“Searing darkwave/post-punk... The Icelandic trio manages to conjure shadowy influences ranging from Clan of Xymox to the Cure to Tubeway Army... A must for fans of dark music.” –Revolver Icelandic post-punk trio Kælan Mikla have unveiled the video for their new track, "Næturblóm." The track is taken from the group’s upcoming third album, Nótt eftir nótt.The nine track album will be released on November 9th via Artoffact Records. Watch the video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRgxo8JtTRA Of the track, the band comments: "Næturblóm, meaning Nightflowers, is one of Kælan Mikla’s most euphoric songs. The lyrics to it are actually way older than the song itself and were originally a poem that Laufey gave to Sólveig as her 20th birthday present a few years ago. It’s about how Laufey sees Sólveig as a beautiful flower that blooms in the winter darkness. An everlasting reminder of their friendship." Kælan Mikla will perform at Iceland Airwaves the day before the album drops and recorded the video in association with the festival. The band just completed an extensive European tour with King Dude, and played on bills with The Cure earlier this year. Kælan Mikla, live:
"The future of music." –VICE "Not only is their music as mercilessly murderous as you'd want it to be, but their incorporation of elements from action films in brilliant." –MetalSucks "[Graf Orlock] has spent the last decade carving out its niche in the crowded Los Angeles heavy music scene by turning sound samples and dialogue from action movies such as 'Aliens' and 'Point Break' into blistering punk- and noise-fueled musical diatribes that leave listeners as dazed as moviegoers were the first time they saw those seminal flicks." –LA Weekly Graf Orlock announces new album Examination of Violent Cinema, Volume 1, coming December 7th on the band's own label, Vitriol Records. Examination of Violent Cinema, Volume 1is Graf Orlock's fourth full-length album, and eleventh release in all. No band of the past decade embodies the spirit of DIY hardcore punk in a more creative or relentless way than Graf Orlock. Releasing music via their own label, touring to nearly every continent on earth without a booking agent (repeat trips to Japan, Australia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, and beyond), and designing their own implausible artwork and packaging (one EP cover was riddled with real bulletholes and another folded out into the form of an actual-size boombox), the Los Angeles band is a self-made powerhouse that keeps on trucking, year after year. At the core of all its output is one very specific vision: to create music inspired entirely by Hollywood's best and worst action movies. Fueled equally by a sincere love for cinema and by an utter disdain for the current state of the industry, Graf Orlock's vision is arguably a ridiculous one – guitarist Jason Schmidt himself has referred to the band's work as "basically moronic fan fiction" – yet Graf Orlock executes it with dead seriousness, pouring into it more creativity and dedication than most bands ever muster, going on fifteen years now. On a perpetual quest to outdo themselves, the band presents its newest creation: Examination of Violent Cinema, Volume 1. For this new album, Graf Orlock claim to have narrowed their focus exclusively to films released in 2017 – films referenced on the album are rumored to range from John Wick 2 to Blade Runner 2049. A statement printed inside Examination's layout describes it as "a testament to the rigor mortis of the vapid film industry... Inspired by a dearth of good 2017 films, Examination finds Graf Orlock in fine classic form; basing the entirety of this new release on twelve violent 2017 movies commingled with haphazard and bizarre ideas laid over pointlessly confrontational lyrical content. Contained therein is not only commentary on the weak and prosaic state of the last decades' endlessly recycled and not-nearly-violent-enough releases, but also the question of how one could even contemplate the creation of 'art' in a landscape so devoid of vision. If there will never again be the singularity of almost-politicism and almost-social commentary that was the beauty of 1987’s Predator, should we continue to push this same human-sized ball of celluloid and shit interminably up the same hill?"
Fittingly, Schmidt describes Examination's LP packaging as "a body bag containing a fully-sealed LP jacket with perforations in a triangle like an autopsied corpse... you have to rip open the perforations to get into the record and get it out."
Though the conceptual stuff might threaten to overshadow the music, Graf Orlock's music stands on its own: an instantly recognizable sound built on fragmented hardcore punk and bursts of thrash and grind, held together by lyrics that are in fact dialogue from films. Freedom is the name of the game: songs twist and turn, a mix of blastbeats, breakdowns, and sweet-ass riffs, unfolding without structure but designed for maximum impact, and administered in a raw fashion that is more in line with Black Flag's later recordings than with most modern-day perfectionism. "Visceral, life-affirming violence" is how the band likes to classify it.
Examination of Violent Cinema, Volume 1 was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Kris Hilbert at Legitimate Business in Greensboro, NC. Graf Orlock will be touring throughout 2019. In a world where we can rely on nothing, Graf Orlock stands as an absolute anomaly, a beacon of inspiration, following their own bizarre path with total commitment. With Examination of Violent Cinema, Volume 1, they have delivered the goods yet again and added another new act to their film. May it never end.
