what are SteamGifters listening lately?

Jake Hope - Can't Slow Down

Babymetal - Karate

Wagakki Band - Senbonzakura

A duo of two excellent new heavy psych bands.

The Bonnacons Of Doom, from Liverpool, play space rock with a lot of different ideas that keep their music varied and help them avoid the sub-Hawkwind sound-trap which gets a lot of bands in this segment. (I do like Hawkwind but does anyone need inferior versions of them?) Nice fuzz bass, cosmic female siren vocals and a good sense of scope. Fortunately none of the bonnacons execute their, ahem, signature move on the listener either.

The album playlist does not include a full version of "Argenta" so I am listing that separately. The video is fan made and suitably spaced out so I would suggest that is the optimal track to decide whether the rest is for you.

Bonnacons Of Doom - Argenta
Bonnacons Of Doom - st

Kooba Tercu, on the other hand, are a Greek/English band on the noisier side of the psych rock spectrum. Their music never fully dissolves into freakout territory and we are always dealing with individual, structured songs. Again the level of variation offered is nice, with the first track, for instance, reminiscent of Lightning Bolt to me, while "Margarie" is not all that far removed from a technicolour Stereolab sound.

Kooba Tercu - Kharrüb

Now for Blyh - this really rolls off the tongue doesn't it. Anyway it's another excellent black metal album, with some great "in your face" double bass lines and guitar riffs that (a taboo for black metal) venture into major scales sometimes - do they though? that's how it sounds to this particular ignorant. A vague vista of silver linings before the following beat rectifies the situation and we remember that we have to view life in a uniformly pessimistic way.

Once again, great 10 minute long compositions, as well.

Blyh - Awake To Emptiness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiiFzKfuPMk

A lot of different styles and genres, but if I had to pick one of my all-time-and-current favorites, it would be this little gem spoiler - it's jazzy ^^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMn5LcOd7l4

Brothers of Brazil, underrated band with some great songs, give it a try:
Melodies From Hell: https://youtu.be/EokSf-GdcQY
A Vida Num Segundo: https://youtu.be/OzIF-cDaUHM

Not for the faint of heart. Watch at your own risk. You've been warned.
3TEETH - EXXXIT <3

Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd

me to
https://soundcloud.com/synergeticemotion/pink-floyd-shine-remix

I posted a song off this before but the entire album is just too good to not bring up again. Espers were part of the "new weird America" genre, which sounds quite obnoxious but actually brought us some quality music in the psychedelic / acid folk space. What is "weird" about Espers is that they introduce unusual instrumentation, dissonances etc. to brew up a distinctive concoction more colourful than most of the music that passes for folk. Fuelled along by an excellent production and wonderful female vocals, the result is exceptional when all of its elements come together, as (in my opinion) in the otherwordly "Dead King". The whole album is more than worth the ride, though...

Espers - II

Psychedelic metal madness sextet #3 --

If you have often felt that there was an obvious gap in the market for plant-themed post-black metal with an amplified and (mostly) distorted hammered dulcimer as lead instrument, you have been vindicated as Botanist exist to fill that gap. This particular album has grown extraordinarily on me and passages keep cropping up before my inner ear when I am thinking of or doing something unrelated, more so than has happened with any new album since the 2017 Elder release. I would say that the winning quality of Botanist is that they are Protean: shape-shifting, based largely on the use of that dulcimer as lead instrument. They may sound reasonably metal one moment, with the dulcimer's guitar persona active through the appropriate use of effects. Then some of the effects are switched off and the instrument's natural sound comes to the fore. Oddly and very organically, the sound takes on a pastoral, almost folk-rock quality, with dissonances and great choral vocals conjuring up the likes of Espers, which by sheer coincidence I have linked just above.

There are post black bands interspersing a couple of pure folk-like tracks among albums (as Botanist do here as well), but the ability to conjure up folk ambiences seamlessly as part of otherwise metal sounding pieces is an extraordinary achievement, and unique to Botanist as far as I have the ability to judge. As a result this album moves from what could be a "white" version of Batushka to a metal relative of acid folk and back, and beyond. Clearly the world needs more metal about the final supremacy of plantlife.

Botanist - Collective: The Shape of He to Come

Why are Ghibli tracks always so soothing and timeless. I so regularly spend hours getting myself lost in them. Damn the talent of Joe Hisaishi. It blows my mind that so few western directors have ever tried enlisting his talents as a composer.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya OST 29. Flying
This is possibly my favourite track from him. Just listen to how he's captured and imagined flying with this song. I can only think of it as how the first flight of a bird must feel (and by extension of course, how Kaguya and Sutemaru were feeling in that moment). The gradual, unsteady rise as it finds resolve and gets prepared to take this risk into the unknown. That moment where it has accomplished it--it's flying--and the steadily increasing rhythm of its wings beating as it starts to rise up and up, faster and faster, until it finally reaches and breaks the clouds--where it all comes to a serene calm. It reaches the soaring highs, and it can finally take the time to see the magnificence and beauty of the world below it. This journey, that excitement and wonder--it's all there if you listen. Flying is amazing, and so free. There's the swooping, daring free falls and the sudden rise as it catches itself and flies back up to do it all over again. And towards the end, after it's done it all and starts to exhaust, there's one final all out, as it tries to pick up steam again before the inevitable happens... The sadness and realization at how this flight and thrill must inevitably come to an end. Coming harshly back to reality--nothing can fly forever. And for our characters, this was their first and final flight together.

This track--as does the scene of course--tells the story of how the characters must feel in that moment so beautifully. It truly made it a very powerful, unforgettable experience. It really felt as if you were flying there for the first time with them.

REALLY by BLACKPINK 💘🖤💘

Rance Riley - Low Life

Rance Riley - Stuck Here

Right now Im listening my neighbor's hammer drill

CamelPhat - Breathe
Alexander Ebert - Truth (I just watched Breaking Bad for the first time and really liked this song)
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Runner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el8icM3EPBM

They don't care about the truth
Got a mouth full of lies
That is not the way we want it
There is nothing good about it

Now you know what to do
When your heart's full of knives
Remember the dark
Won't last the night

LOSTSVUND - Weedaholic

Local H - Bound For The Floor
Local H - Fritz's Corner

SIAMÉS "Summer Nights" Official Animated Music Video

So catchy. And that video.