It's more than a year ago that Het Droste Effect has released their debut EP. This Psychedelic Space duo that became a trio from Eindhoven, Holland is now back with the follow-up EP Lingerland. This EP contains five tracks and is a logical sequel to their first one. Lingerland is like the first EP an impressive piece of work. A fine mixture of Psychedelic, Space, Stoner and Kraut. Highly Recommended! Enjoy!
Het Droste Effect released two EPs. The first one is self titled, the second one is called 'Lingerland'. The band never played live and unfortunately split up before taking the change to do so. The music ranges from space rock to kraut to lo-fi stoner. (From Bandcamp)
Birth Of Joy is a power trio from Holland. These guys play a mix of Sixties Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Blues and Grunge. Their main weapon is the incredible Hammond organ. Together with the guitars and drums, they've created an awesome sound. Beside that there are also these great vocals.
Their full length debut called Life In Babalou is an outstanding album with ten songs.
The sound of Birth Of Joy reminds me a lot of another great dutch band named De Wolff.
If you're interested in some more of this fantastic band, then you can stream their same titled EP at their Bandcamp site. Enjoy!
Automatic Sam is the latest sensation from the east side of The Netherlands. This foursome plays stunning Alternative Guitar Rock with here and there some Blues. I saw these guys perform in a one minute presentation on the dutch television last night and they made a hell of an impression.
Texino is their brandnew debut album and it is really a great start for this band. Their sound reminds me somehow of the Belgian band Triggerfinger.
Texino has become a varied album with twelve songs that can be called entertaining. The guitar sound is awesome, the drums and bass are very solid and the singer is incredibly good. How surprising that this young guy has such a great voice. Automatic Sam is a band with a lot of potential. I hope to see this band soon on stage. Enjoy!
Who is Automatic Sam? Honestly, we’ve got no clue. But when you listen to Captain Beefheart singing about this man in his song Tarotplane, it sound like Sam’s a pretty cool dude with a great sense of boogie.
We are Automatic Sam; a fourpiece from Nijmegen with roots in the legendary Magic Barn in the far east of the Netherlands. The band was formed in late 2008 by Pieter Holkenborg (lead vocals / guitar), Rense Slings (guitar / vocals), Bob Hogenelst (drums / vocals) and Harm Wopereis (bass / vocals) and soon gets a great live reputation. Think of a speeding train of 70’s hardrock with rusty rivets attached to a wagon full of garage, some blues and all pulled by a locomotive fuelled by pure punk rock.
In November 2009 Automatic Sam releases “Hot Foot Oil”. The EP is widely praised: Well-known Dutch magazine OOR: “Lovely and cocky!” and Holland’s biggest platform for alternative music 3voor12: “Rough, but well thought rock album that never get boring”. “Hot Foot Oil” is sold out within a few months, both on CD and vinyl. The band is on the bill of festivals like Zwarte Cross, Valkhof Affaire and Paaspop plays the support show of bands like DeWolff, Claw Boys Claw, Orange Sunshine, and the entire Dutch tour with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
Who is Bozo Texino? This mythical character from the American hobo culture, unshaven, unrestrained and hopping on freight trains without knowing his destination, was an inspiration for the album “Texino”. This full length debut contains twelve songs that tell the real story about the hobo Automatic Sam and his journey.
“Texino” was produced by Koen-Willem Toering (Woost) and Gijs Coolen (Woost / Coparck) and mastered by Pieter Kloos. Guest musicians are KW Toering, Otto Kokke (Dead Neanderthals) and Wout Kemkens (Shaking Godspeed). The record will be released on Suburban Records (CD) and Quadrofoon Records (Vinyl). Management and bookings are handled by SOZ Concerts.
Villa Rocka is a dual disc with a audio side and a DVD side released by the band 3 Speed Automatic. This trio from Rotterdam, Holland plays a great mix of Hard Rock and Stoner Rock with seventies influences.
The audio part of this disc contains 6 tracks. The first five tracks were already on the album No Man's Land. So these songs are nothing new. (Although it's always alright to hear the song Walk On The Sun!) Villa Rocka is all about the sixth track that is called Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Hearts Of Men... The Shadow Knows. This song is an almost 23 minute lasting epic masterpiece. This song was recorded as a soundtrack for the Dutch cult movie Horizonica. Enjoy!
