Primitive Ring - Fire And Brimstone

Luke Dumpert: What spurred you guys to start Primitive Ring?

Charles Moothart: It really started with a conversation between Bert [Hoover] and I. We both have spent a lot of time touring with a lot of bands. So, there were a few conversations he and I had where we were just kind of wanting to have a new collaborative experience. Sometimes you just need to kind of hit refresh on that creative energy. We talked about just getting together and jamming, and Jon [Modaff] has played drums with Bert a lot. Jon was also then playing drums with me, and so we'd all spent time playing music together. So it just made sense, like our worlds were kind of coming together, you know? 
At the time, Bert had a recording session booked with our friend Eric Bauer, who's an awesome engineer. They were just going to just do a garage home recording session, just a kind of “throw paint at the wall” kind of thing. Since he already had that booked, Bert was like, ‘let's just write a couple songs and do that.’ That's what ended up becoming our first two seven inches. So, it was kind of just a fortuitous moment where it just made sense. 

Luke: Your bio states ‘Rock and roll is in its essence a primal experience, and the name reflects that.’ Does the ‘Ring’ in your name represent unity within the band, to expand on that primal feel through your music?

Charles:  I'm glad you asked that, because, to me, I think that's the most fun thing about the name. You can kind of take any definition of the word “ring” and it works. There's the ring like we are all here together, then there's also the sound. There’s also the physical primitive ring, like, if you were to think of [it as] some archaic or lost vestige of the past or something. I think that it's a fun way to kind of pay homage to both what the band is as three people continuing the journey of rock and roll. We’re aware we're not reinventing the wheel, but we still take pride in what we do. We are all part of the primitive ring.

Luke: The album is described as a Genesis story, and I was wondering, do the lyrics tell a story in chronological order within the tracklist?

Charles: No— but there are moments, though, where I think that we are toying with that. Once “Fire and Brimstone" started coming together, it was pretty clear that it was going to be track one. Once we were working on it, we were like, ‘cool, let's tackle this as the opening song.” We were really trying to lean into a kind of a cinematic [feel]. Bert kept using the term ‘title,’ like if the record was a film– then this is the title sequence. That, in itself, felt like an explosive creativity moment of kind of being like, ‘this is the genesis of the record.’ This is us really trying to make ourselves known to the world, or whoever wants to listen and to people who are getting familiar with our music. Our singles were that as well, but this is us kind of trying to put some mistakes out there and be like “This is who we are, and we retain the right to go farther than this.”

Luke:  I’m glad you brought up “Fire and Brimstone.” The string arrangements on that song and “Golden" are awesome. I think they add to the song in such a unique way. How did you decide to bring those into the mix?

Charles:  With “Fire and Brimstone”, we were definitely in the demoing process. We used a Mellotron to get the sounds we knew we wanted there. And Lena, who plays strings on the record, she's just so talented in so many ways. She's a great musician, she has a great ear. She's also an incredible guitarist, so it's like she has a rock and roll mindset. She can do both things and take it on. We figured out a way to kind of tackle the idea in a way that actually makes sense for her instrument. 
With “Golden”, once we knew we were going to have strings and some keys on there, the idea came to us to have it end with those with the guests being part of the ending. I don't always like to reference the references we make, but there's definitely a Here Come the Warm Jets [by Brian Eno] kind of energy that I think we were trying to channel where it's the end of that record and the way it kind of fades away, then all of a sudden you're left with this beautiful line. Lena was just kind of freestyling. 

Luke:  Was the original release of “Golden In Your Eyes” more of a demo? 

Charles: Yeah, I really like the life that that song has had because when we went in to do the first session, we didn't really know what we're going to come out with. Like, in our heads, we were like, ‘Oh, if we have one single, or whatever this is a win.’ And then once we realized that we had three songs, it was like, ‘Okay, well, shit, if we could get four, that would be awesome.’ Bert had that basic melody for Golden, and I started kind of playing with it in my head a little bit and came up with a very basic vocal arrangement. 
It's funny because it was obviously the outlier of the three. Like the other three tracks were rocking, and this one was going to be mellow, which was fun too, because at a certain point it was just us three sitting there playing acoustic guitars. Jon is playing the 12 string on the seven inch recording. I was just kind of trying to lead the way that I heard it in my head with vocals and we just started layering it. But the real beauty of it was that after we'd made the song, we're like, “Oh, this is really cool.” 
It feels really rough around the edges on the seven inch. It essentially is a demo. Once we started playing it live, you know, realizing that it worked in this more up tempo, rocking [way] like The Velvet Underground, that it started to open up new approaches to that song. Then it kind of took on a life of its own. 
So it became a fun thing when we realized,  “Oh, this might be the only song that we re-record from our first four seven inches for the LP”, especially because it's the only one we felt like we really were starting to play differently. That song had a really fun little journey, [going] from being a little seedling to now just this fun rock song.

Luke: Your cover of “I've Been Waiting for You,” by Neil Young is fantastic. What led to the inclusion of the B side to “Luck”?

Charles:  That was one of those things where we had it in our heads that we wanted to do four seven inches in a year, and then make it the goal to make an LP out of all songs that were not on the seven inches. I don't remember where that decision was made, but we consciously made that choice at some point in time. I feel like, at least in our world. 
“I've Been Waiting for You” pretty early on was a song that was Bert’s idea to cover it, and I would have never thought to cover that song. We started playing, and we were like, ‘Oh, this is awesome.’ When we first played our first couple of shows, we didn't really have enough songs to play a show, so we needed something like a cover to bring into the mix. We fell in love with playing it pretty quickly. The first two seven inches were recorded in one session, and the second two seven inches were recorded in another session. We were writing a lot at the time and we sat down and set out a couple days at my rehearsal space to record what would be the next two seven inches and it was a no-brainer that “I've Been Waiting for You" would be one of those songs. 

From: https://www.occult-magazine.com/interviews/primitive-ring-charles-moothart-interview 

