Until I picked this CD to review for Aural Innovations, I hadn’t even heard of this Dave Schmidt (aka Sula Bassana) side project, band, etc. Flaming Lake is a recording of a live performance that took place on July 2, 2011 at the Open Air Festival in Battenberg, Germany. As to anyone who has read my CD reviews before – I am a huge fan of live releases as such. Best described as long-winded instrumental psychedelic jams with some superb improvisation. The CD is a limited edition of just 250 copies and the Sulatron Records site indicates that the vinyl pressing edition is already sold-out. Four lengthy tracks to soak your (already) damaged senses into – like for example the disc’s opener The Cosmic Creator (17:30) is a fine instrumental work-out with awesome passages and fuzz guitar fully put to good use; and the title cut Flaming Lake (16:20) is a definite over-the-top German space rock piece that will have fans of early Hawkwind and Guru Guru surely sitting up and taking notice. The longest running tune Lost And Found (23:43) starts off a bit similar to say, Monster Magnet (at least, I thought so) without the vocals and later had developed into like a Jimi Hendrix guitar ripping shred-fest. The finale to all this galactic bliss winds down with Burning Battenberg (18:43) which showcases Electric Moon’s melodic side.

Personnel: Sula Bassana – guitar effects & electronic stullenbox, Komet Lulu – bass and Alex – drums. Prime 21st century German psychedelia to be thoroughly taken in. Highly recommended to fans of Seven That Spells, Neumeier-Genrich-Schmidt, Liquid Sound Company, Hypnos 69 and some Acid Mothers Temple numerous titles. Essential.

For more info, visit: http://www.sulatron.com and http://www.electricmoon.de

Reviewed by Mike Reed

The name of t2k’s debut album Remote Transmissions is singularly appropriate, as the band were never all in the same studio, or even the same state, when it was being recorded. Instead, sound files were passed through cyberspace between the different players who added their own parts before assembling and mixing the whole album using Protools and Logic 9 systems. The project came about when Kevin Gerety (8-string fretless Warr guitar and fretless bass) and Kevin StClair (Roland v-drums), who had been jamming in their Connecticut basement, hooked up with Colorado-native Timmy C Pitschka (6 & 7 string guitars and piano) over the internet and started working as a trio by sharing files to create the basis for the album. The result is 70 minutes of improvised music spread across eight tracks which range from ambient soundscapes to a kind of metal-dub fusion.

With the Warr guitar being used, there is naturally going to be some Trey Gunn/latter-day King Crimson sounds in there, but also Gilmour in Echoes/Axe mode on the twelve minute 59 and even a bit of Joe Satriani on MTB Disaster. The latter track is about as close to actual metal as t2k ever get, preferring dense sonic textures over speed or attack. Instrumentally, the fretless bass playing on 5 Star Linen and the relatively short Noctilucent really stands out, while Happy Robot features some impressive two-handed finger-tapping. However, none of it is intended to set the pulse racing and seventy minutes is probably a little too long for the amount of material here; perhaps a few of the longer tracks could have been trimmed down a little. Having said that, the enormous slow-buring drones of Walmut Manu and haunting piano and fretless bass melodies of 5 Star Linen serve as excellent bookends for what is essentially a chill-out album, music for drifting away to, rather than rocking out to.

For further information about the band, go to http://www.t2kabs.bandcamp.com
Remote Transmissions is available through CD Baby at http://www.cdbaby.com/artist/t2k1

Reviewed by Pat Albertson

From Sweden, Knez Rosén is Igor Knez and Hans Rosén. Knez migrated to Sweden as a 12 year old, where improvised jazz and the traces of melancholia in Swedish folk music deepened his musical tastes. As a young man in the 70’s/90’s Knez was a guitarist in a number of bands playing acoustic and electronic music combining jazz, rock, funk and folk music. Rosén’s first musical memories are of his mother and grandmother singing folk songs, and as a teenager in the late 70’s, punk rock lit a flame that still remains. From that time on Rosén has played with a number of bands with music styles from vibrant rock to afro and reggae.

