23 Dec 2009

Happy Xmas and New Year


Happy xmas and New year from us at Rocket....thanks for all your support in ‘09...

As for 2010, we have several things bubbling away, but definite launches are:

Teeth of the Sea – Hypnoticon EP (February 1st)
Gnod / White Hills – Dropout II double LP (April)
Teeth of the Sea – second album (June)

We are also looking for more contributors to this blog, so if you would like to consider a review of an album, band, gig old or new, please send your scribbles to rocketrecordings@yahoo.com

22 Dec 2009

Rocket Probes December 2009 Playlist



Various – Obsession
(Good comp of '67 to '74 South American, Indian, and Turkish psyche, lots of fuzz, wah, delay and grooved out rhythms)

Purling Hiss – Purling Hiss
(Thanks to Dave Cambridge for turning us on to this and David Halstead for bringing us over a copy from Chicago....great lo-fi fuzz wah ridden garage..a bit like ‘Afflicted Man’ in places)

Slayer – World Painted Blood
(At times they hit their old magestic best, at times it is unfortunately quite disappointing....but the good news is ‘Lead Hanneman’ and ‘Lead King’ are back brutalising the wah)

Sola Bassana – Lost in Space
(Don’t know anything about this lot, but this track is a great slice of motorik space rock)

Heldon – Electronique Guerilla / Allez Teia
(Both these great albums have just been reissued on vinyl on Wah Wah records...and they each come with a free 7” including the great Schizo EP...a must have!!!)

Urdog – Eyelid of the Moon
(Amon Düül II inspired dazed stupor reminiscent of the altered states of psych folk bands from the late 60's early 70's)

The Necks – Aquatic / Hanging Garden / Drive By
(3 Albums of expansive mesmerising soundscapes of almost static rhythms weaving lush repetitive barely perceptible shifting meditative and transcendental Can like patterns)

Fire - Could You Understand Me
(1973 Yugoslavia fuzz distorted repetitive pedal mashing)


ON THE DECKS # 9 INFINITY WINDOW





Last year I had a conversation with a friend of mine about the state of underground music. At the time he was getting into picking up new age records at thrift shops. We had a good laugh, and being one who worked at two new age record labels, I joked that in time new age music will be the new underground. Low and behold it has finally happened…with bands like Infinity Window flying the new age banner high and proud. As they should because their album Artificial Midnight is some of the highest order space music I have heard from a current band in recent years.

This album is one massive slab of heavy celestial space music. The three tracks that comprise this LP all start off subtle and build up over the time into monstrous trance enducing waves of synth that Klaus Schultze would be proud of. For all intensive purposes this could be some lost Krautrock gem finally discovered 30 years later. That is not to say it sounds out dated…on the contrary it is absolutely contemporary continuing on a tradition to take listeners into the farthest realms of the universe. Meditative and lush this music wraps around you like a soft blanket that you never want to take off.

Artificial Midnight is limited to 500 copies. I highly suggest anyone that is into deep space or drone music should go out and get a copy of this LP immediately…you won’t be disappointed.

Check out Inifintiy Window online:http://www.myspace.com/infinitywindow

Thanks

Dave W (White Hills)

21 Dec 2009

Track list for 'Sunday Space Ritual' free CD




Here is the tracklist for the free CD that we gave away at our xmas party we put on with Noisestar music on 20th December 2009. The CD is limited to 100 copies and were given away to the first 50 people through the door and to every band member and friends involved with the event.

As far as we know all these tracks are totally exclusive to this CD, so thanks to all the bands for supplying them to us, we think it is a brain melting comp of seasonal party hits!!


Sunday Space Ritual Free CD
(Launch036)


01 Mutlings – Reading other peoples diaries
02 Gnod – Energy
03 Gum takes Tooth –
Tannkjøtt.
04 Drum Cunt – Nautilus (remix)
04 Teeth of the Sea – Cities of gold
06 Gum takes Tooth – Tooth meat (**K remix)
07 Gnod – Martial Woe
08 The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers – When travelling on the underground
09 Teeth of the Sea – Only fools on a horse (**K remix)

(Please not that CD is unmastered so sound levels vary between tracks)

Thanks to everyone who came and made the day very special indeed, and apologies for Gnod pulling out and Alexander Tucker not playing due to the venue shutting us down early especially after we had to start late due to their fuck up!!

Also, thanks to all the great bands that did play, you are all truly amazing and we thank you....