"The starting point of 3Speed Automatic’s music can be found in the southern hardrock blues genre played by Five Horse Johnson, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Dixie Witch and also in the primitive, savage whip-rock ‘n’ roll of Motorhead and AC/DC. But the band interprets it all with an Atomic Bitchwax-attitude marked enough, especially when Guido launches himself in very good burning Ed Mundell-like psych-blues solos. The overall guitar tone of Guido DeBrichy ranges from loud and gritty to surprisingly melodic. Bassist Blind Gumbo sounds akin to Lou Gorra (Halfway To Gone) at times. 3Speed Automatic wake the "outlaw" that sleeps in all of us, a record for people who are born, live and die with their boots on."
(By Cosmicmasseur at AllThatIsHeavy)
"I hear a mix of old and new rock like Kyuss, Mudhoney, Dio, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Grand Funk. If you dig the dirty guitar sound of AC/DC or Mudhoney, then your gonna dig the sound of 3Speed Automatic’s guitar sound. It rolls and bounces right where you expect and where you do not."
Sedimentation was the second recording by the band Elephantum from Amsterdam, Holland. This band did play great Stoner Rock with Psychedelic tendencies. This five-track EP is filled with huge and heavy guitar riffs, great bass and drum rhytms, a nice pinch of organ and some impressive vocals.
I learned about Elephantum when I heard the song Black Butterfly on the Stoner compilation album Ultimate Fuzz Collection vol 1. This song made me craving to hear more songs from this band. Eventually I managed to get this EP. Too bad I've never seen this band in action. Enjoy!
Elephantum was a psychedelic rock band from the Netherlands. It existed between 1998 and 2004. It came forth out of “Cosmic Insect”. Founding members Michiel Ferweda (guitars) and Matthijs Herder (vocals & guitars) tried several line-ups before settling with drummer Marc Fien and bassist Niels Keijzer. This line-up was active under the name “SAND”.
In January 2001 the “Transhuman Entity” album was recorded. A 40-minute odyssey which the press described as a perfect fusion between Kyuss and Pink Floyd. In June of the same year a 5 track EP was recorded with Emiel van de Berg on bassguitar. These recordings later surfaced as the “Sedimentation” EP and were mixed by Marcel van der Vondervoort (of Astrosoniq fame). It consisted of shorter and poppier tracks. After a name change into Elephantum and several line-up changes the band re-grouped with Stone In Egypt’s old rhythm section at the end of 2003 and the Sedimentaiton EP saw a worldwide release thru Freebird Records. But in 2004, after a period of extensive gigging (with Astrosoniq, Los Natas, Dozer, Epica, Wall Of Sleep among many others) the band decided to call it a day.
Elephantum was featured on the first two volumes of the Stonerrock.com compilation albums and on Fuzzorama’s “Ultimate Fuzz Collection vol 1”.
Zeus is a band from Amsterdam, Holland. This quartet plays Heavy Rock with Stoner and Grunge influences. The singer of this band is Jeroen van Koningsbrugge. This guy is here in Holland a famous and humorous TV personality. It was a total surprise for me that he also has these vocal qualities.
This band was completed with three more than capable musicians. Zeus has released two albums until now. The first one was called Bad Signs from 2005 and this album from 2007 is just simply named 07. A new album was scheduled for 2009 or 2010, but it seems that Zeus for indefinitely has stopped.
I'm not familiar with their debut album Bad Signs, but I can tell that 07 is an impressive piece of work. Enjoy!
ZEUS was founded in 2003 by singer Jeroen van Koningsbrugge, drummer Paul Jansen and guitarist Roy Jansen. Soon after, bass player Bob Gerritsen completed the band. The objective was clear and simple: to make heavy, groovy rock music. Influenced by Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Karma To Burn, Transport League, Goatsnake and the wave of nineties grunge and stoner, ZEUS developed their sound.
After spending their first year in rehearsal rooms, ZEUS started recording in the spring of 2004 with producer Marcel vd Vondervoort (Astrosoniq and others). The band flew to New York to play the famous CBGB’s venue, trying out their material for the first time. Their American style and heavy performance kicked in right away, selling out the “Threetrackintroduction” demo immediately. ZEUS returned to Amsterdam, fired up and ready to finish their debut album “Bad Signs”. It was released independently in 2005 by ZEUS’ own label Sixxkiller and distributed by Suburban. Bad Signs said it all: raw, heavy groove rock grabbing you by the throat. While the album was getting positive reviews, ZEUS started doing what they do best: playing live shows till they dropped.
