Friday, December 29, 2017

My Favorite Records of 2017




1.   Gin Lady- Electric Earth (Sweden)
2.   Gov’t Mule- Revolution come, Revolution Go (US)
3.   Geezer- Psychriffadelica LP (US)
4.   Captain Beyond- Lost and Found (US)
5.   Motorpsycho- The Tower (Norway)
6.   Ethiva- Sublime Island LP (Spain)
7.   Elder- Refections of a Floating World (US)
8.   KG Westman- Shonashish (Sweden)
9.   3rd Ear Experience- Stoned Gold (US)
10.    All them Witches- Sleeping through the War (US)
11.    Causa Sui- Live in Copenhagen 3LP (Denmark)
12.   Electric Moon- Stardust Rituals (Germany)
13.    Samsara Blues Experiment- One with the Universe (Germany)

14.  Siena Root- A Dream of Lasting Piece (Sweden)
15.  The Obsessed- Sacred 2LP (US)
16. Circle- Terminal (Finland)
17. Papir- V (Denmark)
18.   Sammal- Live at Roadburn (Finland)
19.  Colour Haze- In her garden (Germany)
20.   ØSC- Hallucinations inside the Oracle (Den/Swe)
21. Mirror Queen- Verdigris (US)
22.   Sasquatch- Maneuvers (US)
23.   Korai Tracemission 2017 (Hungary)
24.   Five Horse Johnson- Jake Leg Boogie (US)

25.    Black Moon Circle- Studio Jams Vol 3- Flowing into the 3rd Dimension (Norway)

I think I received or bought about 250 releases from 2017 and these are ones that I heard the most of dug for one reason or another..  I did not review them all but quite a few of them. The order is not that important. 


Sunday, December 17, 2017

Interview with Robbi Robb of 3rd Ear Experience

I am doing a series of interviews with people asking mostly the same questions as below. Hope you find this fun and interesting.  I really love Robbi's band and am so proud that Space Rock Productions has released three of their albums, including the new one Stoned Gold (comes with a very cool book that Robbi wrote called, The Art of the Jam!). This is released tomorrow (Dec 18th, 2017).. Enjoy..

Where´s Home

 I live in a small village called Joshua tree in the Mojave Desert California. 

Earliest Space Rock Memory?

 My mother ran a Buddhist meditation center in South Africa, so as a young boy I was surrounded by hippies. One guy came from a hippie commune and he took me there one night - I was 13 years old.  A joint was passed around and I took a hit – there was a band that lived there called Snow.  I was so stoned and unfamiliar with the feeling (my first time) so I went outside to get my mind together and I lay down under the African sky on the wild grass - quite confused. Then the band started to play and heard the  music floating across the hills and meadows as I was gazing up at the stars in the African sky  -I was transported, -felt like I was  drifting between the sky and the stone.  

First Space rock record you bought??

 Hawkwind – Warrior on the edge of time.

First Space Rock Gig

My first space rock gig was seeing Freedoms Children and Hawk .  I was about 14 years old and went with my mom’s hippy friends,- a riot between the police and the hippies started – I was terrified by all the violence.  But I was sitting on the side of the stage and I will never forget that experience – the band were tripping hard and played beautifully… and then the cops came. – that was South Africa for you; so many contrasts. 

Guilty Musical Pleasures

Saturday night fever – the Bee Gees – South Africa was the testing ground for that movie – so i saw it long before it became such a sensation – Even today that record can put me in a real good mood,  I know all the damn lyrics – please don’t tell anyone!

Biggest Space Rock Extravaganza or gig.

Cirque de soliel – the very first one – the band was brilliant, very Pink Floyd-like; great musicianship and then all the craziness of the circus itself – it was definably a space rock extravaganza!

Fave Venue

 Joshua tree Astronomy theater.  Huge screens outdoors where astronomers project deep space images onto -  which we then jam to. 

Outside of Space Rock, what are you into?

When I was a kid, we had in South Africa, a can of baking soda. On the can was a oval shaped label, on the label was a picture of the same can with an oval shaped label with a picture of the can with an oval shaped label, on and on; smaller, smaller and smaller…. – I used to stare at this forever to see how deep it went, and what was the smallest can I could see…like staring into the infinite…as a result I am into the occult.  I read everything I can on tiny things, the evolution of mitochondria, quantum physics, the hidden forces of the limitless light etc.  These are things I am into

What do you collect?

Books

The last Space Rock album you bought?

 Oresund Space Collective. 

Your Space Rock Hero?

 Scott Heller. 

Who do you call in the Space Rock community for a good night out?

