For their fourth full-length album, Norwegian stoner/heavy rockers Lonely Kamel went into the studio with a very clear idea of creating their most crude and stripped-down album to date and they succeed it. “Shit City” doesn’t sound simple or cheap in any way, but it does exude a raw and sleazy sound that totally benefits their brand of groovy and infectious stoner/psychedelic/heavy rock.
Scratch the Surface caught up with the band to talk about this new effort and where exactly is the shit city.

“Shit City” is your fourth full-length album and the press release mentions that you wanted to make it as simple and cheap as possible. Well, I wouldn’t call it exactly simple or cheap, but the album does offer some catchy tunes dirtier than the bathroom of a sleazy bar in Singapore. What was the vibe when you went into the studio for this new album?

Stian: hehe...dirty bathrooms are always good, sounds like we captured the feeling we were looking for. The vibe was good, except the whole band had the flu during the ten days in studio.

Lukas: Yeah but we nailed track after track, and the result was amazing. Shit City is raw and honest, everything recorded live in studio, except vocals, lead guitar and some percussion.

Stian: We've never used much money on recordings but it's not like we want it to sound crappy either. The press release thing was kind of a joke. But we like it raw and simple, and try hard to transfer some of the nerve and energy from our live performance onto the albums.

Thomas: Fact is we never had much money for recordings. Studio time in Norway is not cheap, so we try to spend as little time there as possible, hehe. We always record live, playing together in the same room. I think that's a big part of why we sound like we do. We practice playing together, jamming all the time to get the right groove in each song. That's important to us. In that sense we come prepared in the studio, record all four of us, and then we spend 3-4 days after to put up some vocals and guitar licks, just having fun.

Can you kind of describe the writing process for Shit City? Do write the songs collectively in the rehearsal room or you’re one of those bands that trade files/ideas back and forth via email?

Stian: Mail sucks! Internet sucks! hehe. Yeah, but ok, sometimes even we use it as a preference, but it's on the rehearsals it happens. Thomas has most of the ideas and presents them when we meet, and Lukas brings a lot of riffs as well. Some songs come from jamming, so we all contribute. We spend a lot of time working on the arrangements. And we never play a song someone dislikes.
Last November Thomas made a collection of some demos of our songs on his home recorder, the tunes he felt were most suitable for an album as a whole. Then we agreed on that and didn't look back. We worked our asses off on the arrangements and sound until we puked and almost hated each other.

Lukas: We worked on some old and some new ideas, jamming, trying different grooves and so on. Process went on for a few months. Then we dived into a studio to make the deadline for a release in late August, just before we hit the road.

It sounds like you are having a lot of fun on this new album. What did you get personally out of making this record?

Stian: I think studio sessions are some of the most fun and interesting parts of being in a band. To nail all these things we've been working on for so long, and get it on tape. The result is not always what we expected or what we had in mind but we spend a lot of time preparing the songs before studio, the goal is always to be as close to the original idea as possible. But it's been 3 years since we were in a studio so for me it was about time! Next album will not delay as long.

So where exactly is Shit City? Not Oslo I trust, it is considered one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Stian: Yeah of course it could be Oslo. Expensive does not necessarily mean good or not shitty. Money is shit. But it could also be another town, or a state of mind. We all have a lot of love for this hometown but it's also a lot of frustration. It's the famous ambivalent love/hate relationship people have for things, places and people in life.

What do you talk about lyrically on this album?

Thomas: When writing these songs, there was a lot going on in my life. A couple of years of ups and downs, and I think the songs reflect that from the sense of everything going to hell (is it over?) to rediscovering love (Falling down). Much like the meaning of the title. It's like a love/hate relationship to someone or something. Sometimes you hate something so bad, and the next day you love the same thing, realizing it's not the things that are changing, but you, your state of mind and how you feel inside.


Following the release of Shit City, you’ll embark on a European tour with label mates The Order Of Israfel. What can fans expect to see on this tour?

Stian: Expect what you always get! Lonely Kamel loves playing live, touring and hang out. We don't bring fireworks or lighting rigs, but we bring the blues, grooves and some bottles of booze!
And to be honest, I never heard The Order Of Israfel live, but their record kicks ass and there must be a reason they go on tour with Lonely Kamel

What type of venues and parts of the world do you like best for playing live?