In October 2007, ZEUS’ second album “07” was released by Freebird Records. The album was very well received in Europe and the USA and contains 10 tracks that deliver a cocktail of old school heavy rock, melodic groove and even some doom. Like the debut album, 07 was mixed and produced by Marcel vd Vondervoort and mastered by Alan Ward. Somewhere in 2008, Bob Gerritsen decided to emigrate to Switzerland. He left the band in October 2009. Rowdy Lemaire joined the band as the new bass player. ZEUS has plans to release their third album late 2009 or early 2010.
Last week I've posted the album The Wind Blows Witches From The Sky by the band Wallrus. This is their final one called Burn The Shivers. This album is a perfect continuation on The Wind Blows Witches From The Sky.
Burn The Shivers is an album full of great Blues driven Stoner Rock. There is even more room for the harmonica. This album is slightly more Blues oriented than it's predecessor. But the Kyuss and QOTSA influences are certainly still present in their sound. The album Burn The Shivers is an improvement over their previous work. The vocals are even better, as far as possible. This guy has really an impressive voice. Damn, that this band has stopped is a real pity. Enjoy!
1999 Is the year a band was formed in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and they decided to hit the stages real quick. The name that would appear on the bills is Wallrus and stoner is their game. That same year they released their debut EP followed by two albums and in September 2007 their latest ones come out. "Burn The Shivers" contain 12 tracks and a videoclip of the song "High Plains Drifter".
The songs are driven by heavy sludgy guitars with catchy riffs and with leads. A nice role is there for the harmonica that vocalist Rob uses in the songs, it gives it a bluesy edge. But he has also a good voice that can do clean soft part but also raw whiskey shouting.
With "Burn The Shivers" the band delivers a nice album that is not Metal but a nice one for your car or in a saloon. And as a bonus you get the video with the clip, making of the clip and a picture gallery.
A catch album for those you are into Stoner Rock 'n' Roll.
Wallrus was a band from Rotterdam, Holland. This Stoner band is clearly influenced by bands like Kuyss, QOTSA. But there is more in the music of Wallrus and that is the Blues component. This is mainly carried out by the singer and his harmonica, so that it also makes me think of Five Horse Johnson, for example.
The Wind Blows Witches From The Sky is an great album with excellent songs. This album is the first full-length album by Wallrus. After this one they've released one more album called Burn The Shivers in 2007. Wallrus has disbanded in 2010. And that is too bad, because this band was quite awesome. Enjoy!
"Wallrus are knee-deep in classic rock stylings with a strong hold of modern stoner rock in the vein of Hermano and Unida."
(From Allthatisheavy)
"The sound from Rietdijk’s throat suggests a lifetime of drinking whiskey and fits in perfectly with the heavy stoner rock of Wallrus. But from the first note on it becomes clear that we are not dealing with just your typical stoner band here. When harmonica and slide guitars are put to work it is all about the blues. And there’s no denying sweet reminiscences of bands like Taste, Cream, or Masters of Reality."
(From Aloha)
"The pounding drums of Joeri Rook together with the stone-hard riffs of Conrad Freling, the growling bass of Paul van Schaik, and the long cries of Rob Rietdijk will force a river into a deluge. Reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s debut album."
(From Rotterdams Dagblad)
Wallrus - The Wind Blows Witches From The Sky (2003)
From the south of the Netherlands comes Tank 86. This band plays Instrumental Stoner Rock with Doom, Sludge and huge Metal influences. Tank 86 has released two EP's called Ariba (2005) and Behold (2008). Now they're back with their full-lenght album Rise. You could almost say that this album sounds like an instrumental version of High On Fire. In any case, the songs sound very heavy. The Metal influences certainly play an important role on this album. Tank 86 is yet another great band from the Dutch soil. Their album Rise is definitely an masterpiece. It is highly recommended. It is 10 Euros well spent! Listen some tunes on their Bandcamp and you'll be convinced! Enjoy!
Tank86: Heavy instrumentalism. Mighty sonic blows, enlarged by the absence of vocals.
2011 sees the release of their first full length album 'Rise'. After five years of honing their craft and the release two EP's, the sound of Tank86 has now come to it's full momentum. Harmonised guitars and a more layered approach add more depth to the already massive sound of the band. Never losing sight of the almighty riff, pounding you into oblivion.
Over the past years Tank86 has toured Europe with Dozer and stood it's ground alongside bands such as Monster Magnet, Pelican and Karma to Burn.
