Give Me a Lamp, It's Going to Be Weird: Rolling Stoner/Psych/Retro/Space Rock Thread 2018

Xp I'm feeling Buh Records a lot lately; give Liquidarlo Celuloide a listen sometime GP2

Now this is one helluva neglected thread! I hadn't been on ILM much til the year-end list shenanigans, but I'd thought at least a couple folks would post!

Just out on Friday, Fester's Lucky 13 contender, Mansion - First Death of the Lutheran. I last wrote about them in my 2015 Psych Noir piece, when the Finnish Kartanoist cult band had a stunning progression of four EPs. They shared The Devil’s Blood's seriousness in their spiritual interests (though in this case not Satanic), and psych prog sonics with Jess and the Ancient Ones. Their long-awaited full length album feels like the culmination not only of an artistic arc, but a dramatic end world scenario. Someday aliens will find this album amidst the rubble and wonder what the hell those humans did to themselves.

http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2018/12/05/mansion-first-death-of-the-lutheran-sdq-stream/

Check out JJ's interview with the band.

"The whole album seems to lead to “First Death.” Did you know in writing that song that it would be the finale? What is happening there to summarize the album?

As soon as the song was starting to find its form we knew that it would be the finale. In ”First Death” we simply state that there is a difference between us and you. We will be saved and you will burn in the everlasting fires of hell while we bathe in glory in the Kingdom of Heaven by His side. Pretty much what we want to say with the whole album...

...We have live sermons and festivals booked for 2019. Book us. Today!

Merry Christmas!"

lol | https://weshalllive.bandcamp.com/album/first-death-of-the-lutheran

During the year-end list frenzy, I've also tried to keep up with the new releases. I was offline on a volunteer trip at an animal sanctuary for the past week, but I did listen to everything through my sad little Kindle Fire speaker on Spotify (forgot to pack my JBL bluetooth speaker).

Vanishing Kids - Creation: Migrated from Madison to Portland. Guitarist Jason Hartman has served with Jex Thoth. Their 5th album since 2003 adds bits of prog and shoegaze into their doom psych. After listening to bullshit from the lists like The 1975 and Ariana Grande, this is restorative.
https://vanishingkids.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-dreamer

Steeple Remove - Vonal-Axis: This long-running band from France have experimented with psychedelic space rock since 1997, and mix in some post-punk and shoegaze on their 6th and most accomplished album.
https://fuzzclub.bandcamp.com/album/vonal-axis

Amgala Temple - Invisible Airships: Norwegian psych prog jazz fusion.
https://amgalatemple.bandcamp.com/album/invisible-airships

Orango - Evergreens: Norwegian blues/hard rock.
https://orango.bandcamp.com/album/evergreens

Pharaoh Overlord - Zero: Finnish psych/kosmische, there's a great thread devoted to them here. This seems to have been overlooked by everyone.
https://pharaohoverlord.bandcamp.com/album/zero

DMBQ - Keeenly: Japanese garage doom psych/noise, I need to hear more of their back catalog!
https://dmbq.bandcamp.com/album/keeenly

The Heavy Crown - Reign On: Belgian proto-metal/stoner psych.
https://wearetheheavycrown.bandcamp.com/releases

Rifflord - 7 Cremation Ground / Mediation: Basic riffy stoner rock, but well done.
https://stbrecords.bandcamp.com/album/7-cremation-ground-meditation

Holy Grove - Holy Grove II: Just another doom album? My doom charts colleagues lost their shit over this, so it's worth exploring.
https://holygrove.bandcamp.com/album/ii

HUATA - Lux Initiatrix Terrae: French stoner doom.
https://seeingredrecords.bandcamp.com/album/huata-lux-initiatrix-terrae

I think Zero got a mention somewhere.

There's even been another Pharaoh Overlord since - a live album with a guest drummer and Tomi and another guy on analogue aynths and it's really really good. Some tracks from the Circle album with added vocals from Janne Westerlund.

