Seabuckthorn - The Silence Woke Me

(Bookmaker Records, 2012)

Seabuckthorn is one of those artists best enjoyed over the course of an album rather than in small doses and on this latest release his impressionistic acoustic guitar work once again manages to conjure up dreamy landscapes, campfires and woodlands, all with his signature sense of menace and foreboding. The Silence Woke Me is Andy Cartwright's second album for French label Bookmaker Records but is at least his fifth release (not taking into account various self-released EPs and small-runs of mini CDs) and at this point in time Cartwright is a masterful composer. Building upon last year's excellent In Nightfall, The Silence Woke Me weaves a lot more rhythm into the mix, drums adding heft to Cartwright's 12-string flourishes, and even going so far as to introduce a pretty funky groove to final duo 'Gathered and Unkempt' and 'Good Honest Thievery.' While Cartwright's music has always flirted between atmospheric minimalism and frantic, multi-instrumental frenzy, the layered, rhythmic approach applied here strikes a perfect balance between scarcity and bombast which gives the album a more dynamic feel as a whole. And while it's not a term that really applies to the kind of music Seabuckthorn makes, The Silence Woke Me has more 'hooks' than anything he has done in years. Many of the songs elegantly shimmy in from silence and build tantra-like before reaching a central pattern of notes around which the guitar meanders – 'As Fire Moves', 'The Cool of the Coming Dark' and the closing track all find repetitions which give the songs a heated, hypnotic feel. The cymbal washes and relentless stomp of 'It Swept Across the Open' creep up on you before you realise you're in the centre of a storm of arpeggiating guitars and reverb-drenched notes that sound like whale song. The 12-string acoustic is the binding force that patches together not only all the songs of the album, but also elements like drums and shruti box – a kind of droning, Indian harmonium, played by sometime-collaborator Duncan Scott.

Where fellow Oxford-based instrumental prodigy Jerome 'Message to Bears' Alexander's pastoral chamber folk evokes a sense of child-like nostalgia, Cartwright is like Jerome's feral brother, raised in the forest by wolves. His music, while equally evocative, feels exotic and otherwordly; it invites you in with it's warm, campfire tones but leads you on a journey through treacherous, bizarre landscapes, all under the cover of darkness with only fire and moonlight illuminating you on your way. 

[Originally published in Nightshift Magazine, issue 207, October 2012] 

http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2012/oct.pdf

Swans - The Seer

(Young God, 2012)

The return of Swans has to rank among the least cynical of comebacks/reunions/rebirths of any band in recent years – few bands command as much respect and fear (in fairly equal measure) as Michael Gira’s merry circus of outcasts and deviants, and The Seer is nothing if not a huge statement of intent. Only a handful of musicians retain the youthful fire of experimentalism in their bellies for so long, and for a man approaching sixty Gira has to be up there with Tom Waits and John Cale in terms of being a restless musical innovator, continuing to make interesting music while his contemporaries are getting ready to claim their pensions. The Seer is the culmination of thirty-years of ear-shattering, soul-crushing musical experience in an often overwhelming but awe-inspiring two-hour package.

Starting with something of a curve-ball, opening track ‘Lunacy’ is a lush orchestra of chiming guitars and Gira’s booming vocals, backed angelically by Low’s Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker. But it’s second song ‘Mother of the World’ that brings us into more familiar Swans territory – jarring rhythms? Check. Mind-melting repetition? Check. Slowly creeping sense of bewildering insanity as layers of ambient noise and freak-out vocals weave in and out of your speakers? Oh yes. The song’s overtly sexual lyrics (another Swans hallmark) are drilled into your brain with a repetition that mirrors the music: “In and out and in and out agai-ai-ai-ai-ain.”

The album’s centrepiece is the half-hour title-track which wastes no time in bringing the noise, a kind of drone palindrome, beginning with a racket that most drone bands would take half-an-hour to create before slowly clearing space for a clattering rhythm of twinkling piano, drums and frenetic cymbals, deep hypnotic bass notes and a queasy guitar slide. The song organically warps, twists and turns through prolonged crashes, drawn-out notes and even wailing harmonica before settling into final death-rattle groove, Gira purring “I love you too much” and various maniacally gibberish phrases. More than any other song on the album, the shapeshifting nature of the instrumentation demonstrates the immense skill of Swans in their current incarnation, a line-up that Gira has called the best ever. They cater to every musical whim so naturally – it’s really quite breathtaking.

