KAYROS ~ HOMBRE DE PIEDRA ...review

A lot of great sounds coming out of South America lately, the continent is throwing up a diverse and exciting mix of  "underground"grooves for us lovers of fuzz drenched riffage to wrap our  groove battered ears around. One country that is cropping up on Desert Psychlist's radar more and more is Chile, that long strip of land running between Argentina and the Pacific Ocean is churning out some seriously good bands of late one of which are Concepcion based groove meisters Kayros.
Kayros  maybe new to us in the northern hemisphere but the band, Nacho (vocals/guitar), Seba (guitar/keyboards), Pancho (bass/guitar/brass/Vietnamese harp & backing vocals) & Leo Mantis (drums/percussion), have been laying down their brand of subterranean riff''n'roll since their inception in 2006 releasing three albums "Pozo Negro"( 2009), "Tierras Infertiles 1" (2012) and "Tierras Infertiles 2" (2012), This year (2016) the band released their fourth and arguably their best album to date "Hombre de Piedra"

Title track " Hombre de Piedra" arrives on wave of jazz tinted fusion with brass instrumentation, heavily effect laden guitar and keyboards over a backdrop of stunningly intricate percussion, before segueing into a heavily distorted desert-like riff  over which Nacho delivers clean, strong vocals sung in his native tongue. The groove twist and turns through differing dynamics going off on a tangent into the arenas of psych and space rock then returning to its starting point before going off in another direction, something that is a constant throughout the albums eight tracks.
The rest of the album follows a similar path of spacey riff fuelled journeys into the lysergic underpinned by complex rhythmic patterns and arrays of differing effects with highlights being "Crisis RH2" with its scorching guitar solo's and pulsating liquid bass lines,"Gaza" with its stoner doom-like refrain and the excellent "Caminos Maginales" a rumbling psych doom opus that sees Nachos joined by fellow Chilean singer David Velis.
In truth there is not a bad or poor track to be found on "Hombre de Piedra",  from the excellent arrangements, the high levels of musicianship right down to the excellent production everything about this release screams quality!
Check it out .....

BRONCO ~ MODERN MYTHOLOGY ... review

Gabrielle Bègin (vocals), Frederic Fortier (bass), Jean-Francis Gascon (guitar) and Rejean Lacroix (drums) are collectively known as Bronco, a four piece blues based band, with a foot in the stoner rock camp, hailing from the Canadian province of Quebec. Regular perusers of the stoner rock pages of Bandcamp may recall the band's 2014 release "Hell Racers" a five track EP of scorching stonerized blues that prompted Doomed and Stoned contributor, and champion of female fronted bands, Paul Rote to write "Female fronted occultish blues rock band. A good one at that!".
Two years on from "Hell Racers" and with a prestigious inclusion on Doomed and Stoned compilation " The Enchanter's Ball" inbetween the band are about to embark on a new phase in their career with the release of their first full length album "Modern Mythology".

The underground rock music scene is awash with bands who incorporate the blues into their stoner hard rock grooves but Bronco come at the listener from the opposite direction by incorporating those grooves into their blues. "Modern Mythology" is essentially a blues rock album stonerized for a 00's audience with songs like "Falling Free", "Never Ending Dance" and the face melting "Starting Again" strutting and swaggering with a bluesy arrogance swathed in fuzz drenched riffage driven by thundering drum and bass and coated in strong female vocals. Things get really interesting though when the band introduce into their bluesy grooves a little occult-rock colouring  as on "122db","Hazy Lies" ,"Machine", and "The Other Side Of The Mirror". All four songs are still rooted in the blues but are infused with a mystique and edgy darkness that sees Bègins vocal taking on a sultrier edge to match the darker edged grooves the rest of the band are laying all around her.  "Invoking The Spirit", "" and "Trompe La Morte" complete the album and are both equally strong blues based songs infused with elements of hard stoner rock that will kick start the listeners dormant mojo into overdrive.
"Modern Mythology" is an album that shows the blues as a genre is not quite dead yet and is still as relevant today as it was when Robert Johnson stood at the crossroads waiting to do a deal with the devil, it just needed a little fuzz
Check it out ......

