Kaliyuga Express – Warriors & Masters

This album. No, really. This album.

You want yourself some space rock motorik? Of course you do. Then you want this album. It does space rock motorik, and it does it from Finland, always a good source of tunage, in collaboration with one Mike Vest, who seems to get in many places these days, and whose prodigious output I can but admire.

There are 3 songs, they are long songs. We like long songs. They make me go trance, but with a tap-a-foot style, which would probably make for a good description in the DSM-V under ‘spreadsheet catatonia whilst in a space-rock trance.’ Although that implies it’s a disorder, and it isn’t. The musical side of it is a joy.

Skifting – Lyset fra Stammen

Some psychedelic rock goodness for you here. Danish psychedelic rock goodness, which is all right by me albeit entirely in Danish and shouty caps lock. But as I was saying just the odd post ago, that means you can appreciate the musical aspects even more.

Living in an area of the city as I do where I get to hear many languages spoken as I walk to work, I’ve come to notice just how musical human speech is. I imagine our English speech is just as musical but you don’t notice so much as the meaning takes precedent with your attention. But remove all attachment to meaning and you can just hear the pure sound and lo! Music.

Société Etrange – Chance

Listening to NTS as much as I do, I think I can now confidently say that you don’t very often hear the same songs in a short space of time. At least, the shows I’ve listened to a lot don’t seem to repeat themselves and I frequently just leave it on and the same seems to be true elsewhere on the station as well.

So it’s quite notable when a particular song appears even as much as 3 times! The first one such is one that does my head in but this isn’t a negative review blog. The second tune closes this album – the first time I heard it I noted it as very good and put the album on my wishlist. Having subsequently listened to the album in full, hence it didn’t get deleted from my wishlist, Futur then got played twice more over the next fortnight or so and after the third play I gave in and bought the album.

The whole thing is full of wonderful rhythm and movement though. I noted when I was listening to Harmonia the other night that some of the melodic progressions were ‘very German’ and listening to this again as I type this I’m reminded of that because my thought is that this sounds melodically French. And yet, if you asked me to expand on what I mean by this, I simply wouldn’t be able to. There’s a feel to the progressions maybe? Maybe someone properly tuned in to all the world’s wonderful music would be able to place the origin of any music just based on the melodic progressions.

Dhidalah – Sensoria

Some Japanese rock goodness for you here, something I’m not convinced I do too often.

I didn’t intend to leave it this long between posts, but time do get away, do it not? So, though they may be short of words, I am now about to post a bunch of stuff I’ve discovered lately that I think is really good.

In a completely unrelated note, my 12 year old daughter has just asked me whether or not I regularly question the nature of my existence, and upon receiving an affirmative answer, suggested that she wants to form an existential dread club. Shome mishtake, shurely? I’m sure we were late teens when we all hit that phase. They grow up so quickly these days…

Oneida – Success

Whereby ‘Success’ is defined as doing what you do really, really well. By me, at least. And this album lives up to the title.

My love for Oneida – which I still don’t know how you pronounce – is a long-lasting one. One of my very favourite pieces of music ever is ‘Sheets of Easter.’ One of my very favourite albums ever made is ‘Rated O.’ These boys have form, and here do they bring it.

Stylistically, this is more like their early, garagey stuff, kind of a return to earth from their incredibly out-there explorations in the post ‘Rated O’ era.

Sula Bassana – Loop Station Drones

Sula Bassana is part of Electric Moon and therefore needs no introduction, and yet what you have just read is an introduction, albeit quite a lazy one.

Sula, or possibly also known as Dave, put the first track of this out a bit back with commentary on the page that this would just keep getting added to until finished, and now it is finished. Well, it was that one track that did it for me, but the fact that it’s now an album, and a nice long one, well, what’s not to love?

So when he do solo he do motorik, electronic, kosmische-y stuff with loops and drones an’ ting, and when he do solo, I do like to listen. It’s very possible that I’ve missed posting some of his stuff from the last few years; not purposely but because I just keep forgetting I have this blog thing. The point is, though, that all the things are worth listening to.

Valerio Cosi – Heavy Electronic Pacific Rock

This album title may make you expect something other than you will get. One more reason to love it.

See, this album has been a part of my life for well over a decade, now. I posted it not long after starting Soundbergs using a Youtube link. However, the great man has now added it to his bandcamp, remastered.

Simply put, this is among my very favourite albums ever. Despite the length of time it’s been in my collection, it still gets played regularly. The opener in particular has a strong claim to ‘favourite peice of music, ever’ (although I don’t believe in absolute favourites and would never dream of compiling some kind of all time top ten or any other arbitrary number).

This music is trance in its purest form, and absolutely ecstatic at that.

Dead Sea Apes / Black Tempest / Adam Stone – Dataland

This does not come up easily in a bandcamp search, let me tell you. As a librarian with some cataloguing nous, I suspect the metadata needs to be enhanced somewhat. Fortunately, you now have a handy link here, courtesy of me.

There is much to love with this, and much to resonate with despite the fact he keeps talking about TV and I haven’t watched TV in years. The deadpan vocals over the laid back motorik mid 90s vibe – no, we’re not talking Underworld, though I do like Underworld; it’s a way more hazy approach.

Apparently it was all done over data transfer rather than physical collaboration, yet it sounds very coherent.

Autotelia – I

I love this album whenever I listen to it, but it’s bang on perfect for these semi-hypnagogic states that my first couple of hours of each day tends to be.

This is that kind of mellow motorik kosmiche type music that is just totally trance inducing. An altered state all by itself.

I understand one half of Autotelia is no longer with us, which is very sad. This is some legacy, however.

somesurprises (self titled)

So I’m on the right PC this morning, in a semi-hypnagogic state. Let the buses continue.

This is one of those albums that I’m not entirely sure why I listened to since the description didn’t make me overly-confident, but that just goes to show you how much of a guide descriptions can be. I’m wondering if actually I do have instincts, and they can sometimes be good.

The last track in particular is one of those legendary tunes which in any just world would be amongst the most famous songs ever written, the longest song on the album by some distance and it still isn’t long enough. Eternal music, that kind of song is. But the whole thing is good.