Tuesday, January 24, 2017

DMD highlights from 2016 Part Two: Mountain… Metal and Punk

Welcome to our second instalment of the Desert Mountain Dust picks from 2016, in this phase of our sonic journey we embark on the perilous ascent up the Metal Mountain
(and a brief venture across to Punk Island as well!)


Here lies some of my favourite releases from 2016, this time it's all about Metal, Punk and the various sub genres they have spawned.








Modern Metal
Gojira - Magma
In 20 years, Gojira have gone from absolute obscurity to cult following, ending up at their rightful place amongst Metal’s vanguard. Arguably France’s biggest heavy metal export to date, since their debut in 2001 ‘Terra Incognita’ they’ve shocked and amazed listeners worldwide with their technical, brutal dosage of eco-metal.

This time around on symbolic album number six, the band bring a few changes to their musical table, reining in the harsher vocals in exchange for more cleans as well as less dazzling technical work,  focussing more on songwriting and hooks that stick with you long after the record has finished. But rest assured much of the signature Gojira sound hasn’t been lost in this maturing process.

‘Magma’ was recorded at a difficult time for the Duplantier brothers, who suffered the loss of their mother, which can be read from much of the album’s lyrics to ‘The Shooting Star’ and the closing acoustic lamentations of ‘Liberation’.

‘Stranded’ is a real stomper while the short instrumental ‘Yellow Stone’ has many grunge overtones, and is just one of many new steps for the band. As previously stated, the band’s trademark hard edged riffing and experimental melodies are still present and can be heard loud and clear on the title track and ‘Pray’.

For me, Track 2 ‘Silvera’ is the standout track, aided by a catchy guitar line and Joe Duplantier’s esoteric words that speak of “when you change yourself you change the world” making it one of the record’s more obvious throwbacks to their previous work.

I should also add that at the time of writing, the top 5 tracks on the band’s Spotify page are all from Magma, which definitely says a lot. In closing, Magma simply isn't a good enough reason to abandon Gojira, the band are in a period of transformation, and I have no doubts that their next record will feature many more changes.

Listen / Download here:



Progressive Rock
Opeth - Sorceress
‘Sorceress’ is the third instalment since 10th album ‘Heritage’ where the band much to the horror of a portion of their hardcore fanbase, ditched the death growls and took the plunge down a new musical path.

I’m not trying to divide people, but to me it doesn’t feel like such a radical change. I mean it’s never been a secret that Åkerfeldt and co worship at the prog altar while incorporating a wild range of styles (Blues, Classical, Folk, and Jazz) into their sprawling sound.

With that in mind, plenty of the band’s trademark moves still remain, like the soaring guitar solos on ‘The Wilde Flowers’ and ‘A Fleeting Glance’ (which also features a beautifully saturated organ tone) as well as the ever strong Folk presence in ‘Will O The Wisp’ and the record’s bookend tracks.

Although the band are trying to contain the chaos a bit more than on previous releases, the mischievous spirit of time signature changes and chin stroking musical breaks can still be heard on ‘Strange Brew’.

‘Chrysalis’ features trade offs between guitar and keyboard that feel almost like a jam between Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord, while ‘The Seventh Sojourn’ sounds like an unreleased track from their 2003 album ‘Damnation’. Meanwhile, the warmth of the guitar tone when the heavier riffs kick in on the title track and ‘Era’ cannot be understated.

In conclusion, ‘Sorceress’ feels like the most natural continuation of the group’s new found sound, and the most accessible yet from the new Opeth. 

Listen / Download here:



Katatonia- The Fall Of Hearts
Katatonia is a name I am always hearing thrown around but have never given the band a proper listen, I finally decided to check out their latest effort. They’ve been around about as long as their fellow Swedes Opeth, and frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt even performed vocals on their second album 'Brave Murder Day' after singer Jonas Renkse was taken ill.

On 'The Fall of Hearts' the band set out to calm rather than crush, which is fine by me because keeping the heavier material in short supply does give the riffs greater impact which can be heard on tracks like 'Takeover'  'Decima' and 'The Night Subscriber' all while Renkse’s vocals shine through wonderfully. 'Serien' also boasts some beautiful lead guitar and a bold ambient section.

Lyrically throughout the record Jonas Renkse seems to be exorcising some personal demons of his own which are highlighted with the aid of acoustic guitars and cleaner sections on 'Old Heart Falls' and ‘Pale Flag’.

Moving in a more metallic direction, closing track 'Passer' offers up some hyper shred and blinding drum fills amongst weeping keyboards that help bring the record to it's conclusion
Primarily a gentle listen, but the band can still surprise with some weightier sections. 

The album flows well, with none of the transitions sounding too unnatural, and the mood changes with ease from catharsis to profound sadness, all while never falling prey to prog by numbers. I think I can safely say I will definitely be checking out the rest of Katatonia’s discography.

Listen / Download here:


Progressive Metal
Dysrhythmia - The Veil of Control
Formed in ’98 by drummer Jeff Eber and prolific solo guitarist Kevin Hufnagel then later joined by bassist/producer Colin Marston (Behold The Arctopus/Krallice) in 2004, both Hufnagel and Marston would later join the new Gorguts lineup for 2013 comeback LP ‘Colored Sands’ and this year’s EP ‘Pleiades Dust’ (which is also on this list). 

The instrumental power trio harnesses the most avant-garde elements of progressive rock and jazz crossbreeding them with metal to create incredibly intricate and beautiful sounds. But be warned, this is not a record you will have all worked out by the time it’s over.

‘The Veil of Control’ is a fast changing musical landscape, on the first few spins I found it difficult to keep up with, the lack of hooks and vocals might also make others head for the door, so it goes without saying that sticking with it may take patience and a number of listens to unlock it’s full potential, but once you've cracked it’s code the rewards are endless. 

The build up on 'Internal/Eternal' is still a highlight for me, while the blast beats on 'Black Memory' hint at Death Metal but also throws in the sort of glassy chords you'd hear on an Allan Holdsworth album, as always Dysrhythmia sound determined not to set up camp in one territory. The three and a half minutes on closing track 'When whens end' remain some of the most atmospheric on the album.

Everyone in the band are maestros of their instruments and are on top of their game, the material on here showcases their abilities well as a collective rather than separately through endless self-indulgent solos. 

The record is mixed well with enough space for each member to be heard without difficulty plus the ‘live production’ has a real rawness to it that I would argue has definitely been lost in the more computerised mixes of the Djent/New School of Prog Metal bands.

As delightful as it is mind-boggling, whether you’re suffering from recycled Tech Metal fatigue or looking for technical ecstasy, a large dose of Dysrhythmia might just hold the key for you.

Listen / Download here:



Mathcore/Math Metal
Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation
The news that the highly influential, boundary destroying Dillinger were to finally call it a day was truly shattering, but then again with many of the members busy with side projects it's better to bow out in style rather than continue to flog a dead horse. 

Dissociation isn't the the sound of a band breaking up, it's the sound of a group of five people coming together to blow us all away one last time.

Greg Puciato's inhuman vocals are the starring role for the most part, especially on opener ‘Limerent Death’ where they become more and more insane as the song speeds up like a malfunctioning carousel. Next up, the anthemic chorus of ‘Symptom of Terminal Illness’ is destined to be screamed back at the band on their final tour dates.

'Wanting Not So Much As To' comes with stabbing accents, ludicrous guitar leads and punky sections harking back to the player's earliest influences, then goes into a Faith No More inspired spoken word passage, while ‘Fugue’ is peppered with the type of electronics that appeared on such past albums as ‘Ire Works'.

My favourite track ’Low Feels Blvd’ starts off with the mad drum rhythms the band are so well known for, and morphs into a real film score (complete with dramatic horns and amazing jazz guitar). Before you know it, the frantic intensity returns and the song goes out with a shower of guitar feedback. I can imagine Mike Patton crying tears of joy when he listens to this one.

Feeling like a jazzier '43% Burnt' both ‘Honey Suckle’ and 'Manufacturing Discontent' seem to be the perfect combination of the band's more melodic material and their spastic math origins.

But the final curtain comes too soon, and the grand finale that is 'Dissociation' sweeps in with evocative strings that turn to electronic industrial beats, the strings return with cymbal heavy drum hits, finally left with nothing but Puciato’s voice repeating the mantra 'Finding a way to die alone'.
Their swansong will be remembered as one of their best.

The band have already set out on their farewell tour, so if they are coming to your area this is your last chance to see one of the best live bands to ever walk the earth.

Listen / Download here:



Car Bomb - Meta
The Long Island, New York quartet define themselves as Mathcore or Math Metal, but had they formed in 2010 instead of 2000 then we’d probably be calling them Djent.

I am not a huge fan of Djent, from time to time I can find enjoyment in a handful of the bands the sub genre has spawned, but find too much of the rest to be watered down. But whether I or anyone else likes it or not, the movement has ushered in some groundbreaking bands and brought metal to a huge new audience,  inspiring those kids to pick up a guitar (with more than 6 strings), upped their interest in music theory and gotten them involved in production and gear.

Now Car Bomb are anything but watered down, instead they leave out the mixer and drink straight from the bottle like Jon Belushi in Animal House. The riffs on show here are of a highly vigorous polyrhythmic calibre but remain intent on carrying on the experimentality rather than becoming one of thousands of mimic bands that clog up our social media everywhere.

The Meshuggah influence is the most noticeable, plus vocalist Michael Dafferner does share plenty of characteristics with frontman Jens Kidman. That is because like Meshuggah, Car Bomb are keen on pushing their sound, dissecting it and re-assembling it in a way that the final result has so many twists and turns the experience is overwhelming. 

Prior to writing this I’d never even heard of Car Bomb but was completely blown away and will definitely be checking out more of their work. Here is a delicious slice of Math Metal that harks back to the days before the Djent dam burst and tries for uniqueness rather than similarity. Try listening to this back to back with 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' for maximum effect.

Listen / Download here


Post-Metal
Neurosis Fires within Fires
Since transitioning from Hardcore Punk to Post-Metal pioneers with their 1992 classic third strike 'Souls at Zero' Bay Area legends Neurosis have remained one of the most influential acts in memory. But will their eleventh album re-affirm their status or write them off as dinosaurs in an overcrowded genre?  

'Bending Light' 'A Shadow Memory' and 'Fire is the End Lesson' are all great examples of the brain battering sludge, ethereal effects and spacious softer zones that Neurosis are so well known for.
But 'Broken Ground' is where the real money is at, after opening with an intro comparable to Metallica's Damage Inc, and becoming a front row seat at Steven Von Till's poetry reading, the track brings out the kind of heavy post metal guitar work that inspired a previous generation and will continue to inspire long after they're gone.

'Reach' continues with similar guitar effects, and over the course of 10 minutes builds up to a lurching final riff, which cuts out abruptly making for an unexpected exit. Despite being their shortest album since 'The Word as Law' Neurosis still manage to accomplish more in 40 minutes than most bands could in 80.

Listen / Download here:



Russian Circles - Guidance
Formed in 2004, Chicago's Instrumental post rock/metal trio Russian Circles are a name in the hearts of post music fans everywhere. Ever since second album ‘Station’ when ex Botch bassist Brian Cook joined their ranks, the group have been on a constant upward trajectory. 

5 years and 3 records later, they return with another highly impactful musical journey that once again secures their place amongst the elites of the genre.

Listen / Download here:



Oathbreaker - Rheia 
Belgium quartet Oathbreaker are one difficult band to categorise, they flirt with DSBM, Blackgaze, Post Metal, and Hardcore but refuse commitment to just one of these areas. However this isn't a hindrance, making their musical scope larger and allowing a crossover to as many possible listeners.

After three strong and dynamic openers, acoustic number 'Stay Here / Accroche-Moi' brings things down but 'Needles In Your Skin' returns to Black Metal business. There's also an ambient track ('I'm Sorry This Is') which helps break up the speed freakery and heaviness. Final track 'Begeerte' is a soft ending to a heart wrenching record.