Joan Armatrading - Killing Time / Figure of Speech / Reach Out

Conversation has never really been my strong point. There was a time when I used to find myself doing interviews and hardly saying anything. I still find I have to make the effort sometimes now although it is becoming easier. I suppose that's why I write songs. They give you time to think. They can be more precise and say so much more than a hundred conversations sometimes. If the song's good.
So he's here and I'm here. I've got a new album out. Produced it myself. I'm proud of it. I've never really done that before. I've always had control over the album. Very much so. Even when I did the album with Steve Lillywhite I didn't go to him and say 'stamp your sound on these songs'. I went along with the songs sounding exactly how I wanted them and he produced them after that. That's how I do my demos. Always have done. I try to make them as polished as possible. I'll write the song on a guitar or a piano. Then I think about what instruments I want to play what on the song. That always works out very logically for me. It might not sound logical but it is for me. When I did Secret Secrets I worked everything out exactly. All the brass parts I did. I did some on a keyboard and I play a bit of saxophone so that was handy, I even worked out the drums on my Drumulator. Then I told the drummer exactly how I wanted him to play it. He's laughing at me now because I was miming playing the drums. I play the drums. That's how I mime playing the drums.
I'm not what you'd call a multi-instrumentalist though. I'm not a Mike Oldfield. I can get a tune out of most instruments. Yeah, a bit like Roy Castle. But really I'm a guitarist. A very good one. You know it's funny, I kind of realised that I was very good when I was doing the new album. I had this guy in to play on one track. I played all the other parts myself but I had this guy in and he's very good and I was showing him what I wanted him to play. Then I thought, 'hang on, if I can play it to show him the notes why don't I do it myself?' I suppose I've got a pretty distinctive style of playing now. I can play in quite a lot of styles but I'm best at my style. That's the one I'm most confident with.
I'm not really a piano player. I've played less and less over the years so I've sort of regressed. I only really use the piano for writing now — all in C. It's the same with the acoustic guitar now — I don't play that half as much as I used to. I really enjoy playing electrics now; for all of the new album I just used an Ibanez Roadstar — it's brilliant. Tell a lie I used a Strat once but that was only a tiny part. But the Ibanez has got a whammy bar so I can be like Van Halen! I can't play that really fast stuff like the Heavy Metal guys do — that widdly widdly stuff — But I really like it. I like Heavy Metal — some of it is really brilliant. I like what you might call older Heavy Metal too like Led Zeppelin. I've got a few of their albums. At the moment I haven't got any new Heavy Metal albums like Iron Maiden or anything but it's quite possible that one day I could go into a record shop and buy one. That's not what you'd imagine me to like. What would you imagine me to like? You see what I listen to and what I play aren't the same thing at all so you'll probably make a wrong assumption.
You don't like the new album. What are you here for if you don't like it? You think it's too heavy. When you say heavy do you mean heavy handed, clumsy or heavy as in rocky? I can see that you think it's rocky. I wrote the songs like that. If I'd have produced an album before it would sound like this one. I know there's a lot of distorted guitar on it. That's my Rockman. They're brilliant you know. They've got a new rack mounted one now. I've been trying to get hold of one really badly but there's a waiting list until the end of time and I just can't get my hands on one. No, not even with a name like Joan Armatrading.  From: https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/tale-of-a-trick/11007

Live - Selling the Drama / I Alone / Lightning Crashes / White, Discussion

Perhaps the largest signifiers of “post-grunge” are the influence of Nirvana and Alice in Chains on the vocals, along with similar touchstones from fellow Seattle prophets Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Eddie Vedder, and Chris Cornell, respectively. Each had a signature vocal style. One could say they’re inimitable, and yet, that didn’t stop a bevy of rock singers emulating their pierced, curdled tone.
Live’s Ed Kowalczyk was likely not attempting to mirror some of the genre’s forbearers by the time the band holed up with Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison to record Throwing Copper. But his crackling tenor absolutely evokes Layne Staley, cutting through deeper guitars and frenetic action like a buzzsaw. Kowalczyk has his own style, and his existential lyrics arrive from a different place than the original grunge scribes. Still, whether conscious or not, Kowalczyk’s vowel-forward cadence and tempered grit, especially on the gorgeous, anthemic single “I Alone” or the raging opening track “The Dam at Otter Creek” belongs to the lineage of grunge.
But beyond the vocals, Live imbued their harder sound with moments of sun-kissed beauty, the soft warmth often coming from Kowalczyk and Chad Taylor’s guitars. The iconic “Lightning Crashes” is the album’s most serene and sentimental moment, and the guitar tone that guides the song undoubtedly became an influential vehicle for post-grunge ballads. The tossing and turning of back-half cut “Pillar of Davidson” evokes a kind of heartland rock, albeit with more power and darkness baked within its open-hearted approach. Unlike Nirvana or Alice in Chains, Live sounded less indebted to the punk and metal of the ’80s. When they accelerate, it’s not to conjure a frenzy; it’s in service of a greater release.
This potent mixture of grunge’s vaguely-threatening energy with a softer, more accessible exterior is what makes up the post-grunge appeal. Jerry Harrison producing the album — his second for Live — helped root these songs on planet Earth while letting their anthemic sound soar off into sky. Toggling between a feedback-ridden, distorted presentation and clarity is a tough task, and by doing it so deftly, Harrison had his part in shaping an influential sound.
Together, artist and producer combine each puzzle piece flawlessly on the underrated “Iris,” which features a rollicking, tom-heavy drum beat from Chad Gracey, as well as a furious, aching performance from Kowalczyk. The song starts and stops, inhales and exhales. A serene bridge halts the song’s momentum, but when the band comes flooding back in at full force, it sounds like a completely different song.
Immediately following “Iris” is the miraculous “Lightning Crashes” — which we ranked as the 3rd greatest post-grunge track of all time. “Lightning Crashes” is deeply restrained until the song’s final minute, which turns its meditative sentimentality into cathartic desperation. The song has become a beloved document of the early post-grunge era, right up there with Bush’s similarly weepy “Glycerine,” and 30 years later, it hasn’t lost its evocative touch.
Many still associate “Lightning Crashes” with its heavily-syndicated music video, which features an old woman dying as a new mother gives birth. Kowalczyk explained that the video was more about the “transference of life,” but regardless of the band’s intention, there’s a tidal wave of emotion imbued into the visual, forcing the listener to really sit with the song’s gravity. With a slow-burning, honeyed guitar line and an emphatic performance from Kowalczyk, “Lightning Crashes” is both tied to the ’90s and timeless; its potency has yet to dissolve, and yet, when listening, you can’t help but place it in this fraught era of rock, mystifying and humongous and intimate all at once.
It’s not all crashing lightning, however — Throwing Copper is sequentially muddled, leading to the final track with pair of six-minute odysseys that rob the album of some energy. Still, Throwing Copper remains a triumph for Live and for the post-grunge genre they helped solidify.  From: https://consequence.net/2024/05/live-throwing-copper-review-post-grunge/

 

Lydia the Bard - Run

How long have you been singing?

Ah since I was a wee young thing. I idolized Taylor Swift when I was younger, it was a mild obsession. Taylor Swift would be played from my bedroom for hours on end, every album was completely memorised, and I dreamed of being just like her. Naturally, I grew up and my dreams and aspirations changed, but she was definitely a big influence in my early singing days. Following that, I moved on to idolise Lea Salonga and so the Musical Theatre obsession began. It kinda all spiraled from there! I went on to do theatre lessons and singing lessons, hoping to be just like them. To cut a long story short, I've been singing since I was around 8 years old with formal lessons from 12 years, but you're never too old to learn!
If you're interested in knowing about what formal training I have received, I started taking private singing lessons at 12 years old and proceeded to do a bunch of grades in Musical Theatre and pop singing. I went all the way up to my Grade 8, then beyond to take my ALCM Diploma in Musical Theatre Performance and Musical Theatre Teaching. I took these exams whilst I was training full time at D&B Academy of Performing Arts, where I continued my formal training and had the privilege to be taught by many different industry professionals. 

Where do you record?

I just recently invested in a recording booth with Kube Sound Isolation ltd! It's probably my biggest investment in my career and I love it! Saying that though, for the majority of my singing career I would record in a cupboard using clothing as soundproofing and I stand by that method as being very effective. I just moved house and was getting too self conscious about the neighbours so upgraded.

