Thursday, October 29, 2020

Ghost Against Ghost share fitting Halloween video for these dark times via Metal Injection

Ghost Against Ghost, the experimental rock project of eclectic composer Christopher Bono, release their first music since 2018 with two contrasting videos for the single "Darth Mango" on Our Silent Canvas Records.

This new animated video by the United Civil Liberties Union  presents a phantasmagoria of the bizarre, a comical animated expression of Trump’s dystopian America. Watch and share via Metal Injection HERE. (Direct YouTube.)


The title of the song and the cartoonish cover art by Nick Siritoch suggest political satire. However, the lyrics, while directly pointing to the unwholesome tactics and mind states of Trump-ism, contrast this with a message of resistance to these temptations through love and social unity.


The United Civil Liberties Union (UCLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 dedicated to the advancement of independently-funded new media and public broadcasting. About the project, they share: "As history and culture seem to be in a constant state of forgetting and remembering -- we hope this visual allegory of our times set to the music of Ghost Against Ghost may serve as a reminder of the work, compassion and unity that's needed to build a more equitable and just society."


The first video, released last week, was created by Laskfar Vortok and Strangeloop (Flying Lotus, Brainfeeder, Erykah Badu) presented a powerful collection of disturbing images pulled from four years of news footage, woven around AI dream sequences of Trump's image. 


Bono originally began composing this ornately orchestrated and complex piece during the Fall of the 2016 presidential campaign. He became driven by deep concern for the rising trends surrounding the ascendancy of Donald Trump. At the apparent normalization of explicit falsehoods, disrespect and verbal abuse against woman and opponents, as well as a general mentality of encouraging hate, anger, fear and division, Bono turned to music to process what was the beginning of a deeply dark period of American history. 


Christopher Bono: "At the time I had already been thinking about exploring rhythm in a heavier more intense, and early 20th century classical kind of way, experimenting with rhythms energized by the music of Stravinsky, Bartok and others, as a driving force for the structure of a Ghost Against Ghost song. I also was interested in shorter forms, as Ghost Against Ghost songs historically tend to be an extended length, usually between 8 to 15-minutes. I thought to myself, 'Let’s do a 3.5 minute ‘pop’ song'. Of course, as with anything Ghost Against Ghost, it’s not an up the middle kind of pop song. The music was meant to express some very challenging emotions about the state of our world and reflects this by being abrasive, dissonant, angular, and very dense.”


After beginning work on the piece, he put it away for a few years to focus on the many other projects he’s involved with, including NOUS, Nous Alpha, Tsyphur Zalan and Gabbarein. It lingered in the back of his mind as a statement he felt compelled to complete writing and producing. In 2019, with the specter of the upcoming 2020 presidential campaign, after watching the horror of society and democracy crumbling before his eyes for four years, he was determined to complete it in time for the election. 


Christopher hasn’t released a politically charged song in over 15 years, but as a songwriter he does have a history of and interest in political and social commentary in music.


“In my early twenties I was inspired and driven to write activist music,” Bono explains. “I starting out pursuing a music career as a lyric driven singer-songwriter very inspired and influenced by artists like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Pink Floyd. When I began Ghost Against Ghost in 2008, interestingly enough, the first album (which I never completed) was a double length concept album narrating a dystopian American future. The central theme focused on a the runaway future of a country and world driven by crass capitalism and controlled by a totalitarian head of state. Not too far from where we’ve landed 12 years later. 


"I soon put Ghost Against Ghost aside for five years to focus on several classical projects. When I revived the project in 2013 the themes present in the new material focused on metaphysical topics and dark romanticism. With the writing and release of Darth Mango, It’s fascinating to see Ghost Against Ghost return to those original themes of social commentary and political dystopia, however much I wish the circumstances had not driven me here.”


