World In Sound (Pt.2)

Following up on the first part of my little write up about the World In Sound-label, I would like to mention some of the outstanding new groups there. Even though I have to admit that I'm not as euphoric about all of them as I am about the older groups, there are some gems there, which for some reason are still hardly known. 

Well, to lift a secret, you don't just need cool songs or maybe a reasonably appealing look (also the artworks etc matter, you know). If you want to make it as a musician, you also need a lot of dedication and longevity! It takes years to get to a point where you can say something is successful or not. And before you have that financial success, you're basically living on dry bread and spaghetti with ketchup ;) having a job you probably despise while trying "to make it" and spending all your free time touring and playing ... but anyway ... here are a few groups I'd like to recommend to you if you can find the time.

BUDDHA SENTENZA - instrumental stoner with progression

These guys are really good! They've had two albums on WIS before moving on to another label, probably hoping for something more professional :) and I hope they found it. It's tough in the music world, a lot seems to depend on luck too, or being in the right place at the right time, and I wish they make it soon. They deserve it!

KIRKBINSINEK - Turkish Prog-Psych

Well, another strange group that decided to sing in Turkish, which is great, but may not open up a bigger market for them, maybe they don't even want that. However, the album they released on WIS is very cool and I would recommend you to listen to it if you are into this kind of "experiments", but maybe you have already heard of Erkin Koray, or new groups like Altin Gun?

POSTURES - Swedish hipsters with a knack for Prog?

When the demo for their debut album arrived at WIS mailbox, I immediately told Wolf to should release it because most of it is just stunningly beautiful music and I was excited about this and told all of my three friends about it. For some reason, though, the band didn't last too long, which is a shame...

SATURNA - Retro Heavy Rock from Spain

Super professional band, as it has always seemed to me. For some reason things didn't click so well with WIS and they switched to another label after this album. I would rank them much higher than many of the more popular Retro Rock-groups out there in Europe, probably because they really are the better musicians ... I hope they find (more) success!

SUN AND THE WOLF - from New Zealand to Berlin

Another one of my personal favorites and suggestions for Wolf when he was pretty clueless about what new band deserved our attention. These guys had great songs and a lot of stage presence, but for some reason they didn't really hit the nerve of the larger Stoner/Psychedelic-crowd and therefore probably gave up, too soon ... a real pity!

IMAAD WASIF - has just all the Rock Star - material!

I'm immensely proud that WIS released one of Imaad's early albums that will forever be among my highlights of new releases from 2010 to the present. For some reason, though, it seems to remain an insider's tip, like too many others - there's just so much music out there I guess ... this skinny Indian dude's music you should have heard, though!

And then on a side note: Samsara Blues Experiment's "Revelation & Mystery" wasn't that bad of an album too ;) I always thought it has all that made other bands "big" (maybe more) but people still genuinely love the debut and then, not so much ... I can't complain though. Danke Wolf, fuer alles!

Is your World In Sound? (Pt.1)

Okay, this is going to be a bit of a biased post, as I've been "more or less" lucky to work with and for the German World In Sound-label for quite some time now. And I say more or less because as with many things, there are pros and cons to being a musician myself and also working in the biz. To be clear: WIS is great! You can find a plethora of super cool, often unheard musicians and bands there, if you have patience to discover these for yourself ... which I sometimes think is becoming a lost art, to have patience. 

And working with WIS, you need even more of that same, patience ;) There may be more "professional" labels who may have better distribution, big ole' ads in music papers, music videos and all that fancy stuff, but a lot of them probably don't have half the heart of the guy behind this little WIS-organization, who is a guy named Wolf with a voice like the same ;) a guy who fits in kind of nicely with all this "craziness" here.

So, all I wanted to do with this little post is introduce a few of the amazing artists that are united under the umbrella of WIS, since there are many, it may help to have a starting point. WIS is basically divided into two branches, stuff from the past (60-80s) and new groups. Pretty much all of it is worth a music lover's attention, I swear ... Some of my personal highlights from the classics would be the following:

FRED - the best band, the biggest enigma

It is quite a miracle that WIS in deep rural Germany was the first and only label to release this early US psych-prog highlight! A band from Pennsylvania that never released much during their active period in the 1970s, which is very strange since this is a really great group with similarities to King Crimson, or Frank Zappa including a wonderful wailing violin as in It's a Beautiful Day.

DARIUS a.k.a. the Psychedelic King

This guy is one of the absolute mysteries for me, with two great albums, a truckload of talent and great musicianship, yet remained a total underdog. Fans of The Doors must really love his stuff, at least I do, so give this a spin ...

