Turn Me On, Dead Man returns to the one-hour format as the year winds down. My pace has slowed in recent weeks as everyone in my household has been sick at one time or another. It seems like I’ve been sick the longest–my whole body is sore from coughing. This episode is divided into three parts. The first part is recent psych, followed by notable reissues and closing with extended tracks.
| time | artist | title |
|---|---|---|
| 00:21 | Worn Robot | Meet Again |
| 02:38 | Kamel Toast | Mödest Man |
| 06:27 | Shit The Cow | Everybody |
| 10:54 | NOON | Longa Nahawand |
| 14:09 | The Violet Mindfield | Tell Me |
| 16:36 | Shredd | Feel It |
| 20:08 | Zezzoze | Escape |
| 24:03 | Upupayāma | Más |
| 30:12 | Gong | Mystic Sister – Magick Brother |
| 35:56 | A Place To Bury Strangers | It Is Nothing |
| 38:51 | Zone Six | Full Mental Jacket |
| 48:34 | Death Trip | The Comedown |
Turn Me On, Dead Man 2022 Podcasts
#AcidRock #Alternative #ArabicJazz #ArtRock #Doom #Eastern #Electronica #Experimental #Fusion #Fuzz #GarageRock #Grunge #HardRock #Heavy #Improvisation #IndieRock #Lo-Fi #Meditation #MiddleEastern #Post-punk #Psych #Psychedelic #PsychedelicRock #Punk #Shoegaze #SpaceRock #Stoner #StonerRock #Surf #Trance #World
One thing I’ve noticed is that more music that gets lumped into the “World” genre is often citing psychedelia as an influence, and that’s the case with NOON, from Dubai. As they say in their liner notes, “up front is the sound of the oud, the most typical international marker of all things Middle Eastern” accompanied by electric bass and drums. Rounding out the opening set we’ll hear the latest single from the Violet Mindfield and a few tracks from European bands.
The second set consists of a couple of notable reissues. A Place to Bury Strangers released a deluxe reissue of their 2009 album Exploding Head and I’ll be playing the opening track from that album. But first I’m going to play the opening track from the 1969 Gong album Magick Brother, which was released on the French jazz label BYG Records. Daevid Allen and his partner Gilli Smith were involved in the student protests that took place in Paris in 1968 which delayed the release of Gong’s debut album. Listening to this album now makes me wonder whether that revolutionary spirit still exists. I mean, it seems to always be present but perhaps waiting for the right combination of circumstances.
There are several figures, particularly in Europe, that are prolific and involved in a lot of different projects. An example of that is Dave Schmidt who is in Zone Six and Sula Bassana, among others, and he owns Sulatron Records, I’ll be playing a Zone Six track in the final set. The show closes with “The Comedown” from the Winnipeg band Death Trip.
The drops in this episode come from John Candy’s character in the 1991 Oliver Stone film JFK. Candy played the hipster lawyer Dean Andrews in a memorable performance. As I mentioned I’ve been under the weather lately and started working on this episode before November 22nd, which is the anniversary of the the JFK assassination. So it’s taken me a while to post this one.
⦾ Worn Robot – Meet Again (from Checkered Blessings, release date: February 25, 2023, original release: December 1, 2022)
Worn Robot is from Ottawa, Ontario. All instruments, vocals, recording, by Cory Cox. Artwork taken from J.R.R Tolkien diagrams. Meet Again was originally released on Stoned Hymns, which was recorded in November, 2022, in Ottawa, and released shortly after that. Worn Robot later released this track on the album Checkered Blessings.
⦾ Kamel Toast – Mödest Man (from Proper Milling, release date: November 12, 2022)
Kamel Toast is from Helsinki, Finland.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Proper Milling?
Atte: Life
Joni: To have a good time
Ossi: Goblin – Suspiria soundtrack
Joona: Kummeli
TMODM: What record changed your lives?
Atte: The Best Air Guitar Album in the World… Ever!
