MARCH-ing Forward!

 

NOTHING CAN STOP THE SPACE ROCK!!!

Onwards to less green pastures. Soon this will be the last time I see this view. Heading to my permanent home in the HIGH Desert, Joshua Tree CA, from the northern climes I've called home for 30 years. The times are a-changin', and Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere. Going to join my love, and nurse my soul, but I'ma keep on rockin' the Continuum from my new location.

So anyway, here's some toonz to help YOU March along with me. No theme, just a random selection of new and old spacerock. I'm a busy boy, so more words next month. Also: new Spiritualized and Loop!!! And be sure to check out the song from my friend's Portland-based band Lost Echoes!!!

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Mainline - Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful
Halo - Loop - Sonancy

Second Foot Stomp - Clinic - Internal Wrangler

Tangerine - Electric Eye - Pick Up, Lift Off, Space Time

Nectarine Dreams - Tibetan Miracle Seeds - Inca Missiles

Acheron - King Buffalo - Acheron
Not - Big Thief - Two Hands

Most My Time - Golden Animals - Here Eye Go
Dreaming - Lost Echoes - Stars

We Are Drugs - Throw Down Bones - Two

Сон (instrumental) - Menk - II

Bulls - All Them Witches - Sleeping Through The War

Waning - Dead Otter - Bridge Of Weird
VI-IV - Papir - VI

Eldorado - The Sun Or The Moon - Cosmic
Glen Plays Moses - Mildred Maude - Sleepover

But wait, there's more! The Very Best of 2021 Part 2

What? The 3-1/2 hours of The Very Best of 2021 Part 1 back in January (see previous post) wasn't enough? You're in luck! I've got 3 more hours of amazing spacerock musix for you! YOU CAN'T "BEET" THIS! The beet has always been a symbol of power for me, of inner strength and resilience, be it my Northern European heritage (BORSCHT!), or my love of Tom Robbin's "Jitterbug Perfume", a novel where the great god Pan delivers beets to the protagonists to create the elixir of infinity.

21 songs this time, ranging from the psychedelic to shoegaze to Kraurock/motorik to experiMENTAL rock and instruMENTAL post rock. This mix spans the gamut, and winds in up with 5 of the tracks well over the 10 minute mark for some lengthy explorations into SPACE! What space, you ask? Well it could be outer space, the stratosphere of otherworldly expeditions. Or it could be INNER space - the space between your ears. It's a place to get lost... then find yourself again. Last year's lockdown, as I've said before, showed no decline in musical productivity. The opposite in fact: artists the world over got busy with their newly found free time, an unexpected benefit of a worldwide pandemic that locked us up for yet another year, but somehow inspired endless creativity. So my spacerock hat is off to the wonders to be found in last year's offerings I hope you find this music as inspiring as I do. There's not much more to say other than... LISTEN.

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Hypnopaedia - Modern Stars - Psychindustrial
Om Ganesh - La Era De Acuario - s/t

Last Call At The Infinity Pool - Electric Eye - Horizons

God's Electric Fence - Polite Society - s/t

O.N.E. - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - L.W.
Clarified Budder - Possum - Lunar Gardens

Exit Strategy To Myself - The Notwist - Vertigo Days
Flock Of Swans - Mountain Movers - World What World

Dawn Patrol - Rose City Band - Earth Trip
Delving - Delving - Hirschbrunnen

To The Bin My Friend, Tonight We Vacate Earth - Mogwai - As The Love Continues

The Inner Void - The Oscillation - Untold Futures
Last King Of Hell - Cult Of Dom Keller - They Carried The Dead In a U.F.O.

Runes - Diagonal - s/t

Space Race (Breaking The Atmosphere) - Tren Go! Sound System and Ornamental - Assessment

This Is Us - Throw Down Bones - Two

Basfällan - Kungens Man - Den Nya Skiven

Nexus - Elara Sunstreak Band - Vostok 1
17.01.2020 #3 - Papir - Jams

Shrinks The Day - Ryley Walker And Kikagaku Moyo - Deep Fried Grandeur
Government Came - Godspeed You! Black Emperor - God's Pee At State's End

The Very Best of 2021 Part 1

Okay, here goes nuthin'. Although all of this musix falls amongst my faves of the year, I always have to make a Top 10 list. And it's so fucking hard to limit it to just ten! So I allowed a few "runners up" because they deserved it. With apologies for omissions, impulsiveness, controversies, and periodic changes of heart, this... is... IT:

1. Low - HEY WHAT

2. Papir - Jams

3. King Buffalo - Acheron/The Burden Of Restlessness (two album tie)

4. Tibetan Miracle Seeds - Inca Missiles

5. Electric Eye - Horizons

6. Mythic Sunship - Wildfire

7. Black Heart Death Cult - Sonic Mantras

8. The Sun Or The Moon - Cosmic 

9. Jack Harlon And The Dead Crows - The Magnetic Ridge

10. Hooveriii - Water For The Frogs

Honorable mention:

Menk. - II

Mildred Maude - Sleepover

Polite Society - s/t

Tonstartssbandht - Petunia

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - God's Pee At State's End!

