Classic Rock

Record Label: Drag City Style: Rock

The German instrumental duo SANKT OTTEN, founded in 1999, consists of Stephan Otten (drums, programming, synthesizer) and Oliver Klemm (guitar, synthesizer, piano), and has been releasing on Denovali Records since 2009. Their eighth album ENGTANZ DEPRESSION (engl.: CLOSE DANCE DEPRESSION) expresses a significant progression of their material on the preceding album trilogy (Gottes Synthesizer, Sequencer Liebe, Messias Maschine). New drum sounds and acoustic instruments such as harmonium and piano may be found, and some pieces emerged from free improvisations, which is a completely new approach taken by this band. The album starts with "Urlaub Unter Psalmen" which builds up slowly, piles up further, just to completely disintegrate in the end. Klemm's typical E-bow guitar parts and the dubby baseline make this track a catchy tune. Next is "Beten, Tanzen, Küssen" which is the first Sankt Otten track ever where a harmonium appears. In combination with the minimal beat one could even think that this track is suitable for a club context, but the two musicians always manage to stay away just enough from the ordinary and remain slightly disturbing as ever. "Im Lichtorgelparadies" switches on the lights in paradise with a hypnotic synthesizer melody and the KRAFTWERK-like beat gives the track a floating ease. One of the album highlights is the 12-minute monster "Sing die Apokalypse", which is dominated by Otten's powerful, but always minimalistic drumming. After about 10 minutes the listener might think that the apocalypse has aleady arrived, but Sankt Otten move on and manage to even increase this feeling. The track ends unexpectedly and with a winking bow to the influential American electronic protopunks SUICIDE. However, Sankt Otten also demonstrate that they can still master the meditative sounds. Tracks like "Der Himmel ist voll" or "Die tragische Nummer" are quite far apart from average electronica. The titles of the tracks appearing on the album are as always a unique mixture of aphorisms, sarcasm and puns. In spite of the new directions explored on this album, SANKT OTTEN maintain their characteristic Holy Trinity of krautrock, ambient, and 80ies electronica. Floating, meditative, dazing and catchy at times. Recommended if you like ZOMBI, BOARDS OF CANADA, ROBERT FRIPP, KRAFTWERK Record Label: Denovali Style: Kraut

Unhold split up in 2012 after being together for 20 years. They released 3 full-length albums but it has been 7 years since the last release, so here they are back in 2015 with a new lineup and a most challenging affair of a new album. Most of the influences are very obvious on this one, Neurosis, Isis etc.. “I Belong” demonstrates this with the use of an understated chugging riff accentuated by a brass section, the track builds through a series of passages before heading into a riff with an underlying melody which is barely audible but you definitely would miss its presence if absent. The album as a whole is varied, going from the Unsane style riffing of “Southern Grave” to the Deftones styled “Voices Within” which features a switch to female vocals and also features a beautiful piano melody. Epic is a well overused word but this is really what Unhold are laying out here, epic tunes with atmosphere and anticipation built in. There is light and shade and at times slips into indie rock territory, it really is that diverse. The title track is a 9 minute instrumental with samples which also encompasses an orchestral undercurrent, but not overriding the main band. Vocally the band ranges from the aggressive shouting associated with post rock/metal to the spacey tones more associated with the likes of Portishead. Production is a bit dry and does a disservice to the weight of the guitars. Vocally the aggressive parts work just about, could be doing with either more aggression or a bit more melodic, either would work, they just tend to grate a bit at times. Overall this is a sterling piece of work; it is varied and will stand up to multiple plays. Definitely one for fans of the likes of Neurosis, Crippled Black Phoenix and Fall Time. Record Label: Czar Of Bullets Style: Metal/Rock