Joona: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Soundtrack
Ossi: Cypress Hill – Live at the Fillmore
Joni: It’s impossible to name just one record so I’ll go with a band. It would be Faith No More.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
KT: Gigs and make more Kikkelröll for the sake of Kikkelröll!
TMODM: So what’s Kikkelröll? Could you provide a description?
KT: Not a comprehensive description but Kikkelrölli is what we play! The long description would involve prolific musicians and artists, wasabinuts, fish sticks and a sauna, just for starters.
⦾ Shit The Cow – Everybody (from Slaktgrop, release date: November 28, 2022)
Shit The Cow makes scrapyard rock in a small cabin in northern Sweden. It´s the sound of an old rusty truck crashing in to a tree.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Slaktgrop?
STC: For this recording session we went on a strict Black Sabbath diet and focused on the sound of Masters of Reality. Don’t know how much of that you can hear in Everybody, but that is s bit of how we work. We focus on one thing and then end up doing something different. Also influenced by the fact that the band has been divided by an ocean during the pandemic.
TMODM: What record changed your lives?
STC: Very different for the different members. For me its Unmasked by Kiss. Erik would say Rika Barn Leka bäst by Swedish punk legends KSMB (he hates Kiss) and Daniel would say Back in Black. And that last one is probably the one we could agree on as a group.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
STC: Next thing is always a bit unclear With the cow until days before it happens. But the ambition is to record the next album in the Californian desert sometime next year.
⦾ NOON – Longa Nahawand (from Odyssey, release date: November 18, 2022)
NOON is based in Dubai, UAE, with members:
Mohammed Hosny (oud/vocals, composition)
Steven Bedford (bass/electronics, arrangement)
Ratish Chadha (drums/percussion, arrangement)
From Bandcamp:
NOON’s highly anticipated debut album is finally here.
2 years in the making, the World/Jazz-fusion power trio release an 8 track album (all tracks available upon purchase) with guests like Grammy nominated percussionist, Weedie Braimah, hammered dulcimer specialist, Max ZT, NYC based keyboardist/producer, Adam Ahuja – amongst others!
NOON are the kind of band you might expect, or rather hope, to encounter in the UAE – an audio approximation of the Emirates’ cluttered cosmopolitanism and contemporary, borderless ethos.
Made up of three players, drawn from different cultural and musical backgrounds, the instrumental trio bravely embody, and certainly enliven, the hackneyed idea of East/West musical fusions. They’ve shared stages with the likes of Ron Holloway from Dizzy Gillespie’s quintet, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Weedie Braimah as well as Michael League from Snarky Puppy/Bokanté.
Up front is the sound of the oud, the most typical international marker of all things Middle Eastern. But sonically framed by electric bass and drums – and freed by the improvisatory impulses of jazz – NOON’s collective sound is distinctly global. Shades of funk groove, African and Indian percussive rhythms and electronic effects pepper this sonic stew. They call it “experimental Oriental.”
I corresponded with Ratish, bandleader/founder of NOON.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Odyssey?
RC: I think the multiculturalism aspect of the city/country we live in (Dubai, U.A.E) along with our individual voice stemming from our respective countries (India, Egypt & England) is truly what the strongest element was in terms of an influence. We wanted our sound to reflect the Middle Eastern subculture.
TMODM: What record changed your lives?
RC: I think as a band we have been very inspired by Snarky Puppy’s record ‘We Like It Here’ but there are traditional greats from Egypt like Oum Kalthoum or from India like Ravi Shankar and the band Shakti, or even the roots of underground UK Electronica like Mala and his record ‘Mala in Cuba’ – these have all had a major influence on our musical paths.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
RC: We have started working on our second record and already the few new songs we have composed are presenting themselves to be our best work yet. We are excited for what’s ahead and hope that our sound finds its way into the hearts of many music lovers from all over the world.
⦾ The Violet Mindfield – Tell Me (from Tell Me / Moonlight Love, release date: November 25, 2022)
The Violet Mindfield is a five piece, 60’s inspired, American, Garage/Surf/Psych/Bedroom/Acid Folk/Lo-fi/among other things/Rock’n Roll band, based in and around the Inland Empire of Southern California. The group consists of John Duran (lead vocals/guitar), Harry Parr (drums/backing vocals), Sean Mcbreen (bass), Clifton Weaver (organ/percussion/guitar) and Victor Salazar (guitar/backing vocals). In 2021 I corresponded with John Duran.
