Trevor's Head - Fall Towards The Sun/Majesty And Harmony (APF Records) [Matt Bladen]
I once compared Trevor's Head to Monty Python and I'll stick by that. Their absurd psych stoner riffs has been getting audiences in the groove for fifteen years and to celebrate this they are going on tour, playing the towns that have supported them all these years including a Cardiff and Bristol date supporting Lacertilila.Fifteen years is long time to be a band but it's especially long for a D.I.Y band who don't kowtow to fads or labels, doing things their own way since form in Redhill Surrey in 2010. In that time they signed to major labels, had big shows, become a trio but they've never tried to pitch themselves as anything more than a band that play the weird, riffy music they want to, an approach that has some how garnered them fans like myself.
Alongside the tour they have also released this double A-Side to show us all that they aren't dead, or something like that. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios the duo of Fall Toward The Sun and Majesty And Harmony are Trevor's Head at their most weird and wonderful.
Fall Towards The Sun begins with some angular bass/drum grooving, where jangly guitars cut through and there's a break into a bit of synth. It's the type of quirkiness that you'd want from Trev and they delivered those gang vocals well too (all three of them contribute vocals) before the break into a penultimate section ups the pace.
Then it's into Majesty And Harmony, where the woozy psychadelics merge with 90's grunge at the beginning, the wild eyed fuzz coming in for the chorus as they return to the dreamy verses. The contradiction of this track is also typical Trevor's Head as they've never shied away from blending and bastardising genres to suit their own style.
Here they offer up what would happen if the Super Furry Animals got interrupted by Crowbar. The trio of Matt Ainsworth (drums), Aaron Strachan (bass) and Roger Atkins (guitar) still dwell firmly in Trevor's Head, catch them on tour and may they last another fifteen years and more! 8/10
Flitcraft - Transmission Echo (Pitch Black Records) [Rich Piva]Melbourne, Australia’s Flitcraft loves the classic on their third record, Transmission Echo. The ten songs on the new album sound like Rush, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, and Yes. Cool, right? There is another band that they sound like as well, and I could not put my finger on it until my third listen.
The opener, Talus, has huge Rush drums and a great Purple feel, with King’s vocals turned up a couple octaves, into Yes territory. I love the harmonies too. The bridge is pure Yes worship, executed perfectly. Lara has a Maiden gallop while being all proggy at the same time.
If there is one thing people may not get, it would be the vocals, as King stays on the high register the majority of the time on the record. It will not be for everyone, but it certainly is for me.
Flitcraft really do get it. Bands that look back and play this kind of style can sound like hacks or can take the source material and make it something killer for 2025. Flitcraft does the latter on Transmission Echo. Butterfly may be gone, but Flitcraft lives on in all of their 70s prog/80s metal glory. 9/10
Giöbia - X-ÆON (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Rich Piva]
Heavy Psych Sounds lives up to their name, releasing the new record from Milano, Italy’s Giöbia, titled X-ÆON, which continues their solid discography of heavy, mind-bending psych and Krautrock goodness across the eight tracks on their new offering.
While Giöbia has been a good chunk, but not all instrumental on their records, X-ÆON leans heavily to the no vocals side, starting with the chunky, riff filled opener, Voodoo Experience, then leading into the Krautrock stylings of Fractal Haze. The Death Of The Crows is the most straight-forward song on the album and gives off wonderful Black Angels vibes. 1976 sounds like something right out of Twin Peaks musically and incorporates some spoken word samples across the trippy psych goodness.
You want some cool, trippy, psych-drenched space rock? Giöbia has got you back. X-ÆON is another great trip the band takes you on. I do prefer a bit more vocals, but overall, the new Giöbia is worth your time. 7/10
Emmerhoff & The Melancholy Babies - The Dying Of The Light (Apollon Records) [Matt Bladen]
For almost 30 years Emmerhoff & The Melancholy Babies have been showcasing their classic sounding psych rocking, that comes from the rural wilds of Norway. They are a band built around guitars, boasting a trio of guitarists, they create music that owes as much to Nick Cave as it does Led Zeppelin.
These elder statesmen of the Bergen scene, have crafted seven previous albums but this one feels more defiant, named after Dylan Thomas' 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night', it's a record that deals with getting older, but doing so with a stubbornness to keep creating, keep fighting and forging ahead no matter how you are viewed by society and it's ageist agenda.
It's a celebration which begins with the jangling Repercussionist, the trio of guitars showcasing their brilliance here as Hex adds a ritualistic quality of Zep III, acoustics layered and the lead vocals phased into psychedelic dreaminess on a song celebrating demonic feminine energy, in a frenzied fashion. The mood is sombre but the music is celebratory, a feeling of if you're going to go then go out doing what you love.
In The Hour Of The Wolf to me adds a heavy does of Madrugada, which is no bad thing, while Bête Noir throws in some Roger Waters madness. Backtracked provides some strutting psych rock, Holy Motors taking on the crunch of latter period The Beatles meeting Hawkwind while the lush Mahavishnu-like, The Canyon features as Lindy-Fay Hella of Wardruna on backing/additional vocals.
The entire record dedicated to the memory of Per Harald Ottesen, an early member of the band, so it carries a resonance to it, encapsulating the themes of Thomas' poetry through interesting music far different to many Bergen bands. 8/10
Thanx! Spot on :)
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