Thanks to Katie Carnie for the great Todd photo from the show, we will be put more up on our myspace soon.

16 Dec 2009

Sunday Space Ritual – Stage times announced

Stage times for Sundays xmas party below...no doubt it will change on the day, but this is what we are working too....and don’t forget a free CD of exclusive tracks by most the bands playing for the first 50 people through the door:

4.00 – 4.30 / Special guests playing a guerilla show in the courtyard
4.00 – 4.30 / Rock a Rolla (DJ)
4.30 – 5.00 / Mutlings
5.00 – 5.20 / Hyper Bass Black (Sound system)
5.20 – 5.50 / Gum Takes Tooth
5.50 – 6.15 / Rock a Rolla (DJ)
6.15 – 6.55 / Gnod
6.55 – 7.15 / Drum Cunt (Sound system)
7.15 – 7.55 / The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers
7.55 – 8.15 / Rock a Rolla (DJ)
8.15 – 8.55 / Teeth of the Sea
8.55 – 9.20 / **K (Sound system)
9.20 – 10.00 / TODD
10.00 – 10.15 / Rock a Rolla (DJ)
10.15 – 11pm / Alexander Tucker

Upstairs The Vibe Bar
The Old Truman Brewery
91-95 Brick Lane
London E1

Sunday December 20th
4pm 'til 11pm
£5 advance / £7 on the door

Tickets via www.wegottickets.com

8 Dec 2009

TOTS make 'Quietus top 20' and 'Line of best fit top 50' albums of the year



The guys at the Quietus.com has decided that Teeth of the Sea's debut album Orphaned by the Ocean was worthy to be included in their Top 20 albums of the year, see what they say here

And The Line of Best Fit have included it in their Top 50, see here

Terrascope reviews Hypnoticon



The promos for Teeth of the Sea's new EP 'Hypnoticon' were only sent out last week and it has already recieved a pretty good write up, courtesy of the lovely people at Terrascope:
---

TEETH OF THE SEA – HYPNOTICON EP (LAUNCH035)

God, I love this band. Love, love, love them. Hailing from London, they’ve shuffled their line-up slightly since their debut album, ‘Orphaned by the Ocean’ (an album I urged you to hear at the time, so if you didn’t take me up on the introduction then you only have yourselves to blame), but for all that they’re if anything tighter now, sounding at one and the same time like an out of control juggernaut hurtling through a fog bank and a lone bird circling over a mountain. As I may have mentioned before, their sound reminds me at times of another London-based outfit, Spaceheads, a duo who frequently blasted themselves into outer space with the help of various electronic effects (including once, memorably, at an early Terrastock festival in San Francisco), and in terms of guitar sound of Hovercraft, who likewise once played Terrastock (but a different one, I think.). Should there be another Terrastock any time soon, Teeth of the Sea will be high on the list of bands I’d love to invite.


Theirs is a heady fermentation of sound which incorporates not just drum-loops and trumpet, but space-rock, drone, Kosmische musik (particularly on the awesome ‘Hypnoticon Viva’) and progressive rock time-changes. Anyone who caught them on tour recently at their gig with Thought Forms in Bristol, or with established Terrascopic favourites Wooden Shjips, The Heads or especially Oneida, will recognise this psychedelic tour de force of acid-fried guitar/drum mayhem immediately as they chose to close their set with it – no easy act to follow.


On ‘Hypnoticon’, a CD-EP forerunner to their forthcoming (June 2010 apparently) second album, Teeth of the Sea close out the set with an aurally stunning visage of haunting, panoramic ambience entitled ‘The Island Is’ which immediately put me in mind of Texan post-rock wonder-band This Will Destroy You. But with added trumpet. This is no bad thing and I can’t begin to recommend this band highly enough. Too early for release of the year for 2010? Probably. This makes my top 10 of 2009 though, easily. (Phil McMullen)

---

The limited to 300 copies 12" EP will be released in all good record shops on February 1st.