Tracklist: 1) Back in the Ground 2) Alternate Route to Mexico 3) A Man Named Suicide 4) He Jumped Off a Roof 5) Steps to Eggroom 6) Dominant Species 7) Five Star General 8) Go Away (to Paradise) 9) Minimum Freedom 10) Extreme Measures 11) Rooftop Anarchy 12) Almost Human Graf Orlock, 2018: Jason Schmidt - guitar, vocals Alan Hunter - drums Karl Bournze - vocals Bryce Hurlson - bass Sany Solezi - live drummer Discography: Examination of Violent Cinema, Volume 1 (Vitriol Records, 2018) Crime Traveler (Vitriol Records, 2016) Los Angeles EP (Vitriol Records, 2012) Doombox EP (Vitriol Records, 2011) Destination Time Today (Vitriol Records, 2009) Destination Time Tomorrow EP (Level Plane Records, 2007) Destination Time Yesterday (Level Plane Records, 2006) Split w/ Greyskull (Dood Records, 2005) Split w/ Hurry Up and Kill Yourself (Attrition Records, 2004) Corpserate Greed EP (self-released, 2004) Graf Orlock EP (self-released, 2004) Photos by Alexis Acosta
"It's been a big year for Icelandic trio Kælan Mikla: They played a hot ticket set at Roadburn, got the nod of approval from Robert Smith of their inspirational goth gods the Cure, and toured Europe with modern dark folk icon King Dude. Now, the post-punk band is setting itself up to sweep the genre and make a name for themselves on this side of the pond with upcoming full-length Nótt eftir nótt... A head-bopping beat and piercing wails that evoke the cold, dark fog rolling across the Icelandic plains..."
–Revolver
"The best post-punk band to come out of Iceland since Björk’s Kukl..." –Post-Punk
"Full of foreboding Icelandic-language whispers and haunted-house riffs."
–Bandcamp Daily
"The three witches from Macbeth with Poly Styrene punk and Diamanda Galas shrieks."
–Drowned In Sound
Revolver has premiered new Kælan Mikla track "Nornalagið" – "a head-bopping beat and piercing wails that evoke the cold, dark fog rolling across the Icelandic plains..." The Icelandic trio mixes raw punk, witchy darkness, and synthy dancefloor drama, into its own electrifying sound that's been tested on tour with King Dude and at festivals supporting The Cure and more. New album Nótt eftir nótt drops November 9th on Artoffact Records.Lyrics are written and performed in their native Icelandic, illustrating a nightmarish world.
King Buffalo's sophomore album, Longing to Be the Mountain, is out today (self-released in the US; Stickman Records in Europe). Buy, here: http://kingbuffalo.com/ Info, here: http://thechainworld.blogspot.com/2018/08/king-buffalo-longing-to-be-mountain.html "Lush soundscapes, evocative sonic textures and plenty of head-bobbing groove, Spacey, riffy and bluesy psych rock is punctuated by stoner-like groove... It's hard to believe that any fan of psychedelic, stoner, blues or even doom won't find something to love here. In fact, King Buffalo could just be your new favorite band. –Metal Injection "Hypnotic and proggy... Psych-inflected stoner rock trio King Buffalo have been on the rise... Their sound has been compared to Tool and Pink Floyd." –Loudwire "Longing to be the Mountain, in its performance and in the writing of the material itself is absolutely on a different plane of achievement. It’s a top-ten kind of album." –The Obelisk
"[King Buffalo] summon elements of the psychedelic and the progressive and the intersection of the two as heard in the music of Pink Floyd." –PopMatters "An epic journey... Airy and melodic psychedelic rock that slowly builds to an explosion of fuzz... Longing To Be The Mountain deserves to be in the discussion when talking about the cream of the crop of riff rock albums released this year." –New Noise "First and foremost, the music is excellent... The entire album runs between these two vibes, namely a brighter, morning influenced, hope-filled perspective on nature, and a grimmer, more awe-inspired gaze."
–Heavy Blog Is Heavy
"A band poised on the edge of greatness... Languidly psychedelic passages unfurl over you... Head-noddingly satisfying."
