Bardo Pond - Bufo Alvarius, Amen 29:15 (1995)

I don't really know how to classify this album. Drone, shoegaze, noise rock, post rock, space rock, psychedelic rock, or is it some kind of Frankenstein monster made up of all of them? Fuzzy droning guitars build up layers of solid sound and then the band weaves melodies through the wailing wall of sound, whether they are some sort of cosmic blues, meditative chant, or some other remnant of whatever musical influences built this album.

The main portion of the album explores all of the possibilities contained within that collection of influences. The album ends on the collosal "Amen," and while I love the kind of sloppy noisy blues rock that makes up the rest of the album, Amen feels relaxing. It relieves the tension of the album. It is almost a peaceful song, despite the droning guitar. The bells and the female vocalist have a sort of beauty that is lacking in the rest of the album and is a fitting way to end it.

I figured this was the least likely album of my possible choices to have overlap with the group, so hopefully I will be giving some people a new listening experience. DemonCashew is pretty positive about it, so hopefully thats a good sign for the rest of your preferences. (Though he likes Lady Gaga and Animal Collective so I'm not sure if we can trust him.) He says I should mention the vocals, which I guess are kind of weird when they are actually trying to say something. I don't know what that guy is going on about.

the place of sending

post courtesy of Florpy.

Vincebuz - La Dimension Desconocida (2009)

Genre - Stoner Rock, Hard Rock, Acid Rock
Review - As you might have guessed by now, this band from Brazil is a Blue Cheer worship band. Now how can that be anything but awesome? Its another one of those gems I stumbled upon while browsing sludge swamp website. Apparently, the band members send their music to the site's admins to be posted on the blogs.
This album contains the compilation of songs from their EPs and few live acts.
"You’ll find heaps of fuzzy, super dense, distorted riffs building up a wall of sound which tastes of trippy desert-space rock and fat, dirty, groovy, doomy tunes that remind me so much of Church of Misery. As a bonus feature, this album possesses the vibe of the live performances but rendered with the high quality of a studio production. Beautiful indeed …"
Mediafire

Palace In Thunderland - Apostles Of Silence

To dare, to will, to dominate, to demolish.

Little is known about this Stoner \ psychedelic band from the US. The band distinguishes itself from other like-minded bands of the time by incorporating a rapid fire progression of riffs and fuzzed out metal songs backed by long winded psych rock jams all fitting together to form a complex yet beautiful and trippy jigsaw puzzle in the end. The band wanders carefully down the 70's rock road with heavy psych elements tugged deeply into their hands. With influences ranging from Sabbath to Monster Magnet to Floyd, Rush, Zeppelin, Hawkwind and as well as Faith No More the tunes of the band seem to move from a groovy stoner rock song to a slow mo psyched out space psych jam.



It was a long bumpy ride for the band, but the era of Palace has come to a close after seven long years. The singer from this band would eventually move on into Black Pyramid which released their debut album earlier this year, thus garnering some of the much deserved reputation for the band.

Get Pschyed

My Solid Ground - My Solid Ground (1971)

Genre - Krautrock, Space Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Its difficult to define their genre. Since Krautrock itself is a wide term, it doesnt necessarily help define the sound of "My Hairy Chapter". I have seen people on prog archives lable it as progressive rock but honestly their isnt much progression going on either. Its more of a hard rock album with spacey and psychedelic passages.

Its a beautifully executed album. There is this "A Saucerful of Secrets" aura about this record, It may not be as spacey as that legendary album, but its more varied as a whole. Keep in mind that I am not suggesting that its a Floyd rip off by any means. Just that it will be a sure hit among early floydheads. The album begins with the song "Dirty Yellow Dust" which has the psychedelic guitar tone throughout, Its immensely repititive to the point that you end up loving the song. Then there are definitely a few fillers here and there but that dont distract you much from the original sound. This version has a 25 minute version of the song "Flash" which is where you see all the improvisations, melodic key solos, stoner guitar leads, and whatnot! ENJOY!

