Blood Ceremony - Live at Roadburn 2016

 Blood Ceremony - Live at Roadburn 2016 - Part 1

 

 Blood Ceremony - Live at Roadburn 2016 - Part 2

 

Formed in Toronto Canada in 2006, Blood Ceremony is one of the more interesting bands taking their cues from their musical forefathers. In the promotional material found on their Facebook page as well as on their profile on the Rise Above Records website, they describe themselves in this manner:
“Blood Ceremony’s distinct style of flute-tinged witch rock evolves from an infernal marriage of occult-inspired acid folk and vintage hard-rock riffing. After a mind-numbing study of hundreds of trashy witchcraft films, the group began to pour their energies into crafting songs, transforming their fascination for horror into a profane musical vision. ”
Taking their name from the 1973 Spanish/Italian Horror film “Ceremonia sangrienta” their lyrics (penned by founding member guitarist/composer Sean Kennedy) explore occult themes and reference folklore and occult film and fiction (he seems to be fond of Somerset Maugham’s character Oliver Haddo from his 1908 occult novel The Magician based on Maugham’s impressions from his brief acquaintance with occultist Aleister Crowley; penning not one, but two separate songs about him, The Magician, and Oliver Haddo, respectively). Originally conceived by Kennedy as an old school heavy rock band, things took on a more eclectic turn when flutist/organist Alia O’Brien joined the band. Originally invited to play flute on a couple of songs,  O’Brien joined full time as lead vocalist when their original singer left to go to India.
An accomplished instrumentalist, Alia O’Brien’s flute and Farfisa organ playing have fleshed out the sound transmogrifying it into an alchemical amalgam of such early 70’s rock icons as Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull and Uriah Heep. Although not a trained singer or front person, the statuesque Ms. O’Brien has really come into her own over the years and has developed her voice, look, and persona in a way that has brought much attention to the band. Make no mistake though, she is not just a pretty face and the success of the band relies not just on their image, but the evolving sound of the band.
Initially they were grouped in with the Doom Metal scene because of their heavy Sabbath influenced riffs, but they have so much more going on musically and their sound, although thematically consistent, is anything but stagnant. Like Sabbath, their riffs never stay in one place for long, and the avowed influence of both 60’s psychedelia and early English folk-rock acts such as Pentangle and Fairport Convention flesh out the sound to something of a proto-prog vibe or as Kennedy describes it “a folkier Sabbath”.
Since their debut in 2008 they have released four albums and one single, each unique unto itself. Their most recent offering, “Lord of Misrule” is probably the most diverse of the lot, with the inclusion of mellotron (Loreley) and some 60’s psych-pop tropes (Flower Phantoms) to accompany the usual heavy riffing and flute and organ flourishes. There is even a brief nod to The Pink Floyd’s 1967 psych-pop gem Lucifer Sam in the opening notes of the album’s lead rocker The Devil’s Widow, the lyrics of which deal with the forsaken fairy mistress of Tam Lin, as she pines for her lover after he was rescued from her enchanting clutches by his human sweetheart.  From: https://mannysbookofshadows.wordpress.com/2017/10/02/blood-ceremony-torontos-exponent-of-flute-tinged-witch-rock/ 

 

Imperial Drag - Japanese TV 1996

After the dissolution of Jellyfish, Roger Manning formed his new outfit, Imperial Drag, with lead singer/guitarist Eric Dover. Working with producer Brad Jones, the band released their self-titled debut in 1996 to the delight of Jellyfish fans.
The sound of Imperial Drag doesn't veer far from the power pop of Jellyfish, although it isn't nearly as orchestrated as that band's final effort Spilt Milk. Instead, the sound is more, loose and opts for a garage-rock feel. Dover is a quality vocalist who bears more than a faint resemblance to Cheap Trick's Robin Zander, particularly on "Crosseyed" and the playful "'Breakfast' By Tiger." The lyrics, on which Dover is a co-writer, are the clever stuff that fans had come to expect from Manning. Highlights include the opener, "Zodiac Sign," a lyrical send-up of all things New Age, and the tentative love song "Illuminate," on which Dover proves himself capable of handling a ballad as well as the rockers.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/imperial-drag-mw0000182847#review

Czart - Noc Zatracenia / Czule / Hologram

 Czart - Noc Zatracenia

 

Czart - Czule

 

 Czart - Hologram

 

1. Can you describe the local scene where you grew up, what bands and venues were important to you and can you share some of your greatest memories about these bands/places ? 

Paweł: My beginnings with music – including metal – go back to the late ’80s. As you know, that was a time when records arrived in Poland with a delay, and everything that reached us felt exciting and inspiring. From the age of 6, I would bang with wooden slats found in my father’s workshop on anything I could, especially on an empty tar barrel. In 1991, at the age of 14, I bought my first drum kit and immediately joined my brother’s and neighborhood friends’ band, which later transformed into Crusade.
It was an exciting time: we spent crazy hours in our family house rehearsal room, playing practically every day for at least 3–4 hours, honing skills and compositions. Soon the first concerts began, and in 1993 they culminated in our first 6-song demo Voyager, recorded in Gdynia’s Warrior Studio – the same place where Behemoth took their first steps. That release was a mix of everything that fascinated and inspired us in metal back then.
In 1994–95 we had material ready for a debut album, leaning toward technical, jazz-infused metal. For various reasons, it was never recorded, and the band dissolved. I kept playing in different line-ups and styles, and in 1996 I met Michał. Together with my brother and Michał, we played for several years as Lede, though we never released recordings from that period. Later came Nightcome, Poza Ciszą, Seledyn, and Nook. I think it’s one of many similar stories of bands and musicians of that time – and still today – a classic modus operandi of musicians.
The regional scene back then was strong. Bands existed in every small town, and there was positive rivalry everywhere. It was the time of zines, cassette trading, and flyers. Equipment was poor, concerts poorly amplified, but enthusiasm and passion always prevailed. Without a doubt, the global success of Vader – who came from our north-eastern region of Poland – had a big influence on that passion. They proved, and still prove today, that everything is possible if you want it, pursue it consistently, and work hard.
In the mid-2000s, I focused on professional and family ambitions outside music, though music remained a constant part of my life. Michał and I went separate ways for a while. I concentrated on Nook, with whom I was active for the next 10 years, recording one album The Stand in 2010. Interestingly, it was produced in the same studio by Ryszard Szmidt, the man who recorded Vader’s early demos that got them their first global contract and secured their place in metal history. Nook’s second album was recorded in 2018 but only released this year. Around 2017, my path crossed with Michał’s again, and since then we’ve been working together nonstop in Seledyn and, naturally… in CZART 