From: https://www.lydiathebard.com/faq 

 

The Golden Grass - Daytrotter Session 2017

The cool thing though is you don’t even need to dose to get into that far out headspace, the walls are undulating around you while the carpet is breathing underneath your feet and the colors are starting to take on tastes as the frenzy starts to creep up your spine… This is some far out stuff, man. There are a lot of bands out there right now that want to sound like they just fell out of the 70’s, but the truth is, most of them don’t succeed because that was another time and place, another headspace that most people can’t get into these days. Golden Grass on the other hand, have effortlessly traversed time back and forth, collecting bits and pieces of what they heard along the way to fashion a motley, yet almost divine, psychedelic Frankenstein of music encapsulated in the fuzzed out distortion, swirl of the organ and rumble of the bass. Heavy blues and garage rock are all the rage here, tasty riffs that will lodge themselves in the deepest parts of your brain, their lead singer floating above it all with tight vocal melodies and rhythms that hum and vibrate above the din of distorted noise and rock.
The band described their sound as “soulful boogie rock” and I wouldn’t disagree with that statement, but there’s a tasty driving energy behind it that propels the music from mid-tempo semi-psych blues rock into full-blown psychedelic territory while retaining all of the toe tapping, slow head nodding traits mentioned above; namely I think they might have listened to a good deal of Jimi Hendrix which always adds a bit of a driving force to something without nudging it out of place for genre.  From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2014/08/the-golden-grass-interview-with-ada.html

Jockstrap - Greatest Hits

London-based duo Jockstrap (Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye) released their debut album, I Love You Jennifer B, in September via Rough Trade. Now they have shared an amusing video for the album’s “Greatest Hits,” which centers on a court battle between two fictional aging music icons and features Ellery as a judge’s clerk. Aiden Zamiri directed the video. 
Zamiri had this to say in a press release: “I think Jockstrap are one of the most exciting bands in the world and I’m stoked we were able to make this video together. We wanted this to have a bit of a reflection on the time we live in now, whilst still having a sense of humor about it. Georgia and Taylor are geniuses, and I was so grateful to explore this mad story with them. We did our best to make it as legally accurate as possible (with a few artistic liberties) and this was possible thanks to Jean Lee, our barrister consultant who also played the judge.”
In a previous press release, the band collectively had this to say about the album: “I Love You Jennifer B is a collection of Jockstrap tracks that have been three years in the making. Everything on it is pretty singular sounding so we hope there is a track on there for everyone and something that speaks to you and says ‘I’m a banger.’”  From: https://www.undertheradarmag.com/news/jockstrap_share_amusing_and_judicial_video_for_greatest_hits/

Black Mountain - Horns Arising / FD'72

Your latest album, Destroyer, sounds great! It’s the heaviest sounding of all of your albums so far. Any specific factors that led to this increase in heaviness as opposed to being more folky-psychedelic on the previous albums?

Stephen: It would just be a combination of the chemistry of the people playing on the record – some new members. I guess a bit of the material, and we recorded a lot of songs so we just gravitated towards the heavier ones this time. It seemed like the heavier ones were a little bit more special than the folkier ones this time. A combination of humans, and machines, and electricity happening at once and a little bit heavier.

I also really enjoyed the video for “Licensed to Drive”! Great combination of Atari imagery and live action. Was the idea for the video your own concept?

Stephen: That was the director, Zev Deans, he I guess submitted for a video and I’m not really a fan of videos but I liked his idea and we did a bunch of green screen and I didn’t know what he was going to do and he sent me the first cut and I was like “oh wow, that’s great. I don’t even have any comments – it just looks cool.” Usually there is like… I don’t think anyone likes looking at themselves on screen… except maybe porn stars. (haha) Yeah, I don’t know. It was fun. It was easy. A bunch of our friends got to together and brought all the props in and everything. It was pretty painless. Which always was nice because sometimes it can be pretty painful with a camera in your face.

Adam: Yeah, it was definitely good energy all day.

Stephen, you just got a driver’s license, or I guess it was a few years ago now, but I’m really impressed that you have gone this long without a driver’s license.

Stephen: Yeah, that’s definitely true. I managed to live in Los Angeles for seven years without driving. Even pre-Uber and stuff. I had my bicycle and I would ride around. I finally got a kick in the butt to get my license. I had it before but I never actually tried driving. And then when I did start driving it opened up another portal to experiencing music that I had never experienced before. So, that was pretty cool. I spent many hours in vans riding shotgun, flipping tapes, and making playlists but it definitely like, and especially when you are driving alone, and just put on an album and yeah… that probably had a lot to do with the more heavy metal aspects of the album. I heard certain albums by Judas Priest or Slayer for the first time driving and it was pretty exhilarating. When you are making a playlist you just kind of go for the go-to numbers but there are all these deep-cuts that you sometimes forget about. And you can listen to the Wall in it’s entirety which is cool.

You staying out of trouble driving so far?

Stephen: Yeah, I got pulled over once but I didn’t get a ticket.

Speeding?

Stephen: Yeah, we were up in… somewhere in Northern California on a camping trip and it was that thing driving up into the mountains. It was funny because I had just said, “what is the speed limit? I don’t see a sign.” But he let me off the hook which was cool.

What’s your favorite food to eat while driving?

Stephen: I have eaten microwavable Kraft dinner while driving. Gotta be a little careful. Especially with microwave foods. It can get a little scalding.

So, you microwaved it and then hopped in the car?

Stephen: Well, it was in the RV so Jeremy (Schmidt) made me the little tour packet of Kraft dinner and set me up to drive. I mean, I think if I was driving when I was a teenager, I would have been a little bit more rambunctious behind the wheel. But now I’ve experienced good and bad drivers and watched their tricks and know what they are doing like people that drive with one knee. I’m like “okay, I’m not going to do that” and other ones that have two hands on the wheel. So, I don’t text or Tinder while I’m driving.

(haha) That’s good! You guys recorded 22 songs and picked out 8 of them for Destroyer. Will there be a Destroyer part 2?

Stephen: Well, we released one of those songs as a single about a month ago, “What’s Your Conquest”. We will probably work on some other ones or re-do some when the next album cycle starts.

Are you going to play any of those other songs in your live performance tonight or stick with what’s on the albums for the most part?

Stephen: For now, we are just going to stick with the… how many albums do we have now? Five?

Adam: Five.

Stephen: So, yeah, not to sound pompous but we are a band that is blessed with having a handful of good numbers. So, it’s nice to pull from each record and keep certain fans… it keeps the self-titled only fans happy and the people who have discovered us through the new record. The Spotifys and all that. Yeah, kinda like a ‘greatest hits’ each night.

How long will you guys be in Austin?

Stephen: We’ve been here for three days but are we leaving tomorrow?

Adam: Yeah, to drive to Nashville. A long-ass drive.

Stephen: I usually stay most of Psych Fest or Levitation but gotta get on the road and get that gas money.

Any bands you will be seeing tonight or that you saw last night?

Stephen: I saw Angel Olsen last night. I saw a bit of Power Trip. I might go check out Mercury Rev. Definitely see Stonefield and Kikagaku Moyo. We are playing with them tonight and we played with them in Switzerland.

