomic Cosmonaut recordings, the first Ambisonic record, and the first Mind of a Squid record. Previously written can still mean that a lot of the ideas came from jams… we document all of our jams, and the recordings have been invaluable to us for song creation. Many of the songs came out of my solitude at my cabin in Haliburton in the dead of winter, as well.

AI: I’m assuming that’s the cabin where you recorded ARP? What was it like creating an album in that kind of isolation?

EC: Actually, we recorded ARP outside of Huntsville, and Manitou was recorded at my cabin outside of Haliburton. I love creating in isolation. The winter is best. No clutter or noise. It seems that the heavy, draining focus that the music requires needs to be set in an environment of peace, rather than the clutter of the urban experience. Perfect decompression.

AI: Is all the music recorded live, or are there overdubs?

EC: Tons of overdubs. I’m a freak that way. I will record 30 tracks and blend them together to create a near imperceptible beep at the end of a chorus or something. Some of the tunes are pushing 200 tracks!

AI: You said in one of your promotions that Ambisonic sounds like a dozen musicians when in fact there are only two of you. How do you achieve this sound, especially when playing live?

EC: I play bass with my feet on a Moog Taurus, keyboards and guitars. And 4 track looping with an Electrix Repeater.

AI: You described your new album Manitou to me as a ‘huge left turn’ from your previous albums. How do you see it as a huge left turn?

EC: Less guitar than I have ever put on a record. Short, concise songs; more pop-ish hooks.

AI: Was this a conscious effort or just a natural evolution in the same way that Ambisonic became more keyboard oriented when it started?

EC: Both, I guess. For a while I was getting bored with the tonal variation that a guitar could give me. A Moog’s tonal range is virtually infinite. I’m back on the side of guitar now. We just had a brief falling out!

AI: What are the future plans for Ambisonic?

EC: Interesting question. I don’t really know the answer.

AI: You mentioned a new improvisational project you were currently involved in. Can you tell me more about that?

EC: We are called the Ozark Howlers. It’s fun… I just play guitar. Next to no pedals. I wanted a chance to focus on the music, rather than the gear. Scott from Mind of a Squid is on bass, and Joeseph Doane (another former MoaS bassist) is on guitar. Francis is on drums. It’s slow, long and mellow.

AI: Sounds really awesome! Are there plans to record an album or is this just going to be a live project?

EC: We have a whack of recorded material now. We may release highlights. We probably aren’t going to do too much live performance. Who knows?

AI: Thanks Erik! We’ll be looking forward to hearing more music from any projects you’re involved in.

For more info, visit: http://www.ambisonic.ca, http://ambisonic.bandcamp.com, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ambisonic/52347835425

Reviewe and interview by Jeff Fitzgerald
Band photo by Karol Orzechowski

Permanent Clear Light are a Finnish trio who I’ve become acquainted with through their numerous contributions to Fruits de Mer Records compilations and their 7″ single on Fruits de Mer released last year. Beyond These Things is their full length debut, employing guitars, bass, Theremin, Mellotron, percussion, violin, cornet, synths, electronics and more, to create an outstanding marriage of Pop-Psych, Prog Rock, and… well… ALL things psychedelic.

The album opens with Constant Gardner, an infectiously melodic pop-psych tune with a 60s feel but by no means retro. The dual violin and guitar solo at the end is sheer beauty. Ribes Nigrum and And The Skies Will Fall are both gentle orchestral Folk-Pop-Psych songs with beautiful singing efx’d guitar solos. This is music you hear once and feel like it’s been with you all your life. Love Gun is a little different, having a down ‘n dirty Bluesy edge. Skirmish is a cool grooving, melodic jazzy instrumental with shades of the Beatles, plus totally tripped out guitar and space effects. The banjo and harmonica give Weary Moon a cowboy country sound, but this dreamily bucolic song has just as much of a Celtic feel, like the theme to a Howard Hawks film set in the Irish countryside. And then we have a couple longer tracks that flex their instrumental muscles and explore. Harvest Time is the ultimate blend of Pop-Psych, Acid Rock and Prog. It’s a catchy psychedelic song with killer melodic hooks, but near the 3 minute mark it blasts off into an intense, spaced out psych rocking jam with brain massage guitar, while never completely abandoning the song. On last year’s Fruits de Mer single, I described Higher Than The Sun as starting off with acoustic guitar, orchestration and spaced out alien affects. It’s a lovely pastoral folk-psych song with orchestral embellishment, a killer melodically ripping guitar solo, beautiful vocals singing of all things outside the Earth’s atmosphere, and all surrounded by effects that sound like something from a Louis and Bebe Barron soundtrack. That was the 3:33 minute song on the single. On the CD it’s 9+ minute stunner titled Higher Than The Sun: Astral Travel. It starts off exactly the same as the single… BUT, at the end of the song portion the band veer off into some seriously freaky space noodling, tripping along for a bit before peaking with another powerhouse Pop-Psych meets Prog instrumental workout. It’s got a vibe like the lysergic instrumental bits from The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus, while maintaining the principle Higher Than The Sun melodic theme.

Damn, this is a good album. It’s got excellent compositions, arrangements, musicianship and production. It’ll easily make my Best of 2013 list. File under Psychedelic, but expect FAR more.

For more information visit the Permanent Clear Light web site at: http://permanentclearlight.bandpage.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Recorded as a series of improvisational structures in the Spring of 2012, this is the first recording that Matt Borghi and Michael Teager have done after a half-decade of working together. With a background in classical and jazz saxophone, Teager brings a wide palette of influences to the music. Listeners will hear aspects of Jan Garbarek, John Coltrane and Dave Liebman that’s juxtaposed over Borghi’s pastoral guitar sounds that have more of their timbral origins in the work of Claude Debussy or Ralph Vaughan-Williams than they do other contemporary ambient guitarists… so the press sheet says and now onto the review.

CONVOCATION: Majestic and soaring improvisation. The combination of Borghi’s ambient guitar composition with Teager’s classical jazz saxophone is very relaxing and transcendental without being generic or new agey! PRECIPICE: This track is a bit more engaging and varied with pleasant saxophone flourishes. There’s a lot of music on YouTube that is meant to induce sleep and this music is similar but more “music as art” and less “music as sleep therapy”. I don’t know if these guys play out live but if they do they probably thrill their audiences. NEBULA DIVIDE: Magically fabulous and soothing. I’ve never been a fan of the saxophone but Michael Teager places it very tastefully within the music and not over it!! The faint sound of water burbling in the background. CONSTANT APEX: More of the same, the sax is a bit louder, the music more lilting or obtuse than the previous track. It’s probably cliche or very obvious to say this would be good movie soundtrack music but… I can’t hear anything that sounds like guitar but I guess everything that’s not sax is Matt Borghi, which is a meditative tinkling drone. The track builds momentum and gets more and more powerful. DISCERN DESCENT: Moody, ethereal and mysterious. All of these tracks were recorded the same day and you can tell it’s the same instruments and sounds just seperated into different moods. I’m sure it would be very powerful and intense to see/hear these guys play live in a small intimate setting. Nice long piece like I like them…

For more information visit the Slo-Bor Media web site at: http://slobormedia.org
Visit Matt Borghi’s web site at: http://www.mattborghi.com
Visit Michael Teager’s web site at: http://www.michaelteager.com

Reviewed by Carlton Crutcher