MASS: Some Hans Rosén percussion and Igor Knez guitar…instrumental loveliness and oddness…slow, still and whimsical…cool guitar noises which in my book are as interesting as actual guitar “playing”. BIRDS: I don’t know if this is improvisation but very possibly. The guitar reminds me of the intro music to the HBO series “Deadwood”…bird noises…some nice bass playing by Hans Rosén. You can tell these guys are very experienced on their instruments. Is it just me or are guys very into this kind of music and women could care less??! Conjures up Ry Cooder. This has to be improv, you couldn’t write this stuff out!?! A LIGHT IN EVERY WINDOW: This one makes me imagine slave quarters in the 1800’s! Slow soulful guitar and voice, both by Hans Rosén. Like if Robert Johnson went avant-garde!! SLOW TRAIN: Starts out a bit too 70’s jazz fusion sounding for my liking! But good for what it is I reckon?! JULY RAIN: Nice rhythm and beat…turns into a blues thing with sung blues vocals by Rosén. Some percussion…this CD is hard for me to review because it’s not really experimental but it is improvisation. A lot of it is jazz rock which I’ve never had an interest in besides Bitches Brew. It’s kinda rock musician improv, which is well done with a nice full sound but is it art? And who’s keeping score? ON THE RIVER: Nice driving dreamy guitar riffage with percussion, conjures up Louisiana swamps which since these guys have probably never been in a Louisiana swamp means there must be a Swedish equivalent, maybe the Bosnian Swamp!?! EARLY ONE MORNING: I don’t really hear the punk influence these guys supposedly have except maybe their willingness to go outside the box with these songs! This one actually conjures up late 60’s psych…then the odd/gruff vocals that are telling a story. I guess this is Nina Knez on the backup vocals and Hans on the lead vocal. Pretty nice track…”when I was drunk a smile came to me again”. BLUE IN GREEN: Pretty acoustic guitar playing/melody…two guitars mixed together…very original folky sounding…very nice…maybe a little fern bar-ish. TUNNELS: The slow spaced out one…again, the duelling guitars in slow motion. These guys play very well together and have complimentary styles…very still, slow….then some acoustic guitar strum explosions…then back to the stillness and plinking. I wonder if they play out live much? It’s kinda jazz improv without being that original or super skilled. IN THE BAKERY CELLAR: Some weird clanking, I thought my CD player was malfunctioning. Then the strummed acoustic guitar and weird muffled growly vocals…oh, the clanking is Hans making drum sounds. Nice song title, brings up all sorts of strange images…”I saw heads talking to Alice in Wonderland”. Now some soaring electric guitar..this piece is different than the rest of the CD and could represent a whole new direction for Knez Rosén on a future release?!!?

For more info, visit: http://www.knezrosen.com and http://www.sugarbeatit.se

Reviewed by Carlton Crutcher

Amber was the English psychedelic folk duo of Keith “Mac” MacLeod and Julian McAllister, and these are the only recordings they made in 1970/1971. MacLeod (guitar) and McAllister (vocals) had known each other since the early 60’s, had met for jam sessions and traveled through the world independently of each other. MacLeod played second guitar with Donovan on his first national tour and the sitar used on this album was lent by Donovan who had been given the instrument by George Harrison.

SEA SHELL ROCK ME: I’m a 60’s music fanatic. If I could get in a time machine I’d go back to 1967 and do it all twice, so getting an opportunity to review a new CD of 60’s music is pretty cool and probably as close to the time machine as I’ll get. The CD starts with the three tracks produced by Keith Relf, who had been the Yardbirds lead singer and supposedly quite the super freak! Recorded at Olympic Studios February 14, 1971, happy hippie music that’s not commercial or ordinary but fresh and real with a production that makes it sound as if it was just recorded!…”dancing in the sun, like a child I ran back to you”…Julian McAllister doing some nice vocals. Of course you have to compare this to “The Incredible String Band” who admittedly were doing a more original and unique version of this sound. I guess that’s why they’re famous!! WHITE ANGEL: reminds me of the Michael Knust stuff on Fever Tree’s “Another Place, Another Time”. Lotsa tabla on this one. Not sure if it’s MacLeod or guest musician Ray Cooper?! As nice as these tracks are I can see why they didn’t get airplay or a proper release, they’re not trying to be a product, just being what they were, English hippies in 1971. SWAN IN THE EVENING: nice melody. Hey now, I could imagine this being played on English Pirate Radio!! Really tight uptempo with some nice cymbal flourishes! Consistently good vocals and lyrics thru these tracks though the sitar was probably a bit passé by 1971!?!? SING ON THE SUNLIGHT: another beautiful slice of 1970 England. These songs are so rockin’ you almost want to hear them with a full rock band!! This track begins the three songs recorded May 10, 1970 at Denmark Street. SEA SHELL ROCK ME (ALTERNATE VERSION): okay, this is an earlier version of track one! The vocals aren’t recorded as clear and the track seems a bit slower, quirkier, but also a beautiful track! EARLIE IN THE MORNING: the lyrics tell an interesting story of spending the night with “Earlie in the Morning”…funny without being goofy like a lot of 60’s bands! Well, that’s the last song and you just wish they had recorded about twenty more of this quality! Maybe when I get back to 1970 in the time machine I’ll get that done!!

