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December 2023 = |
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Hermetic
Brotherhood of Lux-Or
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Andy Bracken
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The Silver
Linings
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Mondo Drag
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Hermetic
Brotherhood of Lux-Or – OHR
(CD/DL
from OHR
| Hermetic Brotherhood of Lux-Or
(bandcamp.com))
Some
years back I took it upon myself to compile
regular Terrascope playlists, which ran from
2014 to 2018. So far as I can tell they were
received mostly with indifference, although
the Sunday Experience, bless it, was kind
enough to pronounce them ‘clever’ and
‘essential’. Even reviewers need the
occasional endorsement and that one’s still
at risk of being framed. But seriously,
folks, they were a means of helping showcase
many of the acts we reviewed while hopefully
encouraging others to submit material in the
expectation of receiving enhanced profile.
Most importantly it gave me an excuse to
check out interesting stuff reviewed by
fellow scribes.
Hermetic
Brotherhood
of Lux-Or were one such find, and even had
they been the only one then the whole
process would have been thoroughly
worthwhile. And so to OHR, on which
Sardinian duo Laura Derm and MS Miroslaw mix
sacred horse skulls (her on male, he on
female) with synths, beats and samples of
gods know what, while sharing disconcerting
vocal duties. And
they record in a cave. The result is an
arcane blend of the post-industrial present
and a celebration of a mysterious and
obscure ancestral past. It is ritualistic,
thrillingly intense, and not for the faint
of heart. As for the musical tension you
could pierce the atmosphere with an
exquisitely carved ritual dagger.
‘M’hashasins’
is
magnificently hypnotic, genuinely
frightening and an obvious contender for one
of those pesky playlists were they still a
feature. But it isn’t even the best thing
here, no sir. The longest cut, ‘Nur Ruhin’,
is also one of the most compelling – imagine
if you will Tomaga and Can teaming up to
interpret Hawkwind pounder ‘Opa Loka’ for an
Italian pagan folk horror film soundtrack.
About two thirds in and it suddenly changes
pace, transformed into a shamanic whirlwind
that renders you breathless without leaving
your armchair. Equally cathartic while at
the same time darker and more restrained is
the slightly unnerving ‘Ihr Or Texas’. By
this point you’ve either strapped yourself
in for the ride or furtively eyeing the room
for exits. The choice is yours.
And
then
breathe… Sure, it’s relentless, makes
fiendishly good use of repetition and may at
times feel a little claustrophobic but not
uncomfortably so. Neither does it
necessarily set out to bludgeon the listener
into submission. It is more nuanced and far
more skilfully crafted than that whilst at
the same time signalling a full-on
commitment of body and soul. How you’d wish
Nurse With Wound would sound every time, OHR
has to be up there in your humble scribe’s
top 5 or so albums of 2023. Word is that
Hermetic Brotherhood of Lux-Or are looking
for gigging opportunities for next year.
Hopefully someone will make it worth their
while to cross the water to our damp and
windswept isles. If that happens then I’ll
be there at the front, drinking it all in –
in fact drink in hand to steady the nerves
and (to hell with the amulet at this point)
an aspirin lodged under my tongue for
protection. This is strong stuff. Want some?
(Ian
Fraser)
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ANDY
BRACKEN - WORDLY GOODS, THE CUT, and
FOLKLORIST THE TOMMY HISTON STORY
(all
available
from Amazon)
Perhaps
best
known to Terrascope readers as a co-founder of
Fruit De Mer Records, Andy Bracken soon turned
his hand to other projects including these three
excellent books that combine beautifully written
stories with a love of music/vinyl in a way that
will appeal to many of you.
Let's start with ‘Worldly Goods’, a
book I read in one sitting, the story concerning
Danny Goods who inherited his Dad’s record
collection, filed chronologically, seven years
when life was good and then ignored until a
change in circumstances gives him the
chance/inclination to finally discover what it
is he has actually inherited. As Danny listens
to the collection, in order, he discovers
letters from his father that explain key notes
in his life beginning to connect dots in Danny’s
memory and making sense of his past, discovering
not only more about his father but also about
himself in the process.