HIP-HOP RENEGADE KOOL KEITH TEAMS UP WITH PLANET B ON "CRUSTFUND" SINGLE; MUSIC VIDEO NOW STREAMING; SELF-TITLED PLANET B DEBUT COMING NOVEMBER 23rd ON IPECAC RECORDINGS "Justin Pearson has made his name with spazzy, noisy weirdo-rock outfits like The Locust, Retox and Dead Cross, but his project Planet B – a collaboration with hip-hop producer Luke Henshaw – might be his most left-field yet. The duo smashes together strains of hardcore, hip-hop, industrial and old-school horror movie scores... It's head-spinning and head-splitting in the best way possible." –Revolver "[Planet B] applies an electronic edge to the grindy noise freakouts of Justin’s other bands... A new musical direction." –BrooklynVegan "Few MCs have been as comfortable [as Kool Keith] in their absurdity, their convention-trashing, or their absolute fearlessness in trying new things on the mic." –Pitchfork Planet B – the duo of punk provocateurJustin Pearsonand hip-hop producerLuke Henshaw – reveal new single "Crustfund," featuring hip-hop renegade Kool Keith. Watch the official music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSvE1kTUJUM Planet B's self-titled debut album will be released November 23rd on Ipecac Recordings. Pre-order the album, here: http://smarturl.it/PlanetB As the founder of Three One G Records and a member of such bands as Swing Kids, The Locust, Retox and Dead Cross, Justin Pearson has existed as a leader in the underground for almost three decades. As label owner and musician, he has put his artistic, politically-charged stamp on hundreds of releases, and has influenced thousands of people in the realms of hardcore punk, noise-rock, and beyond. In Planet B, Pearson's poetic aggression melds with Luke Henshaw's wildly creative beats in a new sound mixing hardcore punk, hip-hop, industrial, horror-movie scores, and more – a sound potentially as relevant to fans of artists like Death Grips, Ho99o9, and Lil Ugly Mane, as to fans of Pearson's past work. On "Crustfund," guest rapper Kool Keith lends his magic to the track as he trades verses with Pearson over Henshaw's heavyweight production. With dozens of albums under his belt – as a member of Ultramagnetic MCs, as a solo artist, and via alter egos like Dr. Octagon and Black Elvis – Kool Keith is known as one of the most eccentric and creative hip-hop artists of his time. Pitchfork has stated, "Few MCs have been as comfortable [as Kool Keith] in their absurdity, their convention-trashing, or their absolute fearlessness in trying new things on the mic," and none other than Eminem immortalized him with the lyric, "going cuckoo and kooky as Kool Keith" (from Eminem's 2013 track, "The Monster"). In addition to Kool Keith,the Planet B album features guest appearances by Martin Atkins (Ministry, Killing Joke, Pigface), Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Sonny Kay (Year Future, The VSS), and more. Planet B is yet another Pearson-fronted example of musical risk-taking, broad-minded collabs, and pioneer spirit.
"Lush soundscapes, evocative sonic textures and plenty of head-bobbing groove,Spacey, riffy and bluesy psych rock is punctuated by stoner-like groove... It's hard to believe that any fan of psychedelic, stoner, blues or even doom won't find something to love here. In fact, King Buffalo could just be your new favorite band. –Metal Injection "Hypnotic and proggy... Psych-inflected stoner rock trio King Buffalo have been on the rise... Their sound has been compared to Tool and Pink Floyd." –Loudwire "Longing to be the Mountain, in its performance and in the writing of the material itself is absolutely on a different plane of achievement. It’s a top-ten kind of album." –The Obelisk
"[King Buffalo] summon elements of the psychedelic and the progressive and the intersection of the two as heard in the music of Pink Floyd." –PopMatters "An epic journey... Airy and melodic psychedelic rock that slowly builds to an explosion of fuzz... Longing To Be The Mountain deserves to be in the discussion when talking about the cream of the crop of riff rock albums released this year." –New Noise King Buffalo's sophomore album Longing to Be the Mountain is now streaming in its entirety via Metal Injection, one day ahead of its official release. Listen, here: http://www.metalinjection.net/av/full-album-stream/stream-king-buffalos-psychedelic-journey-into-the-sun-longing-to-be-the-mountain Pre-order the album here: http://kingbuffalo.com/ From Rochester, New York, King Buffalo is the trio of vocalist/guitarist Sean McVay, bassist Dan Reynolds, and drummer Scott Donaldson. Since forming in 2013, the self-proclaimed "heavy blues" band has made its name via debut album Orion,follow-up EP Repeater, and tours with the likes of The Sword and All Them Witches.
New album Longing to Be the Mountain was produced by All Them Witches guitarist Ben McLeod. It is an enthralling piece of work built upon haunting vocals, hypnotic grooves, explosive buildups – "a top-ten kind of album," in the words of psych-rock authority The Obelisk.
October's edition of Chainlinks is here, for your pleasure! Dig into enlightening new recommendations from our friends Caroline Harrison (creator of art as seen on the album covers and merch of Pig Destroyer, Pyrrhon, Yautja and more), Sean McVay (King Buffalo) and Teddy Panopoulos (Dead Waves).
I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of this record, especially the track "El Morgan." This album feels a lot to me like how I hope my work feels to strangers.