You'll hear no forced torment in the notes of vocalist Caro Tanghe who is either singing sweetly like an angel or screaming her face off like a demon on '10:56' and 'Second Son of R.’ The band back her up with broken glass riffing and pounding drums. ‘Rheia’ is a highly intense and diverse emotional roller coaster that will no doubt catapult Oathbreaker into the stratosphere.

Listen / Download here:



Bossk- Audio Noir
Once upon a time they were the UK’s brightest hopes in post metal, but the group decided to break up in 2008 (only 3 years after forming). Persuaded to re-unite in 2012 after being offered a live session with the BBC at Maida Vale, another 4 years on and their first full length record ‘Audio Noir’ was released in April 2016 via Converge frontman Jacob Banana’s label Deathwish inc.

Audio Noir marks 10 years since Bossk first graced us with their presence and they’re recognisable, although this time it’s being broadcast through an older and wiser quintet.

As is crucial for any self respecting post-metal outifit, a good balance of dynamics are the key to success and Bossk are seasoned pros at this. ‘Atom Smasher’ is awash with 90’s stoner rock grooves and the riff on ‘Kobe’ comes across like a prog version of CKY.

The more tranquil side to the band’s sound isn’t just littered with soft guitar and bass motifs: ‘Relancer’ features a watery sounding organ, ‘Nadir’ has piano and strings in abundance. By the time the epic 10 minute closing track ‘The Reverie I’ has reached it’s ultimate point, you’re almost guaranteed to have tears of joy flowing from the eyes of long time Bossk fans. 

Audio Noir feels like Bossk never left, and but also serves as a glorious introduction to the band if you didn’t catch them first time round. Either way, rejoice that the legends hath returned! 

Listen / Download here:


Conjurer - I
Most people credit the West Midlands as being the birth place of Heavy Metal, boasting such influential groups as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Diamond Head, Godflesh and Napalm Death. 

Unleashed on respected UK indie label Holy Roar (which has seen releases from Bongripper, Employed to Serve, Kayo Dot, Mine, Rolo Tomassi, and Svalbard to name a few) Conjurer have created an class act debut and certainly have a decent shot at joining the greats.

Not overly technical, but utilising a twin vocalist attack and superbly crafted riffs, the Conjurer lads opt for a more straightforward approach which pays off in spades. 

Beginning with an intro that sounds like a lost track off ‘Burn My Eyes’ the quartet launch into the ultra heaviness of ‘Behold The Swine’ with punchy riffs and the kind of clean section that Mastodon would approve of. There’s also a bone crushing breakdown which  becomes a fast paced Tech-Death workout, the riffs turn more emotional then briefly ugly once again before leave behind a bed of screaming feedback.

The feedback carries over and before you know what’s hit you ‘Scorn’ kicks down the door. It’s another beast of a song which I can definitely see setting the mosh pit alight. Out of nowhere the song becomes pure pandemonium, with terrifying dissonant guitars matched with monstrous vocals cueing up another savage breakdown where the notes sound off like gunshots.

‘A Chasm Forged In Dread And Disarray’ is the best example of Conjurer’s approach to dynamics, as they delve into some tension filled clean sections the guitars are kept in check by some powerhouse drumming.

My favourite track on this EP has to be ‘Frail’. The band show off their melodic side with an acoustic intro before an enormous Funeral Doom riff decimates all in it’s path. But they’re not prepared to let up on the heaviness just yet, and they race into a searing Black Metal section which turns into sludge-filled guitar harmonies with a few dirty blues licks. The final hits make for an excellent ender.

I am honestly having a difficult time pigeonholing the band with this release, for the most part you could define Conjurer as Sludgey Post-Metal but they also jump from Groove Metal to Funeral Doom to Black Metal with ease while still retaining their crushing heaviness. The 26 minutes fly by and you’re left with one of the most exciting and promising groups to make their recorded debut in 2016. 

Listen / Download here:



Doom Metal
Momo Mahou - Demo
Back in December 2016, Momo Mahou (peach magic) dropped their debut 2 track demo combining heavy Doom with some heavier lyrical themes. ‘Who Are You?’ denounces how society views the roles of Men and Women, with a sludgey guitar riff a dragging drum beat, plus some well done death growls.

Carried by a droning, pounder of a riff, ‘Man Baby’ opens with the kind of fuzzing bass and amp feedback you’d expect to hear on an Electric Wizard record (minus the sound of someone taking a huge bong hit then lapsing into fits of coughing). Lyrically, the song exposes the backwards ideals of Lad culture.

It’s not at all common to hear a Doom project bringing up such issues but this will help Momo Mahou stand out from the crowd. For me, this first release from MM was an exciting listen and I hope to hear more from the project in 2017!

Listen / Download here:



Progressive Death / Thrash
Vektor-Terminal Redux 
While mainly being a thrash band, for 14 years Arizona’s Vektor have showed time and time again that they are about more than downing a six pack of Heineken and doing the toxic waltz.

‘Terminal Redux’ (which took 5 years to complete) is the third album under the Vektor banner and it was certainly worth the wait. Their most ambitious release yet, TR is the musical soundtrack to a sci-fi story about an astronaut discovering the key to immortality and using it for himself in order to gain vast financial and political power. Eventually he makes himself mortal once more after suffering an existential crisis.

Vektor's are a cross between the 90’s Progressive/Technical Death Metal elders of Atheist, Death, and Pestilence interbred with the Thrashers from the golden age e.g. Slayer, Metallica, Testament and the groups from that era that pushed the Thrash sound further such as Coroner and Voivod.

Vektor are definitely a group I can get behind, because they sound like they want to firmly make their mark on both metal sub genres rather than become yet another clichéd parody band dressed in tight jeans and white hi-tops.

Some riffs are so fast they’d get a speeding ticket and many of the more technical parts change direction on a dime. There’s a few slower movements on ‘Collapse’ and even a choir on opener ‘Charging The Void’. Insane drumming along with David DiSanto’s high pitched devilish shrieks and superb lead guitar, if Vektor is still an untapped source for you, then Terminal Redux is the perfect initiation.

At first I thought that the length of the album was the one thing holding it back from being an instant classic, but considering the fact that 3/4 of the group recently made the decision to leave, we still have plenty of Vektor (over 70 minutes in fact) to enjoy while the future of the band is still being considered. 

I for one hope that DiSanto chooses to continue with his Metallic manifesto, because Thrash so desperately needs bands like Vektor if it’s ever to survive.

Listen / Download here:

Technical Death Metal
Unfathomable Ruination - Finitude
London Death Metal drunkards Unfathomable Ruination aren’t just another Brutal Death band with an unreadable (or in this case unfathomable) logo. They've been laying waste to venues around the UK and Europe since 2010, and even performed inside a steel box as part of an exhibition by Portuguese artist Joao Onofre back in 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVlZBR0crW4

Finally back with a follow up to their 2012 debut ‘Misshapen Congenital Entropy’ released once again through US Gore-fest label Sevared Records. 

'Finitude' means the limitation of human relationships, emotions, mind and body, and some might hate to admit it, but Death Metal can be quite limiting to work within. But Unfathomable Ruination sound like they are hellbent on tearing down the genre's borders and and moving them far beyond the horizon.

No one is letting the side down here, Drummer Doug Anderson is an absolute tornado behind the drum kit, he can blast with the best of 'em and he's got fills for days, bassist Federico Benini gets a sweet solo on ‘Nihilistic Theroem’ and has a prominent role on the intro to 'Abdication of Servitude'.
Daniel Herrera and Ross Piazza bring plenty of Tomb of the Mutilated guitar squeals, and all-out shred ('The Ephemeral Equation' is a great example of their fantastic leads) all while Ben Wright’s low gutturals orchestrate this dance of death.

Tracks like 'Thy Venomous Coils' and 'Pervasive Despoilment' show that UR know when and how to pay tribute to their influences rather than recycle the riffs of their idols. My Favourite track has to be ‘Neutraliser' because the guitar melody has been stuck in my head ever since I first heard it.

The record is stuffed to bursting with seamless transitions like on 'The Pestilential Affinity' and various Ambient intros (composed by Benjamin Ellis) also help give the songs a real darkness. The best of these appear on closing track 'Forge of Finitude' which begins as a slow death march, evolving into one last inferno of guitar riffs with furious drumming, laid to rest with a punishing breakdown and eerie chords to fade.

'Finitude' shows that Unfathomable Ruination are capable of hanging with the likes of those on the Summer Slaughter without even breaking a sweat, so you can rest assured that UK Death Metal is in more than capable hands (and feet). 

Listen / Download here:


Obscura - Akroasis
The German Technical Death Metal kings have finally released the album they’ve always been threatening to.

Founders of the modern scene, and a revolving door of ex Necrophagist and Pestilence members, Obscura are back with a new lineup, virtuous new guitarist Rafael Trujillo and highly talented drummer Sebastian Lanser. 

Many have cited Steffen Cumberer's vocals as a marmite commodity, but this time around his gravelly rasp balances well with the use of vocoder on 'The Seven Suns' and 'The Monist' which embellish the patchwork rather than taint it.

A massive amount of Death and Cynic worship is going on here, but Obscura have never been ones to keep their influences a secret, plus there's some absolutely sublime guitar and fretless bass to be heard, but the slower solos never lack depth or soul.

The album's masterpiece is classically infused epilogue ‘Weltseele’ firmly cements this as the best record Obscura have yet done, allowing them to stay true to their Death Metal roots while reaching for the furthest stars.

Listen / Download here



Gorguts -  Pleiades Dust
Taking the sounds of 'Colored Sands' to nosebleed inducing new heights, Gorguts are back with another exceptionally dynamic and cinematic Death Metal record, this time in the form of a 33 minute one song EP. I would also like to thank the band for sharing my review on their Facebook page. Read my full review here




VIRVUM - Illuminance
Since independently releasing their debut ‘Illuminance’ back in September 2016, the Swiss Progressive / Technical Death Metal quartet have scooped up a rabid online following and are in high demand to play local sweatboxes worldwide.

It's easy to see that Virvum are fans of Decrepit Birth as the band use a similar musical approach, leaving out the bass-heavy brutality and allowing the guitars more time higher up the fretboard, shooting out superbly phrased hooks with immense staying power (my personal favourites are on the title track). 

But the guitar parts would be nothing without the drummer’s thunderous foundation, expert level Bass work (performed by De Profundis/Splintered Soul bassist Arran McSporran) and vocals that never show hints of fatigue.

The band sound determined to break out of the Death Metal realm, there’s riffs that are bordering on blackgaze (Tentacles of the Sun) and plenty of prog elements afoot (II: A Final Warning Shine: Ascension and Trespassing) so that could be evidence of a potential future crossover to be had.

For many just getting into Tech Death, this record is a real eye opener with such astounding virtuosity at play, but there’s still much value here for long time Death Metal fans who don’t mind a lack of low end or a clearer production. 

It appears that Virvum’s future could be a bright one, and I would advise anyone curious to join the party around their newly laid bonfire.

Listen / Download here:



Ulcerate-Shrines of Paralysis
In this genre the emotion does tend to get lost when piling on the technical complexities, but New Zealand’s finest Technical Death Metal merchants have no such trouble on their fifth album ‘Shrines of Paralysis’. 

Like you may have just read me gushing about Virvum, Ulcerate also approach their art with a high level of craftsmanship, and they too are all about storytelling, except Ulcerate don’t do happy endings. Their production is delightfully dingy as if their practice space and recording studio has been left untouched for years, leaving everything from the mixing desk to the drum kit covered in thick layers of dust.

Even with the vocals staying gruff the whole time, there’s plenty of variety to be had. The slower, angsty riffs mix well with the speedy sections, and the dark murky sound pools that appear throughout the record cook up quite an atmosphere. Take the plunge and listen in awe as this misanthropic Death Metal world unfolds.

Listen / Download here:

Blackened Death Metal
Veilburner - The Obscene Rite
‘The Obscene Rite’ is the Third effort from the Pennsylvanian Experimental Blackened Death Metallers, and experimental is the key word here since the duo gleefully throw everything they’ve got at you.

