UK – Page 3 – Weirdo Shrine

3 October 20222 October 2022

Review + Q&A: The Web Of Lies- Nude With Demon (2022, Wrong Speed Records)

Last week I snatched away the -at least for now- very last Amazon copy of Nude With Demon, the debut album by UK’s The Web Of Lies. On their bandcamp, as well as on their label Wrong Speed Records the albums have also gone so I guess for promotional purposed this review is pretty darn void. And yet, if you haven’t been informed about this record I feel strongly compelled to right that wrong for you.

So what’s going on? The Web Of Lies is a duo of British musicians with a great network of likeminded souls who together forged a unique amalgamation of jingly jangly 60s garage rock, 90s noise punk, and freakish folk antics. It’s like they dug up the corpses of The Velvet Underground, took them for a dive and met up with Sonic Youth for an underwater garage noise rock jam. I’m just dropping those references to give your ears something to hold on to because in reality it is rather hard to reference Nude With Demon to anything but itself, and that is also its strongest power.

You need to work on your relationship with this album, then it will reveal itself. The songs usually rely on heavy angular riffing, rather than steady verse/chorus structures which makes the album a tough nut to crack at first, but a very playable album at the same time that will open up slowly and gradually while you spin the hell out of it. Its many layers, contributed by its many guest players will one by one unfurl themselves and the album will in time become like a good friend, always ready for an insightful conversation and plenty of depth.

The Web Of Lies, like their label mates Haress, have delivered a unique piece of modern guitar music that puts their home Wrong Speed Records at the forefront of record labels to watch this year and the next. Make sure to jump on the bandwagon soon though, because their records sell out in no time. Don’t say you weren’t warned!

The Web Of Lies is Edwin Stevens and Neil Robinson together with an array of other musicians that Edwin will introduce when I talk to him through the internet. Please take your time to learn about this amazing bunch of artists and check out their other music as well!

How have you guys been lately? How has the covid period been for the band?

I can’t speak for Neil- I know he’s finishing the new Buffet Lunch album, so I’m going to assume he’s doing good. I see him post loads of pictures of nice hills and nature and mushrooms and that, which is nice. I’m having the month from Hell but looking forward to doing some nice stuff soon. We put the record together during covid, recording all the main bits at the arse end of 2020 and at the start of 2021. It was shit but I’m glad we got a record done.

Can you tell me about your musical backgrounds?

I’ve been lucky enough to play in a fair few bits over the years; Irma Vep (a solo thing) and Yerba Mansa (a duo with Andrew Cheetham) are probably the most consistent ‘projects’, or whatever. I play a bit of guitar in The Birthmarks when I can, we are unfortunately separated by a few hundred miles but I love it.

I first met Neil when he was drumming with a band called Hyacinth Girl in Manchester over ten years ago. He moved to London and played with loads of people, I won’t list them all, he’s a class act and a much sought after legend. We met again when he moved to Edinburgh (has since moved to Glasgow, where I now live) and was playing bass with his current group, Buffet Lunch who are an amazing band.

All the contributors on the record have rich musical histories that should be dived deep into:

Jess Higgins, who sings, is an artist living in Glasgow who played in an amazing band called Vital Idles as well as doing her own solo work. Rory Maclean who plays bass on Receiver also played with them. He has new project called Essen which is very claaasss.

Kathy Gray who also sings on the album currently plays in two amazing things called Nape Neck and Mia La Metta (her solo stuff). I met her years ago playing in a legendary No Wave group called Beards.

Dylan Hughes, who sings on The Golden Road is my closest friend from back home in Wales. We used to play in the bands Klaus Kinski and Sex Hands together. He’s the main song writer in The Birthmarks and released his own solo album last year called Imaginary Shelves.

DBH who plays violin on The Golden Road has played with too many people to list. He is a true musical genius. He played on nearly all my solo records. His albums under the name DBH are all incredible and can be found via Thread Recordings.

Tim Bishop is this weird guy I know from back in Wales who played in loads of bands in the eighties. Y Legs is the most popular of his groups.

Neil Campbell is an absolute legend who’s discography is deep and mental and varied, it’s a joy to get into. He plays with Vibracathedral Orchestra and his own solo Astral Social Club, two of my absolute favourite groups of all time (amongst loads and loads and loads of other things)

How did you find each other to start this magical band called The Web Of Lies?

Neil and I were recruited by our friend Doig to help him play some shows with his project, Robert Sotelo and I really loved playing with him. I demoed a solo record during lockdown and had some songs left over that I felt didn’t suit the ‘feel’ of the album and thought Neil would be good to play on them, and that’s when I decided to start this project.

The band has a very distinctive sound, its quite hard to pinpoint… how did your “sound” come into existence?

I’m not really sure. The guitars are tuned to different octaves of two notes, usually either C or G or or D or F. It depends on the song. I can’t remember properly. Maybe it’s something to do with that? Neil is really good at keeping the song solid and consistent and listenable. I’m not very good at that.

The guests we have on the record are all incredible and singular artists in their own right. I’m very grateful for the music they contributed and help make the record what it is. I think that they all bring their own unique voice to the album and song by song take it to places I wouldn’t necessarily expect.

What is your connection to Chris Summerlin and Wrong Speed Records?

My friend Tom House sent Chris the record who then sent it to Joe Thompson who then said they would like to put it out, which was great. We also stayed with Chris at his home in Nottingham when we were on tour with Robert Sotelo. A lovely man. They’re both really nice guys and I’m very grateful to be able to put the stuff out with them.

How did you decide on the band name? Will your answer be a lie and is there a way to know?