Trees Speak - Post Human

So... WHAT THE FUCK, 2021?!?!? Longest year of our lives! But somehow musicians the world over managed to safely record pandemic music in prolific amounts! Maybe isolation lockdown can contribute to inspiration, determination, and a soul-deep desire to say Damn The Torpedos, we're going to RAWK! Who knows what 2022 will hold, but I have SIX AND A HALF FUCKING HOURS that says 2021 was life-affirming from the perspective of the musix that keeps us alive and thriving in the face of adversity. This will be divided between my January and February playlists but I hope you'll listen... dig DEEP, and trip through the never-ending Spacerock Continuum with me!

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Days Like These - Low - Hey What
Time To Live - Blankenberge - Everything

Trevena - Mildred Maude - Sleepover
Olympia - Mythic Sunship - Wildfire

Inca Missiles - Tibetan Miracle Seeds - Inca Missiles
Glitter Bug - Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound

Control - Hooveriii - Water For The Frogs
Kartoffelstampf - Camera - Prosthuman

BBQ - Acid Dad - Take it From The Dead
Honey - The Kundalini Genie - Half In, Half Out

Hex - The Third Sound - First Light

Глаза - Menk - II

Blackened Soul - The Kings Of Frog Island - VII
Seven Kingdoms - White Canyon And The Fifth Dimension - Spectral Illusion

Stereofuzz - Acid Rooster - Irrlichter

I Might Have - A Place To Bury Strangers - Hologram

Hebetation - King Buffalo - The Burden Of Restlessness

Langolier - Jack Harlon And The Dead Crows - The Magnetic Ridge

Queen Of The Underground - Goat - Headsoup
Teenage Daydream - Plankton Wat - Future Times

Trippin' On Mars - The Sun Or The Moon - Cosmic
Punk Product #4 - Dummy - Mandatory Enjoyment

Hall Of Death - Matt Sweeney And Bonnie Prince Billy - Superwolves
Pass Away - Tonstartssbandht - Petunia

Hopsa-japapé - Upupayama - s/t

Gas - Zement - Schleifen

The Calling - Maragda - s/t
Sacred Ritual To Unlock The Mountain Portal - The Hologram People - Sacred Ritual To Unlock The Mountain Portal

The Moral Compass Of A Self Driving Car - Yoo Doo Right - Don't Thing You Can Escape Your Purpose
Sonic Dhoom - The Black Heart Death Cult - Sonic Mantras

Mexicali/Calexico - 10,000 Russos - Superinertia
Tap End - Foam Giant - Acetate Parade

Oscured - The Oscillation - Untold Purpose
From Deep Within - Elder And Cadaver - ELDOVAR - A Story Of Darkness And Light

This one goes to infinity!!!

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!!

There is light in darkness. There is darkness in light. The eternal ouroboros swallows its tail as the cycle continues, dark light dark light dark light... like the seasons. As December is the darkest month, I gathered some choonz that encompass darkness and light, sometimes within the same song. Cuz without Yin there is no Yang, and vice versa. And this playlist is all over the fucking spectrum so prepare for a wild ride!

Starting with a couple borderline glowstick-waving trance-edelic tracks, Zement and Throw Down Bones bridge the gap between rave (Goa? you either know or don't) and krauty motorik. Then shit gets really weird.

Low have long been known to produce insular claustrophobic lo-fi slowcore, but their last couple albums have culminated in one of the most groundbreaking "rock" albums of all time: "HEY WHAT". Using the studio as an instrument they utterly deconstruct what could be relatively straightforward indie rock pieces, made from nothing but guitar, drums, and incredible, impeccable vocal harmonies, then shattering it through the looking glass with digital noise and manipulation. I haven't heard an album as "important" than this since early Eno. ALBUM OF THE YEAR.

Then an adventure into the ecstatic, with noisemongers in love with sound for sound's sake Mildred Maude, Mythic Sunship who take psych rock to Sun Ra freak jazz proportions, poly-tonalists King Gizzard from New Zealand, and millifluous guitar/drums duo of brothers Tonstartssbandht from Florida, pastoral-gone-ritual frenzy from Upupayama, and desert-fried reverence from Sisters Of Your Sunshine Vapor. The Nova Saints top it off with the cathartic sugar high of early ecstasy culture.

Then to counter all that light we get dark with Jesu's cinematic shoegaze, A Place To Bury Strangers latest and earliest (Skywave is Oliver Ackerman's pre-APTBS project), and 10,000 Russos' metronomic drive.

Then we're back the psychedelic catharsis of Menk and Papir, largely improvisational outfits, culminating in a lengthy tension-and-release workout from Hey Colossus.

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Goa - Zement - Rohstoff
No-Fi - Throw Down Bones - Two

More - Low - Hey What
Chemo Brain - Mildred Maude - Sleepover
Going Up - Mythic Sunship - Wildfire

Black Hot Soup - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - Butterfly 3000
Falloff - Tonstartssbandht - Petunia

Hopsa-Japape - Upupayama - s/t
Desert Brain - Sisters Of Your Sunshine Vapour - Desert Brain

Sugar Coated - The Nova Saints - Newfoundland
Alone - Jesu - Terminus

End Of The Night - A Place To Bury Strangers - Hologram

Over And Over - Skywave - Killerrocknroll

Super Inertia - 10,000 Russos - Superinertia
Coh (instrumental) - Menk - II

VI - Papir - V
A Trembling Rose - Hey Colossus - Dances/Curses

A multicolored life

 

Rainbow hills! Whether real or imagined, it's the same. It's all in how you SEE it.