Apart from well screamed/sung vocals, furious technical Black/Death Metal riffing and an impressive display behind the drum kit, the band’s sound includes snippets of: Dark Electronics and Industrial, Science fiction soundtrack keyboards (that remind me a lot of Nocturnus at times) and Alien sounding vocals.

Maybe the only track that could be defined as ‘normal’ (since it has the least distracting amount of things going on) is the intermission ‘Masquerade Macabre’ which has some striking organ, duelling guitars, acoustic pickings, and buried underneath that there’s field recordings of thunder and cassette like surface noise.

I can imagine for some people this album simply has way too much going on and is a bit difficult to digest, plus the length of the record doesn’t help either. But if you have a lust for adventure, you’d be mad not to buy yourself a ticket on ‘The Obscene Rite’.

Listen / purchase



Black Metal / Blackgaze
Kiss They Goat - Ego Fum Papa 
This debut from Vicious Raw Canadian Black Metal trio is a marriage of blazing speed with slow, depressive atmospherics. Ego Fum Papa is a brilliant first demo that left me wanting to hear more from Kiss Thy Goat!

Listen / Download here



Tomhet - Nightmares in Damask 
Canadian Black Metal entity Tomhet opts for yet another new approach to his sound, you can read a full review here


Black Hate - Through the Darkness
In 11 years the Mexican 4 piece have put out 2 EPs, numerous splits and now with their fourth full length, which is my first time hearing them. Don’t let the name fool you, ‘Through the Darkness’ is full of atmospheric instrumentation, brutal vocals, spell binding drumming and masterful guitars.

This record held my attention because I just had to see where the band would take me, so if you like your Black Metal a bit more flavourful then you need to give ‘Through the Darkness’ a try.
also try: Los Tres Mundos (2012)

Listen / download here:



Sun Worship - Pale Dawn
With an old school sound, Berlin’s Sun Worship dish out premium Atmospheric Black Metal. In a constant state of full steam ahead but never getting burnt out, their music is extremely empowering resulting in a meditative experience.

The vocals have a robotic tone which I really like because it’s not something you hear often, I can’t get enough of the sizzling leads that sit atop the almost permanently blasting drums that help me achieve an trance-like state. 

It’s not all about speed though, ‘Lichtenberg Figures’ drops down a few gears, building up to a dramatic ending while ‘Naiad’ is full of threatening sounding dissonant brays. 

With the shortest track at 7 minutes, it’s clear that Sun Worship are not fans of quick fixes, and I can see the repetitive riffing being too much for some folks but hey, they’re the ones truly missing out here. ‘Pale Dawn’ is a must listen for anyone who enjoys being carried away by a glory bound Black Metal horde.

Listen / Download here:
https://sunworship.bandcamp.com/music
If you have a penchant for Black Metal based in Germany, check out an Interview with Leipzig’s own Atmospheric BM crew Antlers, plus a review of their 2015 album ‘A Gaze Into The Abyss’ here



Deathspell Omega - The Synarchy Of Molten Bones 
One of Gorguts founder Luc Lemay’s favourite bands, the mysterious French Black Metal trio return with their sixth album, despite clocking in at just under half an hour they haven’t lost any of their impacting theatrics, twisted riffs or technical outbursts.

At times the group are raging like a hurricane (Famished for Breath) and at others clashing guitars together in a discordant harmony like on the title track. There’s epic passages (Onward where Most with Ravin I May meet) and parts that feel like they have more in common with Jazz than Black Metal (Internecine Iatrogenesis).

From the opening clangs to the epic horns that close the record’s fourth track, ‘The Synarchy of Molten Bones’ is another slab of proof that Deathspell Omega are one of the chosen few to save Black Metal from stagnation.

Listen / Download here:


Lord Sun - Suncatcher
Suncatcher’ is the debut of Blackened Drone gazers Lord Sun, the same people behind Post Black Metal group ‘Crescent Days’.

After a dreamy Ambient opener ‘Beneath the Sunwaves’ the group come in with ‘Defeated by Sunlight’ a shoegaze-scape that seems to stretch out as far as the eye can see. Track two ‘Suncatcher’ begins sounding like a version of cynic who grew up listening to shoegaze instead of jazz and metal, which is then drowned out by washes of high gain guitar and reverberating drums, plus the raw passion in the vocals doesn't go (s)unheard.

But epic closing track ‘Spectre’ is where the real magic is at, which begins with more of a melancholic touch then transforms into a positive sound force as soon as the distorted fuzz underneath dies out. The drums re-enter, adorned with a catchy guitar melody before dropping out again for a slightly darker mid section. Looped ambient residue builds until a dramatic hit sounds off like an ancient clock striking the hour. The drums return once again, exploding at a point where the harsh and clean vocals intertwine over a haze of guitar.

Finally as the drums pick up speed, the duo disappear over the horizon giving us an abrupt but satisfying ending. In conclusion, ‘Suncatcher’ is one beautiful racket, and it’s enlightening aura is undeniably infectious. A promising debut from a group that I can’t wait to hear more from!

Listen / Download here:
Also check out:
Crescent Days 'Violetten Blüten' 

The Avant-Garde
The Body-No One Deserves Happiness
Experimental duo The Body have been together for nearly two decades now, and in that time they’ve left their mark firmly on the experimental scene, becoming the fix craved by music fans the world over who needed something equal qualities limitless and nightmarish.

It might look good on paper when a band mixes in electronics, pop, noise, and Doomy Sludge Metal but there will always be an inexhaustible supply of doubters who are convinced that the whole thing will fall apart and be a complete mess.

Surprisingly, Chip King’s screeching vocals and the poppy pipes of Maralie Armstrong compliment each other well. On her own, Armstrong’s smooth voice is the guiding light for much of the record and the music feels built around her instead of the opposite.

The horns and electronics aren’t overused, while the ever present distorted guitar is warm and purring rather than roaring and threatening. Noise is used as the foundation of tracks rather than a background tool or an engulfing force on ‘The Fall and The Guilt’. 

In conclusion, ’No One Deserves Happiness’ feels like a transitional record for the duo, but at this stage the pop elements are still outnumbered by the metal, and noise. It may not be as terrifying as 2014’s ‘I Shall Die Here’ but it’s still further proof that The Body are leading the charge in the modern day experimental onslaught.

Listen / Download here:
Also try: The Body with Full of Hell ‘One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache’ (2016)



ULVER-ATGCLVLSSCAP
The genre police’s worst nightmare, legendary Norwegian experimentalists Ulver began life in 1993 as a black metal band, but they’ve been in a constant state of metamorphosis ever since putting out ‘Themes from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ on their own ‘Jester Records’ imprint.

The band are well known for their material resembling explorative avant-garde film soundtracks, and ATGCLVLSSCAP is another smash box office hit at the cinema of imagination!
The album’s contents, 12 mind-blowing enhanced extractions of live improvisations from a 2014 European tour are, in classic Ulver style, anything but predictable.

The first three tracks are all shining examples of Ulver’s musical prowess and innovation, whether it’s the drone filled ‘England’s Hidden’ the determined pacing of ‘Glammer Hammer’ (which feels like this film’s opening credits) or the esoteric ‘Moody Six’. My personal favourite track is ‘Cromagnosis’ where the band embark on a glory bound march, ending up in a catchy Black Sabbath Master of Reality/Volume 4 era groove that gets faster and faster until you’re left with nothing but an exhale of synth that continues into darker trip ‘The Spirits That Lend Strength Are Invisible’.

Desert/Dawn ventures into more New Age territory, and there’s Jazzy tinges on ‘D-Day Drone’ while ‘Gold Beach’ sounds like it was purloined straight from Brian Eno’s hard drive. ‘Nowhere (Sweet Sixteen)’ is one of the only songs to include vocals, and vocalist Jørn H. Sværen doesn’t disappoint, while the tremolo picked guitar notes shine out like stars. 

Ballad track ‘Ecclesiastes (A Vernal Catnap)’ continues that mood with liberating piano followed by operatic vocals and emotive strings of final track ‘Solaris’ allow for the last credits of this imaginary film to roll.

ATGCLVLSSCAP is a blinding reminder that Ulver's creative juices are yet to experience drought.

Listen / Download here:


Grindcore / Powerviolence 
NAILS ‘You Will Never Be One Of Us’
The group resemble the extremest parts of Hardcore Punk, Death Metal, D-Beat, Grindcore and Powerviolence. The Californian three piece (appearing as a quartet for live shows) established themselves as an unrelenting force of musical nature that breathed new life into the darkest ends of the Punk and Metal spectrums.

Sonically engineered with Kurt Ballou’s unmistakable signature production tone (the Scott Burns of the 2000s) right off the bat this album has all the aggressive power to not only move mountains but smash them into a thousand pieces. 

Honestly there’s too many highlights to even begin to note, ‘Life is a Death Sentence’ made me recall the song Scum by Napalm Death and the ending of ‘Violence is Forever’ features the kind of Guitar torture that Slayer made famous. 

Frontman Todd Jones is practically foaming at the mouth while bassist John Gianelli isn’t just stuck in the low end, a lot of the time he’s mirroring Jones’ speedy guitar neck laps, especially on ‘Savage Intolerance’. Drummer Taylor Young keeps his department tight and leak free with his impeccable blasting and fills, becoming some kind of hybrid of Dave Lombardo and Richard Hoak.

As is the traditional of every NAILS record (so far) the closing track is the longest, and ‘They Come Crawling Back’ is of a destructive pedigree until the final punching riff fades out.

Some might call it elitism, maybe even scene bullying but this album is a solid steel Kalashnikov aimed straight at bands like Atilla et all, and in closing I say there can be no doubt that ‘You Will Never Be One Of Us’ will be hailed as a classic to be discussed in the same excited tones as Beneath the Remains, Reign in Blood and From Enslavement to Obliteration for years to come.

Also Check Out: Nails / Full of Hell split
http://abandonalllife.com/



Wormrot - Voices
A decade has passed since the trio came together who would later be the band to put Singapore Grind on the map. Now they’ve returned with their third release ‘Voices’ but compared to it’s 2 older brothers, there are melodic  passages like on ‘Compassion is Dead’ and closing track ‘Outworn’ and even some Black Metal leanings (‘Oblivious Mess’). 

This can hardly come as a surprise though, because some maturing was bound to occur in the years since ‘Dirge’ came out.  In the grind scheme of things, their sound is all the more enriched because of these small changes so worry not, Wormrot are still alive and decaying!
Listen / download here:


ACxDC - The Oracles of Death EP
After announcing they were to split, Los Angeles Grindcore/Powerviolence four piece ACxDC completed a successful tour of Asia some final European and US shows and are here with one last EP which comes in the form of a compilation containing songs from various splits and tour tapes released between 2015 and 2016.

(You can listen separately to the various releases on bandcamp or in full via a youtube video  provided below)

The band still sound as pissed off as ever, and more venomous than an army of vipers. 'Heretics' is full of the religion bashing that only Antichrist Demoncore do so well and the shorter songs like 'Shoot First' and 'Science Ist Krieg' help keep the energy fresh.

'D.I.O' does a great job of addressing pointless bickering in the music scene and calls out bands who are too afraid to put the hard work in. On much of the material here, ACxDC mix together fiery speed with slow, stompy sections and a few tracks that end/begin with some weird noises/effects which are pretty cool.

'Prometheus' has more of a D-Beat vibe to it then jumps into a slower sludgey part, after that it erupts into blast beats and muddy riffing. Closing track 'Acedia' starts out slow with Sergio screaming his lungs out, then the band collide with some fast blast beats that turn into technical fills, then back to one final sluggish stroll and it's all over.

It's a shame the band are hanging up the grind jacket, but 'Oracles of Death' makes damn sure that the mirror showing the ugly face of our society remains held high.

Listen / Download here:



DEAF KIDS - Configuração do Lamento
Active since 2012, the São Paulo three piece are die hard crust punks with a flair for the eclectic. Like many of their past releases ‘Configuração do Lamento’ brings both these influences together in a beautiful collision.

