31 Dec 2017

Rocket Probes – December Playlist



Mamuthones – Fear on the corner
(Incredible new Mamuthones album – our first release of our 20th year...the title hints to the Talking Heads/Miles Davis psyched out, mash-up that you will find within the LPs grooves)

Gnod (R&D) – Vol 1
(Great ltd tape release on Tesla – the first outing by Gnod (R&D))
Gnod (R&D)

Lonker See – Split Image
(Our obsession with the current stunning Polish underground scene continues)
Lonker See 

Richard Dawson – Peasent
(Deservedly high-up in many end of year lists...produced by Sam Grant from Pigsx7 in his Blank Studios, and Mat and John from Pigsx7 are play his live band)
Richard Dawson

Lotto – VV
(Further excursions into the beauty of repetition from Poland)
Lotto

Tomaga – Memory In Vivo Exposure
(Loving this latest EP from the Tomaga, their best release yet)
Tomaga

Faine Jade – Peoples Games Play
(Guitarist from Hills turned us on to this rhythmic 60s kaleidoscopic pop song)
Faine Jade

Rûwâhîne - Ifriqiyya Electrique
(Doomy, trance inducing sufi rhythms from south Tunisia – discovered from The Quietus's end of year round-up, which is an essential guide to the worlds best and most exciting new music)
Rûwâhîne

Nicole Mitchell – Egoes War / Forestwall Timewalk 
(Two great tracks of fuzzed jazz fusion)
Nicole Mitchell 

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Murder Of The Universe
(Progged out craziness from the Gizzard)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Jibóia – Manasha
(Baba Yaga’s Anthony played this on his NTS show, we loved Jibóia last album but didn’t know this)
Jibóia

Elias Al Rahbani - La Dance De Nadia
(Killer Turkish groove turned onto by the great people behind Tales of Voodoo)
Elias Al Rahbani 

No Mightier Creatures – No Mightier Creatures
(Ex Serpentina Satelite frontman's self released debut album now on vinyl)
No Mightier Creatures

Saagara – 2
(More amazing repetitive jazz from Poland)
Saagara

Brown Spirits - Optokinetic response
(‘Cave’ like repetitive minimal rock)
Brown Spirits 

Carlos Casas – Pyramid of Skulls
(Hands in the Dark got us into this great release of experimental noise repetitions)
Carlos Casas

Malayeen – Samia
(Another amazing track from Baba Yaga’s NTS show…proper psyched out grooves)
Malayeen

UUUU – UUUU
(Great new album to finish the year with, a fully immersive listen)
UUUU

Listen to our updated monthly Rocket Probs Spotify mix:



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30 Dec 2017

Six Rocket albums in Echoes and Dusts Albums of the Year round-up


Good ol' E&D liked a few Rocket Releases this year:

Record of the year:
No.6 / Gnod – Just Say No...
No.21 / Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Feed the rats

Doom/Sludge albums of the year:

No.4 / Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Feed the rats

Psych/Stoner Rock albums of the year:
No.1 / Gnod – Just Say No...
No.3 / Hey Colossus – The Guillotine
No.5 / Julie’s Haircut – Invocation And Ritual  Dance Of My Demon Twin
No.6 / Gnoomes – Tschak!
No.19 / Flowers Must Die – Kompost

See the full rundown here: E&D

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29 Dec 2017

Mamuthones on the cover of Rumore Magazine


Nice to see Mamuthones 
mentioned on the Rumore Magazine cover for their 'Bands to Watch in 2018' issue.

Mamuthones new album Fear on the Corner is available to preorder on Ltd vinyl now: Rocket Shop

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28 Dec 2017

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs in The Guardian's bands to watch in 2018


They say:

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

The Newcastle band with the best name in the UK right now were clasped to the bosom of the psych scene in 2016, thanks to their giant, Sabbath-level cosmic riffs – and could end up creating the kind of swaggering anthems that sent Queens of the Stone Age and Royal Blood into the big time. They might be 17 minutes long though.