And HEAR it!

This playlist is literally multicolored, all over the board, every piece a star player in the game. We start with an unusual track on the fringes of the space rock realm... space jazz? This track is a standalone anomaly from the Lounge Lizards, denizens of the bowels of NYC, and differs from their avant garde freejazz/punk skronk by lightyears. I had to add it after reading the memoirs of their fearless leader, the illustrious wizard John Lurie. What a story, what a man, what a band! What a SONG.

We then return to our regularly scheduled programming with some down and dirty psych/blooz, with Jack Harlon And The Dead Crows (Melbourne, Australia), King Buffalo (Rochester, New York), and All Them Witches (Nashville, Tennessee).

Following that we have some modern psych par excellence with The Nova Saints (Bristol, UK), Hologram People (UK), and Upupayama (Parma, Italy).

Then maybe some motorik madness with Zement (Wurzberg, Germany) and Mugstar (Liverpool, UK)? Some gritty psych traditionalists with The Third Sound (Berlin, Germany), Dead Radio (Newcastle, Australia), and Acid Dad (Queens, New York)? Some shoegaze-adjacent jams from Chatham Rise (Minneapolis, Minnesota) and The Horrors (London, UK)?

Then off the deep end into the experimental post-punk of Liars (Australia). And we wrap up the set with some impossible to classify weirdness from Acid Baby Jesus (Athens, Greece), Domiciles (Scotland), Yoo Doo Right (Montreal, Quebec), Menk (St. Petersburg, Russia), and 3AM (Lima, Peru).

It's like a grab bag of leftover Halloween candy, close your eyes and dig in. You never know what sweet confections await you. Chances are you'll get lucky and grab the psilocybin-infused ones. Those are the BEST! And the parenthetical points of origin yet again illustrate the fact that spacerock is EVERYWHERE!

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
A Paper Bag And The Sun - Lounge Lizards - Voice of Chunk
The Tale Of The Magnetic Ridge - Jack Harlon And The Dead Crows - The Magnetic Ridge

The Knock - King Buffalo - The Burden Of Restlessness
Alabaster - All Them Witches - Sleeping Through The War
The Draft - The Nova Saints - Newfoundland

Pray To The Maypole Witch - The Hologram People - Sacred Ritual To Unlock The Mountain Portal
The Blue Magician's Fantasy - Upupayama - s/t

Soil - Zement - Rohstoff
Star Cage - Mugstar - Graft

Tokoloshe - Dead Radio - Callisto
RC Driver - Acid Dad - Take It From The Dead

Hummingbird - Chatham Rise - Meadowsweet

Dive In - The Horrors - Skying

From What The Never Was - Liars - The Apple Drop
Untitled - Sisters Of Your Sunshine Vapour - Spectra Spirit

Diogenes - Acid Baby Jesus - Selected Recordings
Six Degrees of Separation - Domiciles - This Is Not A Zen Garden

Marche De Vivants - Yoo Doo Right - Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose

Volni - Menk - Lopasti Buddy

UHF - 3AM - Transmissions

I'm back! Well, sort of...

Hello dear spacerockers. I am deeply sorry to have missed my September installment, but your fearless leader has been recuperating from a "mystery illness" (NOT Covid) and convalescing in isolation, too weak to even sit at the computer to write, much less make a mix. My condition is improving but it may be a long road. My deepest sympathies to anyone affected or afflicted by this plague - my own malaise has given me deeper perspective ("too MUCH fucking perspective") as to the world's many ills. One of our only consolations is that MUSIC will get us through. It always does. So SLOW DOWN, be mindful, appreciate what we have, and give this playlist, two months in the making, a good contemplative head spin. You'll be glad you did.

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Can't Stand - 3AM - UFO Blues Tapes
Cato - Mugstar - Graft

At Heaven's Gate - The Third Sound - s/t
Tehb - Menk - II
Maankind- The Haands - We Aare The Monsters

Burning - King Buffalo - The Burden Of Restlessness
Heatstroke #2 - Automatism - Immersion

Make Worry For Me - Matt Sweeney and Bonnie 'Prince Billy - Superwolves
Big Wheels In Shanty Town - Rain Tree Crow - s/t

A Certain Sense Of Disenchantment - Yoo Doo Right - Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose

Lord Shiva's Mothership - The Hologram People - Sacred Ritual To Unlock The Mountain Portal
Wait And See - Delving - Hirschbrunnen

Sand - Zement - Schleifen

Bridge Of Weird - Dead Otter - Bridge Of Weird
17.01.2020 #1 - Papir - Jams

Haunted Houses In The High Desert

Ever get the feeling there's a mysterious presence in your SPACE? In your house, in your room, in your bed... in your HEAD? The spirit will be benign as long as you acknowledge its presence, allow it to be a part of you, absorb its essence - this is an opportunity to align with the STARS. Don't deny it, accept it and be calm in the universe, and be at peace. The triumvirate of songs leading off this set are for YOU. Band Of Horses, The Confederate Dead, and the notorious Butthole Surfers appear to be asking the same question in their own inimitable ways.