 Jorge Bassman Carrillo- who also happens to be my bass player and good friend.

Most important Space Rock song?

Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan. 

The best Space Rock Gig you ever saw?

Roger Waters Radio Kaos at the Forum in Los Angeles.

Which Space Rock muse would you most like to work with?

Christina 'Licorice' McKechnie  a Scottish singer and songwriter from the Incredible String Band between 1968 and 1972. Her whereabouts have been unknown since 1990.  – like I said – I am fascinated by the unknown.
 
What Space Rock album gets you into a good mood?

Agitation Free ; Shibuya Nights

Your fave Space Rock album cover?

The inner sleeve of Aphrodite’s Child’s 666 album.

What are you up to at the moment?

I’m going through all the music that 3rd Ear Experience recorded ut never released or mixed to find some treasures, - some of them I cannot believe I overlooked – going to create a “secret menu” to release on Band camp and just put the stuff out.  In other words – still having fun!

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Silas Neptune- The Scales of Tahuti (Silas Neptune Music)

Silas, is the son of Ed Wynne (Ozric Tentacles) and this is his first solo work. IT is a long album featuring 7 long tracks of ambient electronic music with world music influences, reggae, techno but mostly spacey soundscapes and samples.  Feathers of Ma´at starts things off and is a diverse track with many cool moods and style shifts. Aqualight has this dreamy state to it and some of the same sort of synth sounds found in the more ambient Ozrics material. Drums are more like a table like (not that close to the real thing). I am not a fan of programmed drums. Underneath the main keyboard line there are quite a few things going on if you listen closely, at least 2-3 different layers. Occasionally, some of the synth sounds are manipulated and twisted. Cool track.  Yawning Mountain features a more prominent bass line and some nice swirly synths. Lots of interesting stuff happening in this track. Did I hear glissando guitar??  Later, Ed plays a very nice solo and it sounds like a Joie style keyboard solo. Nanodots starts with a very eastern inspired string instrument (sampled or played??). Anyway the track evolves in a very cool way with pan flutes, acoustic guitar and other layers of otherworldly sound. Becomes Everything has a more uptempo drum pace and some interesting growly sounds at times and provides a more energetic experience after 5 slow tracks. Some amazing synths on this track and trippy and highly manipulated at times! There is one line taken directly from an Ozrics track, that OT fans will recognize. This should not be surprising as it is the same synthesizers that the band uses and most of the plays on the album. Devachan-Sand Goblins takes you back to the floating gardens of Neptune with its lush layers of spacey synths. Very much like Nodens Ictus stuff (I have not heard the new one yet).  The drums kick in at different intervals and there are some like female voice like synths as well.  Mergoblins?? The end part of the track is really cool with the trippy manipulated synth. Gateway to Dreamtime finishes off your musical adventure to Silas’s Neptune. Would love to see Silas get over to some of the great electronic music festivals in Portugal. Cool album, congrats.

This is a list of all the people who contributed to the making of this record and it is quite impressive:  Silas Neptune, Ed Wynne, Brandi Wynne, Joie Hinton, Natan Mantismash, Roy Brosh, Balazs Szende, Dominic Gibbins, and Paul Hankin.


Mark “Porkchop” Holder- Death and the Blues (Alive Natural Sound 0195-2)

I quite dug Mark’s last record but I have to admit it was a bit hard for me to get into where as this new one, just kicked me in the ass from the start and I was hooked!!!!  The album features 11 blues rocking tracks played with a lot of gusto and attitude. The album starts off with Captain Captain, an uptempo slide guitar driven foot stompin’ track with some harmonica as well. Sad days and Lonely Nights keeps the pace uptempo with a nice solid bass line over which Mark plays a nice longer than normal solo. This sort of darker song leads into Coffin Lid (hear below), features a really dirty fuzzy slide guitar and tells a good story as well. Big Boat slows things down at the start and kicks in hard and heavy with some more mean slide guitar about shoveling coal on the river! Nobody wants to Cry is just Mark on a steel guitar and slide pouring his gritty heart out.  Be Righteous is a slow starter and happier track that kicks into high gear after a mins and rocks out. Bless me Santasima is a short instrumental guitar track. Billy the Kid has another cool bass groove and tells the story over this more country track. Totally different than the previous tracks. James Leg is a short track about fellow label mate, james Leg and his drinking! What is wrong with your Mind has Mark mix in a delay pedal to his slide guitar arsenal for a bit more psychedelic sound. The title track ends this good time blues rocking album. Crank it out LOUD.  I really dug this album. Great songs.