Following on from their well received albums ‘Primitve Fuck (2018) and ‘The Wholly Other’ (2020), London based psych rockers Black Helium release their third album ‘Um’ via Riot Season Records.

Here we find psychedelic defiance at its most incendiary and joyous!

Returning to record at Bear Bites Horse studios with Wayne Adams, Beck Harvey, Diogo Gomes and Stuart Gray deep dive into lysergic rock primitivism sparking sprawling stream-of-thought explorations to bring about an album that is as fried as it is alive.

Black Helium are a psychedelic power trio, based in London. Never afraid to stray from the beaten path, they traverse aural hallucinatory soundscapes; from detuned Neanderthal rock to deep oceans of introspective blissed out psychedelia.

BLACK HELIUM are Stuart Gray (vocals, guitar) Beck Harvey (bass, vocals) Diogo Gomes (drums).

TRACK LISTING

A1. Another Heaven (11:50)
A2. Saw God (8:07)
A3. Dungeon Head (2:33)
B1. Summer Of Hair (7:14)
B2. The Keys To Red Skeleton's House (Open The Door) (15:48)

West Midlands five piece MACHIAVELLIAN ART follow up their self released and self titled cassette only album with their first release proper, ‘Indoctrination Sounds’ released February 24th via Riot Season Records, with an eye popping promo video to go with it.

A Maximalist blowout of Sax-honking Noise Rock, Doom Metal, Hardcore Punk, and Shoegaze, with Industrial Noise, Howls, Paranoid Rambles, and pure Disdain for oneself and the rest of you layered on top.
Indoctrination Sounds was conceived in various practice spaces in Digbeth throughout 2020 and 2021 and recorded at Ian Boult's Stuck On A Name Studios in Nottingham in the Summer of 2021, despite the best efforts of a global pandemic. Will Killingsworth mastered the record at Dead Air Studios.

Serotonin Problem opens the record with a huge sludge bass riff before the rest of the band pile in on top to create an all-encompassing and oppressive low mood that continues for the rest of the album. Next, we spiral down into the more open and atmospheric post punk of Faceless Voices - the collective bad feelings of a nation in decline reach boiling point. Indoctrination Sounds, for which the record is named, is a hardcore punk song regarding the clear and easily understood ways that humanity in the Western World is indoctrinated into the death-cult of capitalism under fear of violence, soaked in misinformation and conspiracy. Revolution is a call to action as guitars shift and glide uncertainly around, in a menacing inversion of shoegaze's dreamy safety. Side A is finished - a brief respite.

Side B opens with the more introspective Let Down, as the band play out a pounding homage to Iggy and the Stooges with Fenriz taking a turn on the drums. The drum intro to We're Not Gonna Take It gives way to a Rusted Shut bassline as the band turns their disdainful gaze to the violent pornography that is the 24-hour news cycle and reality TV in Watch Them Crawl. The album closes with Digbeth B5, an improvised piece on the gentrification of Digbeth. During the pandemic one of the band's practice spaces was turned into an overpriced ping pong bar for yuppies. As our culture is softened and cleaned up to make profit, so are our communities and cities.

Machiavellian Art are : Amy Murphy - Bass Guitar Benjamin Thomas - Vocals and Saxophone Joe Parkes - Guitar and Noise John Andrews - Guitar and Vocals Sam Hunt – Drums.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Serotonin Problem (5:22)
A2. Faceless Voices (3:16)
A3. Indoctrination Sounds (2:48)
A4. Revolution (3:46)
B1. Let Down (2:38)
B2. Watch Them Crawl (2:12)
B3. Digbeth B5 (5:17)

Falling Floors is a psych-rock three piece, formed in the pandemic out of a desire for distraction from dark times and an unending stream of shit news (seriously, what the fuck is going on?) There’s no master plan, no grand ambition, no product-market fit, just a shared love of 60s psych, 70s rock, and the fearless, genre-less experimentation of Krautrock and early prog to get us through.