Michał: My music journey began in 1995 when I founded MUCUS with Darek. We recorded three demo tapes, the first one – But Still Alive… – received very positive reviews in zines and in Poland’s then-popular Thrash’em All magazine. Back then Darek played guitar, I did growl vocals, wrote lyrics, and programmed drums and bass using Fast Tracker. Guitar and vocals were recorded on a regular cassette deck, then sampled with a Sound Blaster card. All of this took place in my 3rd-floor apartment in the Północ housing estate in Suwałki.
At that time, the best death metal band in Suwałki was Paweł’s Crusade, who played technical death metal, did concerts, and recorded in a “professional” studio. Suwałki is a small town in north-eastern Poland, so there weren’t many bands, but many people played music. The ’90s were very inspiring. We watched MTV Headbanger’s Ball, and when I saw Vader’s Dark Age video there, hope appeared that music dreams could come true.

2. How did you come up with the band name Czart do you describe your musical style ? And can you tell us briefly the history of your band’s creation ?

Michał: I met Paweł in 1996, and we quickly started playing music together with a few breaks. After our death metal beginnings, we didn’t play metal for many years, leaning more toward post-rock. First as Lede, and then in 2001 we formed Seledyn together with Monika (vocals, Poza Ciszą), where we also create to this day. Later, our paths diverged for a while – Monika and I released the mini-album Zimy in 2008 as Seledyn, while Paweł played in Nook.
We are not professional musicians – we always combined music with day jobs. In 2017 we started playing together again as Seledyn and still do today.
Last year, I came across Julian Tuwim’s 1924 work Czary i czarty polskie oraz Wypisy czarnoksięskie (“Polish Spells and Devils, with Occult Excerpts”). That’s where the idea for a project named CZART came from. In 2023 I began using AI tools, and with their rapid development, we suddenly had the ability to create our own music videos. AI, from the beginning, sparked controversy as an unknown medium condemned by many. It reminded us of how unexplained phenomena used to be treated in the past.
In his book, Tuwim described how devils, though formless, could create bodies from air and earthly vapors and speak in an “artificial language.” This poetic idea inspired us to use modern AI tools in the creative process of both music and videos. Hence the band’s name. In Slavic beliefs, a czart is a demon of evil; in Christian beliefs, a devil. The unknown and unreal suddenly became visible and audible – and that’s how our vision was born. Our style is broadly defined metal.

3. Why did you want to play this genre ? Who or what inspires you to write songs. What bands have inspired you the most ?

The concept of Czart is rooted in medieval Polish demonology. It explores horror as a holistic phenomenon, developed both in music and imagery. The narrative draws from ancient beliefs that attributed misfortunes not to people, but to demonic forces – a way to rationalize human wrongdoings.
Death metal has always been one of our favorite genres. The most influential bands for us are Morbid Angel, Vader, Immolation, Death, Meshuggah, Cynic, Pestilence, Entombed, and Unleashed. From outside metal: Dead Can Dance, Swans, Autechre, and John Coltrane. We returned to metal with the same enthusiasm as when we were teenagers in the ’90s. You never outgrow that.

4. Can you tell us something about your upcoming new album “Czarty polskie” and your new video single “Noc zatracenia” ? Do you also have a story behind your album Title ?

Our debut album Czarty polskie will be released in October this year by the legendary Italian label Code666/Aural Music. It will feature 16 songs, each with its own wild music video. The album title was inspired by Tuwim’s work and also by our desire to highlight our Polish roots and identity.
At the same time, considering Poland’s turbulent history – including the loss of independence for 123 years due to partitions – the title also alludes to the “human demons” of conflict. Polish lands were divided between Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1772, 1793, and 1795, and Poland only regained independence in 1918. Many misfortunes stemmed from Poles fighting each other, so the title reflects those inner demons too, when people can’t cooperate but only quarrel.

5. Where are you most proud of what you have achieved with the band So far ?

We are most proud of the incredibly positive reception our work has received from people all over the world. There’s been a strong emotional interaction, especially from listeners of our generation. That is our biggest success. Of course, we were also thrilled when Emiliano from Code666/Aural Music reached out, offering collaboration and a record deal.

6. What is a Czart Show like ? What can somebody expect when they go to one of your concerts ? And  which places to play were important to you and why ?

We haven’t yet played a concert as Czart. There are only two of us so far, and we still need to complete the line-up to perform live – definitely with simultaneous projection of our videos. We very much hope to play concerts in the future.

7. What was your Weirdest show you’ve ever played and why ? feel free to mention more than one, and don’t hold back on the details ?

Paweł: There were quite a few, but those are experiences from Crusade and later. The ’90s were a strange time in Polish metal gig culture – lots of aggression between different metal “clans,” obligatory T-shirt line-up recitations (if you failed, your shirt could be confiscated, often ending with a punch in the face).
I remember once arriving in a town for a gig, looking for the venue. Our guitarist “Helmut” (greetings!) approached a group of local metalheads to ask where it was, but before he could open his mouth, he got punched straight in the face. Of course, apologies followed, but it was a very weird experience.
Another one was a big blues festival in Lithuania in the early 2000s. To step onto the big professional stage, you had to drink a glass of 70% moonshine and chase it with raw meat (a local delicacy) offered by the crew. Not sure if it was meant for stage fright or just for fun. But we had a great time. The whole event was even broadcast on Lithuanian national TV.

