“They tap into a singular, powerful sound. The group are a truly elemental force […] phantasmagorical spectrum of sounds and rhythms; there’s moments of sparse scatter-brained confusion, moments of pastoral beauty, and moments when their music becomes a fully-fledged krautrock battle cry.”
THE QUIETUS

Locean on Bandcamp | Facebook

Artificial Head Records – the Houston, Texas-based label liable for releases by the likes of Funeral Horse​ and Terminal Cheesecake​ – is thrilled to announce the signing of experimental Mancunian collective, Locean, and with it the release of their new album, Chav Anglais.

Formed by founding members Jefferson Temple and Lauren Bolger, the pair first struck up a tryst in 2012, not in the name of archetypal love but in a shared curiosity for genre apocalypse, live extemporisation and sonic exorcism.

Having one of the most singular guitar-sounds in the city, Temple has collaborated with a host of outsider musicians both in Manchester and further afield, while serving as a permanent fixture in Charles Hayward’s Anonymous Bash. Providing a sonic bed for Bolger to lay bare her phonic consciousness, like Temple, she too has served time as a serial collaborator, performing alongside the likes of Thurston Moore​ and Official: Lydia Lunch​. For over a decade she has also promoted a fusion of artist-led readings with live music at her critically acclaimed Paradox nights, and is a Creative Writing PhD Researcher and award-winning author of poetry and flash fiction.

Together – like their creative counterparts/collaborators, Gnod – from the pair’s first clarion call (coupled with a very loose, revolving door policy) Locean has drawn upon an impressive cast of players down the years. Intuitive but at the same time meditated, scatter-brained yet acutely aware of the spectrum of influences they’re traversing, they have become a psychedelic machine free of any regular scheduled programming. Krautrockian in spirit and rawer than the rarest of exposed nerves, pulling out abrasive free-jazz and no-wave guitar assaults that encapsulate everything that’s great about bands such as Teenage Jesus & the Jerks​, The Birthday Party, Spacemen 3​ and This Is Not This Heat​. All the while, lyrically they sore through Bolger’s devastating panoramas of words and worlds

Alongside Mclean and Bolger is the band’s longest serving member, Neil Francis. Francis, who has been active in the Manchester experimental music scene for well over twenty years as a founding member of Gnod has consistently toured and performed in Europe and beyond, as well as appearing in various incarnations of bands Terminal Cheesecake and industrial agitprop collective, Errant Monks. Manning electronics and effects for Locean, Francis is joined by fellow Gnod member and drummer, Jon Perry, and bassist David McLean; a Manchester-based composer and founder of Tombed Visions Records​, McLean has collaborated with a huge array of talent from Thurston Moore to Turkish Free Jazz group, Konstrukt, and Can’s Damo Suzuki​.

Chav Anglais by Locean is released worldwide on 1st November 2019 on Artificial Head Records. Pre-order the album via Artificial Head Records here – https://artificialheadrecords.bandcamp.com/album/locean-chav-anglais

Stream Locean’s ‘Pussycat’ via Echoes And Dust below – https://www.echoesanddust.com/2019/09/exclusive-track-premiere-locean-pussyc

“Suffice to say, it is an album of breathless intensity, and highly recommended for all lovers of psych and instrumental rock.” ECHOES AND DUST

Cracked Machine on Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter

Originally formed in Wiltshire in 2015 by guitarist Bill Denton, Cracked Machine is a quartet of experienced musicians brought together in a quest for aural mayhem.

Known for their commanding live shows, since their formation the band has shared stages with the likes of The Spacelords, Deaf Radio and Qujaku. Following the release of their debut album, I, Cosmonaut, the band wasted no time in releasing an exceptional follow-up last April. Featuring hook-laden guitars that conjured soaring post-rock vistas, The Call of the Void (PsyKa Records) presented a huge progression in the band’s song writing and showcased a leaner, meaner, and ultimately, heavier sounding machine.

With the band currently writing and discussing new concepts, the quartet will enter Mooncalf Studios in November and join forces with the Berlin-based label Kozmik Artifactz (Forming the Void, Spaceslug, Ruby The Hatchet et al) to release their third full-length in early 2020, with the final mix and master being handled by Mos Generator/Stone Axe’s Tony Reed.

“Things are taking shape nicely,” explains Denton. “We have a concept, plenty of musical ideas and a lot of focus. Our writing process has evolved naturally and we’ve fallen into a more disciplined approach to writing. The structure of how we are working has actually given us a greater freedom to explore and develop ideas so there’s a very healthy level of intensity and focus in the Cracked Machine camp at the moment. We’re all super-keen to deliver the best album we can.”