28 Nov 2009

SUNDAY SPACE RITUAL – XMAS PARTY





Rocket Recordings and Noisestar presents:

Sunday Space Ritual
A seasonal sonic gathering

ALEXANDER TUCKER
TODD
TEETH OF THE SEA
THE NOTORIOUS HI-FI KILLERS
GNOD
GUM TAKES TOOTH
**K
DRUMCUNT
MUTLINGS
HYPER BLACK BASS
+
DJs:
Vuk (ROCK-A-ROLLA)
Rik Motor (ROCKET)
NOISESTAR DJ’s

Upstairs The Vibe Bar
The Old Truman Brewery
91-95 Brick Lane
London E1

Sunday December 20th
4pm 'til 11pm
£5 advance / £7 on the door

Tickets via www.wegottickets.com




27 Nov 2009

Rocket Probes November 2009 Playlist




White Hills – White Hills
(The new album has just arrived in Mission Control...it must be Christmas!!)

High Wolf – Incapulco
(Really great looped psychedelia, in a kind of Sun Araw / Ducktails sort of vibe)

Henry Flynt – Henry Flynt and Nova Billy
(An unusual but great record this one, Velvet Underground meets the Mothers, with a bit of ‘Jaki’ drumming.... and one track vocally sounds like a West Country Oneida!!!)

Various - Tetes Lourdes: Francais Metal de Proto: Le Super Rock Serie 1970
(Awesome compilation of early 70’s French psych which has been talked about a lot on Head Heritage, features some amazing heavy fuzz freakouts)

Spacemen 3 / Wooden Shjips split 7”
(Great demo version of Big City....and the Shjips doing a Spacemen 3 cover...nice artwork too)

Shit and Shine – Girls against Shit
(Great new album by Britain’s best band (ok second best)....first track sounds like a ‘wah-less’ Heads doing a cover of Sheets of Easter)

Gnod - Sex, Drones & Broken Bones (Or Secret Pathways to Hidden Lands)
(More CDR weirdness, full of flutes, chimes, horns, drones & feedback, taking you out to the further limits)

Rufus Zuphall - Weiß der Teufel
(1971 frenetic twisted flute driven raw-edged krautrock, hailing from Germany)

Can - Soundtracks ii
(Double vinyl release of actual Can musical score from various films - features dialogue intertwined with blasts of tracks only teased on the official releases - come one guys release the whole complete scores!!!)

Thunderbolt Pagoda – Second album (title TBC)
(Thanks to this great band for sending these tracks hot off the press, sounding good, especially the last 20min+ track, looking forward to seeing the vinyl out there)


17 Nov 2009

Win Unholy Trinity tickets and CD's




Our friends at the Quietus have decided to run a competition for you to win two tickets to a Unholy Trinity show of your choice and a free CD by each band:

13 Nov 2009

Xmas party line-up announced




Sunday Space Ritual
A seasonal sonic gathering

ALEXANDER TUCKER
TODD
TEETH OF THE SEA
THE NOTORIOUS HI-FI KILLERS
GNOD
GUM TAKES TOOTH
**K
DRUMCUNT
MUTLINGS
HYPER BLACK BASS
+
DJs:
Vuk (ROCK-A-ROLLA)
Rik Motor (ROCKET)
NOISESTAR DJ’s

Upstairs The Vibe Bar
The Old Truman Brewery
91-95 Brick Lane
London E1

Sunday December 20th
4pm 'til 11pm
£5 advance / £7 on the door

Tickets via
www.wegottickets.com

Vote for Teeth of the Sea sleeve




As reported before, Teeth of the Sea's debut album, Orphaned by the Ocean has been nominated for the Art Vinyl Album sleeve of the year award.

So please, nominate now, be great to get a Rocket sleeve into the top 10, its long over due:

Cast your vote here:

11 Nov 2009

HYPNO-A-GO-GO




Teeth Of The Sea’s mighty ‘Hypnoticon’ EP is released in January 2010.

For now, however, here are Jimmy from Teeth Of The Sea’s favourite Sonic Slabs of Monolithic Mesmeric's.

Furthermore, here's a spotify playlist encompassing some of the soporific suckerpunches listed below, not to mention some surplus trance-inducing terrors...

Hypno-A-Go-Go


TANGERINE DREAM-Birth Of Liquid Plejades
(Zeit; Ohr 1972)
The first vibrations of an unearthly transmission still unmatched for jaw-agape awe and entranced euphoria; Like Ligeti’s ‘Lux Aeterna’ gone feral and lysergic. Ain’t nothing quite so right as an evening in with ‘Zeit’.

FLYING SAUCER ATTACK-Oceans
(Distance; Domino 1994)
Blindingly beatific continental drift courtesy of Brizzle’s finest psych-ed out sky-smoochers. See also the entire ‘Further’ album for a radiant wash of pastoral solitude and crepuscular bliss. A perusal of the old where-are-they-now file beckons.