From: https://metalsinterviewsworldwide.wordpress.com/2025/09/04/interview-czart/ 

 

 

The Owl Service - She Moves Through the Fair

The Owl Service’s Always We Are Destroyed hits the shops this weekend; a wide-ranging compilation across two CDs comprising thirty-eight tracks and encompassing the entire extent of their history. The collective, helmed by Essex-based Steve Collins and subject to his vision, formed in the mid-2000s inspired by the triad of The Eighteenth Day Of May, Espers, and The Memory Band; this being the era of New Weird America, Arthur, when Green Man was still a folk festival.
While The Eighteenth Day Of May would blaze a bright but brief trail; the total extant recorded oeuvre fitting onto a double album (coincidentally reissued last week to mark their twentieth anniversary); The Owl Service has proved mightily prolific, and despite rumours and even declarations of their demise, flourish yet. From their beginning multi-instrumentalist Collins surrounded himself with a host of singular performers; among them singers Diana Collier and Nancy Wallace, and banjo-player and guitarist Jason Steel.
The project involved recording and releasing new and innovative, psychedelic-hued readings of traditional folk songs, and then presenting these in live settings. Three albums appeared over the decade to 2016; A Garland Of Song, The Pattern Beneath The Plough, and His Pride, No Spear, No Friend; but on top of them an awful lot of other material surfaced across labels like Hobby-Horse, Rif Mountain, Stone Tapes, and Static Caravan.
Always We Are Destroyed serves as both a very necessary and rewarding introduction and a useful reacquaintance, as Collins with fresh help-mates prepares to inaugurate a new phase of The Owl Service. The set is organised more or less chronologically beginning with two Collins’ originals ‘Wake the Vaulted Echo’ and ‘By the Setting of the Sun’; the latter extending across more than eight minutes of exemplary sonic exploration with disembodied vocal belatedly arriving. Likewise ‘Night Falls On Summer’s End’ – a co-write with Dom Cooper featuring the latter’s seemingly wordless vocals – seems imbued with soundtrack and effect redolent to the so-called ‘haunted generation’.
There are plenty of superlative voices too; Wallace with ‘Turpin Hero’, and Collier’s take on ‘Katie Cruel’. Mellow Candle’s Alison O’Donnell features on ‘The Wooden Coat’ and ‘William, and Earl Richard’s Daughter’. A splendid ‘The Banks of the Nile’ from Jo Lepine opens the second disc, followed by three tracks with brass arrangements from Magnus Dearness culminating in the marvellous ‘Willie O’Winsbury (Reprise)’ Cuts from His Pride, No Spear, No Friend then point to a time when Collins grew ‘tired of folk’ and so put together an album inspired by the post-rock of Shellac, Shipping News, and their ilk.
It was still folk songs though notably there were more covers from nearer-contemporary writers; Gwydion Pendderwen’s ‘Spring Strathspey’, ‘The Skater’ from Ken Saul (Stone Angel), Ken Jaquet’s ‘Sea Song’ (Caedmon). But it did seem The Owl Service’s final hurrah, at least until the back end of the pandemic when the Rise Up Rise Up tracks surfaced, from which comes the blistering ‘She Moves Through The Fair’. Then an Owl Service line-up played the 2023 Leigh Folk Festival, and within a year a steady flow of CD-Rs and digital material was turning up on Bandcamp.
With fresh voices Dorothy Chappell and Rebecca Leivers to the fore, and a Fruits de Mer single A Tribute To Sandy Denny gleaning valuable publicity, the ensemble has chalked up a series of low-key but well-received live appearances. The last half-dozen tracks here all come from the last twelve months, and include Chappell’s readings of Denny’s ‘The Sea’ and Anne Briggs ‘Time Has Come’ from the themed Will the Waters Hold My Burden. Leivers provides the reliably bloody ‘Long Lankin’ from Dead Hours Of The Night, Mike Sagar-Fenton’s ‘Stars’ as sung by Brenda Wootton, along with the previously unissued ‘Brigg Fair’.  From: https://nickbob.com/2026/05/30/the-owl-service-always-we-are-destroyed-hobby-horse-records/?fbclid=IwY2xjawTGisFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe9Fd3IH2UCZ7t9-fg0e-jqL52qtHbMlSl369JknhFdQBVhZJHdVjz7VY9E4A_aem_Y5aCafHOM_GeKbU8qXPlNg

Jeavestone - Human Games

Eclectic and strange. Amusing and fascinating. That's how I describe Human Games, the fourth album recorded by the Finnish band Jeavestone. Since their last album, the band has lost flautist Angelina Galactique, thus becoming a quartet of Jim Goldworth, Mikey Maniac, Tommy Glorioso and Kingo. Yes, these guys use weird, badass stage names; and I love it! Nevertheless, this is just the core part in a long list of participants, which counts 13 musicians (or groups of musicians) involved as guests. 
It is very difficult to label Jeavestone's music in a specific category. Throughout the album we find prog rock in a 70s style, plus pop, reggae, psychedelic, rap, space rock and post-rock. Basically you can love one song and hate the following one, but personally I had no troubles in finding something cool, interesting and peculiar in each of them. And that's why I really appreciate this band. In a modern progressive rock panorama, where many bands are trying to emulate music masterpieces of 40 years ago, it is a relief to know that some are still doing PROgressive Rock instead of REgressive Rock music. 
Coming back to Human Games, Jeavestone welcomes the listeners with Another, a calm and intimistic song, mostly dominated by piano and voice. This is just an opening track leading to Repiphany, one of the best fragments of the whole record. The vocal lines are stuck in my head and the music is also very interesting. On the podium we also find Human Games and Nuclear Superblast, impressive for the choice of sounds, effects and composition. 
However, I'd really like to draw your attention to Aurora Borealis Man, by far the most peculiar composition here. Indeed, we can spot four totally different but well interconnected styles, that are combined to create an amazing result. We begin with an interesting "progressive reggae" section, before breaking into a Finnish rap intrusion, thanks to the contribution of Dave Maijanen. This part might sound super strange for a non-Finnish listener who has listened to English lyrics through the whole album to this point (and also for Finnish listeners I dare to say). However, it's part of the peculiarity of the song and it is well connected with the rest of the track. In fact, this Finnish flow of words gently merges into the refrain, characterised by an interesting overlap of voices and melodies. 
But we're not done with Aurora Borealis Man! Rap becomes reggae and reggae finally dies into a series of calm and psychedelic sounds. This is the beginning of an awesome oneiric crescendo, which explodes into a powerful progressive rock ending, reminding me of King Crimson (or Steven Wilson). 
The album comes in a digipack made by Velvet Beat, depicting a psychedelic universe, with clouds towering over our planet. Lyrics (by Goldworth) are touching a range of topics such as social/human conditions, invented stories and ridiculous situations.  From: https://www.dprp.net/reviews/2016/069 