-EyehateDoG
-Megaupload

Blue Aside - Demo (2009)

Today while going through my usual mid-afternoon blog-hopping routine, I ran across a band with the unassuming name of "Blue Aside". The review I'd skimmed through sounded favorable, so I dropped by their myspace page and downloaded their 3 song '09 demo.

It turns out that the project is made up of previous members of Palace In Thunderland (who some of you might know as the truly excellent band that Andy Beresky was a part of before the advent of Black Pyramid) and current members of Psych Rockers Aeolian Race.

Having woken up with a Goatsnake song stuck in my head, and having listened to Burning Saviours all morning, I was, needless to say, well in the mood for some underground doom; but I was honestly unprepared for something this good.

The first song starts in with spacey electronic segway into a simple slow, downtuned doom riff, repetition, repetition, drums further establishing the internal heartbeat of the song, then, out of nowhere, an uplifting cathartic set of leads push through the murk supported subtly in the background by barely-audible keys, then, as they cut out, and a display of Sign-from-Space-era Paul Chain vox kick in, you're set for two minutes of a swirling jouney through star-strafed chasms of breathtaking, scintillating, sweeping cosmic power, before the song ends, and the next intersteller endeavor begins.
Otis' Sun, while in title is an obvious homage to Ken Baluke's band of Canadian Stoner Doom giants, is more in substance a vaguely Floydian seven-minute spacy doom anthem full of soaring leads, heavy, driving rythms, and superbly fitting airy vocals. I fucking love this track.
The final 'bonus' song, "Sound Escapes" (haha, pun-tastic) is about as fittingly titled as can be. It's more or less a 5 minute instrumental backdrop of entrancing Hawkwindish flourishes and otherworldly soundscapes.

So yeah, as soon as I was done listening to this the first time, I scrambled to ask the band if I could host this demo here for you all. They were game, and all I can say in return is-
Mission accomplished with this demo, guys. I can't wait for a full length.

For fans of Doom, Space Rock, Hawkwind, music.
Mediafire
- FeatherofHuginn

Paul Chain - Sign From Space (2001)

Paul Chain, has always been overlooked in the metal scene, right from his early days when he created the ever so influential Death SS (FeatherofHuginn: with Steve Sylvester). Being from Italy, it wasn't a surprise that he turned out to be one of the best doom metal acts to have ever graced the metal circles. However, with the release of Alkahest he gained a small fraction of his long over due fame and respect.

Ever since, his open mindedness to experimentation has led his crazy mind to wander off of the streets of doom metal and heavy metal, the very streets that gave him some of the recognition he so badly deserved, into such genres of music one would never in his wildest dreams dreamt of him to go off to. And that brings us here today with his release, "Sign From Space" which as pretty easily decipherable belongs to the space rock genre.

Heavily heavily influenced by 70's rock and space rock bands such as Hawkwind, this release has been divided into 4 tracks, Sign From Space 1 - 4. This musical journey is in fact a musical realm of bluesy guitars, the signature psychedelic chaotic calmness and wicked studio effects. If you like 70's rock with a touch a psychedelia mixed with a tad of metal influenced guitar solos, then you cannot go wrong with this release.

~ Vaibhav (formerly: SpectrumOfDeath)

Mediafire

Porcupine Tree - Voyage 34 (1992)

Genre - Space Rock, Psychedelic Rock

Reviews - This is the their most underrated work apart from the epic 40 minutes version of the track "Moonloop". Its a shame that the fans dont bother exploring PT's earlier efforts which in my humble opinion is far more matured, varied and better than their latter mainstream albums like Deadwing, In Absentia, Lightbulb Sun.

This EP is over 1 hour long and contains four awesome trippy songs. Songs that will be best enjoyed by turing the lights off and playing at "just audible" volume. There are pretty obvious Hawkwind influences on this EP.Infact the Hawkwind influence was also there on "The Sky Moves Sideways". Its more of space rock oriented than Progressive rock which the band adopted in the coming years. Its mandatory for the fans of post-TSMS fans of PT r anyone who hasnt heard this one before.

Part 1 Megaupload
Part 2 Megaupload
- EyeHateDoG