It takes all of a second to realise that, in terms of guitar instrumentals, Geiger Von Müller’s ‘Alien Fig Yoghurt Incident’ isn’t entirely of this world. It opens with a flurry of insanely high pitched harmonics, creating more of a mood than a melody. This immediately catches the ear, but makes the listener wonder where things are actually headed. A saner guitarist might flesh out such a technique with a couple of broad chords to make things palatable, but not this guy…
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
VARIOUS ARTISTS – The Magic Forest: More Pastoral Psychedelia & Funky Folk 1968-1975
In 2022, the Cherry Red subsidiary label Grapefruit Records released ‘Deep In The Woods’, a 3CD collection of cult recordings from the late 60s and early 70s, which documented the trippier and occasionally proggier elements of folk rock. Featuring a host of familiar names along with some genuine obscurities, the lengthy listen played brilliantly, offering the more open minded prog fan and 70s rock buff a listen that relied on far more than easy nostalgia.
PETE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – Sea Of Eyes / The Lamplighters remix EP
Formed in 1997, the curiously named Pete International Airport is a musical project featuring the talents of Dandy Warhols man Peter Holmström (also of Sun Atoms, a band who released some excellent material in 2024), and Collin Hegna of Federale, a genre-hopping act who also offered one of 2024’s finest discs.
Under their Pete International Airport moniker, these musicians and other assorted friends have explored various sounds, usually veering towards influences from the 80s and 90s alternative scenes. In the last quarter of 2023, the band made a welcome comeback with their long player ‘It Felt Like The End of The World’ – the first wholly new PIA work since 2017 – which introduced new listeners to their indie/goth/rock sounds.
SMOKE AxD – Vaya Con Dios EP
Smoke AxD (aka Smoke All Day) brings together artists previously associated with Madball, Crown of Thornz and Hatebreed, which, in hardcore terms, sounds like it should be pretty amazing. On this EP, those musicians bring some massive riffs, as you’d expect, and the vocal performances often attack like a concrete sledge. There are a lot of moments where the material sounds like something unearthed from the late 90s, so they’ve got that classic/nostalgic angle covered too. So, why then, do the five songs on this EP sound so…frankly uninspired?
THE HOLY KNIVES – I Don’t Wanna Win EP
On their 2018 full length ‘Year Of The Dog’, rock duo The Holy Knives shared some very full sounding, atmospheric songs. The material had a definite core sound: bits of melodic garage rock could be found meshing with even older influences, resulting in tunes like ‘Memory Book’ sharing a huge vocal against a hefty drum beat, ‘Loose Tooth’ working a wobbly twang against a massive croon, taking a little more of an atmospheric indie rock stance and, in an unexpected twist, ‘Lucky Day’ sounded like an old Chris Isaak number remixed by Portishead man Geoff Barrow. It was the kind of record that set solid foundations for future works.
On their 2020 EP ‘Always Gone’, the cinematic elements of the Holy Knives sound used keys to create something even more retro, and by the time of their 2023 single release ‘Keep On Lyin’, even more of a groove had been established, showing how even though this duo had a sound that worked for them, Kyle and Kody Valentine certainly weren’t shy of embracing a natural musical progression.