WINDY & CARL-Antarctica
(EP, Darla 1997)
Two frumpy weirdos deliver an incomparable(and seemingly endless) panoramic bliss-scape that resonates on dimensions beyond rational thought. A womb-world that can transform your humble front room into an oasis of opiated calm.

HARMONIA-Sehr Kosmisch
(Musik Von Harmonia, Brain, 1974)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ensgO6lTsyE

Potent evidence for the existence of some Buffy-esque gateway that existed in Forest in the Summer of 1973 to some fertile enchanted landscape where all life is a perpetual dream sequence of overripe foliage and hazy slow motion.

SEEFEEL-Gatha
(Succour, Warp, 1995)
Cosmic debris drifts around a motherlode of dub bass, and shadows loom in the empty spaces. Like sitting on a rusty pirate spacecraft as it spins powerless in the orbit of a dark, distant planet.

STEREOLAB & NURSE WITH WOUND-Simple Headphone Mind
(eponymous EP, Duophonic 1997)
Try to ignore the clicks and pops on the you tubeclip of this spectacularly brain-altering trip to mayhemsville. Sorry to admit, words honestly can’t really do justice to such a startling piece of work.



AR KANE-Spermwhale Trip Over
(69, Mute, 1988)
For all that its only admirers seem to be music journalists, ‘69’ still stands proud as a gateway to some parallel universe of dark, dreamlike rapture. Whether languorous and beatific, as on this here ‘Spermwhale Trip Over’, or lurking in the murkiest of ghoulish catacombs, as on the gloriously bleak ‘The Madonna Is With Child’, there’s never been another record quite as haunting, harrowing and heavenly as this.

HTRK-Look At That Girl
(Nostalgia, Blast First Petite 1997)
Frightful hollow-eyed fashionistas they may appear, but displaced Melbourne droogs HTRK have a wicked way with a languorous dirge that reaches its zenith here, a delightfully mournful clatter and sway that;s equal parts The Cure’s ‘Pornography’, prime Gristle and a ghostly wail in an abandoned warehouse.

SPACEMEN 3-Suicide (Live)
(Playing With Fire Reissue, Fire (various)
Like kneeling before some huge pulsating throne of slack. Set The Controls For The Heart Of Rugby, and wah-wahs to stun.

ONEIDA-Sheets Of Easter
(Each One Teach One, 2001)
Well of course…
(you’ve got to look into the…) LIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHTLIGHT….



FAVE HYPNO SCENES IN THE MOVIES & TV

a) THE DEVIL RIDES OUT
Charles Gray’s portrayal of Mocaber was loosely based on Aleister Crowley, of course. Yet who knows if The Great Beast was quite such a cracking pantomime villain as this…

b) DOCTOR WHO:MASQUE OF MANDRAGORA
In her last episode of the Tom Baker-era Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Smith complained that "I must be mad. I'm sick of being cold and wet and hypnotised left, right and centre. I'm sick of being shot at, savaged by bug eyed monsters, never knowing if I'm coming or going... or been... “ Small wonder, as the poor lass did indeed seem to be used as some kind of pawn in some evil adversary’s mind control games every other week…

c) SCOOBY DOO; BEDLAM IN THE BIG TOP
I’d imagine this was many folks’ first exposure to the very notion of hypnotism. Even if the evil Ghost clown did end up unmasked as just the fairground owner trying to drum up some extra business or summat.

d) BRAINSCAN
True to form for its position as standard horror plot device for all ages, the ol’ hypno chestnut has been used as the primary narrative drive in some of the downright lamest movies of all time: Take this gem from 1994, for example. Anyone wondering what Frank Langella was up to in the many years in between Masters Of The Universe and Frost/Nixon, look no further. Or better still, look away.

e) DOCTOR WHO: SARAH JANE ADVENTURES
Turns out Sarah Jane didn’t even get her own way, mind you. Thirty years later, she was still having to battle evil masterminds intent on taking over the world by means of hypnosis. And worse still, one of them bore an uncanny resemblance to Russ Abbott…
 

10 Nov 2009

Coming Soon!! Gnod / White Hills Double LP



Rocket are proud to announce we are putting together a double vinyl LP release from these titans of psyche freaks. The forthcoming record will feature the official release of tracks from the previous CDR Drop Out aswell as new & unreleased tracks for Drop Out II.