I was thinking more of year-end lists. To be fair, most of the stoner psych sites haven't published their lists yet.

Now this is one helluva neglected thread!

i wanted to make a long and thoughtful post about what seems to be a major critical pivot away from stoner/psych/retro/garage but i can't quite articulate what i mean and i'm unsure if what i'm reading / experiencing is just anecdotal or part of a larger social / critical / aesthetic trend. the only thing i can say for certain is that irl i have refrained a lot from talking about certain records i liked this year because i've received a lot of sneering "guitar music" / "white guys with guitars" kinda comments -- but that's just one part of it, there's a whole other thing like something something yacht rock and steely dan and probably ariel pink has a "what's in my bag?" amoeba segment and it's like all hall & oats and neil young's "trans" and the blue nile and maybe something about living after rockism too? idk

Eh, it's cyclical, guitars and rock goes in and out of fashion in the mainstream every five years or so. Even when there is a surge of interest, it's usually just in a handful of bands, and the rest of the underground carries on unaffected. In general it seems this music continues to grow both in audiences (see the success and growth of festivals like Roadburn, the multiple Desertfests, and Psycho Las Vegas as just a few examples), and number of bands.

http://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-18/

Psych

1. Sir Robin & The Longbowmen – Prozacco
2. Oh Sees – Smote Reverser
3. Black Salvation – Uncertainty Is Bliss
4. Earthless – Black Heaven
5. JIRM – Surge Ex Monumentis
6. Ty Segall – Freedom’s Goblin
7. Spiral Skies – Blues For A Dying Planet
8. Jacco Gardner – Somnium
9. Khruangbin – Con Todo El Mundo
10. Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bon Voyage
11. Wand – Perfume EP
12. Dead Meadow – The Nothing They Need
13. The Citradels – God Bless

Space Rock

1. Mythic Sunship – Upheaval
2. Mildlife – Phase
3. Action & Tension & Space – Skåredalen Funhouse
4. Mythic Sunship – Another Shape Of Psychedelic Music
5. Vespero – Hollow Moon
6. MIEN – MIEN
7. UFO Över Lappland – UFO Över Lappland
8. The Myrrors – Borderlands
9. Lay Llamas – Thuban
10. Deep Space Destructors – Visions From The Void
11. Sendelica – My House Is Made of Angel Hair
12. Spaceslug – Eye The Tide
13. Warp Transmission – The Process Ultra

Kosmische

1. Wooden Shjips – V
2. Cave – Allways
3. Kikagaku Moyo – Masana Temples
4. Camera – Emotional Detox
5. Minami Deutsch – With Dim Light
6. Pharaoh Overlord – Zero
7. Vive La Void – Vive La Void
8. Beak> – >>>
9. Kosmischer Läufer – The Secret Cosmic Music Of The East German Olympic Program 1972-83: Vol. 4
10. CB3 – From Nothing To Eternity
11. L’Éclair – Polymood
12. Caudal – Fight Cry Fight
13. Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Hormone Lemonade

Psych Noir

1. Mansion – First Death Of The Lutheran
2. Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows – Hymns
3. Lucifer – Lucifer II
4. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Wasteland
5. The Exploding Eyes Orchestra – II
6. The Third Sound – All Tomorrow’s Shadows
7. Steeple Remove – Vonal-Axis
8. Parades Against Parades – Driving Me Stoned
9. Magmakammer – Mindtripper
10. Sonic Jesus – Memories
11. The Osiris Club – The Wine-Dark Sea
12. Crimen – Silent Animals
13. Ghost – Prequelle

Psych Prog

1. Birth Of Joy – Hyper Focus
2. Vanishing Kids – Creation
3. Amgala Temple – Invisible Airships
4. Druid – The Seven Scrolls
5. Orb – The Space Between
6. Somali Yacht Club – The Sea
7. Les Big Byrd – Iran Iraq IKEA
8. Boss Keloid – Melted On The Inch
9. Sundays & Cybele – On The Grass
10. Dungen & Woods – Myths 003 EP
11. Merlin – The Wizard
12. Yamantaka // Sonic Titan – Dirt
13. Estuary Blacks – Estuary Blacks