No word of a lie: I wanted to use the name for a while; I had made an album called Irma Vep & The Web of Lies – We Don’t Talk About It, where the underlying theme was kind of all about repression through guilt and the aftermath of that. I felt the name was quite powerful, imagery wise, or something, hence why I used it for this. It’s an umbrella for a smorgasbord of non stop idiot thoughts.

I find the cover art very intriguing, it’s reminds me of the Guernica in a way 🙂 Who did it and how does it relate to the music?

Thank you, that’s nice! I made it. Some of it is taken from a collage I did for a poster for a friend of mine ages ago, and other bits were taken from just stuff I had been messing around for a while on photoshop and that.

I wanted it to be like looking at a map, it has bits from the songs in it. The peace sign on the upside down Dante’s 9 layers of hell thing is a nod to the peace sign that was painted on the mountain where I grew up in Llanfairfechan, North Wales… I don’t know what else to say about it really…Seasons In The Abyss is my favourite Slayer album, that’s why I drew that on there. That was going to be the actual cover but I chickened out. I like the art for Fall albums and Country Teasers records where there’s loads of writing on it. I like words as art on album covers and stuff. I just ripped them off really.

What does an average day look like in the lives of the members of the band? Do you jam a lot for instance?

We’re not really a ‘band’. More of a duo, recording project or something. Me and Neil record stuff when we can and email it to guests and hope they’re up for it. I can’t speak for everyone else, but an average day for me is farting about with my one year old or going to work at the pub.

What are your immediate future plans? And what is “the dream”?

Immediate plans are to record a new album. We’re both finishing off other projects at the minute. The songs are written, it’s just a case of going to Neil and seeing what he thinks. “The dream” is to hopefully one day play live. Neil isn’t up for it, and my life is too hectic at the moment to fathom getting people together to play as a full band. Maybe after the next album when we have a few more songs to pull from I’ll see who’s up for it and try and play some shows and all that.

What should the Weirdo Shrine readers do immediately after reading this interview?

Have a nice day!

(Hi jasper, thanks for this, we don’t really have a band photo but please use this image I drew)

8 August 2022

Review + Q&A: Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska- Interstellic Psychedelic (2022, Up In Her Room Records)

So the new Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska album…is freaking dense! It’s like they took all their dark thoughts and frustrations with the past pandemic period and channelled them into these five slabs of heavy psychedelic space rock. There’s even a sense of sci-fi horror and evil lurking over Interstellic Psychedelic, oozing out of it. A sense of dread that is fed by the spoken word snippets left, right, and center, theatrically building images of lost souls and dark visions…but keeping their tongue firmly in their cheek at the same time.

Because at the same time that some of this record will give me the shivers, the campy keyboards, the over the top theatrics, and the thick emphasis on spaciness also made me conjure up images of Douglas Adams‘ Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy…Interstellic Psychedelic could well have been one of its hazier chapters. You know; it’s about total death and the destruction planets, but it’s gruesomely funny at the same time. You can totally see Zaphod Beeblebrox throwing down some Pan-Galactic Gargleblasters and rocking out to this in his space ship.

Nothing about their true intentions becomes entirely clear though, and that is on purpose. Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska are true improvisationalists; they love taking things as they present themselves. That’s how you have to listen to this album as well. You’ll never know what lurks beyond the corner, because neither do they! Anything is possible, from playing the electric Kazoo to including a 12-year-old kid’s poetry. It makes this mostly instrumental journey all the more exciting. It moves from dangerous to funny to epic in minutes, like the good sci-fi movies of yore used to. Best thing to do is light one up and let these intergalactic Englishmen take you to the next dimension…

So with this being the second time I reviewed Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska, I could certainly not just leave it at that? I had to talk to them! Luckily Aaron Bertram (bass snake) kindly and swiftly replied...

How are you guys doing these days? How did you deal with the dreaded pandemic?

Absolutely awesome. We were very lost in the beginning of the pandemic but I (bass snake) decided to buy equipment to record and produce from home and spent hundreds of hours watching YouTube video tutorials. our first home recording experiment was Electric Bong Water. After finishing that we realized with a bit more hard work we could probably record an album this way, so we set to work on The Eternal Electric Landscape. The strangest thing about it was actually having to write music as everything up until this point was completely improvised. After electric bong water Dan from Up In Her Room Records got in touch about working together. So overall i’d have to give us a pat on the back and say we done pretty well through the pandemic. If you listen to Enter The Psychedemic from the new record the lyrics reflect this.

Can you introduce the band to the Weirdo Shrine readers? Anything people really need to know up front about your band?

Our motto is try everything and anything, record it, see if it works. This mindset has led to the use of things such as electric kazoo on The Eternal Electric Landscape and Interstellic Psychedelic. Our live sets are mostly improv jamming our own tracks loosely. The weirder something sounds the better.

What can you tell me about the making of Interstellic Psychedelic? In what way did your approach to record differ from The Eternal Electric Landscape?

We begun the writing and recording of this record in October 2021 and at first approached it in a very similar way to The Eternal Electric Landscape. However the record slowly started becoming its own entity and we viewed it that way. The last song on the record called Nature Of The Evil Within is A poetic story direct from the twisted psychedelic mind of 12 year old honorary baby snake Layland Bertram (my son). Sound tracked and performed by dad’s band. He won an award at school for it and once I read it I knew we had to work on it to make it into a sound tracked version of the story. So we were taking influence from places we’d not normally think to explore.

How important is jamming and improvisation for SDBIA? How do you make sure that comes across right on record?

It is the core of what we are. Even in this record although it has been written, it was all written and recorded in one take to maintain the core vibe and we stay away from thinking too hard about structure, you’ll never hear us doing verse, chorus, verse, chorus.

