All Them Witches

All Them Witches is the kind of band that gets under your skin real quickly. It gets you with the warm bluesy tones. It's interesting how you can distinguish the music that had soul put into it. And I'm not talking about our dark skinned fellows singing church music. I'm talking about the difference that the approach makes. I had a friend who once said to me that it doesn't really matter what you play, it's how you play it. Well, these guys got both parts of the equation down. They play a really laid back, sometimes rockish music they classify as psychedelta blues as an extension of delta blues. And it never lets go off you until you're gone through the whole album! That is something really hard to achieve and I take my hat off for all those bands that could nail it.

The band has released 1 album in 2012 so far (and a remastered version of it) and another album is soon to hit the shelves. Current line-up of the Nashville based quintet is Ben McLeod, Robby Staebler, Michael Parks, Allan Van Cleave and Jason Staebler. This is a must-have for all you admirers of bands like Graveyard and Blues Pills! So take a deep dive in! 

And here are the instant transportation banners and motion pictures with soundclips:

http://allthemwitches.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/allthemwitches
http://www.last.fm/music/All+Them+Witches
http://www.discogs.com/artist/All+Them+Witches

Wheel of Smoke

Ah, it's been a while! Just moved to a new place and currently staying without the interwebs. Yet still it is time for some new music. And this time we're heading prog space rock & post rock direction with a Belgium quartet Wheel of Smoke, a very nicely sounding piece with a bit of an melancholia and 70's occult aftertaste. And surely - I like how they're mentioning Carlos Castaneda as one of the influences. You can even hear that in the psychedelia and drug influence the music gives off. Other influences include bands like Black Sabbath, King Crimson, Hypnos 69 and some Pink Floyd in there too (I guess there's hardly a band in psychedelic rock scene that hasn't been influenced by Floyd).

The band was formed in 2005 and been playing a lot of gigs, so by now these guys do know what they are doing and do know how to deliver proper music on a level. Currently the line-up consists of Filip Remans and Erik Heyns on vocals and guitars, Jouk Opdebeeck (dude, I can't pronounce that!) on drums and Tristan Michiels on bass and vox. In 2011 it happened and they've released their first 5-track album "In Sense". The album turned out to be a sort of a journey musically. It really takes you places with the sounds ranging from beautiful post-rockish vibes to straight forward stoner rock slams with grungy vocals. For all I know - this is worth every minute spent and definitely worth re-listening.

Stay tuned because they are planning to release another effort in fall 2013, which I will be mentioning here when it's out! Keep yer' eyes n' ears open, lads!

You're still here? Well here's a whole bunch of links and videos to follow below:

http://wheelofsmoke.bandcamp.com/
http://www.wheelofsmoke.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wheelofsmokeofficial
http://www.myspace.com/wheelofsmoke
http://www.youtube.com/user/WheelOfSmokeOfficial/videos

Umber

Chilled out, dream-like states and countryside ambiance filled with space and hope. This is the sound of an artist behind the name Umber, Alex Steward. Located at the English village around Nottingham, away from noise and stress, where he made a studio in the bedroom of his house. Incorporating different instruments in the mix with the synth chords and drones, he creates an atmosphere that really sounds close to nature. Something of a fresh morning dew.

Umber has released 2 albums and an EP during these past years, introducing a great view on instrumental ambient music. The vibes are sometimes reaching for those of Vangelis on Blade Runner soundtrack, lifting you off the ground. I guess that'll be the closest, yet vague association I can get. I confess I don't know a lot of ambient music projects, since it's a bit of a rare and very mood related type of listen, but I found Umber to be one of those artists that stay with me and I keep returning to.

See if you'll feel the same way:

http://umber.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/umbermusic
http://www.last.fm/music/Umber

Rivercrest

Hey everyone! So this time we're full-on psychedelic. This band was linked to me yesterday by a good friend of mine, who said I might find it or at least parts of it interesting. And so I did! This is Rivercrest, a heavy-psych jam band formed in 2003 in Belgium. To me it sounds like Naked Lunch movie meets Causa Sui, Oresund Space Collective, Pink Floyd (live at Pompeii period) and King Crimson. Pretty impressive moves there, always loved me some sax: it kind of freshens up the whole thing a whole bit and adds this spice to it.

The band has released 1 album and a live record. Their tracks tend to race into extended sessions of jams ranging from 10 to 20 minutes and sometimes go crazy places. Great collaborative work of 8 guys (wow!), that bring you warm moods and crazy distorted landscapes, just as the cover art suggests! Some of it is a bit out of it for my taste, kind of chaosy, but a lot of jam bands tend to go those ways. I guess it's a bit of a natural way to go after a certain point of a jam when so much people are involved. Still a very solid piece, so trip out y'all!

Below are some of the links (couldn't find any videos on youtube, so to listen to some just go to the bandcamp page, which is always better than youtube):
http://rivercrest.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rivercrest/119044651458143
http://www.myspace.com/rivercrestjams

Sun Dial

And now lets travel back... Travel back to the 90's British psychedelic rock scene, and find a very underestimated band - Sun Dial. A band that even though constantly changed the line-up managed to survive until the present day. It's a project started out way back in the 1990 by a vocalist/guitarist - Gary Ramon. This band means a lot to me, since it kind of showed me the way through one of the shitty parts of my life. I associate them with this warm and sunny summer feeling, brilliant psychedelic guitar skill and direction. Psychedelic, fuzzy and originally sounding, at times really dragging and touching you to the very core.

It's been exactly 13 albums to this day. I shamefully can say that I've never went through all of them, but not all of them really caught my attention. There has been a lot of direction changes, but mostly all the albums I've went through (and that's more than a half of them), had a lot to offer. At one point I even thought them to be the new Pink Floyd, but really underground. Or maybe the Colour Haze of psychedelic rock. Anyway, this is something highly advisable!

Here's some links I could dig out and some of my favorite track videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0hoNN2AKtY

http://www.last.fm/music/Sun+Dial
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Sun+Dial

Deaf Proof

I'm back from the weekend and back with something fresh! Been looking for some psychedelic desert rock? It found you - Deaf Proof had released their new demo album. Despite having constant line-up changes since 2006, the trio had managed to record some really mesmerizing music. This is desert rock with a bluesy touch and fuzzed out guitars at it's finest! The production quality is proper and it does sound like a proper album even, which I find rare for the demos to be. On the both demo albums they have too!

To me the sound reminds a bit of Orange Goblin, The Heavy Co., Sungrazer, Kyuss, but more like tone-wise, rather than direction. Massive sound and original moves, that all fall down at ya and drag you through the desert. But the psychedelic touch to it is what really makes it stand out. So here's to see them record their full-length!

Both their albums are available as a free download at Bandcamp. So grab on:

http://deafproof.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/deafproofstoner
http://www.myspace.com/deafproof