For those unaware of of Gnod on these shores (as it's our first record with them), check this footage out. You can also catch them playing the Unholy Trinity shows (read previous blogs)



Watch this Space!!

9 Nov 2009

Team Brick added to Unholy Trinity London show



We have just found out that the amazing Team Brick is going to join the line-up of the Unholy Trinity show in London on 20th November. He is taking a break from his Beak> commitments to open the evening with his unique mix of noise(s) and melody.

Full show details now are:

Teeth of the Sea
Gnod
Thought Forms
Team Brick

Plus Rocket DJ’s

Friday 20 November
London
Jamboree
(Thames House, 566 Cable Street, Limehouse, E1W 3HB)

7.30pm – Midnight(ish)
£5

4 Nov 2009

2 Nov 2009

Through The Solar Lens - Psychedelic Sci-fi




(Hawkwind on the set of The Final Programme)

Psychedelic Sci-fi


Welcome to a new Rocket resource for obscure footage/out there animations/music footage etc.


First off we start with Psychedelic Sci-fi. We all should be aware of the classics, so let not discuss them here, but please feel free to contact us with some links for us to post up (if we agree with your choices) as there is always stuff we can miss.


As a start, we have gone for


1: The Tomorrow People (TV Titles)




The Tomorrow People is an ITV children's science fiction television series, devised by Roger Price, which first ran between 1973 and 1979.


All incarnations of the show concerned the emergence of the next stage of human evolution known colloquially as Tomorrow People. Born to human parents, an apparently normal child might at some point between childhood and late adolescence experience a process called "breaking out", when they develop their special abilities. These abilities include psychic powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation. However, they are physically unable to deliberately kill others. (Wiki)


2: The Final Programme (Film)




The Final Programme was a 1973 British comedy-thriller film directed by Robert Fuest, and starring Jon Finch and Jenny Runacre. It was based on the first Jerry Cornelius novel (also called The Final Programme) by Michael Moorcock.

A Nobel-prize-winning scientist has developed the "Final Programme"—a design for a perfect, self-replicating human being.


More to follow

Xmas party




Rocket are teaming up with our friends at Noisestar Records to put on a joint Xmas party on Sunday 20th December at a London venue.

We are planning to have about 7 bands, DJ’s, art and merch stalls from 4pm – 11.30pm, watch this space for line-up confirmations and ticket information.

ON THE DECKS #8



A hodgepodge of albums that have been kicking my ass recently:

Der Blutharsch – Flying High (WKN 2009)
Brand new album from Albin Julius and company that finds the band diving deeper into drone heavy psychedelia. Fantastic and heavy synth washes collide with deep space song driven material creating a heavenly sound that is black as the night. This album can take you to the farthest reaches of any black hole. A must have for all space cadets!

Black Sheep – Black Sheep at the BBC Maida Vale, April 5th 2009CE (Fuck Off & Di 2009)
Now those who know me…know that I am a big fan of all things Cope. It took me hearing this release to realize the genius behind what Cope is up to with his Black Sheep Ensemble. Guttural, primal, punishing, disturbing, cathartic, mesmerizing, beautiful, and uplifting. This is scream therapy music at it’s best. One part Cromagnon, one part Art Ensemble of Chicago and all Cope. People won’t realize the genius of this ensemble until they are long gone.

Graveyard – Graveyard (Tee Pee Records 2007)
Hailing from Sweden this band is everything that I wished for when first hearing Witchcraft. The main difference being much better song writing. These songs might sound like they were written in the 70’s but they are completely from the present. Biting socio-political commentaries add intelligence to the overall esthetic's that is not pushy but eye opening.

BORIS - #2 H.M.A. (Heavy Metal Addict) b/w Black Original (Southern Lord 2009)
This, the second installment of a series of 3 45’s from Boris finds the band grinding away in a heavy metal pyre. Something is a bit off kilter with this 45…is it the hand clap track on H.M.A or it’s almost propulsive driving disco feel combined with a truly metal guitar lick. I can’t pin it down, but I like it!

The Stooges – You Don’t Want My Name You Want My Action…1971 The Missing Link (Easy Action 2009)
A 4xCD boxset documenting The Stooges short lived line-up that featured the dual guitar attack of Straight James Williamson and Ron Asheton with Jimmy Recca on Bass and Scott Asheton on drums. The sound quality is what one has come to expect from such Stooges releases, but that does not detract from the raw primal energy this band had at the time. Wild and punishing, this is not music for the meek. Lately the show from St. Louis at The Factory on 5/26/71 is the disc that I am digging the most.