Riding the trans-Pennine underground (up the hill and out of the crags, down there, you know?), you can hear magical sounds coming out of the Valley. On a cold and wet Calderdale winter, the band recorded their self-titled first album, DIY, live, in two days in Hebden Bridge. Rawness not perfection and feel over finesse were the aims. This album, a trans-Atlantic joint release by Riot Season (UK) and Echodelick (US), lives by slips, fuck-ups, and simple, joyous expression.

Falling Floors is Rob Herian (ex-feral stoner rockers Early Mammal) on guitar and vocals, Harry Wheeler (no ravers The Family Elan) on bass and keys, and Colin Greenwood (ex-shoegaze folk rockers No Sorrows) on drums. It’s no one’s project, and no one’s in charge. But there’s enough in common to keep it honest.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Infinite Switch (8:05)
A2. Interlude 1 (Making A Scene) (0:58)
A3. Ridiculous Man (4:41)
A4. Interlude 2 (Negotiations) (1:16)
A5. Flawed Theme (4:50)
A6. Interlude 3 (Going Quietly) (2:00)
B. Elusive And Unstable Nature Of Truth (18:48)

Shit And Shine is back on home turf with Riot Season again for another festering collection of filth and ooze.
Raw . Brutal . Live sludge.

Recorded in Austin, Texas bedrooms and kitchens during shitty lockdown.

It’s fucking HEAVY!

TRACK LISTING

A1. North Atlantic (4:15)
A2. Plum Whiskey (5:35)
A3. Burnet Road (3:18)
A4. Dividrleedoth (6:43)
B1. Socktagon (3:34)
B2. Acrylic BC Rich (5:14)
B3. Nrun (4:19)
B4. Kyle Devils (3:15)
B5. Slough By-Pass (6:21)

The third release from Fred Laird was recorded during the period June 2020 and January 2021 on 24trk home studio recording. It is also the first album recorded purely as a solo artist with the occasional guest and draws more from a roots style music (trad it isn’t) than previous more psychedelic releases.

‘Inspiration for the album came from listening to the self-recorded primal music of Hasil Adkins and the first solo Link Wray album for Polydor. The idea of these guys just doing what they wanted back of beyond seemed more akin to me sat in a box room during lockdown feeding off a diet of Billy Chong Kung Fu horror flicks, David Lynch, Noir crime movies, Jean Cocteau and the works of Yukio Mishima.

Musically the sound draws from early Bad Seeds or Crime and the City Solution, Gallon Drunk, Bohren and Der Club of Gore, The Cramps, Hasil Adkins and various other trash inspired twilight creatures. I also wanted to try and create that spooky organ sound that dominates the midnight movie classic ‘Carnival Of Souls’, so there’s quite a lot of organ and piano going on. I also got my hands on a baritone guitar to give the songs more of a deep growly twang!

Vocals are provided by Daisy Atkinson for the Jean Cocteau dedication ‘Orphee’ which is the nearest thing to a pop song on the album and the echoey almost Sister Lover’s sound of the title track. I got sick of my own shit voice and I just thought a female voice would give it a more fragile ethereal vibe.

Mike Blatchford provides formidable saxophone to the album’s last three tracks which were recorded on his mobile phone 300 miles away and synched into the music. The big blasted swing blues of ‘The Big Duvall’ is a dedication to Andy Duvall of Carlton Melton – a big guy who needed a big song. Who knows how big the song could have been in a proper studio. I could have dedicated it to John Wayne but Wayne couldn’t chop down trees with his bare hands like Andy can….’