Side A begins with a shot of noise and a nod to the early Godflesh sound, with a drum machine precise beat, deep heavy bass, echo soaked vocals and wailing guitar. There’s the kind of tribal drums Sepultura are famous for, plenty of frantically played guitar riffs and again the echoic vocals which at times tend to bury themselves in feedback. Another cool surprise was a grinding harsh noise wall mixed with a hail of cymbal hits for maximum noise.

Side B opens with punky guitar riffing, but just when you think you’re getting locked into the groove, the whole thing becomes a mad glitch. Next up, a short percussion set with traditional instruments and light touches of effects. Closing track ‘Distopia Permanente’ springs into life with a crust beat while the vocal echo has built into a cacophonous sound tomb that becomes a flange-filled roar, finally a weird robotic voice lets out a few words in the noise storm before being cut off.  

This is an interesting ending because the last ebbs of noise on Side B can be heard right at the beginning of Side A (Pink Floyd - The Wall style) making the record itself a never ending cycle.
A group certainly on the rise, Deaf Kids offer up an audio experience that has to be heard to be believed. 

Listen / Download here:


Pale Hands - The Human Cost of Building A Better Machine
After their 2015 debut EP ‘No Hope No Life’, the Santa Barbara Metallic Hardcore 4 piece followed up with a compilation Featuring 2 live songs in December of 2015 on the No Hope No Life tour, 3 brand new tracks and a cover of Police Bastard by D-beat titans Doom.

First track 'I Can't Escape' features warped guitars and a layer of noise by guitarist Daniel’s noisemaking alter ego ‘Hermit’ and NONE (INSEKTOID) which become more prominent when the band go into a Converge style breakdown, mixing with the guitar feedback like cereal and milk.

Next up is 'Burning Hate' which kicks things up a gear, the track also has the kind of middle section Neurosis would cook up, a swaying riff that once again becomes overwhelmed by feedback and glitchy noise. This is followed by a ripping cover of ‘Police Bastard’ before launching into the 2 tracks that were recorded on the No Hope No Life tour back in December 2015.

On the dissonant 'The Devil In You' Drummer Steven Hendricks keeps things simple but effective and Vocalist Jorden sounds utterly demonic, coming across here like Lars Göran Petrov after too many cigarettes. The more Old School Death Metal 'Take Control' is full of jagged riffing and from the bass break to the closing bars it's pure headbanger's delight, and is once again completely engulfed by noise.

But final track 'Palehands Megaritual' is the diamond in the rough here, beginning with an exhale of human noise then a loud rush of distortion and drums which becomes a beautiful New Age Ambient loop that could easily appear on Sounds of the Dawn. 

Despite the first half of this release being well produced I have to say that the live tracks win overall due to their rawer nature, capturing Pale Hands in their natural habitat. I do get the feeling that Pale Hands are still finding their sound (although dubbing them Neocrust at this stage wouldn't be incorrect) but they've got buckets of potential and are more than happy to experiment.

In conclusion, ‘The Human Cost….. only increases my hunger for more Pale Hands music and whether you’re a noise freak, a metalhead, or a crusty punk, Pale Hands are a worthy investment of your time and ones to watch out for in the future, so keep your Pale Fingers crossed for a full length soon! 

Click here to read an interview with PH guitarist / noise maker Daniel Cornejo

Listen / Download here:



Gendo Ikari - Unit 1
Sounding like the bastard sons of Pig Destroyer and The Dillinger Escape Plan with vocals that would make Glenn Benton hide behind the sofa, Gendo Ikari are an inhumane force of Mathy Death Grind from Glasgow, UK. The band have the approval of Arif from Wormrot which is incredible considering so far they’ve only released one EP.

With no samples and no bullshit the group get straight to the point with chameleonic riffage and destructive drumming.  One of the things I love about this release is that the guitars spend a considerable amount in the higher registers like on ‘Categorised’ and 'Epitome' which both feature Caluclating Infinity inspired fills.

With 'The Protocol' things get a little more moshy, then before you know it you're on the closing (and longest) track ‘Politics’ that has some of the best riffs on the EPAfter 9 minutes of having your head kicked in you feel like the cover photo. Let's hope that 2017 brings us an album from Gendo Ikari so that they take over the grind underworld.

Listen / Download here:
physicals available here



Ground - Squalor
Ground are a Grinding Powerviolence quartet from New Jersey. 
They've been serving up their unwashed sounds since 2013, and 'Squalor' could well be their 'Crush Kill Destroy'. The 4 piece include a good range of low Death Metal vocals and shouty backing vocals along with some pristine drumming and merciless riffing. As well as Hardcore, Powerviolence and Grind, there's some Beatdown which doesn't get tiresome.

First track 'Immanent Justice' establishes the record’s state of urgency and ‘Nothing Civilized’ describes a day of the dead type scenario.

'Cause Lost' smacks at those oblivious to racism and stands up for women's rights to access abortion and their vocalist even briefly goes into a Mike Muir style meltdown, ending with an unexpected R and B sample. '3029' is a cool little instrumental that loads up thrashy number 'Crisis Of Conscience' nicely, which is followed by 'Grind Hard: With a Vengeance' reminding me of a Grind version of Municipal Waste.

Longest track 'Spoil' starts off in the usual Ground fashion but goes into a meaty breakdown with a spacey section where feedbacking guitars scream away, bringing back the beatdown for one last time before the final note fades, leaving the band finish to things off with some Madball and Mortician covers. 'Squalor' is a strict lesson in vitriol to all the sloppy ten a penny bands out there, all hail the Groundcore!

Listen / Download here:


Hardcore/Punk
Trash - self titled
Like Nails, this band also hail from Southern California city Oxnard, so we can safely assume that there’s definitely something in the water in that area of the US causing a significant percentage of the population to form cool bands.

Opening suitably with the recording of a garbage truck pulling up on the street, then a quick drum beat intro before hurtling into the EP’s title track (and the band’s calling card) which in less than 2 minutes manages to sum up what is wrong with our world, a strong beginner for sure. 

Feedback is carried over into ‘Darkness’ where a murky guitar groove and thumping drums are bound to get fists in the air, towards the end it all goes into a half time beat, ending things on a dazed note.

Boner’s vocals on ‘Bird Eater’ remind me a little of Barney Gumble from the Simpsons which adds a level of hilarity to the record, next up ‘Riffs In My Sleep’ is a glimpse into the writing of Trash’s material before closing with a well done cover of ‘nothing’ by Negative Approach. 

Although their sound is dirty and proud, this group are anything but actual Trash to be thrown away and forgotten. The 12 minute EP is a punk-tastic listen but it’s still got plenty of doom laden sections and an air of ugliness to it.  Above all else, ‘Trash’ is some good dirty fun, so dive inside and get mucky!

Available physically on cassettes via GLH records and Grey Matter Productions 
The Tape’s B side features a bonus live set on Doom Corporation Radio Show

Listen / Download here:


Mommy - ‘Songs About Children’
It’s safe to say that NYC punk trio Mommy are still relatively new, they put out a demo back in March 2015, and an EP followed 7 months later. 

Captured in the rawest possible fashion and operating sole use of heavily distorted bass, punchy drums and screeching vocals, the band’s sound is a real gut punch and not unlimited by their minimalist approach.  If you hadn’t already guessed because of the name, the lyrics (those that I can work out anyway) seem to reflect the singer’s tortured childhood memories.

The group’s debut full length ‘Songs about Children’ released on Brooklyn based label Toxic State Records is a disturbing experience. From the creepy sample that kicks things off, it becomes apparent that Mommy aren’t a happy let-the-good-times-roll kind of band.

The primitive feel of the instruments helps to carry the hate-filled vocals which turn into ear stabbing feedback for the noise fans on ‘Learning In The Bathroom’. The distorted bass lines (particularly on ‘No More Father’ and ‘How to Act at Funerals’) remind me of Klaus Flouride’s four string work but on steroids, while the Drum kit gets such a pummelling that it sounds like it could fall apart at any second.

On ending track ‘A Jealous Boy/Mommy’ the band collide together over an entrancing repeated riff and possessed sounding vocals, later adding a layer of mangled noise that slows down to a final squawk of amplifier/microphone feedback that concludes with another poignant sample.

‘Songs About Children’ is the most solid evidence yet that Mommy have enough potential to go far beyond the point where so many other bands fall by the wayside.

Listen / Download here:



Code Blue - Punks In The Streets (A World We Never Made)
If you go to enough shows you’re bound to see them. Gathered outside the venue  smoking roll-ups, drinking cheap beer, covered in tattoos, piercings and band patches. Having the time of their lives and not giving two shits what you or the rest of this wretched world thinks of them.

Formed in 2009 and playing gigs in and around the London area, UK punx Code Blue released their self-titled EP in 2012. On hiatus since 2013, they reunited in October 2016 with debut album 'Punks In The Streets'.

It’s an action packed, no nonsense punk presentation brimming with great storytelling: ‘I Don’t Have a Car’ comically documents the woes of life in a touring band without an automobile and ‘My Bonnie’ isn’t too far from the kind of punk ballad that Social Distortion and The Undertones would pen. 

The spoken word on ‘Track Seven’ gives a break from the power chords and briefly lets us inside the mind of vocalist/drummer Jack Lewis who has a bright future in Hip-Hop while ‘Closed Circuit’ angrily lashes out at the privacy invasion of state surveillance.

‘Get In The Pit’ will transport you to a packed, sweaty venue and also features a pair of jamming solos from bassist Tom Alcoran and guitarist Nathan Fitzpatrick. ‘SW8’ is a feel-good punk call to arms and it’s catchy, bellowed chorus goes out to anyone who remembers what it’s like to be young. 
‘Punks In The Streets’ is riddled with an energy that commands you to down your pint, get down the front and pogo till you drop!

Listen / Download here:

Here's my personal favourites from A World We Never Made:

Split with Herida Profunda (Crusty Grind) and Hellbastard (Crust Punk/Crossover Thrash pioneers)

‘Fuck Off And Thrash’ by Noise Complaint (Hardcore Thrashing Punk)

‘7 Inches Of Disappointment’ by Greed Force (D-Beat Anarcho Punk)

‘Disanthropy’ by Disfortune (Blackened Grinding D-beat)


Thanks for reading!


Check out the 'Desert' list here



Saturday, January 14, 2017

“My music is the echo of my call…” a conversation with drone ambient pioneer Mathias Grassow


About a week ago, I was asked by Michael Brückner if I would be interested in publishing an interview he conducted recently with German drone ambient pioneer Mathias Grassow. After checking out Grassow’s latest release 'Kreuzblut' I said yes. So I will hand things over to Michael, hope you enjoy the interview…


First of all I’d like to introduce Mathias Grassow to those who don’t know so much about him yet:
Mathias was born in 1963 and grew up in Wiesbaden, Germany. After first musical steps with drums and guitar in the late 1970s he started to get involved in electronic, especially ambient music. While his first albums intially were released on cassette (there was a well-developed underground cassette scene in the 80s) LPs and CDs followed soon.

His international breakthrough came with “El Hadra” (1991), his collaboration with ex-Popol Vuh musician and Sufi mystic Klaus Wiese, one of the founding fathers of the original new age movement (before it was sold out and turned mostly into elevator music). Ever since, Mathias kept refining, deepening and expanding his initial musical concept with an ongoing stream of excellent releases.

Mathias Grassow is one of the pioneers and most important figures of drone ambient, his trademark are hauntingly introspective, at times sombre, minimalistic soundscapes of remarkable spiritual intensity.

While he initially was fascinated by German electronic music icons like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, among other things reading the book “Through Music To The Self” by Munich composer Peter Michael Hamel (who has also grown into a personal friend over the years) shifted Mathias’ interest to the more meditative and healing aspects of music. In addition to Klaus Wiese and the albums of Peter Michael Hamel also the early work of Georg Deuter or of American ambient artists like Steve Roach have certain aspects in common with parts of Mathias’ music.

While most of his sounds are electronically generated, Mathias actually is a multi-instrumentalist and also makes use of singing bowls, tamboura, zither, flutes or overtone singing for his vast and immersive sonic creations.

