Tag: GOAT

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Melody Fields Share Rousingly Anthemic “In Love”

Influenced by Spiritualized, Moon Duo, and La Düsseldorf, Gothenburg-based psych outfit Melody Fields have quickly established and cemented a sound that seamlessly meshes elements of psych pop, indie rock and shoegaze with enchanting melodies.

The Swedish psych outfit will be closing out the year with the release of two albums: 1901, which is slated for an October 13, 2023 release and 1991, which is slated for an November 10, 2023. Both will be released through Coop Records in the European Union and Nudie Records here in the States. The band explains that 1901 can be best described as a rock album with psychedelic influences. “It showcases repetitive guitar riffs, distorted soundscapes, and mesmerizing three-part harmony vocals. Throughout these musical landscapes, we were fortunate to collaborate with guest musicians from esteemed bands such as Goat and Holy Wave, who added an extra layer of sonic brilliance to the album,” the members of the band explain.

“On the other hand, 1991 takes a different approach as a concept album that evolved from late-night jam sessions, experimental sounds, and danceable music,” the band continues. “It presents four remixes, including contributions from Goat and Al Lover, which inject new life into the original composition ‘Jesus’ from our previous album. The remixes offer fresh perspectives and invigorating interpretations, breathing new energy into the music and allowing it to evolve further.”

Last month, Melody Fields shared 1901 single “Hallelujah,” a Happy Mondays-meets-Primal Scream-like song that saw the band pairing propulsive bongo drum beats, glistening synths, bouyant Larry Levan-era house piano and thumping bass lines with hazy and dreamily delivered vocals. The result is a trance-inducing and trippy dance floor friendly bop that recalls the Madchester sound — but with a sleek, modern feel. “Drawing inspiration from iconic bands like Primal Scream and Happy Mondays, the track transports you to the glory days of early 90s dance-oriented rock,” the members of Melody Fields explain.

1901‘s latest single “In Love” is a fairly straightforward psych rock anthem built around buzzing power guitars, arena rock bombast and rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses that sounds inspired by Give Out But Don’t Give Up-era Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain and others, fueled by an infectious rambunctiousness.

“This track features infectious rhythms and catchy melodies that capture the raw power and rebellious spirit of Rock’n’Roll, inviting you to unleash your inner passion and let the music ignite your soul,” the Gothenburg-based outfit explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Clipping.’s Menacing “La Mala Ordina”

Over the past few years of this site’s nine-plus year history, I’ve written quite a bit about the Los Angeles-based industrial hip hop/experimental hip hop trio Clipping. The act, which is comprised of production duo Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson and emcee Daveed Diggs never expected to achieve anything near critical or commercial success: their earliest releases were centered around Snipes’ and Hutson’s sparse and abrasive productions featuring industrial clang, clink and clatter and samples of field recordings paired with Diggs’ rapid-fire, narrative-drigven flow, full of surrealistic, brutally violent imagery and swaggering braggadocio. 

Their full-length debut, 2013’s Midcity caught the attention of Sub Pop Records, who over the past decade have developed a reputation for releasing the work of a diverse array of artists including Debo Band, Shabazz Palaces, GOAT, Daughn Gibson. Sub Pop signed the Los Angeles-based trio and released 2014’s clipping. an effort that received attention across the blogosphere, including here. 

When Diggs went on to star in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash-hit musical Hamilton,winning a Tony Award for his dual roles of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette, the act was on an informal hiatus. But during that time, the members of the acclaimed JOVM mainstays reconvened to write and record 2016’s critically applauded effort Splendor & Misery, a Sci-Fi dystopian concept album that is futuristic and yet describes our increasingly frightening and bizarre present.

