London 8 October 2014 Jex Thoth are one of the names heralded as part of the new occult rock boom that has spawned so many great bands like Blood Ceremony and Jess And The Ancient Ones. They have produced two amazing albums; the last, Blood Moon Rise, was released last year. So it’s quite odd that the band is back for their second series of UK dates with […]
Gary Parsons
259 posts
London 3 October 2014 I had forgotten what a large space The Roundhouse is — it really is quite big. For me it will always be the venue of psychedelic bands, The Pink Fairies, Man, Hawkwind and The Doors all played here and I always have the feeling that the venues walls are soaked with incense and patchouli oil. Those walls were certainly echoing tonight with the sound […]
Verlag System To reach the stars and beyond, to travel into infinite space alone in the cosmos… MKM’s Ad Astra Per Aspera is . It creates beauty but also, like a black hole, swallows planets whole. “Terry” is a noise-laden cosmic freakout over a kind of motorik beat that makes it hang together but somehow transcends it into an air of melancholy within its groove. “Retorn Al Planeta Imaginari” […]
Electrowerkz, London 25 September 2014 I had not been to see anything at Electrowerkz for a very long time; in fact so long, I initially forgot where it was, and so was surprised that the place had changed very little over the years. One thing that has improved though was the sound in the venue, and both acts tonight have a wonderful clear sound that penetrates deep into […]
El Paraiso On the four planets that orbit their warm star, a few hundred terran colonists have built their new homes, pioneers, lost thousands of light-years away from the home world… Causa Sui is the sound of molten rock on a far away world, of lava streams and eruptions that spout their waste high above the atmosphere of these almost dead worlds out into the cold reaches of […]
All Saints I first became aware of Jon Hassell’s work mainly through collaborations with artists such as Brian Eno on the Possible Musics album and with his work with David Sylvian on Brilliant Trees onwards. City: Works of Fiction are three intertwining albums that has Hassell stretch his palette in many different directions but still remaining in very much art house territory. The first album is Original Fiction. […]
Corsica Studios, London 12 July 2014 It was the day of the flying ants. The humidity in London was building and it felt like a storm was about to break any minute. Before hitting the venue I went to the local pub to have a beer and cool down after the heat of London transport. People who sat outside were being assailed by ants and for a brief […]
London 18 June 2014 Acid King are one of the few US bands to tour the UK/Europe every year, even when there is no new product to promote. Lori S, Joey Osbourne and Mark Lamb seem to get off on being on the road bringing their own brand of biker/doom/sludge to the ears of their followers where ever they may be. The Underworld is its usual dank self, […]
London 13 June 14 It is summertime and in Britain the early morning mist drifts across fields and clings to the roots of trees. Tents are erected and the dowdy colours of winter are a thing of the past as the children of the rainbow appear from forests and their various hiding places to worship the sun, to enjoy the abundance of nature around them. And the music […]
Editions Mego In the past couple of years or so there has been a resurgence in synthesizer music, with more and more titles being released every month by various labels. Most of the work I have heard has been of a high quality and is generally packaged well. Many of these albums make use of, and note on their sleeves, old analogue synthesizers to create these sounds. John […]
London 6 May 2014 I was hypnotized and I made a wish to be the slave of Satan. My desire was so strong that I could get easily persuaded… Let the conjurations begin! Or at the very least an evening of fine music. The steps down into the darkened caverns of The Borderline seem quite apt for an evening of occult rock and I soon took my place […]
The Black Heart, The Underworld, The Electric Ballroom London 26-27 April 2014 Desertfest is an event that takes place over three venues in three days. It is a sprawling monster that is there to bludgeon the ears of its attendees as much as possible with every conceivable manner of riff to be explored. This was my first experience of the festival, and I have to say it was […]
Sound of Cobra (LP)/Paradigms (CD) No-one would have believed that in the first years of the 21st century that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space… Easterfaust is The Cosmic Dead’s 12” vinyl, two track wig out to spiral galaxies via doses of Krautrock and good old space rock. The vinyl comes in glorious coloured loveliness with some artwork that wouldn’t have been out […]
Rural Isolation Project One of the great things about writing for Freq sometimes is that you get to hear some artists or albums you may not have stumbled across before. Quttinirpaaq is one of those artists. This LP comes on beautiful limited-edition coloured vinyl and is housed in a remarkable witch house-looking sleeve with an insert that hints of industrial music of old. It’s a feast for the […]
Island Space is the place, and this is where The Orb seemed to come from 25 years ago when the first single hit the racks in 1989; it was like a message from the nether regions of deep space. “A Huge Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre of the Ultraworld” mixed Tangerine Dream kosmische with Eno’s ambience but still with a hint of the dancefloor at […]
Sulatron Whoa! Let’s get things straight from the start – this is psychedelic music, pure and simple. . Both Papir and Electric Moon have a way of playing that turns your brain to mulch and then kicks it out of your head towards a multi-coloured sun. This meeting of fried minds on the edge could really only produce one type of music and that is bloody great slabs […]
London 28 December 2013 So who would have believed all those years ago that a small British label focusing mainly on doom music would last all this time? But by the time I went to the last anniversary show a few years back at the ULU it was obvious then that the scene had grown and the blood lust for this type of music hadn’t abated. In the […]
Instrumentarium I love vinyl. There is something about it, lifting the needle and placing it down on a record seems real. That slight crackle of the run on groove, that wonderful analogue warmth that breathes from the speakers, the music’s cold hard digital heart taken away. So it was nice to be sent a real piece of proper lovely vinyl to review from a band local to me, […]