See the full list here: The Guardian

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Listen to debut track by Bettan – the solo project by Flowers Must Die's Lisa


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Three Russian shows for Gnoomes starts tonight


Gnoomes are ending 2017 with a local show tonight and starting 2018 with two other shows in their hoe country of Russia:

28/12 'FESTIVAL HOUSE', PERM
02/01 'MICHURIN', PERM
14/01 'STARY NOVY ROCK' FEST, YELTSIN CENTRE, YEKATERINBURG

And don't forget Gnoomes are coming over to the UK for our Rocket Twenty show in March:
Tickets

Photo by: @eugeny_demshin

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Rai Radio 1, GQ and more give Julie's Haircut their end of year thumbs-up


Even more Italian love for Julie’s Haircut's 'Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin' album:

No.9 in Rai Radio 1 Stereo Notte  rundown
Listen to live set the band did for the station here: Live 

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No.10 in GQ
For me they never made a record wrong.
But for some years now they have started to improve every time.

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No.5 in L'Indiependente 
The Julie's Haircut are back with an important work, which marks the transition to the British label Rocket Recordings. The disk looks like a sort of ascending climax: it starts with dark and anxiogenic melodies, and as you go on, the tracks become brighter and more peaceful. Just try to listen to the first track Zukunft (totally instrumental track almost 12 minutes long) and immediately after the last Koan, you will surely notice the profound difference in colors emanating from the two pieces and it will be almost like teleporting within a second from a cold and dark place to another much warmer and more enlightened. If instead you want to enjoy the progressive changes of sound of Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin, you should definitely listen to it in full: the transition from night to day, the dawn of this album, will hit you.

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And the album features in Radio Cittadel Capo  DJ's albums of the year

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Don't forget the band are playing our RocketTwenty event in March.
Tickets

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22 Dec 2017

Thanks for 2017...bring on 2018


Thank you for all your support in 2017!

To celebrate an amazing year for Rocket Recordings, we have put together a special little playlist of a selection of tracks we released in 2017.

Listen to the 14 track compilation above

2018 our 'twentieth year' is looking like to be our biggest ever year with some quite truly amazing releases to share with you. And don't forget to buy a ticket for our Anniversary event at the Garage next year. It is going to be a very special three days and we really want to share it with all our Rocket fans, far and wide.

Tickets can be bought from here: Alttickets



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Panthersan makes Hey Colossus their No.1 album of the year



It reads:

My number one record is also my biggest surprise of the year. I’ve been buying and listening to Hey Colossus since their debut way back in 2004. Along the way they developed into a staple of awkward underground noise rock that was never less than crushingly heavy and chaotically dissonant, with vocals mumbled, screamed and pushed to the back of the mix. It was a big shock then, when I got The Guillotine home (I picked up a copy in Brighton on a super short stayover in the summer) and found….well, not exactly a straight ahead rock record, but as damn close to one as HC are ever going to get. The crushing riffs are still there, but the vocals are right to the fore and there are even verses and choruses and everything. The chaos of old is still there, but it is reigned in and kept bubbling just below the surface to let the songwriting and lyrics come through. A great British rock record for modern times.

See the top 3 here: Panthersan

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Teeth of the Sea to DJ at Baba Yaga's Eve of New Years Eve celebration – stage times revealed


Stage time for the event are:

Room 1
Henge - 9:30 - 10:00
Taman Shud - 10:30 - 11:00
Melting Hand - 11:45 - 12:30
The Cosmic Dead 1:15 - 2:15
Plus Teeth of the Sea DJ's in between all the acts and til 4:00

Room 2
Mighty Lord Deathman - 10:00 - 10:30
Aja - 11:00 - 11:45
John Doran (DJ) 11:45 - 12:30
Tomaga - 12:30 - 1:15
John Doran (DJ) - 1:15 - 2:00 
UKAEA (Cult Possession Ritual) 2:00 - 3:00

Tickets

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Goat to play Helsinki show


Goat's shows in 2018are going to be few, and after their recently announced show in Gothenburg supporting Foo Fighters and of course their show at the Rocket Twenty event (Tickets) the band have now announced a headline show in Helsinki on 3rd February.