You guys are from Newcastle, right? In what way does living there influence you as an artist? Is there a psychedelic scene for instance?

We are yes, although Jarrid is actually Canadian. When people think of Newcastle they think of poverty and a tough social attitude and i think that comes across in our rough and ready, high energy sound. There isn’t much of a music scene at all in Newcastle now, many touring bands completely miss the city. That being said there is still a pretty cool underground scene that consists of many genres working together, which is pretty cool.

In what way is playing psychedelic music and using psychedelic substances interwoven with each other do you think?

Oh dear my mum will be reading this haha, Hi Mum. I think the two are part of the same entity. Psych music, at least our psych music is completely about exploration of the mind and I’d say that psychedelic substances have the same purpose. Although we’re mostly good boys these days haha.

What would you say is your biggest influence, both musically and otherwise?

We all have a similar core of influence, Hawkwind, Floyd, Earthless, 35007, etc. But we all have our own individual musical influences too, myself being into a lot of punk, Alex being into British indie and Jarrid being classic rock and folk. We also take a lot of influence from the psych world in general, people like Kenneth Anger.

What are you looking forward to most in 2022? And in 2023?

We are going to put way more energy into gigging, we’ve all been so buys in our home lives recently. We are currently organizing a short UK tour for the back end of the year and hopefully looking to slither our tails a little further a field next year.

When will your spaceship land in The Netherlands?

We are hoping to put together some mainland Europe shows next year but it’s difficult with finances, if we can get the right deals with promoters so we can actually afford to do it, the Netherlands will definitely be one of our top priorities of places to play.

What should the Weirdo Shrine readers do after this interview?

Go listen to Interstellic Psychedelic and some of our historical stuff so you can hear the evolution of SDBIA and continue to support your local psych scenes especially the DIY ones. Thank you everyone!

9 May 20229 May 2022

Review + Q&A: Haress- Ghosts (2022, Wrong Speed Records)

Wrong Speed Records is a very interesting and relatively new record label from the UK, established by Joe Thompson, who you might also know as the bass player in Hey Colossus. It appears he has an exquisite and very wide taste in music, and Haress from Wales are the latest formidable example thereof.

When you close your eyes and listen to Ghosts, you can almost hear the morning mist crawling over the green Welsh fields, a river streaming nearby, the gentle tranquility and subtle excitement of another dawn in the countryside. The music is gentle, with explorative guitar parts, sparse and ephemeral vocals, a hint of folk in the bass lines, and other more experimental musical instruments that add to this atmosphere.

It harks back to the earliest of postrock days and the youthful naivety of Slint‘s Spiderland. It’s dreamier than that iconic album though, and in its folkier and quieter parts it also reminds of a very different Slint affiliate; Will Oldham, and his Superwolf colab with Matt Sweeney in particular. It’s sleepy music, but it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Having cited these 90s influences, it is perhaps cool to mention that Lungfish‘s Nathan Bell also added a bit of trumpet to the album.

Personally, I fell deeply in love with Ghosts. There is something about the guitar tone, the pace of the music, and the general tranquility that completely connected with me on a level that I cannot really put into the right words, and will therefore stop trying. Better to see if it connects with you in the same way…

I had loads of question for this enigmatic music group, which luckily Dave and Elizabeth (main people in the band) answered all kind of together as one person, except question seven, which Thomas the vocalist answered…

Hi guys, how have you been these past pandemic years?

We were lucky we kept our heads above water, lockdown in the countryside was like a quieter version of an already quiet place. Although it was a bad time there were many positives –

it was a treat to have some time, to be together with our daughter, I (Liz) collaborated and recorded a remote album with Dominic Plucknett from Van Coeur ( https://stillplucknett.bandcamp.com/album/bandas-sonoras ) and Haress got to do a Black Sabbath cover for the Supersonic online festival ( https://youtu.be/vNf7TaOjUiE ).

Can you introduce Haress? When did you meet each other and how did you start a band?

Hello, this is Elizabeth Still and David Hand. We met each other through playing in a band called Red Panda many moons ago. Haress was formed out of necessity as the drummer from our previous band (Black Octagon – https://blackoctagon.bandcamp.com/ ) was becoming a parent plus there were location logistics etc etc

We decided to do a band that meant we didn’t have to rely on anyone outside of the two of us and where we could practice from home – try and make it easy.

We first expanded the band when we played at our festival called Sineater in 2016 ( https://youtu.be/Rpfh8VsiPmc ) when Chris Summerlin (Hey Colossus, Kogumaza) and Pete Simonelli (Enablers) joined us on stage, it was a great thing to discover we could successfully and quite easily expand and diversify.

The heart of Haress is us as a duo, we mostly write the tracks so they can be performed that way. When we expand the band it becomes something different.

For the first record and Ghosts, Haress expands to include Chris on guitar, David Smyth (Kling Klang, Mind Mountain) on drums and Thomas House (Sweet Williams, Charlottefield) on vocal. They also feature Nathan Bell (Lungfish, Human Bell).

I love the way “Ghosts” sounds! How did you decide on your sound? Is it a naturally evolving thing, or a very conscious result of planned decisions?

For Ghosts many of the tracks were quite new and hadn’t been played live. So this was an evolution. We were staying at Erbistock Mill (a disused water mill in Wales) so it was quite an intense process. Some things turned out very different to how we thought- but that’s the joy of collaborating with other musicians . Now the tracks can exist in different forms – we like that.

Can you tell me where Haress is from? Somehow I picture a rural surroundings…are you inspired by nature at all?

Haress are from a town called Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire, right on the Welsh border: glorious countryside and a pretty remote little town, very much the rural setting you picture. We have lived here for nearly 14 years and then amazingly David and Chris have just moved here as well, which is great. Thomas currently lives in Zaragoza in Spain.

