Dark Jazz

Dead Man’s Eyes, III (Tonzonen 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , ,

Psychedelic folk band Dead Man’s Eyes return with their sophomore long-player, III.

Dead Man’s Eye’s is from Germany, and they play music that enjoys the influences of jazz, lounge, psychedelic, and country music, plus the musicians’ own unique expulsions. I have read the band’s music described as “morbid psychedelic pop, infused with garage and country influences.” To me, that fits under the acoustic doom umbrella, and that explains my initial interest in the band. They released an EP in 2013 titled Meet Me In The Desert, and a full-length album in 2018 known as Words Of Prey. The music is quiet and modestly-paced, giving ample opportunity for nuance to sink in as you listen.

“High On Information” is a folk-inspired walk down the path of inevitability. The acoustic guitar plays the cares sung about away while the harmonica offers an uneasy idea to take with you. The final flourish of guitar toward the end is a rough shake before moving on to “I’ll Stay Around,” a song with a more deliberately haunted quality to it. It carries a different torch but it is walking the same lonely country roads. “In My Fishbowl” lands like a cross between a White Stripes song and one by Devil Makes Three, lightly toasted with a dusting of arsenic. It is an excellent example of light-hearted sinister.

“Time & Space” is an airy instrumental piece, with subdued pep and a spacey payoff. “Take Off Soon” plies the garage rock angle, with echoey vocals and gently stabbing guitars. The resolution through piano was unexpected, as was the sharp cut off at the terminus. “On The Wire” plays a different game, slipping in a Golden Earring hustle at the start and a very welcome series of punctuating sparks. Nicely done.

The final three songs begin on “Into The Madness,” which is a rambler – a feisty little road tune that makes you decide, yes, you do want to stay and listen to the end. “Never Grow Up” is a good song to drink to, and “Nobody At All” takes the rolling riff and runs with it. The album delivers appreciated differences, and its divergence from what I regularly listen to was a genuine delight. Recommended.

III is out on August 19th through Tonzonen Records, and Bandcamp is always a good choice for picking up music in the US.

Links.

Dead Man’s Eyes website, http://deadmanseyes.com/

Bandcamp, https://deadmanseyes.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/deadmanseyes

Tonzonen Records, https://www.tonzonen.de/

© Wayne Edwards

Dead Man’s Eyes, III (Tonzonen 2022)

Abhorrent Expanse, Gateways To Resplendence (Amalgam Music /Lurker Bias 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

The debut album from Abhorrent Expanse is a heavy music exploration that challenges accurate description: Gateways To Resplendence.

Abhorrent Expanse is an “avant/improvisational metal quartet” that combines a variety of ideas to form unusual heavy music shapes. This manner of musical creation often has hit-or-miss outcomes with listeners and not much middle ground. Essentially, you have to listen yourself and see what you think. Recommendations are of little use. On this set, the band is Luke Polipnick (vocals, guitar), Erik Fratzke (guitar, bass, keys), Brian Courage (bass, organ pedals), and Tim Glenn (drums, percussion).

It has been said in the promo materials that this album “articulates the unspeakable dread which dwells in the sepulchral caverns of the mind. A grotesquely improvised manifesto plumbing from the depths of blackened death, funeral doom, noise, and free jazz, it defies the listener to decipher its riddles and confront its paradoxes.” I was looking out for all this while I listened. My ears were up for funeral doom especially. It is all in there.

Remember the first time you heard Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma and you read the title of the song “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict” and then you listened to the music and wondered what the fuck the one thing had to do with the other? Same thing here, except with a mad mash-up of heavy music ideas.

There are ten tracks on the album, ranging from the quite short to the more-than-fourteen-minute variety. Black Metal lives here and emerges on a recurring basis in the longer pieces. The improvisational jazz aspects come up on the regular as well to clap your ears. There are two big pieces – “Annihilation Operators” and “Arcturian Nano Diamonds from the Tranquil Abyss” – along with a considerable collection of interstitial material. The big events are complex and fascinating. They take you through all manner of emotions and experiences. Strap in because they are a ride.

Of the shorter tracks, I especially like “Frost Suffocation” as it feels like the title is happening to you while you listen. It is hectic and frightening at times, and also has long passages most drear. Excellent. Also, “Against the Churning Void, Apparitions of a Lost and Glorious Starscape,” which I found quite lithe with deepening edges.