For more info, visit: http://www.merlins-nose.com

Reviewed by Carlton Crutcher

Mawwal is Jim Matus, formerly “Paranoise” and Sight Up is the third Mawwal album of progressive world fusion. Jim Matus (I wonder if he’s related to Don Juan Matus?) has worked in the studio with Don Cherry and Steve Marcus and performed live with world class musicians Anthony Jackson, Percy Jones, Al Anderson, Gary Windo, and Hugh Hopper.

On to the review. BLOOM FOREST: hippie festival music done tastefully. The male vocals are done by Jim Matus and the female vocals by Jill O’Brien and Laila Salins… “much of the subject matter…was inspired by dreams”. JAJOUKA BETWEEN THE MOUNTAINS: a Jethro Tull vibe on the intro of this, then becomes something more African, Peter Gabriel…the Stephen Haynes trumpet solo. FUN DUU/VOODOO CHILE: more Tull vibeness. I love 60’s and psychedelic music but the bands I’ve been involved with have run in a completely parallel universe to bands like Mawwal, who are psychedelic without any of the post 1977 influences of alternate rock, punk, experimental etc. I always find that a little limiting but I know a lot of Aural Innovations people don’t feel that way. Nice respectful take on Jimi’s Voodoo Chile. SIGHT UP/VETETTEM VIOLAT: “Man is but a god, sight up, All in heaven be blind, ears to the ground” by Jim Matus. I don’t know what that means, I guess it doesn’t have to mean anything, but it sounds cool. Laila Salins vocals, violin by Rohan Gregory…nice groove, very Middle Eastern. My wife loves this album, very conducive to multiple listens…original and well done in every aspect. I MUTE THE BURNING RIVER: djembe intro by Tony Vacca. I’d love to see these guys live to see if they can get this rich and full of a sound!?!? Wish there a lyric sheet. Very dense and lovely…not a boring second. HAPPY ON YOUR FEET GO: some very inspired flute by Jay Gandhi and the two female vocals that complement one another perfectly. EARLY IN THE MORNING: more of the same, like 1974 with much better equipment and production etc…conjures up The Incredible String Band. RAG YAMEN: tabla and guitar…bass then flute…my punk rock friends would prolly sneer at this album but they sneer at my band too so F’em…hippie doesn’t have to mean retro or silly…it can also mean frightening, intense and real. Cool cover photo of the Eagle Nebula.

For more info, visit: http://www.jimmatus.com/iWeb/Site/MAWWAL.html

Reviewed by Carlton Crutcher

Zone Six was founded in 1997 by German multi-instrumentalist Sula Bassana (aka Dave Schmidt), surely a long-serving veteran of the psychic wars (having a spacerock career dating back to the mid-1980’s), and one of the busiest men in rock, with concurrent involvement in at least two other bands (Electric Moon and Weltraumstaunen), and curator of Sulatron records. The band’s original statement of intent was to play an improvised mix of psychedelic/space, trance and krautrock, something which they have held true to, despite the passage of 14 years and an almost complete change of line-up in that time (Schmidt being the sole survivor from the early days). Indeed, few of the members listed in their current Progarchives bio are still in the band. Nonetheless, they have delivered a stunning slice of instrumental spacerock which surely holds to their original vision.

The Zone Six line-up put together for what must have been a very memorable gig at the 2011 Sulatron Records Label Night employs the slightly unusual concept of having two basses, handled by Komet Lulu and Paul_Pott, respective members of Electric Moon and Vibravoid. Rainer Neef plays ripping psychedelic guitar throughout the album and Modulfix provides synth-noises, while Dave Schmidt opts for the drummer’s stool this time around. Just three long tracks are featured on the resultant live recording, which stretches to seventy minutes in length. Stoned Washed begins its 21 minute journey with menacing drones, which are gradually built up using the two basses (one distorted, the other clean) and effects-heavy guitar. The closest musical touchstones are perhaps a less-chaotic Acid Mothers Temple or heavier Spacious Mind. The even-longer Timmee (almost 34 minutes in length) goes through a number of phases according to the chemistry between the musicians, getting really wild around the twelve minute mark, and collapsing in on itself about five minutes later before re-entering the fray for another glorious freakout. The emphasis throughout is on guitars and bass, although the distorted sounds are so entwined that it can be disorienting trying to single out which instrument is playing what. At 22 minutes, the bass/basses start grinding out what could be the middle riff of Hawkwind’s Time We Left jam, with Neef’s guitar lines echoing those of Dave Brock circa 1973. Set-closer Isotoxick is comparatively short at “only” 14 minutes, and is probably the most restrained, with Schmidt focusing more on cymbal crashes than pounding beats, although the basses retain their heaviness throughout. All in all, a great come-down track at the end of a really intense album.