We’re totally inspired by nature, I’d say it was impossible to not be (living where we do) but nature has been a lifelong love.

Can you tell me how you make music together? When do you decide when a song is a song?

It’s usually the result of the interplay of our 2 guitars, often acoustic, often in the house, that then get shifted to electric at some point. Then we will try playing them live and this usually gives you a good idea if it’s ready yet. With the ‘big band’ version it’s usually an expansion of the 2 guitar parts – although while recording Ghosts there were full-on band collaborations from the ground up.

Can you tell me about the collaborations with other musicians on the album?

This record (like the first LP) has our friend Nathan Bell playing on it. We once put out a solo record of Nathan’s years ago ( https://lancashireandsomerset.bandcamp.com/album/nathan-bell-colors ) and have played shows and toured with him over the years. He played trumpet on stage with Black Octagon once and I guess that sowed the seeds for a future recording. This record he went an extra step and came up with this crazy throat singing part as well! Sounds amazing.

Dave (Smyth) plays drums so emotively for us, knowing when to hold back in the arrangement and when to bring the heavy weight!

Chris brings wizardry, expertly punctuating, creating texture and unexpected joys with guitar and Echoplex and unending knowledge.

Thomas‘ vocal happened remotely as well. We talk about it a bit but Tom sings on the tracks he chooses to. It brings a seismic dimensional shift to the band and the record.

What are your greatest inspirations for the lyrics?

Thomas: The music, and what I know of where it comes from. I wait for stories and images that I think fit the feeling and intention, and then I expand on those or chip away at them until they’re what they should be.

What is your goal for Haress?

I guess just keep doing it: more collaborations, play more places outside of the ’standard’ venue

Will you perform live, and when will you come visit me in the Netherlands 😉

We hope to perform live later in the year with the ‘Big Band’ and we would love to play in the Netherlands

What should the Weirdo Shrine reader do immediately after reading this interview?

Go outside

31 March 2022

Crows- Beware Believers (2022 Bad Vibrations Records)

“Broken things let the light in”, and “I know that everything hurts, but I know that everything can heal”. Just two phrases from the new album Beware Believers by London dark post punkers Crows that show that no matter how dark, dense, and pounding these tunes may sound, there is actual light shining through the cracks of these leather vests.

Make no mistake, Crows so far have been the big brutish brother of bands like Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital, but slightly more goth. They still are a bunch of eyeliner wearing Donny Darkos, but on their second outlet Crows they have not shied away from writing some killer hooks into their heavy post punk dirges. This time around there might be an extra spoon of Interpol-ish songwriting to add to their modern post punk raucous.

And then there is the light at the end of the tunnel that they have written into their angry bitter music. It’s this glimmer of hope in songs like Healing and Room 156 that makes it perfect post pandemic music. It’s music made in a long dark tunnel, but it finally sees a way out in the end.

Can’t wait to celebrate the end of the tunnel with them on a stage nearby soon…

26 January 2022

THANK- Thoughtless Cruelty (2022 Box Records)

Once again UK’s Box Records proves its worth as a trustworthy outlet for completely weird and unhinged music that defies old fashioned ideas like genre or style. Let’s welcome Leeds’ natives THANK, and thank them for their noisy presence and their gigantic sized balls making their own brand of noisy rock music the way only they do.

I mean starting your album stating THERE’S NEVER BEEN A GOOD BAND FROM LONDON takes some major guts. Or maybe a mental error of some kind. But probably both. It must be said THANK do sort of come back to their own words by stating there’s never been any good band at all, but still. Balls.

Musically the band creates a cacophonic hodgepodge of industrial beats, nerdy half-spoken/half-screeched vocals, heavy bass, heavier drums, and painfully distorted guitars. Somehow they make that sound a lot more appealing than the sum of its parts might seem. That is in large part due to their sympathetic presentation, their raucous humor, but even more to their terrific sense of songwriting. THANK writes some HOOKS, people. These sloganesque lyrics will worm their way straight from your earholes into your black heart.

Box Records have once again proven themselves finders of pearls among swine. They constantly mine the English backwaters for the cream of the crap of art rock. After Dorcha and Obey Cobra here is another one of those genre shakers that will thoroughly question your good taste and beliefs of what is right or wrong. You will THANK them very much later.

Hi guys, how have you been the past horror years?
Freddy (vocals/guitar): We have been biding our time, plotting.

How did you guys team up? What was the plan?
F: I met Lewis (guitar/synth) in our first week of university, and we’ve been playing in bands together for over a decade now. Most of our projects have been quite shortlived, but for some reason Thank seems to have stuck. The rest of the band are stragglers we’ve picked up along the way.

Can you explain why Thank sounds the way it sounds?
F: When we started Thank, I was listening to a lot of quite abstract and impenetrable noise rock like ‘Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men’ by Harvey Milk and ‘Sinews’ by White Suns. Around the same time, Lewis was getting really into techno, and was starting to put together his first “proper” analog synth setup. We decided we wanted to combine all that stuff, and I think we have mostly succeeded.

What happens when you write music?
F: It varies, but usually I write the first draft of a song by myself. Lewis kind of acts as quality control – he’s good at recognising the non-starters. The first draft usually has a lot of instrumentation figured out, with programmed drums and so on, but the other guys will always flesh out and adapt whatever parts I’ve written. I think the bassline is the most important element of most of our songs, and even though I tend to “write” those basslines, I think the twists and turnarounds Cameron (bass) adds are always integral. He is a clever man.