After a rough take off with an obscure Swell Maps outtake, the Deliverous Mistale (mistake?), we then launch into the HEAVENS with Sun Dial, Karkara, Purple Heart Parade, and Pretty Lightning. Then comes the inevitable come down, soothed by the ever-dependable Warlocks. Then it's time to get off yer ass and space boogie with Penza Penza, and two Loves, both Dimension and Explosion.

Then OG shoegazers Ride live up to their name and takes us on a journey on the back of The Grasshopper! And the voyage to The Outskirts Of Reality continues with Papir, Mote, Yuri Gagarin, Weites Luftmeer, and crashing back down into inner space with Dadamah. I know this playlist is a little all-over-the-place, but sometimes that's the way I like it. And the SPIRIT does too.

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Is There A Ghost? - Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
I Feel It (Do You Feel It Too?) - The Confederate Dead - Infinite Expansion
Who Was In My Room Last Night? - Butthole Surfers - Independent Worm Saloon

Deliverous Mistale - Swell Maps - Mayday Signals
Fire From Heaven - Sun Dial - Mind Control
Proxima Centaury - Karkara - Crystal Gazer
Lonestar - Purple Heart Parade - Lonestar
Greyhound - Pretty Lightning - Jangle Bowls

I'm Not Good Enough / Party Like We Used To - The Warlocks - The Chain
Wunder City - Penza Penza - Beware Of Penza Penza

Fire - The Love Explosion - Own Your Mind Business

Outer Space - The Love Dimension - Tree In The Seed
Grasshopper - Ride - Grasshopper

20.01.2020 #1 - Papir - Jams

Samalas - Mote - Samalas
The Outskirts Of Reality - Yuri Gagarin - The Outskirts Of Reality
Couche Tard - Weites Luftmeer - Couch Tard

Limbo Swing - Dadamah - This Is Not A Dream

Summerlong

Hello summer! Wistful for the waves of long ago, longing for the desert sea of my future. This is me. Is it you too? Journeys are coming, journeys need soundtracks, and I've got a helluva great one for YOU (as always!). This month is a headtripper for sure, featuring some of the very best (mostly) recent psych and spacerock. The mind journeys being generated during worldwide lockdown emerged with a newfound intensity in spite of, or perhaps because of, our collective pandemic blues.

And where did they come from? Denmark (the blazing jazz-inflected motorik of Mythic Sunship); Los Angeles (the proggy murmurations of Hooveriii - pronounced "Hoover-three");  Hay On Wye, UK (the driving trance of Moon Goose); Montreal (the bombastic declarations of Yoo Doo Right); London (the hypnotic postpunk of Hey Colossus); Brazil (the psychedelic explorations of White Canyon And The 5th Dimension); Poland (the kraut-influenced experimentalism of Lastryko); Finland (the manic mantras of the mighty Circle, taking us back to 1998); Portland, OR (the exotic travelogues of the EPIC Grails, circa 2007); Liverpool (the Spacemen 3 worship of Mugstar); Sweden (the prolific improv of Kungens Man); unknown (the is-it-a-German-band-from-1973-or-a-modern-forgery-of-mysterious-origin? acid rock of Golem); Dublin, Ireland (the inexplicable what-the-heck-is-this-ness of Afterwardness); and finally, also from Montreal, The Dears offer up their trademark cinematic catharsis asking the universal human question: is there really no such thing as LOVE?

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with the geographical locations of all these artists I've been exploring and curating. I mean, it's all from SPACE, right? But I guess it helps define the journey, makes it more interesting by pointing out that space is where you find it, space is EVERYWHERE, and we are not alone on this journey. So take a trip with me, won't you?

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Maelstrom - Mythic Sunship - Wildfire
Gone - Hooveriii - Water For The Frogs
Second Life - Moon Goose - Source Code

The Ocelot That Lost A Lot - Yoo Doo Right - Nobody Panicked And Everybody Got On
The Eyeball Dance - Hey Colossus - Dances / Curses
Ouroboros - White Canyon And The 5th Dimension - Spectral Illusion
Dwa - Lastryko - Tetno Pulsu
Kartano - Circle - Pori

Silk Rd - Grails - Burning Off Impurities
Zeta Potential - Mugstar - Graft

Raketens Vandring Over Himlen - Kungens Man - Stockholm Maraton
Stellar Launch - Golem - Orion Awakes
Shellakapooky - Afterwardness - s/t

There Is No Such Thing As Love - The Dears - End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story

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

May(be) is here~

MAYbe there will be live music again soon. MAYbe we can go back to living in relative harmony with one another rather than in FEAR. MAYbe we can all hug each other jump in unison together and rock in SPACE. MAYbe we won't die - MAYbe will all LIVE!