With fantastic cover-art taking its themes from classic ’60’s psychedelia (via Vibravoid), this live album is a limited edition of only 100 copies, so it will not be around for long. Fans of guitar-heavy improvised spacerock need to check it out quickly before it becomes lost in space.

Check out the bands website at http://www.zonesix.de
For information on more Sulatron releases, go to http://www.sulatron.com or e-mail info@sulatron.com

Reviewed by Pat Albertson

One could hardly imagine thrash-metal trio Guilty As Sin pandering to their audience or sticking to one genre. Who would have thought there would be a place for King Crimson-style Frippery and ambient keyboards on a thrash-metal album, or trumpets and eastern sounds lined up alongside hardcore punk?! Psychtronic, the U.S. band’s fourth album since coming together in 2008, contains material that is likely to alternately thrill and alienate almost any listener, regardless of their musical taste. The band consists of Zak Ovoian on drums and “vocals” (not even the most generous could refer to him as “singer”!), guitarist Dan McAdam and bassist Ryan Dilberian. Other credited contributers include a brass player, belly dancer and cigar supplier! Not your usual thrash/punk line-up, that’s for sure.

Psychotronic opens with one of those ambient synth passages so beloved of spacerock bands, and it’s given the self-explanatory title of Start Transmission. So far, so good one would think, until the following four tracks rip out of nowhere in the space of about one minute apiece (Into Dust, the shortest, is a scant 45 seconds in duration). They sound near-identical, although Destroyed Reptoid 1.0 does feature momentarily melodic guitar lines in between the “verses”, and will be either musical heaven or hell, depending on the listener’s liking of GBH-style hardcore punk or Anthrax-thrash. Those more in the market for psychedelic spacerock are best advised to skip ahead to the sixth track – Addicted To Cyanide – which, at seven minutes, is as long as all the preceding tracks combined. The change in style is almost absolute as the band morph into King Crimson/Toolesque math rock, with a hint of Rush at their proggiest. Godekli Tede makes use of Middle-Eastern scales (perhaps necessitating the employment of the belly dancer listed on the CD cover), albeit put together in metal fashion, before substituting guitars for a muted trumpet and hand drums, in an extended coda that manages to be both ambient and pounding. This is followed by the frantic high-speed instrumental When Machines Eat Flesh, calling to mind the progressive metal of Dream Theater and Arjen Lucassen. Album closer and title track Psychotronic lingers for twelve minutes (a third of the total album length) and consists of a spacey guitar jam referencing Hendrix’s Third Stone from the Sun and showing that these guys really can play when they have a mind to. This is overlaid with the sound of a 45rpm Dalek played at 33, before winding down into a bizarre three minute electronic outro unlike anything that precedes it, eventually fading out into nothing.

Psychotronic is a game of (at least) two halves, and is therefore extremely unlikely to please anyone in its entirety. Thrash metallers will love the first few tracks, everyone else will almost certainly run a mile. Those who enjoy mixing up prog-metal and mathrock will prefer the later tracks. Unfortunately, there is not enough material of either kind in the album’s 36 minutes to encourage most listeners to want to seek it out.

For further information, go to http://www.myspace.com/guiltymusic2008
Email at sasmokeshop@comcast.net and ovoianrocks@yahoo.com

Reviewed by Pat Albertson

This is the second album from this Dutch trio of Rutger Smeets (guitar and vocals), Hans Mulders (drums) and Sander Haagmans (bass and vocals). I gotta say, these guys have really perfected the “heavy/mellow” vibe. Combining floating vocal harmonies with slow grooves and heavy riffs, they create a sound reminiscent of Colour Haze and early Queens of the Stone Age, which is thoroughly in play in the laidback opener Wild Goose and the dreamy closer 34 & more… But in between, they take things in their own direction, whether it’s the bluesy plunder of Goldstrike or the blistering instrumental rock of Octo, their songs are filled with hypnotic rhythms and clever riffing.