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Green Eyes Of The Dragon (5:07)
A2. Orphee (4:30)
A3. From The Grave (5:11)
A4. Night Train To Drug Town (6:09)
A5. One More Lonely Angel (4:20)
B1. Sometimes The Night (7:29)
B2. The Sound Of Waves (3:49)
B3. The Big Duvall (7:39)
B4. House In The Snow (7:28)

Taras Bulba featuring ex Earthling Society head Fred Laird return with their second album ‘Soul Weaver’. Soul-Weaver was recorded between February and April of 2020. The album is a sharp contrast to the Taras Bulba debut. Whereas ‘One’ was a laid back psilocybic novelty travelogue; Soul-weaver is more guitar driven dream like psychedelia, mixing 60’s garage rock, shoegaze, bucolic west coast acid folk and ambient feedback.

The album builds on song structures instead of drifting instrumentals prevalent on our debut and is an indication of the path I want to go musically. Constructing the album in such a short time and under lockdown restrictions changed the way the album took shape. There were no drum sessions between myself and Jon due to the social distance rule and therefore percussion had to be constructed from drum machines or ‘found’ from previous sessions and cannibalised.

So, in some ways this is more a solo record (Jon has never heard the songs). It is a guitar album whereas ‘One’ was a rhythm/percussion focused recording. Lyrically it draws on (quite accidentally) the writings of Dion Fortune, particularly her novel ‘The Sea Priestess’ which I read 12 months before. It never even came into mind until I started draughting the lyrics and things started popping up that had very strong comparisons to that novel. That’s the subconscious mind I suppose and also living next to the Irish sea which is literally at the top of my street. I can see it and smell the salt on the air everyday. I’m lucky really for that.

I took it all for granted up until the last year or two. The recording has a bit of a watery, dreamy feel too and it’s also haunted. It’s haunted by a good soul though; with electric blue eyes. Early March I recorded the track ‘Sun and Steel’ and I could hear a female vocal on it. I needed to record a vocal and my sister in law always fancied herself as a bit of a singer. I thought she could weave some magic on it. I text her at 9:26am, it was a Thursday morning. She never replied.

This is for you Susie (1971–2020) eternally in our hearts.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Fishcat Mother
A2. The Moon On The Tides
A3. Goatfoot On Owl Hill
A4. Tethered On The Wheel
B1. Sun And Steel
B2. Catch A Falling Star
B3. The Blistering Of Summer Heat

"I don't remember now"

It's hard to say how Mummise Guns actually came to be a thing. What is certain is that Tracy Bellaries and Matt Ridout had shared a flat for a while and were often speaking about forming a group to have an outlet for some music that Tracy had written, but above and beyond that initial idea the rest is slightly hazy, or perhaps murky is the better word.

Also very much a fact rather than a fiction is that the name was cooked up at Supernormal Festival in 2016 when Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs bassist Johnny Hedley uttered the phrase 'Look at these guns, Mummise Guns' when everyone was hanging around a tree swing (this sounds like we're making it up now, but honest it happened, we think). Tracy and Matt immediately adopted it despite protestations that it was a completely daft thing to do. Thus, the band Mummise Guns was born.

Where, why and how the rest of the group got involved is not 100% clear, but the initial lineup of Tracy, Matt, Adam, Cleaver and Al prepped three of Tracy's songs and three of Matt's into something solid enough to record by early 2017 and the band dropped into Wayne Adam's (Petbrick, Big Lad) Bear Bites Horse Studios in East London to track their debut self-titled LP Mummise Guns (Riot Season REPOSE094LP), with Al and Adam adding further recordings at Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs guitarist Sam Grant's Blank Studios in Newcastle.

After that, it's safe to say things got busy. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs took over the airwaves with a series of incredible LP's on Rocket Recordings, Luminous Bodies wrote and recorded an absolute belter of a second album for Box Records, Casual Nun dropped a couple of full-length smashers and a split with Bruxa Maria on Box Records and Hominid Sounds, Ghold released a killer LP on Crypt of the Wizard, and Black Shape and Michael both dropped some classics on Hominid Sounds and Cracked Ankles respectively.