Info/tickets

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More End Of Year love for Julie’s Haircut – Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin


No.2 in Impatto Sonoro



No.7 in Tony Face
The seventh album of the Emilia band sanctioned a further step towards hyperspace, a place they have often frequented. But in this case they go even further with eight tracks in which they renew the concept of psychedelic, understood as an artistic expression without boundaries, in which sounds, sensations, moods, vibrations converge. We find mixed and superimposed avant-garde, (free) jazz, pulsating rhythms, kraut rock in its most varied declinations (from Neu! Ai Can) to compose a unique sound, personal, distinctive.

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Sveriges Radio puts Flowers Must Die into their Festive 50


Sveriges Radio has put the Flowers Must Die track Don't you leave me now into their Festive 50 tracks of the year!


They say (roughly translated):


50. Flowers Must Die - Do not You Leave Me Now Flowers Must Die continues to produce cosmic jams for patient ears. The music has sprung out of the German squirrel and paints in an improvised dance. And instead of whistled flowers, Do not You Leave Me Now feels more like a well-managed discount.

Listen here: Sveriges Radio


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Hey Colossus – The Guillotine in Metal Hammers Albums and Tracks of the Year


Great to see Hey Colossus at Number 100 in Metal Hammers albums of the year!

See the full list here: Metal Hammer

And 94 in their Tracks of the year, see here: Metal Hammer

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19 Dec 2017

GNOD and Shit & Shine in Quietus Tracks of the year


Amazing to see:

GNOD – Stick in the Wheel
at No. 11

"GNOD's commitment to exposing the harsh and the grim in society is equally persistent through their music – these aren't 'sweet', harmonically pleasing pop songs; they are a 'horrible sound,’ something not exactly unexpected if you are already familiar with their previous albums." Lottie Brazier



Shit & Shine – That's Enough
at No. 31

"A Scud missile of wrongness blasted straight into my prostate gland." John Doran



See the full rundown here: The Quietus
Image by: Douglas Coupland

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Julie's Haircut making a splash in more End of Year Polls


Julie’s Haircut – Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin has been recognised as being an album of the year here:

No.2 in Get Into This
+
No.37 / Gnoomes – Tschak!
No.66 / Hey Colossus – The Guillotine
No.79 / GNOD – Just Say No 



No.5 in L'Indiependente



No.8 on Radio Kaos Italy

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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (+ very special guest) to play The Quietus Fundraiser at The Lexington


Tickets: Wegottickets

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15 Dec 2017

Listen to exclusive new GOAT track on the short movie 'Killing Gävle'


Goat were approached by film maker Joe Fletcher to write a track for his short film called Killing Gävle.

The band obliged and wrote quite possibly their best ever track, entitled 'Let it Burn'.

Goats music is present throughout the whole film but it is at the stories climax at 16:20 when you will hear a short edit of the track 'Let it Burn'.

You can watch the film in all it's glory exclusively over at The Guardian now: The Guardian.

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Info about the film:

In Sweden, the goat traditionally pulls Santa's sleigh and has come to symbolise Christmas. Gävle's businesses believe the square effigy brings both local families and tourists to the city, boosting the economy. But other people in the dark forests surrounding the city hold a different view. Their traditions date back to pre-Christian times, when Swedish people worshipped Norse gods – including the goat Heidrun, the goddess of enlightenment, and Thor, the god of thunder, who rode two goats. Each night he would burn and eat them, only for them to be reborn the following morning to pull his his chariot once more.

The pagans believe that the Christians of Gävle unknowingly build this giant statue to the Norse gods, so each Christmas they must try to burn it down before the end of the year, ensuring the return of the sun and another good year of harvests.