Het Droste Effect is according to Wikipedia a specific kind of recursive picture, one that in heraldry is termed mise en abyme. An image exhibiting the Droste effect depicts a smaller version of itself in a place where a similar picture would realistically be expected to appear. This smaller version then depicts an even smaller version of itself in the same place, and so on. Only in theory could this go on forever; practically, it continues only as long as the resolution of the picture allows, which is relatively short, since each iteration geometrically reduces the picture's size. It is a visual example of a strange loop, a self-referential system of instancing which is the cornerstone of fractal geometry.
Het Droste Effect is also an Experimental Psychedelic Space duo from Eindhoven, Holland. The sound from their recent EP can be discribed as unique. This free download EP contains four awesome tracks. The two guys from Het Droste Effect got some help from four other musicians. The result is really great. The EP starts with the terrific song Balsem Voor De Oren. This song has some great guitar riffs. The second song Sweet Dreams Bandito begins relaxed and easy, then it gradually grows to a nice climax. The third song Helluva Dirty K9 is a brief but intense precursory transition to the last song Lollita Can Dance. This is absolutely the highlight of this EP! The added saxophone gives this song so much more value. Nicely done! In short, The Droste Effect has definitely proven themselves with this twenty minute EP. This band is an enrichment for the Dutch scene. And the good news is that The Droste Effect will enter the studio again for some new recordings. Enjoy!
Het Droste Effect’s first EP is self recorded on 8-track cassette tape at Studio Casa Cassette Eindhoven, The Netherlands. It contains 4 instrumental tracks ranging from repetitive robotrock to calm ambient to psychedelic kraut and space rock, infused with field recordings and special guests on bass, moog, vibraphonette, saxophone and monotron.
Inspired by many great bands from the past and the present, Hermann (guitar/engineer) & Thompson (drums/percussion) set out to create a sound of their own. We started rehearsing in the summer of 2010 and started recording soon after as a duo. We will not be playing live in the near future. However, we will be back in the studio soon for new recordings. (From Bandcamp)
Thanks the band Float A Ziggy for sending their new EP! Six months ago I've posted here the first EP by Float A Ziggy, an Alternative Rock band with Grunge and Stoner influences from Groningen, The Netherlands. Now they're back with the new EP The World Is My Muse. Beforehand, I had no high expectation of this EP, because I was told that the musical direction would be different. But Hell, this new EP is an impressive piece of work! These are five excellent songs. According to the band this EP can be considered as apocalyptic. Float A Ziggy has not much positive to say about the future. In short, the songs are about self-enrichment of managers of big companies, the exploitation of religion and the desire for the sixties. Float A Ziggy claims to be inspired by the following: The Smashing Pumpkins, Queens of the Stone Age, Silverchair, The Melvins, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Kyuss, Deftones, Masters of Reality, Type O Negative, Hüsker Dü, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Beatles, The Doors and Herman Brood. So you have a small idea of what Float A Ziggy is about. Enjoy!
Alternative Rock in a Beatles coat. Intense trio with great aspirations. Played 40+ shows and are planning to make 2011 their most succesful year up until now. Inspired by contemporary politics and everyday life, they toured the Netherlands in 2010. These guys are releasing their second EP 'The World is my Muse' in April 2011. (Their bio from Facebook)
Last friday I went to a show of The Grand Astoria in Amsterdam and they played together with two other bands. Some Days Velvet was one of them. Some Days Velvet is a band from Leeuwarden, The Netherlands featuring the bass player of Tekhton. This trio plays Alternative Rock with Doom, Metal and slight Sludge influences. One advantage of this band is the singer, this guy is terrible good. He has a great sense of melancholy. He knows how to embay drama in his singing. This makes the music a bit dejected. A small drawback of this demo is the sound, it is a bit puny. But that is more common with a demo recording. Nevertheless, the three songs on this demo are quite good. I'm curious about the next release. Enjoy!
This rare piece of vinyl contains a strange mix of Hardcore, Noise, Punk, Metal, and Grunge. I guess this album is the first recording from Guy of Orange Sunshine. This band was called Moengo Tapoe and it was with the same members as Panty Boy. Moego Tapoe was more an experimental band. The album Duengo sounds rather primitive. The music is pretty minimalistic and raw. Almost the half of the songs are instrumental. And even the tracks with vocals don't have much lyrics! I rediscovered Duendo recently in my collection and I enjoy it again! Enjoy it too!
3 Speed Automatic is a Dutch Stoner Rock band with Hard Rock and 70's influences. This band was formerly known as Taildragger. This trio made two albums, Nomans Land and Villa Rocka, both released in 2004 and one EP, Songs from Tijuana, released in 2006. This band is famous in The Netherlands because of their great live performances. You must hear this awesome album! The absolute highlight of this album is the song Walk On The Sun. Enjoy!
