Copenhagen Space Rock Festival

This compilation was made for the Copenhagen Space Rock Festival that eventually never took place. What was left is this fine compilation of Scandinavian Space Rock music that was released by the Danish label Burnt Hippie Recordings.
When I bought this CD at the Øresund Space Collective show in Leiden I saw one familiar name on this CD and that was Gas Giant. I learned to know about the other great bands that were featured on this compilation like Darksun, Darxtar, Mantric Muse, Pseudo Sun and The Spacious Minds.
This compilation is mandatory for all the Space Rock freaks out there! Enjoy!

This is one of those compilations that you just can't go wrong with. We've got live and unreleased tracks, exclusive to this release, by Dark Sun, DarXtar, Pseudo Sun, The Spacious Mind, Gas Giant, and Mantric Muse. The story behind this disc is that it was originally intended to help promote the festival of the title. But the organizers, the dedicated souls at Burnt Hippie, determined that they wouldn't be able to sell enough tickets to make the show viable and canceled (postponed?) it for the time being. BUT... they also wisely decided to move forward and release this fine collection of music by some of the very best in Scandinavian Space Rock. Here's what you get...

Dark Sun get two tracks, "Electrified" and "The Epic World Of Captain Gizmo". They're an excellent mixture of cosmic Space Rock and electro-dance elements with Nik Turner guesting on sax. It's different than the music heard on their Feed Your Mind album but great songs, which only makes the wait for a new full length from these guys all the more painstaking.

"Warriors/Abberant Station" by DarXtar is a special entry because it's a live track from the mid-90's when Juba Nurmenniemi (now in Pseudo Sun) was still with the band. It's a terrific slab of heavy driving totally spaced out SPACE ROCK. At 9+ minutes it includes the song and an extended instrumental section. Just fantastic. What's interesting is that while it plays as a single track, the intro section ("Warriors") was actually recorded live in ‘95 while the main song ("Abberant Station") was recorded in ‘94.

I think we've published more live reviews (all by Scott) of Gas Giant than any other band. Well it only takes one listen to this 16 minute Stoner-psych trip to understand Scott's enthusiasm for this Danish band. The song is called "Deep Space Flight with Jim on Board" and starts off hard, heavy, and completely spaced with a brain pounding heavy rocking rhythm section and guitar licks that are Space Ritual redux. If you dig Stoner Rock but you're tired of the standard Black Sabbath influenced sludge and are pining away for the heaviest and most acidic of influences in the genre... then you need look no further. Gas Giant will blow your mind. These guys just JAAAAAAAM and SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!

Danish band Mantric Muse is the one entry that many people probably won't be familiar with. That's because they're only now wrapping up their first CD. "Cinope" is a mightily impressive Space-Prog instrumental that combines elements of tripped out Meddle era Pink Floyd and complex but totally spaced out progressive rock. My prediction is that these guys are going to seriously blow some minds when they do come out with an official release.

Ultra heavy space rockers Pseudo Sun also managed to get two tracks. "Shapeshifter" is a live version of the song that appears on their recent Atomic Dogs Don't Bark CD. It's excellent brain smashing Space Rock with Nik on sax. You get the song and the extended instrumental jam... what more could you want? And "Woodland Waterfall" is a very cool Bluesy instrumental acid-psych rock workout. Gorgeously raw and jamming stuff.

Finally, if you've heard even a little music from The Spacious Mind then you'll know that they create some of the most brain massaging space-psychedelia of any band in the world. Their entry is a 12 minute instrumental called "Floatin' Down The River Whistlin' On A Tune". The track begins with an ambient acid-space intro that gradually builds in cosmic power and intensity until it reaches the slow but commanding pace that characterizes the bulk of the tune. These guys really know how to build tension and the early 70's psych-fusion elements keep things rolling along at a slow but hypnotically steady pace. Not among the bands best work, but it's still a solid jam that will conjure up all sorts of fun images as you lay back and gaze up at the clouds.