So each year, the people of Gävle corral around the goat, protecting its Christmas symbolism from the pagan outsiders who make their way to the square to try to burn the goat down.

Info about the writer/director:

JOE FLETCHER
Studied film at The Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia before moving to LA to become the self help guru Buck Sterling for the pilot of his uncomisioned C4 series Pro$perathon.

Now as a filmmaker and DJ he makes documentaries about the strange and wonderful worlds, stories and musicians that his every growing record collection reveals to him.

His first feature American B-Side is the story of his heartbroken 2001 crate-digging journey across the American South discovering the incredibly bizarre life stories of forgotten, amateur musicians, (including Christian Ventriloquists, Amputee Fiddlers and Anti-Evolution rock and rollers). It won best Cinematography at Chicago International last year and is about to go to market with Bedlam Productions. To accompany the film he made a series of radio shows about some of the musicians for BBC World Service, this was also broadcast on Radio 4.

For the last 9 years he has run a giant cruise ship stage at Glastonbury Festival which nightly sails its party goers to exotic musical shores.

Next up are two feature docs both of which will be coproduced by his new Barcelona production company Simulacra. The first is the strange, poignant story of a suitcase full of body parts that washed ashore beside a lake in Austria in 2015 and the other, filmed in The Congo, follows the pupils of a school housed in the ruins of former President Mobutu’s jungle palace as they learn and perform Macbeth.

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14 Dec 2017

More band additions, DJs and visuals announced for Rocket Recordings Twenty


We are pleased to announce the last additions to the Rocket Recordings Twentieth Anniversary event at The Garage in London on 9-11 March:

Bonnacons of Doom
VED
H.U.M
+
DJs: 
Nothing is... (Cherrystones/Jamie Paton/Mike Keeling/Chris Reeder)
Teeth of The Sea
Gnoomes
+
Visuals:
John O’Carroll / Sam Wiehl 

Buy Tickets


Bonnacons of Doom
We are happy to reveal that Rocket Recordings are going to be releasing Bonnacons of Doom’s debut album in 2018. So to celebrate this impending union the Liverpool collective will bring their unique take on rhythmic heavy psych to our birthday celebration. This elusive and constantly evolving collective harness the ritualistic and cathartic power of repetition, monstrous riffs and squalls of atonal noise. Blending vocals ranging from hypnotic mantras to explosive psychic outbursts with brutal rhythmic pummeling and glacial electronics, the Bonnacons have been making waves in the UK underground through a series of explosive festival shows and site-specific performances. 



VED
With 3 albums, 2 EPs and a compilation on labels like Höga Nord and Adrian Recordings already behind them, Ved are the latest addition from the amazing and fruitful Swedish scene to join the Rocket event. The 5 piece who create trance inducing, repetitive psych with genre hoping global influences have recorded a killer new EP that Rocket will also be releasing in 2018. It is a stunning record and one we can’t keep off the Rocket stereo - their live set is definitely going to be one not to miss. One for all you Instant Classic, Joshua Abrams and Bitchin Bajas fans.



H.U.M
H and Uiutna  from French (formally Bristol) label Zam Zam and London artist Mark Wagner make up the three piece that is H.U.M. Rocket released the trio’s debut album in 2016 and we are ecstatic they they have agreed to come together and play a very rare live show at the Rocket event. Expect organic grooves, electronic drones, static noise and skewed, psychedelic rap. Another Rocket band determined not to tread paths already trodden and to push sounds into new places.

Plus

Nothing is...
A London based collective that includes:
Cherrystones – the UK DJ legend (also known as Godsy to many) whose taste and knowledge in jaw dropping music is second to none.
Jamie Paton – the regular Rocket remixer (Goat/Gnod/Teeth of the Sea etc) and one half of Cage and Aviary has released his unique take on wonky, cosmic grooves via prestigious labels like Höga Nord, DFA amongst many others.
Mike Keeling – also known as ‘Little Dirty’ is the man behind the great NTS show ‘Music to Ease your Disease’. Expect everything from spiritual jazz to ambient noise, to heavy psychedelic techno and everything inbetween, before and after.
Chris Reeder – one half of Rocket Recordings, Chris was the man who put the ‘Nothing is...’ collective together for their 4 year residency at Dalstons Alibi.

