ninehertz

A round up of nine recent releases in bitesize review form...

There’s so much going on we’re already back for another roundup, once again brimming with talent and noise. Stylistically it is all over the shop, so let’s start off with a trilogy of releases from within our comfort zone of doom before we venture out into the weirder wilds…

…and how better to begin than with Wildweed, telling a supernatural story of KGB Officers and arcane legends in the woods, through the medium of Electric Wizard charged doom. Their Cattle Burial Ground album is lathered in a deliciously thick and devilishly doom tone that feels familiar, but through the vocals (ghostly and screamy), dips into denser sludge realms and even a Deliverance-styled swampy banjo interlude, create enough of an impression to stand out.

Saltbuck, from London, are of similar ilk, perhaps a little sludgier and nastier. Their second album, Gorb, is out on Sludgelord Records and delves into the corrosive side of doom, a little like Bile Caster, although perhaps not quite so bleak. At its best the riffs drip with a humid, sticky sludge tone. There's even a sludge version of Nailbomb feel to third track Naught. It's a gritty album of despair.

The ever-reliable Fiadh Productions bring us Orodrim, from Austin, and their black metal/doom hybrid Thantocracy, with its brilliant cover art. There are four long tracks plus an acoustic interlude and the sound plays with the varying tempos of their two chosen genres, mixing it up within songs in interesting ways. The vocals are grainy and hoarse, and there are incredible anti-war, anti-racism samples found within. Second song, the excellently titled Beyond Orwellian is perhaps the best – slow, moody doom occasionally unshackled by blackened surges rabidly trying to break free.

Bringing it down a little, we head into stoner and psych worlds for the next triumvirate.

To Massachusetts’ Buzzard first, and blues rock from the world of stoner/doom, with their album Everything is Not Going to Be Alright. It’s hard not to like this album – a concoction of occult doom, country twang and blues stories, with a left-wing anger fuelling the lyrics. As it laments their world “since 2024” of ICE, the FBI, factory farms and fascism, you’re routing for them, there with them but also wanting to pass on hope, no matter how unrealistic and optimistic that may be, that maybe it will get better, that we can build together through our common love of this music. It is the sound of a blues rock troubadour fighting the good fight – left-wing and doom-bent.

Down in Argentina, F9’s Falso EP was a happy chance find on bandcamp, full of kooky moments and odd genre bending. There are common threads of stoner rock and driving noise-rock, all patched together with a cool slacker punk energy tainted by psychedelic waters. There are indie elements and even a mathy edge at times. I get distracted by the second track’s exact resemblance to The Inbetweeners theme song (one for the UK readers only I guess), but on the whole this is a ten-minute bout of weirdness, fun and individuality. I look forward to hearing more from them.

The Cyclist Conspiracy have been confounding ears for a while now, and the Serbian collective return on Subsound Records with Back to Hermetics and Martial Arts Vol. 1. They seem to have become stranger, their psychedelia taken in newer, more surprising directions than before. There are throat-singing vocals, the vague essence of jazz intruding here and there, a western twang at one point like spaghetti blues. Add in Eastern mystical vibes, a track of keyboard ambience that turns to smoky room jazz blues later on – as you can no doubt tell, this is an odyssey of ideas all within a broad and tangible psych aura.

And now for our final trio which, try as I might, I can’t find a common thread between, so they’re my odds and sods. In the most loving interpretation of that term of course.

To Montana, to find Minot, who emailed us links to their new double A side single release Wall//People, which I instantly loved – and whilst I couldn’t get a full review out of two tracks, I really wanted an avenue to shout about it, so here we are. It’s a nice break from the doom and gloom of the usual listening fare I subject upon myself, providing an instant warming approach through garage punk, 60s psych pop and riot grrrl all combined. It reminds me of a generationally-bridging combo of Velvet Underground and Sleater Kinney. The first track’s lo-fi nature is charming, and the second track revs up with a coating of fuzz Mudhoney would look enviously upon. I was listening to their back catalogue as soon as this ended.

Back in the UK, a grindcore split out on Road to Masochist shatters that brief ray of light. On one side we have the excellent Thumbsucker, a band I first knew of when seeing them live in April (they were excellent), providing nine tracks of two-piece hardcore/grindcore mayhem, which is riotous fun. And on the reverse we find the increasingly legendary Atomçk, and it’s perfect in every second, the grind blast, their distinctive vocal delivery, everything is spot on. This is how splits should be.

And we end with the onomatopoeic named Kling Klang (featuring members of Part Chimp), with their Wrong Speed Records release Half Life. How do you even start to describe this? Grand space pop synth prog? Perhaps through an anecdote – I’m one song in and I’m questioning whether they’ve just synthesised O Come Let Us Adore Him, but the thought then comes that its tripped out psychedelic potions have got into my synapses and I’m imagining things already. It is robotic krautrock psych, sometimes sounding like a 60s commercial, others a haunted fairground carousel. Other notes I made – “a happy Dr Who sound”, “like an 8-bit Air” and then, right at the end, vocals and guitars arrive, and while I don’t want to sound too desperate for their appearance, it’s really good. The whole album is unusual in several different ways – it is an intoxicating ride.