Desert/Fuzz/Stoner Rock

1. Sleep – The Sciences
2. All Them Witches – ATW
3. Weedpecker – III
4. King Buffalo – Longing To Be The Mountain
5. Greenleaf – Hear The Rivers
6. Blackwater Holylight – Blackwater Holylight
7. The Heavy Crown – Reign On
8. Rifflord – 7 Cremation Ground / Mediation
9. Hypnos – Set Fire To The Sky
10. Naxatras – III
11. Seedy Jeezus – Polaris Oblique
12. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – King Of Cowards
13. La Chinga – Beyond The Sky

Doom

1. Messa – Feast For Water
2. Ancestors – Suspended In Reflections
3. Khemmis – Desolation
4. Windhand – Eternal Return
5. Pale Divine – Pale Divine
6. Witch Mountain – Witch Mountain
7. Moab – Trough
8. Alastor – Slave To The Grave
9. High Reeper – High Reeper
10. The Wizards – Rise Of The Serpent
11. Dunbarrow – Dunbarrow II
12. Black Moth – Anatomical Venus
13. DMBQ – Keeenly
14. Beastmaker – EPs
15. Holy Grove – Holy Grove II
16. Alms – Act One
17. The Skull – The Endless Road Turns Dark
18. Iron Void – Excalibur
19. Hua†a – Lux initiatrix terrae
20. Age Of Taurus – The Colony Slain
21. Solstice – White Horse Hill
22. Domkraft – Flood
23. Alunah – Amber & Gold EP
24. Brimstone Coven – What Was And What Shall Be
25. Conan – Existential Void Guardian

Sweet! Thank you!

Zero is one of my favorite albums of the year btw. I didn't even know it was on bandcamp! Thanks for that too!

I thought the Vanishing Kids record was called 'Heavy Dreamer' - regardless - it's really good.

I don't know how I got the name Creation. Thanks!

The Graveyard album is absolutely underrated. It's great! I'll be checking out a lot of stuff from these lists, thanks.

Late entry I was late in absorbing cuz it wasn't on Bandcamp.

Hollow Hand – Star Chamber (Talkshow)
https://www.hollowhand.com

After a promising self-released debut of psych pop and progressive folk, Ancestral Lands (2015), the new one shows the London group lead by Max Kinghorn-Mills in full songwriting bloom. Folks are dropping names like Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, Syd Barrett, Ray Davies. Perhaps, but it definitely mitigates my disappointment of recent singer/songwriter fave Jacco Gardner releasing an album without singing, and Doug Tuttle not releasing anything this year.

Psych Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/7nhJ26VAdEW3jBd4fdoywL?si=QfGbKedHQ9GjOCsPKZFmfw

<a href="https://stonerhive.blogspot.com/";><b>Stoner Hive Countdown</b></a>

20. Orange Goblin – The Wolf Bites Back
19. Electric Citizen – Helltown
19. Spaceslug – Eye The Tide
19. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
18. Stoned Jesus – Pilgrims
17. 1968 - Ballads of the Godless
16. Castle – Deal Thy Fate
15. JIRM - Surge Ex Monumentis

https://stonerhive.blogspot.com/2018/12/number-15.html

Technically #18 should be 16 and so on, but it is Stoner Hive, lol.

14. All Them Witches – ATW
http://stonerhive.blogspot.com/2018/12/number-14.html

13. MESSA - Feast For Water
http://stonerhive.blogspot.com/2018/12/number-13.html

12. Forming the Void – Rift
12. Conan – Existential Void Guardian
http://stonerhive.blogspot.com/2018/12/number-12.html

I really enjoyed EL Heath's album from this year, Smiling Leaf, gentle folky psyche.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j6sHjk-g-4

11. Boss Keloid - Melted On The Inch
http://stonerhive.blogspot.com/2018/12/number-11.html

https://psychinsightmusic.com/2018/12/11/psych-lovers-top-twenty-albums-of-2018/

10. Somali Yacht Club – The Sea
10. ASG – Survive Sunrise
http://stonerhive.blogspot.com/2018/12/number-10.html

FnB has done an amazing job of playlisting the year already; here's my very small contribution: a playlist with all the music discussed on the thread.

ILM's 2018 Rolling Psychedelic Rock Spotify Playlist

Thanks mate! I'm slowly churning out a variety of playlists, but this is great to have for everything.

9. Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats – Wasteland
http://stonerhive.blogspot.com/2018/12/number-9.html

8. Weedpecker – III
http://stonerhive.blogspot.com/2018/12/number-8.html

On the second day of Christmas we move forwards towards Number 7 with a jump of almost twenty points once again. Leaving Weedpecker’s album III on Number 8 with a melancholy and woe dressed up as a hangover. But we shall return there. For sure. Just like we will keep returning to most of the albums we have already passed on this Top 20 Countdown. We thank all of you who voted once again, cause without you this thing would not be possible. We love doing this and we hope it shows. We also love the next album that we are going to visit now. The band has made the Countdown before. They reached Number 13 back in 2015 and Number 3 back in 2013. It’s a bit heavier than those albums, a bit muddier, a bit swampier, a bit grungier, but just as enchanting. They lure you in with seemingly effortless song structures and easy to ear doom; but once in their clutches they mesmerize you with melted edges of fuzz and eerie psychedelics. And there are those vocals, ethereal and it makes you see eternity… On Number 7 we find…

7. Windhand – Eternal Return

I loved this album!! windhand are def one of my favorite currently active heavy bands. saw them for the second time this year & i was so excited after the show i bought a tshirt! and it came in my size!!

If you ever meet and get to know Dorthia, she gives good doom hugs too!

More playlists.

Space Rock: https://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/3mDlC0pcd7K0ps0vJnJJsx?si=PDuRNrHuSoKDPemDr6-Mxw
Kosmische: https://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/3HDK9inAaSzpZrfn3tJ2bh?si=e6ldaGZoQYiuETu7MYQxuA
Psych Noir: https://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/3hvUzXkLzH7SYgUsHVIE5I?si=uPQ2AZGsQo-IP4R6MtD8aw

finally a list with both Windhand and Uncle Acid.

And then, out of the blue, Christmas has come and gone and we’re back to the grind. Slaving away at whatever it is we all do out there. But luckily there's is all this great music to give us our moments of peace and respite... And on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2018 where we pay homage to all those amazing album that were released this year. We jump another big twenty points to reach Number 6. Leaving Windhand and their awesome Eternal Return album on position Number 7. The album we arrive at now was recorded in the fabled Rancho De La Luna studio. It has turned their mighty jam-band-status into something much more concise and groovy vintage. It has turned it into a much bluesier take on everything they did and what’s even a bigger change, is that the mostly instrumental band has decided to use the vocal possibilities as well and that has resulted in the fact that we are now serenaded to for almost three quarters of the album. And it, rest assured, fits the music and it lifts the entire album up into the domain of legendary records. It’s bluesy, it’s psychedelic, it’s heavy and by God, it’s good! So, on Number 6 we find ourselves….

6. Earthless – Black Heaven

Doom: https://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/2tuf0xjSVpumYfjPpu3j9l?si=FuNeQnvQQbezIksTtbX2QA