Other DJs
Also happy to announce that Teeth of the Sea and Gnoomes will be taking over the role of entertaining you with their music choices during the weekend, with some other DJ surprises still to come.

John O’Carroll & Sam Wiehl visuals
A Rocket event wouldn’t be complete without visuals! And Rocket’s very own Johnny O who cut his teeth being the main ‘flapping lens man’ for The Heads and subsequently bands like Beak (and most the Rocket roster) is joining forces with Sam Wiehl  - the audiovisual wizard behind Liverpool Psych Festival's mind expanding visuals. This is the first time these two have collaborated and what an exciting prospect that is.



So the final line up of #RocketTwenty now looks like this:

Goat – Gnod – Josefin Öhrn – Hills – Teeth of the Sea – Hey Colossus – Anthroprophh – Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Temple Ov BBV – Julie's Haircut – Housewives – Gum Takes Tooth – Gnoomes – Flowers Must Die – VED – Kuro – Mamuthones – Bonnacons of Doom – H.U.M – Negra Branca – Dwellings – AHRKH – Ayn Sof – Coldnose – Mike Bourne – Nothing is...(Cherrystones/Jamie Paton/Mike Keeling/Chris Reeder) – John O’Carroll & Sam Wiehl visuals

We will be announcing day splits in late January as well as a ltd number of day tickets. But to guarantee entree into this one-off celebration of some of the best and most interesting bands in the so-called world of ‘psych’ right now, you better buy your weekend tickets now.

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13 Dec 2017

Skinny reviews Gnod (R&D) Live in Glasgow


It reads:

Remember the good old days, mate?” barks sardonic Gnod vocalist Paddy Shine over a din of frenzied drums and warped electronics. He illuminates: “these are the good old days.” Gnod aren’t a group too concerned with their own immediate past. 

Last time the Salford lot were this far north, they were visibly buzzing off the release of their foaming drone rock mouthful Just Say No to the Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine – so much so that the explosive chaos of their set at Glasgow’s Flying Duck seemed to detonate their interest in rock entirely, leaving a fertile clearing for the group’s next incarnation. This time around, Shine and Gnod co-founder Chris Haslam have shed a few 'Gnodheads' to bring their exploratory project on the road as a two-piece – having also acquired two percussionists somewhere along the way – but you could hardly call the results stripped-back...

Read the full review here: The Skinny

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Listen to 'Your Escapism' – a Rocket 2017 playlist




To celebrate an amazing year for Rocket Recordings, we have put together a special little playlist of a selection of tracks we released in 2017.

Listen to the 14 track compilation above

Thank you for all your support in 2017, and 2018 our 'twentieth year' is looking like to be our biggest ever year with some quite truly amazing releases to share with you.

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Atom Heart Mutha Interviews Gnoomes


Atom Heart Mutha asked Gnoomes some questions about one of their AlHM's Albums of the Year.

It reads:

Atom Heart Mutha...Albums of the Year 2017. Gnoomes - Tschak!

Its great to catch up with you! How are you all? 

Hi John! Great to hear from you, and big thanks again for putting us into your top 10 albums of this year!
We're all good here, our line-up has changed slightly: no dismissals, but a reinforcement. Our vocalist swapped the bass for the guitar, while Masha, our tour-manager, took his place on the bass! We're really excited about this. Looking forward to showing people how it’s sounding.

How has 2017 been for Gnoomes? 