They are not at all afraid of pushing the psych and space envelopes either. The epic 14-minute long Behind, in particular, is a tour-de-force with its languid, mesmerizing grooves, swirling psychedelic phrasing and druggy vocal harmonies; a slow burning voyage, metamorphosing into a trippy jam that spirals through spacey mellow outs to deliciously fuzzed out intense dream bliss. Tasty stuff!

The title track even veers into clear spacerock territory with its wild wooshes of guitar noise and the underlying spacey textures that permeate the distorted jamming. One of the things I really like about this band is their thorough willingness to pull things right back away from the stoner grooves and just get spacey for a bit. An excellent track for this is Sea, which dips into chilled waters throughout the middle of the piece.

While still retaining the strong Colour Haze influence from their first album, Sungrazer are maturing and starting to explore their own sonic realms, and it makes Mirador a potent, blissed out musical journey worth taking again and again.

For more info, visit: http://sungrazer.nl, http://www.myspace.com/sungrazerband, and http://www.elektrohasch.de

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald

Sky Burial is essentially one musician – Michael Page – that looks to have at least a half a dozen other CD titles out, and after experiencing Aegri Somnia I realize that I will likely want to seek out more of his work. Movement I – The Synaesthete’s Lament (40:15) is a lengthy journey of post-industrial deep-space ambient that only improves as it progresses and Nik Turner shows up twice throughout this epic playing the sax as only the co-founder of Hawkwind can do. Movement II – Within And Without (16:01) is a good electronic/ambient track that fully evolves into some quite enjoyable experimental sound. Page is a true visual and sound artist (in every sense of the word) who is currently living on Cape Cod. What initially drew me to this CD was the fact that Nik Turner does step in to give Michael Page a hand in creating this wonderful piece of music. But what made me want to play this disc a couple of times before I penned out this review was the masterful talent as well as the majestic playing of Sky Burial – aka Michael Page. Call it ambient, industrial experimental, indie, electronic ambient – call it whatever you like but this genre definitely manages to fully captivate you.

The CD comes housed in a four-way fold-out and that is enclosed in a two-way fold-over piece of artwork. If you want to seek out a physical copy of this CD, simply remember what its cover looks like from the provided image in this review. Should appeal to fans of Tangerine Dream, Nik Turner solo, Liquid Visions, Amon Duul, Cluster, SubArachnoid Space, Kinski and possibly Throbbing Gristle.

For more info, visit: http://www.collectivexxiii.com/sky, http://www.myspace.com/skyburial23, and http://www.utechrecords.com

Reviewed by Mike Reed

Despite loving their first two albums, I can’t say I was as enamoured by The Future Kings of England’s third release, The Vanishing Point. Not sure why, but it just didn’t grab me. So it was with mild trepidation that I approached their latest disc, Who Is This Who Is Coming? But I was more than pleasantly surprised when listening to it; I was blown away by this terrific album.

Based on a creepy 1904 ghost story by M. R. James entitled “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad”, Who Is This Who Is Coming? is a richly evocative tapestry of English folk balladry, ambient music, sound effects and of course, great progressive rock. Divided into parts, but intended to be listened to as one whole piece, the mostly instrumental album begins with a cheerful little folk melody set to the chirping of birds. However, it is quickly overwhelmed by the chugging roar and whistle of a rushing train as the band breaks into The Globe Inn, with its stately organ and intricate guitar melodies counterbalanced by ghostly passages of spooky wailing. Further, amidst the sounds of crickets and gentle night winds, soft acoustic guitar weaves a mesmerizing pattern in Finding the Whistle. The Watcher Part 1, one of two vocal tracks on the album is a poignant English folk ballad which leads the listener down the foggy path into the deeply ambient, swirling, sometimes disturbing textures of the nearly 10-minute long title track. This one’s a real tour-de-force as it whirls and spirals. It builds a slow and creeping tension till it all finally explodes with the shattering rock of Convinced Disbeliever. The Watcher Part 2 is hardly a reprise of Part 1, delving as it does into droning, psychedelic folk reminiscent of The Incredible String Band. What follows is another 10-minute epic, The Face of Crumpled Linen, this one covering many moods as it builds to a shattering revelation, before the denouement of Spectacle of a Scarecrow, filled with haunted memories and dreams.

The Future Kings of England capture the glory days of early 70’s progressive rock, but they manage to take it in entirely new, fresh and original directions. Within this context, Who Is This Who Is Coming? is a truly brilliant evocation of the M. R. James story, not only bringing the story to life, but bringing the landscape and folklore of the Suffolk region of England to life as well. This one is highly recommended!

For more information, visit: http://www.thefuturekingsofengland.com and http://www.backwaterrecords.com

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald