June bloom, less doom and gloom

 

Less gloom, less doom, more BLOOM. That rainbow may have been shattered forever but the colors are still there, rearranging themselves to bring us the LIGHT. Colors bloom and show us the future, and the future is...US! We can remake out society into one of LOVE... LIGHT... FRIENDSHIP... NORMALITY... PRODUCTIVITY... ENLIGHTENMENT... and of course we'll need a soundtrack! I may have something lying around, and... oh, here it is! June is HERE!

This month's playlist is a very PROGgy affair. Cuz I live me some prog too, whatever that means. Progressive rock can be psych, space rock, acid rock, post rock... depends on the era. But most of us HEADS know what it means: trippy and heady and experiMENTAL and mofos who can really PLAY. Instrumental prowess is a hallmark of prog, but that doesn't mean technical can't be trippy as fuck!

From a TRIPLE PLAY of the mighty WEEN, to my friend's outfit Nofa Kinway (say it out loud!), we have some jammers who go above and beyond the call of duty. But that doesn't make them Rush or Yes, who, let's face it, SUCK. No, these trippers have their hearts and minds and souls in the right place, that place between reality and BEYOND.

Elder, Moon Goose, Mogwai, and King Gizzard straddle that bridge between the head and heart, the technical and the visceral, but then we go a little deeper into the psyche (emphasis on the "e"), deep into that hole in our souls with an upbeat slammer by Psychedelic Porn Crumpets (what's in a name? best album of the year so far! and I mean... King Gizzard?!?!? loads of odd names in this set),  to some tripped out drones from The Confederate Dead, White Canyon, and Black Heart Death Cult. Then Here the Captan Speaking and Tren Go! catapult us into motorik space! Keep moving, people! Never stop!

So... everything is somewhat normal for this Continuum, until... God Is An Astronaut assault us with their modern wave of blazing post rock, daring us the confront the demons within. All the practitioners of rote crescendo-core take notice! THIS is how post RAWK is done!

Then the really weird shit happens: it's a new band mysteriously called Black Country, New Road (they have a comma in their name, just Like Here (hear?) The Captain Speaking, The Captain is Dead, not just an exclamation point like Tren (train?) Go! Sound System and OrnaMENTAL, or Godspeed You! Black Emperor for that matter). I really don't know what they even are (maybe a hint of Slint? similarities with their modern peers like Black Midi?) but they trip me right the fuck out, and are the perfect segue into another triumvirate, this time from from Yoo Doo Right, a band named after a CAN song and who also confound me at every pace.

This selection is so good I had the give you three... TWICE! You decide. Alls I know is this is heady fucking shit and I wanna listen to it over and over again. I hope you do too! The colors reassemble, the birds still fly, we are not dead.

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Captain Fantasy/Mutilated Lips/The Mollusk - Ween
The Rabbit Hole - Nofa Kinway - The Rabbit Hole
The Mysterious Coffins Of Arthur's Seat - Moon Goose - Source Code

In Procession - Elder - Omens
Supposedly We Were Nightmares - Mogwai - As The Love Continues
Static Electricity - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - L.W.
Pukebox - Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound
Fell In A Bad Dream - The Confederate Dead - Infinite Expansion

Endless Sea - White Canyon And The 5th Dimension - Spectral Illusion
Goodby Gatwick Blues - The Black Heart Death Cult - Sonic Mantras

Space Race (Breaking The Atmosphere) - Tren Go! Sound System And Ornamental - Assessment
Event Horizon - Here The Captain Speaking, The Captain Is Dead - s/t
Spectres - God Is An Astronaut - Ghost Tapes #10

Sunglasses - Black Country, New Road - For The First Time
Nobody Panicked And Everybody Got On/Distaval/Fear Of Elevators - Yoo Doo Right