2) Ornamentation in and on buildings
People took the time to put totally useless pieces of decoration onto buildings because it made them feel good. The flowers and leaves or geometric patterns framing windows and doors don’t usually serve any structural purpose—they’re there because someone thought they looked beautiful. I find that comforting.
3) The work of artist Firelei Báez
Man, the more you look at this work the more you find. Báez combines really technically beautiful drawing and painting with disorienting, surreal imagery to make these lush, fertile, colorful, and sometimes unsettling pieces. Her work can be really overwhelming to look at. https://fireleibaezstudio.com/
1) Roger Waters - "Is This The Life We Really Want"
Such a simple question asked over a simple progression. It seems increasingly rare nowadays for musicians to take aggressive political stances and to unapologetically stand by them. I am always inspired by people who fight hard for what they believe in. Also, he’s probably the only person ever to be able to successfully write the word “nincompoop” into a song.
2) All Them Witches - "Diamond"
These guys continue to raise the bar with everything they do. The direction of the music video by drummer Robby Staebler is next level stuff. Michael Parks’ writing, and guitarist Ben McLeod’s production of the album, are absolutely exceptional. Every time they release something it makes me want to lock myself away and write until my fingers bleed.
3) Holy Mountain
I first stumbled across this film years ago while at a friend's house. It blew my mind then, and it continues to blow my mind now. Lots and lots of stuff in there. Stylistically unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. I recommend everyone take a couple hours to laugh, cry, and freak your mind.
Years ago a few friends of mine recommend some songs by Meredith Monk to me and I was
drawn in, but this month was the first time I ever actually listened to an entire record that I picked
up and I was hooked. It was her first album called Key. This is my current special find and I have
been playing it constantly. I love everything about the minimalist instrumentation accompanied
by her free and versatile, experimental vocals cutting through, from beautiful, drone-like, angelic soundscapes of mythical nymphs or sirens to
cacophonous primordial nature calling.
2) Plutocracy IV - Gangsters for Capitalism
This was a documentary about the early struggles of the labor movement in the United Sates.
They were fighting for fairness against an unbalanced, unjust and inherited cycle of a privileged
wealth system. It showed the manipulative extremities that were used by our oligarchs, such as
divisive methods against the working class through race propaganda and other insidious divide
and conquer tactics. These were used to try and stop any actions or grievances being brought
up by the workers who were fighting for basic rights, health conditions, and fair wages in the
work place to end their slave-like conditions.
This documentary really shed light on the specific dates of these pro-labor movements and
how they were constantly being attacked and berated by the corrupt billionaires through their
placed politicians to prevent any changes in law that would protect workers' rights. It also
showed the narrative of pro-corporate personhood by the Supreme Court rulings in favor of the
plutocracy’s industries and their constant demonization attempts towards the labor movements.
It was pretty much saying what we need to do in our current climate as well... People need to
stop being apathetic and complacent... Get out of your comfort zone, protest, organize and make
some noise and vote. Tear down or damage their corrupt system, their existence, if they are
damaging yours, because most corrupt billionaires don’t care about any quality of life, they will
choose their profit over your well being.
3) The Plant Paradox, by Steven R. Gundry
I’m always interested in health and nutrition and so once I started reading this book I
couldn’t put it down. It was a quick fun read with all studies cited and sourced.
It briefly discusses the basics of botany and how some plants evolved to protect themselves
from pests and predators, meaning when insects and animals (including us) arrived on the
scene they protected themselves from pests eating them and their seeds. It’s
enlightening to dive into paradoxes, working through a challenge and discovering something
new. It’s like a form of growth, and this book brought out some epiphany moments of our human
evolution, how our cells adapted with our circadian rhythms and diet in its true organic seasonal
environment, and how from hunter-gatherer tribes to settling down in agriculture-based
civilizations we brought about the introduction of wheat and overall grain cultivation to our diets,
making it a staple food to help for storage in fat content for winter preparation and famine
or just a cheaper source of food to feed a society. Then on to industrial agriculture and
eventually the modern man-made laboratory chemical interference into our food supply, and
eventually to industrial complex factory farming which incorporates all negative impacts into
one, making the animals' life a hellish existence, plumping them up with grains/soy they didn’t
evolve to ever eat, causing the degradation of the environment by deforestation, all to grow more
grains/soy feed and then introduce more man-made chemicals into them to keep them alive
from their hellish conditions. In the greater timeline of this planet, as a species our existence is
much shorter, and all the new chemicals is merely a blink of a micro-second... Our cells
haven’t had time to adapt to whatever we’re doing.
Most things are interconnected, including the industrial food system and unfortunately how it
almost trickles down to anything we consume and ingest. Now is the time to ever be more in
balance, awake and aware of our every action...