Stian: Any type in any country. no rules, no peculiarities, no limitations - just music!

Find out more about Lonely Kamel and their awesome new album "Shit City" here: www.facebook.com/lonelykamel
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The "psychedelic stoner rock" description that this Bordelais trio have imposed upon themselves does little to actually describe their lightness of touch or just how inventive their songwriting can be. Soon to be released in the US (Europe had it back in April), Stranded In Arcadia contains tracks that sound like they've simply drifted in from the desert with deeply stylized, sultry vocals that place you in amongst the buzzing swarm of rich, tripped-out instruments competing for space. The majority of songs here reside within the stoned triangle of Kylesa, Fu Manchu and Band Of Skulls as the band seek to draw inspiration from everything in between and beyond.

From the off, there are big hits of Kyuss and Electric Wizard as "The Light Beyond" sets off pumping out a voluminous, elephantine bassline supplemented by floor-shaking fuzz and wailing vocals. Very quickly you'll hit the volley of catchy choruses and cutting vocal hooks like those that punch forth powerfully from "Hovering Satellites", "Holy Mondays" and "Join The Race".

Do look out for the sharp, bluesy groover "Circles". It's a unique track that goads the sweet dual vocal of Julien Praz and Jimmy Kinast into suddenly mimicking duos like those that appeared in The Animals or 60s-afficionados Arlo. The end result is unbelievably rich in colour, insistently introspective and comes complete with a mile-deep groove and a timeless, sun-kissed vibe. Elsewhere, there is an abundance of warbling pedal effects, "Arcadia" and "Beyond The Light", and glitching electronic techniques employed, most probably in what would have been an intensive session of post-production. These are the tracks that reveal the most about the band's intentions. They are clearly invitations to release your shackles and travel as far along their emotional journey as you dare.

There is an elegant simplicity to so many of these structures. The cosmos-stretching cursive sections and the repeating motif certainly allow the listener to fully explore the variety of spaces into which they are thrown. To that end, there are those who may find the music to be a little too repetitious, unnecessarily twee or, at worst, agonisingly self-indulgent (the stomping "Seen A Ghost" is a particularly tiresome prospect), but persevere and there is far more to marvel than to sneer at. It is certainly the case that those who drink deepest will undoubtedly feel the soothing qualities of this one part-doom, two parts-psych soup best of all.

John Skibeat 

Band info: www.facebook.com/marsredskyband
Label info: www.listenable.net

John Skibeat is a self-described word monkey hampered by cravings for strong ale and stinky cheese. He continues to practice surgical dissection on most genres of music with the leftovers currently reaching publication at 'zines like Heavy Blog Is Heavy, The Line Of Best Fit or Ave Noctum. When not smacking seven bells out of various sizes of orb, he tumbles at johnskibeat, tweets @johnskibeat and blogs at, yes, you guessed it, johnskibeat.

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Formed by Khaled Lowe, once a member of hardcore mob Raise the Dead, Barnaby Maddick previously in psychedelic doom act Purson and later joined by renowned producer Jaime Gomez Arellano (Cathedral, Electric Wizard), London-based folk/prog-psych outfit Messenger have just released one the most dazzling and beautifully constructed albums you’ll hear this year. Displaying a blistering blend of folk melodies, prog tones and psychedelic nuances, “Illusory Blues” will surely be declared a classic album in the coming months.
We recently spoke with Khaled Lowe and Jaime Gomez Arellano about their debut album, their musical influences and the upcoming European tour with Katatonia.

Messenger formed in the spring of 2012 so you’re an incredibly new band. How did it come about, did you already know each other from other projects?

Khaled: I had written a few songs which appeared in different guises from the versions on the album. A couple were the result of meetings with Barnaby and some were ideas from experimental jams with a whole bunch of other people. Barnaby and I decided to give ourselves a month in a studio to record some of the material we'd collaborated on, and Gomez was my first choice as a producer because of the range and quality of his work that I'd heard. Originally, there was no intent even to form a band; we had no idea how many songs we would write (many of them were created spontaneously) or what the end result would sound like. I knew Barnaby from the punk/hardcore scene, and I'd jammed in various 'bands' with Dan and James, or just round at each others’ places. Dan and Gomez also played together in the past.