Luminous Orange - Das Experiment

When my colleague Ryotaro Aoki and I were putting together our Quit Your Band! zine back in 2013, we developed a deliberately over-elaborate rating system for album reviews, marking them as an X on an inverted triangle that included Black Sabbath at the top-left, Stereolab at the top-right and latecomer 90s grunge wannabes Bush at the bottom. The semi-serious idea was that all good music can be placed on a scale somewhere between the raw, idiotic rock racket of some idealised, imaginary Sabbaff and the poised intellectualism of some extreme parody of the ‘Lab (and with the subsidiary point that who cares what rubbish music sounds like). It was a silly idea and one that we had a lot of fun taking way too far, but analysing music within such an abstract, arbitrary framework was interesting in how it forced you to look at it in ways that wouldn’t necessarily be obvious.
The reason I bring this up here is because Luminous Orange sit like a sort of indie rock Schrödinger’s Cat simultaneously at both extremes of the “Sabbath Scale”, with Soar, Kiss the Moon the quantum box that holds them. On one hand, it’s all ba ba ba this and la la la that – everything in the most tasteful way possible – but on the other it’s all ear-shredding guitars tearing strips out of each other.
Obviously in terms of the sound itself, Luminous Orange have more in common with Stereolab. One reference point that insists its way to the fore is the combination of densely layered, distorted guitars and breezy jazz-pop of Stereolab circa Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements. There’s far less emphasis on Neu! pastiche extended motorik krautrock workouts on Soar, Kiss the Moon, though, with Luminous Orange instead bringing in an almost hardcore brutality to some parts that bring a far earthier kind of grit to the likes of Nightwalking. It’s not just in the guitars, which are nonetheless beautifully captured on record by Luminous Orange’s Rie Takeuchi and engineer/mixer Yui Kimijima (and this is not just one of the best albums of the year in terms of the songs: the production is very much an equal partner in its terrific-ness), but in the drums, which retain a power and energy even on relatively poppy tracks like the gorgeous Kissing the Moon.
Luminous Orange still have a reputation as a bit of a shoegaze band (or solo project, really), and their 2002 album Drop You Vivid Colours is perhaps still the best Japanese shoegaze album ever made, but they’ve mostly transcended that by this point. Those influences still inform an important part of their sound though, and especially on the blissed-out closing Slaughterhouse, with its wall of distorted guitars and Cocteau Twins-esque melody feels like a love letter from a teenage crush who has only grown more beautiful with the years.  From: https://clearandrefreshing.wordpress.com/tag/luminous-orange/

 

Los Lobos - Will the Wolf Survive

Ever since acclaimed Mexican-American rock band Los Lobos released “Will the Wolf Survive?” in 1984, various theories have abounded about the song’s meaning. Was it actually about a wolf, or about the challenges faced by the Mexican-American community (as the music video seemed to indicate), or just about people trying to make their way against the changes and storms of life in general? Written by Los Lobos members Louie Perez and David Hidalgo, and produced by T Bone Burnett, “Will the Wolf Survive?” didn’t exactly burn up the charts, but it became a classic that helped define the times of the MTV generation.
Perez, the band’s drummer-turned-guitarist and primary lyricist, gave American Songwriter the story behind the words via phone from his Southern California home. “The song really was inspired by the cover of a National Geographic magazine,” he recalled. “There was a picture of a wolf, and the title of the piece was, ‘How Can the Wolf Survive?’. When we started throwing the idea for the song around, David was walking around the room with an acoustic guitar, singing melodies or whatever, and he came up with sort of a skeletal version of the lyrics, a chorus I believe, and started a verse, and I ran the rest of the way with it.”
Perez talked about the significance of the final verse first. “If you look at the last verse of the song, it’s definitely about this movement that was happening around the U.S. then, being called ‘punk rock’ or the ‘new music’ movement or whatever. It was about a camaraderie that was going on among bands, like when a communal truck would get somebody to a gig and load out and take another band somewhere else. It was a community of young people who were no longer gonna follow the track that had been laid out by the record companies.”  From: https://americansongwriter.com/los-lobos-will-wolf-survive/

Lunatic Soul - Transition

The Lunatic Soul journey has been a fascinating one, starting out as a side-project by its creator, Mariusz Duda, and exploring a more minimalist approach to music in contrast to the heavier progressive-influenced metal of his day job as bassist and vocalist in the band Riverside.
However, the Lunatic Soul project seems to have taken on a life of its own with a further six albums, and the lines blurring between both bands as Lunatic Soul’s music evolved and adapted to Mariusz’ emotional and lyrical needs. At times it’s been the darkest of journeys,  exploring fragmenting relationships and the consequences of grief and bereavement, with the music becoming colder, shrouded in a cloud of industrial-tinged electronica.
And yet the music is always compelling, rich in texture and layering, with some of the best audio mixing results on offer to the discerning listener. As the music seeps out of your hi-fi speakers, it quietly and subtly envelopes the whole room, and draws the listener in – even more so on headphones. Mariusz and his sound team have been honing their craft with each successive album, and these results are on a par with the work of more familiar names like Steven Wilson and Bruce (Pineapple Thief) Soord.
However, Through Shaded Woods marks a nuanced departure for the Lunatic Soul project, edging away from the industrial darkness towards a brighter, more positive embrace of nature. The electronic instruments have been consigned to the darker recesses, and Mariusz has turned to more organic forms of sound, playing all the instruments himself.
To quote the promotional text on the Burning Shed website, “I think I have always wanted to create an album steeped in nature and woodlands. These bring to my mind freedom, breathing and a dance ritual of coming back to nature, so I wanted the album to include such ritualistic primal dances, and shamanic moods.“
The end result is one of his most fully realised works yet, brimming with ideas and details, but self-contained and focussed on taking the listener through the protagonist’s journey from shades of grey to shades of green. Even the artwork reflects this transition, with the familiar LS symbol against a stark background on the outer cover, while inside, we are greeted with paintings of woodlands and a celebration of nature, with one of the closing images being that of a figure on their knees, arms open and embracing freedom. A fitting motif to reflect Mariusz’ creative and emotional release with this album.  From: https://momentstransition.wordpress.com/2020/11/16/lunatic-soul-through-shaded-woods-2020/