Adam: I really wanted to catch Beak> tomorrow but we’ll be gone.

You guys seem to tour a lot. I know I’ve seen you in Austin as Black Mountain as well as Pink Mountaintops. Any crazy tour stories you’d be willing to share? Bonus points for drug references…

Stephen: I remember being on a tour where like… in probably 1999 we played in Austin, older band, and we played at the old Emo’s and we didn’t have anywhere to stay and we just parked the van and we had the windows down because it was so hot and I remember waking up to this hand reaching in trying to grab the garbage off the dash and we are like “hey!” and the hand didn’t flinch and I don’t know… A lot of the crazier ones are just a blur. We are pretty responsible now. Whenever we tour with Dead Meadow and stuff we get to live vicariously through their tour insanity.

You have toured with them quite a bit?

Stephen: Yeah, we toured Europe with them and the US a bunch of times and some of them were in Pink Mountaintops in some incarnations of that.

From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2019/11/black-mountain-interview.html

Bhopal's Flowers - 1221 Jasmin Street

Bhopal’s Flowers are a Montréal-based psychedelic pop band crafting a sound where 1960s-inspired melody, cinematic atmosphere and Indo-Persian textures meet. Led by Lionel Pezzano, Bhopal’s Flowers is the musical outcome of a singular journey through Indian music, Persian music, rock and country. Before founding the band, Pezzano explored these different traditions in depth; Bhopal’s Flowers brings them together into a sound that is both personal and vividly evocative. Running through the project is a constant spirit of discovery, that of true mystic explorers, moving freely between styles, landscapes and inner visions.
At the heart of the project is a distinctive guitar language built around 12-string textures, drones and melodic interplay, giving the band a shimmering, immersive identity. Rather than treating psychedelia as mere nostalgia, Bhopal’s Flowers approach it as a living, expressive form: colourful, mysterious, and emotionally direct. Their songs move between intimate reverie and widescreen intensity, combining rich arrangements with a strong sense of melody and atmosphere.
Based in Montréal, the band have steadily built their presence through live performance, recently touring with Kula Shaker and Levitation Room. That live experience has helped shape a sound that is both detailed on record and fully alive on stage.
Their forthcoming album, Poivre Rose, continues this journey with a collection of songs steeped in mysticism: a genuine psychedelic oriental western. Released in digital and digipack formats, the record captures Bhopal’s Flowers at their most confident and fully realised: a Montréal band with an outward-looking vision, rooted locally while reaching toward something far more expansive.  From: https://montrealguardian.com/montreal-music-bhopals-flowers/

 

Lo-Pan - Chichen Itza

For nearly seven years, my measuring stick for Small Stone debuts has been the first, self-titled Sasquatch album, and each new band that’s come along on the label (there have been plenty) since then, I’ve said, “Well, okay, but is it as good as the Sasquatch?” Listening to Lo-Pan’s Salvador – which, admittedly, is their third album following a self-titled and the excellent Sasquanaut which Small Stone re-released late last year – I might have to revise my comparison point. I was fortunate enough to hear rough mixes of Salvador back in December, and even as rough as those tracks were compared to the finished product I’m reviewing now, it was clear that the Columbus, Ohio band, the label, and anyone who would seek it out to listen, had something formidable on their hands. I don’t want to get lost in hyperbole or overestimate the appeal of the record, but Lo-Pan’s Salvador has all the makings of a classic in the genre.
The single-guitar four-piece present 11 tracks in just under 46 minutes, and nearly each one of them is perfectly memorable (I’m not counting “Intro,” though even the riff to that is catchy), varied in its approach and masterfully written. The guitars of Brian Fristoe are unrepentantly fuzzed out, and his riffs are heavy rock of the highest order, and Jeff Martin’s soulful, wonderfully melodic and inventive vocals cut through the thickness just right, followed by Skot Thompson’s running bass and the center-stage drums of J. Bartz. Having seen them live on more than one occasion, Lo-Pan is one of those bands where each element involved in the making of the songs just works so well, and on Salvador, not only are those elements working, but they’re working together. You can listen to any part of any song on this record and say, “That’s killer,” or you can listen to how the parts interact with each other and say the same thing. It comes down to this: if you’re not coming out of Salvador glad to have heard it, it’s your own fault.  From: https://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2011/02/15/lopanreview-2/

 

Tracy Bonham - Sharks Can't Sleep

Tracy Bonham was going through a period of intense personal growth when she wrote the songs for her debut album, The Burdens Of Being Upright. "Sharks Can't Sleep" is one of those songs. It's a look at how our animal instincts can compel us to do or feel things that might not feel right.
In a 2022 Songfacts interview with Bohman, she explained: "It was around that time when I was contemplating what it means to be in a relationship with someone else, but it was less about this ex-boyfriend and more about how people say they're in love and so close with someone one day, and then just turn their backs on them the next day, and that included myself, because I was looking at myself and past relationships and confused by the about-face. One day I could feel like I want to spend the rest of my life with this person, and then it seemingly felt like the next day I was moving on and I didn't have anything to do with that person. So it really felt like the Nature Channel. Like sharks, how do they sleep? How do they go to bed at night? That was the metaphor I was using."
One of her live favorites, Bonham performed this song on Lilith Fair when she toured with the festival in 1997 and 1998. She's classically trained on violin, which she plays on her big hit "Mother Mother," but on "Sharks Can't Sleep" she's on guitar.
The music video finds Bonham in an aquarium shop, and also within a tank in a SpongeBob-like world. It was directed by Phil Joanou, who did several videos for U2, including "One Tree Hill" and "All Because Of You."
In 2017, Bonham released a new version of this song with Tanya Donelly of Belly and Throwing Muses for Modern Burdens, an album that re-imagines the songs on The Burdens Of Being Upright.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/tracy-bonham/sharks-cant-sleep

Delta Shade - Fire

Hailing from the high desert, Delta Shade play hard rock with a fierce groove that provides the backbone to their soulful melodies. After starting in 2016 by members Chad Buchanan, Andrew Laich, and Travis Prine, the band quickly gained a sizable local following and became known for their lively, impassioned performances that meld a variety of music genres. Their songs are full of life’s turmoil and heartache, as well as rising above such dire experiences to make it out the other side. Delta Shade are constantly looking to the future and striving for progression, eager to avoid getting tied down to any particular genre. They released their first full-length album in 2017 and are currently working on their second album.  From: https://www.reverbnation.com/deltashade 

 

Hatis Noit - Illogical Lullaby (Matmos Edit)

