photo by Gerry Dollso

As Slomatics‘ guitarist Chris Couzens will attest, the perfect curry is a labour of time lovingly lavished, which, when combined with diligent preparation, shall bring forth it’s just rewards…

I first encountered the sleeve artwork for Slomatics’ previous vinyl foray, ‘Estron‘ somewhere around the tail-end of 2014 – following a tip-off from my long suffering hairdresser Norah, who as it turns out, is a mutual friend of Slomatics’ drummer and vocalist, Marty Harvey.

The transcendent artwork by Tony Roberts, captivated and whisked me back to a youth, spent pouring over the pages of sci-fi fantastical landscapes, penned by Chris Foss and Roger Dean.

“Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a box set, and for my sins, Cardinal Fuzz gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice collection, and when it was over, I wanted another one”…

Please forgive my paraphrasing of this classic line, but what can you do when you have a game-changing release to contend with?!?  Such has been my absolute immersion in all things The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol, that though my soul tells me my initial contact, “seems a thousand centuries ago”, cold hard logic suggests it was actually with the release of the 2nd press of ‘Pathfinder’, around the tail end of 2014. All thanks to the Cardinal himself, Dave Cambridge.

I confess to having been out of the loop, to the latest machinations in the solo world of Blixa Bargeld. This then, the second album release in 3 years, to feature a collaboration with Teho Teardo, comes as a welcome reaffirmation.

photo by Kris Tsai

Hurricane Heart Attacks – their elegantly expressive sobriquet, is borrowed from the track of the same name by The Warlocks.

These Argentine “Psychedelic/Folk/Space Rock” minstrels see their first vinyl outing, courtesy of Atlanta Indie label Scotch Recordings, Incredible Machine is a fitting follow-up to their 2012 CD debut, ‘Hurricane Love’.

As the band themselves express, “A sea of ​​electric guitars six twelve strings take over the speakers, the batteries come forward and organs Farfisa embrace this new chapter of the band-enhanced imagery inspired by the endless visions and vanishing points of the roads and busy routes to achieve the increasingly tempestuous encounter I craved. The journey begins”…

image by Eselchefafoto

Through the wonder that is the Facebook Activity Log, it transpires that I first shared ‘African Spacecraft‘ by (The) Lay Llamas back in March of 2014. Interestingly, it turns out that just a few weeks later I also shared the track ‘We Are You‘, then streaming on the Italian Webzine ‘sonofmarketing‘ – a Webzine on which since February of this year, I am proud to now be collaborating.