The movie Soylent Green was released in 1973 and offers a dystopian view of the future, set in our current year, 2022. (Spoilers ahead) In Soylent Green’s vision of 2022, the world is overpopulated with a permanent heat wave from greenhouse gases. The Soylent company controls the food supply and they start producing a “miracle food” that they claim is made from plankton but as Charlton Heston discovers, it’s really made from human beings. In other words things get so bad by 2022 that cannibalism becomes the order of the day. As Tony Sokol points out in Den of Geek, Soylent Green did anticipate some of the darker features of our current world: face coverings, meat substitutes, climate change. Cannibalism, though? I don’t know, we’re not quite there yet but who knows? Anyway, in our timeline 2022 is already starting off with great psychedelia. All of the tracks in this episode have been released in the last month.
00:00 Turn Me On Dead Man – Intro
00:19 Solilians – Old Schmeckled Hen
06:13 Lamp of the Universe – Return as Light
10:49 Clyde Von Klaus – Concede
13:40 Turn Me On Dead Man – Break
15:12 Ogua – Waves
24:03 Waylon Thornton – Blown Princes
26:11 Barbican Estate – The Divine Image
31:01 Elephant Stone – La fusée du chagrin
34:40 Los Árboles – Bebe Jesús
38:55 Thee Tabs – Carrier Pigeons
41:27 Parker Sprout – Milk in the Sun
44:02 Monte Meteoro – Contra
50:41 Aeon – Five
53:23 io audio recordings – Awaiting The Elliptical Drift
| Solilians – Old Schmeckled Hen [from In the Running 2: Solilians – American Klezmische, released January 10, 2022] |
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on you while recording American Klezmische?
S: We like to think of Solilians songs (structured improvisations) on American Klezmische as the love child of Stereolab, Dirty Three and The Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music. That said, on the car ride down to the recording session in Maryland (from New York), the primary band we listened to was The Necks (‘Drive By,’ ‘Athenaeum,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Aether’ and ‘(Chemist) Abillera’). Also in the mix driving down were Harmonia, The Klezmatics, Alice Coltrane, Can, Adam Hurt, The Fall, Pharaoh’s Daughter, Charley Patton, Neu!, Morphine, The Cracow Klezmer Band, Burning Spear, Shalom Ireland, Yasmin Williams, New Zion Trio with Cyro, Slowdive and Tony Conrad with Faust. Again though, if there is one strongest influence on this particular session, ironically it is neither American music, nor Klezmer nor Kosmische, but rather The Necks, an Australian band..
TMODM: What’s next for you?
S: We’re working with I Heart Noise on the physical release of American Klezmische, which will most likely be a conjunction/compilation of a few digital releases from I Heart Noise (In the Running 1, 2, and 3, all on one release), to come out late Winter/early Spring of 2022. We’re also hoping to do a small tour when the pandemic simmers, culminating at the second I Heart Noise Fest. And finally (ultimately) we’re trying to make the world a better place, spread beauty, love and understanding, and celebrate all things psychedelic & weird.
| Lamp of the Universe – Return as Light [from The Akashic Field, released January 11, 2022] |
I corresponded with Craig WIlliamson of Lamp of the Universe
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on you while recording The Akashic Field?
CW: The strongest influence on the album would’ve been as the title suggests, the Akashic Field, to try and take in all influences… that I can comprehend that is… past, present, future, musically. To have as less of a limitation as possible.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
CW: The plan would be to, in the future, continue this way and to write with maybe that in mind… hence the beginning of a more complete encompassing of what I’m influenced by.
| Clyde Von Klaus – Concede [from Moonbeams, released December 17, 2021] |
I corresponded with Joshua Ernewein
TMODM: Why did you relocate to Hutto, Texas?
JE: Moved to Texas because of a job transfer opportunity and to finally leave my hometown with my family.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
JE: well there’s a lot of those but a few key ones would be
Danzig 1
dinosaur jr- you’re living all over me
Soundgarden- louder than love.
I could go on for days.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
JE: Next for me is to just keep making more music as often as possible. Eventually I’d like to put a band together but I’m enjoying the creative process alone for now.
| Ogua – Waves [from Luminescent, released January 09, 2022] |
| Waylon Thornton – Blown Princes [from Gargoyle?, released January 10, 2022] |
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Gargoyle?
WT: Isolation. Spending a lot of time in my own head, drinking too much coffee, and reading a lot of Richard Brautigan informed this batch of songs.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
WT: Off the top of my head I’d say Syd Barrett’s Madcap Laughs or Surfer Rosa by the Pixies
TMODM: What’s next for you?
WT: There’s a follow up to Gargoyle? in the works, songs written at the same time but I decided to break them up and pace myself a little. I also run a cassette label called Floating Skull and will be releasing more from Florida based artists this year, so check it out!
| Barbican Estate – The Divine Image [from Way Down East, released December 23, 2021] |
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Way Down East?
BE: Way Down East is most influenced by silent films from 1920’s. This title is from D•W•Griffith’s movie and this song arrangement is very conceptual like these classic films
TMODM: What record changed your life?