How do your lyrics take shape?
F: I don’t always stick to this, but something I try to keep in mind is that the first line of a song should be really funny. I think it’s good to open with a joke. Beyond that, I constantly write down fragments of thoughts in the Notes app on my phone, and I gradually pull them together into something intelligible. Some of the lines which ended up on this album have been floating around for 5 or 6 years, so it’s been nice to see them finally take shape.

What is Leeds like as a hideout for experimental music?
F: The music scene was the main reason I first moved to Leeds. It feels like there is more of a community than a lot of other cities I’ve visited, with more cross-pollination between different scenes. We used to rehearse at a place called CHUNK, and in particular the early days of CHUNK (around 2015/2016) had some amazing crossover between noise rock, grindcore, doom metal, post-punk, hip hop, harsh noise and all sorts.

What are your ultimate goals as a band?
F: To promote the Short King lifestyle.

What would you like our readers to do after this interview?
F: Pre-order the incredible debut album ‘Thoughtless Cruelty’ by Thank.

31 October 20211 November 2021

Jack Ellister- Lichtpyramide 2 Q&A (2021 Tonzonen Records)

Jack Ellister is a UK based musician who started out creating heavy early Pink Floyd inspired psych rock, but has turned to more experimental and contemplative audio explorations on his recent album Lichtpyramide (2020, Tonzonen Records). Now he is back with a second part of those kosmische kraut explorations, also released on German krautrock cult label Tonzonen.

What we hear here is some high quality synthesizer based experimentalism, ranging from the early German kraut wizards to Kraftwerk to even some more modern Radiohead-type beat mongering. It is altogether a rather introvert affair, forward moving, but quietly, like an astronaut slowly finding its way in zero gravity. It made me curious about the man behind these sounds. Luckily I found him willing to talk to Weirdo Shrine!

How have you been? How has life been as a musician in lockdown and afterwards?
Thanks, I’m fine. Life is good. I think my situation wasn’t very different than that of other musicians in Western Europe. Spending time at home, trying to do something useful. I’m glad we’re moving back to normal. Yesterday I went to a packed concert. I’m glad this is possible now, although at first it felt a little bit awkward to be sweating among people again.

Can you tell me your story? You are London-based, but you are from somewhere else, right? How did you end up making music in the UK?
I started making this type of music in the Netherlands. The conservatory in Arnhem has an amazing collection of classical percussion instruments in the cellar. Few people ever go there. Once discovered, I found it really inspiring. I would often be there to try the various, often home-made, instruments and record weird sounds. For shows with the psychedelic band that I had at that time I used to borrow metallophones, tubular bell sets and other sonic excitements from the classical department until they decided that it had to stop. They needed those instruments for their own students they said. I kept borrowing gongs for the performances and I bought myself a tubular bells set from a local orchestra. A pity I couldn’t take it to London when we moved here in 2014. It’s still standing in the woods near Apeldoorn in a shed that belongs to my mother-in-law.

In what way has your personal background played a role in the way your music sounds today?
Having lived in different countries for several years and knowing each culture a bit can help in becoming more open minded in general. Also there was a Denazifizierungsprogramm in Germany after WW2. In the 70s and 80s you had socially aware, slightly leftist children’s programs on TV that had a high educational value. I wouldn’t say TV promoted socialism as such, the establishment there was just as conservative as other countries in the West, but it definitely had those bits where other countries and cultures were portrayed from a non-imperialistic, equal point of view. In public libraries in Stuttgart I would find films by Werner Herzog, which led to listening to Popol Vuh and other kosmische music. The concept of a cosmic music would indicate an absence of national identification. I think it’s okay if people are proud of their origins, as long as it’s not for establishing a hierarchy. At the same time it’s easy to see how uniform mass culture often is. It’s important to at least try and offer an alternative.

Where did you pick up your fascination with psychedelic music? Who or what has been your greatest influence in that respect?
I was eight years old and borrowed the blue Beatles compilation album (1967-1970) on cassette from the local library. Discovering mid era Beatles as a young kid just defines your taste for a huge part. Next thing was Piper At The Gates Of Dawn when I was 9. An uncle bought me the cassette in Poland and Astronomy Domine blew my mind. Other 60s/70s bands followed but the craving for good acid rock clearly dominated.

Your earlier work was much more band-based and guitar oriented, how did it transform to its current form and will your sound ever return to more song based guitar structures with singing vocals?
It started as experiments. And because they lend themselves to unpressured free-wheeling they tend to be more fun to do. Combined with shifting listening habits it felt like the right thing to explore. Still feels that way, but I’ve noticed I try to find combinations nowadays that might work as an arrangement. Like parts in a song. Ideally when I complete the circle and be back to writing melodic songs, I’ll have an extended sound palette and a unique sonic signature to draw on.

Can you tell why you have moved your music from Fruits De Mer records to Tonzonen in Germany?
It’s not moved. I continue to work with both labels. Because the first Lichtpyramide album had a lot of German lyrics, I felt it would be a good idea to reach a German speaking audience.

Can you tell about your collaboration with Dave Schmidt aka Sula Bassana? How did that come about?
I incidentally met Dave when he was playing a secret show with Electric Moon in a small London venue, prior to a their main gig the next day in a way bigger place. For the first half hour of chatting we didn’t know who the other was. Of course at some point we realized. It was funny. We knew each others music so obviously we stayed in touch.
I like collaborations in general. So during lockdown I showed Dave some of my new material, and asked whether he wanted to contribute any sounds. He chose the ones he felt that would make most sense to add something.

Do you listen to contemporary music these days? Anything to recommend? What are you mostly listening to anyways when you are not making music?