But there's no MAYbe in the music. There's no doubt that the spacerock continuum CONTINUES to flow with abundance. New discoveries of old music, new music generated under lockdown, the music is eternal. And I have a particular fondness for the euphoric rising drone explosion inherent in some psych and space rock that I can only think of calling the "Ecstatic Hey" (as opposed to the "Monolithic Undertow" explored in a recent book of the same name). As in the cathartic "heeeeeeyyyyyy...!" build up that elevates a song skyward. Hard to describe, but you'll know it instantly and inherently when you hear it. Consider the opening songs by the late great (and mostly unsung) Weekend, and by Mogwai, Hooveriii (pronounced Hoover 3), Astronoid (not so much in this cover song but in many of their others), and even the proggier dynamics of Amplifier, who are a recent strangely obscure discovery of mine. Among many others - Jane's Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins, many post rock bands, and even the heavenly psychedelia of relatively unknowns Yume Bitsu - it can be vocal, instrumental, or both. Listen, dig, and explore, and see if you get what I mean.

In this playlist list we also have some surprising shifts in sound, from the unusually psychedelic guitar workouts of Lou Barlow's (Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, etc.) "NEW" Folk Implosion, incendiary jamming from the usually subdued freak-folky Devendra Banhart, and a dub-cum-noise freakout by postrock balladeers The Dears.

We have more dub/psych from the Berliners Camera, Saharan motifs from prolific Aussies King Gizzard, blazing motorik psych from Chileans Astromelia, tribal experiMENTALism from Londoners Gum Takes Tooth, dark drone from Portuguese 10,000 Russos and The Oscillation from the UK, psychedelic space exploration from Valencians Here The Captain Speaking, Arcane Allies (also Berliners), and Moon Goose from Hay On Wye UK, culminating in the kind of heady improvs that Swedes Kungens Man proliferate. I sincerely hope you enjoy the JOURNEY. May-be?

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Coma Summer - Weekend - Sports
Ceiling Granny - Mogwai - As The Love Continues
Bird On A Wire - Hooveriii - s/t

Only Shallow (My Bloody Valentine cover) - Astronoid - single
Airborne - Amplifier - s/t
Brand Of Skin - The New Folk Implosion - s/t
Rats - Devendra Banhart - What Will We Be
Postcard From Purgatory - The Dears - No Cities Left

Bajo La Sombra - Astromelia - s/t
Alar Alar - Camera - Prosthuman

Ataraxia - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - L.W.
The Arrow - Gum Takes Tooth - Arrow
UsVsUs - 10,000 Russos - s/t

Truth In Reverse - The Oscillation - Monographic
Lithium Sturm - Here The Captain Speaking, The Captain Is Dead - Flux Capacitor

State Of Hypnosis - Arcane Allies - Saraswati
Fist Fight At The Bingo - Moon Goose - Source Code

Third War Three - Kungens Man - Branna Tid

Ain't no foolin'...!

Sometimes space rock isn't all about the SPACE, as in outer space, but the space between.

The space between worlds, the space between our ears, the space between fantasy and reality (whatever that is). Sometimes it's earthly, existing in mystical woods like the Japanese firefly forest pictured above, the vast oceanic vistas of my beloved Pacific, or the cosmic expanses of the ancient desert stonework in my soon-to-be permanent home of Joshua Tree in the California Mojave (don't worry, I'll still be blogcasting no matter where I lay my weary head). And now that I'm fully vaccinated who knows where we'll go?!?!?

So SPACE ME! And remember, it's still space rock, whether it's the psych-y explorations of the James Gang in the 70s or the House of Love in the 80s or Baliterpace in the 90s. Whether it's the 21st century shoegaze of Nothing or the berserk psych frenzy of Slift. Whether it's the kraut drone of Finland's mighty Circle or Japan's Minami Deutsch. Or the psych-en-espanol of Los Acidos or Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. Or the gorgeous experiMENTAL post rock of Verstarker or Lastryko. Or the psychAmericana of Tulsa Drone or Jackie O-Motherfucker.

Say it with me: It's. All. Space. Rock!!!

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Turn To Stone - The James Gang - The Best Of...
Cruel - The House Of Love - Babe Rainbow
Bernie Sanders - Nothing - The Great Dismal

Trapezohedron - Slift - La Planete Inexploree
Scoop - Circle - Meronia
El Habla - Los Acidos - s/t
What's Holding You? - Lorelle Meets The Obsolete - Chambers
Now - Adama - Ganga

No Heaven Like Hell - The December Sound - The Silver Album
Pyre - Servo - Alien

D Thing - Bailterspace - Wammo
Trenker - Verstarker - Mehrwerk III
Limbo - Lastryko - Limbo

Futsu Ni Ikirenai - Minami Deutsch - s/t
Long Way Back - The Janitors - Drone Head

Closer To The Sun - Lammping - Bad Boys Of Comedy
Monongahela - Tulsa Drone - Songs From A Mean Season

Radiating - Jackie-O Motherfucker - Bloom

March Madness!!!

 

Have I used this title before? Who cares?!?!? Certainly not this little psychonaut bird!

All that matters is the SOUNDZ! And we've got some fun stuff here to propel us toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccines and future gatherings and a new US administration that isn't based on egomania and nihilism. HOPE? I dare say it's returned.