After his successful cooperation with Klaus Wiese (which resulted in two more albums), Mathias kept on joining forces with many more well known (ambient and other) musicians, like Rüdiger Gleisberg (who is, together with Carsten Agthe, also his partner in their side project “Nostalgia”), Oöphoi, Alio Die, Bruno Sanfilippo, Jim Cole or the guitar player John Haughm (of the metal band Agalloch).

Live performances have been quite rare in recent years and concentrated on a few well-chosen specific venues and events; the next concert on Mathias’ schedule however is at the festival Spectaculare in Prague, Czech Republic, on February 6th. 




Michael Brückner: To me it’s always interesting to learn about the complete picture, including how an artist arrived at his particular way of making music, therefore I start my questions at a very early point... ;-)

Can You still remember, on which occasion a drone – as a noteworthy sonic or musical event in itself – ever grabbed your attention? Or else, some other musical key experience from your childhood?

Mathias Grassow: Well, there were probably sounds which rather reached me on a subconscious level, and it’s hard to remember any of them consciously. The sound of the ocean surf…? Faraway church bells…? Some vague memories arise, similar to those triggered by fragrances, but I can’t really tell why, for example, those bells ringing from the distance touch me so deeply. Certainly there must have been also musical experiences very early on… But I can’t recall which songs or albums that had been, either. 


Michael Brückner: Were there any artistic influences coming from your family or wider social environment, e.g. were your parents or other important adults around you musicians? And since spirituality plays an important role in your music, or goes along with it, I’d also be interested how much influence your parents had in such matters.

Mathias Grassow: There hardly had been any spiritual or religious influence. Also, I don’t come from a family of musicians. My brother wanted to take piano lessons, and later my parents offered the same to me as well. However I wasn’t interested in walking the path of a classical musician or visiting a conservatory. Which turned out to be the right decision, because when finally the wish arose to play keyboards I already was 16 and felt more clearly what I really wanted to do... 


Michael Brückner: So You didn’t learn any instrument during your childhood? How did you like musical education at school: was it helpful and stimulating – or rather limiting or repressive?

Mathias Grassow: Right, no musical lessons as a child. Making music for me started in the late seventies, with a self-built drum kit, followed by guitar and later synthesizer. Music at primary school was dull – only German folk songs like "Im Frühtau zu Berge…." In high school things started to get boring again, but with Schulze and TD, to just mention a few, I successfully opposed that. ;-) 


Michael Brückner: You grew up in the seventies and thus have received the "usual musical socialization" of that generation. I’d like to ask you about different genres, or groups of bands or musicians, who probably had some influence on Your own musical creations: 70s "progressive" rock / hard rock / metal (and similar)?

Mathias Grassow: Quite a strong influence until today, although it’s not very obvious in my actual work. Any kind of music influenced me in some way, but I also drew lines; rock and electronic music were always present. For many years, I used to listen for hours to music every evening, the choice depending on my mood. Somewhere there was a sense of making differences, then again everything happened at the same time.
 

Michael Brückner: "Classic" 70s electronic (space) music and Berlin School (first of all Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, but also Jarre, Vangelis, Cluster, Kraftwerk etc.) ?

Mathias Grassow: A surprisingly small influence – except for TD and Schulze obviously. The old German electronic music and also the "Neue Deutsche Welle“ that later came out of it always was too strenuous and experimental for my taste and rather got on my nerves (e.g. NEU !). I liked La Düsseldorf or  Kraftwerk only partly and preferred to listen to the "Munich School“ instead... 


Michael Brückner: Brian Eno, Fripp & Eno or related...?

Mathias Grassow: Eno’s music did never touch me a lot; I never really did understand the hype around him… I like Fripp though, especially his work with David Sylvian, for example.


Michael Brückner: Popol Vuh, Klaus Wiese & Peter Michael Hamel (and related)?

Mathias Grassow: An extremely strong influence. Especially Hamel is one of my creative idols and sources of inspiration. 


Michael Brückner: As you say, German composer, electronic musician, author and university lecturer Peter Michael Hamel, who is also a personal friend of yours since many years, was an especially important influence to you. Incidentally his book "Durch Musik zum Selbst" (Through Music to the Self), but also his early albums, impressed me a lot as a young person, too – so I’d like to ask some more questions about him:

How did You get to know Peter’s music?

Mathias Grassow: By chance rather. The first album I came across was “Nada” and over time I bought the others as well...

Peter Michael Hamel and Mathias Grassow
Michael Brückner: What’s your favorite Hamel album?

Mathias Grassow: As a complete album it’s  "Organum“. Otherwise different tracks from different albums, especially those with church organ and PPG synth. 


Michael Brückner: What is it, to you, that makes his music so special? What had been the difference to other music that had influenced you up to this point?

Mathias Grassow: Not easy to put that into words… Somehow some of his tracks touch me so profoundly, that it just leaves me in total awe. That hasn’t changed until today and I’m surprised that a well-structured, academically trained composer is able to reach me in this way. Before discovering Hamel, I only knew similar effects from improvised music…This, together with the background that was provided by his book, made me realise that he was especially gifted.


Michael Brückner: Did his thoughts on music (especially from his book) influence you directly, and open up new ground for you? Or were you already familiar with the topics that he speaks about (Asian music, meditation, ragas and so on), even before you came in touch with his work? 

Mathias Grassow: No, his book really was the initiation and did show me new paths, as well as making me see how all these things correlated. J. E. Behrendt's book "Nada Brahma – The World Is Sound“ later was a welcome addition and further exploration of these topics.


Michael Brückner: When did you meet each other in person for the first time?

Mathias Grassow: Well, that was in the late 80s via the "Frankfurter Ring“ where Peter held workshops and gave concerts.


Michael Brückner: Did You ever create any music together?

Mathias Grassow: No never. That idea just never came up. Until today, our friendship is purely on a personal level. 


Michael Brückner: Did you receive any further musical impulses from your conversations with Peter when you met in person that added new aspects to what his book and his actual music already had given you?

Mathias Grassow: No, not really… Being together, and also his letters probably did, in some way, but there were no 'insights‘ or 'impulses‘ as a direct result of our actual conversations. It’s just an interesting thing to see how a person turns from being a detached, distant composer to an “ordinary” friend. Our meeting in 2016 was disillusioning in a way, but I also received a lot from it. (see also below)


Michael Brückner: Did you meet other musicians (or maybe producers / labels etc) via Peter, who inspired you or were otherwise significant for you and your work?

Mathias Grassow: No - in the 80s he was already more at home in the world of academic music, and this world was quite different from that of his Kuckuck-Albums and his book. He often mentioned names that were familiar  (e.g. Michael Hoenig, as an example from the electronic scene), but it was rather through Klaus Wiese that I met interesting people. 


Michael Brückner: Can you tell us one or two anecdotes about, or interesting things that happened around Peter which were especially memorable?

Mathias Grassow: Well, the most intense encounter was our meeting at Easter 2016. It was very personal, openminded and close. I got to know Peter as a human being, beyond his persona of a well-known musician. That was a perplexing experience and characterised by such a – partly tragic - profundity, that I don’t want to disclose the details here…


Michael Brückner: Before we get back to a very important topic which we already touched when we spoke about the "Munich School" – the spiritual aspect of music, and music as a means of healing – I’d like to take a look at your musical career for those who don’t know it closely yet:
Do you still remember the first piece that you ever recorded and  were satisfied with? Is that on any of your albums? 
 
Mathias Grassow: My first pieces were just weird guitar noise and strange synth sounds. On one of my albums…? Heaven help…! (laughs) Even by the most well-meaning standards I couldn’t call that stuff at least “experimental music”. Sheer dilettantism – but also great fun!
I thought my first multitrack recordings were OK, that was around 1981…


Michael Brückner: What was your first label release, and how did that contact come about?

Mathias Grassow: That was "At the Gates of Dawn“ on cassette, recorded in 1985 and released in February 1986 by Aquamarin from Munich. They were a mail order bookstore specialised in US New Age who also had discovered the music market and produced cassettes which were mainly sold through esoteric shops. That way, for me spirituality and music were quite automatically linked from start. However, I left this kind of New Age behind at the end of the Eighties – the music from that scene finally had transformed into faceless, over-sugared kitsch which wasn’t my cup of tea.


Michael Brückner: The title brings Pink Floyd to mind; has your early music – or that special album – been inspired by them...?

Mathias Grassow: Well, the music in no way – but I liked that particular title, and so I borrowed it… ;-)


Michael Brückner: What happened after Aquamarin, concerning labels and distribution?

Mathias Grassow: Aquamarin was followed by the rise of the CD from 1990 on. Because I already had a name, and also via connections, I was approached by different labels. AIM from Munich and also the cult label "NO-CD-REKORDS“ from Spain, later AMPLEXUS from Italy and so on. In the early Nineties there was a little “golden age” of ambient. Especially Steve Roach, Robert Rich and Michael Stearns had some serious success in these days. I’m still very fond of these three guys until today!  


Michael Brückner: Which of your albums is the most commercially successful so far?

Mathias Grassow: Without a doubt and by far "El-Hadra“ with Klaus Wiese. I don’t know the exact sales numbers, but 100.000 wouldn’t be exaggerated.  


Michael Brückner: How is your situation concerning releases and distribution today – especially given the by now almost familiar crises of the music business?  

Mathias Grassow: Unfortunately, it grows worse and more and more frustrating: On the one hand the costs of production are lower than ever; but CD sales are also much lower than they used to be. At the moment the shocking truth is that production runs of 200 copies are sufficient. And I don’t do a second run after that usually. With better promotion and over time I see up to 500 sales in some cases, but that’s it... 


Michael Brückner: You are a very prolific musician and your catalogue is filled with an impressive number of releases. Could you pick four of your albums, which are especially close to your heart and briefly tell us, why these albums are important to you?

Mathias Grassow: Four? Ummm, well "Psychic Dome“ really was something special, and  "Ambience“ – the title says it all, this album also paved the way for many which followed. Also "Himavat“ set standards in the late nineties. In the new millennium everything seemed to happen at once. It’s hard to highlight any particular album. At the moment I like "Harmonia Mundi“ a lot; but I need time - 10 years at minimum – to really rate an album with hindsight. Certain other albums I probably wouldn’t release anymore from today’s point of view…


Michael Brückner: You also collaborated a lot with other musicians -  again, could you please name two or three examples of which you have fond memories? 

Mathias Grassow: Well, certainly "Arcanum“ with Rüdiger Gleisberg and Amir Baghiri; and the albums with John Haughm of Agalloch and my work with Jim Cole. 

Agalloch founder John Haughm
and Mathias Grassow

Michael Brückner:
Speaking of Rüdiger Gleisberg – just recently you made "The House On The Borderland" by Nostalgia available again via Bandcamp (as far as I know it was out of print for some time) – and much to my personal delight, since it is one of my favorite albums of all times, and I think that it deserves much more attention as it has received so far! Would you like to tell us about the making of this album, and maybe also about the project  "Nostalgia" in general?

As far as I know, it’s a cooperation between yourself and musician / composer Rüdiger Gleisberg in the first place, with changing additional guest musicians? Do you have plans for further Nostalgia albums in the future? Where you already familiar with the novel by William Hope Hodgson, which the album is an adaption of, before that project (for info on the book, see link)?

The House on the Borderland Wiki Page


Mathias Grassow: As far as I remember, "House on the Borderland“ almost was elected 'Album of the Month' in the big goth magazine "Orkus”. If we had had better distribution and a record label who was willing to fund a tour, this album would have been a huge success, I think.

It had never been completely out of print, though, if we count also the rather poor intermediate EC release. Today I offer the album only as a digital release – which makes it basically available to an unlimited audience.

It’s important to point out though, that although we can say it was a collaboration by me and Rüdiger Gleisberg plus guest musicians, in the case of this particular album the third protagonist, Luigi Seviroli, was the main 'creative director' and also the one who initially came up with the concept. In this case it was Rüdiger and me who completed the work, most of the orchestral parts were composed by Luigi, who, I think, did a great job and congenially realized the all-over concept.
When we recorded the album, I still didn’t know the story, but I knew about the dramatic and tragic life of it’s author. 