You’ve recently released your debut album entitled “Illusory Blues” and that’s quite adventurous for a young act that has been together for less than two years. Do you feel that you gave the band enough time to grow before recording your first record?

Khaled: In a sense, yes. I feel that "Illusory Blues" is a very honest depiction of where we were at the time, both emotionally and musically speaking. We hadn't foreseen that this would become a full album or even a full band. In another sense, it's been rather challenging to translate the emotions conveyed by certain instruments like the flute or the violin or the mellotron into a conventional live band setup with just guitars and keys. So in hindsight, had we known we were going to tour, we'd have probably written more specifically for that. But it's both challenging and fun to rework it into a live context. And with time and space permitting, there's no reason we can't expand in the future.

Gomez: A lot of it was spontaneous and improvised. Part of my work as producer is to structure songs and come up with arrangements and new parts. Having two talented guys with good ideas helped a lot. We were in the studio for a month re arranging old songs, writing new ones and recording. It was a lot of work, pretty intense but it all worked out and that's how we decided to make a band out of it.

“Illusory Blues” offers some incredibly strong and mature compositions that exude personality and confidence in what you’re doing. How did you achieve that and what is about this band that makes you work so well together?

Khaled: Thank you kindly for that beautiful compliment! I think what makes it work is respect, honesty and hard work. We've all been involved in the music scene and industry for many years, we've all played in many bands and we all obsess over a range of bands old and new. It's in our blood and we're very passionate about it; we make music for the love of creating art and expressing ourselves. If something is organic and serendipitous and not rushed, then those traits will shine through. I personally love the imperfections and the nature of Gomez' production; keeping everything 'real' and sincere; and because we all know each other as close friends, the chemistry was already there. I think being able to listen to each other as well, devoid of ego, is very important.

Gomez: Khaled and Barnaby come up with very good ideas. I think I'm good at organising those and embellishing them with arrangements. Our personalities are quite different too and I think that's part of what makes it work.

Messenger has been described as a progressive, psychedelic rock band and we can certainly hear the influence of artists like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin on ”Illusory Blues”. How do you feel about such labels? Do you think they represent the most accurate description of your music?

Gomez: I feel totally cool with people using labels such as Floyd and Zep as these are bands that have been part of the lives of everyone in Messenger. People can think whatever they want, I've seen all sorts of references so far which I think is a good thing. We seem to be getting the "prog" tag quite a bit around, which is interesting as we never really saw ourselves as such, but it's always hard to describe your own music. There are many different influences in this album, musical and non-musical. We all listen to many types of music from contemporary classical, to early 90's black metal and everything in between. We just write what feels right at the time.

Are there any particular influences that you would say “Illusory Blues” is indebted to?

Khaled: For me personally, it's less indebted to musical influences, I quite like to focus on ambience and sound and light and shade rather than genre, whether listening or performing.

Gomez: The fact that there was no "boundaries" during the writing/recording process had a lot to do with it. We had no set ideas or were trying to achieve a specific sound, we just went with what felt right at the time and never shied off about trying something that we thought it could work, regardless if it was a bit of a crazy idea or not.

The album was produced by Gomez, who has worked with a number of great bands such as Cathedral and Electric Wizard in the past. So Khaled how long have you known him?

Khaled: I'd met him several times through mutual friends maybe 6 or 7 years ago before I was familiar with his production work. Later on I realised a lot of my close friends held him in high regards, and he had a stellar track record working with bands like Hexvessel, Mothlite, Ulver, Ghost, Cathedral, etc. we put two and two together… Before I'd known him properly; he played in Mothlite and him and Dan were also in a metal band together that an ex drummer from an old band of mine had joined after he left... So there were trails of Gomez everywhere, both socially and sonically! We've been friends quite a while now!

What was the recording process like for “Illusory Blues” at Orgone Studios?