Clipping’s fourth album (and third through Sub Pop), There Existed an Addiction to Blood is slated for an October 18, 2019 release, and the album, which features guest spots from Ed Balloon, La Chat, Counterfeit Madison and Pedestrian Deposit finds the acclaimed act interpreting another rap splinter sect through their own singular lens — in this case, horrorcore, a purposefully absurdist and significant sub-genre that flourished for a brief   few moments in the mid 1990s. Some of its pioneers included Brotha Lynch Hung, Gravediggaz, which featured The RZA — and it included seminal releases from Geto Boys, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and pretty much most of Memphis cassette tape rap. Interestingly, There Existed an Addiction to Blood is partially inspired by Ganja & Hess, the 1973 vampire cult classic, regarded as one of the highlights of the Blaxploitation era — the title is derived from the film and the members of the acclaimed JOVM mainstays sampled part of the score on the album.

Last month, I wrote about the menacing and cinematic “Nothing Is Safe.” Centered around plinking, anxiety-inducing keys and arpeggiated synths, the eerie, horror movie-like production allows enough space for Diggs’ complex, multi-syllabic and dense flow to comfortably unfurl and narrate a tense, paranoiac dread-filled tale about a trap house under siege by a rival gang. Diggs’ narrative is so descriptive and hyper realistic that you can fear the horror of the narrator as he sees his homey get gunned down, feel the bullets whiz past you and hear the chandelier smash into the floor. In this universe, death is a constant, inescapable and malevolent force. And while lovingly employing the tropes of gangsta rap and horror films, complete with doomed and fatalistic characters and scenarios, the track finds the trio expanding upon their sound in a way that nods at Geto Boys’ hallucinogenic “My Mind Playing Tricks On Me.” “La Mala Ordina,” There Existed an Addiction to Blood’s latest single features Diggs, The Rita, Benny The Butcher and Elcamino spitting rhymes full of mayhem, copious gore, street gangsta shit and hustling over a sparse and menacing production featuring twinkling and arpeggiated keys, buzzing bass synths and tweeter and woofer rocking boom bap beats. Sonically and lyrically, the track is part Mobb Deep (at the moment, I’m reminded of “Get It Twisted”) part DMX (uh, everything he’s ever really done). part horror film and it may arguably be the most menacing, mayhem and viciousness-filled hip hop song I’ve come across all year. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Clipping’s Eerie New Single “Nothing Is Safe”

Over the past few years, I’ve written quite a bit about the acclaimed Los Angeles-based industrial hip hop/experimental hip hop trio Clipping. And as you may recall, the act which is comprised of production duo Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson, along with emcee Daveed Diggs never expected to achieve anything near commercial success — their earliest releases were centered round Snipes’ and Hutson’s sparse, abrasive productions featuring industrial clang, clink and clatter and samples of field recordings paired with Diggs dexterous rapid fire, narrative-driven flow, full of surrealistic, brutally violent imagery and swaggering braggadocio. And with the release of their full-length debut Midcity, the album caught the attention of renowned indie label Sub Pop Records, who over the past decade have developed a reputation for releasing the work of a diverse array of artists including Debo Band, Shabazz Palaces, GOAT, Daughn Gibson and others, as well as the Los Angeles-based hip-hop trio’s 2014 sophomore effort clppng, an effort that received attention across the blogosphere, including this site.

When Diggs went on to star in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash-hit musical Hamilton, winning a Tony for his dual roles of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette, the act was on an informal hiatus. But during that time, the members of the acclaimed JOVM mainstays reconvened to write and record 2016’s critically applauded effort Splendor & Misery, a Sci-Fi dystopian concept album that is both futuristic and yet describes our increasingly frightening and bizarre present. 

Clipping’s fourth album (and third through Sub Pop), There Existed an Addiction to Blood is slated for an October 18, 2019 release, and the album, which features guest spots from Ed Balloon, La Chat, Counterfeit Madison and Pedestrian Deposit finds the acclaimed act interpreting another rap splinter sect through their own singular lens — in this case, horror core, a purposefully absurdist and significant sub-genre that flourished for a brief   few moments in the mid 1990s. Some of its pioneers included Brotha Lynch Hung, Gravediggaz, which featured The RZA — and it included seminal releases from Geto Boys, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and pretty much most of Memphis cassette tape rap. Interestingly, There Existed an Addiction to Blood is partially inspired by Ganja & Hess, the 1973 vampire cult classic, regarded as one of the highlights of the Blaxploitation era — the title is derived from the film and the members of the acclaimed JOVM mainstays sampled part of the score on the album. 