All in all, "House on the Borderland“ was something of a 'chance project', which was released under the "Nostalgia“ flag, but actually it was a deviation from the style of the first album. We released to more albums – four in total; at the moment the project is hibernating; how long, I don’t know. I think to be perceived as a "real“ band and to satisfy a larger audience, we needed to go on tour, but we live too far apart from each other to do so, we all have families and the three of us (Grassow, Gleisberg and Carsten Agthe) don’t really want to take that effort with our (all in all) more than 150 years on Earth. 

Directly after the first release of "House on the Borderland“ there should have happened some systematic promotion on the part of our producers, labels and music publishers, to make us stay on the scene. In the meanwhile Nostalgia is – except for fans like you – mostly forgotten;  and to prevent that, we had needed better management, and touring. But I have no hard feelings because of that; all of the four albums had had their time, and were a joy when we recorded them.


Michael Brückner: How did you meet Rüdiger?

Mathias Grassow: More than 25 years ago, at the birthday party of an electronic music fan in Wiesbaden…


Michael Brückner: What else did the two of you do together, music wise...? 

Mathias Grassow: Except for some guest appearences by Rüdiger on my albums "Expanding Horizon" and "Lanzarote Concert" only Nostalgia.


Michael Brückner: Who took the initiative in the case of Nostalgia? 

Mathias Grassow: I did…


Michael Brückner: And what’s your own favorite album of the four that you released so far?

Mathias Grassow: "House on the Borderland“ is my favorite, too, but I also like our debut, "Arcana Publicata Vilescunt" a lot and think it’s quite a timeless album...
Michael Brückner: What can you tell us about the other guest musicians?

Mathias Grassow: Well, I guess Rüdiger Gleisberg needs no introduction, (percussionist and didgeridoo player) Carsten (Agthe) also appeared as a guest on several of my albums, and Luigi Seviroli is a well-known Italian movie soudtrack composer.

Perhaps we’ll also make a musical adaption of Poe’s "Fall of the House of Usher" one day, but that’s just a vague idea so far. At one point there were also plans for a movie version of "House on the Borderland“, with our music as a soundtrack, but I never heard again from that director, except for the usual "independent filmmakers – no money etc." talk. We will see what the future will bring...


Michael Brückner: Can you tell us about two or three of your concerts that were especially memorable?

Mathias Grassow: Well, the festival in San Sebastian was tremendous: the organization and support were first class!! Same thing with the Lanzarote concert - unforgettable regarding the huge effort that went into it, technical equipment, and professional organization. The Prague concerts were well prepared and organized, too. 

And of course, I have to mention the memorable performance that Oöphoi (Gianluigi Gasparetti, Italian ambient musician1958 – 2013) had organized in his place in 1999 – however that was more or less a 'private concert‘. It was there where I also first met Robert Rich and Alio Die. Steve Roach and I already knew each other from Paderborn, where he worked with Elmar Schulte on different albums for their project  "Solitaire“. 


Michael Brückner: When did the concerts in San Sebastian and Lanzarote take place, and how did you get the chance to participate?

Mathias Grassow: The organizers gave me a call. I was already rather well known back then, and people involved in the scene and with some degree of interest couldn’t quite ignore me… ;-) But I also remember a fan from those days, who promoted me in Spain. Sadly, he has passed away a while ago...
San Sebastian happened in 1993 and Lanzarote in 1994.


Michael Brückner: Do you remember any reactions, letters or conversations from or with listeners, or at concerts, that mean a lot to you, or seem „typical“ or otherwise remarkable? 

Mathias Grassow: Sure… there were many. For example, I was quite surprised, how irritated, even almost hostile fans can get when you don’t play the star, but just behave like an average person. Many are confused by that. They want to meet an icon. To them, you are always just your music. That made me quite sad. I started to realize how lonely real stars must feel, in spite of the fact that everyone wants to be like them...

Something that once really hurt me was some abysmally negative and personally insulting review, that even haunted me in my sleep. Before that happened, I wouldn’t have guessed that such a thing could affect me so much. However, that thing would be sorted out later on. 

Fan mail and reviews have grown so much over the years that I stopped at some point to collect and memorize them. There were some touching letters or emails by people who experienced a breakthrough by listening to my music, or even who’s chronic diseases got much better; most of the listeners however are hunters and collectors, who just follow that passion. And why not? But every "You are the best!“ and "Keep it up!“ is encouraging!


Michael Brückner: Klaus Wiese was an ambient musician who I know by name, however I don’t know much more about him. Would you like to tell us a little bit about him? Where have you met him, and how did your collaboration come about?  Have you stayed in contact also beyond your musical project? Were you already familiar with his music before you met him – and if so, had it already been an important influence?

Mathias Grassow: The cosmos of Klaus Wiese is too vast to sketch our 22 years of friendship in just a few lines. Already the term „ambient musician“ doesn't do justice to who he was and what he did.  He was a world musician, very much influenced by Eastern philosophy, a sufi – and he had a very equanimous attitude towards music. 

He worked with sounds so very precisely, but at the same time he was rather negligent when it came to promotion, distribution and self management. Sometimes his ways were mysterious and incomprehensible. No goal, only the present moment did count - in one moment it was all about music, then it was photography or just sitting for hours and drink tea… We recorded several albums together, and each of us contributed his special sound. 

Being a Popol Vuh member was like living together in some kind of commune, and that way he had been part of the picture – that's how he called it. In the days of love and peace everyone was part of it who just showed up… And his music had a big influence on me – yes, indeed! Together with Hamel, Klaus Wiese is my main inspirator. I met him via Aquamarin in Munich somewhen in 1987, because both of us released albums there and were fascinated by each other's music.


Michael Brückner: You have also called Klaus Wiese "my sufi mentor" – does that mean that the two of you also were in personal contact beyond actually making music, concerning  spiritual matters? Or was it rather his music that conveyed such impulses to you?

Mathias Grassow: Yes, we indeed met in Munich one or two times per year, and I learned a lot on these occasions, but what it was exactly was never so clearly defined. The things he taught me transcendet music by far; it was about the wisdom of life, to discover the important among the unimportant, self-composure and equanimity… These were great years; and the music after all just a medium to transport deeper teachings.


Michael Brückner: Thinking of Popol Vuh also Alois Gromer (aka Al Gromer Khan) comes to my mind, who certainly also can be seen as part of the "Munich School"  - do you know him, and have you maybe also created music together at some point?

Mathias Grassow: Yes, we've met at several occasions, but there never happened any musical collaboration…


Michael Brückner: Already for three decades you are active as an ambient musician, and during these years you must have witnessed many changes in this genre. You also always had been in touch with fellow artists, as well as with labels, magazines, concert managers, fans and so on – how do you think about that development, especially regarding  "the scene", solidarity or a sense of community etc.? Is there a big difference between, let’s say, 1989 and today?

Or has everything more or less remained the same, and only the name of the genre has changed (from space music to new age, new age to ambient, ambient to psy chill - whatever…) over the years?

Mathias Grassow: Well, I’d like to quote my friend Peter Michael Hamel here : "There is only ONE Lady Musica who I am married to!“. Those genre disctinctions are created by others, and especially with our kind of music there’s a lot of pigeonholing going on. Less has changed that it may seem on first look. Always new wine in old bottles (or vice versa). 

Surely, there were some counterpoints in the evolution of ambient music, and the discoveries of the day brought changes of focus. But no style really had a time "from… –  to…", all such categorisations are artificial. Everything happens all the time – it’s only the focus of perception that’s shifting. Something like a spirit of community didn’t really exist. Many people tend to glorify or romanticise such things – like I often do with the 1960s and early 70s. ;-)  


Michael Brückner: It seems that today – especially due to the blessings of computer technology - an unprecedented number of people produce electronic music, including drone ambient and experimental electronica – a situation btw. that already had been anticipated by people like American composer and computer music pioneer  Laurie Spiegel in the late 1970s. Your American colleague Robert Rich described that development in an interview with the words: "Everyone is pollywog in the puddle now". 

I suppose, especially for musicians who had a taste of commercial success at some point, this situation is very difficult, or at least two-edged... What’s your position here? Does the growing number of ambient releases seem to be economically – or artistically – threatening to you? Do you see your own work losing significance or value? Or is it – on the contrary - rather some kind of acknowledgment, because it shows that there are so many people all over the world who, after all, take this music - which most of the time has rather been a ‘niche product’ - very serious? 

What consequences had this trend since the dawning of the internet on your work?

Mathias Grassow: That’s quite a big question and calls for a long answer…

First of all, I never thought of any of my colleagues as a 'threat‘ – however I was annoyed at times by certain musicians who thought it’s cool to do ambient just along the way as some 'side project‘, just to add it to their portfolio. These guys don’t quite realize that the 'required skills‘ in this genre are not so much virtuosity, or to use high-end equipment, but instead manifest in the ability to transport a sort of 'spiritual sensitivity‘, and in the inner need to utilize drones for gaining and communicating deep insights into ourselves and the universe. 

That may sound very idealistic, but that’s OK. To me, ambient, and especially drones, are no entertainment, also not a drug to kick you into oblivion, but profound inner work that I want to share with my audience.

A massive devaluation of the music happens at other places – for example:

I offer my music via Bandcamp, and that way my listeners have the luxury to pre-listen each track in it’s entirety, before the honest listeners decide to purchase the music – and then get real ‘value for money’. That’s a good thing – but then there are dubious 'Bandcamp downloader apps’ which are offered in a quite cheeky way via magazines like "Computer-Bild“ and others, freeware to rip Bandcamp albums without having to pay. In my eyes this is simply criminal, and there should legal steps be taken against such things…

I’m happy that it’s possible today to produce good music on a small budget. Electronic equipment is so many times cheaper today than 30 years ago! I also appreciate that talented people can present themselves and their music easily to a world wide audience today. The bitter downside of that is the almost pathological hunting and collecting of digitalized music, that more and more shifts from quality to a faceless mass, and the market is polluted with that; but that’s not only the case with ambient. 

Economic success is a relative thing, and any genre has it’s good an bad times. And then, of course: it’s simply not possible to become skilled in everything – music, studio technology, self distribution, marketing and so on. I have a daytime job, and to manage everything connected to music perfectly in addition to that is more than I can handle...  


Michael Brückner: Well, that is – or was – the big promise of the internet: any creative person can successfully present and sell his or her art – without label, publisher etc. But like you said this "freedom“ turned out to be too demanding in terms of self-management for most artists to make a lot of sense. From that perspective, the way the "old“ music industry had been (and partly still is) organised may still be the better concept: the musician composes and performs the music, the audio engineer takes care for a clean recording, the producer for mixing and mastering, the management for promotion and concerts, there’s a distribution and so on. 

Perhaps in such a setting the artist had more of a chance to concentrate on his "core business“ – on music – of course only if he or she was lucky enough to get signed. On the other hand a lot of musicians seem to have felt they were slaves of their labels. A complex situation! If you had the choice today, what would be the ideal setting for you to receive the best results artistically?

Mathias Grassow: Without any question to share the work with people who I can trust… To say that labels only make slaves of their artists is nonsense. Usually independent labels give a lot of freedom to musicians. And those who seek commercial success go for it no matter what – including also the darker sides of the business.

I had success with "El-Hadra“. And Drake, some rapper, sampled a track by Bruno Sanfilippo and me for his million-selling hit „Started from the Bottom”. Success also means to be able to handle the shady side...In both of these cases of success I never saw any money, by the way.


Michael Brückner: You mentioned your daytime job – what do you do? 

Mathias Grassow: I’m a commercial clerk, since 32 years.   


Michael Brückner: Do you enjoy your day time job as much as creating music, are these two fields of interest on the same level, or is rather your heart beating for music, and the job is just a necessary means of survival...? 

Mathias Grassow: Rather a necessary means, but when it comes to this, my perception is also changing. Live is day-to-day life in the first place, and the way I see and treat other people is the mirror of my own inner state, and evolution.It is a mutual interaction, and to feel a resonance is a wonderful thing! I’m not at all some introverted nerd, who drones along in the studio behind closed curtains… ;-) 

I’m happy that my daytime job is one of those things which saved me from ongoing isolation. Here are so many 'normal‘ people with heart and common sense; musicians are in no way “better” than anyone else… 


Michael Brückner: You also have a family, and from my personal experience I know that family life sometimes is hard to align with living the intense life of an artist. What is your point of view here?