The Joy Formidable - Farrago

The Concert Chronicles: This is your first North American tour in a couple years. What have you been up to during your break? What has that time off from international touring been like?

Ritzy: Definitely a bit strange because I think we knew we were going to have a bit of a hiatus because both Rhydian [Dafydd Davies] and I wanted to make our own records. But then our drummer left, so the gap away has been a little bit longer than we kind of expected… I kind of think that things just have a way of working out. You know, sometimes shit happens, and you’re like “Oh my gosh, I wasn’t expecting that, and then things have a funny way of just falling into place…maybe better than if you’d have just kept on doing the same thing even though you weren’t expecting it.”

The Concert Chronicles: I saw you announced recently that you got a new drummer. Will they be joining you on tour?

Ritzy: Well, we couldn’t get a visa in time for him, otherwise he would have. [But] Rhydian and I are good. We’ve had visas for lots of years now. And we’ve got some special guests joining us kind of in and out through the tour. Our drummer’s name is Dafyd, he’s from North Wales as well…the hope is he is in the system now, so we’ll just see how long it takes. It’s a shame that he can’t join us, but still excited for this set and still really enjoying this version of the show.

The Concert Chronicles: I read that it was more of a stripped-down set, and I noticed a lot of the shows are at more intimate venues this tour. Can you share about what the vibe will be like and maybe what fans can expect at the shows?

Ritzy: I think because we were aware that we’d been away for a little while — we kind of finished solo records and we started picking up our gear again and playing and trying things out, and we just felt really connected to the tracks in this way, and I don’t know why that is. I think sometimes you kind of feel stirred by, you know, what’s going on around you, what it is that you feel like you want to put out in the world… And there was just something about the rawness and the way that the songs feel, and the lyrics, and everything, you know, just having that space. And then we went and tested it in the UK to see if it was exciting. I think it was something really vulnerable about it, you know, when it is that stripped back, and it is just the two of you. So I think when you have that kind of a set and that kind of an intention, [It’s] just been an opportunity to pick venues that suit that kind of new sonic. And I think it was really important for us as well that some of the venues just are artist-friendly, that they’re cool, that people can have a nice night there, that we’re gonna have a good time, that may be a bit more independent…the value of the whole thing feeling right. That’s the drive behind it. 
I think we’re starved of conversation at the moment as well. You know, when you’ve been fucking in the studio for, like, the last 12 months. I felt so locked away; I’ve forgotten how to even converse with people, do you know what I mean? [I’ve just been] in the countryside with my dogs. So I’m really looking forward to having a conversation — that kind of connection is a lot more natural with this sort of a set than a full electric.

The Concert Chronicles: So what are you most looking forward to on this upcoming tour? Are there any cities you’re especially excited to return to, or visit?

Ritzy: I always look forward to the West Coast… I just like the drive, I like the vibes of all the cities — Portland, Seattle, San Fran, they’ve all got their own thing going on, LA, you know, they’ve always been highlights. And then we get to go to Chicago as well… between Lollapalooza and Riot Fest, we’ve had a lot of good memories in Chicago. And then that’s this leg, and we’re done, really then. They’re all, like I said, unique cities. Can I pick a favorite? I don’t know. No, probably not. I do love Portland, though. You guys have got good arcades as well. I always sneak off to the arcade when I’m in Portland, and then I’m really tired the next day.

The Concert Chronicles: It’s also been several years since you’ve released an album as The Joy Formidable. So, what has the band been up to, and can we expect a new album maybe soon?

Ritzy: So yeah, the last album, full-length, was Into the Blue, and then we’ve had a couple of EPs since then. We’ve been really busy on our music club still, so even though the live side has been a kind of quiet, the music club has still been quite vibrant, and that we started in 2019. So, there’s still been recordings. This year, actually, is the 15th anniversary of The Big Roar, which we’ll definitely do something around because I think we missed the 10-year anniversary, because we all forgot. We were like, fuck! It was like 2021, and we were like, oh shit! Totally missed it!
And then, I guess now with the new lineup, and you know, kind of getting back into things together, definitely, yeah, it’d be interesting to see where things go, I suppose. Especially because we’ve both written our own records, I should imagine that we’ve probably got quite a big appetite for writing for The Joy Formidable again now, now that we’ve had a little walk in our own separate parks, so yeah, so there’ll be new music at the end, yeah. Kind of more toward the end of the year.

The Concert Chronicles: And I saw on this tour you’ll be doing some of your Shy Western work as well.

Ritzy: Yeah, just a smattering. We experimented with a few different ways of doing things in the UK and it’s kind of like two sets, so with an interlude in the middle, and Shy Western is in a little bit of the first half, and then a little bit of the second half, same with Rhydian’s solo stuff and then it’s mostly Joy Formidable as well to be honest, but that feels better than fucking supporting ourselves to be honest, which seemed a bit indulgent. But yeah, it’s been a bit of a strange one for me. I don’t know how Rhydian feels about it because my record is not a fucking acoustic record. At one point, I was like, I don’t know if I want to play the songs like this, but I’ve settled into it now. I am feeling it, but it is a little bit different from what I’ve written. I suppose when you’ve done Joy Formidable for a lot of years, maybe you feel that you can kind of shift or change gears or, you know, switch between things. I think when you’ve written a first body of work, if it’s a bit perplexing that that’s maybe the first sharing of it is going to be, like on acoustic guitar when it’s on like a fucking dirty big bass. I’ve enjoyed the challenge, and it’ll be fun…my solo record has a book that comes with it, so I tend to just talk about that more than anything else to be honest.