There Existed an Addiction to Blood’s latest single is the menacing and cinematic, “Nothing Is Safe.” Centered around plinking and anxiety-inducing keys and arpeggiated synths, the sparse and eerie horror movie-like production is spacious enough for Daveed Diggs complex, multi-syllabic and dense flow to comfortably unfurl and narrate a tense, paranoiac dread-filled story about a trap house being shot at by a rival gang. Diggs’ narrative is so descriptive and hyper realistic that you can fear the horror of the narrator as he sees his homey get gunned down, feel the bullets whiz past you and hear the chandelier smash into the floor. In this universe, death is a constant, inescapable and malevolent force. And while lovingly employing the tropes of gangsta rap and horror films, complete with doomed and fatalistic characters and scenarios, the track finds the trio expanding upon their sound in a way that nods at Geto Boys’ hallucinogenic “My Mind Playing Tricks On Me.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Acclaimed Italian Psych Rock Act Juju Releases Glitchy Visuals for Sweaty and Lysergic “I’m In A Trance”

Perhaps best known for stints in Italian indie acts Lay Llamas and his solo folk music recording project Herself, Giole Valenti, is a Palermo, Sicily, Italy-based singer/songwriter and guitarist. Valenti’s latest musical project, Juju derives its name from a West African term, used to designate objects, such as amulets and spells used ceremoniously — but the Palermo-based singer/songwriter and guitarist broadens the scope of the term to encompass a mix of rhythmic psychedelia, ancient myths and Mediterranean neo-paganism.

Through music, Valenti hopes to tell the story of an on-going exodus from Africa that more often than not ends in ignored tragedies at sea, “a total defeat for humanity.” Inspired by sources of Earth magic and soil secret, Valenti’s latest project strives to turn that defeat into a celebration of spirit and modern psychedelia.

With the release of 2016’s self-titled Juju debut, which was released through Sunrise Ocean Bender Records, collaborations with Nicola Giunta in Lay Llamas, a European tour with internationally acclaimed psych rock act and JOVM mainstays GOAT and co-signs from Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donahue and GOAT’s Goatman, Valenti and his latest solo recording project have developed a profile across the international psych rock scene. Building upon a growing profile, Valenti began an ongoing collaboration with renowned psych rock label Fuzz Club Records that begun back in 2017 with the release of Our Mother Was a Plant — and last year, Valenti played at Liverpool Festival of Psychedelia.

Slated for a May 31, 2019 release through Fuzz Club Records, Valenti’s third Juju album Maps & Territory reportedly finds the Sicilian psych rock musician building upon and expanding the sound that first won him attention. Collaborating with avant-garde composer and improviser, Amy Denio, the forthcoming album’s material reportedly retains the unique blend of psych rock, Mediterranean Folk, New Wave and African polyrhythms but deconstructed with some of the material subtly influenced by jazz and other genres.

Thematically, the album’s material concerns itself with territory — and its physical and ideological representation on map. And unsurprisingly, the material sonically will further cement Valenti’s reputation for a globalist, genre-blurring sound and approach.

The album’s latest single “I’m In A Trance,” which features GOAT’s Goatman is a feverish and lysergic track centered around propulsive African polyrhythm, looping angular attack-based guitar, twinkling keys and chanted, call and response vocals. Sonically the song evokes a stomping, hallucinogenic voodoo ritual in which its practitioners are in a deep trance — while bearing a resemblance to Here Lies Man. The recently released glitchy video follows a hooded and masked man in the woods, foraging for food and running as though he’s being chased; it’s eerie and yet appropriately trippy.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the past month, you may have come across a couple of posts featuring the  Stockholm, Sweden-based psych rock band Marble Mammoth. Featuring members, who have played in The Unisex, and have collaborated with  The MC5s Mike Davis and The Hellacopters‘ and Imperial State Electric’s Nicke Anderson, the band quickly developed a reputation across their native Sweden for a sound that meshes the bluesy power chords of Led Zeppelin with the dreamy, psychedelia of the likes of Tame Impala — although “Wrecked Ship” reminded me of JOVM mainstays Goat and Black Sabbath, thanks to some blistering guitar pyrotechnics paired with soaring organ chords and rousingly anthemic hooks.

