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January 23, 2026

Melting Palms

#Alternative #DreamPop #Neopsychedelia #Shoegaze

The www finds melting glaciers and psychedelic palm-readers when you search for melting palms. That will change. With their second album “Noise Between The Shades”, the “loudest group in Hamburg”, is about to establishing itself internationally as the powerfully euphoric band of the moment. For five years now, the musicians, more of a collective than a band, have been living out their sound dream in this psychedelic, shoegazing Kraut-Punk-Dreampop. What began in 2017 with Mike, Teresa and Johann led to musical and romantic entanglements, a first EP recorded in a construction trailer, their debut album “Abyss” (2020), concerts and endless sessions in their rehearsal basement on Borstelmannweg in the rather rundown area of Hamburg-Hamm, between animal shelters and street prostitution, to the current band line-up with Tim and Lukas. “What unites us all is reverb,” ​​say Melting Palms. “It doesn’t matter which musical corner we come from, there has to be a lot of reverb and delay on the sound, that’s our intersection.” Open tuned guitars and a connection to boundless pop with the earthy stylistic devices of rock do the rest. The fact that Melting Palms not only played concerts with Sugar Candy Mountain, The Underground Youth and Wand despite the pandemic restrictions and have now also released their second album for Hamburg’s style-defining underground label La Pochette Surprise speaks volumes – and is no coincidence. Teresa Koeberle – Guitar, Vocals, Synths Mike Krumhorn – Guitar, Vocals, Ambient Guitars Johann Wientjes – Drums Ilhan Cicek – Guitar, Ambient Guitars Stefan Gretscher – Bass
TMODM: In 2022 I featured “Orchard’s Lie,” and I’ve noticed a similar ethereal thread running through “Echoes.” What feels like a continuation from Noise Between The Shades, and what feels new on Head In The Clouds?

Melting Palms: At Melting Palms, we love music you can completely surrender to — music where you feel suspended and your thoughts can wander. When we are in the rehearsal room and can close our eyes and let the sound carry us, that’s the moment we know it’s working. In a way, that also describes the image of Head In The Clouds quite well.

In keeping with the music, the lyrics are often thoughts, bursts of emotion, and feelings we are processing. What feels new on Head In The Clouds is that we express things a bit more directly, and the songs feel more immediate. Sometimes it even feels like we are returning to the beginnings of our musical journey. On Noise Between The Shades we focused on layered songwriting and more unusual, progressive structures. With the new record we tried to compose the songs in a more direct way and put a stronger emphasis on catchiness.

TMODM: There’s a beautiful tension in your music between density and clarity — walls of sound that still feel melodic and intimate. How do you know when a song has reached the right balance between impact and openness?

Melting Palms: Many of us come from heavier music backgrounds and also play in metal or punk bands, which might explain some of the intensity in our songs. My heart really opens up when melancholic, sometimes sad melodies are combined with powerful intensity.

Especially when we’re describing overwhelming emotions — longing, being left behind, heartbreak, but also warmth or empathy — that connection between contrasting musical elements expresses those feelings very well. Live, the intensity comes across even more. We play with three guitars and a very loud drummer, so I hope that tension really translates.

TMODM: What’s next for Melting Palms?

Melting Palms: Last year two of us — Resi and Johann, our guitarist and drummer — moved to the south of Germany, while the other three of us are still based in Hamburg. That makes getting together a bit more difficult. We can’t play as many shows as we used to, but we try to perform regularly whenever possible.

Songwriting has also become a new kind of challenge. We are currently trying to write new material across the distance. Sometimes we meet either in the south or in Hamburg to work together and develop new songs, and hopefully release new material again soon. We’re excited to see where the journey will take us.

March 13, 2026

Harvey Rushmore & The Octopus

#GarageRock #Krautrock #Psych #Psychedelic #Surf

Harvey Rushmore & the Octopus is a seducing mix of Garage, Surf and Krautrock, including some Psych rushes from the past. From Basel, Switxerland.
TMODM: What were your main reference points on Mindsuckers?