The Concert Chronicles: Will that be available on tour, too?

Ritzy: Yeah, hopefully. I was really happy and grateful — I sold out at the first edition. I wasn’t expecting it, so then I had to kind of rally around and print more. I got them printed in Vegas, and they said that they couldn’t ship them in time, so I’ve literally had to phone everybody I fucking know in Vegas last night and beg somebody to go and pick them up for me. So, I got a friend of a friend who is gonna get gig tickets for life now or something just so that he can kind of meet our convoy that’s coming in from Utah. So yeah, so hopefully today, if everything aligns, I will have books on tour. It’s been a pain in the ass.

From: https://theconcertchronicles.com/2026/02/19/q-and-a-with-the-joy-formidable-ahead-of-their-acoustic-north-american-tour/ 

The Dukes of Stratosphear - Braniac's Daughter / You're My Drug

 The Dukes of Stratosphear - Braniac's Daughter

 

 The Dukes of Stratosphear - You're My Drug

 

Andy: “Right, well Brainiac is the character in the Superman comics, the evil genius with the green skin and the sort of lightbulb screwed in his head. He was like a Martian Lex Luther and I thought he's be a wonderful psychedelic subject to write about, and his potential daughter: I don't think he had one but if he had she would have been, well, colourful, mauve and purple.”
Andy: “ ‘Brainiacs Daughter’ was a conscious attempt to write as if McCartney had tried to come up with a track around the time of Sgt. Pepper or Yellow Submarine - 1967/68 - so all the ingredients were picked to sound like McCartney. Banana fingers piano, descending chord changes, falsetto vocals, nonsensical lyrics . . . it's got the lot! We tried to make a McCartney psychedelic soup. People thought it was the Bonzos by the time we'd finished it.” Dave: “Or Thunderclap Newman!”
Andy: “Here's the other DC Comics female character, after ‘That's Really Super, Supergirl’. Except she wasn't really an existing character at that time. Merely a psychedelic invention. Me stamping my foot on our spare bedroom floor sort of in time to a backward tambourine. How I ached as a kid to go to the bottle city of Kandor.”  From: http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_BrainiacsDaughter.html

Andy: “ ‘You're My Drug’ is meant to be a mixture of ‘Monterey’ by The Animals and ‘So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star’. Monterey is a favourite joke — I dunno what Californians thought of Eric Burdon. He was a Newcastle dwarf, a gnarled Geordie mystic! It was an XTC song, but it was too much like the Byrds; the chord change is so West Coast. So we thought let The Dukes do it like The Byrds!”  From: http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_YoureMyDrug.html 

 

Mama's Broke - Narrow Line

Folk duo Lisa Maria and Amy Lou Keeler, AKA Mama’s Broke, are talking live and direct from Canada via Zoom to Folk Radio ahead of their second album ‘Narrow Line’ (reviewed here and out 13th May on Free Dirt Records). Having been bowled over three years ago upon hearing their debut album ‘Count The Wicked,’ I jumped at the opportunity for a lengthy chat with these two artists, especially now that their new record is proving definitively that the musical talent evidenced in 2019 continues to evolve into something truly special today. But what kind of people are they going to be in the flesh? Can they really be as dark and brooding as those deep lyrical meditations suggest, or is there a lighter side to Mama’s Broke? Well, unsurprisingly, for people with such vital music pumping through their veins, they turned out to be equally engaging in conversation. Before I dived deeper into the music, however, I opened the chat with an enquiry about the worrying news that the band had been involved in a road collision back in December?

Amy Lou Keeler: Yeah, it wasn’t really a collision, but somebody collided into my van while it was parked.

Lisa Maria: Luckily, we weren’t in the vehicle, it was in the middle of the night, but we were able to hear it from inside the house.

ALK: Normally, I do sleep in my van when travelling, so the night before, I had slept in it, then that night I decided not to. Oh yeah, there was somebody looking out for me that day.

I have seen Mama’s Broke described as ‘folk without borders’…

ALK: I think that’s just because we have travelled around a lot and both of us really love traditional music from everywhere, so that bleeds into it. I’d say that 95% of our fans or people who listen to our music are people who have seen us at some show around the world, so it’s like a personable interactive thing.

What were both of your gateways into knowing, loving and playing traditional music?

LM: I think it’s something that’s always been with me. I was really fortunate to grow up being taken to a lot of different folk music and world music festivals as a kid. Just hearing music from a wide variety of backgrounds growing up so it’s just something that always intrigued me. As I got older and started finding what really jumped out at me, it would just send me down a rabbit hole because I would always want to know the source of where these musicians got their inspiration and going further and further back into the original source material, it would take me to music from all over the world. So, there was never a particular tipping point; it’s just always been with me.

ALK: My Dad’s a musician, he’s a guitar player, he’s like electric blues, so he grew up with Howlin’ Wolf and all that kind of shit in the fifties and sixties, so that’s what I grew up listening to. Also, being from Nova Scotia, it’s like very much fiddle music is around a lot; ceilidhs and stuff like that were happening a lot when I was growing up. But I wasn’t interested until much later in life; for me, the first time was a Ralph Stanley recording; I remember the exact moment I was like, “oh, that is what I am looking for.” It was super stripped-down; I think it was him and his banjo, and then there was some a cappella stuff like ‘O Death’ or whatever, that led me to Dock Boggs, and that led me to this whole Appalachian wormhole, and that led me back to British Isles stuff and balladry. Just like simplify, simplify, simplify, which is so interesting, like similar to what Lisa said it was let’s go to the very source, then go behind that and see what it’s all about.

And what about anything less detectable in your music DNA?

ALK: Oh yeah, all of it, as we say that it is all part and parcel of so many genres. I played in a psych-punk band when I was like twenty or whatever; Lisa’s played in a ton of shit…

LM: … yeah, a doom metal band…

ALK: So many of those scales; we were talking about doom metal recently; it’s so ballad based. Like so much of the same modal scales but just layered in different ways, spoken through a different medium.