The act followed “Wrecked Ship,” with the gritty and anthemic prog rock-like single “Glitter Amongst Gravel,” which featured some incredible guitar pyrotechnics and an expansive and ambitious song structure, complete with twisting and turning organ chords. However, their latest single “Girl of a 1000 Thrills” while drawing from similar sources as their preceding singles is a bit of a sonic left turn for the Swedish psych rockers as it sounds as though it were influenced by Deep Purple and Steppenwolf but with a subtly modern twist reminiscent of the RidingEasy Records roster.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Earlier this month, I wrote about the Stockholm, Sweden-based psych rock band Marble Mammoth. Featuring members, who have played in The Unisex, and have collaborated with  The MC5s Mike Davis and The Hellacopters‘ and Imperial State Electric’s Nicke Anderson, the band quickly developed a reputation across their native Sweden for a sound that meshes the bluesy power chords of Led Zeppelin with the dreamy, psychedelia of the likes of Tame Impala — although their previously released single “Wrecked Ship” reminded me of JOVM mainstays Goat and Black Sabbath, thanks to some blistering guitar pyrotechnics paired with soaring organ chords and rousingly anthemic hooks. Unsurprisingly, the Swedish rock band’s latest single “Glitter Amongst Gravel” continues in a similar vein, further cementing their reputation for crating material with incredibly dexterous guitar pyrotechnics and incredibly ambitious and expansive song structures, complete with twisting and turning organ chords — but it may be among the most gritty and prog rock-like songs they’ve released to date.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Lysergic Visuals and Sounds of Stockholm’s Marble Mammoth

Marble Mammoth is a Stockholm, Sweden-based psych rock band that features members, who have played in The Unisex and have collaborated with The MC5s Mike Davis and The Hellacopters’ and Imperial State Electric’s Nicke Anderson — and with the recent release of their self-titled EP, the band has quickly developed a reputation for a sound that meshes the bluesy power chords of Led Zeppelin with the dreamy, psychedelia of the likes of Tame Impala — although the band’s latest single “Wrecked Ship” reminds me much more of JOVM mainstays Goat and Black Sabbath as the song features some blistering guitar pyrotechnics paired with soaring organ chords and anthemic hooks, but within an expansive, twisting and turning song structure that nods at voodoo, Latin rock and psych rock, while lyrically the song evokes the anxious awareness that the end is coming — and quickly.

Directed and edited by Milja Rossi, the recently released hallucinatory video for the song features the black clad members of the band performing the song near a lake in glorious sunshine and quick cuts to volcanos erupting, explosions and other natural phenomenon shot at weird angles to evoke an abstractness and the influence of hallucinogens. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: clipping’s Vicious Anti-Donald Trump Diss Track “Fat Fingers”

Recently, the trio participated in the 30 Songs, 30 Days project, contributing a vicious and scathing anti-Donald Trump diss track “Fat Fingers” in which Diggs references Nas’ legendary diss track “Ether” and the Canadian anthem “O, Canada” to a sparse yet forcefully minimalist production featuring a sample of people whislting the melody of the Canadian anthem, boom bap-beats, industrial clang and clatter. Fuck Donald Trump and everything about him and his family!

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: clipping Performing “Taking Off” at Moog Sound Lab

clipping’s latest effort “Splendor & Misery”, is a Sci-Fi dystopian concept album that is both futuristic and yet describes our increasingly frightening and bizarre time. And since the release of the album I’ve written about its first three singles “Baby Don’t Sleep,” “Air ‘Em Out” and “A Better Place” and each single manage to further cement the trio’s reputation for pairing minimalist and industrial productions with Diggs’ rapid fire rhyming — but at points the material reveals a subtle refinement of their sound in which at times the material is both melodic and radio-friendly, while evoking the impending apocalypse or the immensity, senselessness and indifference of the universe, the nature of man’s mind and so on.

