Cardinal Fuzz Indierock | Alternative 11 Items

Upupayāma is the musical persona of Alessio Ferrari, an Italian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who lives in a small mountain village above the city of Parma. Upupayāma’s music is rooted strongly in Eastern and Western folk traditions, an approach that Ferrari blends with his own modern sensibilities and style. In addition to playing guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums, Ferrari himself also incorporates a number of other instruments into his sound, including sitar, erhu, flute, and a variety of percussion instruments. Artist: Upupayama Title: THE Golden Pond Labels: Cardinal Fuzz (Europe), Centripetal Force (usa), Release Date: 25th November 22 For Ferrari, Upupayāma's 2020 debut was all about the journey. The album served a series of musical vignettes that visited and weaved its way through a succession magical settings. The Golden Pond, conversely, is all about location. Inspired by his frequent visits to a small lake near his mountain home, Ferrari intentionally focused on the details of the place he inhabited, a practice he decided would translate well with his approach to writing music. This is something Ferrari feels is best exemplified with the album's opening companion pieces, "Cuckoos from the House of Golden Tin" and "Entering the Time of Wilderness." The Golden Pond also continues Ferrari's practice of using "invented language" in his lyrics. Ferrari wants his voice to be heard as if it were an additional instrument, a tool that does not convey specific messages. His goal is to allow the listener to assign personal meaning to the music. He says, "I want my incorporating invented language is a way of breaking down the barriers that are sometimes created by language, by having to define something at all costs. Ferrari adds, "I think one of my unconscious dreams is not to have to define any[1]thing, but just to be carried away by our feelings." Earlier this year Ferrari put together a group of musicians to help him deliver his live vision of Upupayāma. They made their debut in Rome in May, and they will play a couple of shows in advance of the album being released. Both dates will be in October, one in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland and the other in Esslingen, Germany. Plans to tour throughout Eu[1]rope in the spring of 2023 are currently in the works via El Borracho Booking. The Golden Pond will be Upupayāma's second album with Centripetal Force and Cardinal Fuzz, the first being the well-received self-titled debut in 2021, which is being repressed to coincide with the release of The Golden Pond in November.

Iconoclastic Afghan-American street music project Naujawanan Baidar makes its long anticipated return with "Khedmat Be Khalq," its third album and first new release in three years. Originally planned as a "studio debut" in the classic sense, a veritable avalanche of setbacks tangled and delayed the recording process over a span of several years as compounded tragedies - both international and personal - disrupted the project's intended transition from simply being a ramshackle demo/home-recording outlet for founder N.R. Safi (The Myrrors, et al) into a properly working band. At the end of the day the process of assembling what would eventually become "Khedmat Be Khalq" became a lot like that of the previous two releases: gnarled and sun-baked tracks cut up and collated into a blown out collage of sound. If there is any obvious difference this time around it is perhaps to be found in the increased focus of the material. Whereas the group's previous two projects ran the gamut from sparse acoustic improvisations to tape-loop-inspired noise, "Khedmat Be Khalq" presents a more unified hybrid of Afghan folks styles and electric energy, further exploring Safi's "maximalist minimalism" approach. Tape-saturated and over-amplified Afghan rubab, armonia, and ghichak meet pounding multi-layered rhythms that at times hint at 1970s-1980s industrial music or the heady throb of German krautrock groups like Faust or Amon Düül. Perhaps nowhere is this unique combination more striking than in Naujawanan Baidar's swirling re-arrangement of the Afghan folk classic "Raftim Az Ayn Baagh" that closes the album. The rubab melody that serves as the song's core is warped into something that in all honesty wouldn't sound particularly out of place spun between early Savage Republic and Crash Worship. Lyrically the album moves away from the more abstract and impressionistic style of Safi's earlier material towards a concrete attempt to address the struggle of the Afghan masses from the complicated perspective of the international diaspora. The songs here work to draw out and examine the contradictions and challenges faced by a people once again locked in the talons of a sociopathic religious fundamentalism, connecting the country's position to the current global fight against imperialism, militarism, and resurgent fascism, and attempting to recover obscured historical fragments and lessons surrounding the proud radical history of Afghanistan's diverse population over countless decades of intensive struggle. It is here that Naujawanan Baidar's "street music" aesthetic blossoms into a sort of avant garde agitprop - a militant soundtrack angling at a revolution.