This is certainly not for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and heavy music fans searching for the edges of the genre will like the journey, too. I am always up for an adventure so this one gets a recommendation from me.

The story unfolds on Friday, April 8th through Amalgam Music on CD and digital, and Lurker Bias has the cassette. Check out the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://music.amalgamusic.org/album/gateways-to-resplendence

Lurker Bias, https://lurkerbias.bandcamp.com/

Amalgam Music, https://www.amalgamusic.org/

© Wayne Edwards.

Abhorrent Expanse, Gateways To Resplendence (Amalgam Music /Lurker Bias 2022)

Slow Burning Rage, Slow Burning Rage (Pax Aeternum 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , ,

Slow Burning Rage is a zig-zagging trip through an uneven landscape toward a visible but distant horizon.

Ryan Parrish is the mastermind behind Slow Burning Rage. He plays most of the instruments on all the songs and is joined by a long list of talented musicians who add spice to his creations. Parrish is best known as the drummer for Bleach Everything and Iron Reagan. With Slow Burning Rage, he connects the dots between the different musical worlds he inhabits in interesting and unusual ways.

The album opens with a squawking saxophone on “Agonal Gasp.” Free-from jazz perturbations follow; a cataclysm of sound. It is an upsetting, well-titled song. “The Slow Burn of Madmartigan” strikes a different tone altogether. It is considerably more linear while still being fascinating in its composition. It is a guitar driven number that could be the soundtrack for a road trip down a haunted highway. Next up is “El Tio (Curse of the Caves),” and, surprise, it is completely different. It is eerie, with a rambling bass line and an echoing general presence. There is a sinister build in the background that gives you chills.

“A.L.A.S.” is a quiet yet powerful ambient piece leading into the grinding “Scaphism,” a song that leaves you hyped up. The final movements have a light but worrying ephemerality to them, particularly “Transience,” but also “Dark Thunder…” The final track, “…Crystal Nebula,” takes you out to sea. While there floating on the waves, you realize you are actually in space, or maybe in some other not-earthly realm, some in-between order. The feeling is not reassuring, but neither is it threatening.

The album overall is a collection of feelings and moods. Under the right circumstances, a person could experience it as a journey. It is not loud metal music but it does have heavy moments and it offers the possibility of insights. Recommended.

Slow Burning Rage is out today, Friday, December 17th through Pax Aeternum. Take a look at the Bandcamp page for more info.

Links,

Bandcamp, https://slowburningrage.bandcamp.com/releases

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/paxaeternumdigital

Slow Burning Rage, Slow Burning Rage (Pax Aeternum 2021)

Odd Circus, Mantha (Good Idea Music 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , ,

Free-form improvisation is the orifice through which the music expands into creation on the new album from Odd Circus.

The band describes its music this way. “Forged in improvisation, the band’s music navigates a boundary-less sonic landscape that embraces the unknown and welcomes the bizarre. The result is an experimental style of psychedelic art-rock that weaves its way into garage, fusion, krautrock, no wave, post-rock, noise, hard psych, and sci-fi prog.” The musicians are Graham Robertson (saxophones and effects), Partin Whitaker (drums), Crews Carter (bass and effects)

If this music comes from live free-form improvisation then color me amazed. The notes read that the set is compiled from this process, so maybe they worked in the form and captured the lasting bits for the album. Whatever the process, the creativity is a boundless expansion that takes no time to consider what is possible.

With drums, saxophone, and bass, enhanced with “effects,” the fullness of these instrumental pieces is a marvel. It is heavy and driving and up-tempo for the most part, splashed and slammed with surprises. When the music slows a touch or quietens for a while, an eerie sensibility takes over that complements the pulsing urgency of the other passages. Progressive post-rock, we could call it, and with the saxophone you can’t take your finger off the jazz button either, but if it is jazz, its dark.

Each piece flows into the next, and still they all have their own perspectives and outcomes. The titles of the tracks are named after mythical entities like “Djinn” and “Dybbuk” and “Wendigo,” providing the perfect launch for the musical explorations.

Pushing aside predilections, the music on this EP will find its way into your psyche. It will be an altered state experience for the heavy music crowd, and we could all use that now and again. Recommended.

Mantha drops on Friday, April 2nd. Bandcamp is your best bet for a hook-up in the US.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://oddcircus.bandcamp.com/album/mantha

Website, https://www.oddcircus.net/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/OddCircus

Odd Circus, Mantha (Good Idea Music 2021)