So why not a little Black Sabbath tribute from Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and his friends? Why not a Rain Parade cover from Asteroid #4? Why not some berserk psych-en-espanol from Los Acidos, IAH, Vuelvateloca ("drive you crazy"), and Firefriend? Why not an absolute BEAST from the mighty Mogwai, and some barnburners from Turtle Skull, Hotel Wrecking City Traders and OG psychsters Bardo Pond? It's all here, resolving with the bliss that is the OZEAN.

I can't wait to chill on some San Tropico beach "once all this is over". And even if we can't make plans yet, we CAN see that light that beckons us. My friends, one thing we've learned is that we're all in this same fucked up trip together, and once the surreality wears off...? Well, we'll still have SPACE ROCK!

So sit back, smoke 'em if you got 'em, and enjoy THIS trip with me! And I may have never mentioned here, but you can contact me on my Facebook page. Hit me up, tell me what you like, ask me about the artists, just say a socially distant fucking HELLO!

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Sweet Leaf - BSCBR - Master Of Rehearsal
Espejos - Los Acidos - s/t
Glasgow Mega Snake - Mogwai - Mr. Beast

Cabalgan Los Cielos - IAH - s/t
23 Enigma - My Sleeping Karma - s/t
Ciudades Subterraneas - Vuelvateloca - Contra
I Look Around (Rain Parade cover) - The Asteroid #4 - These Flowers Of Ours
San Tropico - Vintage Cucumber - San Tropico

Higher Worlds - Vinyl Williams - Lemniscate
Who Cares What You Think? - Turtle Skull - Monolith

Home Or Exile - Firefriend - Fantasma
Holy Motors - Alien Mustangs - Alien Nation
My Eyes Are Always Heavy - Mountain Movers - Pink Skies

Cosmodrome - Temples - Cosmodrome
Rockwind - Heavy Moon - 12

Saturnine And Iron Jaw - All Them Witches - Nothing As The Ideal
Third Reichel - Sungod - Contackt

Phantamonium - Hotel Wrecking City Traders - Phantamonium
Night Of Frogs - Bardo Pond - On The Ellipse
Ozean - Colour Haze - Tempel

The Very Best of 2020 Part 2

 

Ya know, things look pretty FUCKED out there. And I admit, things are pretty fucked, even after some modicum of equilibrium has been established. That's the ROCK. The lightning is US. Looking for some grounding. Or some kind of release. I'm not sure where we're headed. Some relief may come. I'm not sure where I'm headed. I'm at a fucking CROSSROADS (don't mention the Devil - he already knows). 

But looking back, 2020 was less dark than where 2021 is headed. Let's hope we have another year as amazing for space rock as 2020 was (and many of these recordings were done in isolation!). Isolation? You don't know isolation. I continue to work with mask on, salvage relationships with no close contact, and LIVE if only for the SOUNDS. For, there is nothing else but the MUSIX. Just listen to this shit, okay? Judge for yourself. If anything it indicates that there is HOPE. Although right now I feel as I could jump off a starbridge and fall into the great unknown and NOBODY WOULD FUCKING CARE. Correct me if I'm wrong...

Three hours. 31 songs. Epic fucking goodness. Lotsa GAZE in this set. Lotsa psych en espanol. Epic one-two punch opener with Turtle Skull and Hey Colossus (my two favorite songs of the year) and one-two punch closure from Alien Mustangs and Iah (my other two favorite songs of the year), as well as a "hidden" country-psych track from Rose City Band for palate cleansing). It's a journey for sure.

JOIN ME

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Rabbit - Turtle Skull - Monoliths
Revelation Day - Hey Colossus - Dances/Curses
Five - Flavor Crystals - Moon Patrol
Hollow World - Elephant Stone - Hollow
Accept - The Love Explosion - Own Your Mind Business

Inner Eye Insight - The Love Dimension - Tree In The Seed
Dias - Vintage Cucumber - San Tropico

Emision - Sei Still - s/t
Pill - Peel Dream Magazine - Agitprop Alterna
Once Upon A Freak - Ringo Deathstarr - s/t
Say Less - Nothing - The Great Dismal
Dream Rats - No Joy - Motherhood

Waves - Hum - Inlet
Hide - Deserta - Black Aura My Sun

Flames vs The Seventh Art - The Voices - Death Of A Lover's Song
Centro De La Ciudad - Sunset Images - single
Misterio - Las Cobras - Selva

Puentes Enterios - Vuelvateloca - single
Al Otro Lado - Los Acidos - s/t

Contingencia - Mint Field - Sentimiento Mundial

Us Vs Us - 10,000 Russos - s/t
Shades - Split Moon - Slow Satellite
Teenage Hive - Facs - Void Moments

Olde Feelings - Tonstartssbandht - single
Logos - Lemurian Folk Songs - Logos

Szabodelico - Causa Sui - Szabodelico
Let It All In - Arbouretum - Let it All in

Fairy Meadows - Alien Mustangs - Beat of The Earth
Uaset - Iah - III
Real Long Gone - Rose City Band - Summerlong

The Very Best of 2020 Part 1

Yes, that's a genuine space rock above, m'dears. Made of actual stardust, as are we all. We may not feel that united, but we've endured all this fuckery together: the pandemic will be all but over sometime this year, the con-man president will be kicked to the curb, and we can be TOGETHER again, in real time, at music festivals, at listening parties, at club gigs, and just snuggling up with one another with some space rock soundtracks!