Mathias Grassow: Actually, I can’t subscribe to that. I had my creative highs and recorded the best tracks right in the middle of times of “family stress”! There’s no such thing as a formula or "ideal“ conditions, which determine when the soil for good music will be most fertile. If I have any message at all, it’s so simple that it goes almost unrecognised or isn’t taken seriously. The kiss of the muse doesn’t care at all for our day-to-day life.  


Michael Brückner: I’d also like to ask some questions about the technical aspects of the production of your music:
Can you briefly tell us which synthesizers, keyboards or other tools – like effect modules etc - you used throughout your career? 

Mathias Grassow: Woah… it were so many over the years that I can hardly remember them all! It all started with the Roland  SH-2000, followed by the complete Korg MS series, and from then on at different times almost all of those big names: Memorymoog, Rhodes Chroma, Oberheim Xpander, the Jupiter series, Hartmann Neuron, Sequential T-8 and so on. 

The most creatively inspiring synthesizer to me in fact was the Neuron, the coolest sound came from the T-8 (I played most of my first CD “Prophecy” with it).
All other tools, like groove boxes, FX modules or software were too many to list them all in detail, and to be honest I don’t think that’s so important after all...  


Michael Brückner: Has the way you produce your music remained more or less the same over the years, or did it change a lot with the evolution of electronic tools?

Mathias Grassow: It indeed changed a lot. Since about 10 years I work with a very reduced set-up and rather re-mix already existent basic tracks than recording new ones. At some point after 2010 I bought some synths by Dave Smith, however I didn’t feel much inspired by them – which wasn’t due to any shortcomings of these excellent instruments, but rather made it evident to me that I need to take a new direction. This new direction becomes more and more obvious to me, but I don’t want to reveal more about that at the moment... ;-) 


Michael Brückner: Could you exemplify your usual process of composition / production with some track?

Mathias Grassow: My rather unorthodox production methods are like a good recipe – and I’m neither able nor willing to reveal them – give them away – in an interview. It’s a very simple thing, still very hard to describe and can maybe best be compared to a kind of score that has grown over the years and that culminates in the intuitive mixing of a given piece of music.

Much is happening 'by chance‘, sometimes when I’m not even in the same room, and I just FEEL, when a drone has that certain magic. This may or may not be a special talent, or gift – to me that’s irrelevant and I actually don’t want to discuss it. There are artist who touch me very deeply, and others who I’d rather tell: "Better try something else…..you lack the sensitivity to achieve the required depth.“ But because that can quickly sound rather arrogant, and because I don’t 'construct tracks from A to B’ anyway, I’m rather reluctant to speak much about my way of making music. Maybe I have already said too much…


Michael Brückner: So, it’s rather not like You have a full idea of the music you want to record before you actually start with it? Do the synthesizers at hand or other tools also have an influence on the resulting music, do the tracks grow as you go along...?

Mathias Grassow: Sure, rather like that (see my previous answer).


Michael Brückner: Do you necessarily rely on electronic sounds to achieve the kind of musical aesthetics you envision, or could you imagine to create a music that would have the same vibe by using, for example, a choir, church organ, a string orchestra and a tamboura, without any electronics?

Mathias Grassow: In fact I have already done that – especially in the late eighties. There are entire cassettes (yeah!) exclusively recorded with gongs, singing bowls, zither, tamboura, harmonium and overtone or throat singing (which I learned 1987 in Italy). Some of these recordings were maybe a bit naive, and a bit quirky, but they have their own special charme. Parts of them found their way on several of my later CD releases (although mixed differently) for example on the two  "Tiefweite Stille“ albums from Databloem’s  'Practicing Nature’ series (Databloem is a Dutch label).


Michael Brückner: Well, so far we have amply discussed the "surface“ of making (your) music, now I think we might try to also fathom the depths, heights and endless space of the spiritual aspect of music (or life in general) – as far as words can reach there... :-)

First of all, is "spiritual" a fitting term from your point of view? Would you say you are a ‚spiritual’ person? Or if not, how else would you rather call that ‚realm’?

Mathias Grassow: Well, I don’t want to throw around buzzwords or other (once or now) fashionable phrases... 'Spirtual’ is OK, but not the kind that is hyped for commercial purposes by the "candles on your bathtub“ / wellbeing esoteric shops (or whatever). 
Inner work at many times is a painful process that takes away all your illusions and explores the very core of who you really are. Therefore, the answer is 'yes’ however I don’t want to explain that further at the moment.


Michael Brückner: As a child or teenager, were you already interested in religion, philosophy, or maybe psychology or mental healing, before you got to know music (by Hamel or others) that gives expression to such topics? Or did those interests rather grow hand in hand with your own involvement in, and practice of, music?

Mathias Grassow: As a boy I had at best the notion to be 'different’. I didn’t like school, I was neither interested in blind learning according to the system, nor in doing anything just because everyone else did so, or because it always had been that way... 


However I was rather shy about my 'protest’, and kept it to myself. I was not an active rebel. I hated both punks and their antagonists, the hipsters, at the same time. I preferred to escape to my world of Roger Dean images (illustrator of Yes cover art, etc.) and those kind of bands from the seventies.

Klaus Schulze was much closer to my romantic ideas than radical political activists and their music. Then again - I was quite fascinated by ‚Proletenpassion‘ ('Proletarian Passion') by Schmetterlinge,  and also by Ton, Steine Scherben.

My interest for religion and philosophy was actually triggered by my love for fantasy and horror dime novels. The great 'Macabros' series by the legendary author Dan Shocker was one of the key experiences - but very soon of course also the music by Deuter, Hamel, Popol Vuh, Stephan Micus… Not so much the good old Berlin School though; that music was very good for dreaming and escaping the treadmill of the daily school routine, but not so much for supporting spiritual growth. For that reason, I always felt closer to the so-called 'Munich School'.

Music and literature were a great help to understand my 'being different' better and, with that understanding, to go deeper inside. However I don't think that there was any ONE key experience that had catapulted me into that direction. When I was only 16, I already read the "Tibetan Book Of The Dead" and the Upanishads. Certainly that was quite unusual, but it was also an escape from life...


Michael Brückner: So there was never any "spiritual initiation" that put that field of interest on the table at once, but it rather crystallised quietly and gradually?

Mathias Grassow: Indeed, like I already have said - no, there wasn't one such thing, but still some important points of reference:

Starting with Deuter and those great Osho quotations on his album covers (his album 'Aum' was a collaboration with my later sufi mentor Klaus Wiese, by the way), followed by some books I read at school (like "The Gold of Caxamalca“ by Jakob Wassermann) and finally one of the most important keys in 1981, when a friend who worked in the nearby 'Synthesizer studio Jacob' in Wiesbaden introduced me on the same day (!) to Timothy Leary, Alan Watts and all those icons of the wild sixties AND above all borrowed the LP "The Voice of Silence“ by Peter Michael Hamel to me, which was a huge eye opener.

Until this very day I have rarely listened to a more intense album with a more striking spiritual message.  I will never forget this day, it's a milestone in my life. Later on, a lot more things happened, including rather disillusioning experiences. Maybe I should write my autobiography some day soon…? ;-) 


Michael Brückner: That for sure would be interesting! :-) I also think that when it comes to spirituality those disillusioning moments might be the crucial ones. Especially in your case: I understand you had such experiences, but after all you still stayed on that path. I believe as a young person it’s easy to fall in love with spiritual ideas – but a question that I personally keep thinking about is: is it possible to keep following a spiritual path when it turns out that life is more difficult and complex, and maybe also dryer and less romantic than I had believed…?

Mathias Grassow: Well, the unfolding of our spirituality is something very personal and intimate, and at the same time something we also should share with others.
Unfortunately, polarisations and misunderstandings happen rather quickly when it comes to this – especially when wisdom is involved that transcends the personal level, which is universal and actually also makes use of traditional patterns of relationships without misusing those – for example accepting someone as a teacher, or questioning religion and beliefs per se and that way take away the foundations of our conditionings, of the things that drive us... 

Disillusioning are, in that context, those moments that shake your fundaments and which are partly not very obvious or tangible, moments that reveal truths on an intuitive level – and which really make you doubt everything you thought you knew about yourself… 

This is an essential thing, and it’s hard – but one doesn’t necessarily need to turn away when it ‘gets too hot’. JUST in these moments we should cross the threshold and consciously encounter our fears – to transform ourselves. In the end, it doesn’t matter THAT we have to die – it’s important with which attitude we die. Having to die is an unchangeable fact – but our attitude towards it, how we are in that crucial moment, is something that is in our hands…


Michael Brückner: Could you briefly give us an idea what, in your opinion, exactly it is that music can do in the field of healing, or spirituality? And are this effects that music, or sound, do have per se – for everyone - or does it require a special sensitivity on the part of the listener? 

Mathias Grassow: I’m unable to answer this question in just a few lines… However, I think that music can be a very important key to healing, because it is vibration, and humans consist to 60 % of water. But because we are used to perceive music with our ears only, our brain acts like a filter and tries to understand, to pigeonhole, to catagorize what we hear. 

The healing effect that music COULD achieve is rooted deeply within our minds, but it’s buried, or not (yet) activated in our DNA. The ancient philosophy of Nada Yoga, which is one thing Hamel wrote about in his book, is all about one’s quest for his or her very own inner sound, and the resoncances to that. The 'sounding‘ of the drones is what comes closest to this – and is the path and the goal at the same time. In the end, everything resolves into void. That ‚Magnificent Void‘ is the absence of any emotions or feelings. God is NOTHINGNESS. 

Michael Brückner: Was there any specific experience that made these dimension, or this special potential, of music obvious to you – maybe when listening to music, or working on your own music or at one of your concerts?

Mathias Grassow: Certainly when listening to „The Voice of Silence“ by Hamel, and also to his "Bardo“, "Apotheosis“ and "Organum“, then "Hearing Solar Winds“ by David Hykes, or "Baraka“ , "Maraccaba“  and "Uranus“ by Klaus Wiese, to mention a few. 

Music in combination with mind expanding substances certainly – in an optimal setting – has the potential to open doors, but it’s up to each person to actually go through them – and not everything is meant for everyone. Therefore, I’d like to give a serious warning: blind and uninhibited drug use is a dangerous thing and hardly ever helps real spiritual transformation.



Michael Brückner: Well, there is certain music, and musical traditions, in which spiritual or religious experiences find a direct expression; on the one hand on a more intellectual level (music that tells us about such topics or experiences) – on the other hand music as a tool to induce certain modes of consciousness, which are suitable to bring the listeners (and the musicians) into a meditative or otherwise spiritually relevant state of mind – usually (also) with the goal to uplift everyone concerned and often to achieve a healing or purifying effect (on the mental or even physical level). 

On the one side there’s for example the European tradition of church music, on the other side there are many forms of so called 'ethnic’ music, or from non-European cultures, which for example Peter Michael Hamel, but also other authors (Behrendt etc.) think of as significant and healing, like shamanic music, (classical) Indian music, Tibetan music, music from North Africa and the Middle East (especially Sufi music) or  Gamelan music from Java; or to some degree also the psychedelic music of the late 60s and early 70s, or trance techno in the 90s...

How important was, or is, this kind of traditional music to you – especially concerning your own work? 

Mathias Grassow: Extremely important, back then and still today. Without the background I have acquired, my music would sound completely different. I always have tried to connect to all different musical traditions. One thing though I never really could get into was jazz. I just skipped most of the jazz chapters in Behrend’s book.

Well – I can’t change that; however I’m able to respect a musical tradition also without personally enjoying it.  


Michael Brückner:  Do you see yourself as being a part of this tradition of music, or one of the (specific) traditions (not necessarily regarding the exact forms, but rather regarding intention and effect)? If so, how does that show in your music? Or do you rather feel your path is parallel to theirs...?
 
