Tumbleweed Dealer - Resurrected Yet Again (new single)

No idea how I've managed to miss this, but the bongriffic (it's a combination of the words bong and riff and terrific, get it? I'm a wordsmithing genius, the voice of a generation) weedians from Montreal, Quebec's Tumbleweed Dealer have released a re-recorded version of Resurrected Yet Again, the final track from their excellent debut EP, Death Rides Southwards. It sounds better than ever, with crispy guitar lines and perfect mixing. It really breathes new life into the track. The song comes with a sweet poster to go along with it, designed by Alexandre Goulet. 

Tumbleweed Dealer are actually gearing up for the release of their second full-length album, for which they just finished recording. It is now in the mixing stage and, if this new single is any indication, it's going to be their best work yet. I'm psyched to hear it and if you haven't heard this amazing band yet, it's high time that you do! For fans of Earth, stoner rock and bluesy grooves. 

https://www.facebook.com/TumbleweedDealer

Owl Oxidant

During my daily trek on the interwebs, I came across this sweet instrumental psychedelic stoner rock band from Serbia called Owl Oxidant. It's totally obscure and I haven't been able to pull any extra information other than what's available on Soundcloud, but I don't even care - the music is so damn fine that I have no problem sharing it with everyone. There are only 3 tracks available at the moment and they all mix groovy rhythms, psychedelic ambiances and scorching bluesy licks that make me wish I was frying under an oven sun, my feet dipped in the sea and a cold beer by my side. I'm definitely keeping an eye out on these guys. Hopefully they'll release more stuff and a label grabs them - they're excellent!

Thanks to Zann O))) for originally sharing this on Facebook. You made my morning, buddy!

CHILL VIBEZ: Juleah - Entangled and Entwined (2013)

Oh man, the recent terrible weather is really wearing me down. Between rain, snow, never ending blizzards and freezing temperatures, I feel like I haven't seen the sun in forever. Lately it's been getting a little warm, so the snow has started melting into that horrible brown, mushy substance that stains your pants the minute you go out. Long story short, it's gross outside and I hate it. I hate you too.

Enter Juleah, a cute singer and multi-instrumentalist from Austria, who seems determined to chase away the winter and bring me the summery vibes I crave. Her newest album called Entangled and Entwined is a superb collection of songs mixing slow rock, jazz and shoegaze and Juleah seems to craft her songs with only one purpose in mind: chilling. The music is guitar driven with minimal percussion and soft, mellow vocals. The album's title is spot on, as Juleah's guitar lines and chords often coil around each other like those sweet neon green snakes that live in the tropical forests, creating a nice, layered feel. If you listen closely, you can catch small glimpses of blues, country, stoner and psych rock in Juleah's guitar playing, but the album lends itself much better as background music to a lazy relaxing morning. It makes me wanna eat strawberries with whipped cream. It makes me wanna sit on the sand by the sea like a beached turtle, with just my feet in the water, enjoying the sun. It makes me wanna pour vanilla ice cream on my head and let it melt and maybe later some dogs could come and lick it off my face. It makes me wanna swim in grape jelly. Gah!

This album is pretty much awesome in every way and Juleah should be really proud of it. Big thanks to Russian Winter Records too, who send us amazing music on the regular. You guys rule. Now I'm going to hit play on Entangled and Entwined again and imagine it's summer all over again. Hoo doggy!

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Samsara Blues Experiment - Waiting for the Flood (2013)

The most holy shit! submission we've received this year on the TZEEEAC email has got to be the inconspicuous message from Christian Peters, guitarist for psychedelic stoner kings Samsara Blues Experiment who also runs the Electric Magic record label, announcing us that his band was about to release a new album titled Waiting for the Flood. Oh, and he included a link for us to download and listen to it in advance. mind = blown. Definitely the biggest email-related surprise of this year and definitely something I never expected back in 2011, when we started this website. 

So, is it any good? "Well that's a dumb fucking question", said everyone who's ever listened to this band, "it's Samsara Blues Experiment, how could it NOT be good?" And you're spot on, fellow SBE fans. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that Waiting for the Flood is their best album yet. Featuring 4 tracks, each one blowing past the 10 minute mark, this album is the cosmic journey old-timey Romanian astronaut Dumitru Prunariu wishes he could have taken, if only he'd had a stash of those hard-ass '70s psychedelic drugs everyone in the rest of Europe was raving about. Alas, this was not the case, unfortunately, and instead he had a boring 8-day trip in outer space where he just performed a bunch of stupid science experiments. 