Harvey Rushmore & the Octopus (Massimo Tondini): It all came to me by coincidence. We were watching Scanners by David Cronenberg — quite stoned — and the experience was so intense, funny in a way, slightly scary, and completely over-agitated, that it stuck in my mind.

Not long after, Jacob, our drummer, sent me an incredible modified drum beat. I started experimenting with samples from Scanners, tuned my guitar down, and somehow the riff for Mindsuckers emerged.

At that time I was practicing mindfulness a lot. A big part of it is learning to let things go — not judging thoughts or people and staying present in the moment. But I was also overwhelmed by the political tension, the speed of everything, and the constant flood of disturbing material trying to capture your attention. It felt like the real opponents are all those forces trying to pull your mind away for unhealthy purposes.

Because the news thrives on menacing headlines that trigger your internal danger system, I thought: why not give these mechanisms a trashy name and a face? That’s how we ended up calling them Mindsuckers. That’s how the title track came to life.

TMODM: “Cloud Driver” deals with the slow fading of intense emotions rather than a dramatic rupture. Was that sense of erosion something you were consciously trying to shape musically, or did it emerge naturally as the song developed?

Harvey Rushmore & the Octopus (Massimo Tondini): It’s a very personal song about a love that couldn’t happen because of difficult circumstances. For me, it became a way to process intense emotions using an abstract, poetic concept rather than addressing them directly.

The core metaphor is a palace built too close to the sun — something that feels bright and fulfilling at first, but simply can’t survive in the long run.

Musically, the track creates a dreamy, melancholic atmosphere. It’s driven by a slow, minimal beat and repetitive chord changes that pull you deeper into the mood. That makes it a calm, profound counterpart to the faster garage tracks on the album, which is also why the song holds such personal significance for me.

With Harvey Rushmore & the Octopus, we’ve always experimented with contrasting moods and styles, and this song shows how far we like to explore emotional and atmospheric spaces.

TMODM: You’ve been making music together for a long time. When a song like “Cloud Driver” comes together, how much of the final form is instinctive versus something you work out through discussion and revision?

Harvey Rushmore & the Octopus (Massimo Tondini): This more intimate song grew out of a short demo I recorded myself, and that early sketch already contained the essence of everything that followed. The structure was there, the vocal melody was there, and the distinctive mood — that fragile, atmospheric quality — was already present.

Later we discussed the length and arrangement as a band and refined the lyrics together. The real challenge with songs like this, especially when their beauty lies in a certain raw imperfection, is preserving that original feeling without losing it under too many layers of arrangement or adjustment.

TMODM: What’s next for you?

Harvey Rushmore & the Octopus (Massimo Tondini): We’re planning several concerts in Switzerland and are currently working on a short European tour that will take us to Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Lithuania. We’re really looking forward to playing the new material live and seeing how the new songs work in a concert setting. Harvey Rushmore & the Octopus has always been a band shaped by live performances, and playing on stage remains an important part of how we develop our music.

February 6, 2026

Golden Hours

#Alternative #Experimental #Alternative #Krautrock #PsychedelicRock #Shoegaze

Based between Brussels and Berlin, Golden Hours is comprised of past and present members of Gang Of Four, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Tricky, The Fuzztones and The Third Sound, to name just a few. A band with mileage and stories, they trade in rock’n’roll missives that are at times dark, tense and hypnotic, at others sweaty, relentless and danceable.
TMODM: Beyond Wires was written in rehearsal rooms in Berlin and in an old mansion in Brussels, with that “noisy electric static bleeding into every song.” How much of that atmosphere was something you consciously shaped, and how much did you simply let the rooms imprint themselves onto the record?

Golden Hours: There was no way to control the static or white noise. It’s a big old house on a busy street with trams rolling through, so there was no point fighting it — we just embraced it.

And honestly, that’s very Brussels. The city reminds me of New York in the early eighties or Berlin in 1990 — lots of cool chaos and noise, no rules, all kinds of people everywhere. It’s a big contrast to Berlin or other gentrified, cleaned-up cities that all look the same now. We love Brussels — its energy and vibe — and a lot of artists are moving this way.