Hatis Noit may seem like a new artist, but she’s not; Illogical Dance is giving her a global boost.  The artist first became known as a member of Mutyumu, and her solo debut Universal Quiet made a splash in Japan in 2014.  While the EP’s initial release in 2015 should have made her a public name, it remained an eastern secret.  Add a new cover and a striking video, and the results should be completely different.
While Hatis Noit explores the outer possibilities of the human voice, she concentrates on magical and lovely tones, avoiding the ugly or off-putting.  She whispers, but never screams; soars, but never wails.  If our ears could open in wonder, they would.  Her sonic precision is extended to the stereo mix; her use of channels is exquisite, creating an illusion of surround sound.
The artist is often described as “enigmatic,” thanks to a visual identity that experiments with gender expectations and a sound that borrows from ballet, theatre and world music.  Segments of “Illogical Lullaby” find antecedent in Dead Can Dance’s “The Host of Seraphim.”  The name Hatis Noit refers to the stem of the lotus, and as “The Lotus Eaters” was Dead Can Dance’s last recording before their first split, it’s easy to make the comparison.  Katie Gately is another relative, due in this instance not to the voice but to the approach of looping and layering.  Yet while the artist is not afraid to emulate, she follows her own path, folding in so many influences that she creates her own distinctive recipe.
While the lyrics are not in English ~ they in fact seem like a made-up language of onomatopoeic chant ~ the opening syllables of the album are phonetically similar to “crystalline,” which just happens to be the name of a track by Björk, another artist to whom the artist is compared.  And while her voice can be as low as that of a Tibetan throat singer or as high as that of an operatic diva, “crystalline” is a perfect description.  Is it any coincidence that Björk collaborators Matmos remixed “Illogical Lullaby” for this release?  The duo’s participation nudges this sound from experimental to electronic.  Astoundingly, the center of the original version sounds like an electronic production, awash in stutters, trills and spliced tones; but it’s all voice.  The biggest compliment to Hatis Noit is that she didn’t need to be remixed; the biggest compliment to Matmos is that their version is a worthy addition to the artist’s oeuvre.  (Note: as I typed “oeuvre,” my computer kept changing it to “Louvre” ~ and why not?)  After a crash of thunder, director Yoshiko Akita shows the artist singing in color.  Our perception has been altered.  From: https://acloserlisten.com/2018/03/22/hatis-noit-illogical-dance/

Todd Rundgren - I Saw The Light

Todd Rundgren was already showing signs of being a one-man musical army when he settled in to make his 1972 album Something/Anything? He had already gone through two bands by that time (Nazz and Runt). He had a habit of playing all the instruments on the records made by those outfits anyway.
With Something/Anything?, he dropped that pretense and released the album under his own name. Rundgren was so brimming with ideas that he decided to make it double. Three sides of the record are self-made studio creations, while the fourth consists of live, in-studio takes played with session musicians.
Todd Rundgren heard hit-single potential in “I Saw The Light”. That’s why he chose to put it at the start of side one, mimicking what he had witnessed Motown acts do for years by leading off with their hits. He was right about it being a hit, but he’d later show some regret for how he created it.
Todd Rundgren wrote “I Saw The Light” in about 15 minutes. He claimed that he was taking stimulants around that time so that he could work quicker, but that they also prevented him from stopping to take a breath to ponder what he was writing.
After the fact, he claimed that he wrote the song in such a rush that there wasn’t really any forethought behind it, nor did he have any kind of plan. As a result, he worried that the rhymes came out sounding a bit simplistic. While it made for a catchy tune, he was dismayed that there wasn’t more depth behind it.
We think that his assessments of “I Saw The Light” are a bit on the harsh side. The song is a proven classic that has stood the test of time. But Rundgren did make a career pivot from that point, as he started writing music and lyrics that were a tad more complex.  From: https://americansongwriter.com/beauty-in-simplicity-the-meaning-of-i-saw-the-light-by-todd-rundgren/

Grandma's Ashes - Cold Sun Again

In the intimacy of a trio format, Grandma’s Ashes paints a portrait of everyday Paris life overshadowed by violence and insensitivity. Purged through the raw energy of live rock, the three young women connect with their audience through an explosive show that challenges perceptions, embracing their own identity as alternative goth rock. In 2021 and 2023, they released an EP and then a debut album, where powerful riffs intertwine with a crystalline voice to deliver the ambivalent emotions of an intimate journey.
The Fates, their first EP infused with progressive and stoner influences, already revealed their eagerness to conquer the stage. Their love of heaviness was confirmed with This Too Shall Pass, their debut album warmly welcomed by the specialized press and performed in hundreds of venues across France, and major festivals such as Hellfest, Motocultor, and Les Francofolies, as well as clubs in Spain. Their universe, steeped in mythological and artistic references, has come to life in carefully crafted artwork and narrative-driven music videos. The poetry of their lyrics also carries the feminist and eco-anxious voice of a generation plagued by doubt, raising the alarm on the rapid decline of both our rights and our environment.
In 2025, Grandma’s Ashes are set to keep explore their thirst of experimentation and freedom with their second album, Bruxism, to be released on label Verycords on October 24, 2025. The record unveils compositions rooted in new wave and grunge, fueled by the stage and by a need to push their fierce, engaged message ever further.
Cold Sun Again is the second single from their upcoming album Bruxism, out October 24 on Verycords. The track is a metaphor for chronic depression. It reflects the apathy that arises from the loss of pleasant and comforting sensations, even in the summer. “We wanted to capture the contrast between an environment conducive to joy and well-being, and a state of mind haunted by a recurring negative presence,” the band explains. Depression is personified as an old friend, knocking at the door, welcomed in because it visits so often, yet always without warning. “We evoke an almost benevolent weariness toward this ‘entity’ we continue to live and move forward with, one that comes and goes freely through our daily lives,” adds the trio. The video, once again directed by the talented Julien Metternich, perfectly illustrates this metaphor.  From: https://doomed-nation.com/french-alternative-goth-rock-band-grandmas-ashes-reveals-new-single-cold-sun-again-from-upcoming-album-bruxism/

Hey Geronimo - Carbon Affair

A quirky little song called 'Carbon Affair' first hit my eardrums back in 2012. Unsurprisingly, it came from yet another burgeoning band from Brisbane's booming music scene who called themselves Hey Geronimo. After a string of singles and EPs over the past four years, the collective have had a chance to finalise their line-up and refine their sound - and are now ready to present their debut album 'Crashing Into The Sun'.
The long wait has been well worth it. From start to finish, this is an exceptional album, without an iota of mediocrity to be found. With influences including The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Weezer, Hey Geronimo benefit from a wide and varied style; listening through the LP, no one could accuse them of being easily categorisable. It's a little indie pop, it's a little retro, but it's a lot of fun.
If you happen to be familiar with Hey Geronimo's work, there's a few familiar tunes scattered throughout. The intro track with a western twist 'Millions Of Miles' transitions seamlessly into the bold and boisterous 'Lazer Gun Show', an undeniably righteous way to kick off the album. Moving on to the title track, you'll be struck by a summery retro tune with a surprisingly cheerful kick for a song about earth crashing into the sun.
Latest single 'Boredom' has a somewhat different flavour to that of the rest of the album, being a little rockier and slower-paced, really giving you the feeling you're moving through molasses while you're listening to it. 'Bermuda' takes us on an underwater trip with a sleepy laid-back pop feel.
'The Girl Who Likes Me' is about as much fun as you can have in three minutes and eight seconds, a bright and bubbly 60s sound modernised with a little electronic fuzz. The earworm 'Bake A Cake' is a slice of deliciously upbeat schoolyard pop that will definitely have you going back for a second helping.
“From start to finish, this is an exceptional album, without an iota of mediocrity to be found.”
The aforementioned 'Carbon Affair' appears toward the end of the album, just before the pure electro-pop party track 'Finale' - and yet, despite the name, it doesn't wrap up the album; instead, we're left with 'Garble Arch' to bring things to their conclusion.
'Crashing Into The Sun' is an extremely solid debut album. Sure, they might have had the past four years to plot its production, but nobody's likely to hold that against the band. This is an incredibly well-crafted and clever offering, with catchy tunes and well-crafted lyrics. Let's just hope it's not another four-year wait for another album this good from Hey Geronimo.  From: https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-hey-geronimo-heating-things-up-with-their-debut-album

The Lucid Furs - Oxide Sessions 2023

Melodic Mag: Hey Karen, how’s the beach!?