LM: There can be a lot of crossovers for some of the messages for that kind of music lyrically, bringing it back to the kind of songs of protest; there’s a lot of crossovers there.

You seem very engaged with the idea of protest and topical subject matter in folk song; there’s still a place for that today, is there?

LM: I definitely feel there is a place for it, just like there always has been in a lot of folk music, but not even just restricted to the folk genre. I think it’s a very natural thing to be portrayed through music.

ALK: I think to value that is really important; the stuff that’s going to sell isn’t normally the most protesting, aggressive opinionated shit, you know? I think that people play it safe. With funding, you’re kind of like, “this is what I want to say,” but there are definitely a lot of funding bodies all over the world that are like, “let’s keep it mild, let’s play it safe, let’s not offend anybody” so I think that’s super unfortunate. It’s going to get out no matter what; it’s just a matter of who is going to hear it?

So, if you had a song idea, for example, about Putin, you wouldn’t stop yourselves from writing it?

ALK: I think with my own and our songwriting style, it wouldn’t be so obvious; we would just sneak it in, maybe allude to it. I think that a thing that I don’t really love is when things are super heavy-handed because I think it should be something that…

LM: …anyone from any part of the world would be able to relate to…

ALK: …sometimes it can be heavy-handed, and sometimes it’s not, I don’t know, there are no rules (laughs)

Watching and listening to you across two albums now and viewing a bit of online film footage etc., it seems to be that music flows out of you fairly naturally as if it were part of your DNA. Is that how it feels to you two?

ALK: Yeah, you know, probably yeah! For me, I have been singing since I could talk. So, it’s in there; it’s ingrained.

And how about lyric writing; is that a joint endeavor?

ALK: Yeah, it is; it’s become more and more of a joint endeavor over time. When we first got together…

LM: … we both brought a handful of songs…

ALK: …yeah, and Lisa already had a bunch of instrumental stuff, so for a while, Lisa was like the instrumental half, and I was the lyrical half, but over time, we started collaborating more and more on both, so the Venn diagram got closer and closer. We still have some songs that are all Lisa and some that are all me and then arranged together, but this record is a majority collaborative effort on all fronts.

Often doing interviews around an album release, artists have told me that it’s only then that they start to work out what the songs are about. I sense with you that you know what you want to say from an early stage?

LM: It can be a mix; I feel like sometimes lyrics will slightly evolve over time to mean a different thing, personally.

ALK: Yeah, exactly; I think they can take on a new meaning, especially when more people hear it; I mean, we’ve been playing these songs out for a little longer; some of them we’ve been playing longer than the recordings have existed. So, if somebody’s reaction is a certain way, then maybe that will make me think of it in a different way, because somebody’s like, “oh, this made me think about this struggle in my life” or whatever, and I’m like, well I hadn’t thought about it like that, cool. That’s just as valid as the idea I had when I started writing it.

On a song like ‘How It Ends’, it jumped out at me as being a very personal song (shrieks of laughter from ALK). Am I right then? Is that a personal song, and how do you feel in general about personal lyrical content?

ALK: That one is really particular because I think that most of them are more metaphorical, and that one is just, really straightforward, a break-up song. Err yeah… It’s very obvious. That was a really interesting thing for me to do because I started writing this song after a break-up, obviously, and I was like, “oh god, am I going to write a break-up song? This is so embarrassing; can’t I write something more metaphorical with imagery and something about the ocean?” I don’t know, but then I was like, “fuck it, I’m just going to do it.”

Was there any discussion between the two of you about whether you should do that, could there be any comeback etc.?

ALK: There’s always a discussion, always, you know, “Is this too cheesy?”

LM: Oh definitely, that song, in particular, took on a lot of different forms like its initial raw thing was more Carter Family style. Then I was trying to work out a mandolin part for it, and then we completely re-changed it. We probably had at least three or four different choruses before we settled on one, then it really morphed into like this old-time tune.

ALK: Yeah, it didn’t even have a chorus when I first wrote it and then I brought it to you and then we wrote the chorus together then totally re-arranged. There were so many different forms in how that one evolved.

LM: It wasn’t until we were in the studio, and it was kind of like an afterthought, that Amy was just, “huh, I wonder if I should see how a guitar would sound on this song?”

Well, thank you for your honesty there; I am feeling overall in listening to this new album that it is like a dark gothic lament for our times.

ALK: I feel like a few times in the studio, I was like, “this is pretty upbeat, this could have some summer hits”, but then we’re like, wait, no. 70% of this is like super fucking dark and intense. It’s funny because we’re both pretty silly people, really. So that’s a fair assessment, I’d say.

It doesn’t really just apply to this album either because the dark stuff (gallows, alcohol dependency etc.) were all featured heavily in your first album. I have to ask, do people find you quite hard work to be around? Are they always telling you to lighten up?

(Both laugh; fortunately)

LM: We’re both very silly; I think Amy could have a career as a comedian.

ALK: No, I’m like one of the friggin’ goofiest people around. I have actually acted in sitcoms; I love sitcoms. I think in every other aspect of life, I am the opposite… (Sarcastically) Yeah, we’re really hard work. We do have resting bitch faces; maybe it comes off that way (laughs).