As the book progresses we meet a host
of characters from both the past and the
present, the tales interwoven perfectly, the
reader drawn into the lives of these people and
you begin to care about the outcome of the tale,
the characters written in a precise and warm
way, you want to know more of their lives. One
of the most interesting characters is a crazy
musician from the sixties whose music later has
a cult following and whose long-lost album turns
up as a demo pressing in the collection this
album being pivotal to how the story unfolds a
clever device that works beautifully. Easy to
read, very hard to put down, ‘Wordly Goods’ is a
fantastic book filled with hope and a positive
outlook that will make you both smile and cry.
It also mentions ‘Tangerine Dream’ by
Kaleidoscope, never a bad thing.
If the previous book is filled with
hope, then ‘The Cut’ takes us down darker paths,
the tale Of Ant and Juliet and their doomed
teenage love affair, destroyed by parents,
distance and naivety, the story is told in
flashback by Ant, now grown and married yet
still desperately in love with Juliet and
carrying a dark secret that haunts him. Within
the story there are moments of beauty and
passion, yet you can see dark clouds gathering,
circumstances beginning to overwhelm our hero,
his obsession with collecting vinyl records an
escape from the past that ensnares him every
day. Whilst ‘Wordly Goods’ used the records as a
way to lead the tale onwards, here the records
are not as important as the song, each one used
to soundtrack a memory within the story bringing
the flashback to life and you can trust when I
say you will hear ‘I Go To Sleep’ in a
completely new way if you read this book. Once
again the tale is filled with realistic,
believable characters that bring the story to
life, each one playing a part, fulfilling a role
allowing the tale to flow to its ending. So
likeable are the main characters that you
continue to hope for a happy ending whilst
knowing that it seems very unlikely to be true,
yes there is closure, a sense of relief, but I
shed a few tears when I finally put the book
down the emotional content slightly overwhelming
as it builds to its finale. Highly recommended.
Finally we come to ‘The Tommy Histon
Story’, the musician we met briefly in ‘Worldly
Goods’, and here given the full biographical
treatment, a tale of a man ahead of his time,
filled with Alien abduction, madness, drugs, sex
and rock and roll. Beautifully written and awash
with believable characters, I really don’t want
to give anything away, another gem of a book
that will appeal to anyone who is musically
curious and loves a good story.
Before I started reading these books I
hadn't read a novel for a couple of years, these
stories have given me hope that there are still
tales I want to hear, thanks go to Kevin Bolton
for lending them to me and Andy for suggesting I
actually read them, cheers. (Simon Lewis)
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THE
SILVER LININGS – PINK
FISH
(LP,
CD,
Digital on Spinda
Records)
A
few months ago, we reviewed the excellent
self-released debut EP TSL by Málaga,
Spain-based psychedelic rockers The Silver
Linings. We
knew there was a full-length LP coming as they’d
signed with Spinda Records; we waited patiently
and eagerly - and here it is.
The four-track EP is now a seven-track
LP, and is one of my highlights of the year.
The band plays melodic psych songs and
they hit the musical trifecta – superb writing,
musicianship and production.
Their
tuneful songs combine both verse-chorus
structure with terrific guitar and synth-based
instrumental breaks that hit a Goldilocks zone;
the tracks are all in the four to six-minute
range and get you deep enough to take a
pleasurable little space trip with The Silver
Linings, but never overstay their welcome with
overlong navel gazing.
There’s
not
a bad track in the lot, or even an average song,
but I’ll hit some highlights.
Opener “Cosmic Excursions” is pretty much
what the title says; it’s a nice opening mission
statement summing up what The Silver Linings is
all about: a
driving hook-filled rocker with a sudden change
to a guitar-laden outro.