The Call of the Void is available on CD / VINYL

“The classic sensibility practically bleeds from the speakers of Kelly Carmichael‘s new solo album – It’s a return to form because it’s heavy, it’s something new because it’s a different take on heavy, and it’s something old because that take on heavy is based in large part on the formative period of the style.”
JJ KOCZAN, THE OBELISK

This October will see the official worldwide release of Heavy Heart, the third solo album from former Pentagram guitarist and Internal Void lynchpin, Kelly Carmichael.

Originally hailing from Frederick, Maryland, Carmichael – who now writes, records and resides in Shepherdstown, West Virginia – first formed the cult quartet back in 1987 with friends Eric Little, Adam Heinzmann and J.D. Williams. Releasing their debut album Standing on the Sun in 1992, Internal Void’s second offering, Unearthed, was subsequently released on Greg Anderson’s much-celebrated Southern Lord Recordings (2000). While serving as Internal Void’s lone guitarist, in 2004 Carmichael also recorded with the legendary Pentagram for their sixth studio album, Show ‘Em How, before closing out a thrilling trilogy of Internal Void albums with Matricide later that year, released on his own label, Dogstreet Records.

Fast forward to 2019 and Carmichael returns, not only sporting a stunning new album but a playing style to galvanise the riffs locked within:

“I hope the listener can appreciate the more colourful aspects throughout this record, but mostly I hope they’ll find it pleasingly heavy,” notes Carmichael. “The inception of Heavy Heart began with the ‘dream-inspired’ song ‘Shadows Will’. After this dream while still in bed I had the intro and the first verse written. While not at all fitting with the current batch of songs I was working on, I decided to write an entire album around it.”

Influenced as much by the delicate intricacies of King Crimson as it is the iron first of Black Sabbath, Heavy Heart and new single ‘Shadows Will’, matches the spirt of 70s hard-rock with the doom and fury of proto-metal, to transcend those traditional dimensions which have come to shape our contemporaryview of voluminous music. Imbedded with deep-rooted blues and interwoven with the classical accompaniments of piano and violin, it successfully brings together every aspect of Carmichael’s playing and proficiencies as a songwriter. Taking in the heady days of Internal Void, his experiences of playing alongside venerated masters, and even a period in his career where Carmichael recorded two albums of pre-war era Delta/Chicago blues (Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Blind Blake) on Old Stock (2005) and Queen Fareena (2008), with Jean-Paul Gaster of Clutch on drums.

Featuring friend and percussionist Jesse Shultzaberger (The Woodshedders, Ginada Piñata, former-Deep Swell) on drums and a host of guest musicians, Heavy Heart by Kelly Carmichael is officially released worldwide on 11th October 2019 through Dogstreet Records and will be distributed by Plastic Head Distribution (Europe)/Alliance Entertainment (USA).

Pre-order the album now at https://dogstreetrecords.com/shop/

Kelly Carmichael on Web | Facebook | Bandcamp

Stream and share new single ‘Shadows Will’ here and via the player below – https://soundcloud.com/user-529534578/shadows-will-by-kelly-carmichael-dogstreet-records

“This is some heavy, groovy, addictive riffing! This is ultra-riffing if I ever heard it…”
CVLT NATION

Hot on the heels of a sold-out split from two of doom’s rising superpowers, the recently formed Swedish label, Majestic Mountain Records, is psyched to announce the release of Interstellar Voodoo; the brand-new studio album from Norwegian occult-rockers, Saint Karloff.

Having made their mark on the international heavy music scene in 2018 with the release of their debut album, All Heed the Black God, the band has continued to raise their game with new material that is far heavier, more psychedelic and complex than anything they’ve ever done before.

Rising to fourth place on the Doom Charts, generating two mind-bending music videos for ‘Ghost Smoker’ and ‘Spellburn’, and garnering praise from critics all around the world, All Heed the Black God was inspired by 70s heavy blues bands like Black Sabbath and early Pentagram and allowed the band to fuse this vintage sound with modern day stoner rock to create a sound indebted to world of today and the music of yesteryear.

With the impending release of Coven of the Ultra-Riff in September, a limited edition split with fellow riff worshippers, Devil Witches, Saint Karloff – featuring Mads Melvold (Guitar, Vocals), Ole Sletner (Bass) and Adam Suleiman (Drums) – are a mounting force to be reckoned with. And as you’ll hear from the progressive, one-track multiverse journey that spans the whole of Interstellar Voodoo, they’re unlikely to slow down for anyone, anytime soon.

“Interstellar Voodoo has been a labour of love, written and recorded to fill a void in our collective souls,” explains bassist, Ole Sletner. “To put this much devotion into something experimental is a bit scary, but luckily we have a label who believes in us. We are eternally gratefull to Marco Berg at Majestic Mountain Records for stepping up to the challenge of releasing our blood, sweat and tears on vinyl.

Interstellar Voodoo by Saint Karloff is released on 4th October through Majestic Mountain Records with pre-order beginning on 30th August 2019 HERE

SAINT KARLOFF on Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter