More and more recently, I’ve been receiving unsolicited promos in consideration for review in Jukebox Heart. These are always welcome. Incoming! is a new category in Jukebox Heart specifically created to address that. I am happy to have recieved a promo from one of my favorite labels, Beta Lactam Ring Records. Under review is the recent release from Zagreb’s Seven That Spells.
Seven That Spells
“Future Retro Spasm”
Track 5, remixed: Death Star Narcolepsy (Jukebox Heart Mix)
[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/incoming/seventhatspells/DSN.mp3]
Released 20 May 2010 on
Beta-lactam Ring Records
Tracks:
1. Olympos 08:44
2. G 08:24
3. Terminus Est 05:03
4. The Abandoned World Of Automata 14:30
5. Death Star Narcolepsy 09:42
6. Quetzalcoatl 03:06
Recorded in 2009 @Kramasonik studio
Recording engineer – Miroslav Piškuli?
Mix – Miroslav Piškuli?
Mastering – Steve Thomas
Artwork – Niko Poto?njak
Personnel:
Stanislav Muškinja – drums
Narantxa – bass
Lovro Zlopaša – sax
Niko Poto?njak – guitar
SEVEN THAT SPELLS were formed in Zagreb, Croatia in 2003. The core of the band is Niko ‘Brain’ Poto?njak, who is the guitarist and the producer (and also a member of TIGROVA MAST). The beginnings of the band were rooted in the power trio format but have since then – and after more than 50 musicians passing through the band – evolved to a more modern and aggressive psychedelic sound incorporating polymetrics and occasional viking funeral rites. The band’s psychedelic style is clearly influenced by ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE. The two bands collaborated at one point with Makoto Kawabata and Tsuyama Atsushi, having recorded an album together and toured Japan. But in 2003, the band began as a trio; Poto?njak was accompanied by Tomislav Kalousek on bass and Stjepan Jurekovi? on drums. They released their debut, The Blowout, which was remastered in 2005, and showed their musical potential to their early audiences. In ’05 they signed for the Russian RAIG label, a well known one among the Russian avant/prog circles. The second album ‘My Mommy Wants To Kiss Your Mamma’was released with Hrvoje Niksi? reinforcing the band on synthesizers. The first notable change in band’s line-up happened in 2006, when Tvrtko Dujmovi? took a role of a bassist, Igor Poto?njak swapped place with Niksi?, and Mario Pereti? took the drummer’s seat. They released ‘It Came From The Planet Of Love’ that year, also for the Russian imprint, RAIG.
The key moment happened in between ’06 and ’07, when SEVEN THAT SPELLS met the members of ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE; to sum it up, they released two albums in cooperation, and were touring in Japan. ‘The Men From Dystopia’ was released Beta-lactam Ring in ’07, again in significantly different (and larger) line-up: Stjepan Jurekovi? (drums), Lidija Dokuzovi? (vocals), Tvrtko Dujmovi? (bass), Tsuyama Atsushi (vocals), Kawabata Makoto (electric sitar, tambura, hurdy-gurdy) and of course Niko Poto?njak (guitar, synth). In 2008, there were two more releases; Black Om Rising, and Cosmoerotic Dialogue with Lucifer, both on Beta Lactam Ring. The first one saw the band stripped down to Narantxa (bass), Bruno Motik (drums) and Niko Poto?njak (guitar, synth) but for the first time with a saxophone added (Lovro Zlopasa). Later that year, on the second release, Kawabata Makoto reappeared, this time on guitars. Three drummers participated (Bruno Motik, Milan Bukejlovi?, Damir Simunovi?); Lidija Dokuzovi? and Tvrtko Dujmovi? were back in business (on vocals and bass respectively), while Niko widened his usual duties with (guitar, synth) with electric organ.
The band returns with their third full length for the venerable US imprint, Beta Lactam Ring, whose call to arms, “Mutant Sounds for Mutant People!” brings all the boys to the yard. Seven That Spells will certainly appeal to adherants to the prophecies of Hawkwind, Amon Duul and the afore-mentioned Acid Mothers Temple. But there are also elements of free jazz/industrial fusion of Borbetomagus, the grunting psychout scene from Basel of the late 80s (think Ix Ex Splue, Fluid Mask and Electric Noise Twist), as well as more contemprorary nods to The Mars Volta.
Fierce and relelntless, even in its quietest moments, Seven That Spells is like that heavy downtown Brooklyn traffic that your wicked step-mother always tried to get you to play in. And there you are in the midst of it, lost and disoriented, cursing your own compliance. Yet despite that pummeling, a sublime melodic poetry arises amidst the warm, sweet smell of sun-bleached asphalt.
Seven That Spells puts the AUT back into Kraut and the ACCH into Rock, acknowledging and reinforcing KRAUTROCK’s importance in the evolution of rock. And though they will be thought of as a Krautrock band, they are not, however, an Ohr label cover band. Instead, their legacy will lie along their own newly excavated path.
My personal pick is track 5, Deat Star Narcolepsy, (remixed by Jukebix Heart, above) with its dense, murky, Kraftwerky Motorik looping and continuous buildup until the chaotic, blasting release. It builds into a galactic high-speed chase through magnetic disturbances and perilous asteroid belts peppered by fastidious yet ferocious drum pounding and complex yet cathartic sax wailing.
Simply imperative.
Find it at the Beta-lactam Ring website here.