To reach Number 5 we do a minor jump of only six points. But after that, all the jumps become bigger and bigger to reach the final entry of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2018. So, we leave Earthless and their Black Heaven on Number 6 and move on to an atmospheric record of mountainous proportion. One that has quickly become a favorite around the globe. And we had the honor to write a short blurb for the Doom Charts about this album. Which we began with an admiration for the album title alone… “… is one of the best album titles and already offers an insight to what is to come. It's simply gorgeous in all aspects. In tune with nature the new record takes you through the wide expanse and above the big wide divide. This is sleeping the dream kind of stuff! This is introspective and stellar at the same exact moment. It is so spacious and so luscious that it feels like cream to your ears. It is a true odyssey and adventure that makes you fall in love with everything all at once. Expertly weaving hypnotic and dreamy into something that not only feels grandiose but really is gigantic. Not in a bombastic sense, but in the sense of something true and honest. It reminds of that line from a long-lost poem: ‘all my life, my heart has sought for a thing I cannot name’. And with this album we can state: it has been found…” Here’s Number 5 !

5. King Buffalo – Longing To Be The Mountain

As we mentioned on position Number 5, where we found Longing To Be The Mountain by King Buffalo, the jumps in points get bigger and bigger now. We jump almost forty points to reach Number 4. An album, which, I must confess, I had definitely not expected this high. Ofcourse it’s good and the band has been making the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown with almost every album they released. Reaching Number 10 in 2015, Number 3 in 2012 and Number 2 in 2011. And we must admit we have loved everyone of those albums and one of them has become an all time favorite. And it wasn’t because the band had announced they were calling it quits some six months prior to this release. No, it’s simply because it seemed like the album had not been making the waves like all their others did before this one. But I’m glad to see it arrive at Number 4. Cause they are back! And with knives in their teeth! We can state that all their records are wild and wonderful, but that some of the sharp edge and danger slowly dissipated the during the course of their albums. It’s back now. On this album they sound much more chased, hunted and on the run. They sound like they have something to prove again. That there is no peace on their mind. Gritty, bluesy, grungy hard rock and with that ever-prevalent love for the seventies that these cats always displayed. Does the new drummer change the sound? No, he sounds like the perfect replacement for the old one, he continues the wildness we love and injects it with a new razor-sharp edge! Before we enter the Top 3 we have to deal with Number 4!

4. Graveyard – Peace

The album also kicks off my Hard Rock playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/0eM482z3FJdDoUwblNk4vb?si=j7O0J8FbT6eut6Q8JjGKpA

And now as we enter the Top 3 and see which record ends up with the Bronze Medal, we can probably guess which ones ended up on Number 2 and Number 1 as well. I am pretty sure you all know which. There was no escaping that fact. On a lot of the lists that came in the three were riding high and glorious on top. So we pass Graveyard and their Peace album on Number 4 with almost thirty points to go see about that album on position Number 3. Which is once again a band from Sweden and once again an album that has seen many editions of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown. Number 9 back in 2014, Number 14 in 2012 and Number 1 last year. This record continues where the last album left off. And thus; it gives us their very own groove and energy, it’s their bounce, it’s their stomp and you cannot help but bounce and stomp along. Chuck full of majestic riffs and amazing hooks it shows once again that these cats know what their signature sound has become. And even if you feel for a second that the album sounds like the band sounded on the last one, you realise that it is the sound which drew you in in the first place. And hey, riding that green water rapid makes everything alright! All the time!

So here is the Bronze Medal, which goes to the Number 3 position... Where we find...

3. Greenleaf - Hear The Rivers

FnB, I rarely listen to any of these tracks (not my cup of tea) but make a point of reading your descriptions closely. They are excellent. Keep them coming pls!!

^^^

Thanks, but the StonerHive countdown blurbs I'm posting are mostly written by my bud Joop Konrad. I'll pass on the love! I do contribute blurbs to the Doom Charts, and of course everything on my own summary - http://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-18/#breakdown

It's no mystery what the top two will be, one is in my own top 20 overall, the other I'm not as big a fan of, but I've enjoyed their chunky chugs in a live setting, and saw firsthand their extremely devoted fanbase.