Cardinal Fuzz and Little Cloud Records bring to you the new LP from a band we hold dear, Firefriend – ‘Decreation Facts’ – From São Paulo in Brazil and now close to two decades of creating and honing what has become their trademark, a heavy reverb, minimalistic slow-burn menace which sends chills down your bones. If you don't know Firefriend from somewhere along the last decade, you must cut a safe course through music. ‘Decreation’ is the undoing of creation, something destructive and primal and that Firefriend carry through on all the twelve songs written for this LP. Yury explained that the album "is a commentary on our 21st century, so violent and radical. We live in times of accelerated transformation. We wrote and recorded this album between the pandemic and WW3 – times of ground-breaking changes – and somehow that uneasy feeling got into our songs. Reality is the most crazy trip, isn it? And we are always trying to explore new territories: we want a new album to take you to new places, so we were chasing the sounds, structures and moods to make this a truly new album to match this wild new world’ ‘Decreation Facts’ is all this as they simply inject you with a liquid paranoia for their dark conjuring’s that is hugely dark and foreboding – Julia and Yury’s uber cool stoned and detached delivery creates a seriously dark menace with Julia’s delivery having echoes of Nico – all the while That claustrophobic reverb and tremolo encloses and swirls around the inside of your head and vibrates your inner core. This is Heavy shit. Decreation Facts’ is an unsettling sonic fuck you to those that seek to destroy this planet for their love of money and power and we think it is a stunning achievement. As Terence McKenna might once have said – ‘Firefriend should be consumed alone, in the dark, in silence, with your eyes closed’. Firefriend advises, “Express yourself through any method you want. That is how you become a transmitter, generating waves that will open connections with others vibrating on the same frequencies. That energy field will change the game.” Now that is a truly psychedelic perspective if there ever was one.

kandodo was invited to play at the 2015 Roadburn Festival as part of The Heads residency. Robert Hampson from Loop/MAIN was also going to be at the festival and so it seemed a good opportunity for him to join kandodo for this gig along with Wayne and Hugo from The Heads (who are also the Loop rhythm section as well as part of kandodo). Rehearsals were set up in Bristol and the gig in Roadburn was a couple of nights later and that is the recordings gathered here for "Burning The (Kandl)" with running order changed to help fit over these 2 hefty slabs of vinyl. So get ready for a total immersive trip through a psychedelic vortex . A glorious head nodding voyage into inner space where the vast churning of fuzzy guitars / keys / bass and drums phase in and out of focus with your inner core. Released in an edition of 500 and pressed on heavy black vinyl - Burning The (Kandl) is presented in a special lenticular effect outer sleeve.

Cardinal Fuzz and Centripetal Force Records are pleased to present to you – The Myrrors – At Exploded View (Tucson, Arizona). This spellbinding recording captures The Myrrors, advocates / defenders of DIY/counter culture at their finest and most transcendental. Exploded Sound is a chemical reaction between two basic elements: rock'n'roll and the Avant Garde. Inspired by Terry Riley’s repetitive, long-form minimalism, the group’s extended, open-ended playing carries the spirit of Riley’s “all-night flights”, here The Myrrors sound just as expansive, indeterminant, and mind-blowing - confident enough not to force epiphanies and trusting that euphoria will grow. The communal nature of the playing also recalls Father Yod’s primitive psych-rock pioneers YaHoWha 13. The latter’s delirious 3am trips share an aura with The Myrrors in the playing of raw, ritualistic and seemingly-possessed musicians caught in the flow of the moment they are creating. One crucial difference between Myrrors and YaHoWha 13, is their leaderless nature. With no particular member in charge, their music has a refreshing lack of ego; it feels like the only thing steering the ship is the momentum created by playing together, as all the sounds created coalesce into a single moment where linear time dissolves into the electrified bliss of the band’s excursions into psychedelic minimalism. With Exploded Sound you get to hear The Myrrors stripped down minimalism and repetition unite and fuse into the most deadly musical combination of guitars, bass drums/percussion and viola. "With this incantatory live recording, Myrrors create a sound that feels drawn out of the soil. Drone calls, avant-squall, swells of devotional psychedelia—whatever you want to call this music, it's entrancing and spiritually voluminous, rising and falling in majestic arcs, soundtracking an imaginary Herzog documentary playing exclusively in your mind's eye." —Jason P. Woodbury

Firefriend Rcknrll ‘São Paulo is one of the largest, filthiest, and most violent cities of the world. And this is the music we make here’. Captured live at the No. 74 in São Paulo – brace yourself for a one way trip to the heart of darkness. Rcknrll is an transcendental psychedelic sonic assault, a lightning storm of guitar haze and drugged-out wailing. Mainlining an elegantly wasted take on two-chord avant garage rock that makes direct reference to Plastic Inevitable era Velvet Underground, where Yury Hermuche devotional fuzz layerd on top of Julie and Caca primal throbbing rythm - you will feel the effect as time and space start creasing and folding in at the edges. The overall music created at this venue on this night is so intense and claustrophobic that, at times it will pin you back into your seat – such is the physicality of Firefriends music. This is not just another live album - this is a mission statement. With a taste for hallucinogens and the drone Rcknrll is completely unyielding, it offers no concessions to listeners, demanding they embrace the distortion - . Do yourself a favour. Turn the music on, the lights off, and let yourself go.