The band further display their adaptability on ‘The Seer Returns’ which is a kind of blues shuffle, Gira delivering his lyrics like a whisky-voiced beat poet. In stark contrast ’93 Ave. B Blues’ is pure feral, nightmare noise – all swooning low-end, crashing cymbals and crying discordant strings. ‘A Piece of the Sky’ begins with nine minutes of drone before relaxing into a longing, melodic stomp and finishing with a Velvet Underground/Silver Jews-like twisted pop song. It’s one of the most lush moments on the album, an unexpectedly beautiful symphony of bells, pianos, mandolin, and a bouncing bassline with Gira crooning wonderfully. It turns out to be the final respite before album closer ‘The Apostate.’ It lulls you into a false sense of security with a relatively tense but chilled beginning but then six minutes in the band let rip. Screeching, headache-inducing guitars, crashes and a bizarre free jazz outro bring this dizzying, rollercoaster of an album to a close.

Swans are not a band known to make easy records and The Seer is no exception. For starters, it’s two hours long; some tracks contain sections of pure noise and feedback that are longer than some bands’ entire songs and the album includes songs that are longer than some bands’ entire albums. That being said, The Seer balances the classic abrasive Swans sound with moments of elegant beauty. The second disc opens with a straight-up country track, ‘Song for a Warrior’ which features Karen O on vocals, and is the prettiest track on the album, particularly when Gira joins in with backing vocals towards the end of the song. When Michael Gira said that he had utilised everything he had learnt in the last thirty years making this album you can hear that it’s true. Swans don’t need to make another Cop – they’ve made The Seer, a mature album from the mind of a man who refuses to grow old quietly.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 21/09/2012]
Swans - The Seer

Samothrace - Reverence to Stone

(20 Buck Spin, 2012)

Releasing albums with the same tectonic urgency that they propel their songs along with, Seattle’s Samothrace have recently released their second album, Reverence to Stone, four years after debut album Life’s Trade. This album has been highly tipped as one of the finest doom records of the year and I must admit that it was this fanfare, rather than a previous knowledge of the band, which tempted me to review it. Having had a good while to absorb the record, it would seem that this two track, 35 minute epic of an album has earned its praise in what must surely be considered a vintage year for doom and sludge metal.

Samothrace distinguish themselves from the rest of the sludge/doom pack in quite subtle ways when taken at face-value but over the course of the album they leave a distinct impression through the awesome breadth of their compositions. They’re not so slow and sparse as to draw Sunn O))) comparisons and not as reckless and unruly as riff-bringers like Eyehategod but Samothrace do occupy some kind of middle-ground between the two camps; on the one hand they’ve pensive, emotional and tense and on the other they offer up a huge, aggressive storm of guitar action and tortured vocals, held together by the atmospheric clatter of drums.

Reverence to Stone has been a long time coming due to the band relocating from Kansas to Seattle and subsequently recruiting a new drummer, as well as former guitarist Renata Castagna. This jolt spurred the band back into action and forced them to overcome personal problems to finish the 20-minute epic “A Horse of Our Own” and rewrite “When We Emerged”, a song which originally appeared on their 2007 demo.

Something about the melody that opens “When We Emerged” is instantly familiar and it soon gets carried away on the wings of a mighty, lofty riff above waves of dissonance, distortion and decay; the song has a sweeping elegance without betraying the underlying crushing core of the band’s sound. The combination of ambience, melody and menace, not to mention Bryan Spinks’ disturbing howl, brings to mind Eagle Twin but only as a reference point – Samothrace are their own beast.

“A Horse of Our Own” begins with a lot of sludge-doom swagger and blues bombast, with solos recalling (of all people) legendary Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel (particularly “Maggot Brain”) and a generally destructive emotional feel before giving way to a lengthy quiet section, which in turn erupts and then settles back into another malaise before a final wind throws the ashes back in the air for one last doom waltz. It’s an amazing track, one that truly confounds presumptions about doom or sludge being repetitive or whatever; the song goes places, creates emotional atmospheres and rocks hard too.