Ha ha, I was thinking it was gonna be Clutch, but StonerHive folks had something else in mind:

We move twenty-five points up from Bronze Medal album Hear The Rivers by Greenleaf on Number 3 to reach the album you voters voted for to reach the runner-up position on Number 2. Another band that has been making the final list for multiple years. And even reaching Number 2 before. Number 8 back in 2011 and the Silver Medal for their 2014 album. This time around they were bested by almost forty points by the album that ended up on Number One. But lets focus on the raw album that lays before us. A record that translates into sound all that angst, fear and worry the writer felt when going through an awful period. It will be choking you with emotion and harrowing visions. It will be pummeling you raw with pounding riffs and grate your soul with a bone chilling voice. And that is how the record grabs you and sits you down, it will speak to you and philosophize about it all. And all of that resounds in the music. Oppressive and suffocating on one hand and expansive and progressive on the other end. There is light at the end of the tunnel…

The Silver Medal goes to…

2. Yob - Our Raw Heart

We jump almost forty points to reach the Gold Medalist of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2018 according to the 79 of you lovely freaks that sent in their lists of favorite albums this year. We thank all of those voters once again, without you this would not be possible and it would not be this much fun to do. We also thank all those bands that made the Top 20 with all of those amazing albums! But we also thank the bands that did not make it; cause there is beauty on all of them! And like every year, we will list the 21 to 100 in the next few days somewhere. So, at least a few of those albums will get a little more attention; even though they probably deserve even more. But even though it was obvious from the picture above, we still need to say a few words about the Number 1 album of 2018. Cause it came with a bang! Like a gunshot on an empty street! Like a hammer strike against the Gods… We are referring to the album released by a legendary trio. A gang of three who had not produced a full album for twenty years. The doom is vibrant, alive and more ingenious than ever. This is not doom that will drag you towards the abyss, but one that takes you up high and on an adventure. We’re going on a journey packed with riff-axes and bass-machetes. Raw, slow, delaying and discoloring sludge-riffs, carrying monotonous vocals that waft you to sleep. Thick, dirty, bass-tones deliver the perfect heartbeat for your slumber and dreams of the ideal marriage between stoner metal and doom… The Gold Medal goes to…

1. Sleep - The Sciences

good call on this HOLLOW HAND album \m/

https://doomcharts.com/2019/01/04/doom-charts-top-100-albums-of-2018/

fast, thanks for posting

some ppl I know in the band Comets Ov Cupid just did a low budget midwest Live at Pompeii shit at a decommissioned missile silo in the middle of North Dakota, the Safeguard Missle Complex (aka North Dakota Pyramid or “Illuminati Pyramid”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WybCfU_L6o0&fbclid=IwAR1-08J-U3O6ebO73X_QUFfZqKgiceUcYqnL7SlHdX-YKNly8aHyDnx29U8

oops

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WybCfU_L6o0

Liking this Yob album

It is good to see Apostle of Solitude finish that high on the Doom 100 list.

we don't have a 2019 yet?

been enjoying this LA band

https://deathchantnoise.com/releases

Any point in a new thread?

Anyway. Here's former snooker star Steve Davis with some goddamn legit kosmische

https://thequietus.com/articles/26595-the-utopia-strong-s-t-kavus-torabi-steve-davis

Loving this Lastryko album.

https://lastryko.bandcamp.com/album/t-tno-pulsu

And then the Cosmic Dead release their best album since their self-titled one:

https://thecosmicdead.bandcamp.com/album/scottish-space-race

I was only kidding about space-rock GAPDY but between "Scottish Space Race" (the title track) and Terminal Cheesecake's "Golden Hare" I definitely get the impression that the DMBQ record, at least, made major waves in the English space-psych community

Great song title, have to listen to it now

Ok I'm now convinced this is the best Cosmic Dead album

It’s awesome i can dig it.

I had to look sorta hard for this thread, assumed there was a 2019 release ha.

from 2019:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqSQnucm3co
ASHINOA - Hendwe

do i mention the fact that there's a new Kairon; IRSE! coming out here?

http://kaironirse.bandcamp.com/album/polysomn-2

do (I see you did)