The German instrumental duo SANKT OTTEN, founded in 1999, consists of Stephan Otten (drums, programming, synthesizer) and Oliver Klemm (guitar, synthesizer, piano), and has been releasing on Denovali Records since 2009. Their eighth album ENGTANZ DEPRESSION (engl.: CLOSE DANCE DEPRESSION) expresses a significant progression of their material on the preceding album trilogy (Gottes Synthesizer, Sequencer Liebe, Messias Maschine). New drum sounds and acoustic instruments such as harmonium and piano may be found, and some pieces emerged from free improvisations, which is a completely new approach taken by this band. The album starts with "Urlaub Unter Psalmen" which builds up slowly, piles up further, just to completely disintegrate in the end. Klemm's typical E-bow guitar parts and the dubby baseline make this track a catchy tune. Next is "Beten, Tanzen, Küssen" which is the first Sankt Otten track ever where a harmonium appears. In combination with the minimal beat one could even think that this track is suitable for a club context, but the two musicians always manage to stay away just enough from the ordinary and remain slightly disturbing as ever. "Im Lichtorgelparadies" switches on the lights in paradise with a hypnotic synthesizer melody and the KRAFTWERK-like beat gives the track a floating ease. One of the album highlights is the 12-minute monster "Sing die Apokalypse", which is dominated by Otten's powerful, but always minimalistic drumming. After about 10 minutes the listener might think that the apocalypse has aleady arrived, but Sankt Otten move on and manage to even increase this feeling. The track ends unexpectedly and with a winking bow to the influential American electronic protopunks SUICIDE. However, Sankt Otten also demonstrate that they can still master the meditative sounds. Tracks like "Der Himmel ist voll" or "Die tragische Nummer" are quite far apart from average electronica. The titles of the tracks appearing on the album are as always a unique mixture of aphorisms, sarcasm and puns. In spite of the new directions explored on this album, SANKT OTTEN maintain their characteristic Holy Trinity of krautrock, ambient, and 80ies electronica. Floating, meditative, dazing and catchy at times. Recommended if you like ZOMBI, BOARDS OF CANADA, ROBERT FRIPP, KRAFTWERK Record Label: Denovali Style: Kraut

Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley on a steady diet of punk and glitter rock, Prima Donna are infamous on the LA scene. Their curriculum includes musical road trips with Eddie and the Hot Rods, Adam Ant, Glen Matlock & The Philistines, The Dictators, and even Green Day, who they supported on two arena tours on two continents. Frontman Kevin Preston has also continued participation in Green Day side-project Foxboro Hot Tubs. While touring the US and Europe, Prima Donna was in and out of the studio numerous times. The finished product is "Nine Lives and Forty Fives", a 11-song variety pack that displays the band's skills in the studio, and compiles some of their rarest and rawest recordings. Record Label: Alive Naturalsound Style: Rock

Port Orchard, Washington's long-running hard rock trio Mos Generator have teamed up with Genoa, Italy's stoner rock crew Isaak (formerly known as Gandhi's Gunn) for a limited edition split 12" on Heavy Psych Sounds. Mos Generator have released 5 studio albums, a retrospective album, and a live album on such labels as Roadburn, Small Stone, Ripple, Nasoni, and Lay Bare. Isaak, born from the ashes of Gandhi's Gunn, immediately signed a worldwide contract for two albums with the American label Small Stone Records: the critically acclaimed debut "The Longer The Beard The Harder The Sound" released in 2013 and a second one that is going to be recorded very soon. Record Label: Heavy Psych Sounds Style: Psychedelic Rock

Record Label: Bad Taste Records Style: Rock

As a Canadian musician currently living in Berlin, Aidan Baker got first famous as half part of the prolific project Nadja, playing along with Leah Buckareff. LP after LP and collaboration after collaboration (A Storm of Light, Atavist, Year of no Light....), Nadja never ceased to explore the different aspects of ambient, noise and drone music. Also a prolific solo composer, Aidan Baker is well-known by experimental and alternative music fans as much for his solo albums as for his prestigious collaborations with some artists (Tim Hecker, Thisquietarmy, Noveller...) and famous music labels (Denovali, Important, Lattitudes, Gizeh...). Today, Mind Travels is very proud to present the first vinyl edition of one of his key records, A Sea Swells a Bit...., first released in 2006. Three long ambient titles that will likely make you shiver and lose your senses. A live version of the eponymous title is also joined as a bonus. The artwork, again designed by Francis Meslet (Urbex), intensifies in the most admirable manner the depth of this dizzying music. Record Label: Ici D'Ailleurs Style: Experimental

Record Label: Gossip Style: Rock

As the Soft Machine's first bassist and original principal songwriter, Kevin Ayers was an overlooked force behind the group's groundbreaking recordings in 1967 and 1968. Joy Of A Toy is his debut solo album, its whimsical and unique vision is a clear indication of how Soft Machine might have progressed under Ayers' tenure. On the LP he is accompanied by his Soft Machine colleagues Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge and Hugh Hopper. After a Soft Machine tour of the USA with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Ayers had decided to retire from the music business. Hendrix however, presented Ayers with an acoustic Gibson J-200 guitar on the promise that he continue his songwriting. Ayers repaired to a small London flat where he composed and arranged Joy Of A Toy features many of Ayers' most enduring songs from "The Lady Rachel" to "Girl on a Swing". It was on this album that Ayers developed his sonorous vocal delivery, an avant-garde song construction and an affection for bizarre instrumentation that would have a deep influence far into the 1970s and indeed the present day Record Label: Music On Vinyl Style: Rock