The dudes in Samsara Blues Experiment seem to have taken a space trip of their own, with a small detour in the Orient and the destination set to the Riff-filled Land. Striking a perfect balance between improvisation and structured songwriting, SBE have created a monster of an album, featuring '70s-inspired psych rock, heavy stoner riffs and a clear taste for long, spaced-out jams that just spiral out of control like in some crazy fever dream. The one thing that will stick with you, apart from the insane guitar solos, is the sheer HEAVINESS of the guitars and bass. Every riff they pull sounds massive, while Richard's groovy bass lines rumble away like the engines of a space shuttle, backed by the pounding drums, courtesy of drummer Thomas Vedder. 

Needless to say, Waiting for the Flood is an album that lends itself well to obsessive, repeated listens. I've been listening to it on and off for about a month and I still feel I'm nowhere close to discovering all of the different movements, parts, riffs, licks, jams and solos of each track. There's so much variety and weird-tasting meat to be gnawed off these bones, it's unreal. 

I'd like to thank the guys in Samsara Blues Experiment both for creating this amazing work of art and for being kind enough to share it with us. As for you, reader, you should crank up the volume and give this a spin, ASAP! It'll take you places you never knew existed. Just be sure to buckle up beforehand. It's gonna be one hell of a ride!

http://www.samsarabluesexperiment.com/

3rd Ear Experience - Peacock Black (2013)

Well, this is something I thought I’d never see, space rock recorded in the desert!

Simply put, these chaps decided to disconnect themselves from the real world and set up an individual studio in which to document this beast of an album; because at only four tracks that spawn over 75 minutes, this release took me a little while to digest.

At times, it reminded me very much of Causa Sui and their Summer Sessions albums (see the review here); following a similar pattern, 3rd Ear Experience ‘wrote’ their music over the span of just a couple of days, doing so mainly by improvisation. And that, in my humble opinion, is what represents the core of an artist’s imagination: to be able to let yourself go of everything else and just be there for what you really want to achieve is by no means a small feat. 

With regards to the music itself, the four tracks treat the listener from an alternative perspective, as each one seems to represent a movement inside a whole. The first track, The Surface Of Last Scattering, brings out the big guns, being probably the one with the heaviest groove. This is greatly complemented by Peacock Black, second in line and the most chilled-out of the four. One might think that crossing over the twenty two minute mark could get boring, yet I’ve never felt that.

These guys don't seem like boring people, do they?

The other half of the album follows basically in the same fashion, alternating between heavy and slow in the most deft of ways, with light synth touches placed as a background for the instruments. All in all, it’s a release that never disappoints, although in order to fully understand what 3rd Ear Experience accomplished here, one must be completely detached from the world and must leave the album to soak into one’s brain - pretty much what they wanted from us from the start. Personally, I’d recommend listening to this release late at night, just before going to sleep. It actually leaves the impression that you’re in a dry field, stargazing with the best of them. 

With that said and done, we thank the guys once more for providing us with a great listening experience and gladly recommend that you check them out either at cdbaby or iTunes. Meanwhile, here’s a brief excerpt of the title track in order to tickle your music loving senses.

Merkaba - Ancient Relics (2012)

It's been a while since we've had some weird electronic music here and I've recently gotten way back into ambient, drone and psytrance thanks to the amazing Weed Temple blog, which you should all follow religiously. So, there's no putrid death metal or post-black-shoegaze music for today. Sorry, guys.

Instead, today is all about Merkaba, a mysterious electronic outfit from Australia who play some of the most insanely catchy and fascinating music I've ever heard. The tags from their bandcamp page read 'psytrance', 'progressive' and 'techno' and the music definitely sounds that way. You've got a weird mix of tribal atmospherics, futuristic sound effects, pulsating dance grooves and New Age-y feelings, along with some whispered female vocals. How does it all sound? AMAZING. It's trippy as hell but supremely danceable and it practically hypnotizes you into moving your head in time with the beat. The production is crystal clear and shiny and there's definitely some sick bass lines in here. Also, the songs are over 10 minutes long and constantly shift gears. Boredom be damned!