Though Bono often collaborates with friends and talented musicians, this track was performed and produced in true 2020 COVID fashion, in complete isolation. After 2 years of several collaborative projects, Christopher was inspired to revisit solo production, so he played all instruments himself, including drums, bass, piano, synths, vocals and electronics.


"Darth Mango" lyrics:


Love,

Fear,

We choose.

Our own resistance.



A1


Fear Reveals a weakness.

A Lost Mind Trapped in Madness.

People aren’t your play things.

Selfish Lies Defy True Meaning.

Choice Defines the Future

Thoughts of All can tune a New World.


B1


Unify, Unify, Unify before our Eyes.

[Repeat]


A2


Fear dawns from Division,

Darkened hearts become our prisons,

The lines we draw are only shadows.

Thoughts of All 

can tune a New World.


Love,

Fear,

We choose.

Our own resistance.Darth Mango


Love,

Fear,

We choose.

Our own resistance.





Listen to the song everywhere: https://fanlink.to/darthmango


More information at:

oursilentcanvas.org

Ghostagainstghost.com

Instagram.com/Ghostagainstghost

Facebook.com/Ghostagainstghost

Twitter.com/gagdoctrine











PG.LOST (ex-Ghost, Cult of Luna) share new single via Metal Injection from forthcoming album on Pelagic Records

"At the top of the list of post-metal and rock for me, always delivering emotional, clever, and inimical works of emotive, atmospheric, and surprisingly heavy music. You are not going to want to miss this one." -- Heavy Blog Is Heavy

"Heavy, intense, climactic, beautiful music, and Pg.lost know exactly how to suck you in and keep you enthralled." -- Brooklyn Vegan



Swedish quartet PG.LOST share a new single from their upcoming first album in 4 years today, via Metal Injection. Hear and share "Shelter" HERE. (Direct link for streaming platforms HERE.)


Brooklyn Vegan recently shared the fantastic video for "Suffering," directed by Mats Ek (Myrkur.) Watch and share HERE. (Direct YouTube.)


This is PG.LOST’Oscillate  -- the band’s latest LP packed to the gills with pure drama and catharsis. Their fifth overall and first effort since 2016’s much lauded Versus, Oscillate leans on an instrumental approach and while their keen understanding oftension/release may warrant comparison to the likes of MONO, Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, PG.LOST is unafraid to move into exciting new directions. With influences that range from the emotional heft of Big Thief to the inventive spirit of krautrock to the brutality of Neurosis to the dark experimentalism of COIL, these heavier elements intertwine and open up into wide-eyed expansiveness of Fennesz or Tim Hecker, revealing a beauty shimmering underneath and a range of depth rarely found in today’s over-compressed and spit-shined version of “modern music.”

In making the new LP, PG.LOST opted to keep it simple and follow their gut. “On the previous records we have always tried to make it very basic and clean when it comes to production, not too many overdubs or add-ons,” reveals bassist Kristian Karlsson. “This time was more about not thinking about that at all. We don’t try to over analyse our records -- it always starts with one or two songs and they often set the mood of the rest of the writing process. I think this album has more layers to it -- you hear new things every time you listen. We’re really looking forward to hearing what the listeners think.”

Kicking off with a blossoming dark ambient passage on the title track, an ascendant guitar/synth part builds tension until final release is achieved with a massive chorus, wavesof eye-opening guitars and elephantine tribal drums. It’s emblematic of the album as a whole -- massive in scope and even larger in sound, Oscillate is the true definition of its title with incredibly tense swells to the point of collapse leading to a slow but pensive disintegration. And again. And again. Oscillate is not just instrumental music, it’s cinematic -- it’s high drama, executed in IMAX with a pristine soundtrack blasting at 120db.

Due in November via Pelagic Records, the LP was recorded by the band in their own studio, and mixed/mastered by Magnus Lindberg from Cult of Luna. In creating the LP, the only hurdle seemingly was an internal one and making efficient use of individual scheduling. “When we formed the band we spent almost every night in the rehearsal space,” recalls Karlsson. “Nowadays we only rehearse for tours or when we plan to have writing sessions for example upcoming records. It is not as spontaneous as it used to be, but I think it forces us to really make the best out of it when we do see each other.”