The press release for Rotterdam, Holland's, 3Speed Automatic (3SA), describes them as a band who "heavily drinks from the golden chalice of hoary 70's rock," and that isn't too far from the truth. While their influences may hearken back to the polyester era, this is no modern act trying to sound retro. Comprised of former members of Taildragger, The 70's worship of 3SA is most evident in the fat tones and stripped-down sound of the recording, touching bases in the houses of AC/DC and Thin Lizzy (track 7, "2nd Coming," struck me as particularly Lizzyesque). After getting a little worn out on acts throwing too many layers of redundant overdubs and unintelligible, bloody-throat vocals into every song, this 3SA disc is a welcome listen that damn near bullseyes my rock and roll sweet spot.
The record opens with the instrumental, "Splitting the Atom," beginning-to-end the most uptempo song, and a great slice of gritty rock and roll that gives you a pretty good idea of what the band is all about. 3SA is not a band that is trying to sound overly heavy, or bludgeon you to death with punishing riffs. This is just a straight up, old school heavy rock band. There is a bit of psychedelia here and there along the lines of Nebula's first couple records, but 3SA doesn't live there. In fact, track 2, "NoMans Land," sounds like Bleach-era Nirvana, with Cobainesque vocals, a rolling bass progression, and a grainy rock production that seems to tip its hat to the work Jack Endino was doing in Seattle in the late 80s and early 90s. Track 4, "Took the Train," has a sleazy groove to it that I really enjoy. This is nearly my favorite track, if only because of the awesome, fuzzed-out bass solo. With its loping swing, track 6, "Stranded," is the most 70s-throwback track on the album, with wah guitar and hammond organ (provided by Yasmin) taking up space in a nicely layered mix. The fat lead guitar tone of the outro brings the song to a nice close, with additional tracks of guitar building to a very satisfying ending.
The best track on the record to my ears, though, is the closer, "Walk on the Sun." This is easily the most psychedelic song of the offering, with a moody bass groove, tasty drums, and scathing guitar, as well as another appearance from the hammond. There are some spoken samples, a tactic that usually annoys me, that do work here. The song builds from a sparse initial groove, getting more and more intense as the tempo builds, reaching a frenzy just before reprising the original tempo and refrain. Good stuff, this song.
3SA has delivered an excellent collection of heavy, well-played rock with serviceable vocals, and a recording where attention to tone was obviously the order of the day. I am eager to hear what these guys come up with next, as their take on stripped-down old school rock is just what the music world needs these days. (By Chris La Tray at Hellridemusic)
This nice band comes from my homeland. Bandito plays some nice Hard Rock influenced Stoner Rock. This free download four track EP from 2009 is their first release and I must say it sounds pretty good. Bandito is according to MySpace influenced by the following bands: Kyuss, Hermano, Queens Of The Stone Age, Dozer, Truckfighters, The Atomic Bitchwax, Clutch, Down, Colour Haze, Kylesa, Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster and more... This EP contains some nice grooves and riffs. Bandito is thereby blessed with this great singer. Enjoy!
Bandito is a hard-rock quintet hailing from Nijmegen, Holland. The band combines the Stoner-groove of Kyuss with the Hard-rock-punch of Down, while creaming it with a smooth layer of Atomic Bitchwax. Despite being together in this line-up since February ’09, they've already played some major festivals like ‘Huntenpop’ and ‘de Affaire’, won the band competition ‘de Roos van Nijmegen’ and are about to release their first EP. This EP is bound to take the band to the next level and give them more opportunities to do what they do best… play live.
Lucid is a band from my home city and they play some awesome drug-fuelled Psychedelic Garage Rock. This 10" EP definitely kicks ass! There are obvious influences of MC5 and The Stooges, but you can also hear some more sounds of todays Stoner Rock. Their music is high energetic and loud! This is yet another great Motorwolf recording! This EP is pressed in a limited number of 200 copies. So get it fast as possible! Enjoy!
Having cool influences is not always enough, you have to have your own voice too.
Luckily for the Netherlands Lucid, the trio have managed to embrace the space rock and psychedelic fury of the 60’s without sounding like clones.
Selwyn Slop (vocals and bass), Bart Schotman (guitar) and Maarten van Oers (drums) explore hard rock, metal and small doses of fuzz to develop their sound.