These two tracks are definitely companion pieces – they share a certain desperate, hopeful/hopeless mood – and it’s hard not to think of them in terms of the personal turmoil that has been a part of the band’s life in the four years since Life’s Trade came out. This gives Reverence to Stone an ultimately triumphant feel when it’s all said and done – a sense that they survived, and they fucking conquered. There are moments of despair, certainly, but Reverence to Stone could be seen as the light at the end of the tunnel, and Samothrace are suddenly huge contenders in the sludge/doom world once again.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 06/09/2012]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/s/samothrace-reverence-to-stone-cd-lp-2012/

Eagle Twin - The Feather Tipped the Serpent’s Scale

(Southern Lord, 2012)

As far as religious texts go, the Old Testament is pretty fucking badass. Regardless of your religious standing it's hard to deny that the book is filled with all kinds of biblical badassery – fire and brimstone, plagues and pestilence, smiting and various other forms of debauchery and violence. The God of the Old Testament was vengeful, his hand swift to come down on those who would stand against his will, and it's this sense of omniscience that Eagle Twin seem to be able to tap into in their epic story-telling. Their first album, The Unkindness of Crows, documented a murder of crows and their battle against the sun and The Feather Tipped the Serpent's Scale picks up where that story left off – with the crows burned back down to earth as black snakes. Metal has always flirted with the dark side – occult and satanic imagery interspersed with dragons and dark wizards, but there is no character that more distinctly represents the fall of mankind like the legendary serpent. And this is where the album really takes shape – around the biblical and literary mythology and symbolism of the serpent, the original deceiver.

This is all without even a mention of Eagle Twin's monumental sound. Anyone who heard their last album will know that these guys make an incredibly dense progressive-sludge noise for a two piece and ...the Serpent's Scale might even top The Unkindness of Crows in terms of all-encompassing tone and atmosphere. Take for example the truly impressive opening tracks “Ballad of Job Cain” Parts I and II” - one long 18-plus-minute jam split into two distinct halves. The song is a complex web of angular riffs which are embedded in a fundamentally driving groove which carries across both tracks, broken up my moments of calm, drum solos but tied together by singer Gentry Densley's deep, throat-chanting which tells of the crows' transition into serpents. As well as the malevolent atmosphere that oozes from both tracks there is also a strong thematic thread running through them as well. There are all kinds of allusions in the song – the title itself is certainly a reference to the 1971 “electric” western Zachariah, but more appropriately it foreshadows later references to the story of Cain and Abel.

The story in which Cain kills his brother Abel, essentially becoming the first man to commit murder, is steeped in discussion and controversy. Interestingly, some Jewish traditions claim that Cain was in-fact fathered by the Serpent from the Garden of Eden, explaining his inherent evilness. This link is strengthened on “Adan (Lorca)”, which is itself a reference to the Yemen city where the brothers are reputedly buried. A lumbering riff twists and turns ominously, before seguing into the devastating “Snake Hymn” in which low-end riffs unfurl to reveal yet more riffs amid pounding, tempestuous drumming from Tyler Smith while Gentry asserts that “Nothing else has ever happened/ Paradise was always made from snakes” - an alternate telling of the creation story. “Horn Snake Horn”, while one of the shortest tracks on the album, really encapsulates Eagle Twin's unique hybrid of sludge, doom and progressive rock elements – they create a overarching sense of dread with deep, menacing chords, then add a layer of reckless sludge swagger with restless wiry guitar and tumultuous drumming stirring under the surface.

Final track “Epilogue: Crow's Theology” may be the most masterful slice of doom on the album, led primarily by Gentry's extremely downtuned guitar and voice. Throughout the album Gentry remains omnipresent, like some timeless shaman espousing prophecies, his words given even more gravitas by his rumbling voice which drips with an ancient, evil feel, permeating each song. Sometimes Gentry speaks from the perspective of the snakes and the crows and at other times he becomes an ambiguous narrator, never truly revealing which side he is on but seemingly revelling in the chaos that is unfolding in the biblical drama of the songs.