Founded in 2004 in Norrköping, Sweden, PG.LOST is Mattias Bhatt, Martin Hjertstedt (ex-Ghost), Gustav Almberg (The Great Discord) and Kristian Karlsson (Cult of Luna). Formed in pursuit of a singular love of post-rock, ambient and shoegaze with a bent towards post-metal, the band released their self-titled and the Yes, I Am EPs in 2006 and 2007. From there PG.LOST dropped their 2008 LP It's Not Me, It's You! quickly followed by 2009’s In Never Out, Key, the Wang Wen split LP and Versus followed in 2012, 2013 and 2016 respectively. Sovereign in execution and mammoth in scope, Oscillate is ten tracks of pure dramatic bombast and a massive step forward for the decades-old band. The four years away have been worth it. 

Oscillate will be available on LP, CD and digital on November 20, 2020. Pre-orders are available HERE




Artist: PG.LOST
Album: Oscillate
Record label: Pelagic Records
Release date: November 20, 2020

01. Oscillate
02. E22
03. Mindtrip
04. Shelter
05. Suffering
06. Waves
07. Eraser
08. The Headless Man


On The Web:




Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Alpha Hopper (Hex Records) share new single from forthcoming album

"A frantic, messy variety of guitar rock, that won’t say no to a night out with punk, hardcore, new wave, or which ever genre (or hottie, or mark, or naive and corruptible young fool) catches their eye that evening." -- New Noise



Buffalo, NY quartet Alpha Hopper share a new track today from their forthcoming third album Alpha Hex Index via New Noise Magazine. Hear and share "In The Desert In The West" HERE. (Direct Bandcamp


Echoes & Dust previously shared "The Goods" HERE


"A bartender, a personal trainer, a graphic designer, and an immigration attorney walk into a practice space..." 

Formed in Buffalo, New York in 2014, Alpha Hopper creates a frenetic stew of guitar-driven rock'n'roll with ingredients from punk, hardcore, noise rock, and no-wave. Their 3rd LP Alpha Hex Index shows them deeper than ever down their rabbit hole. Sassy, snotty vocals punctuating the ever growing wall of catchy, bizarre riffs and prison break drum beats. Dummy math, noise-rock for art-punk drop outs.

For this album the band decided to record the effort themselves in their homes. Pandemic-related shelter in place recommendations caused some hiccups in being able to track the entire effort in a single block, and instead recording sessions were conducted in intervals when the members could safely get together and hash out their respective parts. Once they were satisfied with the mix they handed things over to engineer John Angelo (Gwar, Every Time I Die, Gas Chamber) to handle mastering duties.

Alpha Hex Index will be available on LP, CD and digital on November 20th, 2020. 



Artist: Alpha Hopper
Album: Alpha Hex Index
Record label: Hex Records
Release date: November 20th, 2020

01. In The Desert In The West
02. Not the Universe
03. Big Body
05. En-skin
05. #592720
06. The Goods
07. Glows, Explodes
08. Wrestles Snakes
09. #1D2951
10. Spiral
11. Third Man
12. #16161D


On The Web:










Tuesday, October 27, 2020

HERE LIES MAN announce new album, share first single. "If Black Sabbath played Afrobeat" (RidingEasy Records)

 


"An evolutionary step forward for their sound." -- Metal Hammer


"A woozy wall of Afrobeat inspired fuzzbox riff worship and pounding circular rhythmic power, Here Lies Man connect the stoner rock underground straight to downtown Lagos." -- The Quietus


"Here Lies Man are still really, really good at making riffy, rhythmic psychedelic rock that sounds like the '60s/'70s but still feels fresh today. Fans of anything from Nuggets to Ty Segall and King Gizzard should take note." -- Brooklyn Vegan



Los Angles, CA quartet Here Lies Man announce their forthcoming fourth album Ritual Divination today and share the lead single "I Told You (You Shall Die)" via YouTube, Bandcamp and Spotify. Please see track listings for vinyl and digital variants below.