‘Black Eyed Woman’, the stand out track of this release, is a cauldron of down-tuned licks and Ozzy-esque vocals, backed up by equal amounts of fuzz and feedback.
This could have easily been a sure fire hit in the drug-fuelled haze of groundbreaking 70’s rock. The solos are not bad either.
‘Shatter’ meanwhile, plays on Bold As Love-era Hendrix, while combining Fu Manchu’s love of no frills Californian laid back rock.
On the other hand, ‘Godspeed’ is a fast tempo rocker where the trio use their instruments as projectile weapons that enhance their artillery.
However, ‘Black Sheep’ is evidence of a band that is beginning to zone out to their own slow sci-fi jams.
A fine set of tracks that cling onto mystic 70’s charm long enough to galvanise the trios sound. (From Chybuccasounds.com)
A transparent vinyl album with a transparent plastic sleeve? It should not become any crazier! And it can get any more crazier, because this LP is only pressed at one side! This album contains one song and it takes about a quarter of an hour. It seems a bit little that you get for 20 euros, but it is completely offset by the music! Santa Cruz offers you in one song all that they've got! Santa Cruz is the continuation of Orange Sunshine. The song What Is Love? (Crystal Meth Boogie) is an eruption of Stoner Rock, Doom, Metal and Psychedelic. It is dark, sinister and absolutely heavy! Too bad they didn't press the other side of the album, because this tastes really for more! If you want to order this album, then I suggest you act fast. There are only 200 copies made! Enjoy!
One-sided fully transparent 12inch (and sleeve) - limited to 200 copies, a 16 minute insane and epic black acid fuzz drug rock metal track by Orange Sunshine, old ZZ Top meets Danzig meets Goatsnake. Very sinister, very insane, very dramatic and very heavy psychedelic/psychotic doom/drone/boogie/boner rock song of 16 minutes, Orange Sunshine's black ritual acid rock drug metal project! (From Godspill.net)
Santa Cruz - What Is Love? (Crystal Meth Boogie) LP (2010)
Orange Sunshine is the most famous Fuzz band from The Hague, Holland. This trio has performed their last show at the Gods Of Groove fest last saturday. Yeah, that's right, Orange Sunshine will stop existing. But don't be sad. Some members will continue in the new band Santa Cruz. Check out their MySpace page and listen to their tunes and order their one track album. Now back to Orange Sunshine. This band made four full-lenght albums and they're all awesome. This is their second album called Love=Acid Space=Hell and it is full of great Fuzz/60's/70's/Garage/Hard Rock songs. The major influence of Orange Sunshine is Blue Cheer. Orange Sunshine is absolutely blessed with the best guitar player of the The Hague agglomeration. Their shows where always great and loud! Enjoy!
Orange Sunshine: catching the very soul of the motor-blues garage-punk and acid proto-hardrock era of the late '60's and the early 70's? With band members derived from several Dutch '80's and '90's hardcore, garage-, doom-, acid-, surf-, noise-, punk- and hard-rock bands (such as Top Gear, Panty Boy, Twin Earth, the White Trash Minstrels and Sunwheel from the metro area of The Hague/Den Haag and Cromlech from Arnhem, check out www.motorwolf.nl for more information), Orange Sunshine started in a squat in The Hague early 1999 as a traditional 3-piece power blues band playing a mix of blues covers and originals in a very explosive way, in the very same intense way and with the very same raw sound and the very same high volume as the much inspiring power blues bands BLUE CHEER, MC5 and STACKWADDY once did in the late '60's, rendering, or should we say screaming out, the same pain, the same drugs (LSD, amphetamines, opiates), the same tension and the same soul.
Many shows followed, in many squats and bars, parties and youth centres, regular venues and main concert halls, in the Netherlands and abroad, a first record was expected and so we plunged into our own analogue recording studio in the squat where we also lived and rehearsed.