Khaled: It was very intense! We were there pretty much every day for over a month. Some days we wrapped at 5 in the afternoon; other days we only got into the flow at one o'clock in the morning. One very important discipline I learned from Gomez in particular was not to try to force creativity to occur; some days the 'vibe' wasn't there; other times we were in full flow for 5 days without stopping. There was also a lot of spontaneity; vocal melodies and string arrangements, etc... composed on the spot. That was very liberating; but yes, it was also very full on. Blood, sweat and tears, quite literally...

Gomez: As Khaled says, it was very intense. Both Khaled and Barnaby had little "proper" studio experience, so I would get frustrated at times. But looking back it was a really nice experience and we are very happy with the end result. We spent just over a month recording, then I spend about another month and bit arranging, mixing and mastering. It was the first record I mixed on my Solid State Logic desk and it was all done in analog and mastered to analog tape. I work this way for all records I mix and master.

“Illusory Blues” has a lot going on in terms of arrangements and nuances. What's it like playing these songs in a live setting?

Gomez: When we were recording the album we didn't even know that a band was gonna come out of it. We really didn't think of the limitations that this could bring into a live setup as there was no band as such yet, it was just a project. So the album wasn't written with that in mind. The song "Midnight" has 3 different guitar tunings in just one song! We've found clever ways to recreate the album with the new 5 piece line-up. When we get the opportunity, we'd like to bring in someone to play the string parts.

You’re opening for Katatonia on their upcoming unplugged tour throughout Europe next month. What can we expect from that tour? Will you play an acoustic set as well?

Gomez: We'll be playing set of about 40 minutes. We're not an acoustic band as such (even though we love acoustic instruments) and therefore I don't think we'd be playing an acoustic set as we don't have the crew (yet) and we have a lot of equipment already. There are some noise restrictions in some of the venues we're playing, so we'll just play quieter. We are very excited to go on tour which such a prestigious band and we're very excited to perform our music outside the UK.

Is there a specific theme tying the lyrics of “Illusory Blues” together?

Khaled: The prevalent theme throughout is that of value creation; shifting perspective in the way we relate to people, situations and 'problems'. It's about realising and seeing with fresh eyes the wealth of goodness that exists around us; in friends and family and nature and music. "The Return" is about coming out of a particularly turbulent emotional headspace after the death of a friend, to take in and accept certain truths; to retain the notion like a mantra that Love, as cruel and poisonous and stifling as it can appear on occasion, is in fact a definitive code for living; for making the most out of any situation. Love Is All You Need. The Beatles were right! Most of the songs are full of imagery of the natural world; the seas, the sky, the earth, the soil, the trees; the miracles of life and existence and consciousness… It's all in there!

More info at: www.messengerbanduk.com
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London’s Landskap, a new psychedelic doom project formed by members of Serpent Cult, Pantheist, Fen and Dead Existence will release their debut album I this May via Iron Bonehead Productions.
Bassist and rhythm guitarist Frederic Caure recently took a moment out of his busy agenda (Caure is also a sound engineer and producer) to answer a few questions about the band’s origins, the new record and their upcoming plans.

Landskap is new UK project made of members of Serpent Cult, Pantheist, Fen and Dead Existence. How did you meet and decided to work together?

“In 2012 George and I both moved from our native countries to London. We didn’t know each other but wanted to start our own bands and we got in touch via adverts. We eventually met up in a pub to talk music and a week later we were in the studio trying out some jams. Soon Paul joined on drums who I happened to know from the time I was jamming with Fen, we later asked Kostas to join us who I know from playing in Pantheist 10 years earlier and when we got to the final stages of the writing/recording process we asked Jake to join us which we knew from the local scene.”

Each member comes from a different sub-genre within heavy music, but the album features a dominant doom influence as well as elements of psychedelic rock. Would you say this was intentional, or did it come naturally when you all started jamming together?

“To be fair, I don’t understand why everyone labels us by the doom tag, and I believe the only reason this happens is because we opened our album with a slow song that has a “Sabbathy” feel to it. When we started the band, our vision was to create psychedelic rock mixed with progressive and krautrock elements taken from our favourite albums from a certain era. Doom obviously has the same basic ingredients, but when you listen to our music, you will reckon it’s a hard rock album. When we started the band, we jammed the first 6 months without writing a single song, just to get the vibe going between all of us. Once we got it right after that, we decided to compile some ideas and write the album you have in front of you.”