Dave (White Hills)


TOTS Nominated for 'Best Art Vinyl 2009'



Once again Art Vinyl, have put together the 50 nominations for Best Art Vinyl 2009, a poll of the best vinyl record cover art of the year.

Teeth of the Sea - Orphaned by the Ocean has been selected as one of the fifty nominations. To view last years nominations, click on the following link:

29 Oct 2009

New Teeth Of The Sea track: Space Capsule



First mix of Teeth of the Sea's 'Space Capsule' from the forthcoming Rocket 12" 'Hypnoticon Viva' EP has debuted on the 20 Jazz Funk Greats blog. This isn't the final cut but will give taster of what's to come, ........Hawkmen, to your posts!

http://www.20jazzfunkgreats.co.uk/wordpress/

28 Oct 2009

Rocket Probes October 2009 Playlist



Hills – Death 1
(Swedish psych/kraut rock, don’t know anything about this band and what they do is nothing new, but they do it VERY WELL indeed, especially the last track, some great Fuzz laden motorik!!!)

Part Chimp – Thriller
(Good to have them back with another album of great frenzied noise rock)

Spectrum – War Sucks
(Same ‘ol stuff from Sonic, but that is fine with us...a great return!!!!)

Broadcast and the Focus Group – Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
(Thanks to Martina from Warp for this...an imaginary soundtrack from a film I would love to see..... )

Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights
(Great new album, and nice to see they have dusted off the wah....perfect for a Sunday morning hangover!!!!)

Choukoku no Niwa– More Echoes, Touching Air landscape
(From their split with Boris, amazing 24minute Can’esque track of tight rhythms and free rock)

Harmonia - Live 74
(Motorik synthesizers and percussive pulse and throb grooves from the crusts of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster)

Ray Russell - Rites & Rituals
(1971- forerunner of today’s avant-guitar/improv/noise scene - electric free jazz embraced rock)

Jonas Reinhardt
(70s krautrock-inspired spaced out propelling cosmic adventures in sound)

King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic
(Exotic percussive tension building, improvisational hypnotic and harsh throughout)

21 Oct 2009

13 Oct 2009

Unholy Trinity - Sonic Sanctuary Poster



Sonic Sanctuary have also created a poster for the Bristol leg of the up & coming Unholy Trinity Tour (see below for details).

http://www.myspace.com/sonicsanctuary
http://www.myspace.com/thoughtforms

Thanks

12 Oct 2009

Unholy Trinity GNOD Poster



The wonderful Gnod guys have also created a poster for the Manchester leg of the up & coming Unholy Trinity Tour (see below for details).

http://www.myspace.com/gnodgnod

Thanks

ON THE DECKS #7 WOVENHAND



WOVENHAND

A few months ago I received an email from the US booking agent for the band WOVENHAND. He asked me if White Hills was interested in being the support act for the band’s upcoming fall US tour. At the time I had heard very little of Wovenhand’s music…just the songs they had up on their myspace page. The only other things I knew was that two members came from the band 16 Horsepower and that my friends in the band Silver Summit had done a number of west coast dates with them 6 months earlier….of which they had nothing but good things to say about them. So after a quick discussion with Ego Sensation we decided to jump at the opportunity…and I am so glad we did!

After watching WOVENHAND night after night, I was so taken by them that for this month’s On The Decks…I choose to focus on a band verses an album in particular.

WOVENHAND’s sound is dark and intense…it’s a mixture of folk, swamp sludge, goth, and all out heavy rock. It is music that is inspiring and chilling…heady and lofty…dark and bright. They create cinematic sound scapes and tell tales of death and damnation… salvation and sin. The first Wovenhand album sounds like an extension of 16 Horsepower…with each new album the band moves further away from the acoustic sound that drove 16 Horsepower into a darker and heavier electric sound.

David Eugene Edwards (guitarist & vocalist) is an enigmatic character on stage. Performing on a drum stool, he is mesmerizing, commanding the audiences attention from beginning to end. Playing in open tunings his sound is enveloping…as if the sound that emanates from his guitar is a blanket encompassing you. Pascal Humbert (bass) lays down a heavy sound that grounds everything to the earth. His licks are tasteful and spot on…allowing the guitar and vocals to float in the heavens above. Ordy Garrison (drums) keeps it all together. I have never heard so much sound come out of a drummer using brushes of bundled sticks before. The man is a powerhouse.