Yet, throughout all of this intense activity, the Mummise Guns LP lurked in the shadows like a malevolent beast just waiting for the right moment. That moment was early 2019 when everyone regrouped at Bear Bites Horse, including new addition Gordon Watson, for some final overdubs and mixing. And here it is, 2020, and the proof of all this hard graft is finally available to you.

So here are six tracks of noise-fuelled amphetamine that is perfect to drive all the right people from your house and attract all the wrong ones in.

Play LOUD.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Flattened Earth
A2 Glitter Balls
A3 Forever Triggered Forever
B1 Bipolar Brain Transmitter
B2 Dog Cocked
B3 End Of Days

Heavy psych experimentalists The Cosmic Dead's eighth album - Scottish Space Race - is set to be released via Riot Season Records and has been mastered by John McBain (Monster Magnet, Wellwater Conspiracy).

The album was recorded in their Glasgow HQ with cosmic sound guru Luigi Pasquini, four sprawling chunks of music recorded live amongst a run of momentous late night festival appearances in the summer of 2018. Scottish Space Race is the first Cosmic Dead release to feature the drumming of Tommy Duffin (Headless Kross) and the lap-steel synthesizer yowls of Russell Andrew Gray (Girl Sweat) alongside long-time cosmicians Omar Aborida and James T Mckay.

TRACK LISTING

1. Portal (20:56)
2. Ursa Major (18:24)
3. Scottish Space Race (11:56)
4. The Grizzard (24:08)

Taras Bulba was formed in the winter of 2019 by Fred Laird and Jon Blacow. Taking a new direction from their last musical outfit EARTHLING SOCIETY, the duo embarked on an inner space mission for new age ideas, rhythmic mantras, ambient landscapes and creative micro dosing.

Taras Bulba ‘One’ is a pot-pouri of Eastern/ Asian sounds, Krautrock Rhythms, ambient landscapes, psychedelic blues and Orb inspired dub. Taking influences from Midori Takada, Tony Scott, CAN, Neu!, 6 organs of Admittance, The Orb and the soundtracks of David Lynch and Angelo Badalemnti.

Recorded between September 2018 to May 2019 on home recording equipment in different houses and any empty space large enough for a drum kit. A laptop dying with over worked CPU and amps so broken that the only alternative was to record straight into the desk. Working to a true DIY ethic like some paranoid Philip K.Dick character with a tin foil antenna; piecing together tracks created out of the ether like satellite messages from some imaginary planet.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Hashish (5:13)
Moroccan Waves (8:55)
On Mt. Kailash (3:57)
I Hadit, U Nuit (6:40)

Side B
Rising Lazarus Blues (9:02)
The Neon Midnight (5:25)
The YO-YO Man (6:19)
Goin' West (3:14)

Scotland's favourite space-psych-rock-gods return with a new album 'Psych Is Dead' before heading out on a lengthy UK/European tour including appearances at all the key genre festivals such as Safe As Milk, Wrong Fest, DesertFest, Raw Power Festival and Karma Fest.

Formed in 2010, The Cosmic Dead are a quartet from Glasgow, Scotland who share their music through good vibes and better vibrations. Known for their improv, chaos strewn, Buckfast smashed against the wall take on space music, they have roamed from Roadburn to Las Vegas, Dundee to Bangalore with each album offering a meditative window into a certain time and space.

'Psych Is Dead' is the sixth full length album from the band, the glowing embers of a a few days spent recording in a sweaty Sardinian kitchen overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Soon to be available on LP and CD via Riot Season Records, 'Psych Is Dead' is an aural exploration of their tumultuous universe.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Cosmic Dead have once again opened our minds with an expansive and hazy vision of reality. Chugging guitars and swirling synths mix with thunderous drums and all-round heavy vibes. It's a wonder their hearing is still ok with riffs like this going down.

TRACK LISTING

A. Nuraghe (21:54)
B1. Psych Is Dead (8:23)
B2. #FW (15: 28)