ALBUM REVIEW: Hifiklub vs. Fatso Jetson & Gary Arce - “Double Quartet Serie #01”

By: Victor Van Ommen

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 27/10/2016

Label: Subsound Records

From tantric grooves to a hypnotic thrust, this double quartet use these seven songs as a vehicle to celebrate artistic freedom. At times, the arrangements can get pretty chaotic, sometimes bordering on a wash of noise, but at others, the album sounds as full as it does sparse and as melodious as it does jarring.

“Double Quartet Serie #01” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. TENDERLOIN VIGNETTE

2. UN GRIBOUILLIS DE LA BEAUTè

3. GLORIOUS WHORES

4. BLACK WITHOUT WHITE

5. SAFE IN PIECES

6. A LA FIN JE L'ESPèRE CALME

7. THE ROCKY ROAD TO HOLINESS

The Review:

Let’s give this band Hifiklub vs. Fatso Jetson and Gary Arcea spin. Admittedly the band’s name is a little too cumbersome to fit neatly on a festival poster but this project will remain just that; a project. These guys don’t seem to have ambitions to branch out and take on the daily grind of being a band, so their name doesn’t really matter. In this case, what matters most is the music – the recorded output - and if you have the time and patience, then please do jump at the opportunity to check this out.

The album’s name is “Double Quartet Serie Volume 1.” Why the double quartet, you ask? Well, that’s because in the left speaker, you’ll hear the four folks from Hifiklubjamming out, and in the right speaker, you’ll hear Gary Arce accompanied by his friends in Fatso Jetson. Needless to say, the music is offered up in layers, sometimes piling three guitars onto a synthesizer, two drummers, and lyric-less vocals. Now let the thought of that sink in for a bit.

From tantric grooves to a hypnotic thrust, this double quartet use these seven songs as a vehicle to celebrate artistic freedom. At times, the arrangements can get pretty chaotic, sometimes bordering on a wash of noise, but at others, the album sounds as full as it does sparse and as melodious as it does jarring. These attributes to the music are explored in ways that seem new to the musicians playing these tunes.

Arce’s guitar is still fluid, but his playing here focuses more on creating atmosphere rather than a melody. The rest of Fatso Jetson put their experimental foot forward, allowing themselves to be taken away in the motorik beats of Hifiklub. It might be hard to imagine Fatso Jetsonplaying along to something so European, bordering on krautrock, but on this album they’re able to rise to the occasion.

Both quartets display that the language of music is international and knows no borders. If the musicians give in to this, then the moment when everything falls into place like Tetris blocks will find you before you find it.

“Double Quartet Serie #01” is available here

Band info: Hifiklub: facebook || Fatso Jetson: facebook || Yawning Man facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Fatso Jetson - "Idle Hands"

By: Victor Van Ommen

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 07/10/2016
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds

Desert Rock debonaires Fatso Jetson fry up riffs and hand out grooves supreme on their sixth album.

“Idle Hands” CD//DD//LP track listing:

track list Vinyl:

A 1 Wire Wheels and Robots
A 2 Portugese Dream
A 3 Royal Family
A 4 The Vincent Letter
A 5 Then and Now
B 1 Last of the Good Times
B 2 Nervous Eater
B 3 48 Hours
B 4 Idle Hands

track list CD:

1 Wire Wheels and Robots
2 Portugese Dream
3 Royal Family
4 Nervous Eater
5 Seroquel
6 Idle Hands
7 Last of the Good Times
8 Then and Now
9 The Vincent Letter
10 48 Hours
11 Dream Homes

The Review:

Desert Rock debonaires Fatso Jetson fry up riffs and hand out grooves supreme on their sixth album. It goes by the name “Idle Hands,” but where the band got this name from is anybody’s guess. It certainly has nothing to do with how Mario and his son Dino twist and turn their way up and down the fret board. Let alone the amazing drum work of the ever present Tony Tornay or how Mario’s cousin, Larry (it’s a family affair), effortlessly handles the four string. If there’s anything to say about this album, it’s that the hands used to craft these songs were anything but idle.