From: https://klofmag.com/2022/05/mamas-broke-narrow-line-interview/ 

The Mighty Orchid King - Two Trees Tangled Together

Welcome to Pinedemonium, an abandoned pine plantation ruled over by an enlightened but occasionally hubristic mycelium 'king' and populated by the spirits of hunted living things it has consumed. Dig down in the dirt and meet the ghosts of Reynard The Fox, (staunch anti-imperialist), The Elm Tree (nature's trespasser) and The Orchid (the original tree-hugger). Like in John Milton’s capital of hell, the spirits who dwell here have lost their paradise: the common land. But their omnipotent foe is capitalism and its many agents, and their sin is trespass. 
The album forms the first volume of Mycelium Music, our attempt to create an entangled musical ecology, a universe of interconnected and flowing songs and stories modelled on the symbiosis of the forest. But as the pine demons imply on the track Symbiomedome, this is no pastoral idyll: 'we'll offer our hand but here be warned, you might find us macabre'. Sometimes the segues are smooth and flowing, sometimes they are jarring and strange. We want to take you on a musical journey as diverse and dizzying as the subject matter. 
The concept sprung forth as an act of escapism in the deepest depths of lockdown. Constantly reminded that humanity's innovations and inventions had outstripped the generosity of our living Earth, we ran to the woods for guidance. Suzanne Simard's pioneering research on cooperation between trees made us wonder what an 'ecology music' might sound like. After reading Merlin Sheldrake's 'Entangled Life' the idea of mycelium music became even more intoxicating: the possibilities of this subterranean network seemed to reach out across time and space. Anna Tsing's structural biomimicry in her wonderful 'The Mushroom at the End of the World' became the literary model for what we wanted to achieve: 
‘What follows is a riot of short chapters. I wanted them to be like the flushes of mushrooms that come up after a rain...they build an open-ended assemblage, not a logical machine; they gesture to the so-much-more out there. They tangle with and interrupt each other'. 
What we discovered as we tried to think like a mushroom or flow like the River Lea is that performing these roles freed us of our inhibitions. Recording Reynard's tale in the studio became a wild improvised summoning of some strange vulpine energy; the music took on a life of its own. In this way we hope our record heeds Amitav Ghosh's call for artists to tackle the 'crisis of imagination' in the face of climate breakdown. By restoring agency to the more-than-human perspectives in our stories we remind ourselves of what is at stake beyond just our own survival. So, as Reynard sings, let us 'unearth the magic' in the land.  From: https://themightyorchidking.bandcamp.com/album/mycelium-music-volume-i-pinedemonium-awakes  

Kalandra - I Am

Nothing goes together as well as the extreme heat of the summer and really depressive black metal, right? Or is that just me again? Well, anyway, it’s basically autumn and surely we can agree this is a season for romance and softness – the leaves are turning a lovely colour and slowly withering away in a cruel but beautiful reminder of our passing nature. Yet few things in this world would be as pretty were they not as fleeting.
This article isn’t about extreme metal, nor about any sort of metal, really, it’s about a Norwegian band called Kalandra who play a sort of Nordic folk – but not in the vein of Wardruna, it’s a band with a more modern tone and expressing a softer, more feminine touch.
Now, I’ll let you curse me out for a second as I’m once again breaking the rules and talking about a band with clean vocals. I just can’t stop myself from being a rebel, you know? Kalandra first came to my attention last year as they opened for Leprous, which led to me loving their debut release, The Line, and it being one of my most played albums of the year. The record may not be heavy in its sound but it sure hits hard. It can be morose but hopeful, romantic and tragic but mostly it’s reflective and hopeful.
That’s probably enough words about the band’s past and it’s time to speak about the upcoming release a bit, as the band are now coming out with their new album called A Frame of Mind, which will be released on the 13th of September on By Norse Music.
In a very interesting beginning of the album the clock is ticking in the background of “I Am,” a track that sets the mood of the album – it’s introspective, soft and alluring. Kalandra is a band that needs a strong vocalist, although don’t take “strong” to mean loud and harsh, but rather striking or prominent – and Katrine Stenbekk is just that. Her voice ranges from soothing and gentle to mighty when needed, yet the latter is used sparingly in A Frame of Mind.
The band’s music can come across as simplistic, but as most musicians will tell you, it’s the simple (but brilliant) songs that are hardest to write. After The Line and its good reception, the Norwegians definitely felt a bit of pressure to deliver another batch of catchy, captivating and meaningful songs, and the album’s lyricism deals with that partly as well – the pressure of having to deliver what people expect from you, and in a more overarching way, the pressure we all feel to adhere to the roles society has assigned to us or we’ve perhaps assigned to ourselves.
“Are You Ready?” is one of the album’s prereleased singles and one of the standout songs of the album, offering a bit more of a rockish vibe in the so-called instrumental choruses, before retreating and letting the vocals (which are noticeably doubled and thus offer an added layer of fullness) to take charge again. The production is overall very good and even the chaotic ending of the song makes a lot of sense in its assertively inquisitive nature, asking us all the question in the song’s title – are we ready?
The state of the world is – to put it mildly – not great. I think we collectively believe things were better about 20-30 years ago. Is this a joint delusion or is it a result of us being less aware of what’s actually going on in the world back then? Is it perhaps even true? A Frame of Mind’s next track, “The State of the World” brought these thoughts to my mind as Stenbekk sings, accompanied by a piano – the song’s positive message admittedly crosses just a bit into cringe territory for me, but let’s be frank, I am an incorrigibly cynical bastard. The song is still lovely and I find the ending especially powerful as Kalandra finishes the song with: Was there ever an age where it all made sense? / Or am I reminiscing about lost innocence?
While the record is balanced quite well and doesn’t have a massive drop-off in quality at any stage, I do think the first half is slightly stronger – the four-minute instrumental piece “Hytta” is also placed rather late in the album and would perhaps work better somewhere in the middle. Shaving off a minute or so also wouldn’t hurt.
Usually I’m a big proponent of folk(ier) bands singing in their native language, but with Kalandra there’s no awkwardness in English and, given their great lyricism, I possibly even prefer the songs to be understandable without having to translate them. However, the band does offer some linguistic variety and I’m still definitely happy about that – “Bardaginn” has lyrics in Icelandic and some heavier riffs that somehow paint a futuristic sonic landscape to me, while in “A Life Worth Living” I actually hear some proggy rhythms.
The album’s melancholy peaks in “Segla,” meanwhile, with its very soft acoustic guitar closing the song before the album finishes with the hopeful, “I Remember a Time.” A deeply humanistic song about hope, reconciliation and camaraderie is a great way to finish this album as it concludes the journey of self-reflection, an adventure seldom pleasant yet a rewarding and much needed experience, much like this album.  From: https://www.nocleansinging.com/2024/09/05/kalandra-a-frame-of-mind/