Title track “Pink Fish” begins with a
wondrous instrumental section that gets my
imagination thinking of a scene in a movie where
a hand clears away a palm frond and the camera
pans across a hidden paradise bursting in
colors. Halfway
through, The Silver Linings do one of their
patented mid-song U-turns.
The vocals begin and the band churn
through a funky, potent psychedelic rocker.
The
single
“Patient M” is inspired by the fascinating true
story of an unknown soldier who was shot in the
head during the Spanish Civil War in 1938.
He survived, and from then on, his mind
was a long-running series of psychedelic-like
perceptions and experiences.
Up was down, objects multiplied, colors
changed, and sounds and touches produced new
sensations and pleasures.
Dr. Justo Gonzalo studied Patient M for
decades, and accomplished ground-breaking
research on the mechanism of the human brain.
The Silver Linings turn a fascinating
subject into a brilliant song.
On
“In the Fleeting Hand of Time,” another of the
additional tracks that expanded from the EP, a
narcotic haze clouds the verses in the first
half, and in the second half guitarists Javier
Toledano Castro and Caterina Serer Viana take
the wheel and blow the roof off with some fine
melodic shredding.
Rhythmic powerhouse “Lifeforce” answers
that musical question of how would Goat sound if
The Edge joined?
The answer is, apparently, quite
extraordinary.
In
The Silver Linings, Spinda now has a very potent
and enviable one-two punch with fellow
countrymen Moura, whose Axexan, Espreitan
was one of my favorite albums from last year.
The Silver Linings is a band to savor.
Have some Pink Fish tonight,
enjoy the psychedelic ride, and don’t forget the
sauce.
(Mark
Feingold)
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MONDO
DRAG – THROUGH THE HOURGLASS
(LP,
CD,
Digital on RidingEasy
Records)
This
is a solid outing from Mondo Drag, lately of the
Bay Area, though they formed near the
Illinois-Iowa border.
They play rock in the classic style, very
Seventies, with songs long enough to stretch out
with plenty of guitar and keyboard solos, which
often veer toward the spacey side.
Their members are all excellent
musicians. The
band’s been out of the studio for a while;
although this is their fifth album, it’s their
first since 2016, and the feeling of lost time
permeates lyricist John Gamiño’s
writing.
Beginning
with the two-part “Burning Daylight Pts 1 and
2,” about the wildfires in California, the band
colors in the song with organ, distorted and
Leslie’d guitar.
John Gamiño’s
vocal style reminds me very slightly of Death
Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, with that calm
presence in the middle of a lot of sound,
although Mondo Drag sounds nothing like the
aforementioned indie band.
The
epic 11-minute instrumental “Passages” is almost
an homage to Pink Floyd, with references to
“Echoes” and portions of The Wall applied
liberally and often, and guitar and synth solos
aplenty. The
album’s finest tracks are reserved for Side Two
in your humble scribe’s opinion.
The title track contains a sly reference
to the opening visual from the television soap
opera Days of Our Lives, which Gamiño
fondly remembers watching with his now sadly
departed mother.
Mondo Drag blends sorrowful laments on
time’s immutable march with stunning keyboard
and guitar work.
“Death
in Spring,” about three people who were close to
Gamiño
and left way before their time, again contrasts
Gamiño’s
placid
vocals against sonic heaviness, with some biting
Wish You Were Here-era synths and
Gilmour-like guitar playing.
It’s my favorite track on the album.
On finale “Run,” the synths are here for
equal parts atmosphere and solos, as another
melancholy-themed track finishes in a grandiose
instrumental flourish.
The
themes in Through the Hourglass are full
of despair, and the music, though brimming with
brilliant playing, reflects this despondence.
I’d not heard of Mondo Drag before, and
will definitely check out their back catalogue.
They’re not quite as Floydian derivative
as my descriptions might make them sound;
they’re definitely their own thing, with some
Floyd touches lovingly sprinkled here and there.
This is an album to dig into and it’s
well worth your time.
(Mark
Feingold)
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