BE: Pink Floyd “Ummagumma” changed my life. My father had this album and sometimes he listened it. When I was a child, I couldn’t understand why he was listening it. But after I went to Pompeii for my university class, I could find out how great this album is and I started to make a music after this experience.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
BE: Next I will make new songs and want to make a new album!
| Elephant Stone – La fusée du chagrin [from Le voyage de M. Lonely dans la lune, releases February 18, 2022] |
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Le voyage de M. Lonely dans la lune?
ES: Jacques Dutronc
TMODM: What record changed your life?
ES: Beatles Revolver
TMODM: What’s next for you?
ES: Record a new full length album (in English)
| Los Árboles – Bebe Jesús [from Lo Que Es, released December 25, 2021] |
TMODM: Lo Que Es is a hypnotic album. What had the strongest influence on you while you were recording it?
LA: Our strongest influences while recording the album were drugs, space and distortion.
TMODM: What record changed your life? What’s Next for you?
LA: Neither of us can think of a life changing record but as far as what’s next for us we have a couple ideas we’re working on right now, some of them are kraut some of them are more punk-ish, hopefully we get to record and release them soon.
| Thee Tabs – Carrier Pigeons [from Supersonic Scarecrow, released January 10, 2022] |
| Parker Sprout – Milk in the Sun [from Milk in the Sun, releases January 28, 2022] |
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Milk in the Sun?
PS: I had a strong urge to create during this time. I was about to become a dad and had a lot of emotions swirling around and needed to capture their feelings. I also worked alone and this was very influential, I trusted my gut.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
PS: Hard to pick one but I think I can pick 3: 1. Vintage Violence by John Cale 2. Beaches and Canyons by Black Dice 3. Allegory & Self by Psychic TV
TMODM: What’s next for you?
PS: Maybe I’ll make a full length, not sure. I’m enjoying life and spending time with my family. I’ll be in Hawaii for awhile and might try to make some music while I’m there.
| Monte Meteoro – Contra [from Ser Vivo, releases March 02, 2022] |
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Ser Vivo?
MM: We tried to approach this creative phase in a free and exploratory way. As a result of such experimentation, we came up with themes derived from the daily friction between the entitlement of the self vs the everyone else’s ideas. This visceral struggle brought us the idea that all live beings apparently experience a certain struggle as they attempt to survive, hence we named it ‘Ser Vivo’ which means ‘Live Being’ in Spanish.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
MM: For this one, everyone picked up an album:
Joseph – Heathen Chemistry by Oasis
Trigos – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles
Mauro – Untitled by Tera Melos
Abraham – White Pony by Deftones
TMODM: What’s next for you?
MM: Hopefully some gigs! We are releasing a new video for ‘Donde No Duele Nada’ during February. Then on March, we are having a party to release Ser Vivo with some other great bands from around here, and we are planning a tour to Ciudad de México and Puebla, to promote the album.
Aside from that, we are already working on what could be the third album. It is currently under the pre-production phase, we already have a bunch of songs thrown in the pool and we are trying to have some fun with them. Hopefully, we will have some news regarding this during the second half of the year!
| Aeon – Five [from Flower Shower, released January 04, 2022] |
I corresponded with Kieran Watson
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Flower shower?
KW: It’s a close call between the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Spacemen 3 and a little bit of Paul McCartney in the early 70s when he gets all lo fi and sloppy.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
KW: Duster – Contemporary Movement. Released in 2000, it had a huge influence on our approach to production and engineering. It made us realise we could record songs ourselves, and aesthetically had an immeasurable effect on our sound even if it isn’t obvious at first. Its delicate, mysterious and uniquely uplifting.
| io audio recordings – Awaiting The Elliptical Drift [from Awaiting The Elliptical Drift, released January 01, 2022] |
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Awaiting The Elliptical Drift?
ioar: I don’t know that I could say there is any one thing that has the strongest influence on Elliptical Drift. None of this stuff comes across in any sort of directly conscious way beyond “I feel like writing more of a rock tune” or “I feel like making a weird track”. It’s very much based on feeling to the point that even if I go into a track with a desire to make it a certain way, it often doesn’t end up that way because I just kind of follow the flow.
I’ve built up so many influences over time that I think they’ve kind of all melted together and are very intuitive at this point.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
ioar: Oh man… so many records have had a profound influence on me. I will say that Loop’s “Spinning” EP was the 1st record I acquired where I felt like it was exactly what I had been looking for years up to that point. But that really didn’t change my life or really even my musical outlook. It just matched up to the musical outlook I had at the time. I think Slint’s “Spiderland” changed my musical outlook. I think Mercury Rev’s “Yerself Is Steam” and Kraftwerk’s “Computer World” changed my outlook on music production (for very different reasons obviously). I could talk about this topic forever…
TMODM: What’s next for you?
ioar: What’s next? Well… I plan to continue making music and making special packages to put them in and I just try to get better at doing those things as well as finding new and interesting ways to put that stuff forward.
I will say that musically my current goals are two-fold. First I want to get another full length album out… hopefully on vinyl. Second I’ve had the desire to do a more ambient/drone release as well, but we will see. I have some ideas for interesting presentations of such material but first and foremost I just want to get a new full length out and I’d like to have that out sooner rather than later. We will see… I always say that and yet these things always take me much more time than I’d like.