The phrase “concept album” has become something of a dirty term in the last couple of decades, nowadays more often associated with bands trying to lump together a bunch of disparate musical and lyrical ideas under the guise of being “conceptual artists.” The results are more often than not overblown, irrelevant and unappealing tat. Once again Eagle Twin have proved an exception to the rule, creating what is essentially a concept album that actually hangs together thematically and atmospherically, weaving a variety of sources of inspiration into a cohesive whole. Some of the tracks on the album are actually single pieces of music divided into sections (“Ballad of Job Cain Pt I & II”, “Horn Snake Horn” and “It Came to Pass the Snakes Became Mighty Antlers”) while others are joined together by atmospheric feedback which all adds to the idea of this being a single-piece of music. But even when there are pauses and stops in the action it never takes away from the unifying sound and vision of the album. If The Unkindness of Crows signalled Eagle Twin's arrival on the doom scene, The Feather Tipped the Serpent's Scale should be a clear indication that they're masters of their craft, and they're here to stay.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 22/08/2012]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/e/eagle-twin-the-feather-tipped-the-serpents-scale-cd-lp-dd-2012/

Scott Kelly and the Road Home - The Forgiven Ghost In Me

(Neurot Recordings/My Proud Mountain, 2012)

You could be forgiven for thinking of Scott Kelly as a solely acoustic artist these days. Apart from Shrinebuilder and a few guest appearances on Mastodon records, Kelly’s own output since Neurosis’ last album, 2007′s Given to the Rising, has been minimalistic to say the least. In 2008 Kelly released his largely acoustic second solo album The Wake, in 2011 he released a split 7” with St. Vitus man Wino and this year he (along with Wino and Neurosis band-mate Steve Von Till) released an acclaimed collection of Townes Van Zandt covers. The Forgiven Ghost In Me, Kelly’s latest record is not quite a solo album – he’s joined here by a four-piece band – but the primary focus on the record is Kelly’s sparce guitar playing and that voice.

There’s something about Scott Kelly’s voice – a duplicity that allows it to be nicotine-tough and world-weary yet open and vulnerable. The accompanying notes for the album, written by Kelly’s contemporary Nate Hall, paint an almost mythical picture of Kelly as a troubadour, a man who has truly lived a rollercoaster of a life and puts every drop of sweat and blood into his music. And there’s certainly an earthy, homespun spirit to The Forgiven Ghost In Me – the songs are like confessions from a grizzled old character in a dusty saloon, seeking redemption for distant crimes, spilling his guts after too much bourbon.

Strangely, the album is bookended by optimistic, relatively upbeat tracks; opening number “A Spirit Redeemed to the Sun” has a country feel to it – simple chord progressions, tremolo guitars chiming out, and uplifting organ chords underpinning it all, giving the song a sense of being an old country standard from an American songbook. Closing track “We Burn Through the Night”, with its yearning lapsteel/ebow, feels like a ray of light after a particularly dark night of the soul, Kelly sounding not quite triumphant but at least happy to have survived.

But this is far from a straight-forward acoustic album; between the opening and closing tracks there is a greater contrast of light and dark, simplicity and texture. “In the Waking Hours” recalls Kelly’s contributions to the recent Townes Van Zandt covers album, a seemingly simple tale which, like some of Van Zandt’s finest songs, combines a stoic perspective with a hint of nostalgia: “I never felt a future in my heart/ I saw the eyes behind the wheel.” “Within It Blood” swells to a dramatic climax with slowly creeping layers of radio noise and electric guitar leads, while “The Field That Surrounds Me” also takes an atmospheric approach, building upon an already tense riff with moody droning strings to hypnotic effect.

If you’ve heard any of Kelly’s previous acoustic outings then The Forgiven Ghost In Me won’t be a massive surprise – Kelly is blessed with the kind of voice that lends authority and credibility to this kind of music. Like Mark Lanegan, Kelly takes the great American musical institutions of blues and country and weaves them through his own unique filter, infusing the songs with modern flavours to prevent anything from becoming too derivative. Somehow, during this process, Kelly manages to make the songs sound timeless. If you’re looking for a huge variety of musical styles, pace or mood then you’re better off looking elsewhere – this record kind of sinks into a funk (and not in the funky sense). But just as humans do in these situations, it works its way out of it. And what do you know? There’s a little ray of sunshine on the other side.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 16/08/2012]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/news/scott-kelly-and-the-road-home-the-forgiven-ghost-in-me-cd-lp-dd-2012/

Taurus - Life

(Self-released, 2012)

When I heard that Stevie Floyd of doom duo Dark Castle had formed a psychedelic doom side-project with Ashley Spungin of Purple Rhinestone Eagle I, like many people, was pretty excited. Floyd’s work with Dark Castle has been among some of the more exciting the doom genre has offered up for some time and while I was previously unfamiliar with Purple Rhinestone Eagle, a cursory listen to their most recent album suggested that Spungin’s retrospective musical aspirations would meld well with Floyd’s for a psychedelic release. Purple Rhinestone Eagle reminded me of the famous compilation of counter-culture garage bands, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, so I was imagining some kind of doom-metal 13th Floor Elevators or something.