So what the hell are you still doing reading this? Shut off your blinds, turn on the disco ball and the neon lights, take off your socks, grab some glow sticks, crank the volume all the way to 11 and start blasting this while dancing furiously to all these delicious trance beats. THE TECHNOVIKING COMMANDS IT!

Tumbleweed Dealer - Death Rides Southwards (2012)

Tumbleweed Dealer is a sweet new band from Montreal (fucking Canada again!) which was born when some dude got high, found a guitar nearby and was probably on a late-Earth binge. What comes out of all this is a debut EP consisting of three instrumental songs that evoke the burning sun, the hot air and the drowsy atmosphere of a Southern summer day.

The Earth comparison rises because Tumbleweed Dealer employs the same recipe of using clean, twangy guitars to create sunny, country-bluesy drones that are perfect for baking under the sun in a hammock, with a cold drink in hand. I'd even be willing to go out on a limb and say that Death Rides Southwards is a bit more focused and put together than Earth's latest output, which can be pretty hit-and-miss sometimes.

Tumbleweed Dealer have started working on a full-length album immediately following the release of this EP so, needless to say, I hope they manage to score some Pineapple Express-grade weed so they can write more sweet tunes like these. My expectations are very high. HEYO! Get it?!

You can stream and buy this EP on a pay-what-you-want basis at Moshpit Tragedy.

Nomega - Deimos (2012)

One would think that Romania isn't really a suitable environment for a stoner rock band to thrive in - "I mean come the fuck on, Romanians", I hear you saying with a dismissive smile, "your whole country basically amounts to Transylvania, a dark mountainous forest populated by vampires, werewolves and witches where fur-clad barbarians reign supreme, and Bucharest, a filthy city that's ten times more likely to produce pissed-off hardcore bands and suicidal black metal collectives than drugged-out trippy stoner rock groups. How about you focus on vampire hunting and dodging stray dogs and leave stoner rock to California?"

Well you can piss right off, you hyperthermic asshole. Romania has unbearably hot summers too and we have plenty of shitty highways that run through the middle of nowhere, perfect for long, introspective drives with the scorching sun high above you. Plus, booze is cheap, the grass is plentiful and there's tons of bad TV to be had, so being a stoner dude comes easy in Romania.

Nomega are young band who have figured it all out. These four guys hail from Timişoara, Romania and they play their own brand of instrumental stoner rock, that blends numerous elements together. They have it all: thundering riffs, trippy fuzzed-out improvised guitar wizardry, insanely tasty bass grooves (check out the opening bass line on Samsara and tell me it doesn't sound like an obvious nod to OM) and sweet drumming, everything blending together into one huge, soaring, spaced-out atmospheric sound that hooks you and shoots you off-orbit into the cosmic journey of a lifetime. It doesn't reinvent the stoner/post/psych wheel, but God damn it, it does a fine job of rolling with it.

It's sweet, it's tasty, it's very refreshing! Plus, they do the whole Orange amps thing, so you know shit's legit.

BANDCAMP

Wooden Shjips - West (2011)

Habar n-am ce fac aici, dar poftim nişte drone/space rock din San Francisco. Are groove-uri şaizeciste, chitare care bagă drO)))ne în timp ce alte chitare bagă acorduri gustoase, bass şi tobe care pulsează în fundal, voci monotone şi lipsite de feeling şi un miros puternic de psihedelie krautrock. Merge ok atunci când ai de făcut ceva repetitiv şi ai nevoie de nişte muzică de fond.

Ăăă. Da.

The Atlas Moth - An Ache for the Distance (2011)

The Atlas Moth sunt o trupă tânără din Chicago care vor stârni cu siguranţă dispute cu privire la genul abordat, fix din cauza faptului că sound-ul lor este un melanj de-o grămadă de chestii. Este suficient să asculţi o singură piesă de pe An Ache for the Distance ca să depistezi arome de post-rock, black metal, doom metal, sludge sau psych rock. Din fericire, toate aceste genuri sunt combinate cu abilitate, rezultând un sound unic, dar coerent.

