Tag Archives: stoner

BLUE HERON – Emulations

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Since their formation in 2018, US desert rock/heavy stoner band Blue Heron have been utterly committed to sharing massive riffs. Although parts of their 2024 full length ‘Everything Fades’ were a little more accessible from a vocal perspective, on a musical level, the album retained the kind of heaviness fans had come to expect, cementing the band’s reputation as one of the underground scene’s best and most intense acts.

Continuing a run of yearly new releases since 2022, ‘Emulations’ is a stop gap affair, combining four newly recorded tracks with a blistering live session, but it shouldn’t be considered a “filler” in any way.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS – Wish You Were Here: 50 Years Later

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In 2024, Pale Wizard Records did the unthinkable. They pulled together a bunch of underground rock bands and had them each contribute a track to a 50th anniversary tribute to Sparks’ career defining ‘Kimono My House’. Since none of the bands had much in common with Ron and Russell Mael’s distinctive and visionary sound, it shouldn’t have worked. With that record, Pale Wizard managed to pull off the even more unthinkable: they not only masterminded a very different take on an old classic, but they had the balls to know it would work on its own merits.

A year on, could they achieve similar greatness by asking some of the same faces to put their own stamp on Pink Floyd fan favourite ‘Wish You Were Here’? In terms of tall orders, that’s positively gargantuan when none of the clientele come from the school of prog rock. The featured artists don’t even have a “classic” sound in most cases. Nevertheless, everyone gives the material a square go, for better or worse.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #115

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This visit to the Singles Bar is quite guitar driven in places, with a brilliant single from a Scottish pop-rock band, some heavy shoegaze, and a slab of enormous sounding stoner rock providing the backbone of the eight picks. That said, there’s still enough of a deviation from rock influences to make this as strong as previous Singles Bar selections, with a soulful number shared by one of George Ezra’s colleagues, a great synth based track, and a piece of soul driven pop ready to be discovered. As always, of course, we hope you find something new to enjoy.

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RAVINE – Chaos And Catastrophes

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Labelled “extremely brutal” by Eyehategod guitarist/Down drummer Jimmy Bower, Ravine pull no punches when it comes to delivering a heavy riff. The Oregon band’s brand of sludge/doom and hardcore mightn’t reach the insane levels of heaviness set by Byzanthian Neckbeard or Dopethrone, but the best moments on their 2025 release ‘Chaos and Catastrophes’ are on a par with many a great and muddy sounding, riff wielding act.

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ELECTRIC CHILDREN – Deceivers / Blood Red River

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Electric Children’s 2022 single ‘Triste Journee’ was an interesting recording. It featured prominent garage rock guitars, punchy keyboards that drew as much influence from novelty horror rock as much as 60s fare from the likes of Question Mark and The Mysterians, and topped that with a muli-lingual lyric that further escalated their slightly trashy vibe. It was certainly nothing like you’d expect from an act being promoted with the stoner rock/desert rock label. Their 2024 single ‘Scene of The Crime’ gave more of a stoner link due to a guesting Nick Oliveri, and although the recording was driven by fuzzy riffs with the tone of Queens of The Stone Age in a particularly punchy mood, the end result, again, owed a little more to garage rock. Shouting gang vocals and a massive drum sound invited stronger comparisons with a ‘Tomorrow Hit Today’ era Mudhoney, but labels aside, it was a huge step forward and an indicator of potentially great things ahead from this band.

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