Well, Life is a bit too freewheeling and unstructured to make such an immediate impression as anything that appears on Nuggets. However this is a good thing as there are plenty of positive things to be said about this record; the dynamics of the record are great – Spungin’s simple, wide-open drumming creates a world of space for Floyd’s guitar to explore the outer reaches and really travel. The record has an expansive feel, the effect on Floyd’s guitar adding an almost science-fiction sound to proceedings. However this free expansive feel can give way to claustrophobic stabs of crushing doom in an instant, never allowing you to settle into too much of a groove on this experimental excursion.

In “Life Part I” the opening riff sets a wonderfully creepy mood, having already been unsettled by the first few minutes of noise and disembodied samples. The pulsating rhythm and swooning sounds of the samples creates the impression of having suddenly found yourself in another dimension or The Twilight Zone. The riff then ascends to an almost uncomfortable place before a shimmering chord rings out, leaving you to wonder where the hell you are whilst simultaneously adding to your state of confusion. The second half of the track is a far more sparse affair – lengthy acapella sections of backwards vocals, occasional doom crashes and banshee cries.

As “Part I” fades out, “Life Part II” creeps in with guitar arpeggios, crashing drums and mournful, drawn-out vocals, as well as long sections of feedback before returning to the riff that opened “Part I”, completing the Life cycle, if you will. It’s hard to decide which track is the more out-there of the two, but once the dust has settled it doesn’t really matter. All that’s left now is to try to make sense of what you’ve just heard.

At the very least, it has to be said that Life is a trip. So many so-called “psychedelic” bands kick the same dead pentatonic horse – a loose, improvisational feel which is actually just the same old conventional jam session we’ve been hearing since the Grateful Dead starting riffing away almost fifty years ago. Taurus have created something which is so truly psychedelic it’s verging on being schizophrenic. When the record is over you actually feel like something has happened, like you might have just travelled somewhere in your mind. Sometimes the combination of meandering riffs, vocal samples and tortured yells on Life don’t always gel together naturally but this is intended to be an abstract record, and what kind of abstract record would it be if I could come to any kind of solid conclusion about it?

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 06/08/2012]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/t/taurus-life-lp-cd-digital-2012/

Trickster Presents...

I have recently compiled a podcast/compilation of fantastic local bands as my new promoting alias TRICKSTER. The collection is called "Oxford: City of Sound Vol 1" and here is the press-release for it:

Trickster is proud to present
Oxford: City of Sound Vol 1

Oxford is a city with a rich musical heritage – world-famous acts including Radiohead, Ride, Supergrass and Foals have all helped to put Oxford on the map. But there are a host of fantastic local bands that remain relatively unknown, either because they've not had that “break” or because they make music that is just really, very unappealing to the majority of people.

Recent compilations and mixes such as Spires (put together by Aaron Delgado, formerly of Phantom Theory and currently in Kill Murray – both good local bands) and City of Screaming Spires (put together by Aethara and John Daniels aka Skeletor Promotions) have done a great job of promoting the current indie and technical metal scenes.

This compilation attempts to weave together and promote great left-field artists, past and present, with an emphasis on the extreme, the bizarre and the beautiful. This is by no means a complete compilation (at 2 hours long it had to stop somewhere) and the “Vol 1” attached to the title hopefully indicates that a “Vol 2” will be coming in the next few months, featuring a host of different, equally talented artists. While this volume is heavily leaning towards the doom metal, math rock, noise and stoner genres, future volumes will hopefully introduce some of the finest indie, electronic, hip hop, instrumental and miscellaneous/uncategorizable (sic) artists that Oxford has to offer. It will hopefully also dig even deeper into the vaults to find some true treasures from the past...