Deşi aproape toate piesele se constituie într-un wall of sound suficient de pătrunzător, poţi detecta cu uşurinţă fiecare instrument şi aprecia rolul său în întregul muzical. Cei trei chitarişti crează o ţesătură complexă de riff-uri ce se întrepătrund, nu foarte diferit de ceea ce făceau Negură Bunget pe albumul Om. Partiturile de chitară evoluează în mod inteligent şi poţi auzi clar cum fiecare îşi cântă bucăţica ei, creând în acelaşi timp armonii complicate. Straturilor suprapuse de chitară li se adaugă şi vocile, trupa combinând vocile raspy, ce amintesc de cascadian black metal, cu vocile din registrul clean, contribuind la atmosfera extraordinară a albumului. Piesele "curg" cu uşurinţă una în cealaltă, astfel că, fără a fi un album conceptual, An Ache for the Distance are un sound omogen.

Nu prea ştiu ce altceva să mai zic, pentru că An Ache for the Distance este genul de album pe care trebuie să-l asculţi cu urechile tale pentru a-l înţelege, dar şi pentru că este un album foarte complex, greu de disecat şi analizat în cuvinte. Cred că cea mai bună soluţie este să stingi lumina, să închizi ochii şi să te laşi învăluit de muzică. Vei găsi un sound unic, profund, straniu, melodic şi extrem de atmosferic, care devine tot mai interesant cu fiecare ascultare. Oricum, The Atlas Moth sunt una din surprizele mele majore pe anul 2011 şi îşi vor găsi mai mult ca sigur un loc în topul personal al anului.

Acid Witch - Witch House / Midnight Mass

Acid Witch mi-au masacrat colonul în 2008 cu albumul de debut Witchtanic Hellucinations, o porţie generoasă de doom/death ocult şi psihedelic ce se lega de absolut orice are legătură cu vrăjitoria: arderi pe rug, ceaune bolborosinde, mâzgă verde, mături zburătoare, poţiuni magice, peşteri puturoase şi vrăjitoare cu nas coroiat şi ţâţe până la genunchi. Tematica lor, combinată cu riff-urile zdrobitoare, clapele cheesy şi producţia "noroioasă", a dat naştere unui album extrem de atmosferic care a căpătat ceva atenţie binemeritată.

Anul 2009 a adus cu el EP-ul intitulat Witch House, care conţine două piese în stilul inconfundabil Acid Witch. Piesa omonimă este un număr sludge monolitic, târându-se într-un ritm încet, dar susţinut de-a lungul a patru minute jumate. Ornamentul obligatoriu al clapelor aduce piesa în teritoriul old-school familiar, atmosfera delicioasă de film horror penal din anii '80 fiind completată de un solo hipnotizant, care te poartă, precum Charon, drept către a două piesă. Worship the Worm contemplează soartă noastră finală, a tuturor, destinul nostru implacabil ce ne hărăzeşte să devenim, mai devreme sau mai târziu, hrana viermilor şi a ţărânei. Este şmekeră, fără doar şi poate, dar preferata mea rămâne Witch House. Producţia este oarecum raw, sunetul este parcă mai murdar decât pe Witchtanic Hellucinations, dar nu într-atât încât să nu poţi savura pe deplin gigigi-urile trupei. Per total, Witch House merită ascultat, dar cele două fărâme de piese se termină imediat, cele 8 minute de muzică fiind mult prea puţin pentru un fan Acid Witch.

 Midnight Mass, din 2010, oferă din prima ceea ce mi-am dorit şi nu a existat pe Witch House: un intro atmosferic, plin de clapele creepy marca Acid Witch, alături de un discurs al unui nene, tratând existenţa vrăjitoarelor în  zilele noastre. Exact ce-aveam nevoie, mă, cu excepţia faptului că unele fraze sunt repetate de mai multe ori, fără vreun efect stilistic deosebit. Midnight Mass explodează într-o frenezie de riff-uri down-tuned, clape şi growl-uri infernale, creând un ritm primitiv, aproape tribal. Fix ce trebuie, gen. To Magick, Sex and Gore preia apoi ştafeta şi continuă asaltul death doom, servind nişte riff-uri ciclopice care-ţi dărâmă pereţii şi te forţează să te faci mic sub pat. Producţia este lo-fi şi aproape te zgârie-n urechi, dar la modul bun, iar instrumentele şi vocile sunt perfect balansate. Nu ştiu dacă Midnight Mass este mai bun decât Witch House, mai degrabă le privesc ca pe o pereche complementară, venită să vestească şi să îndulcească aşteptarea celui de-al doilea album full-lenght Acid Witch, lansat în 2011 şi intitulat Stoned.