Mathias Grassow: One thing is for sure: I always wanted and still want music to be something beyond mere entertainment. And so I ended up with drones;  it also could have turned out differently by some other chain of coincidences, or a different walk of life – I might have been rock or classical music as well. As I see it, my path is parallel in some aspects, but still more of continuing a tradition. 

I remember that when Klaus Schulze started to use the GDS computer system for his album “Dig It” in 1980, the spirit of his earlier work seemed to be lost, and I felt that urge to expand, and to articulate more precisely, what he had done during his high times in the seventies – indeed that was one very important reason for me to get involved in electronic music!

How this actually was taking shape I can’t really describe – unless I’d try to make a science of it. 
“He who has ears, let him hear.” ;-) 


Michael Brückner: In your opinion, what particular elements in music are especially potent to bring about spiritual, meditative or healing effects? Do You try to consciously make use of such elements – like having a plan or a concept before recording the actual music – or do you rather follow your intuition while recording and consider at a later point if a certain piece of music turned out to induce a desired effect?

Mathias Grassow: At some point I stopped trying to find a ‚formula’ or the philosopher’s stone. Just in the past few years I had some crises, but I also received impulses: “What good is all this, always sounds the same, people just consume, but don’t really understand it – and so on…”
I listen inside myself to see where all this wants to go, and I would love to connect this music much more intensly with other art forms, and also to do actual medical research and make more conscious therapeutic use of sounds.

I keep wondering why music – except for some singing bowl clanging and Om Shanti chanting – after all only seems to remain on the fringes in esoteric circles.
I firmly believe in the power that Nada Yoga is said to have, and in the ‚lost and fogotten’ ability of the ancient Indian masters to influence the weather and tame wild animals.

I had the good fortune to witness myself at three very moving and stunning concerts that such things really happen (oh yes – these also were essential key experiences!). First in 1987, Schirn Museum in Frankfurt, Pandit Pran Nath (Indian Dhrupad singing in the Kirana style) with Terry Riley on tamboura. And two concerts by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in the early nineties. ALL three concerts were charged with a magic that I never since encountered again and that made me feel the inherent power of sounds and vibrations more than any albums that I ever owned! 


Michael Brückner: Did you have the impression that you literally could „watch the power of music at work“ (maybe because the amosphere at a concert perceptibly changed) – or is it rather a process that only can be experienced within the mind of each listener and isn’t visible on the outside in any way? 

Mathias Grassow: Well, in the case of those three concerts I’ve mentioned everything changed: space, time, weather and perception. Without any drugs being involved. Of course, at such an event a basic open-mindedness and a general love for music is a requirement. There occur collective experiences that connect to people’s individual biographies. That way, it was both: highly personal, but also a group experience beyond that…

For example, if we look at Pink Floyd: any of their albums from the seventies was hailed a milestone. But apart from technical aspects, we have some songs which certainly were good as such, still there are bands today who are just as good at that, or even better. Yet, those bands hardly haven an audience today. Why…?

Well, in the 70s Pink Floyd and especially Waters were spot on the zeitgeist; Waters used the band to express his grief for his absent father, and to deal with his problematic childhood and school days. These guys were at the right place at the right time and had the right music, and other bands, too. People collectively could relate to that, and at the same time, their personal stories were triggered. Everyone somehow could see himself in “Wish You Were Here” or “Another Brick in the Wall”.

I don’t find that in that intensity in today’s music anymore, although there is still, or maybe again and again, music that does touch me deeply.

 




Michael Brückner: Do you think that music, or sound, to unfold it’s healing potential, needs to be listened to in a suitable environment or special setting?

Is a concert the better place for such effects to be experienced, or maybe rather the attentive listening in the privateness of one’s home? In your concerts, is it important to you to create a suitable surrounding in addition to the actual music, and if so, how…?

Mathias Grassow: It’s not like I consciously try to convey such experiences or effects – because ‚it’ just happens. It  can happen anywhere, and that’s beyond my control. Of course, I’m happy to receive a concert offer that promises an unusual setting, but nothing ever guarantees a ‘result’.

 All I can do is to prepare myself and create a room – but it’s up to the free will of each listener to enter it, and by resonance and interaction, this room then can be sustained. On CD as well as in concert I don’t only want to give my listeners music, but also nourishment for their spirit.  


Michael Brückner: So there is this this perspective on the healing or mind-altering potential of music that comes from eastern philosophy and different mystic branches of religion, but there is also a point of view that’s more inspired by science, especially physics. That train of thought says (roughly speaking), in the end all of the universe is made of vibrations that interact with one another, and therefore music – which is a form of art that’s about consciously creating an aesthetic gestalt by the means of vibrations – is a suitable tool to affect the human mind and body in a positive – and rather direct - way, because these too are constituted of vibrational patterns. I especially think of the harmonical tradition (Pythagoras, Kepler, Kayser, Cousto) or the 432 Hertz movement.

What’s your opinion on that rather scientific point of view?

Mathias Grassow: Well, everything has it’s right to exist and is good for something.
Personally I can’t really connect to that stuff like tuning gongs to planetary frequencies and so on – even if they are based on some complex mathematics, because I don’t really believe in the universal validity
of that.

At times I think the "scientific branch“ is something like the legalised version of the 'drug gurus’ and their research; some of these people made their own profound inner experiences, but they are not allowed anymore to propagate that in public, like it still was in the sixties.  Because any experience is always a mix of collective consciousness and one’s own biography, there’s no such thing as THE book on music, or THE piece of music, or THE one "right“ style etc. 

Perhaps my drones are ‘cosmic downloads’ that contain a certain message – but even if so: if perceived by our ears only, this message does not have the power to change our DNA and open up the way to more profound experiences of our inner self. Such music can, at best, give us a vague idea about who we are, and where our home is. 

Now we could have a long discussion about that, but I have the firm believe that if we manage to perceive music on more channels than just our ears – which are governed by our brain with all it’s judgements and categorisations – this will enable us to perceive it on a level which still is beyond our imagination, an expanded perception that might include the relativity of space and time, and the simultaneity of past, present and future, and more…


Michael Brückner: Could you imagine that it’s possible to categorise the effects of music, or sound, in an ‚objective’ way – like mapping a specific effect on the human body or mind  to specific rhythms, pitches or sounds (or combinations of these)? And that way using music very much like a medicine?

Mathias Grassow: I partly answered this already in some of the other questions. It is imaginable, and would for sure be a good thing, but I doubt that there can be such a thing as a all-encompassing formula. 

Some kind of 'broad-spectrum antibiotic‘ certainly could be found by research and field studies probably quite quickly, but each person has his or her personal history, and therefore we needed to specifically create personalised music for each ‘client’, which they listen to until the full healing potential has unfolded. At that point, each person needed a new combination of sound to continue the process – a never-ending story.  

Also, both healer and patient had to resonate on the same vibrational level and to be connected in their hearts – in other words, it had to be a loving relationship. But since in fact our medical system is a brutal business for profit, I don’t so much doubt that 'healing through music’ can be done, but I rather fear there is not enough genuine intention to really change and transform our world. 

It’s only possible if we all unite and learn to feel our connection with the whole cosmos. Only then everything will become possible and paths and channels will open up which today we still call ‘extrasensory’ etc. 
But CAUTION: a gift or special ability doesn’t necessarily mean that a person already is in touch with his heart, and with love… 


Michael Brückner: Apart from effects on the mental or human body level, can you imagine that music has the power to influence other processes or events on the physical plain – like some scientific version of a rain dance? 

Mathias Grassow: Ha-ha, well, if some piece of music for example would bring about ‚spontaneous healing’ of a person with a fatal disease, they would probably call it a 'wonder’ and then just put that case into the drawer. That which must not, can not be, right…? Some others again might desperately search for a formula behind that and never find one... What is reality, and what is illusion? The only unchangeable, constant factor in our universe is gravitation.  




Michael Brückner: In the shamanic tradition, which we briefly mentioned, but also in psychedelic music and later in electronic trance music drugs played a certain role; if we look at meditation, dreams or other "expanded states of mind“ – including those that can be induced by musical techniques like mantra singing – we find striking similarities between those experiences triggered by psychoactive drugs which people like Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary or – in a more systematic way - scientist Stanislav Grof have described, and those triggered by music. (Grof experimented in the 1950s and ‘60s with LSD in a scientific setting – and interestingly replaced the drug later with combinations of different tactile stimulations (or also sensory deprivation) and music, achieving almost the same effects). 

Did you have experiences with psychedelic drugs at some point in your life, and did that influence your music in any way (…I remember Klaus Schulze stating in one of his interviews from the 70s: "LSD did blaze a trail for us.“) ? 

Mathias Grassow: My drug experiences were much fewer than one might expect from my story so far. Without going too much into details here: life neither gets any better nor does it get worse when we make use of little chemical helpers, or if we don’t… No one is making better music ‘with’ or ‘without’. That’s just not the point. It all depends in which state of mind we are, and what our intention is when we take something. 

Yes, I have some experience, but it didn’t make me a better, or in any way more enlightened person.



Michael Brückner: Do you think that the (moderate and conscious) use of drugs can enhance the spiritual or healing potential of music? Or would you rather agree to what many years ago a friend said to me: “The best drug is a clear mind”?
 
Mathias Grassow: None of us ever really has a clear mind - just a longing for our home. True is in the case of drugs: if dosage, sourrounding and setting are right, they can have a positive effect, maybe even lasting – but we have that tendency to always act from our ego, which drives us to constantly crave for more and intenser sensual experiences. We use drugs for disinhibition, for socialising, party, escape and fun. Certainly that’s not really the sense of drugs. On the other hand, someone who truely seeks a deep spiriutal experience - but only under ideal cirumstances - can perhaps make an important progress by them. 


Michael Brückner: My final few questions: I remember that there were times, like the late 1960s, but again also in the late 80s and early 90s, when there was a wave of hope (or at least I believed so) that by some kind of 'spiritual evolution’ - maybe fuelled by spiritual techniques and transformatory experiences - humanity could be purified, and this world saved or renewed. Certainly this optimism is reflected in Hamel’s book "Through Music to the Self“. 

Did you, at some point, also have similar hopes or wishes, and how do you look at these things today? Do you think that music, and spirituality, has the power to change the world – or maybe at least the life of some persons – to the better? Or is it more like something beautiful for those who have a sensitivity for it, and our world just runs it’s course to a good and or a bad end, without music in the end playing a big role in that? 

Mathias Grassow: Today I believe that it’s impossible to escape of this "matrix of illusion“ which constitutes our world, and the whole universe. At least not without feeling very deeply that all of us are just programs inside of still much more complex programs. We cannot see through this illusion within an even bigger illusion. 
There is no such thing as time, not in the sense of a linear stream of events, only different planes of ‘time’. To realise the truth means to feel that there is a real home – beyond all sentiments and emotions. The absolute void is so vast and beyond our grasp that it causes fear…

The only key to enlightenment and the only escape from this dilemma is unconditional and unselfish
love. Here and now, there’s nothing else to learn. Our time on Earth is the school of life. Our real home is not here. All music of the world is an expression of our longing for that place where we once came from; all imaginable emotions are an expression of that yearning. 

That also means that I’m disillusioned, because New Age, the sense of departure towards a better world and everything which was so much idealised by the hippie generation turned out to be just another program to feed us humans; just a new toy in the old arena. 

My hope is my memory, which hopefully will be strong enough to bring me home. I don’t want to stay here for another round. 

My music is the echo of my call…

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Michael Brückner’s Favorite Mathias Grassow albums (so far...)

Solo albums:

Tiefweite Stille (1999)

The Fragrance of Eternal Roses (2000)

Bliss (2001)

AeroAreA (2010)

Interstellar Gravity (2010)


Collaborations with other artists:

The House on the Borderland (2005) with / as Nostalgia

Mosaic (2012) with John Haughm


Closing the Eternity and Mathias Grassow (2016) with Closing the Eternity

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Links:

Mathias Grassow’s home page:

http://www.mathias-grassow.de/

Mathias Grassow’s Bandcamp presence:

https://mathiasgrassow.bandcamp.com/