For now though, Trickster presents Oxford: City of Sound Vol 1 – because there's more to Oxford than punting and public-school buggery.

Part 1

Part 2

Download all the tracks by clicking here

Tracklisting

Montague

/

SEXTODECIMO – Soundproof Mask

THE GRACEFUL SLICKS – Fire

THE CELLAR FAMILY – In the Garden

SEABUCKTHORN – Journeyed Road

D. GWALIA – Black Current

KOMRAD – Blowing Up a Rubber Doll Does Not Make You a Martyr

XMAS LIGHTS - You Wouldn't Have To Kill So Many Iraqi Children With Iranian Bullets If You Would Simply Reduce Oil Spending, Usage and Emissions Within Your Own Borders

HOLIDAY STABBINGS – Belly Ache

AGNESS PIKE – Rubber Love

CARAVAN OF WHORES – Drug Queen

MOTHER CORONA – Sunscope

-INTERMISSION-

IVY'S ITCH – Trophy

LISTING SHIPS – Mesuline Romance

OLID – Lights on the Lake

SUITABLE CASE FOR TREATMENT – Dead Pigeon Teachers

TAMARA PARSONS-BAKER – Lover

VON BRAUN – Cat Dog

DESERT STORM – Word to the Wise Man

UNDERSMILE – Mandrill

SEVENCHURCH – Perceptions

SEXTODECIMO

Legendary sludge metal band. Voted best metal band in Oxford history.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SEXTODECIMO/34285975492

THE GRACEFUL SLICKS

Retro rock in a good, 13^th Floor Elevators kind of way.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Graceful-Slicks/104896709556567

THE CELLAR FAMILY

Nightmare punk racket. Insane.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cellar-Family/199481533395218

SEABUCKTHORN

Evocative, atmospheric acoustic soundscapes taking you on a journey down dusty roads and ancient ruins. (Probably hates the phrase “soundscapes.”)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seabuckthorn/142975199094288

D. GWALIA

Enigmatic, dark folk singer-songwriter. Soundtrack to imaginary David Lynch film.

http://www.dgwalia.com/

KOMRAD

Shape-shifting prog-metal psychopaths who've not taken their ritalin.

http://www.facebook.com/komradband

XMAS LIGHTS

Math-screamo-rock assault. Righteous indignation at its finest.

http://www.blindsightrecords.co.uk/xmas_lights.htm

HOLIDAY STABBINGS

Brutal noise duo having a bad day. Letting it out on you.

http://www.last.fm/music/Holiday+Stabbings

AGNESS PIKE

Super tight sludge-punk-metal with the best frontman in town.

http://www.reverbnation.com/agnesspike

CARAVAN OF WHORES

Filthy, wig-out doom with Animal from the Muppets on drums. In the best possible way.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/COW/113587911991169

MOTHER CORONA

Oxford's very own desert-swept stoner-groove band. Like Kyuss with Billy Corgan on vox.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mother-Corona/193059974653?ref=ts

IVY'S ITCH

Abrasive, cathartic singer fronts twisted, complex post-grunge riot known as gloomcore.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ivys-Itch/22067802352

LISTING SHIPS

Nautically-themed krautrock with some post- and electro-rock thrown in for extra rock.

http://www.facebook.com/listingships

OLID

Smart-man's doom. Doom with moves.

http://olid.bandcamp.com/album/olid

SUITABLE CASE FOR TREATMENT

Restless musical chameleons – where metal meets New Orleans-jazz and gospel.

http://www.myspace.com/suitablecasefortreatment

TAMARA PARSONS-BAKER

Not-your-average female singer-songwriter. Very dark. Like a moonless night with stars.

http://www.facebook.com/tparsonsbakermusic

VON BRAUN

Some of the best song-writing in Oxford with Pixies-like angles. No bass needed.

http://www.facebook.com/vonbrauntheband

DESERT STORM

Southern rock Kings, they piss Whiskey and punch preachers for not preaching riffs.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Desert-Storm/47917364717

UNDERSMILE

Hypnotic and soul-destroying sludge/funeral doom and haunting harmonies.

http://www.facebook.com/Undersmile

SEVENCHURCH

Epic doom legends. Nuff said.

http://www.sevenchurch.co.uk/