Los Natas – El Hombre Monta​ñ​a

I don’t even know what stoner rock is these days. I mean, it’s a long time since I was a stoner now, so I’m not the right person to ask anyway, but when I was it tended to be more brooding stuff like Electric Moon. Or maybe that was just my own preference. The only thing that opinions prove is the limitations of the beholder.

For what it’s worth, and in my opinion, this isn’t really stoner rock, it’s just really good rock music from Argentina. It’s quite frenetic most of the way through, a bit like, say, Nudity, but in Spanish, and then for the final track they start it off all bang-bang like, like they’re going to go out in a blaze of sonic ferocity and then about two thirds of the way through, it mellows and finishes acoustically. Works really well. I think they had a bit of an angle, these boys.

I think I rarely post frenetic rock music these days. I think it’s quite fitting that I start 2023 off this way, especially after the shit-show that was 2022. Here’s to a much better year for us all.

The Myrrors – Borderlands

The more artists you like, the harder it is to keep up with when they come up with new stuff, particularly when your head, like mine, is full enough trying to keep up with your own creative output, let alone anyone else’s (note to self: put some of your own stuff out again.There’s facking loads). Also known as having your head up your arse.

All I know is that this is 2018, so it is either nearly a year old by the time I first play it, or potentially nearly 2 years old. Whatevs, man, I’m really enjoying listening to it this morning. It is them at their tranciest.

I recently came to the conclusion that what I like isn’t psychedelic, it’s trance, although the two terms are not mutually exclusive. A lot of music that gets labelled as psychedelic is more like a pastiche of other artists labelled as psychedelic, or the new version of stoner rock, which was the new label for grunge, which was the new label for whatever they called Black Sabbath in the 80s (I didn’t read the music press back then). To my mind, that’s the opposite of head-expanding. But what do I know? I’ve got my head up my arse, me.

Even with ears surrounded by arse, though, this music sounds fantastic.

True Widow – Avvolgere

The academy shut its doors. It was planning an expansion, a growth. It invited in a designer – the designer was a God. He rejected the blueprints – it was the wrong colour, he wanted a whitewash. Seems there were hankerings for a public enquiry, reckoned he’d been less than transparent with His creation. Well, said the academy, You’ve got an obvious chip on Your shoulder and thus decided on a different designer – one with a decent pen.

Were you there when Zeus started getting fresh with Aphrodite? God on God action! You’ve never seen anything like it! She wouldn’t go near him!

Let’s go to that fucking place.

Celebrity shock: Page 1 pinup admits to having ‘camera sex’ with cardigan expert. Welcome to life in the Empire of Temptation – the only way to expand! And while we’re on the subject – it’s not very comfortable.

I’m anti-modern – I’m shocked by everything and nothing. At the same time.

 

Pontiak – Dialectic of Ignorance

I’m a bit late to the party on this one if you want finger-on-the-pulse stuff, but then you don’t come here for that anyway. It’s not why I’m here.

This is my favourite ever Pontiak album, and is currently my favourite release this year. I never thought they’d top Sun on Sun from back whenever it was, but they have done in some style.

What I really like about it is how there’s nothing particularly ‘look-at-me’ about it. The music simply does what it does, which is exactly what music should be allowed to do. The brothers have allowed this music to express itself, the very wisest thing they could have done.

My favourite track is all of them. The grooves are fantastic, the atmosphere incredible, the sogwriting impeccable, and the harmonies reminiscent of Neil Young & Crazy Horse at their most ecstatic.

I don’t think I shall be tiring of this album any time soon.

Centralstodet / The Myrrors – Ljudkamrater

The second of the three promos I mentioned what were dead good, like. This is a split release, combining an a group with whom I am totally unfamiliar with a group of whom I am more than slightly familiar.

Centralstodet have been described as Prog rock and as space rock in the whole two reviews I’ve sought out on t’net; I myself put them in that ‘jam band’ genre on the basis of the tunes included here. I might think differently when I hear some of the other stuff. There’s a bit of an edge to what they do, though one man’s edge is another man’s middle, as I once saw a self of mine write. For example, Colour Horizon called an earlier release of theirs ‘harsh,’ but I wonder if he’s ever seen Merzbow live? I have.

The Myrrors only contribute one track, but that one track is 20 minutes of possibly their finest recorded music to date. It is wonderfully spacious, meditative and hypnotic, and I reckon it would soundtrack a mellow initiation ritual in the desert, were such things ever to happen, because obviously assigning such judgements is my area of expertise (I’ve never been to a real desert, though I have been to something called an outback, I don’t think it’s the same thing as there were grasses and bushes and everything).

You can get this on vinyl, if you do vinyl, here.

The Myrrors – Entranced Earth

New album from The Myrrors, is this, and it carries right on from where they left off. Whilst that may sound like a back handed compliment, it most certainly isn’t. I’d say this is my favourite of their releases to date. It’s also the one where they channel Parson Sound more explicitly than before, at least on Liberty is in the Streets and the title track. Invitation Mantra raises a hypnotic pulse that I imagine would be a great soundtrack to astral projection, so it’s about time I learnt that skill so as to test that hypothesis.

Elsewhere, they do the rustic desert jams, reminding me at times of where Evening Fires are at. In fact, the layout of the album is kind of acoustic/electric/acoustic/electric and so on – the sense is of contrasts rather than opposites, different ways of presenting a worldview. I think it is put together very well.

Their continued evolution is a joy to behold, and I’m sure the journey will continue to places unimaginable. For now, though, this is a lovely place to stop and take in the sounds.

 

The Myrrors

So I went to see The Myrrors last night at Duffy’s Bar, a very enjoyable night which reminded me I hadn’t flagged to the world that I love Arena Negra, their album from earlier this year. So this post is really to rectify that. But anywho, whilst there I was talking to my long time friend in musical explorations about how I rarely dive into a bands back catalogue now, unlike when I was younger and tended to go full completist on everything (there are a couple of current exceptions – guess who? and well, obviously).

So when starting this post I decided to see what else they had.

On the strength of last nights wonderful music, I am therefore going to give all of these things a listen. Those of you unfamiliar with The Myrrors would do well to check out the embedded album below, for I love it very much. These are one of a few bands who are noticeably beginning to channel the wonderful Parson Sound (another being the awesome Les Sorciers du Theil), a band who history will soon regard as the true godfathers of psychedelic rock. I’m going to dedicate a post to Parson Sound soon, actually.

But they do very much their own thing. You can hear the desert in their music, so much space is there (I find the same thing with many of the desert blues acts of North Africa, particularly Tinariwen). There is also a hint of tribal rhythms, and I could easily imagine listening / jamming to this round an actual campfire, probably in the desert (the only desert I’ve seen or been to is the one in Australia; admittedly it’s not a small one, although technically it might actually be an ‘outback’). Don’t know what we’d use for electricity, though. Maybe we could plug into a salamander? I’ve heard those things have juice.