ALTER.NATION #125(15trx 1h 15m)
Motorpsycho, Liquid Tension Experiment, PONY, Fake Fruit, Clamm, Orions Belte, Winds, Silver Synthetic, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
weekly favtraX
1 9 - 0 4 - 2 0 2 1
"The United Debased"
Motorpsycho - Kingdom of Oblivion / The United Debased / At Empire's End
...a carefully constructed, seamless new album that brings together all of Motorpsycho's sonic hallmarks -- from heavy riffs and melodic hooks to progressive interludes, and electronic and textural experiments, to wildly exploratory vanguard, prog, and psychedelic rock. Bent Saether, Hans Magnus "Snah" Ryan, and Tomas Jarmyr were assisted during the process by longtime collaborator, guitarist Reine Fiske (Dungen)... "The United Debased" offers Deep Purple-esque guitar and organ vamps that introduce a soaring vocal amid thudding tom-toms, ratcheted snares, thudding kick drums, and a throbbing bass line. Mellotrons waft in and out as the guitar riff carves room for the lyric and a vocal bridge. Wailing six-string solos, jagged organs, and plodding bass riffs rule the day... "At Empire's End" offers intricately textured, tense, sonically elastic musical connections that exist in the no-man's-land between King Crimson-esque prog, serpentine acid folk, and vanguard baroque pop...Kingdom of Oblivion organically grafts trademark elements from Motorpsycho's previous work and influences onto literally spontaneous musical discoveries. The album is a pillar of 21st century rock, adding dimension and depth to the band's visionary legacy.
Liquid Tension Experiment - LTE3 / The Passage of Time / Rhapsody in Blue (George Gershwin')
...Apparently, the mandatory downtime imposed by the global COVID-19 pandemic provided the individuals with the necessary scheduling space to write and record together for the first time in 22 years. Socially distanced in a New York studio, the band composed and recorded LTE3 in July 2020... Rudess' pianism almost steals the show on "The Passage of Time." His consummate melodic invention weds jazz, rock, blues, and classical tenets. Petrucci indulges a winding, expansive solo appended by driving fills from Portnoy and Levin, but Rudess anchors the song, offering the guitarist an advanced tonal palette to play off... A 13-minute read of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is resurrected from the band's last tour. Gershwin's episodic pomp and circumstance is followed to the letter, but LTE punctuate it with maniacal shredding, angular countermelodies, circus prog time changes, and a hard-grooving funk interlude... It's breathtaking. Ultimately, LTE3 doesn't register the same degree of awe the earlier outings did, but it may be the most musical in the bunch, and therefore, well worth the wait.
PONY spent the first half-decade of their career dishing out a succession of pleasantly crunchy singles and EPs that blended the snarkier side of '90s grunge and alt-rock with the energy of pop-punk. Led by Toronto-based singer/guitarist Sam Bielanski, the project has cycled through its share of members in the years leading up to this full-length debut, but exists here as a hearty power trio thanks to ace rhythm battery Matty Morand and Lucas Horne.
Fake Fruit - Fake Fruit / Don't Put It on Me
Fake Fruit distill Pink Flag era Wire, Pylon, and Mazzy Star to expound on the absurdity of modern life. Front woman Hannah D’Amato leads the group through three minute clap backs of minimal, moody post-punk.
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Clamm - Beseech Me / Beseech Me / Bossman
Melbourne musicians Jack Summers and Miles Harding were already making loud, cacophonous music as members of both the mercurial Dragoons and synthy garage pop band Gamjee, but they still wanted to explore even more visceral sounds. They did just that with the formation of Clamm, a red-lined punk trio who deal in feedback, abrasive riffs, and blown-out blasts of power and aggression. The group's debut album, Beseech Me, rolls by like an avalanche of intensity...Beseech Me recalls the energetic peaks of psychedelic punks Thee Oh Sees or Ty Segall freak-rock side project Goggs. Clamm's storm of cathartic energy disguises how intricately constructed the songs are and makes Beseech Me both exhilarating and engaging.
Orions Belte - Villa Amorini / Bean / how long is... cold pizza good for
When guitarist Øyvind Blomstrøm (Bare Egil Band, El Cuero), bassist Chris Holm (Young Dreams, Sondre Lerche), and drummer Kim Åge Furuhaug (Young Dreams) -- all working musicians from Bergen, Norway's music scene -- got together to rehearse a new instrumental project for the first time, the result of the weekend was their debut album, 2018's Mint. The largely improvised, mostly instrumental album offered a playful, laid-back mix of influences spanning everything from dub and funk to jazz and '70s Nigerian psychedelic rock. Hard to pigeonhole but easy to digest, Orions Belte followed up with a pair of EPs before returning with Villa Amorini, their second full-length... "Bean" serves as an atmospheric, midtempo prelude that welcomes audiences to their beanbag chairs with a sauntering, amplified guitar melody that's backed by acoustic rhythm guitar, vibraphone, and lightly syncopated drums. Strings, various effects, and a livelier bass eventually come into play on a track that ends on slow-fading sustain... "how long is...cold pizza good for" is a circular, six-minute jam with multiple solos, pitched electronic drums, and sound effects in the realm of lasers and spacecraft engines. Full of melodic instinct throughout, Villa Amorini provides a cool and trippy 40-minute ride along basslines that chills out without ever getting sleepy.
Winds - Look at the Sky / Return of the Jive / Winds
Winds' debut album Look at the Sky is a perfect combination of psychedelic textures, pop hooks, Baroque arrangements, and memorable songs. Not a huge shock considering the other bands their members play with. Vocalist Trevor Pritchett is in Lucille Furs, whose 2019 album Another Land is a neo-psych gem, Glenn Brigman and Brendan Peleo-Lazar (who was also with the Furs) both make great music with Triptides. Add in well-known visual artist John Zabawa, who sometimes collaborates with Pritchett on songs, and the result is a group with the experience and vision to craft an album that stands out from the psychedelic hordes crowding the airwaves in the early 2020s. The record has a tight, live feel, and the bass and drums snap with understated power while a cavalcade of reverb-heavy guitars of both the six- and 12-string varieties strum and slash...
Silver Synthetic - Silver Synthetic / Out of the Darkness
New Orleans combo Silver Synthetic's self-titled debut album is a treat for fans of loose-limbed rock & roll with country-rock overtones and plenty of candy-sweet vocal harmonies. Made up of members of BOTTOMFEEDERS and JEFF the Brotherhood, the band dedicated themselves to making a live-feeling record with minimal overdubs and fuss, and that's exactly what they delivered. The group takes on various forms of straight-ahead good-time rock & roll and knocks each one into the bleachers...
The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Dance Songs for Hard Times / Sad Songs / Nothing's Easy but You and Me
It's hard to think of an album title that more accurately reflects the record's contents than Dance Songs for Hard Times, the 2021 LP from Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band. Like so many musicians, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band was rocked hard by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. They lost gigs, their future was hazy, the band and its immediate family were bested by illness. Reverend Peyton coped with the stress by writing a dynamite set of new songs, then the group had the good fortune to team with producer Vance Powell, an engineer who took home Grammys for his work with Jack White, Buddy Guy, and Chris Stapleton. Powell decided the best course of action was to cut Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band live in the studio, adding some overdubs for color later. It was the right move...
Motorpsycho, Liquid Tension Experiment, PONY, Fake Fruit, Clamm, Orions Belte, Winds, Silver Synthetic, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
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