We always worshipped the music and the sound of BLUE CHEER's first 2 albums and to make sure we got as close as possible to their organic energy and exhilarating dynamics, we decided to do the recording ourselves, using authentic valve amplifiers and cabinets (Fender bassman, ampeg SVT), drums (Rogers), effects (a.o. spring reverb, tape echo, Electric Mistress flanger, Big Muff and Avora fuzz), an old 1" tape recorder and an old mixing console, and authentic recording techniques i.e. recording the space around us, instead of the modern-day close-micing with tons of compressors, gates and digital multi-effects. When the volume is so up, that the air turns into french cheese, you better register that french cheese instead of all the separate instruments that are used. The source has to be pure, but it's the flow that one records! Thus 'Homo Erectus' was produced and released on our own record label Motorwolf records by the end of the year 2001. A sincere tribute to the sheer ritual drug that is the early music of BLUE CHEER and with the self-made 3D sleeve (a photograph of a gospel preaching freak messiah and his guitar God apostles on a German second-world-war tank) and the enclosed self-made Gibson- flying-V-shaped 3D glasses the record (limited to 500 vinyl copies) was sold out in half a year, you bet how eagerly all these record collectioneurs wanted to buy our bullshit story of the excavated acetate from an obscure '60's group. 2002 saw new opportunities for the band with a new bass player (Mischa Poppe) and a first small eastcoast/mid-west US tour. Very soon our sound and music began to evolve with the new band member and our new SUNN amplification (the ultimate howlin' and growlin' tube machines!), developing more into the black roots of rock'n'roll and rhythm'n'blues of CHUCK BERRY, BO DIDLEY and HENDRIX (the music we listened to as kids), while at the same time growing more into the CREAM-like pop song structures of the psychedelic '60's, but without losing the heavy rock aggression and wildness of our original set-up. Therefore we wanted another recording style for our second album release 'Love = Acid, Space = Hell' (recorded in our Motorwolf studio and released on Motorwolf records in 2003), more sort of like a 'professional' studio recording from around 1970 (perhaps even just as the old ROLLING STONES sounded on their records at the time), with all the limitations of that era (no computers, only an 8-track tape recorder, old-school condenser microphones, no digital mastering), resulting in a very warm sound, yet with a much more 'produced' production than 'Homo Erectus'. The hilarious 8-minutes drum solo (probably the first on a record in more than 25 years) and the over-the-top space-echo-laden and reverse-tape-recorded guitars and drums in our version of BO DIDLEY's 'hey mama, keep your big mouth shut' certainly add to the distinct and long gone psych/progrock feel of the record. A second small eastcoast US tour was done in december 2003 and very soon our fresh release, which had far better distribution now, was well received throughout the world. And while we are currently working on a lot of completely new material, a small German tour has been done around christmas 2004, a 7" is released on Germany's Swamp Room records at the same time (feat. a re-interpretation of the FUZZTONES' song 'Black-out') and our debut album 'Homo Erectus' is rereleased (with 2 previously unreleased bonus tracks) on cd by Holland's Clear Spot/Headspin records and on vinyl and cd by Japan's Leaf Hound records in the beginning of 2005. 2005 started great with holland's prominent 'roadburn' festival, but just before the 'stoned for the underground' festival in erfurt, germany, our bass player Mischa had to quit the band due to serious ear damage! Our friend Antal Buisman from the Zippies helped us out on bass for a few shows in the summer and autumn of 2005, but we're finally back with a new bassplayer: Mehdi Rouchiche, former guitar player of The Hague's old-school HC sensation Shorttime and graphic designer of Godspill, and we're closer to the old BLUE CHEER sound than ever before! However, we will still record an new album with Mischa Poppe and perform his last Orange Sunshine shows in Japan in 2006. Further plans for 2006 are a french/italian/swiss/german tour, 'Black-out' on the coming 'The Hague Motor Rock Vol.2' compilation by Motorwolf and the final release of the never released album 'Ruler of the Universe' (on vinyl by Motorwolf and on cd by Leaf Hound records), named after the 15-minutes long epic space psych track from Terry Brooke's Strange that we cover on the A-side (including sitar, tablas, crazy sectarian-cult-choir-like vocals and lots of endless manic soloing with a self-oscillating echo device). This album was produced while we recorded for the 'Homo Erectus' LP (with our former bass player Thomas van Slooten, who is now taking care of all the coming album artwork), during our 'psychedelic freak-out' sessions. And excessive heavy acid fuzz madness it is! Definitely the wildest, craziest and most extreme stuff we have ever done, of which one track ('Balls knocking') was previously released in early 2002 on the first volume of Motorwolf's 'The Hague Motor Rock', a compilation of 25 heavy garage-/surf-/punk-/ acid-/doom-/hard-rock bands from our metro area. A fourth LP (as said before with Mischa Poppe) is also planned with a further development of our music, expanding into the styles of the early '70's, with subtle elements of black soul, gospel and funk (FUNKADELIC, SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE, CURTIS KNIGHT, GRAND FUNK), jazz (i.e. boogie, GEORGE BRIGMAN's style of melodic soloing), proto-doom hardrock (RANDY HOLDEN's POPULATION II) and even some techniques from Latin-American progrock groups (LOS DUG-DUG'S from Mexico, PAPPO'S BLUES from Argentina). Will we stick to our original principles or will we fall into the same trap as lots of heavy bands did during those dreadful 1970's? The irony of this all is that we actually hate cliche blues rock, hippy space rock and other lame cannabis-influenced 'psychedelia', and all these terribly pretentious and technical progressive/kraut rock bands from the '70's (flutes!), you can imagine lots of people had a bloody good reason to ignite the punk virus! Thank the lord for the bad-acid-trip drug rock magnet that inflamed many a good band, 'damn you hippies, we still got our music! (Their bio)
This is something for people who are familiar with the dutch language! De Raggende Manne were a band that plays some strange music. It is a mix-up of several genres like Metal, Punk, Jazz and Noise. But the music is not really a matter here. It's all about the lyrics. For that you have to comprehend the dutch language. I'm a big fan of Bob Fosko and I always liked De Raggende Manne, although I never seen them perform on stage and that's a pity. This is a compilation I have made. I added also two songs of Bob Fosko's later band called De Gorelev. I think many of you don't like this post, but I had the urge to do this! Enjoy!
