Video Vacuum - God Bows To Math, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sleepy Sun, Sex Jams

Videos, yay!

God Bows To Math is one of Sonic Masala's favourite bands, live and recorded, and it's very exciting to think 2014 will see a second album from the anarchic trio. This dark video comes from the split they released with Shanghai heathens Pairs - the track itself is as typically tightly-coiled, abrasive and destructive as always, whilst the clip is simple, and simply weird. Little Black Riding Hood?

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, being weird? Never... The Melbourne menagerie continue to confound with a bizarre psych pop ode to the yeasty spread of Aussie patriotism, 'Vegemite' (lyric sample - It's strong as hell and black as night...). The video itself is decidedly off-kilter too, more in line with a Mighty Boosh skit than anything else. Coming after their albums of garage rock, spoken word Morricone and psych weirdness, though, nothing should really surprise us about these guys. (And I do like Vegemite too).

Sleepy Sun however have stuck to their woozy psych roots from the beginning, and 'The Lane' is evidence that it's business as usual. A very slick vid sees floating above landscapes, weather patterns, rose petals in the sea, a dark house with a naked female silhouette in the window, galaxies exploding, lots and lots of triangles... it's all so dramatic!

Then there's Austria's Sex Jams, being raucous as ever. The VHS 'found footage' of badass girls out of control, smoking, burning and lighting things up in homemade balaclavas, 'Junkyard' is an abrasive delight. Dishevelled melodicism disguised in destruction.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Sliding Under The Sun In Under Twelve

I wasn't overly enamoured with San Fran psychers Sleepy Sun's last LP Spine Hits - it had some salubrious belters, but overall it sorely missed Rachel Fannan. The album was too much of the same thing, the dude factor overstating things. It seems that the now five-piece have taken time out to readjust, doubling down on the distortion and pulsing forth with '11:32', the first single on an upcoming 7" on Dine Alone Records. It has that heavy groove that The Black Angels do in their sleep - Bret Constantino even channels Alex Maas here - yet whilst there isn't anything inherently new, it makes for a refreshing return to form. Let's hope this strong step forward continues.

You can pre-order the 7" here.

ATP Melbourne 2013 Mixtape

Not much to say really. Im heading off to Melbourne ATP. This is the mixtape that has been floating about the past week – amazing. I don’t want to rub it in, so Ill leave it at this. If you’re at ATP, yell out Sonic Masala and Ill come a-runnin. If not, well, enjoy whatever you’re doing!

Pulling Us Bleary Eyed Into The Past

I saw Sleepy Sun in July last year over watching an apparently mental Dananananaykroyd gig at Hoxton Bar and Grill, where earlier in the year I had seen Dananananaykroyd, funnily enough. Paul, who saw the latter gig in July, thought I was mad to miss the frenetic thrashings of the Scottish wunderkinds, but Sleepy Sun’s unapologetic 70s leanings and stoner wigouts really appealed to me. Whilst it wasn’t the mindblowing event that it could have been, the San Fran-via-Santa Cruz sextet set out to, and achieved, exactly what it said on the tin.

We are almost 12 months on, and these ATP-backed rapscallions are a little more world weary, much more live stage aligned, but still very classic seventies rock and/or roll. With their latest LP Fever up for grabs tomorrow (1 June through ATP Recordings), it seems that the massive, sun-blasted riffs, whilst made richer and aurally more crystalline, will forever be entrenched in the Led-Zep school of rawk. Check out a track from Fever, plus a collaboration with UNKLE off the latest LP Where Did The Night Go?

Sleepy Sun - Open Eyes
UNKLE (feat. Sleepy Sun) - Follow Me Down