Karen O’Connor: Cold! But it’s a nice break from the road.

Melodic Mag: I bet! Thanks for sharing your break with us. For those in our audience who don’t know, tell us a bit about the Lucid Furs.


Karen O’Connor: We like to describe ourselves as Detroit Freak Rock because we think our sound is reminiscent of Detroit, but not necessarily the genres that are mostly there. It’s a culmination of everything we grew up listening to.

Melodic Mag: Would it be correct to say that you’ve a strong 70s rock influence? Who are your influences?
Karen O’Connor: Heart. I get compared to Janis Joplin a lot too, but I didn’t listen to her as much and don’t seek out that comparison.

Melodic Mag: How would you describe your approach to your singing style?
Karen O’Connor: I grew up listening to those artists, then R&B on the radio, and then I listened to a lot of punk in high school. I resonated with that angst.

Melodic Mag: What can your audience expect from a Lucid Furs show?


Karen O’Connor: We have our own little thing, some stage banter that we do. We just bullshit with each other on stage the same that we would in the rehearsal room or in the van, really. We tried being scripted, but it doesn’t work for us. We mostly get as much music in there as possible, and we talk shit to each other between songs until Dan starts in with the drums and then we’re off again.

Melodic Mag: Tell us about the singles you released in the lead up to the new album.


Karen O’Connor:  We released three singles from the album; “Pull the String”, “Another Page”, and “Five Finger Disco”. “Pull the String” is on the heavy rock side, “Another Page” is very bluesy and chilled out for us. “Five-Finger Disco” is the funkiest song we’ve ever done. We try not to be formulated. The singles are like a sample platter. We did music videos for all three singles, and Five Finger Disco is my favorite right now. A nerdy rapper named Brian who I’ve been making t-shirts for for years did the video. I told him it was my turn to be his customer for a change, and it came out really cool. For those in the [Detroit] scene, there will be a bunch of familiar faces.

Melodic Mag: You’ve recently released your third album, Damn! That was Easy. Was it, in fact, easy?


Karen O’Connor: Very easy to write, not easy to put out. We were ready to release it in 2020, but there was no real way to release it except on the internet. We sell most of our records on the road, so we sat on it for a minute which worked out because we ended up getting label support from Argonauta Records. They took care of our vinyl, got us on some publications, and we ended up on some charts because of their efforts and connections. I’m glad we sat on it.

Melodic Mag: Did COVID have a big impact on this project in other ways?


Karen O’Connor: We had to cancel a Southwest US and Canadian tour. We didn’t see each other for a couple months at first. Some of us work in the food industry, and that’s risky. We met up outside during summer and practiced acoustic. It was actually good for us to have time to write and create while there weren’t any shows. We had to figure out how to record some things ourselves, which is a skill that we’re happy to have.

Melodic Mag: Tell us about lyrical themes on the album.


Karen O’Connor: Sassy…Sarcasm…I don’t do much story writing. My songs will often be about multiple things. I go with what sticks with me and feels like it flows as opposed to what tells a story.
In a song on the album called “Follow Me”, the lyrics are just things that a woman yelled at me at a pub once. She thought I was her husband’s mistress. Weird situations like that stick with me. I just remember what people say. “Straight to My Head” is about quitting my job at the print shop I worked at before opening my own business. The boss’s perspective versus my perspective. So yeah.

Melodic Mag: You don’t see sarcasm in American music much. What do you think the audience will take away from your lyrical themes?


Karen O’Connor: Hopefully nightmares. That’s the kind of strong impact I’d like to have. I’d like to be the monster under every listener’s bed.

Melodic Mag: Are there any musical themes that follow from your previous albums or are unique to this one?


Karen O’Connor: Gordy’s signature solo. That’s his thing. He gets one Santana-esque solo per album. Dan has always used claves, marracas, and other percussion on our albums. But on this album, every track is beefed up with bongos. We were missing someone in the studio on a day that we were paying for the studio time, so we threw some bongos in there and they ended up complimenting everything really well. There’s more bongos on the album than actual drum set.

From: https://www.melodicmag.com/interviews/the-lucid-furs-karen-oconnor-talks-beach-banter-and-being-the-band-of-your-nightmares/

Alice Cooper - Love It To Death - Side 1

01 - Caught In A Dream
02 - I'm Eighteen
03 - Long Way To Go
04 - Is It My Body
05 - Black Juju

'Love It To Death' is the album that nearly didn't happen. After two flop albums no one was to eager to throw more money behind what they assumed, with some justification, would be a non-starter. Shep and the band, however, weren't about to give up. Shep managed to convince Warner Brothers to pay for the recording of four new demos with a hot shot new producer he'd found from Canada called Bob Ezrin. 
Shep and the band realised that to take the next step they needed a proper producer and after a little searching they decided on Jack Richardson of Nimbus 9 Productions in Toronto, renowned at the time for his work with Canadian act 'The Guess Who'. Contact was made but Richardson simply wasn't that interested. To shut them up he sent his new boy Ezrin down to check out the band and get rid of them. It didn't work out that way. In September Ezrin flew down to New York to see the band at Max's Kansas City and saw something in the band he thought had value. He returned to Toronto to convinced his boss they were worth recording. Richardson, still not convinced, said "if you think their so great YOU record them!" and shortly after Ezrin moved in with the band at their Pontiac base to start two months of writing and rehearsing for what would become 'Love It To Death'. 
By November Billboard reported the band were recording at RCA Studios in Chicago. In 'Me, Alice' Alice recalls they recorded four songs (he names 'I'm Eighteen', 'Is It My Body', 'You Drive Me Nervous' and 'Sun Arise') as demos to show Warners what they had. It does the trick and the band get the go-ahead to finish the album.
'I'm Eighteen', originally called 'I Wish I was Eighteen Again', was released as a single around the first week of February 1970 and had been slowly climbing the charts for a while before the full album was released. The single was an edited version of the original bluesy jam the band had been playing for a few months. Bob Ezrin, who on first hearing the song had originally thought the song was called 'I'm Edgy', had cut the original down to three minutes and tightened up the arrangement to produce the bands first solid hit record.
Alice Cooper shows had always been theatrical. Even back in the Phoenix days as the Spiders the band used anything they could find on stage and very early shots of them at the VIP have a guillotine visible in the background. However the 'Love It To Death' tour was where all the parts really came together. For a start Alice played the 'Alice Cooper' character throughout the show, rarely speaking to the crowd between songs and if he did he avoided the standard 'clap your hands', 'Hello Chicago' banter with the crowd. But more then that they now had the snake, the nurse (played by Neal's sister and Dennis girlfriend Cindy Smith) and, for 'Black Juju', an electric chair smoke effects and lights that flashed as Alice was executed for the crimes commited through the show. This was a big deal at the time when almost all bands just walked on stage in jeans and t-shirts.
The shows including only one song from the first two albums, 'Return Of The Spiders', and that was the encore. Everything else was jettisoned for the new record. That too was gone by the next tour. 'Love It To Death' was almost a fresh start. The band knew that with Ezrin that had found the final part f the puzzle and didn't look back.  From: https://www.sickthingsuk.co.uk/01-discography/03-love-it-to-death.php