It’s been a great year for the band. We’d say it was the most productive year we’ve ever had yet. First of all, we released our second album ‘Tschak!’ via Rocket Recordings on the March 10th. Secondly, we’d been touring over Switzerland and the UK with this album. Thirdly, there were a few amazing collaborations with the great musicians such as Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, Julie’s Haircut etc. This finally led to a remix album where all tracks from ‘Tschak!’ have been reworked by extraordinary people. It has been released on the December 1st and you can buy a limited tape or the digital version via our Bandcamp page...

Read the full piece here: Atom Heart Mutha

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Julie's Haircut and Mamuthones play Berlin Rocket Recordings Night


On their way to the Rocket Recordings Twenty Weekender (tickets here) Julie's Haircut and Mamuthones are stopping off in Berlin for a special Rocket Recordings night:

Urban Spree & el borracho berlin gigs present:
06.03.2018
Rocket Recordings Label Mates with:
Julie's Haircut + Mamuthones

Einlass: 19:00 I Beginn: 20:00
8,00€ / 10,00€ 

Info and tickets: Urban Spree

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More Rocket albums in End of Year charts


The amount of end of year lists featuring Rocket bands keeps growing.
We are extremely Flattered!!

Here are some more:

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Flowers Must Die – Kompost
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Feed the Rats
Both in Raven Sings the Blues AotY list
Raven Sings the Blues 
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Julie’s Haircut – Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin 
No.2 on Reversa Indie
Reversa Indie

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Gnod – Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine
No.1 on writers chart and No.14 in the overall Gaffa chart
Gaffa

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Shit & Shine – That's Enough
in Fuzzy Sun AotY list
Fuzzy Sun

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Flowers Must Die – Kompost
No 10
Julie’s Haircut – Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin 
No 13 – both in the Kosmiche chart on Fast n' Bulbous
Fast n' Bulbous

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Temple Ov BBV and Gnoomes play Manchester


Info and tickets: Beauty Witch

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11 Dec 2017

Pre-order Your limited Edition Mamuthones - Fear On The Corner Vinyl & CD






















Pre-order limited edition Mamuthones -  Fear On The Corner Vinyl & CD:

As revealed here last week, February 2018 see's the release of Mamuthones - Fear on The Corner album.

Both Vinyl & CD are available in a very limited editions.

The vinyl album is housed in a full colour sleeve with added spot varnish effects (both sides), hot pink inside the main sleeve, then full colour inner sleeve and lastly Green & Pink 50/50 Coloured Vinyl, whats not to love?

The CD is also housed in a full colour sleeve, hot pink inside the main sleeve, then full colour inner sleeve.

You can listen/watch the video of he 1st track Show Me

And Pre-order from our store: Store

The band also will be playing The Rocket Recordings TWENTY 20th Anniversary weekender next year, weekend tickets available here: alttickets

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The Quietus Best Psych-Rock of 2017 - Featuring Flowers Must Die at Number 1 & Pigsx7 Number 6





Many thanks to JR Moores at great The Quietus regular 'Columnfortably Numb' Psych column as they put Flowers Must Die - Kompost  Psych Album of the Year and also includes Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Feed The Rats at number 6.

The Quietus:
Columnfortably Numb: The Best Psych-Rock Of 2017 

 1. Flowers Must Die - Kompost

Writing about Kompost back in the springtime, I was tempted to say that if you only buy one psych-rock record this year then you should make it this. Have I revised my opinion? Don't think so. (Although again it needs to be stressed that you should be buying loads and loads of psych-rock records per annum, obviously. After all, those green splattered tri-coloured vinyls aren't going to purchase themselves. Oops, I just pluralised 'vinyl'. Call the psych police!) The power of this very rich record doesn't diminish with each occasion that it’s spun. New elements reveal themselves while familiar elements continue to thrill. Having just checked, it also has a running length that's slightly shorter than I thought and I always love a record that can make time itself go all squiffy. Seeing the Swedish collective perform at the close of Birmingham's Supersonic Festival in June was the icing on my kaleidoscopic cake. Flowers Must Not Die And Must Continue Rocking My Luminous Sandals Off Please.

6. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Feed The Rats

Pigs might fly but can they roar? And can they roar for 15 minutes at a time without it getting remotely tedious? These seven can. They're not really seven pigs but a group of humans from the Northeast. If you like Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Hawkwind, Sleep and being trapped in a headlock by a man who's covered in sludge and wearing a Pumbaa mask, this'll be right up your street.

Read the full Quietus Best Psych-Rock albums of 2017 list here: The Quietus

Order your copy here: Store

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7 Dec 2017

Introducing 'Fear On The Corner' – the new album by Mamuthones

 
We are very excited to reveal a new album by Italian four piece Mamuthones – the album is called Fear On The Corner and is released on 23 February 2018 worldwide.


You can check out the first track to be revealed 'Show Me' via the above video made by Rocket's own Johnny O.

See what The Quietus have to say about it here:  The Quietus


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Steam / Buy Digital: 

Spotify: https://smarturl.it/FearontheCornerSpoti
Apple Music: http://smarturl.it/FearontheCornerApple


Pre-order:
For Limited Vinyl & CD copies you can preorder the album on Pink and Green 50/50 split coloured LP (660 copies) or Mini Gatefold CD (500 copies):  Bandcamp 


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The press release reads:

“The songs deal with fear. Fear of the present, of human situations, fear of the new political situation, fear of political decisions being taken from other people’s fear, but also fear of relationship breakdown, fear of being alone or fear of being together with the wrong people, fear of not finding “a place in the world”, personal fear and obsession, fear of fear itself”.
 

So reckons Alessio Gastaldello, founder member of Mamuthones, who may have originally taken their name from the death-masks used in rituals in their native Sardinia, and initially emerged from the Italian occult psychedelic movement alongside the likes of Father Murphy, Mai Mai Mai and their labelmates Lay Llamas. Yet now, in the wake of their Rocket Recordings debut album ‘Fear On The Corner’, the band find themselves undergoing a metamorphosis from mystical and ceremonial realms into a direct connection with the everyday, the personal and the political.
 

This vibrant reinvention also sees Mamuthones transcending their roots in Italian prog and soundtrack work, as a steady diet of krautrock and disco has succeeded in shifting their modus operandi firmly in the direction of a distinctly New York-based headspace - a realm of mirrorballs and black-clad basements both. Manifesting an anything-goes sphere of influence whilst tightening up their songwriting from the jam-based explorations of yore, the band have thus created a kaleidoscopic collision of groove-based intrigue and cerebral invention - as adept with infectious hooks as incendiary wig-outs.
 

As Alessio tells it, the band’s set at Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia marked the end of a chapter, and the arrival of new drummer Andrea Davì marking a move into a more groove-based. eclectic style that finds its metier in the realm of two albums which are paid direct homage in the record’s very title - the bleak and kinetic ‘Fear Of Music’ by Talking Heads and the iconoclastic, heat-haze repetition of Miles Davis’ ‘On The Corner’. Charging a propulsive rhythmic drive with a tightness of songwriting that might bring LCD Soundsystem to mind for many, tracks like the cyclical pulse and absurdist poetry of opener ‘Cars’, the kraut-tinged vortex of the title track and the insidiously catchy floor-filler-in-waiting ‘Alone’ are as rich in maverick spirit as they are sonic invention.
 

This is principally an aural landscape whereby the eclectic mischief of ZE Records, the sonic brinksmanship of ‘Tago Mago’ era Can and the dub-tinged grooves of UK turn-of-the-‘80s post-punk can happily form communion in a post-2AM reverie. . Yet the band’s ritualistic beginnings are more than apparent in the closing ‘Here We Are’, in which a twilit tapestry of drone, Latin percussion, mantric recitations and vocal exorcisms builds to a demonic conclusion.
 

“it is a big dance party for very sad events” clarifies Alessio, on the disparity between the serious nature of this record’s subject matter and its distinctly hedonistic atmosphere. “We are a kind of Titanic orchestra playing and dancing while the ship goes down. The party must go on”.