Have you written these songs collectively or there was someone in the band who took a more prominent role in the songwriting?

“I” was written as a band and everything comes out of jam sessions. This is the essence of the band, we like things to happen by accident during a jam, they usually turn out to be the best tunes. It also keeps things fresh and ever-changing; our songs are dynamic and not set in stone, a tune that takes 6 minutes today could last 15 minutes tomorrow. It will prove to be interesting during our gigs, haha…”

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"To be fair, I don’t understand why everyone labels us by the doom tag, and I believe the only reason this happens is because we opened our album with a slow song that has a “Sabbathy” feel to it."

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Can you talk a little bit more about the recording of I? What studio did you use? Was there anything in particular you wanted to do differently from other studio experiences that you had in the past?

“We recorded our base tracks live in the studio which was essential; our music is not the kind of music where you can just record all the instruments separately, our song structure does not permit it but it would also complete the wrong atmosphere for the songs. We did the whole live recording in one afternoon in the studio. Once that was done, we recorded some guitar overdubs and the vocals at my home studio, mixed the lot and that was it. This is the cheapest album I ever recorded in my life, but also the one that I had the most control over.”

How do you feel the songs and sound of I turned out compared to what you envisioned in your mind before going into the studio?

“We’re really happy with the way the songs turned out; we intentionally left some things open for interpretation when we recorded so that we could steer the songs in any direction when we were recording and it turned out great. We did no more than 2-3 takes of each song and chose the best take to complete. I would definitely work this way again.”

Is there any particular theme to the record, lyrically?

“There is no particular theme for the lyrics but Jake wrote the lyrics in no time and they all seem to be dealing with misery. We hope he’s all right now and that his next lyrics will deal with shopping sprees in London and driving his car in the park on a sunny Sunday afternoon.”

I understand you first released this album independently on digital format back in January. So how did you end up releasing it now on the Iron Bonehead label?

“We wanted our album to be out there and available for everyone, so we offered it as a free download on BandCamp. I’m a big supporter of the free electronic sharing and distribution of music and I believe it’s the only way forward for musicians. I don’t care or believe in making money out of music anyway, nor in the ‘ownership’ of music. We did think it would be nice to have a nice special vinyl edition of the album though, so we got in touch with a few labels we knew were doing quality releases. Iron Bonehead offered to do a 500 copies run of the album with special artwork which sounded great and we went for it. The album is scheduled to be released on 16th May but is still available on BandCamp at the same time.”

What can we expect from Landskap for the rest of the year? You’ll play your first show in June right?

“That’s correct, we’re playing our first gig in Camden’s Underworld on 14th June followed by another gig in London in July. Once these 2 gigs are done, we’ll be going back to the studio to record a new EP with 2 or 3 new songs.”

More info at: www.facebook.com/LandskapUK

Read John Skibeat's review of I here.
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Landskap may be a common word in Scandinavia (you can probably guess its meaning) but this coming-together of 60s and 70s heavy psych obsessives actually hail from London, England. Formed in 2012 by members of Father Sun, SerpentCult, Fen, Pantheist and Dead Existence, their debut LP reeks of retrospective magick - right down to the tracklisting. It's a 34-minute, 4-song, 2-track disc - the 2 tracks being a hypothetical Side A and Side B in true arcane vinyl tradition. It is Landskap's refusal to fully bow their heads to modern music industry demands that lands the first blow in their war on the new world in which we all dwell.

From the off, the delicately-balanced 12 minutes of layering that constitute "A Nameless Fool" draw inspiration from Pentagram's psychedelic catalogue combined with Sabbath's soft-sided drift. There's an opening explosion of cymbals and strings that drop off into a cosmos-wandering solo. As the bell tolls in, the emotional atmosphere and elephantine pacing is set for Jake Harding's sultry resonant vocal to impart his words of wisdom into the echoing yonder.