DEAD OTTER ~ PATHFINDER EP .... review

Dead Otter hail from Glasgow, Scotland and are Scott Falconer (drums), Gav Riddell (bass), John Riddell (guitar/vocals) and Omar Aborida (guitar), four guys with a penchant for playing fuzzy stoner grooves enhanced by large elements of psychedelic colouring and proggish complexity all of which can be found on their brand new EP "Pathfinder".

The appropriately titled "Stoner Devil" opens "Pathfinder" with the band jamming a heavy dark doom-ish instrumental groove before fragmenting that groove with touches of prog -ish metal colouring and then spinning things in a completely different direction by going off into a heavy stoner blues jam overlaid with searing guitar pyrotechnics. "Open My Eyes...seen enough now" follows and continues the journeys into lysergic blues territory that informed the last half of the previous track but this time at a more sedate tempo and with the addition of vocals. John Riddell's vocals are clean, slightly hazy and sit perfectly within the psychedelic tinted grooves surrounding them. his voice sitting a little back in the mix allowing his guitar and that of his six-string partner, Aborida, to be the focus of attention, the two trading off solo's, licks and riffs over Gav Riddell's big funky bass lines and Falconer's dexterous percussion. "The Whangy" is another flight of instrumental fancy that once again sees the two guitarist up front and centre laying down swathes of fretboard fury around the differing foundations of rhythmic groove laid down by Falconer and G. Riddell. Title track "Pathfinder", another instrumental, brings the EP to a conclusion on a wave eastern  themed motifs wrapped around a core of desert rock rhythms that slowly shifts through the gears building in intensity and depth and that during its journey touches on elements of bluesy psych and swaggering spacey hard rock before ending in a swirling dark sustained effect.
If your a devotee of heavily psyched blues and your partial to swirling, swooping guitar interplay then Dead Otter have released an EP you just have to check out ......

BEYOND THIS EARTH ~ UNIVERSAL FURY ... review

Seems to have been a while since Desert Psychlist was last extolling the virtues of the Greek stoner rock scene and the bands that populate it, maybe it's a result of the uncertainty of the Greek economy or the shock of  Greek heavyweights Planet of Zeus moving in a more mellower crossover direction but there has definitely been a lull in raucous sludgey stoner rock coming out from that country of late.

Livadeia's Beyond This Earth redress the balance with the release of their debut album, an eight track riff fest crammed full of swampy southern sludge and swaggering bluesy hard rock flying under the banner of "Universal Fury"