I listen to Beethoven symphonies on repeat lately, but apart from that I like Prince Rama’s Shadow Temple and Architecture Of Utopia albums a lot. London based bands Soccer 96, Vanishing Twin and Snapped Ankles just released great albums. Russian duo Simple Symmetry have made a very interesting album recently, that I’m very impressed by, and I like their leftfield techno productions too. Gerald Donald’s Der Zyklus EPs are great. Klaus Schultze made some fantastic music, I especially like his Clara Mondschein album.

What are your future plans immediate and long term?
Immediate is actually releasing Lichtpyramide II and starting to play shows.
I’ll soon start compiling the third Lichtpyramide record and will see if I can get it a bit of song structure here and there to provide potential pattern recognition for the workoholics among our little grey cells.

What should our readers do immediately after this interview?
Same as me: The laundry and then go to see a live show.

11 October 20218 October 2021

Smote- Drommon (2021 Rocket Recordings)

Take a look at the carvings on the totem that eyes you in the face on the new Smote album Drommon. What is a drommon you say? Well, can’t you see it when it hits you in the face like a smote?! Now take a look at this totem overhere and realize that this is a drommon; it is a piece of ritualistic, savage, unrestrained art, and Smote have just created a perfect soundtrack for it.

The album consists of four pieces: the lengthy droners Drommon parts 1 and 2, and two shorter songs Hauberk and Poleyn squeezed in the middle. It is probably best to just take your daily dose of Drommon as a whole though, because it works best as a forty minute meditative mindfulness journey.

All along the trip the mind wanders through distant lands, sweaty jungle swamps, and dark rituals around blazing camp fires, but never through Newcastle or Northern England. And yet that’s where these master cinematic repetitioners stem from. It is a testament to their ever expanding imagination that their take on instrumental music offers such wild and exotic images nevertheless. Makes you in part want to be witness to a live ritual, and in another part to stay far away from it to keep on visualizing these sounds in your own mind. Like reading a good book and being harrowed by the idea of distortion in the movie version.

So onwards reader, don’t let my mental images taint yours while listening to Smote’s excellent instrumental mind movie. Go forth and create one of your own.

26 August 202123 August 2021

Obey Cobra- Oblong (2021 vinyl release, Box Records)

Box Records is a record label I got to know about through weird pop collective Dorcha (reviewed here on the blog) whose debut album Honey Badger was seriously weird and seriously awesome at the same time. Above anything else it was impossible to categorize, which a quality Weirdo Shrine is always looking out for. Lucky for me Box Records did not leave me hanging for too long, because their new signing Obey Cobra does the weird and unfathomable thing again (and then some!) on their terrific debut album Oblong.

Oblong starts off with the majestic OK Ultra, a song like the ouverture to a sinister space abduction opera. It’s got angelic choral vocals, heavy doom-laden riffs, noisy guitars, and a whole lot of of spacey atmosphere.

Next is Capita, a completely different world now, much noisier, chaotically produced, noisy racket song. Like The Mae Shi and Savages got into a horrific bloody catfight or something. Followed by Sunflowers, which sounds more 90s shoegaze oriented, and forms a nice breath catcher after all that violence. Obey Cobra displays an impressive feminine vocal palette, basically allover the place and still all in service of the atmosphere of the song whether it’s spooky background choirs or distorted yelling. The overall atmosphere is dark, and abrasive, yet exciting and adventurous, without a dull moment in sight for miles…

Sophia Can’t Walk is a song that picks up the pace a little, with an anxious contemporary postpunk feel fitting right in with bands like Dry Cleaning, Drahla, and the likes. There’s a brooding tension in this song that builds up and up and eventually erupts in a magnificent shout fest catharsis. You just got to love the level of emotion and guts that are poured into it.

Which goes for Oblong as a whole: this is an album that does not give two cents about being hip or trendy or how high you should wear your trousers at the moment. It’s completely self-centered in the best of ways. Whether playing dark shoegaze, noisy doom pop, or jumpy postpunk, this band is completely in a world of their own. Be glad you are invited in…

I had the pleasure to be able to fire a couple of questions at the band, which were fired back by the band’s lead singer K Wood. Check out the result right here:

How are you right now, and how have you been doing the past Corona period?
Hi Jasper, we are all doing fine, individually busy over summer but it’s good! The past year
and forever has been a strange time but in relation to the band especially due to having
released our debut album ‘Oblong’ in April 2020 – pretty fresh into the first lockdown and not being able to travel outside of your own house let alone gigging and having the opportunity to perform the album further afield. It blows my mind that our last gig was Dec 2019?! Thankfully we have had a huge amount of support from both Box Records, who has just released the album to vinyl, and local music heroes at Buzz Magazine, Cosmic Carnage and Adam Walton on BBC Radio Wales. And it gave us a chance to be creative in different ways where we’ve made our own music videos for a lot of the tracks on the album which you can find on our YouTube channel.

Can you tell me what Obey Cobra stands for, who you are, and why you started a
band?
We like to view Obey Cobra as a collective, it’s heavily influenced by blending art and music.
We’re not rooted in one thing and people involved can change. When we first started, myself (K Wood) and Rory joined Gareth & Steveo and were called ‘Oblong’ – we were interested in mixing doom with synth pop. We used to play a lot of house shows across Cardiff and it was mainly an improvisational band. When Obey Cobra was formed with the addition of Rosie and Ian we were already more clear on what the debut album was going to be like.

Can you tell me about your musical backgrounds?
Everyone is deep-rooted into the South Wales DIY music scene coming from bands such as
Made of Teeth, Boris a Bono, Inanna Meets the Dawn

Who would you consider your creative kindred spirits?
Hugely – I think most of us are driven by creativity in most that we do, we’re made up of film
makers, artists, music producers, and a blacksmith (?!) & it feels like we really elevate each
other.