Since returning home from the tour, I have had Mosaic and Ten Stones in constant rotation. Both albums are hypnotic, entrancing and moody. These two also spotlight the heavier side of the band’s sound. I cannot recommend these two releases enough.

WOVENHAND can be found on the web at
http://www.myspace.com/wovenhand


DISCOGRAPHY

Blush Music - 2003
Woven Hand - 2003
Consider The Birds - 2004
Mosaic - 2006
Ten Stones - 2008

Thanks

Dave W (White Hills)

30 Sept 2009

Unholy Trinity tour




Introducing the Unholy Trinity tour:

Three bands
Three nights
Three cities

-------------------------
TEETH OF THE SEA
GNOD
THOUGHT FORMS
-------------------------

Friday 20 November
London
Jamboree
(Thames House, 566 Cable Street, Limehouse, E1W 3HB)

Saturday 21 November
Bristol
The Louisiana
(Bathurst Parade, Wapping Road, BS1 4RH)

Sunday 22 November
Manchester
Islington Mill
(James Street, Salford, M3 5HW)


28 Sept 2009

Rocket Probes September 2009 Playlist



White HillsDead
(Great to hear new material, their first for our friends at Thrill Jockey, includes great remix of Oceans of Sound)

Expo 70 – White Ohms
(Really nice spacey drone)

Eternal Tapestry – The Invisible Landscapes
(New album, this time on fave label Not Not Fun. Another great slice of jammed out psych, first track especially has some amazing fuzz wah over kraut’ish rhythms)

Oneida – Live at the Croft 19.08.09
(Our friend Gaz recorded the show for us, sounds great, by all accounts their best show of the UK tour)

Loop – World in your Eyes /Gilded Eternity
(Even though Loop have never really left the Rocket record player, it’s nice to hear all these tracks and new versions together, especially the 3 discs of WIYE, which includes their fantastic cover of Cinnamon Girl)

AR and Machines – Echo
(Finally managed to track this album from 1972 down, we love their first album, but this follow up is even better, a spectacular mix of spaced out kraut rock)

Pink Fairies – Finland Freakout
(Awesome live recording of the Fairies as a power trio in ‘71)

Kraftwerk
K4 Bremen Radio 1971
(The briefly active NEU!/Kraftwerk hybrid jamming out some Kraut improvisations. Occasional flourishes of flute and electronics are scattered amidst five long chunks of Kosmiche rock)

Dark Yoga
Breath of Life
(Sunburned Hand of the Man inspired sprawling psychedelic krautrock, free fuzz jams)

Brain Eno
Here Come the Warm Jets
(Members of Roxy Music, King Crimson, Hawkwind, Matching Mole, and The Pink Fairies entering a journey through the edges of pop and rock)

Sunburned Hand of the Man Fire Escape
(Mechanical rhythms darting over and under washes of feedback and distortion)

16 Sept 2009

Teeth of the Sea - OFFSET Festival live Reviews







Photos are courtesy of Tom Medwell

http://www.tommedwell.com
http://www.sluttyfringe.com


Enjoying the last of the afternoon sun, we head to the ECC Stage to catch the excellently-named Teeth Of The Sea. All melodic-but-very-loud instrumentals, TOTS propel their eardrum-shaving noise with a hypnotic floor tom, entrancing the whole tent with tunes from their debut record Orphaned by The Ocean. (Musoguide)
Saturday, and Teeth of the Sea kick things off with size 14's. Volatile guitars and trumpets conjure murky ambience which circles and stalks until striking - all rabid eyes, stabbing drums; the elegance of Mogwai infuriated by BNP-strength amphetamines. We watch entranced, fretting for the guitarist's diet. (Spoonfed)
Shifting over a stage, Teeth Of The Sea celebrate finishing a recent mini-tour of the UK with Oneida by delivering a face-melting set of deep psych. Gut-rumbling bass, dual-drumming, mariachi trumpets, moustache wax and a guitarist who looks like he's been beamed in from an Iron Maiden fan convention (MOJO later spots him sporting a pair of Maiden branded trainers) - if you like a bit of third eye action with your early evening falafel you could do a lot worse. (MOJO)
http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2009/09/freak_fests_4_offset_festival.html

http://www.befotography.com/


Johnny O Rocket on the Decks



With the target zone vectors locked in Johnny blows the moon dust of his vinyl for an explosive auditory journey through space and time.

