AANK

 

In recent days, Kombynat Robotron from Kiel, Germany, released their seventh album. I must admit that I have always enjoyed their music, which consists mainly of improvised psychedelic jams with motoric beats and heavy guitars.

For this album they signed to London's Fuzz Club label and developed their sound. They left the jams behind and gave the songs more structure. The sound moved away from krautrock a la Can to more riff oriented guitars and influences of stoner rock. There are still enough psychedelic elements in their songs and they remind me on Hawkwind. In their weakest moments, however, they sound like Rammstein for the poor. I'm not sure if I still want to follow their music. Maybe I should just listen to it again.

Monday's Long Song

 

In 1970 Hawkwind released their first and self titled album after they got critical acclaim for their live shows. During the years Hawkwind created a totally unique sound between psychedelic, progressive and hard rock and they were one of the first bands that took a trip into space with their music. And not only because they were true to their sound many punk and post-punk band referenced to their name. Mirror Of Illusion shows also that they had a bit of folk influences in their sound.

Hawkwind - Mirror Of Illusion

Monday's Long Song

 

There are bands you can trust to their sound for years. One of those are Bardo Pond, a psychedelic rock band from Philadelphia in 1991. Their earliest root lay with avant-garde noisemakers and New York's no wave movement. During the years they developed their sound into space rock but added their Hawkwind inspired sound with early krautrock like Amon Düül and experimental giants like My Bloody Valentine and Spaceman 3. Since 2000 they've released a numerically titled series of improvisation sessions in addition to their studio albums. Before is from their album Volume 1 and this song could be played on every live show by Mogwai.

Bardo Pond - Before

Dust In Time

Hawkwind were the link between space rock and hard rock in the early 70's by all time member singer and guitarist Dave Brock. Formed in Notting Hill, London a lot of musicians played in this band during they existed. They were probably the first that combined repetitive rock-riffs with synths and futuristic sound patterns. Many of their songs were too long for a single format, except their veritable hit single Silver Machine. During the last years many compilations of their songs were released at least Dust In Time a few weeks ago. I grew up with their sound, not understanding what it was in my very young days but later in my musical education I learned to estimate the beauty of their sound. 

Hawkwind - Brainstorm

Monday's Long Song

 

In 2017 a project started in Glastenbury when former Hawkwind member Nic Turner was invited to create a jam session with bass player and producer Youth. The result was a kosmische trip in psychedelic space with the leading saxophone of Turner. A few years later they found together again to do another jams in a studio in London to reproduce their live sound. The result is a freaked out psychedelic trip into space remembering the old days of krautrock. 

Under Cöver

When I made a backup of some files on my external hard drive a few days ago I found a copy of an album released by Motörhead in 2017. It is filled with cover versions in their typical sound. Some were released on various albums before, others were previously unreleased and I couldn't resist to play them once again. Although it isn't the music I regular listen to but it was pure fun to listen how Lemmy made this songs like they were written by himself. Actually he just wrote Motörhead when he was a part of Hawkwind.

Motörhead - Sympathy For The Devil
Motörhead - Motörhead
Motörhead - God Save The Queen

Monday's Long Song

More and more I think Sweden is the stronghold of new psychedelic rock. So it is not unusual that there can be found the real replacement of Hawkwind. A band named after the first man in space should be obliged to set some footprints in space-rock. Yuri Gagarin is band based in Gothenburg, Sweden and released their third album a few days ago. It is a hectic and loud supersonic instrumental odyssey and I seldom heard something like this. Oneironaut is a bit different in it's style as it is more rooted in krautrock vibes and more contemplative and mental. A  13 minutes ride on hyper constant rhythmic structures and soaring guitar melodies.

Monday's Long Song

Another long song from an era that is gone almost 60 years ago. Hawkwind were one of the pioneers of the so called space rock and I think their music that is based on hard rock was heavily influenced by drugs. Anyway it is still worth to listen to their musical escapes into space. Listening to their songs again after years I can hear many influences to todays music.

Hawkwind - You Shouldn't Do That

Old Enough To Know Better

The Pink Fairies are back with a new album Resident Reptiles. Legends from the London underground scene of the early 70's they were a bit of musical anarchists playing their very own style of psychedelic rock. Heavy influenced by drugs they played a combination of good-time rock and a lot of other inspirations of different genres. I couldn't nail them on one sound so I was surprised that a band that was active more than 40 years ago now releases a new album. Members of the band worked with bands like Motorhead, Hawkwind and Pretty Things but were true to their very own sound. Listening to these old school guitars it takes me back to long forgotten days of heavy psyche rock. And it sounds fresh what some old folks playing. Probably the comeback album of a band lost in music history in this year

Frequency Rhythm Distortion Delay

You know that you are getting old when assert that a song is new to you although you heard this song a few month ago. This happened to me on my yesterday's post when I featured Olden Yolk. I listened to Takes One To Know One back in December when it was first featured by The Swede. I posted a positive comment and sadly forgot to write down to check their upcoming album in February this year. So thanks to him for introducing me to this (and many other) bands. The fact that it goes also differently I want to prove today. Drew introduced us a few weeks ago to Psychic Lemon and I followed his advice to spent some money for this record. And it is worth every cent.

Psychic Lemon are a Cambridge based band with probably the finest sound somewhere between psych, Krautrock and space rock. While most psyche bands first of all on atmospheric, slowly rising sound sceneries place, Psychic Lemon immediately get cracking with a rocket start, by wild percussion and fat bass sped up. Also the guitars do not keep waiting long, to dark songs as if they came directly from the crypt, her menacing stories tell. Then a propelling percussion dissolves the horror mood and increases up to really lust E guitar-solo. If I have to drop some names than I would lik
e to call them like Mogwai on speed or the resurgent Hawkwind.

Retro! Retro! Retro!

Listening to the sound of Hawkwind, Amon Düül and other kraurock bands brought me back to my younger days. A lot of bands were influenced to the sounds of the late 60's/early 70's and tried to make their very own of this. It makes me smile when some bands from nowadays were raised in this sounds. It is a heavy-psyche band from Philadelphia and they stuck in the sound of the late 60's. I hear a lot of MC5, early Hawkwind and the spirit of Motörhead. Good to have a band that transports this spirit to nowadays. A spaced out sound and the right one if you are in the mood for stepping backwards in music.

 

You'll Disapear

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A few month ago I already posted some tracks from the New York based musical collective The Phenomenal Handclap Band. In recent days I listened a few times to their first record from 2009. Founded by the two DJs Daniel Collas and Sean Marquand the make an incredible mix of Rock, Disco, Soul, Electronic and Psychedelia. Someone reviewed the album as 65 minutes of slightly spacy live-band psych-disco, Hawkwind jamming with Isaac Hayes with percussion from the Incredible Bongo Band. If that sounds like a party, well, it is a party; you'll want to grab a drink and do your damndest to have a good time. I hear also influences from Sly and the Family Stone and Tom Tom Club.

Enjoy

Phenomenal Handclap Band - You'll Disapear

Phenomenal Handclap Band - 15 to 20