The trams passing every twenty minutes shook the whole place and created this low sub rumble. The rooms had high ceilings and wooden floors that gave us a very natural reverb that sounded perfect for the record. We didn’t waste much time trying to eliminate the noise; we let it run its course and become part of the album.

These days there are plugins that add electrical noise for artistic effect — in our case, it was already there, running through the walls of this beautiful house, eager to add its flavor to the record.

TMODM: With two lead vocalists dividing the track list between odd and even numbers, there’s a built-in duality to the album. Did that structure create a sense of contrast between songs, or did it actually deepen the feeling of unity you describe?

Golden Hours: As a singer, there are certain energies and harmonic movements that fit you more than others. There’s hardly been any discussion about it in the band, because it’s always been clear who would sing which song.

In the early stages, Hakon and I leave space to interact with new material in ways that suit our personalities. It was only at the very end, when we were sequencing the album, that it felt natural for us to alternate behind the mic. It created a beautiful dynamic — adding contrast without breaking the unity of the record.

TMODM: What’s next for you?

Golden Hours: We’re going on tour in May with the new album, starting with a show at Fuzz Club Fest — the annual festival organized by our label, Fuzz Club. During the summer we’ll be playing festivals, and probably some more gigs toward the end of the year.

April 10, 2026

Gnod

#Alternative #Drone #Minimal #Psychedelic #Tribal

Gnod are a British rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester, England. Formed in 2006, the band was described in a review of its 2011 release Ingnodwetrust as “a collective from Manchester with an ever-rotating list of members.” Its current lineup since 2012 is made up of key members Paddy Shine, Chris Haslam, Marlene Ribeiro, Alex Macarte and Andy Blundell, with a rotating cast of players, including drummers Jesse Webb and John Perry and vocalist Neil Francis.
TMODM: You mentioned that this trilogy “revealed itself” at Hellfire Studios. Was there a specific moment or track during those six days where you realized you weren’t just making one album, but three?

Gnod: Probably the last day, to be honest. It wasn’t some mystical revelation or anything. We just listened back to everything we had recorded and all agreed it was worth releasing, and that it tied together nicely as a three-volume set.

We also had a lot of music we never got around to recording. The studio setup with Spud Murphy at the helm was very conducive to playing. We had a great live recording setup, which makes a big difference.

TMODM: This first volume seems to balance “pastoral tranquility” with “riff monoliths.” After twenty years, what keeps that minimal-versus-maximal tension exciting for the band?

Gnod: The Gnod sound is constantly shifting and it’s not overthought. Occasionally we fall into certain tropes — like the noise rock thing — because it’s great fun and has crazy live energy.

I’m not sure how to answer your question to be honest, haha. We just play, brother.

February 21, 2026

Eternal Music Society

#FreeFormExpression #Hypnotic #Krautrock #Noise #PsychedelicRock

Eternal Music Society are from Malmö, Sweden. Eternal Music Society is a Swedish supergroup emerging from the fertile experimental scene of Göteborg and Malmö, centered around the visionary Discreet label. The band unites members from some of the most distinctive underground projects of the past decade, Enhet För Fri Musik (Discreet), Skeppet, Frihet, Neutral, Leda (Knotwilg), and Kröppskanedom (Morc) to name a few. Each known for pushing the boundaries of free music, drone, and avant-rock. Together, they form a collective that channels the raw spirit of improvisation into a dense, hypnotic whirlpool of fuzzy noise rock. Their sound revolves around dirty, overdriven guitars, a deeply grooving bass, and relentless, repetitive drum patterns that lock into a trance-like pulse. Twin drummers not only emphasize rhythmic precision but create a subtle, almost psychoacoustic phasing that blurs the line between structure and chaos. Addictive, looping riffs rise and fall like waves, evoking a sense of ecstatic propulsion. In short, cloud-busting psych headbanging for the initiated. Gearing up to the festival, Knotwilg Records will release a limited edition LP by the group, available around February/March 2026. Following their self-released debut 7”, Eternal Return / Impasse (2025), this album promises to capture the band’s immersive live energy in full analog glory. Sofie Herner: Drums Henrik Wallin: Guitar Andreas Malm: Drums Andreas Johansson: Bass
TMODM: Eternal Music Society brings together musicians from several projects within the Göteborg/Malmö experimental scene. Did this band form organically out of that community, or was there a specific idea that brought you together?