TMODM: How does the place you live — your city, landscape, music scene — feed into the music you make?
JD: We live in the Inland Empire of Southern California. It’s a bit of a wasteland. I think that generally causes us to look elsewhere for inspiration, either geographically, back in time or inward. Contrary to the general order of things our new soon to be released record “California Burning” has geographics playing more of a role. It was written during the covid lockdown with riots and wildfires all going on at the same time in California.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
JD: Sgt. Pepper changed my life when I was 12.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
JD: The next big thing for us is “California Burning” which features “Stranger In The Mirror” it’ll be our second vinyl LP and our first on Outro Records.
⦾ Shredd – Feel It (from The Place Unknown, release date: October 13, 2022)
Shredd are a psychedelic garage rock band from Glasgow, Scotland.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on The Place Unknown?
Shredd: Each song on the album is influenced by different things as they’re all different in their own way. In terms of bands that influenced the album, we were listening to a lot of Biffy Clyro, Frankie & The Witch Fingers, Ty Segall and Foals around the time. The songs themselves come from generally wanting to write a riff or instrumental that sounds massive in a live situation, then we take it from there and form a full song.
TMODM: What record changed your lives?
Shredd: We’d probably all answer this question differently as individuals, but as for the band as a whole Ty Segall’s ‘Manipulator’ album inspired Harv to want to be in a band like Shredd. In many ways it was the introduction to garage and psychedelic music for Mark and Calum, the band sound has grown arms and legs since those early days, but that album still rings true as one that made us want to do this band.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Shredd: We’ve always been a band that thrive playing live and the songs take on a whole other life at a live show, so now that we’re finally getting to release our debut album, we just want to gig as much as possible over the next year and take ‘The Place Unknown’ to as many as people as possible!
⦾ Zezzoze – Escape (from Escape, release date: November 1, 2022)
Zezzoze is based in Bergen, Norway. Established 2017 with roots in art rock, shoegaze, black metal, ambient and psychedelic rock.
TMODM: What has had the strongest influence on your music?
Zezzoze: Zezzoze is strongly influenced by the sound of the sea, heart arrhythmias, the general human body, cats, the feeling of being eaten by history and the memory of those lost and loved.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
Zezzoze: I’m still looking for something that powerful. Artworks that truly change your life in any profound and meaningful way should be rare. Music is so emotional, and emotions are contingent and in a constant flux. In this sense, I guess either I’m still looking for the one or I am too soon to blush.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Zezzoze: Slow living through the arctic winter. Writing and reading. Will be releasing music with different projects, including some folk, voidgaze/shoegaze and electronic ambient. I tend to focus is on the creative act, while manifestation being only secondary. There might be some local venues in the coming.
⦾ Upupayāma – Más (from The Golden Pond, release date: November 4, 2022)
Upupayāma is the musical persona of Alessio Ferrari, an Italian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who lives in a small mountain village above the city of Parma. Upupayāma’s music is rooted strongly in Eastern and Western folk traditions, an approach that Ferrari blends with his own modern sensibilities and style. In addition to playing guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums, Ferrari himself also incorporates a number of other instruments into his sound, including sitar, erhu, flute, and a variety of percussion instruments. Earlier this year Ferrari put together a group of musicians to help him deliver his live vision of Upupayāma. They made their debut in Rome in May, and they will play a couple of shows in advance of the album being released. Both dates will be October, one in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland and the other in Esslingen, Germany. Plans to tour throughout Europe in the spring of 2023 are currently in the works.
TMODM: What are you currently working on?