And yes, despite all the chaos, torpor, and general shittiness, 2020 was a very good year... for SPACE ROCK! And in keeping with tradition, January is when I list my TOP TEN ALBUMS of the previous year. Always challenging and contentious (I frequently argue with myself), this list is subject to change, the positions 1-10 are somewhat arbitrary, and aside from these ten there was a TON of great musix. So much in fact I've split the Best Of playlists into two THREE HOUR segments. But first:

The Top Ten Albums for 2020!

1. Slift - Ummon

2. The Asteroid #4 - Northern Songs

3. Kanaan - Odense Sessions

4. Turtle Skull - Monoliths

5. Vintage Cucumber - San Tropico

6. Los Acidos - Los Acidos (2020 reissue)

7. Split Moon - Slow Satellite

8. Ringo Deathstarr - s/t

9. Kooba Tercu - Proto Tekno

10. Vuelvateloca - Contra

So now I bring you the first HALF of the Spacerock Continuum's Very Best of 2020 playlist. THREE HOURS in length, 37 songs, it's only the first installment of two, painstakingly curated by ME, Beedub, cuz I LOVE YOU!

Get ready for a lengthy journey comprised of international artists all of whom managed to release amazing musix during this troubled year. From futurama to modern psychedelia to tribal rhythms to kosmische to noise rock to stoner rock to shoegaze to post rock to electronica, it's all SPACE ROCK to me!

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
2020/A Warning In The Dark - Maserati - Enter The Mirror
Ummon - Slift - Ummon
Space Caravan - Karkara - Nowhere Land
10,000 Dong - Moon Goose - The Wax Monster Lives Behind The First Row Of Trees
Home Or Exile - Firefriend - Fantasma

Fair Game - Kooba Tercu - Proto Tekno
Holy Shit Part 1 - Blanchard - Holy Shit

Shine Theory - Household Gods - Palace Intrigue
Ol' Mule Pepe - Low Rider - Refractions
Enemy Of My Enemy - All Them Witches - Nothing As The Ideal
Mind Leaf - Heavy Trip - s/t
Red Star Part 2 - King Buffalo - Dead Star

123 Eternity - Pretty Lightning - Jangle Bowls
Magical Flight - Halo Noose - Magical Flight

Seminal Art - Cafe Racer - Shadow Talk
Forest For The Trees - Lammping - Bad Boys Of Comedy
Petrichor - Purple Heart Parade - Desolation Angel

Sonic Dhoom - The Black Heart Death Cult - Sonic Dhoom
No One Weeps - The Asteroid #4 - Northern Songs
The Quiet Ones - Kelley Stoltz - Ah! (etc.)
I - Servo - Alien

Sound Of Confession - Helicon - The Can Only Lead To Chaos
Post Animal - Post Animal - Forward Motion Godyssey
C+A - Lastryko - Limbo

Malibu Liquor Store - Shit And Shine - Malibu Liquor Store
The Aughts - Flat Worms - Antarctica
That Dream (Shitty Beach) - Magik Markers - 2020

A Bright Form - Mountain Movers - single
Division Blues - Caspian - On Circles

Electric Saloon - Ellis/Monk Ensemble - San Diego Sessions
Seemingly Changeless Stars - Kanaan - Odense Sessions
Arp (Parts I-IV) - Dan Deacon - Mystic Familiar

The Dao

That's the Dao, or Tao, depending on your preference. It means "The Way". As in way of living, way of being, way of existence, or my family name. The path... the road... the way to... enlightenment. Just BE. Be like the water that flows around the rocks to the path of least resistance yet fills all with liquid love and light... and SOUND. There will always be sound, and we humans only tap the source and drink of its essence. We're LISTENING. Always creating and listening and shaping and flowing because sound is the Dao.

The dao is the way is the flow is the motorik rhythm and strange sonics of bands like British pioneers Stereolab, this completing my 3-month feature called MULTI-PLAY with the third and final installment featuring multiple tracks from a highlighted artist, this time mixing two tracks from their groundbreaking album 'Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements'. Peel Dream Magazine exist as a simulacrum of Stereolab's ethos, with a name referencing both the late great John Peel, champion of musical esoterica, and popular fanzine music that may have somehow bypassed most of the populace. Brightonians Electrelane exist in a similar vernacular, as do krautrockers from diverse places as Sei Still (Mexico City) and Minami Deutsch (Tokyo).

Then it's time to switch gears with the blissed-out noise-for-noise-sakes of Soviet Soviet (Italy), Is Bliss (Wales), and Helicon (Scotland). Continuing into modern psych cuz that's what we do, we have Halo Noose (Scotland), Las Cobras (Uruguay!), Vintage Cucumber (Germany), Trad Gras Och Stenar (Sweden), and Verstarker (Kentucky, US!).