Eternal Music Society: The band came together organically in Malmö, where all the members live. Bass player Johansson and drummer Herner had an earlier project, Contemporary Adult Group, and wanted new members to continue playing when two members of CAG left. First guitarist Wallin joined, and then fellow Skeppet member Malm came in as well. Everyone wanted to play some kind of trance-like music.

TMODM: The use of twin drummers creates a natural phasing effect. What does having two drummers allow you to explore that a single drummer wouldn’t?

Eternal Music Society: It gives us a chance to experiment rhythmically. For example, on the track “Unknown Voltage,” the drummers play two different time signatures at the same time. But even when they play the same beat, it accentuates the rhythmic aspect of the music and adds dynamics to the overall sound. It creates the feeling that something is always happening, even when we’re playing a piece where nothing really changes for fifteen minutes.

TMODM: Many members have worked within the Discreet orbit, which seems to document a shared aesthetic across different projects. Does Eternal Music Society feel like a continuation of that language, or something distinct within it?

Eternal Music Society: Everyone has connections to Discreet and to labels that came before it, like Release the Bats and Utmarken. But the music of Eternal Music Society feels like it belongs to a different realm than the Discreet world.

TMODM: This LP appears via Knotwilg rather than Discreet. What made Knotwilg the right home for this release?

Eternal Music Society: We had been in contact with Johan Loones from Knotwilg about playing the Knotwilg Festival, and during that email exchange we asked if he might be interested in releasing our debut LP. It just felt right.

November 28, 2025

Arbor Labor Union

#CosmicAmericanMusic #Punk

Transcendental Twang. Atlanta Georgia Bo Orr- guitar, banjo, lyrics, vocals 2,3,4,5&6 Brian “Brain Atoms” Adams- guitar, mandolin, keys, vocals 3,4,5&6 Rob Sarabia- bass, percussion, vocals 2,3, lyrics & lead vocals song 5 Bryan Scherer- drums, percussion, vocals song 5&6
TMODM: You’ve described your sound as “Transcendental Twang,” and over the years it feels like that idea has been stretched and reshaped. What does that phrase mean to you now, especially in the context of Out To Pasture?

Arbor Labor Union: Transcendental Twang is just one way to describe the approach of finding the resonating drone that sometimes hides between common notes — stretching it out or repeating it in the ear until a new harmony unfolds. Trance-end or transcend — that is the question.

TMODM: “Out To Pasture” is a phrase that can suggest endings or withdrawal, but the track itself feels exploratory and alive. What drew you to that title, and how does it frame the record for you?

Arbor Labor Union: We like to take common phrases and uncover the teaching within their double meanings. Each verse of the song looks at a different turn of the phrase. It spontaneously popped into our heads while we were jamming and felt true to many aspects of current life.

TMODM: What’s next for you?

Arbor Labor Union: We have band practice next week. We will probably jam for 20 minutes and then remember we have to get our songs buttoned up and our hair slicked back for a concert!

February 16, 2026

StarBath

#Alternative #PsychedelicRock #Shoegaze

StarBath is an alternative rock band from New Bedford, Massachusetts. The current line-up is comprised of Autumn Cyr (vocalist/lyricist/keyboards/certified gremlin), Gabriel Sylvia (lead guitar/sick soloist with hella style), Dan Medeiros (rhythm guitar/Planeswalker), Adam Rodriguez (bassist/big jacket wearer), and Dalton Pereira (drummer/all around cool guy/definitely NOT the writer of this bio)
TMODM: “Four Inches Hard” has a couple of hooks that really stick after the first listen. When you’re writing, do you start with melody, riff, or attitude?