Four albums in, the convenient and generalized catchphrase for Here Lies Man’s erudite sound — if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat — might seem a little played out. But Ritual Divination is perhaps the best rendering of the idea so far. Particularly on the Sabbath side of the equation: The guitars are heavier and more blues based than before, but the ancient rhythmic formula of the clave remains a constant. 


“Musically it’s an opening up more to traditional rock elements,” says vocalist/guitarist/cofounder Marcos Garcia, who also plays guitar in Antibalas. “It’s always been our intention to explore. And, as we travelled deeper into this musical landscape, new features revealed themselves.” 


The L.A. based band comprised of Antibalas members have toured relentlessly following their breakout 2017 self-titled debut. Their second album, You Will Know Nothing and an EP, Animal Noises, both followed in 2018. Third album No Ground To Walk Upon emerged in August 2019. All of them were crafted by Garcia and cofounder/drummer Geoff Mann (former Antibalas drummer and son of jazz musician Herbie Mann) in their L.A. studio between tours. Ritual Divination is their first album recorded as the full 4-piece band, including bassist JP Maramba and keyboardist Doug Organ.


Ritual Divination continues with an ongoing concept of HLM playing the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, with each song being a scene. “It’s an inward psychedelic journey, the album is the trip,” Garcia says. “The intention and purpose of the music is to create a sonic ritual to lift the veil of inner space and divine the true nature of reality.” 


Likewise, musically and sonically, the album is self-reflexive. “On this album the feel changes within a song,” Garcia says. “Whereas before each song was meant to induce a trancelike state, now more of the songs have their own arc built in.” Similarly, the guitar sounds themselves herein eschew the fuzz pedals of previous recordings, going for the directness of pure amp overdrive and distortion using an interconnected rig of 4 amplifiers. And, here, the well-versed live band is able to record as a unit, giving it much more of a live and dynamic feel.


Rough Trade named the band’s self-titled debut in their prestigious Top 10 Albums of 2017. BBC 6 & Classic Rock Magazine deemed it among the year’s best, as well as countless other press outlets singing its praises. Each subsequent album furthered the band’s reputation for genre-smashing rhythmic experimentation, topping many year-end lists as well as earning features from countless metal and indie rock outlets, plus cover stories in weekly papers. 


“We’re very conscious of how the rhythms service the riffs,” Garcia explains. “Tony Iommi’s (Black Sabbath) innovation was to make the riff the organizing principle of a song. We are taking that same approach but employing a different organizing principle: For Iommi it was the blues, for us it comes directly from Africa.”


Ritual Divination will be available on LP, CD and download on January 22nd, 2021 via RidingEasy Records




Artist: Here Lies Man

Album: Ritual Divination 

Record Label: RidingEasy Records

Release date: January 22nd, 2021


Digital & CD:

01. In These Dreams

02. I Told You (You Shall Die)

03. Underland

04. What You See

05. Can’t Kill It

06. Run Away Children

07. I Wander

08. Night Comes

09. Come Inside

10. Collector of Vanities

11. Disappointed

12. You Would Not See From Heaven

13. The Fates Have Won

14. Out Goes The Night

15. Cutting Through The Tether


Vinyl:

Side A:

01. In These Dreams

02. I Told You (You Shall Die)

03. Underland

04. What You See

05. Night Comes


Side B:

01. Come Inside

02. Collector of Vanities

03. Disappointed

04. The Fates Have Won

05. Out Goes The Night


Bonus 7" (UK pressing & direct from RidingEasy)

