With a band name so obscure it’s like they don’t want to be found, a mocking album title and featuring a musical parody of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Mr. Phylzzz (pronounced “Mr Flies”) demonstrate on their latest album Cancel Culture Club (Amphetamine Reptile Records), that they aren’t taking anything too seriously.
Valley Of The Sun transport us to a desert vista with their hard-hitting, classic blues rock fourth album, The Chariot (Ripple Music) The topographical downside is a straight-ahead tendency to skim the surface of the sand without revealing psychological depth or any hints at complicated thinking below.Continue reading
Ripple Music has announced that Stoner Rock/Desert Scene innovators Fatso Jetson are joining the their roster! Their new album is a split release with fellow Californians All Souls (also ex-Totimoshi), with both bands recording their contributions live in the studio during the pandemic lockdown. The release is due this August. More details are soon to follow.
Desertfest, GloomyLightsPhotography
2022 is a special year for desert rock / stoner rock / doom metal extravaganza Desertfest London. The event, which takes place across multiple venues in and around Camden and has become a mainstay of the UK heavy music scene, was cancelled in 2020 for obvious reasons and then rescheduled as a special 10-year anniversary event for 2021. Inevitably, the 2021 festival was again cancelled, so the 2022 edition is not only the first Desertfest London for three years, but also a chance to celebrate in earnest a “Decade in the Desert”.
Work on Greenbeard’s third album started four years ago, but numerous line up changes and the dreaded C word delayed things slightly. The wait is over as the Texan Stoner Rock groups third album, aptly titled Variant (Sailor Records/Kozmik Artifactz), is finally with us – it sees them mix fuzzy stoner rock with psychedelic, blues, soul and heavy metal influences.Continue reading
Alex Vinci, Brasko, and Conal Murphy of The Last Vinci have released a lovely album in The Revolution is Made Together (Narrow Door). The album is like happiness flying through the clouds. The songs on The Revolution is Made Together have a pleasant, even keeled feel.
Culled from the same sessions that birthed the Lavender Blues EP in 2020, Big Scenic Nowhere’s second full-length expands the supergroup’s jammed out take on Desert Rock. However, The Long Morrow (Heavy Psych Sounds) sets itself apart from Vision Beyond Horizon by means of a more grounded approach. There aren’t as many songs as before and the album is about ten minutes shorter than its predecessor overall. The guest list also isn’t as loaded this time around, only featuring keyboardist Per Wilberg and The Cure/David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels on the colossal title track.
Witchcryer’s second full-length album comes with a noticeably broader scope in comparison to their 2018 debut. In contrast to the more groove-friendly approach to Doom Metal seen on Cry Witch, the song lengths on When Their Gods Come For You (Ripple Music) run longer with a greater emphasis on atmosphere and methodical structuring. The lyrics also work to give the album a more palpable sense of purpose, running the gamut of underworld and death figures from various world mythologies.
Like the previous installment, the third chapter in Ripple Music’s Turned to Stone series is framed as a challenge between two contenders for Stoner Doom supremacy. But while Chapter II saw Howling Giant and Sergeant Thunderhoof put forth their competition as a battle of wits between mythic swordsmen, Chapter III is the culmination of an ongoing meme war between Merlin and Wizzerd. It also operates on a similar template as each band is given a full epic track to put their best foot forward.
Those who deserted Pisa-based riff kings, Mr. Bison, after their 2012 debut album We’ll Be Brief (Dracma Records) will recognise neither the physical nor the sonic entity that exists today. Only guitarist/vocalist Matteo Barsacchi remains from that initial incarnation, now replenished by two more Matteos – vocalist/guitarist Sciocchetto and drummer D’Ignazi – and the dry, ZZTop-influenced sound of that first effort has been gradually replaced by an oft euphoric leaning towards a form of Desert Psychedelia as progressive as it is retrospective. Their fourth album Seaward (Subsound Records / Ripple Music) is the band’s biggest step forward yet, displaying a level of invention and confidence that is both profound and joyous.Continue reading