To wrap up this set we set forth on an epic journey (replete with more motorik/dao splendor) of space exploration out into the cosmos, seeking the sun (the LIGHT), and back inwards deep into our psyches, with lengthy tracks from Mt. Mountain (Australia), the double sun of Kanaan (Norway), and finally we wrap up this MAD MAD crazy bad/good weird WTF and just plain glad-it's-over year by swimming into the sun with Kandodo, the side project of The Heads' Simon Price. GOODBYE and good riddance, 2020! You brought us some great music (just wait until you hear the Best Of 2020 playlists in the upcoming months!), but that's about it, so FUCK YOU, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out (same to you, "Mr. President"). BYEEeeeeeeee...!

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Our Trinitone Blast/Analogue Rock - Stereolab
Eyeballs - Peel Dream Magazine - Agitprop Alterna
Bells - Electrelane - Axes
El Camino - Sei Still - s/t
I've Seen A U.F.O. - Minami Deutsch - With Dim Light

Endless Beauty - Soviet Soviet - Endless
What To Believe - Is Bliss - Strange Communication
Kolorskope - Helicon - Mind Explosion
Rollercoasting Your Mind - Halo Noose - Magical Flight
Evil In Your Eyes - Las Cobras - Selva
La Fruta Bomba - Vintage Cucumber - San Tropico

Punkrockaren - Trad Gras Och Stenar - Hemlosa Katter
(Hallo) Commando - Verstarker - single

Seek The Sun - Mt. Mountain - Cosmos Terros
Double Sun Part 2 - Kanaan - Double Sun
Swim Into The Sun - Kandodo - k2o

All Shall Be Revealed in November!

 

I've got a Triple Threat of personal and global expectations happening the first week of November 2020:

1. That I will buy a house.

2. That I will have healthcare.

3. That WE will have a new president of the United States.

Upon writing this these factors are complete unknowns but filled with HOPE for the future. AND it's Daylight Saving Time - let there be more LIGHT!

I've also got a new Spacerock Continuum for ya'll, so DIG THIS! First I'm digging into the distant psychedelic PAST for a different kind of Triple Threat with tracks from The James Gang (1970), Blue Oyster Cult (1974), and The Amboy Dukes (1968)!

Then I continue my 3-month feature called MULTI-PLAY with the second installment featuring multiple tracks from a highlighted artist, and this time it's Japanese pysch/folk/prog weirdos GHOST! I've mixed FOUR of their tracks together for your listening pleasure, and if you've never heard them before I hope this blows your space socks off!

Then we delve into the not quite as distant past with early-oughts oft-overlooked should-have-beens Ambulance Ltd, then deep back into the 90s with the spacier side of the indie rock that was flourishing in those days with Archers Of Loaf, Built To Spill, The Boo Radleys, Bailterspace, Dinosaur Jr, and Husker Du! Next up, a band that was hitting their peak back then released a fantastic comeback in 2020: the one and only Hum, followed up by a fantastic modern band that harkens back to the glory daze of shoegaze, Ringo Deathstarr, then with a little post rock homage to their forebears, the mighty Mogwai, it's obscure but wonderful G-Plan.

Then we round up the TIME with a segment featuring only what I would call Modern International Psych; artists that are as diverse in SOUND and location of origin as they are pleasing to the SOUL: Julie's Haircut (Italy), Radar Men From The Moon (Netherlands), The Dunes (Australia), Pretty Lightning (Germany), Kooba Tercu (Greece), Alber Jupiter (France), and Muun Bato (Minnesota, US). The "scene" is not only alive and well, it's GLOBAL, and offers us solace during worldwide MAYHEM. The sounds of SPACE will comfort us during this dark TIME, because it has been said that..

"IF ART IS HOW WE DECORATE SPACE, THEN MUSIC IS HOW WE DECORATE TIME."

The following tracks are included in the player below:

Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
The Bomber - The James Gang - The James Gang Rides Again
Astronomy - Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties
Journey To The Center Of The Mind - The Amboy Dukes - Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Aramaic Barbarous Dawn/Leave The World!/Hazy Paradise/Piper - Ghost
Yoga Means Union - Ambulance Ltd. - s/t

Step Into The Light - Archers Of Loaf - Vee Vee
Velvet Waltz - Built To Spill - Perfect From Now On
Lazarus - The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps
X - Bailterspace - s/t
Little Furry Things - Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me
Eight Miles High (Byrds cover) - Husker Du - single
In The Den - Hum - Inlet

Cotton Candy Clouds  - Ringo Deathstarr - s/t
There's People Lying Dead In The Stairwell - G-Plan - All Roads Lead To This
Until The Lights Go Out - Julie's Haircut - In The Silence Electric
What The Lightning Said - Radar Men From The Moon - Strange Wave Galore

Just Because You're Not Being Followed Doesn't Mean You're Not Paranoid - The Dunes - s/t

RaRaRa  - Pretty Lightning - Jangle Bowls
Ukunta - Kooba Tercu - s/t
Uber En Colere - Alber Jupiter - We Are Just Floating In Space
Planet Of The Children - Muun Bato - s/t