Side A: Run Away Children

Side B: I Wander



On The Web:

ridingeasyrecords.com

hereliesman.com

facebook.com/hereliesman

hereliesman.bandcamp.com








Thursday, October 22, 2020

'Brown Acid' series of rare/lost 60s-70s pre-metal singles drops 1969 grunge precursor "Something Else"

"So rare that diehard fuzz junkies say you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery than finding a physical 45 rpm single by one of the bands featured on their latest installment." -- Dangerous Minds

"Will do for hard rock, proto-metal and heavy psych what Nuggets did for garage rock, and bring it to a wider audience of collectors and music fans." -- The Guardian

"Mining the surprising rich reserves of heavy rock and proto-metal from the '60s and '70s, these collections have been crucial to understanding the history of a subgenre of rock that had far deeper roots than most fans realize." -- Paste Magazine


The forthcoming eleventh edition of the popular compilation series featuring long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles, Brown Acid: The Eleventh Trip will be available on Halloween, October 31, 2020. Today, hear and share the latest single, "Something Else" the 1969 proto-grunge rocker by Tacoma, WA band Adam Wind via YouTube and Bandcamp.


Previously, the soul-laced hard rock of Debb Johnson's 1969 track "Dancing In The Ruin" was released via YouTube. The first single, "Diamond Lady" by Larry Lynn is available HERE.


The Brown Acid series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records. Read interviews with the series curators via Paste Magazine HERE and LA Weekly HERE. 

About  The Eleventh Trip:

This Trip opens with Adam Wind's "Something Else," featuring groovy crooning and a very acid-damaged guitar riff that meanders across key signatures like it ain't no thing. This 1969 single by the Tacoma, WA band predates grunge by 20 years, but the band's heavy psych and murky tones are just the stuff Northwest heroes Mudhoney sought so fervently at their peak. Lead singer Leroy Bell's excessive vibrato gives the tune its charm, but the heavy breakdown in the middle is the real payoff. 

Boston bruisers Grump return to the series with a previously unreleased dose of raw soul layered in greasy horns, plucky harmonized guitar leads and chirping organs on "I'll Give You Love." The track packs twice the punch of their cover of Elvis Presley's classic "Heartbreak Hotel" heard back on The Eighth Trip, itself a fan favorite. 

Stevens Point, WI is the actual origin of Bagshot Row, a little-known band taking its name from a street in The Hobbit. However, they sound much less fantasy obsessed than their name suggests and more akin to Sugarloaf of "Green Eyed Lady" fame. Their swaggering "Turtle Wax Blues" of 1973 will put some extra hair on your feet and send you searching for this lone 45 single like a ring that possesses magical powers to control all of Middle Earth (or at least Middle America.)

Larry Lynn's "Diamond Lady" is the B-side to his 1970 single "Back On The Street Again." Larry Leonard Ostricki adopted his stage name while performing with The Bonnevilles in the mid-1950s in Milwaukee, WI, and later with The Skunks. Larry Lynn's eponymous band explored bluesy psychedelic rock from 1969 to 1978, only to reunite in 2009 and they still perform to this date. 

Renaissance Fair take things in a very weird, very fun and undeniably heavy direction with an insanely distorted organ that sounds like a monstrous vacuum cleaner over dirge rhythms and growling vocals on their - we reiterate - weird 1968 track "In Wyrd." Think if someone left a copy of The Doors' Strange Parade out to warp in the sun on a blown-out toy record player, and then visiting space creatures attempted to imitate what they'd heard. 

Chicago, IL's Zendik bring it all back down to Earth with their politically-charged 1970 firestorm "Mom's Apple Pie Boy" which echoes the unabashed rage of The MC5 and anthemic sarcasm of CCR's "Fortunate Son." The band's only publicly released single "Is There No Peace" (previously heard on Brown Acid: The Sixth Trip) boasts the proto-punk refrain "God is dead!" This equally direct polemic was recorded during the same sessions, but unreleased until now. 

The opening cowbell of Daybreak's kicked back 1977 rocker "Just Can't Stay" affirms that the boogie is back on this swaggering nugget of FM-ready rock from San Mateo, CA. "Just Can't Stay" closes the band's lone 4-song EP, and the band delivered on the promise, vanishing into the ether shortly thereafter. 

West Minist'r of Fort Dodge, IA make their desires clear on "I Want You" with an undeniably driving riff and particularly beefy sounding synth leads that would fit in fine on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. The song, originally released on Magic Records, is the B-side to "Sister Jane" and the band's last of three singles issued between 1969 and 1975. 

Debb Johnson of Saint Louis Park, MN is a BAND, not an individual member of the band. The 7-piece group featured a full horn section and three-part harmonies on their 1969 self-titled album. The backstory on their name is: three of the group's seven members shared the last name Johnson, so they then took the first letters of the last names of the other four members and combined them into the word "debb." The politically minded "Dancing In The Ruin" speaks a truth all-too-familiar to this day backed by a brand of wailing acid rock crossed with Buddy Miles' Expressway To Your Skull style funk. 

Crazy Jerry sends us off on a high note with "Every Girl Gets One," featuring crunching riffs, rollicking electric piano, stop 'n' start rhythms and a curious telephone call sounding like a creepy answer to the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace." Crazy Jerry is the alter-ego of guitarist Jerry Ciccone, who can also be heard on a few soul/funk and rock records from the 70s, including The Left Banke's second album. But here, Jerry is...well, simply crazy. 

About the Brown Acid series:

Some of the best thrills of the Internet music revolution is the ability to find extremely rare music with great ease. But even with such vast archives to draw from, quite a lot of great songs have gone undiscovered for nearly half a century -- particularly in genres that lacked hifalutin arty pretense. Previously, only the most extremely dedicated and passionate record collectors had the stamina and prowess to hunt down long forgotten wonders in dusty record bins -- often hoarding them in private collections, or selling at ridiculous collector's prices. Legendary compilations like NuggetsPebbles, ad nauseum, have exhausted the mines of early garage rock and proto-punk, keeping alive a large cross-section of underground ephemera. However, few have delved into and expertly archived the wealth of proto-metal, pre-stoner rock tracks collected on
Brown Acid

Lance Barresi, co-owner of L.A./Chicago retailer Permanent Records has shown incredible persistence in tracking down a stellar collection of rare singles from the 60s and 70s for the growing compilation series. Partnered with Daniel Hall of RidingEasy Records, the two have assembled a selection of songs that's hard to believe have remained unheard for so long. 

"I essentially go through hell and high water just to find these records," Barresi says. "Once I find a record worthy of tracking, I begin the (sometimes) extremely arduous process of contacting the band members and encouraging them to take part. Daniel and I agree that licensing all the tracks we're using for
Brown Acid is best for everyone involved," rather than simply bootlegging the tracks. When all of the bands and labels haven't existed for 30-40 years or more, tracking down the creators gives all of these tunes a real second chance at success. 

"There's a long list of songs that we'd love to include," Barresi says. "But we just can't track the bands down. I like the idea that Brown Acid is getting so much attention, so people might reach out to us."

Brown Acid: The Eleventh Trip will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on October 31, 2020 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available for digital (with immediate download of the first single) at Bandcamp, physical pre-orders at RidingEasy Records





Artist: Various Artists
Album: Brown Acid: The Eleventh Trip 
Label: RidingEasy Records
Release Date: October 31, 2020

01. Adam Wind "Something Else" 
02. Grump "I'll Give..."
03. Bagshot Row "Turtle Wax Blues" 
04. Larry Lynne "Diamond Lady" 
05. Renaissance Fair "In Wyrd"
06. Zendik "Mom's Apple Pie Boy”
07. Daybreak "Just Can't Stay" 
08. West Minist'r "I Want You" 
09. Debb Johnson "Dancing In The Ruin"  
10. Crazy Jerry "Every Girl Gets One”