Did you start Obey Cobra with a set plan on what it would be, or is it more fluid?
Also; who or what decides what the direction is going to be?
We all have a say in what direction it goes in but it is very fluid, everyone writes music or has
a role to play and we constantly try to push our boundaries through improvisation and
developing ideas until we have something solid. Most of us take on the bedroom producer
approach with structures or first draft ideas and then bring it to the band where we then
rework the songs to suit us as a whole.

What was the best experience you have had as a band so far, and what are you still
looking forward to?
We have a lot of fun in most things that we do but when we recorded ‘Oblong’ we got the bare bones down at Foel Studio in Mid-Wales in a really remote cottage and studio space which was really amazing. We then used Rory’s family house to record the rest over a few
days and it got really experimental and weird where we were recording beat up cymbals
being thrown down stairs and wonky saxophone solos!

What are you guys talking about when you are not making music?
We can talk about everything, we are all really close friends but we often like to be creative
together and share things that have inspired or interested us.

What are your dreams about?
Too many bizarre, nightmarish things! We are working on writing a psychedelic short horror
film that is based around our dreams which we will film and do the soundtrack to so hold
tight and you’ll be able to delve right in.

What should Weirdo Shrine readers do immediately after reading this?
Go float in the nearest natural body of water to you.

16 August 2021

Tibetan Miracle Seeds- Inca Missiles (2021 Fuzzed Up & Astromoon Records)

Tibetan Miracle Seeds are a new psychedelic rock band from Scotland, and the latest signing by upcoming UK psych record label Fuzzed Up & Astromoon Records. Their music leans heavily towards Anton Newcombe-ian psychedelica, so you better get your sitar and acoustic guitar ready before joining in with these soothing chants. There’s definitely some of that Brian Jonestown Massacre/Dandy Warhols fuzzy laziness going on here, but although Tibetan Miracle Seeds luckily also know how to write some ear worms for your brain to remember them by, they’ll never end up on top of the tops any time soon.

Which is fine by them probably, let them emanate their incense heavy fumes from the periphery for a while. Their special edition vinyl records are long since gone, so I guess they have found their tribe. You know, those people who just know what a Tibetan Miracle Seed is, even without ever Googling it. Or an Inca Missile for that matter…that’s exactly the kind of tribe that will put these miracle seeds in their pipe and smoke it until they melted all their wellies.

Personally I would have liked the album to be a bit more varied, and the highlights for me are therefore the songs where TMS really kick it off with some extra added grit where they almost land in stoner rock territory. A song like Melted Welly for instance does this terrifically. Otherwise Inca Missiles is a pretty cool debut album with a consistent sound, some real tunes, and killer artwork. Psychheads know what to do.

I asked main man, singer/songwriter and guitarist Jack McAfee to introduce his band, and this is what he had to say:

Hi guys, how have you been these past two years of ominous dread?
Busy writing and recording lots of music! It has been a weird time but also not having anything to do has been a good incentive to make music.

Can you tell us who you are, where you come from, and what you love most in the world?A humble goat farmer from Dundee, Scotland. I love my goats more than anything.

Can you explain “Tibetan Miracle Seeds” and “Inca Missiles”? I have pictures in my head, but I’m sure they don’t come close to the truth!
The pictures in your head are closer to the truth than anything I could ever tell you.

These are our absolute heroes in life and music:
George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Ken Kesey, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Noam Chomsky

If your lives depended on it, which record would you be able to agree on as a band as the holy grail in music?I
t’s not even my all time favourite record, but if aliens were to visit Earth and demanded we show them the greatest piece of music ever made, I’d give them The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.

How did you determine your sound as a band? Was it a conscious decision or a natural one? And how does decision making go in general for TMS?Really it’s determined by whatever bands and artists are currently being listened to. When you hear a song that makes you feel a certain way, and then asking the question, what is it about that song that made me love it so much, or moved me like it did? It could be a chord sequence, a particular instrument, the vocal performance, a cool riff – any element of the song that makes you feel something. Unexpected moments or changes really do something for me too.

What message would you like to convey as a band?
Save the bees.

What are your immediate- and future goals? What would be the ultimate achievement?Immediate – play a gig Future – go on tourUltimate – Make the greatest album of all time

What should the Weirdo Shrine readers do immediately after reading this?
Call your loved ones and tell them to listen to Tibetan Miracle Seeds. And read that book you’ve been meaning to read but haven’t made time for.

30 June 2021

The Holy Family- S/T review + Q&A (2021 Rocket Recordings)

The Holy Family is a new art music project by members of Guapo, and their debut album is a wonderful dreamy forest walk of adventurous freak folk chants and shamanistic mumblings wrapped in thick clouds of purple smoke. It is really beside any point to reference this work to other music, the point is more to take it in with your third eye opened up as wide as mentally possible and let the concept engulf you.

The term freak folk has been coined before, but never really justly. Just listen to this record and realize why. The album unfolds to the listener as some kind of strange magical realistic children’s book, with lots of colorful pictures and a completely different feel to each page. though its nature is narrative, how the story goes exactly remains completely up to the listener. The Holy Family has written a deep trip, but it is lighter than heavy trips usually are. It is a magical wonderland you can visit when you feel like, and be on your way again when you leave. It is a unique experience, and I just had to talk its mastermind David Smith. Here is what he had to say:

How have you been? How have you been keeping yourself in these troubled times?
FORTUNATE AND THANKFUL THAT I’VE BEEN ABLE TO KEEP A ROOF OVER MY HEAD FOR SURE AND COMPLETING THIS MONSTER OF A NEW RECORD HAS BEEN A MUCH NEEDED DISTRACTION AND HELPED KEEP ME SANE…..