StarBath: Our writing process overall is mostly instinctual. “Four Inches Hard” started as an arpeggiated chord progression that came out of an earlier jam, along with a vague idea for a vocal melody. From there we just kept jamming on the idea and expanding it. Lyrically it’s probably one of our more story-driven songs.

TMODM: I noticed that some of you are involved in photography and visual art. Does that visual sensibility influence how you think about the band’s sound or aesthetic?

StarBath: All of us appreciate or engage in visual arts to some degree, but the tunes almost always come first. We do have a few songs that were inspired by visual art, but most of the accompanying artwork has been created after the songs were written. Our aesthetic is basically just us being ourselves and doing whatever we feel like doing that day.

TMODM: StarBath is rooted in the New Bedford / Fairhaven area. Does that part of Massachusetts shape the band in any way, or is the music more inward-facing?

StarBath: The music is definitely introspective and open to interpretation, but as people we’re regulah New Englandahs, guy — we love grabbing Dunks and the Boston Red Sox.

January 30, 2026

Natural Magic

#Electronica #Ambient #Dub #Electronica #IndieRock #Psychedelic #PsychedelicRock

Natural Magic are from Portland, Oregon. Natural Magic are Michael McKinnon and Matthew Quiet. They call Portland, Oregon, where they throw their Limited Edition parties and experiment with making music for people with open hearts, home. Come visit them and they’ll take you out for a seafood tower.
TMODM: Natural Magic II feels less like a conventional “electronic” record and more like a live, late-night document shaped by space and atmosphere. When you’re recording together, are you thinking about the dancefloor, the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, or something more internal?

Natural Magic: To subjugate our influences, surroundings, and selves would be a desecration. So, yes — all of the above. Knowing exactly what we’re making would be a first for us. The “galactic road trip” idea only came after the sessions were done, and the true meaning revealed itself long after the record had already been sent to the pressing plant.

Influences only get us so far. Tapping into the unknown — the collective, the cosmic — is the real stuff. If we feel we haven’t gotten there yet, then it just ain’t done.

TMODM: The Limited Edition parties are built on experimentation. How does that translate into your studio work?

Natural Magic: Without experimentation and risk we’re just standing in line waiting to die. We’re into the hypnotic effects of extreme repetition and the joy of the completely unexpected or irreverent — both in the studio and in the DJ booth.

TMODM: There’s a lot of mythology in the way the album is described — west coast road trips, magic in the hills, cosmic blessings on the vinyl. How much of Natural Magic is playful myth-making, and how much feels genuinely ritualistic or spiritual to you?

Natural Magic: It just now dawned on us how unserious we may appear. We are a couple of idiots for sure. And while we love the world-building and myth-making in art, it’s never really been our focus.

We find inspiration all around us and try to remain open to spirituality in whatever form it may take. We live in a region with 6,000 waterfalls in one of two trillion galaxies, and we really do drive the Chevy LUV on the album cover around those hills. It’s all very, very real to us.

We have a wonderful time being serious.

May 18, 2025

Underground Mountains

#Devotional #Experimental #Drone #Improvisation #Kosmische #Krautrock #Noise #Psych #PsychedelicRock #SpaceRock

Underground Mountains Andrew Hunter – Drums Trevor Worsell – Bass Jeremy G Cox – Synth, Drums Tim Nicholls – Synth Shane Hartman – Guitar, Tapes
TMODM: “Making Sound in Space” feels both chaotic and completely intentional. When you’re in a fully improvised setting like that, what tells you the jam has found its direction?

Underground Mountains (Shane Hartman): The nature of improvising — finding all the elements coalescing — really shapes the recording. When everyone is feeling in tune, expressing themselves, and listening to what’s happening around them, the group’s improvising gels around that feeling. It’s really about the energy and everyone’s heads being on the cosmic nod, to borrow a phrase.

Making Sound in Space is a great example of that, and also of how the first takes are often the best takes.