"The things you crave, they draw you near / Desire's reason remains unclear / But still you crawl on weathered hands / Dragging down your fellow man."

As the demonic solo drops you'll find yourself straining to pick up a wedge of fat-stringed dissonance. Had they thrown that in, you'd be staring straight down the barrel of St. Vitus. In its place, a warbling organ rumbles along in the background sprinkling a fresh layer of cheese. It's immediately clear that Landskap are the preachers and us fans of old school doom are the converted.

Somewhat precariously tacked onto the end of Side A is the menacingly-titled "A Cabin In The Woods". Surprisingly it takes us about as far from the dark horror that its title suggests. Instead, we get a 3-minute gently warbling instrumental full of warming tones and astral patterning that takes us floating towards the exploratory edges of bands like Procul Harum and Pink Floyd.

As Side B kicks in, "Fallen So Far" rolls up with a feisty riff and a dark purpose. There's one initial smack of heady psych rock before it all settles back into doom-laden verses with a dissonant, splattering bass and antagonistic choruses. The whole stomp soon steps it all up into double-time and we're quickly careering towards a noisy oblivion. Headbangers beware - this is a beast.

"To Harvest The Storm" is another warm-toned instrumental with top-end wandering bass and twinkling, echoing Doors-esque organ. As the guitars kick in the rhythm gets more urgent and the smacks of Deep Purple and Hendrix begin to really come through. By the end you'll be jiving to the Hammond-induced psychedelics like a tripped-out turkey, arms flailing, head rotating, lost in the midsts of some intense Woodstockian flashback. Yes, at 12:30 it is a monster but, by god, it's worth every second for the intense surge of climactic pleasure that it offers.

Way too short, yet beguilingly sweet and utterly absorbing, you could wedge this debut into the heart of your old man's record collection and he wouldn't even flinch. It's hard to decide whether Landskap are retro to the point of being reclusive obsessives or whether they just invented a time machine and brought this "debut" back as a gift. Whichever, a debt is owed.

John Skibeat

Band info: www.facebook.com/LandskapUK
Label info: www.ironbonehead.de

John Skibeat is a self-described word monkey hampered by cravings for strong ale and stinky cheese. He continues to practice surgical dissection on most genres of music with the leftovers currently reaching publication at 'zines like Heavy Blog Is Heavy, The Line Of Best Fit or Ave Noctum. When not smacking seven bells out of various sizes of orb, he tumbles at johnskibeat, tweets @johnskibeat and blogs at, yes, you guessed it, johnskibeat.

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Merely a few months following the release of their acclaimed second album ‘‘White Lightnin’, Germans psychedelic doomsters Obelyskkh

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Since the release of their self-titled debut album in 2002 through Prank Records, Georgia’s Kylesa have been progressing continuously, slowly distancing themselves from their hardcore-punk roots and embracing a more progressive and psychedelic sound. So you won’t be surprised if I told you that the new album ‘Ultraviolet’ is another step towards that direction. Their previous effort ‘Spiral Shadow’ released three years ago really marked a new era for this ever-evolving band, pushing their previously reserved elements of dark psychedelia and indie-rock to the fore of their punk-sludge combustion and this new album continues in the same vein, but reveals an even greater emphasis on those psychedelic, goth and indie-rock textures.
Kylesa have toned down the volume and intensity of their sludge monolithic heaviness and worked hard to craft a structured and layered piece of work deeply immersed in a cathartic and dark atmosphere. Even some of the rocking tunes like ‘Unspoken’ or the heavy ‘Vulture’s Landing’ have a haunting, sombre ambience to them.
Vocally, Kylesa also demonstrate a noteworthy evolution with guitarist Laura Pleasents gaining a greater role in this department, singing in a more dreamlike tone like a spiritual voice guiding you to all things cosmic and dreamy.
It is clear that a lot of effort has been put into the composition of the new songs, as each one of them show a high number of different levels and layers. You get trippy noises, electronic swirls and lulling ambient sounds. It's clearly an album for a headphones listening experience rather than an album that you can crank up on a noisy and smoky club.

Band info: www.facebook.com/KYLESAmusic
Label info: www.season-of-mist.com

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