My word, this new album of yours is an incredible album! So much happening, so many different styles and directions! Could you sketch me your band and own your musical background that would lead to such an album?

I THINK FOR PEOPLE THAT ARE FAMILIAR WITH MY WORK WITH GUAPO AND THE STARGAZER’S ASSISTANT YOU CAN PLOT A PATHWAY THROUGH THE STARS THAT LEADS TO THIS ALBUM.

Most of you guys were in the band Guapo, right? What made you start a new project, Guapo is already so genre-bending, why did you feel the need to start a new project for The Holy Family?
YES, THIS RECORD FEATURES THE LAST LINEUP OF GUAPO AND WE BEGAN RECORDINGS FOR THIS RECORD BACK IN 2018 STILL UNDER THAT NAME TO SOME EXTENT. GUAPO HAS ALWAYS CENTRED AROUND THE DRUM KIT AND ONE OR MORE MEMBERS OF THE GROUP WRITING THE MATERIAL AND THEN THE WHOLE GROUP REHEARSING INTENSIVELY PRIOR TO GOING INTO THE STUDIO. THE HOLY FAMILY ALBUM BEGAN AS A SERIES OF LENGTHY FULL GROUP IMPROVISATIONS THAT I THEN WORKED ON ALONE FOR THE MOST PART. ADDED TO THIS THE FACT THAT HAND PERCUSSION AND DRUM SYNTHESIZER’S TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER THE DRUM KIT AND THE USE OF VOCALS MADE IT QUITE A MAJOR SHIFT EVEN FOR US. 25 YEARS HAS BEEN A PRETTY GOOD INNINGS FOR GUAPO TOO SO IT’S EXCITING TO BE STARTING A NEW CHAPTER……

Did you have a plan or concept when you started The Holy Family? Like ground rules, or a common starting point, or perhaps even a story that you wanted to tell? The album feels very much like a story unfolding, that’s why I ask….
WELL, ONLY IN THE SENSE THAT WE HAD DECIDED TO START A NEW RECORDING PURELY THROUGH IMPROVISATION AND THAT IT WOULD NOT BE CENTERED AROUND THE DRUM KIT. (AT LEAST TO BEGIN WITH) WE WERE RECORDING LIVE IN THE SAME ROOM SO THIS NATURALLY LENT ITSELF MORE TOWARDS USING HAND PERCUSSION, ACOUSTIC GUITAR, ACOUSTIC PIANO ETC… THE “UNFOLDING STORY” AND SUBSEQUENT ARRANGEMENT OF THE MATERIAL CAME LATER BUT I’M GLAD IT COMES ACROSS THAT WAY TO YOU AS THAT WAS THE INTENTION.

What can you tell me about the lyrical concept?
IT’S AN INCREDIBLY PSYCHEDELIC MURDER MYSERY TALE!

What was your main inspiration for this album lyrically, and what was your inspiration musically?
THE LYRIC/STORYLINE IS VERY MUCH INSPIRED BY THE WRITINGS OF ANGELA CARTER, MOST NOTABLY HER REIMAGINING OF CLASSIC FAIRY TALES FROM HER COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES ‘THE BLOODY CHAMBER’. ALONG WITH DOROTHEA TANNING’S NOVEL, CHASM: A WEEKEND.
THE BANDS NAME IS TAKEN FROM ANGELA CARTERS LAST WORK – A TV DOCUMENTARY CALLED THE HOLY FAMILY ALBUM.
DELVING INTO THE WORLD OF DRUM SYNTHESIZER’S AND TAKING THE PLUNGE TO SING ON IT WERE THE KEY TO TURNING THIS RECORD AROUND AND INSPIRING ME TO FOCUS MUSICALLY.

Can you tell me about the recording process? It feels like you guys were recording during a trip in the woods, but I guess that wouldn’t have made for such an incredible sound haha…
THE INTIAL RECORDING SESSION WAS PRETTY MUCH LIKE THAT ACTUALLY EXCEPT WE WERE IN A HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY NOT RECORDING OUTDOORS IN THE WOODS. IT WAS WINTERTIME!
WE RECORDED SEVERAL HOURS OF IMPROVISATIONS OVER A WEEKEND THAT WERE THEN GRADUALLY HONED DOWN TO WHAT I THOUGHT WAS USABLE MATERIAL. I THEN BEGAN WORK ON AN INSTRUMENTAL ARRANGEMENT BUT OVER THE COURSE OF A COUPLE OF MONTHS IT JUST DID NOT COME TOGETHER SO I SHELVED IT FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR. DURING THIS PERIOD I BEGAN EXPERIMENTING WITH THE AFOREMENTIONED DRUM SYNTHESIZER’S FOR THE FIRST TIME AND WENT BACK TO THE RECORDINGS WITH THESE NEW TOYS. THIS INJECTED A FRESHNESS AND RENEWED ENTHUSIASM AND PUSHED ME INTO CREATING A LYRICAL THEME AND FROM THEN ON THE WHOLE RECORD CAME TOGETHER.

Would you say you are a “psychedelic” band? Can you explain why/why not?
VERY PSYCHEDELIC IN THE BROADEST FUTURE SOUND SENSE YES! AS OPPOSED TO A RETRO NOD TO 6O’S PSYCHEDELIA ETC…

Who are your kindred spirit(s)?
I HAVE NO IDEA! WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What are you going to do immediately after the pandemic is over, and what are your long-term goals?
HUG MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY A WHOLE BUNCH AND ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES…… FINGERS CROSSED WE’LL GET TO PERFORM AS THE HOLY FAMILY LIVE SOMETIME TOO! WILL IT EVER BE OVER THOUGH? WILL IT??!!!!!