At eleven songs long, the album flirts with the one hour mark. It’s a long sit but it’s one that’s as interesting as it is entertaining. Album opener “Wire, Wheels and Robots” digs its claws in deep with how the guitars spin around each other in chaotic unison. Tornay jumps out of the speakers in “Portugeuse Dreams” until Mario flies off the handle, ranting in his lonesome about hanging out in a cave where he inadvertently ends up summoning demons. He breaks down in such a way that it’s hard not to look. Good thing, too, because at this point we’re only two songs in.

The rest of the album follows suit. At times its temperament is boiling over, at others the songs are inviting you stare out into the serene night sky. There’s a Queens of the Stone Age vibe felt throughout – or do Queenshave a Fatso vibe? – but Fatso Jetson own this by staying true to their underground. By doing so, Mario and his family are allowed to drift off into strange tangents without needing to ask themselves the question “will Clear Channel Radio still wanna play this?” Luckily, we here at The Sludgelorddon’t give a shit about mainstream radio, either. In fact, we love getting on board with these bizarre statements of artistic freedom that we hold up albums like “Idle Hands” as our freak flag and we let it fly proud.

“Idle Hands” is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: Yawning Man - “Historical Graffiti”

By: Victor Van Ommen

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 18/08/2016
Label: Lay Bare Recordings

“Historical Graffiti” is a drug that calms the soul of the listener”

“Historical Graffiti” DD//LP track listing:

1). The Wind Cries Edalyn
2). Her Phantom Finger of Copenhagen
3). Naomi Crayola
4). The Secret Language of Elephants
5). Historical Graffiti

The Review:

This new Yawning Man album, “Historical Graffiti,” has been a long time coming. The last we heard from Gary Arce (Guitar), Mario Lalli (Bass), and Bill Stinson (drums) was in 2010, when they released “Nomadic Pursuits.” That album continued the story that “Vista Point” and “Rock Formations” before it told; life out in the Southern Californian desert is trippy. This happens to be a story we don’t mind hearing time and time again.

“Historical Graffiti” is in many ways a continuation to this story instead of a re-telling of it. That is to say that this album isn’t what we have come to expect from Yawning Man.Yes, the songs are still instrumental, orbiting around Arce’s fluid guitar creations by way of steady drumming and lush bass lines, but there’s more to the band this time. These five songs are excerpts from jams that Yawning Mandid one late night in Buenos Aireswith Sara Ryan, Adolfo Trepiana, and Malene Arce on the violin, bandaneon, and keyboard respectively.

At the album’s core, “Historical Graffiti” is still a Yawning Man album. But it’s the inclusion of these extra musicians – and instruments – that make the band sound freer than ever before. The songs are presumably based on free form jams and according the liner notes, all of the songs were recorded in one night, in one go.

The lazy drum and bass lead-in to the album’s opening track “The Wind Cries Edalyn” immediately sets the tone. Things will be low key this time around. The percussion won’t be hit too hard and the general tempo in the songs will be kept to that of a sunny Sunday afternoon by the swimming pool. Arce, Lalli, and Stinson lead the proceedings, all the while offering Ryan, Trepiana, and Malene plenty of room to dive in swim through the airwaves.

Space is given to each other and space is taken, and there’s not a single moment in which one of these band members feels overlooked. These are jams done by musicians who play with and into each other, feeding off of a desire to get acquainted on a musical level. The dreamy sway of each individual track is proof that these six musicians took their time and enjoyed identifying with each other on this level. After all, this collaboration might a one-off, so why rush things?

Each song is comfortable, like hanging in a tire swing and feeling the cool breeze to blow through your hair. Troubles are forgotten while these songs fade in and out of the jams they came from, calming the heart rate and allowing the mind to drift. There isn’t one song on here that feels rushed. Even in “Naomi Krayoli,” when the album’s groove gets kicked up a notch, there is no push and no finish line, just exploration of the mind and soul using music as a vessel to do so.

The addition of extra instruments wasn’t a necessary step for Yawning Man to take but the results of them taking it are sublime. By expanding their set up, Yawning Man has made an album brimming with spiritual jams that go a long way in helping the listener expand their mind. All of these extra elements and how they have been put to use add depth to the melodies, resulting in a drug that calms the soul of the listener.

“Historical Graffiti” is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

FFO: Fatson Jetson, Desert Sessions, Ten East, Sons of Alpha Centauri