An excellent set that you simply can't go wrong with. HIGHEST Recommendation!
(By Jerry Kranitz at Aural Innovations)

Tracklist:

1 Dark Sun - Electrified
2 Dark Sun - The Epic World of Captain Gizmo
3 Darxtar - Warriors / Aberrant Station [Live]
4 Gas Giant - Deep Space Jam with Jim on Board
5 Mantric Muse - Cinope
6 Pseudo Sun - Shapeshifter [Live]
7 Pseudo Sun - Woodland Waterfall [Live]
8 The Spacious Mind - Floatin' Down the River

Various Artists - Copenhagen Space Rock Festival (2002)

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Portals Of Nothingness

Gas Giant was an awesome band from Copenhagen, Denmark. This Psychedelic Space/Stoner Rock band has released as a quartet two full-length albums called Pleasant Journey In Heavy Tunes (2000) and Mana (2003). Later they've released the Ego Planet Demo (2006) as a trio.

I take you back to 1998 when Gas Giant has recorded Portals Of Nothingness. This is some sort of a demo where the foundation is layed for their later work. It contains eight excellent tracks. The only song that was re-recorded is the track Super Sun Trigger for the album Pleasant Journey In Heavy Tunes. So here are seven pretty unknown Gas Giant songs and they are all great. I assure you that! Enjoy!

Gas Giant is a 3 piece rock band from Copenhagen, Denmark. Their sound blends influences from classic rock acts of the ’60s and ’70s like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath with a sound and attitude found in modern bands such as Kyuss and Monster Magnet. Yet among contemporary bands in this scene, Gas Giant stands out clearly, producing mature songs with strong melodies, though without ever forgetting their heavy roots. Their songs evolve organically during epic rehearsal jam sessions, but balance sledgehammer riffs with plenty of catchy hooks. Gas Giant began life as Blind Man Buff, playing for several years under that name before choosing a new name to reflect their bigger, more spacious sound in 1998. The heavy and spaced out album Pleasant Journey in Heavy Tunes came out in 2000 and opened a lot of doors for the band, but it was later the same year that things got rolling. They hooked up with drummer Tommy Dan, who had been playing both hardcore/rap scene and various jam bands for a while. The new lineup was the perfect match for the band to move on to new musical levels. They now sounded like a four piece machine, ready to hit the road full tilt. In 2003 with the album Mana they set the order how to make heavy and spaced out stoner rock in the state of Denmark. The album was the best yet, and it defined Gas Giant once more as a big and spacious sound. Known as the Gas Giant sound Individually or together, the band members have been playing for more than 14 years in the Danish music scene.

(From LastFM)

Gas Giant - Portals Of Nothingness (1998)

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MySpace & LastFM

GAS GIANT/COLOUR HAZE Split 7"

I got myself a USB recordplayer and this is my first attempt. It did take some time to manage, this is the result: A very nice split 7" from Gas Giant and Colour Haze. It's still available at Elektrohash.

Gas Giant/Colour Haze Split 7"

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Gas Giant MySpace

Colour Haze Myspace

MORE GAS GIANT

Here some more songs from these Danish Psychedelic Stoner Rockers I found on the internet.

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GAS GIANT: Great Psych/Stoner From Denmark

These two albums are definitely one of my favourites! Too bad they don't exist anymore. Pleasant Journey In Heavy Tunes was releases as vinyl album with only 500 copies. 

GAS GIANT is a 3-piece rock band from Copenhagen, Denmark. Their sound blends influences from classic rock acts of the '60s and '70s like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath with a sound and attitude found in modern bands such as Kyuss and Monster Magnet Yet among contemporary bands in this scene, GAS GIANT stands out clearly, producing mature songs with strong melodies, though without ever forgetting their HEAVY roots! Their songs evolve organically during epic rehearsal jam sessions, but balance sledgehammer riffs with plenty of catchy hooks. And just listen to that guitar. GAS GIANT began life as Blind Man Buff, playing for several years under that name before choosing a new name to reflect their bigger, more spacious sound in 1998. The heavy and spaced out album Pleasant Journey in Heavy Tunes came out in 2000 and opened a lot of doors for the band, but it was first later the same year, things got rolling. They hooked up with drummer Tommy Dan, who had been playing both hardcore/rap scene and various jam bands for a while. The change was the perfect match for the band to move on to new musical levels. The band now sounded like a four piece machine, ready to hit the road with full tilt. In 2003 the album Mana they set the order how to make heavy and spaced out stoner rock in the state of Denmark. The album was the best yet they had archived, and it defined GAS GIANT once more as a big and spacious sound. Known as the Gas Giant sound Individually or together, the band members have been playing for more than 14 years in the Danish music scene.            

(From MySpace)      

 Mana (2003)

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Pleasant Journey In Heavy Tune (2000)

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MySpace