Ajay Saggar is Bhajan Bhoy. Since his debut album was released in June 2020 (“Bless Bless”) he has been receiving critical acclaim for his recorded output and his live shows. His second album “Shanti Shanti Shanti” was initially released on a limited edition cassette in November 2022 on his own Wormer Bros. Records. However, when respected label honchos at Cardinal Fuzz (uk) and Feeding Tube Records (usa) heard it, they insisted that this mighty album deserved a vinyl release. This album is part of a triptych. The other two albums in this series (“To Love Is To Love Vols.1+2”) were released in March 2023 to universal acclaim, with publications such as Mojo and Uncut and the Wire heaping praise on the two albums. "Another fine release by Dutch musician Ajay Saggar. His basic thrust is modern psychedelia, minted from radio snippets, dubby reverb flapping, elegant guitar washing, electronic drones interwoven with flashes of mock jaw harp or sploshy drums, and a generally stoned atmosphere. And the concept is spectrally sound!" (Byron Coley / the Wire magazine...January 2023) The songs on this album are varied stylistically. Combining psych, drones, minimalism, free jazz, electronic music and dub in this work, this is another album's worth of musical joy and wonder for all to enjoy.

"Attack Of Sound” is an unapologetic swooning love letter to pop music. It’s the perfect album, where dissonant and harsh guitars are juxtaposed with almost bubblegum pop. Sheets of feedback over inept tribalism and sugared by amazingly sweet vocals. This album works brilliantly as Ajay & Holly show their innate love of classic 60s pop and psychedelia as much as the Stooges. The ghosts of Love and Phil Spector haunt the wasted grooves of "What The Girl Does" and "Damned And Drowned", while the lurching punk noise mayhem of "How We Made It Seem" resurrects the in-yer-face Detroit icons like the MC5. "Attack Of Sound" remains a touchstone for all the people who ever believed that rock was for waking you up....equal parts Beach Boys’ melody and Velvets’ minimalism. It still provides that visceral thrill…an attack of sound!

Dead SEA Apes are back with a passion to deliver their most essential and cohesive album to date. Formed in 2009, Dead SEA Apes have become a fixture of the psych scene, sharing stages with the likes of Part Chimp, The Heads, Acid Mother Temple and Mugstar while producing a distinctive body of work, ranging from psychedelic punk to experimental dub, from freeform jams to constructions of loops and drones. Following a slew of collaborations and split releases, Rewilding sees them return to a power trio of Brett Savage (guitar), Jack Toker (bass) and Chris Hardman (drums). From the chaotic blast of opener ‘Denialist’, beaming out like a maniacal emergency broadcast, through to the monolithic pounding of the title track, Rewilding is unrelenting, taking in blown-out guitar wails and jet black psych noise while the irrepressible rhythm section moves from claustrophobic motorik beats to a thunderous rolling juggernaut. These blackened pearls have been recast and refined over the course of the past three years, strung out deeper than the night and now embodying our present uncanny, disorienting times, as we emerge into an altered world to find Mother Nature reasserting herself while the human madness intensifies, locally and globally. Savage and uncompromising, this is Dead SEA Apes at their most direct and visceral.

"Flowers and Dead Souls" is the second full-length studio album by Leipzig-based trio Acid Rooster, featuring six instrumental tracks that explore the depths of freethinking psychedelic music. From very quiet, spherical melodies to space jams and driving songs, the album contains a variety of different emotions and styles that are reminiscent of the spirit of German kraut and psych rock pioneers. The album was recorded in May 2022 with a 16-track tape machine in combination with an analog mixer at Völker Studios in Bamberg, which gives the whole thing a very warm and lively sound. Due to the pandemic, part of the band had to deal with serious health problems, which is why the production of the album had to be postponed again and again.Working on the individual pieces was therefore a kind of therapeutic healing process. This can be clearly seen in the rather positive mood of “Flowers and Dead Souls”. However, the album also contains moments that express the challenges and hopelessness of the time. This polarity is also reflected in the title of the album. Solid Orange Vinyl LP presented in a reverse board finish sleeve and with a A4 Mettalic Risoprint insert