Recently the trio was invited to Moog Sound Lab to perform “Taking Off” off Splendor & Misery and the video reveals how the trio creates their eerily fucked and hellish sonic vision live — in the case of this song clattering and clinking synths, stuttering drum programming are paired with Diggs ridiculously dexterous rhyming, in which he rhymes about gangstas riding rockets into the sky by getting fucked up in a parking lot, late at night, surreal, almost disconnected violence. And of course they do so while using a ton of really awesome Moog gear.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Continued Psychedelic Sounds and Visuals of JOVM Mainstay GOAT

Building on the growing attention they’ve received internationally, GOAT will be releasing their highly-anticipated third, full-length effort Requiem on Friday. And from the album’s first single “Try My Robe,” the band continues on a similar path to the singles they’ve released earlier this year, as the song revealed an acoustic, psych folk sound that at times seems influenced by African and Middle Eastern music, which gives the song a mind-bending and mesmerizingly hypnotic quality. The album’s latest single “Union of Mind and Soul,” is based around a looping flute line, layers of jangling and propulsive bass and guitar chords, a buzzing and trippy guitar solo and howled lyrics focused on opening one’s mind towards greater understanding of themselves and the universe. And while sonically drawing from 60s folk and psych rock, the song may arguably be the most urgent and yet old-timey song they’ve released to date.

The recently released video is a fittingly psychedelic video that looks as though it could have been shot in the 1960s, thanks to the Instagram-like filters and the use of slow-motion and the use of rewound footage. And in some way, the video accurately captures small town Swedish life in all of its beauty, boredom and sameness.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Although they’re known as a mysterious and masked collective hailing from the tiny and extremely remote Northern Swedish village of Korpilombolo, over the past couple of years, the members of  GOAT have become an internationally recognized act, as well as JOVM mainstays for an aesthetic, stage presentation and sound that draws from their tiny village’s unusual and lengthy history practicing voodoo, a tradition that according to an old Swedish legend can be traced back unabated to sometime before the Crusades. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of the past couple of years, the members of the Swedish collective signed to renowned indie label Sub Pop Records, who released the act’s sophomore full-length effort, Commune and a couple of 7 inches to widespread critical acclaim internationally.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “I Sing In Silence” off the “I Sing In Silence”/”The Snake of Addis Ababa” 7 inch that Sub Pop released a few months ago. That single revealed that the mysterious Swedish collective was relentlessly and continually expanding upon and experimenting with their sound — going completely acoustic as a gorgeous and fluttering flute line is paired with a shuffling and elastic guitar line, gently propulsive drumming and chanted vocals in a song that sounded as though it were indebted to early prog rock — in particular think of Yes’ “Roundabout“–  and psych rock as the song possessed a trippy, mind-altering vibe.

Building on the growing attention they’ve received internationally, GOAT will be releasing their highly-anticipated third, full-length effort Requiem on October 7, 2016. And from the album’s first single “Try My Robe,” the band continues on a similar path to the singles they’ve released earlier this year, as the song reveals an acoustic, psych folk sound that at times seems influenced by African and Middle Eastern music — and as a result that particular single possessed a mind-bending and mesmerizingly hypnotic quality. The album’s latest single “Union of Mind and Soul,” is based around a looping flute line, layers of jangling and propulsive bass and guitar chords, a buzzing and trippy guitar solo and howled lyrics focused on opening one’s mind towards greater understanding of themselves and the universe. And while sonically drawing from 60s folk and psych rock, the song may arguably be the most urgent song they’ve released to date.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Check Out clipping’s Gravity Defying Visuals for Their Menacing New Single “Air ‘Em Out”

Splendor & Misery’s second single “Air ‘Em Out” features an ominous and menacing production featuring stuttering drum programming, industrial clinking and clanking, swirling electronic, brief bursts of twinkling synths that mischievously nods at trap hop while Diggs rhymes about what sounds like either an alien invasion, a zombie apocalypse or a civil war — all happening simultaneously perhaps, complete with roving gangs causing trouble, killing people and getting fucked up. Seriously, someone should make a movie out of that. And while being absolutely vicious, the song also manages to be the most melodic and (somewhat) radio-friendly song they’ve released to date.

Directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada, the recently released video features Diggs as a disinterested and bored security guard, who after taking medication finds the surrounding objects in his dark office trembling to the woofer and tweeter rocking beats just as they began to defy gravity.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Swedish Collective GOAT Return with a Hypnotic, Psych Folk-Leaning, New Single

Building on the attention they’ve received internationally, the mysterious Swedish collective will be releasing their highly-anticipated, third full-length effort on October 7, 2016 and the album’s “Try My Robe” continues on a similar vein as the singles they’ve released this year with the song the song manages to evoke a hushed, psych folk aesthetic. Sonically, the collective pairs chanted/shouted vocals with a shimmering and dexterously looping guitar work, mischievously complex, handclap led percussion and a slow, shuffling bass line that manages to be deceptively propulsive in a song that sounds subtly influenced by African and Middle Eastern music. By far, it may be the trippiest song they’ve released to date, as the song evokes a mind-bending and mesmerizingly hypnotic quality.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Darkly Psychedelic Imagery of GOAT’s “I Sing In Silence”

According to an old Swedish legend, a traveling witch doctor and her disciples were led to Korpilombolo, a tiny and extremely remote Northern Swedish village by a Sami traveller. The reasons why that Sami traveller may […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

According to an old Swedish legend, a traveling witch doctor and her disciples were led to Korpilombolo, a tiny and extremely remote Northern Swedish village by a Sami traveller. The reasons why that Sami traveller may have decided to lead the witch doctor to a remote, Northern Swedish village has been lost to history — these things happen after all — but strangely enough, within Korpilombolo, the practice of voodoo quickly became common and continued unabated and fairly unnoticed for several centuries. During the time of the Crusaders, the Catholic Church had discovered that heretical and non-Christian practices were occurring in the tiny and remote Northern Swedish village, and a small band of Crusaders were sent to burn the villagers out and the village down. Whoever survived returned when it was safe, rebuilt their village and have since continued to practice voodoo.

Reportedly, the rather mysterious and masked collective GOAT hails from Korpilombolo — and a great deal of their work thematically and aesthetically draws influence from voodoo, spirit conjuring, psychedelia and other practices. And although little is generally known about the collective, they quickly built up a national profile across Sweden. In a series of coincidences that could only seem to happen in the age of the Internet, the band signed to renowned indie label Sub Pop Records, who released the act’s sophomore full-length effort, Commune and a couple of 7 inches to critical acclaim internationally. Last year, the collective’s “It’s Time For Fun”/”Relax” 7 inch was written while  in their native Sweden but recorded in the Americas —   A side single “It’s Time For Fun” recorded here in NYC, while B side single “Relax” was recorded in Sao Paulo — and had the act expanding and experimenting with their sound through the use of synths and drum programming that pushed their sound towards a trippy world music-leaning post-punk similar to Talking Heads.

The Northern Swedish collective’s forthcoming “I Sing In Silence”/”The Snake of Addis Ababa” 7 inch is slated for a May 27 release through Sub Pop Records and their latest effort  reveals that the act is continually expanding upon and experimenting with their sound — this time going completely acoustic as a gorgeous and fluttering flute line is paired with a shuffling and elastic guitar line, gently propulsive drumming and chanted vocals as you’ll hear on the A side single “I Sing In Silence.” And interestingly enough, the single strikes me as sounding as though it’s heavily indebted to early prog rock — in particular think of Yes’ “Roundabout“–  and psych rock as “I Sing In Silence” possesses a similar trippy and expansive vibe.