Spiralism are a band from Finland that plays a psychedelic form of post metal with elements of doom metal and this is a review of their 2014 album "Chakras" which will be released in December by Inverse Records. Psychedelic sound effects and powerful sounding bass guitars start off the album and after a couple of minutes post rock style guitars are added into the music along with a good mixture of both clean and heavy parts and the music starts to add more melody and metal influences after awhile along with a mixture of growls, screams and clean singing. Most of the tracks on the recording are very long and epic in length and also focuses more of a psychedelic sound that is heavily influenced by 70's rock but more up to date and at times the music also brings in a stoner rock vibe to some of the tracks and a few songs are instrumentals and a good portion of the music has an improv and experimental feeling at times. Spiralism plays a very heavy form of psychedelic rock that also brings in some of the heaviness of doom and post metal to create a sound of their own, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover Occult themes. Record Label: Inverse Style: Psychedelic Rock

Journeys story is one of massive success. This superb live broadcast recording, from Houston s The Summit during the Departure tour in 1980, catches the band amidst their most creative and successful period. Between 1978 and 1987 Journey had no less than seven consecutive multi-platinum albums. They have also had a staggering 18 Top 40 singles, six of which reached the Top 10. By the time of this concert, the band had already been through six different line-ups, although guitarist Neal Schon, keyboard player Gregg Rolie and bassist Ross Valory remained central to the group and had all been founder members. Journey had been formed in San Francisco seven years earlier, in 1973, by ex-members of Latin rock superstars Santana (Schon and Rolie) and cult West Coast psychedelic band Frumious Bandersnatch (Vallory and original rhythm guitarist George Tickner). In their first few years the band released three well-regarded, but not particularly successful albums, Journey (1975), Look Into The Future (1976) and Next (1977). But it wasn t until 1978 that the band really began to hit the big time, after the addition of vocalist Steve Perry, who introduced a much more Pop-oriented and commercial element to the band s previous Progressive Rock sound. Infinity (1978), the first album to feature Perry broke into the charts, it soon reached number 21 and eventually went platinum; the band also had hits with both singles Lights and Wheel in the Sky, featured here. Highly-regarded English producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had been responsible for overseeing Queen s majestic studio recordings, was in the chair for this album - and the result was quite clearly Journey s most commercially-appealing record thus far! The album is heavily featured in this concert recording: there are great versions too of Feeling That Way, Anytime, Winds Of March, Patiently and Opened the Door. By the time of the next album, Evolution , the following year, British drummer Aynsley Dunbar had been replaced by Steve Smith, who was previously with Ronnie Montrose s band. The album was another excellent Baker-produced platinum-seller and the single Lovin , Touchin , Squeezin went Top 20 - a fine live version is featured here, together with Just The Same Way, Lovin You Is Easy and Too Late. The same line-up held together for the next recording, the band s most successful album to date, Departure (1980) which also spawned the hit single Any Way You Want It. It is this line-up that is featured on this broadcast, playing superb versions of several cuts: Where Were You, People and Places, Walks like a Lady, Line of Fire and Precious Time. Unlike its predecessors, this album was largely recorded live-in-the-studio, which lent a great dynamic edge to the music. Whilst the set list here concentrates almost exclusively on Journey s three most successful alums to date, the band do delve back into the more distant past to spotlight a version of the instrumental Kohoutek from their eponymous debut album. Record Label: Left Field Media Style: Rock

Live FM radio broadcasts from Irving Plaza, New York, NY, USA, 18th August 1979 (Tracks 1-13) and The Keystone, Palo Alto, CA, USA, 1st February 1979 (Tracks 14-21). The bands potent fuzz-drenched and reverb-soaked sound was succinctly and accurately described as a stew of depraved influences - TV, 60s garage punk, comic books, jungle movies, deep-ghetto R&B and shock-value theatrics. Record Label: Sonic Boom Style: Garage Rock

Artist: Breakfast in Fur Label: Bar/None Records

Artist: Ian Paice's Sunflower Superjam Label: Earmusic

Artist: American Aquarium Label: Blue Rose Records (Edel)

Artist: Various Label: Zyx/World of (ZYX)

Artist: Elder Label: Stickman Records

Artist: Jeffrey Lee Pierce Label: Bang Records