Players FM Mix.m3u (Streaming mp3)
Players FM Mix.mp3 (128kbps mp3 download 40MB)

Enjoy (it's by no means professional)

15 Sept 2009

Send us pics of Rocket shirts

Send us pics of yourself or anyone you are stalking wearing a Rocket shirt and we will post them up on a blog..and you never know, if any are creative there may be a prize in it!!

Here are some we got already:



The MKII guys (www.claptonisgood.com) and some twat in the middle



Billy Fuller from Fuzz against Junk and Beak> kicking back at this years Green Man


Fat bobby going vintage Rocket

E-mail your pics to rocketrecordings@yahoo.co.uk

We still have a ltd amount of big Muff shirts left..so get one now before they are all gone....

Johnny O's Lightshow - Oneida live at The London Garage Photo's







Some really cool photo's of the 'O'(s) by Valerio Berdini www.liveon35mm.com

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2009/09/oneida-the-garage-london-180809/

14 Sept 2009

The Heads support Mudhoney and release Ltd live album in shops today




The Heads will be sharing Big Muff peddles with the mighty Mudhoney at the following shows:

October 9th / Croft / Bristol (with Big Naturals)
October 10th / Woodhouse Liberal Club / Leeds (Mudhoney)
October 11th / Koko / London (Mudhoney)

Also, out today in your local record shop is the ltd live LP version of their amazing set at Roadburn festival in 2008.

Plus, on another Heads news, we at Rocket are at the initial stages on putting together the 3rd instalment in our Sessions series, we hope this should be ready for release hopefully by this time next year...so watch this space

10 Sept 2009

LTD NOTORIOUS HI-FI KILLERS T-shirts





Limited edition NOTORIOUS HI-FI KILLERS "Pyramid" t-shirts

Designed and hand printed in Budapest by FREEDOOM (www.myspace.com/freedoom777).
Available in mens sizes: Small (skinny) / Medium / Large / X-Large
£10.00 + £3.00 P&P worldwide

http://www.noisestar.co.uk/releasesframe.html

2 Sept 2009

Jamie Oliver gives his ‘thumbs-up’ to Teeth of the Sea



Well, I doubt he knows much about it really, but his production company have selected two tracks off the TOTS album ‘Orphaned by the Ocean’ to soundtrack some scenes in his new ‘Jamie’s American Road trip’ series. The episode the tracks are featured on is the one based in Wyoming, which will get its first airing on September 8th...

Lets hope it is soundtracking the making of a Rocket Salad...(sorry!!)


1 Sept 2009

Beak> Video Footage

Beak> Iron Acton - Recording Session from Mintonfilm on Vimeo.


Friend's of Rocket, Invada Records have uploaded a new promo video for one of their signings: Beak> ( view above)

http://vimeo.com/channels/beak

Click on the link to view some extra footage of each band members other bands which include Fuzz Against Junk live at Resonance FM filmed by the O.

check it out!

Rocket Probes August 2009 Playlist



Gnod/White Hills - Drop Out (track title only)
(Unreleased track omitted from the CDR of the same name - plumming driving kraut jaunt, soon to be released on Rocket)

Gnod - The Somnambulist's Tale
(50min hypnotic percussive groove)

FI– Paradise Out Here
(Some really good wigged out Heads/Hawkwind’esque tracks on here, especially Om21, 20 mins of heavy fuzz repetitive bliss)

Chris Zebby – My Ancestors
(Amazing fuzz induced primitive Afro punk)

Lard Free – I’m Around about Midnight
(Really good Kraut/Heldon sounding psych rock)

Warhammer 48K – An Ethereal Oracle
(Took a few listens to appreciate how good this is, repetitive psych meets doom and 80’s US hardcore from members/friends of Cave)

Coil – Black Antlers
(Head spinning psychedelic electronica)

Moon Duo – Love on the Sea
(More great Velvet Underground repetitive psych from these Shjips)

Indian Jewelry - Invasive Exotics
(Fractured electronica, krautrock repetition, Butthole Surfers unruly psych-punk workouts)

Warm Digits - Myspace tracks
(They say:
like Can wrestling Zombie Nation in a lift with the Chemical Brothers 'Setting Sun' necking pills in the background and Lightning Bolt refereeing the melee - make your own mind up)

Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit / He Miss Road
(Tony Allen!!!)