First track "Showdown" does not so much explode out of the speakers as rip them to pieces with it's gritty fuzz drenched stoner refrain before proceeding to stomp them to splinters with its gnarly pounding rhythms. If the listener is not already dazed and confused by this sonic onslaught then Akris Daskalos compounds the felony by coating the resulting grooves with a vocal that starts somewhere deep in his chest before erupting from his mouth in a deep grizzled throaty roar.
"Rock'n'Riot" is up next and begins with Paris Gatsios laying down a solid drum pattern before screeching feedback introduces the guitars and the song moves into a chugging hard rock groove.
Daskalos pitches his voice slightly lower here, his tone a touch less abrasive and warmer and sitting perfectly between the twin guitar attack provided by Chris Soad and Vagelis Katsampekis and just above Vfur Valantis' big booming bass lines. "Dizzy Stow" follows, its mix of stuttering stoner riffage and classic rock structuring underpinned by deft bass and drum work is further enhanced by a superb Daskalos vocal, the front man mixing it up between raw stoner bellow and throaty southern melodic. "Burn" is a retrospective heavy blues drenched lament that lyrically looks back on a life filled with guilt and regret and musically is a tour-de-force of emotionally charged rock swathed in a heavy cloak of dark southern groove. "Liberty" is next and sees Soad and Katsampekis trading off tasteful arpeggios and chordal colourings before taking off on a Cult-like guitar motif that leads into a crunch packed stoner chug. The song swings back and forth between both dynamics beneath a strongly delivered melodic vocal before finishing in a hazy psych drenched  mix of spacey ambience and bluesy hard rocking riffage. "The Martyr" has Beyond This Earth climbing back on the heavy stoner/sludge train they arrived on with a blistering mid tempo tune tempered with touches of swampy southern swagger. "The Fool" rocks a fuzz soaked atmospheric doom-lite groove that sees the band playing with elements of light and shade, Daskalos switching vocals dynamics over an atmospheric blend of chugging heavy riffage and ringing arpeggios driven by the excellent rhythms of Valantis and Gatsios's. The mood changes as the song approaches its conclusion with the band shifting through the gears and closing on a raucous wave of  hi-octane rock'n'roll. Title track "Universal Fury" is a glorious blend of punkish sludge and psych drenched doom and is almost two different songs stitched cleverly together, the first half an up-tempo and in your face stoner/sludge romp that has Daskalos bellowing punkishly over a strident fuzz heavy groove, the second a hazy heavy psych wigout that sees Soad and Katsampekis laying a swathe of lysergic guitar colouring over a hazy rhythmic backdrop.
Beyond This Earth have, with "Universal Fury", not only created an absolutely essential slice of heavy southern tinged, sludge tinted stoner/hard rock but have proved that Greece is still an important stopping off point for those looking for good "underground" rock.
Check 'em out.....
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PURPLE KONG ~ PURPLE KONG ... review

Always pleasing when a new UK band appears on the "underground" rock scene especially when said band serve up the sort of kick-ass mix of hard rock and stoner/sludge that, London, based Purple Kong do on their self titled debut EP "Purple Kong"

Only three tracks long but with more power and grit than some bands pack into ten "Purple Kong" is an EP that demands attention and is one that promises much for the future,
First track "Village On Fire" begins with a thundering storm soundbyte that then segues into an even more thunderous heavy doom/sludge groove populated by deeply, and we are talking extremely deeply, distorted bass and titanic drumming over which howling guitar and powerful, cleanly delivered vocals are laid. Heavy as a truck load of hippo's wearing lead boots the track pins the listener to the wall with its sheer force and swaggering intensity.
"Cocaine Pentagram" begins with another movie sounbyte before screeching feedback leads into a rolling guitar riff  that is then joined by the bass and drums. This time the band hit a groove more akin to the proto-metal of the early to mid 70's ,albeit a lot harder and heavier, built around the recurring vocal mantra of  the songs title. As the song approaches its nadir the song moves into jam territory with scorching wah drenched guitar quacking and squawking over a wall of tumultuous rhythm .
"Getting Away With Murder" brings things to a close with a track that sees Purple Kong blending the sludgey riffage of the first track with the proto- metal leanings of the second. Vocals are pitched a little lower here giving the song a slightly classic/hard rock feel in places. Around the three quarters mark the song suddenly drops down a gear and moves into a drone -like groove with heavily effected vocals before exploding back into its Montrose-like initial refrain and then fading on a sustained and droning guitar note.
Like a whirlwind, "Purple Kong" is an EP that picks the listener up spinning him/her around until finally placing him/her down battered, disorientated, miles from the starting point but grateful for the ride.
Check it out .....

BLACK WITCH ~ SOLVE ET COAGULA ... review

Time to return to Brazil and visit a band who have graced these pages before.... Black Witch.
Black Witch,  Lorena Rocha (vocals/guitar), Rafaum Costa (guitar/vocals), Amilton Jr.(bass/vocals) and Fred Nunes (drums), wowed both Desert Psychlist  and the patrons of the doom/stoner/psych world with the release of their debut EP "Aware" (September 2015). The band pricked up many an interested ear with their mix of occult/doom and stoner fuzz, fronted by quite unique female vocals, so it is good to see the band return to assail our senses once again , this time with a full album flying under the banner of "Solve et Coagula"