"De Raggende Manne" was a sound that originated in 1988 and raged on until 1999. Typically they were refreshingly raw energy, their lyrics telling - critically and with humor - and the roar into the microphone of lead singer Bob Fosko. All this accompanied by much noise guitar and drum violence ...
(A piece from the MySpace fanpage translated with Google Translate)
De Raggende Manne - De Ongeauthoriseerde Compilatie
I should be ashamed, because until a few days ago I never heard of this band. Gore was a band from Venlo, Netherlands. This band played a sort of instrumental noise. Hart Gore was their debut album released in 1986. This album is an absolute masterpiece. This album contains songs that are both simple and attractive. Hart Gore is recently re-released by Southern Lord Records. Why I ever have overlooked this album will always be a unanswered question! Enjoy!
Gore were a Dutch rock band formed in 1985, characterized as instrumental noise rock, who released six studio albums, one live album, and had two compilation appearances between 1986 and 1997. One of the band's studio albums was released on the Megadisc label. They split up in 1996. The band's initial line was Pieter De Sury (guitar, previously played in Venlo-based band Disgust), Martin Van Cleef (bass, also from Disgust) and Danny Arnold Lommen (drums, previously played guitar in Venlo-based band Pandemonium). With this line-up, the band's concept was developed and the music heard on the Hart Gore LP was written. After a short period of time, Van Cleef left the band and Rob Frey (aka Marij Hel) took over on bass. With the line-up of Pieter De Sury, Rob Frey and Danny Arnold, the band began playing live locally. In march 1986, they entered the studio to record their first LP, entitled Hart Gore. After Hart Gore and the follow-up, Mean Man's Dream, they then released a live album featuring Gore on one side and Henry Rollins on the other. In 1988, the band played at the New Music Seminar in New York, and signed to the large Megadisc label, releasing the double album Wrede/The Cruel Peace in 1988, the album co-produced by Steve Albini. The lack of commercial success led the band to split up. Frey reformed the band in 1991 with new musicians (guitarist Johan Van Reede and drummer Bardo Maria), and released the double-CD album Lifelong Deadline. The following year they again performed at the New Music Seminar in New York, playing at The Knitting Factory. In January 1994, Gore toured Europe in support of the CD reissues of Hart Gore and Mean Man's Dream on Messback Music CD. Gore released their final album, Mest/694'3 in February 1997 with the line-up from Lifelong Deadline intact. A final Gore CD, entitled Slow-Death, was included free in an issue of 'Gonzo Circus' magazine late in 1997. It contained a mixture of alternate/unreleased and live versions of songs from Lifelong Deadline and Mest/694'3. Rob Frey went on to play guitar in the band De Nieuwe Blijdschap. Gore received considerable airplay from BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, and recorded three sessions for his radio show between 1987 and 1991, amounting to a lot of airtime given the length of their tracks. (From Wikipedia)
This is a blog for everyone who's addicted to Stoner Rock. All music I post is uploaded by myself or avialable on some websites! If you don't like your music is posted here, send me an e-mail and I remove it. When you download one of my post, please be kind and leave a comment! If you have a Stoner Rock band and you want your music posted on this blog leave a message below or send an e-mail to: riez.stoner@gmail.com
And boys and girls, don't forget to buy vinyl or other merchandise from these bands!