Upupayāma: I’m currently working, together with my bandmates and El Borracho Booking, to finish organising the European tour that will take place between March and April, and meanwhile i’m working on the third album. It won’t be a proper album, but more a collection of songs from the era of the first self-titled album, undeveloped songs, ‘notes’ of sounds, drafts that i haven’t put my hands to for a long time.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Upupayāma: As i told you, the European tour in March and April, then hopefully some festivals this summer. And then i definitely want to finish the ‘third album’ by the first half of 2023. In this 2023 i’d also like to play in the UK, we’ll see. Tomorrow never knows…
⦾ Gong – Mystic Sister – Magick Brother (from Magick Brother, release date: January 27, 2023, original release: 1969)
From Bandcamp: Having been part of the fabled ‘Canterbury scene’ along with luminaries such as Robert Wyatt and Pip Pyle the irrepressible Australian guitarist-vocalist-songwriter Daevid Allen formed Gong with Welsh vocalist Gilli Smyth in Paris at the end of the ‘60s as France was in state of ferment. The pair actually had to exit France and take refuge in Majorca after falling foul of the authorities and finding themselves subject to an arrest warrant. Following their return to Paris in the summer of 1969 at the instigation of film director Jérome Laperrousaz, for whom they cut a soundtrack, Allen and Smyth were asked to record once again by Jean Karakos of BYG, the label formed by himself, Jean-Luc Young and Fernand Boruso. With the addition of French saxophonist Didier Malherbe, bass guitarist Christian Tritsch and drummer Rachid Houari Gong was born in earnest and waxed Magick Brother before going on to make an appearance at the Actuel festival in Amougies, Belgium. Although Tritsch couldn’t make the studio session, jazz double bassists Barre Phillips and Earl Freeman and pianist Burton Greene – all of whom released fine albums on BYG – contributed to several tracks. Magick Brother introduced Gong as one of the great oddities of the psychedelic and space rock age. The nucleus of Allen, Smyth and Malherbe was able to create a musical vocabulary very much of its own all the while searching for essential metaphysical truths. “The band made strong political statements that comes through loud and clear on this re-mastered version of Gong’s debut album…” Kevin Le Gendre, 2022. Original 1969 BYG album remastered from original BYG tapes. Expanded with 2 original single-version tracks. High definition digital audio 44.1kHz 24bit wav.
⦾ A Place To Bury Strangers – It Is Nothing (from Exploding Head (2022 Deluxe Reissue), release date: October 21, 2022, original release: 2009)
From Bandcamp: “Recorded at their Death By Audio studios in New York and released on Mute Records in 2009, Exploding Head was critically praised for its explorative sound, taking inspiration from shoegaze icons such as Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. The album has now been digitally remastered by Oliver Ackermann and is presented in three formats; Deluxe 2LP (Limited Edition Indie Exclusive), 2CD Deluxe & 1LP Standard.”
⦾ Zone Six – Full Mental Jacket (from Full Mental Jacket, release date: November 4, 2022)
Zone Six was founded in 1997 by Dave Schmidt (aka Sula Bassana) together with his Liquid Visions pals Hans-Peter Ringholz and Claus Bühler. Zone Six are one of the first impro-bands of the Krautrock revival. Always evolving… Now the crew consists of Sula plus Pablo Carneval (Electric Moon) and Manuel Wohlrab (Yanos).
TMODM: What are you working on now? What’s next for you?
DS: I will release a split LP in March, by Speck and Interkosmos. And more in the pipeline. More gigs next year too, also by Sula Bassana (with band now!). And I have a new band now, 1 gig so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8Soakdehmc
⦾ Death Trip – The Comedown (from Mount Doom, release date: November 12, 2022)
Death Trip is a heavy psych, stoner rock, doom blues band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Will Neufeld (Drums) Julian Kelly (Guitar) Hayden Siemens (Bass)
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Mount Doom?
DT: Covid lockdowns, long winters & weed.
TMODM: What record changed your lives?
DT: Black Sabbath’s debut self titled album from 1970 (how original I know) & more recently our friends in Heavy Trip releasing a record a couple years ago that made us realize we could do it too.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
DT: Hoping to get a Canadian tour together as soon as we can to promote the record and currently in the writing process to record a follow up album.