When "Aware" was reviewed on these pages back in 2015 Desert Psychlist brought to listeners attention some reservations concerning Rocha's vocal delivery, reservations that probably did not endear Rocha or the rest of the band towards Desert Psychlist but then that is the nature of the humble review, you don't always read what you want to be written, thankfully on "Solve et Coagula" these vocals issues have been resolved. Rocha's vocals, here, are tighter, more controlled without losing any of their latent menace, her voice prowling around the dark downtuned heaviness Costa, Amilton Jr. and Nunes lay beneath her like a panther stalking its prey.
Two of the songs featured on "Solve et Coagula" "Necromancer"  and "Salem" first found their home on the bands debut EP "Aware" and are here given a crisper treatment with the heavy distortion of the original recordings just slightly toned down giving them a fresher, cleaner feel without compromising their intensity. Of the albums newer tunes "Solve", "Eyes Inside","Summerian Tongues" and the excellent "The Serpent And The Dove" stand out as highlights, the latter built around a scorching and darkly dissonant guitar motif . This is not to say that the rest of the album should be ignored, songs like the metallically manic "Chapter XIII-"Necromancy", the stonerized chugging doom of "Tzolkin" and "Sitra Ahara"  and the atmospherically demented "Coagula"are all equally enjoyable slabs of dark stoner doom peppered with elements of psych and occult rock colouring.
"Solve et Coagula" is an album of songs that sees Black Witch take the dissonant slurred riffs of Alice In Chains and blend them into the deeply downtuned and distorted doom grooves of today, resulting in a sound that is unique and all their own.
Check 'em out .....

DEJALOSANGRAR ~ VOL.2, HABACH/POLANCO/ROBLES .... review

Social media can be many things hurtful, controversial even threatening but it can also be damn useful too. Roberto Fuentes, contributing editor at La Habitaciòn 235 and admin at Stoner Rock Manifiesto recently contacted me via Facebook's messenger service to tell me about a band he was friendly with and thought Desert Psychlist might dig. The band Roberto was referring to are a three piece band from Santiago, Chile going by the name dejalosangrar and who recently released their second EP "Vol.2.. Habach/Polanco/Robles"

Eclectic is a word often banded about in the music world, usually when referring to bands who don't play by the rules, bands who criss-cross across genres picking up something from here something from there, bands hard to pin down. Jorge Habach (drums), Herman Polanco (guitar) and Rodrigo Robles (bass) play "eclectic" instrumental rock that although finds them floating in the riff heavy waters of the stoner rock scene are also a band unafraid to occasionally steer their ship into uncharted deeper seas.
"#22" begins our journey with Habach's crashing cymbals counting in a deep rumbling refrain dominated by Robles heavily distorted bass, his titanic tones akin to a Boeing 747 testing its engines next to your head. Polanco then enters, his guitar pitched lower in the mix, supporting Robles bass rather than trying to outshine it, colouring the groove with deft brushstrokes of  six string magic. The band together take the groove through a series of shifting dynamics and moods that at times roams into Colour Haze territory only a lot heavier.
"#23" is next and takes the listener on a rollercoaster ride through a series of differing soundscapes, one minute laying down a barrage of earthy, guitar and bass heavy groove, pushed by tumultuous drumming, the next delicately meandering through psychedelic skies on a carpet of shimmering guitar arpeggios, liquid low end and tinkling percussion.
Final piece(s), "#28/#27" , sees dejalosangrar drafting in two friends to help out on what is essentially two different songs seamlessly stitched together. The addition of Ayelén Berríos (piano) and Inti Berrios (saxophone) sees the band filling out there groove with  fusion type jazzy undertones that at times stray into the arena of the freer side of that genre but are reined back by Habach, Polanco and Robles commitment to the groove, steering their ship where they want it to go, not where it wants to take them.
Only three tracks but each one has the ability to soothe, brutalise and confuse, sometimes separately, sometimes all at the same time
Check 'em out .....