TMODM: Underground Mountains has evolved in lineup and setting over the years, but the practice seems rooted in the same spirit of exploration. What keeps it feeling vital?

Underground Mountains (Shane Hartman): Keeping an open mind and exploring new sounds with new players entering the maelstrom is key. On the Exorcizes in the Unknown recording we had our longtime associate Frank Dias join on percussion and guest E.C. Dimock (Acid Damage, ex-Hungry for Vladimir) on second guitar. New players introducing new ideas took the gig to places and heights we hadn’t reached before.

Right now Underground Mountains is also working on writing more intentional material — still leaving plenty of room to stretch out. Our Trevor has been a wellspring of ideas in that setting, helping the jams really come to fruition.

Individually we all have projects outside of UM that feed back into the collective. Nick runs 3 Eyed Man, pushing into doom, psych, and noise territory. Jeremy plays with A Common Collective and our improvised project Doomed Roadtrips. Trevor absorbs a huge amount of music through his record shop Sound Fixation. Outside the group I work on tape-based ambient noise with Metal Machine Ascension and the noise-rock project Marrow Bulbs.

TMODM: We, Here & Now! has grown into a substantial and distinct catalog. What guides your ear when deciding what belongs on the label, and how do you see it evolving from here?

Underground Mountains (Shane Hartman): What feels right for the label has evolved over time, which I think is natural. One thing that hasn’t changed is that the music still has to excite me after many listens.

Lately the releases in the queue have been leaning darker, grittier, and more live-sounding — maybe a reflection of existing in this timeline. I love recordings that capture a blown-out live performance, like Joseph of Kirezi, The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol, and some of the recordings we’re working on with Marrow Bulbs.

Dark, sinister, mysterious. Raw power.

Our split with the mighty Thresher from Owen Sound captures a healthy balance of that while still being able to clean up for Sunday dinner. Thresher’s side absolutely rips, and playing with them last fall was incredible — a free-rocking, jazz-exploratory session that I’m still discovering new things in.

In my humble opinion they’re flying under far too many radars, and for the sake of us all — and the future of humanity — they must be heard.

February 6, 2026

Empty House

#Ambient #Electronica #Drone #Drone #Dub ##NeoKrautrock #Psychedelic

empty house is the solo work of Fleetwood based musician Fred Laird. Formed in March 2021, empty house is a musical project that fuses electronics, dub, drone and ambient. Buddhism, Clouds, literature, Martial Arts, sleeping all play a part in the themes of Laird’s compositions.
TMODM: On Tao & Zen you lean more toward krautrock than dub, and you mention sparsity with bass dominating the space. What draws you back to that motorik pulse again and again?

Fred Laird: It’s definitely the hypnotic groove. As I’ve gotten older, groove has replaced noise. The bass and the beat are the key. I used to think guitar noise was power, but it’s really the rhythm that carries everything. It puts you in a trance. It’s good for working out, for walking meditation, and for setting a soundtrack to images.

TMODM: “Almost Salvation (song for Patti Smith)” feels more intimate and narrative than some of the other tracks. What was it about reading Just Kids that translated into sound for you?

Fred Laird: That book really put me back on a path I had drifted away from — the love of art as a way to freedom. It’s not about making money. It’s about creation, no matter how good or bad it is. Being able to create something from the imagination is total freedom.

Patti’s book reconnected me with that feeling again, and with my love of her poetry and music. It was a godsend.

TMODM: Across your Empty House releases there’s a recurring sense of stillness — clouds, water, drifting light. Do you see these albums as connected chapters, or separate meditations?

Fred Laird: The music is all connected. I see it like floating, morphing clouds, the light through a window blind at sunset, or the neon glow of a café sign at night.

There’s a quote from Mark Hollis — my all-time favorite singer — that basically says: bring the music down to one chord, then bring it further down to nothing. It’s that silent space that becomes the key to the song.

That silence is all-encompassing. It’s like when you spend twenty minutes meditating and focusing on your breath. When the meditation ends and you open your eyes, there’s a complete awareness of the stillness around you.