Va urma...

Barn Owl

Din ciclul de succes "Trupe de care tot aud dar pe care amân la nesfârşit să le ascult iar când le ascult în cele din urmă sunt blown away şi mă întreb de ce dumnezei mi-a luat aşa mult să mă urnesc să le încerc", astăzi avem Barn Owl, un duo acoustic/drone/ambient/psychedelic din San Francisco, California. Foarte, foarte, foarte fain, atât am de zis. Atmosferă cât cuprinde, piese moderat de lungi, unde sonice care se înfăşoară în jurul tău ca un piton, note luuuuuuungi, susţinute, mult ecou, tone de reverb, un anumit aer de bedroom drO)))ne - Barn Owl sunt companionul ambiental perfect pentru o vânătoare nocturnă de licurici în pădurile nesfârşite ale subconştientului. Au şi o discografie stufoasă şi sunt destul de prolifici, astfel încât sunt destul de sigur că un nou opus este mereu după colţ.

Ah, şi au coperte foarte tari.

Barn Owl - From Our Mouths, A Perpetual Light (2008) 

Barn Owl - S/T (2007) 

 Barn Owl - Ancestral Star (2010)

 Barn Owl - Bridge to the Clouds (2007)

 Barn Owl - Shadowland (2011)

 Barn Owl - Smoke Loom Ceremony (2008)

 Barn Owl - The Conjurer (2009)

 Barn Owl - Raft of Serpents (2008)

Atât. 

Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hellucinations (2008)

Step this way, lovers of the loathsome,
 As I lead you into my cave of lurking shadows
 And demonic dabblings...
 Gather around the cauldron, while I boil up a beastly brew
 I call...
Witchtanic Hellucinations!!!

O singură privire aruncată peste copertă (serios, uitaţi-vă numai la nemernicia aia), alături de intro-ul savuros, şi deja ai o idee destul de bună în legătură cu Witchtanic Hellucinations, albumul de debut al americanilor de la Acid Witch: bă, e ceva cu vrăjitoare!

Şi chiar e, futu-i mătura. Acid Witch îşi crează mixtura muzicală amestecând patru ingrediente într-un hântamai ceaunul:

1. Riff-uri mastodonice, care se deplasează cutremurător prin tine şi-ţi distrug rahatul, alături de nişte lead-uri psihedelice incredibile
2. Clape spooky, foarte cheesy, dar care sună fantastic de bine
3. Vocea vocalistului, un growl gutural şi înecat în reverb, semiinteligibil
4. Căldări de droguri

Toate astea se pun la foc mare şi, o noapte cu lună plină de Salem mai târziu, în cazan clocoteşte un doom metal psihedelic, vâscos şi trippy as fuck, în care te înnămoleşti fără să-ţi dai seama. După cum ar spune chiar trupeţii, acid chugging doom, frate!

Acid Witch îşi explorează aproape obsesiv pasiunea pentru orice ţine de vrăjitorie, cu piese precum The Black Witch, Swamp Spells, Witches Tits sau Broomstick Bitch, care nu te lasă nicio clipă să uiţi care-i tematica albumului. Preferata mea este cu siguranţă piesa care închide albumul, October 31st. Deşi nu este atât de grea ca celelalte, compensează printr-un caracter imnic, prin riff-urile fantastice şi  prin refrenul repetat de vocea inconfundabilă cu care Acid Witch îşi scuipă versurile:

October 31st scare the dead away
October 31st the harvest ends today 

 Superb.


 Tracklist:

1. Intro 01:06
2. Into the Cave 03:26
3. Swamp Spells 05:10
4. Witchblood Cult 03:12
5. The Black Witch 04:28
6. Witchtanic Hellucinations 03:47
7. Beastly Brew 02:00
8. Cauldron Cave 03:20
9. Rabid Werewitch 03:45
10. Realm of the Wicked 02:15
11. Witches Tits 02:16
12. Broomstick Bitch 04:14
13. October 31st 05:04

Total playing time: 44:03

http://www.myspace.com/acidwitch