 

Magic Castles - White Stone

Minneapolis neo-psychedelic quintet Magic Castles threaten to topple their own ramparts with a deluge of effect-laden, garage-toned acid jams on their sophomore release Sky Sounds. A mix of melodic, '60s-inspired pop melodies and droning, spaced-out grooves, Sky Sounds expands on the menu proposed by their 2012 self-titled debut, this time piling on the color almost to the point of oversaturation. From the tape-echo wash and backward guitar of the standout opener "Trembling Hands" to the interplanetary shake of the eight-minute "Mole People," the band stays in character, mining the pillboxes of early Pink Floyd and 13th Floor Elevators with the necessary savvy and free spirit. Replicating a sound built on boundary-pushing experimentation from almost half a century ago is no accident and Magic Castles are astute pupils of the original psychedelic era. In that regard, it's hard to find anything particularly new here. Echoes of any number of classic bands from Hawkwind's dirgelike chug to the Grateful Dead's freewheeling mysticism all pass through Magic Castles' gates without giving much of an indication as to who they themselves really are aside from being hardcore record collectors. It's not that they don't play this music well; "Dragonfly" and "Silent" are pleasing, tuneful songs that deftly weave together classic psych spirit with the more self-aware aspects of the contemporary neo-psych scene. The richly realized "Rebecca's World" is probably the album's brightest moment with its elegantly crafted harmonies and epic midtempo Mellotron and guitar jangle played to near perfection.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/sky-sounds-mw0002758666#review 

Sound of Smoke - Dancing Like Smoke

A magic mix of heavy and soft, occult and misty, paired with an intense live show, will take you on a trip deep into the land of spirit, wilderness and joy. Since 2016 Sound Of Smoke from Freiburg, Germany, have been playing their own version of “stoner blues”. With her deep and warm soul-voice Isabelle Bapté forms the distinctive and individual sound of the band.
The band consists of Isabelle Bapté (vocals, keys), Jens Stöver (guitar), Florian Kiefer (bass), Johannes Braunstein (drums).

Are you excited to release ‘Tales’?

Florian Kiefer: We are more than happy to finally expose this record to the public. It was a long process, the actual recording was already in 2019 and so now we are very excited to release this album after such a long process of mixing, mastering and manufacturing.

How long did you work on the album?

As mentioned the actual recording sessions took place at the end of 2019. The studio work including the recording of the basic tracks and all the overdubs, we finished within three weeks. Then the pandemic hit us pretty hard, we had to cancel almost all of our shows for 2020 and so we focused on the post production of the record. We started all the mixing and mastering work in 2020. And when we finally found our label Tonzonen Records in 2021 we had to wait until now for the physical copies. So it was a pretty long process but now we are very happy with the outcome and excited for the release.

It seems there’s a certain concept behind your songs… would you like to share how you usually approach music making and what are some of the main inspirations when it comes to lyrics?

Our songs are mostly resulting from jams. We like to improvise and as soon as there is a certain energy coming up, we try to build a song from those riffs. Then Isabelle, our singer, adds her lyrics on top of that. We like to experiment with different genres like blues, boogie, soul and psychedelic rock. There is not a common concept for this album; it consists of different tales, that’s also the reason for the name. So we try to use a lot of different moods and genres to keep the album exciting from beginning to end and create some kind of suspense.

Do you have any plans for gigs?

We will have a release show on the 17th of February in Freiburg and on the 19th of February we will play a concert in a record store in Bern. Due to the pandemic it is very hard to plan in the long term but at the moment we are booking a Euro tour for May 2022 and a bigger tour in October 2022. Get in touch if you want to see us play in your city.

It’s great that your music will be available on vinyl.

Yes, we are also thrilled to hear our music on vinyl. It just has a very different and warm sound. But it will also be available ​on​ CD, Streaming Platforms or as​ a​ Download.

How would you describe your sound?

That’s a hard one. We never tried to imitate any other bands, we always focused on our way of jamming and making music together. Of course we were influenced by other bands. Mainly the sixties and early seventies music inspired us very much. So the best way to describe our sound is the term psychedelic soul rock. We pair soft with heavy parts and the voice of Isabelle gives the band something unique, some of those sixties soul vibes. But as mentioned we don’t want to be put in a specific genre, we like to experiment with different styles of music and we try not to create boundaries in our heads.

Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

Flo, the bass player, has a side project with a doom metal band called Brocken, they released a full album 2020 and a EP in 2022. All the others of the band have jam projects with different people from the local scene, so maybe there will be more new music projects in the future…

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Electric Octopus – ‘This Is Our Culture’

We had the great honor to support them on a few shows and on an Ireland tour in 2019. They are incredibly talented musicians, great people and a big inspiration for us. Their jams are insane and keep pushing us to new levels.

All them Witches – ‘Lightning At The Door’

A masterpiece from a great band. It’s a symbiosis from dark to psychedelic, from soft to heavy. A very unique style and a lot of different dynamics. A great record and a great inspiration.

King Buffalo – ‘Longing To Be The Mountain’

Awesome production. The mix of the album is great. Crystal clear drums, strong bass and a bone shattering guitar paired with great vocals. At the same time soft and light. Very talented band.

From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/02/sound-of-smoke-interview-album-premiere-tales.html 

Buffalo Springfield - On the Way Home / Four Days Gone / Merry-Go-Round

The Last Time Around album was damn good. Stills' ‘Pretty Girl Why’ showed that the band was capable of being very effective while understating.  Sure--Buffalo Springfield could rock hard and play hard but ‘Pretty Girl Why’ points to a level of sophistication and subtlety that was just coming into rock at the time. Nobody had to yell and scream or show how many hot licks they could play in that song. In that regard, it was anticipating the better angels of the coming singer-songwriter genre.  
Maybe Neil didn’t sanction that album but look he gave us ‘On The Way Home'; that's just a beautiful song. It was on rotation on our AM and the new FM radio playlists--years after the band was gone.  B. Mitchell Reed, in particular, implicitly positioned the Springfield as an important antecedent by programming tracks well into the early 1970s, but in the context of Crosby, Stills & Nash or After the Goldrush.
‘On The Way Home’ is atypical of Neil because it’s an optimistic song. And you don’t get optimistic songs from Neil Young. He deals in dour self-immolation. And it’s Richie Furay at his optimistic, celebratory best. That’s as good as anything they ever did. At the same time you’ve got ‘I Am a Child'--something new as well. Yes, it’s Neil indulging his obsessive self-examination, but he’s also leveling a critique of the music industry and painting himself in a very vulnerable light. In that, it’s a window into the future solo Neil Young: you hear similar sentiments on the first Neil Young album in ‘Last Train To Tulsa.’ The lyrics on both tunes are from a supine point of view.
On the front cover of Last Time Around, Neil is looking away from the other group members--signifying his continual one-foot-in-and-one-foot-out status in the band. Neil always asserted his individuality in the Springfield, and probably in his mind, it was time to go; I don’t think he had any compunction or second thoughts. 
Last Time Around almost sounded like a different band on every track. So I didn’t have the sense of great ride coming to an end so much as a great band splitting off into different directions.”  From: https://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2022/08/buffalo-springfields-last-time-around.html 