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GNOD feature in The Quietus 'New Weird Britain' Music Round Up of The Year

GNOD feature in The Quietus 'New Weird Britain' Music Round Up of The Year:

'Gnod are many people’s idea of a Quietus Band™, one who often feature on the non-balkanised parts of this website and who local bookmaker Tight-Mouthed Larry is offering tasty odds on placing strongly in the overall EOY list. I nevertheless wish to salute the Salford group’s pissiest and vinegariest album to date in here, because without occasionally being party to how Gnod operate (and party), I’m not certain I’d be sufficiently inspired to write this column. Just Say No...upholds and draws from the legacy of their last two albums for Rocket, out-of-body jazz odyssey Infinity Machines and skullcracking Swans-punker Mirror, via loose-limbed dub-heavy noise rock, withering Fall/Birthday Party character sketches and outstanding 12-minute kissoff ‘Stick In The Wheel’ – half Skingraft Records austere clang, half snakecharmer ambient tinkle. Also noticed a few people who I’m fairly sure have no interest in Gnod’s music use the album sleeve as their Facebook profile pic: the true mark of a successful release'.

Read the full round up here:  New Weird Britain

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Flowers Must Die & Julie's Haircut feature in Top 30 of Italian 'Sentireas Coltare' Albums of the Year

Both Flowers Must Die 'Kompost' (number 8) and Julie's Haircut 'Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin' (number 7) feature in Italian website 'Sentireas Coltare' Albums of the Year 2017.

See their list here: Sentireascoltare 

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Gnoomes feature in Gig Soup Music Top Ten Albums of The Year

We are delighted to say that our Gnoomes album 'Tschak!' features at number 6 in Gig Soup Music writers Top Ten Albums of The Year.

6 Gnoomes ‘Tshak!’

Laid out there still, in Manchester’s Piccadilly Records, is Gnoomes’ weirdo debut: ‘Tschak’. The day I found it, unfortunately, was a day of complete and utter-regret. What a fool I had been to pick Hibushibire’s ‘Freak Out Orgasm’ over this mighty Russian nu-psychedelia record. Oh! My sweet ‘Tschak!, how you have tortured me and how I miss the touch of your tight and sugary embrace. Still, to this day I shamefully forget about you. Hopefully, by seeing this, you will forgive me for my faults and make your way into my caressing nature. I will never forget the time we spent together in that minute store, gazing out upon the wilderness that is the Mancunian City Centre.


Read the full Top Ten here: Gig Soup

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6 Dec 2017

No Mightier Creatures self releases debut album on vinyl


No Mightier Creatures – the new project by Renato from the great Serpentina Satelite has self-pressed his debut album onto vinyl and there are only 250 copies, so be quick if you want one as they won't be around for long.

Buy and listen from here: Bandcamp

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Julie's Haircut get more love in the end of Year charts


Prestigious Italian music magazine Mucchio put Julie’s Haircut's Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin in at number 7 of their yearly round-up, and they said:

Julie’s Haircut – Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin
The 7th album, the first for the english label Rocket recordings (yes, the same as Goat). The psychedelia of the outfit, with the add-on of Laura Agnusdei on sax, points to a dark, cosmic and esoteric reiteration. Krautrock, analogue electronica, free jazz. Instrumental fugues and sinister, mysterious voices. Everything blends into one of the most international and visionary italian albums of the year. The umpteenth precious step in a path ever more important, with no equals.

See more here: Mucchio

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The album also has been included in this Top 20: Sentire Ascoltare

And they said (roughly translated):

Julie’s Haircut 

Cleanse our Christmas spirits from such darkness, we rely on the usual ritual benefits and animists that our Julie's Haircut sign in their first test on Rocket Recordings: their Invocation refers to the usual esoteric instances, clearing the key concepts through a deconstruction of the jazz form (we are in the area-Macerus) and the redundancies of school kraut (dirty word).

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