BLACK RAINBOWS - HOLY MOON 2013

Oh yes !....this ticks all the boxes for what I look for in really great heavy Psych Stoner.....the powerful driving groove created by this excellent Italian 3 piece is a pleasure from start to finish. They have released 3 albums since 2007 and in September last year put out "Holy Moon" which was described as an EP, containing just 6 tracks running a  little over 38 minutes...but, what a magnificent 38 minutes ! After being most pleasingly assaulted by the opening 4 tracks we get to "If I Was A Bird", which is an acoustic outing and, to the band's enormous credit, fits in perfectly with the mood and tone set by what has gone before. 

The closing track is a most impressive 12 min version of MC5's infamous "Black To Comm"....a song that "The 5" described as "their room clearance device" !! The Black Rainbows blast straight into it and then cool it down ...there's a great big solo....then blast it back out again to the finish. Long term visitors to this site will know of my love for all things MC5 and this has been immediately added to my "best MC5 covers list".

Here's a link to the video for "The Hunter" from "Holy Moon"....

  

...and to find out what the band are up to......

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Enjoy......

Words by DOUG E DOGG

Now get our T Shirts

That's right - I am back from the dead and as

a reward for your patient waiting, there is a range of

tee shirts to make you feel like a true music fan!

Fucking great - now you can be as cool as all the older kids

with this range of exclusive shirts. Buy now before the copyright

people come down on my ass!

Any bloggers care to spread the word - cheers.

Spend your money at Black Insect Doom Shirts

Gli Altri - Fondamenta, Strutture, Argini

From: Italy

Sounds like: Post-rock with muscles

Just one song: Cera

Savona, Italy, was formerly known to harbor a flourishing iron industry and one of Christopher Columbus' houses. But Chronos is a cruel motherfucker. Like almost everywhere in the ancient European industrial hotspots, the business is now as dead as Abdelazziz Bouteflika. And Christopher Columbus's sex-appeal (or what's left of it) is on its way to the junkyard, following the paces of his own statue in Buenos Aires.
So, what's left in Savona, then?
Simply the best, as the other would roar.
They are five, they don't pollute the atmosphere nor infect innocent Indians with whiskey and venereal diseases, and that's fine with me. Even more than fine, as Gli Altri play their post-rock the way it should always sound: powerfully. Period.
If I worried about decency, I would describe their music as a smart mixture of the tormented violence of the emotive hardcore with the contemplative lyricism of the above-mentioned post-rock.
But, unfortunately, as decency went completely out of fashion during the Reagan/Thatcher era , I have no choice but to say it crudely: this album sounds like Mogwaï with balls (the band, obviously).
My apologies for the Scottish crew, the PC-non-gender-biased watchmen and the furry monster. I honestly tried to find some cuter words, I've been beating around the bush for more than three weeks, but in vain...
When you will first listen to "Fondamenta, strutture, argini", you may not see my point directly. The first three songs sound like some solid modernization of Zen Arcade sung in Italian. The ghost of Mogwaï appears only after, right from the beginning of 6:33. It comes dressed with melancholic drops of guitar beating on a falsely quiet wave of (other) guitar and violin. And, over his shoulder, you can even spot his companion from Godspeed You Black Emperor. But unlike the usual ghosts whose aspect usually oscillates between ethereal reminiscences and decomposed remains, these ones get brighter and stronger as the album goes by, their face irrigated by the new blood and energy Gli Altri manage to infuse. And when it ends, you will probably face the same evidence I had to face: this is really how post-rock should sound: a massive yet subtle mingling of power and emotions creating vivid imaginary landscapes through excited (and exciting) brushstrokes.
To say that I warmly recommend this album would be an understatement and a not-very-decent way to conclude this post. But as decency etc.

Legal download from the bandcamp

Stay tuned with the band through the facebook

Buy their stuff via:

- Taxi Driver Records

- DreaminGorilla Records

- QSQDR

- Savona Sotterranea

- Rude Records

- Bus Stop Press 

- Bori Punk Asso

- Collane Di Ruggine

- Buridda Distro

- Salterò Autoproduzion

Objectivity with a cloud of latte:

- Interview (EN) BoriPunkAsso

- Onion Magazine (IT)

- Stimolividi (IT)

-  La Caduta (IT)

- Rockline (IT)

- Outsiders (IT)

Words by Matthieu

Shit Happens!

Greetings my faithful download monkeys.

The firm I work for is being shut down and as from today
I will be one of the smelly, unemployed people clogging up
the streets, selling myself for cheap sex and strong drink.

This means that until I can find a job that can cater for my strange
lack of social skills, post may be slow down for a while.

I now have to look in the mirror, practise smiling and repeat -
"Would you like fries with that!"

King Dead - S/T

Recorded live in their practice/performance space, The Living Room, 

in Stroudsburg by Dave Reiser of Rock Hard Studios, the self-titled 

offering features five organic movements of ethereal, desert-styled 

Spaghetti Western psychedelia that seethe under the bulk of their 

own swirling, glassy-eyed heaviness.

They definitely have their own sound. Call it sludge, doom, or 

what they like to say is spaghetti western doom sludge, it sure 

doesn’t sound like yer typical heavy 3 piece band these days. With 

virtually no vocals, aside from one song(not on the record) and a 

whistle solo in another, its all about dynamics and the building tempos. 

Creepy, dreary, sleepy and melodic riffs layered over deep bottom and 

pounding drums. A good soundtrack for any lethal injection event. 

With slow paced, heavy riffing and Morricone type thematic solos, 

the tracks sounded less at home in some desert western town but 

instead are transported to a southern swamp full of squalor, in-breeding, 

moonshine, shotguns, run-down shacks full of idiot children and brute ignorance.

This is atmospheric stuff - ranging fromt he sonic templates of Pelican 

to Neurosis - this is no cut’n’paste affair, there is a freshness and a feeling of

 true epic heaviness that just oozes with class and the grave.

Highly recommended.

Buy from Bandcamp

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Thanks to Liz at Earsplit for sending this to me.

Switchblade Jesus - S/T Vinyl release

Put out last year, at last this slab of blistering, groove

laden stoner gets its vinyl release. 

Bilocation Records have done themselves proud with - 

- 100x transparent green vinyl (EXCLUSIVE MAILORDER version 

incl. A3 poster & silkscreened card signed by the band) 

- 200x spooky clear/black marbled vinyl

- 100x black vinyl 

- all high-quality heavy 180g vinyl pressed in Germany

- matt laquered 300gsm gatefold cover 

- handnumbered 

Get this excellent album - Here

Play the tracks and drink some beer!