Ushti Baba - The Maiden

A Friday night of riotous folk at Jamboree with the brilliant Ushti Baba who present their new album 'Flora, Fauna, Fight & Feast'… a web of homemade tales and tunes, resisting and rejoicing, fusing hypnotic pan-European melodies with modern dance rhythms. Expect heavy beatbox roots, wild fiddles and a thrilling musical journey from familiar lands to the beyond! The event is part of the 2025 Bloomsbury Festival! The Bristol-based band pay warm tribute to their trad folk roots whilst delivering a fierce fresh perspective that consistently captivates crowds. They have been tearing up venues and festivals at home and abroad since 2013. The band's EP 'A Class Issue' was released in January 2020, featuring five tracks of unique acoustic rave featuring ghost ships, ancient cosmology and forgotten popes, with influences from klezmer, sea shanties, slip jigs and beyond.  From: https://www.datathistle.com/event/2817579-ushti-baba-at-jamboree/ 

The Move - Looking On / What / Feel Too Good

The Move experienced many changes after the release of their second album "Shazam". Unsure of the direction the band were headed in, singer Carl Wayne departed to be replaced by Jeff Lynne. Lynne had followed a similar path to Roy Wood around their home town of Birmingham, UK. Not only did he bring with him his vocal and guitar talents, but he also shared Roy Wood's ability to write a commercially appealing song. As it later transpired, Lynne also shared Wood's vision for what would become the Electric Light Orchestra.
The arrival of Lynne coincided with the band moving even deeper into the heavy rock territories they began to explore on "Shazam", indeed they would soon tour with fellow Birmingham outfit Black Sabbath. Around this time, the distinction between songs recorded as singles, and those recorded as album tracks became far more blurred than it had been up to this point. The release of tracks such as "Brontosaurus" and "When Alice Comes Back to the Farm" from "Looking On" raised many eyebrows such was their contrast with the sing-a-long pop which had preceded them. Those who had invested in "Shazam" were far less surprised of course, but as that album (and "Looking On") failed to trouble any album charts, the secret had until then remained largely intact.
With the arrival in the band of Lynne, Wood decided to leave much of the lead guitar playing to him. Wood therefore tried his hand at a wide range of instruments including cello, oboe, sax, etc., plus a modified form of banjo called a banjar. His ability to adapt to virtually any instrument would stand him in good stead for future projects. The sudden proliferation of instruments other than guitar also led to this album having far more in common with the work of ELO, and indeed sounding more progressive than the two previous albums.
The album opens with the title track, a heavy cornucopia of styles ranging from blues to eastern, to prog and calling at all points in between. The track runs to almost 8 minutes, and features a diverse instrumental break which offers an early introduction to the new sounds. The similarities between what we hear here and ELO's debut are abundantly obvious from the start.
Jeff Lynne's first composition here, and indeed his first for the band, "What" is pure early ELO. The song is a slower reflective number with ah-ah backing vocals and a distorted lead sung by Lynne. Another longer track running to almost 7 minutes, the track develops magnificently while incorporating a highly progressive arrangement. Anyone whose perception of the Move is based on singles such as "Fire Brigade" and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" just needs to hear this one track to have that perception annulled.
The closing "Feel Too Good" is a 9½ minute diversion towards soul funk. Do not be alarmed though, despite the appearance of P.P. Arnold and Doris Troy on backing vocals, the song remains rooted in heavy rock, indeed there are obvious references to The Beatles "I Am the Walrus". The song actually featured on the soundtrack to the film "Boogie Nights"! The track incorporates a hidden coda called "The Duke Of Edinburgh's Lettuce", an amusing ditty to lighten the mood.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=18721 

Kefaya & Elaha Soroor - Jama Narenji

Afghan singer Elaha Soroor and award-winning music/producer duo Kefaya, Al MacSween & Giuliano Modarelli join forces for a mighty and mesmerizing new album, Songs Of Our Mothers; a fresh, vibrant take on Afghan folk music filtered through myriad forms, from spiritual jazz and dub to Indian classical music and electronica. The album is a collection of folk songs traditionally performed by Afghan women, drawing on Elaha's own experience of fleeing Afghanistan and the struggle faced by many other female artists. The US and Western-backed regimes that came to dominate Afghanistan in the latter part of the 20th century created a climate of heightened patriarchal oppression and persecution of women.
Born in Iran into a family of Afghan-Hazara refugees, Elaha Soroor first rose to fame through the reality TV show Afghan Star. Her rising popularity in a society known for its persecution of female performers combined with her outspoken views on women’s rights led to an environment of serious personal danger and Elaha was eventually forced to flee Afghanistan. 
After arriving in London as a refugee, Elaha was introduced to guitarist Giuliano Modarelli & pianist Al MacSween, founders of award-winning international collective Kefaya. Driven by a shared desire to use music as a tool for political dialogue and action, together they forged the themes, concept and sound of Songs Of Our Mothers. 
These songs tell stories of joy, pain and resilience, passed from mother to daughter in times of hardship and oppression whilst also celebrating femininity, sensuality and the spirit of resistance. As Elaha says, this album is for “those women around the world whose image has been erased, and whose voice has been forbidden.”
The bulk of the album was arranged and recorded in just a few days in Oxford with long-time Kefaya drummer Joost Hendrickx. Al and Giuliano produced and further developed the album, with contributions from a host of world renowned musicians, including Mohsen Namjoo (voice), Manos Achalinotopolous (clarinet), Yazz Ahmed (flugelhorn), Sarathy Korwar (tabla/dolak), Tamar Osborn (baritone sax), Sardor Mirzakhojaev (dambura), Gurdain Singh Rayatt (tabla), Jyotsna Srikanth (violin), Camilo Tirado (live electronics) and Sam Vickary (double bass).
The international line-up, spanning homelands such as UK, Italy, India, Iran & Greece, reflects the album’s global perspective and the way that Kefaya work in collaboration, drawing on multiple sounds and outlooks to present a united front of spirited musical and political expression.
As Elaha says “In the eyes of the world, Afghan identity is defined by terrorism, war, the Taliban and uneducated, domesticated women who need help. I have tried to show other associations with Afghanistan such as the beauty of my mother language (Farsi) and the diversity of our music. Although women are currently facing extreme violence in Afghanistan, I see a lot of similar problems expressed in different ways in Western countries and across the world, this is part of a universal struggle.”  From: https://rachot.cz/kefaya-elaha-soroor_/