FEAR ITSELF - female fronted psych was big at WIS, long before it became a trend

Among several female fronted psychedelic bands on the WIS label, this is the standout featuring the amazing Ellen McIlwaine, who (like many others) never made it past a sort of insider tip status, despite being pretty much in league with other acid rock singers of the era. Her backing band was a bit sloppy though, well, that has its own charm for me ...

GOLDENROD - forefathers of Earthless?!

Maaan, seriously check these freaks out! A late 60's band formed by amazing studio musicians who worked with the aforementioned Darius, but also with "the King" Elvis Presley himself, The Doors, The 5th Dimension and others. Maybe that already speaks for itself, but this album is really a trip, a kind of Blue Cheer with better sound and musicianship maybe?

CLIMAX - Hooray for South America!

There were also quite a few early South American proto-prog releases on WIS. Bands like Modulo 1000, Laghonia and then Climax, which, at least for me, are the highlight of these. The opening track alone is worth getting into this rare recording. Great rhythms and relentless fuzz guitar will get you excited!

The oddballs: HAMANA, MICHAEL JAMES, MARCUS and more

This is kind of the wildest part of WIS, Loner Acid Folk in all its beautiful obscurity. If you're looking for something different from all the rest, which is still a wonderful part of an almost forgotten universe - ... and I could say that for pretty much all WIS releases, old and new - Dig in! 

And there are so many more true psychedelic gems like THE ID, DRAGONWYCK, MYSTIC SIVA, THE HEADSHOP, JEFF SIMMONS etc, see also www.worldinsound.com and no, I won't get paid for this post ;) I really am quite proud of being part of this crazy trip!

Paraíso achado

Influences: Mammatus

Probably the biggest influence of any new band throughout the last 15 years was this "little odd band" (should be huge IMHO) from Santa Cruz County: MAMMATUS. And even tho when I say this I mean just basically their first and second album which in some way showed me that music can be kind of weird and still rocking and exciting, and doesn't have to follow any kind of stereotypical pattern at all - even though at times with SBE I think we exaggerated when we were adding part after part after part in just one song, but yeah; big influence this. 

I even tried to convince Mammatus to play a show with Samsara in SF on our first US-tour in 2009, but this didn't work out. Their rare stage appearances may be a crucial part of why they aren't more known. Nevertheless, they're a very unique band in many regards. Their drummer with his synthesizer project WAPITI later also influenced me to do my Surya-stuff. Lots of creativity here, and I'm only guessing but Mammatus seem to be influenced from Japanese 70s music like Osamu Kitajima, and Isao Tomita in particular - which are other faves of mine too.

Return to the farm (Pt.2)

Return to the farm (Pt.1)

Influences: Bland Bladen "I Grevens Tid" (2003)

While I am working on new tracks for a Surya Kris Peters-album, for some time later this year perhaps, I found a similarity to a band that I almost forgot: Bland Bladen. And here's a funny thing, I never really listened that much to this kind of jam music, long guitar noodling or pretty much anything that Samsara probably became sort of notorious for - LOL ... Well, I may have went through a rather short phase when I liked such stuff and maybe that was around the time this four track-album fell into our hands, and I say "our" because actually this CD mysteriously landed in the hands of former Terraplane singer/bassist Chris Oelke when we played at Stoned From The Underground-festival in 2003. And yes in a way Terraplane already played extended jams occasionally, when pretty much no one had a clue what was going on. Also the ultra-long version of Zepp'lins "Dazed And Confused" always left us with lots of oohs and aahs, but anyways that was pretty much that. Remember the very early 2000s were also a time when streaming, or even decent downloading was pretty much non-existent, so you listened to the CDs you had and for us that was a lot of Zepp'lin, Hendrix, Canned Heat's "Parthenogenesis and then this mysterious Bland Bladen-band from Sweden that went though lots of spins in our Harz mountain-homes.

Influences: Robin Trower

Although sometimes I think things may be just too much obvious, I'd like to follow up on writing about some of my inspirations. And here's this humble British guy, not just for me a electric guitar super hero, but without any of the usual glamour (or as I'd rather call it: rockstar bs). The first time I came across Trower's music must have been sometime around 2005 I think when I found a Repertoire Label sampler in a cheapo bin in our local electronics store. Remember when such stores still sold lots of (interesting) CDs, well... 

That sampler had one track from Trower's "Go My Way"-album from 2000. I felt instantly remembered of Michael Landau, another "unsung" guitar hero, whose "Roodies" from The Raging Honkies-album "Boner" is among these very anthems of my troubled youth ;) No but seriously, people like this don't seem to get the praise the deserve. It's too often always Hendrix, and these comparisons though there's so much of an individual note here too, nothing against Hendrix.

I have been fortunate to see Trower play live in around 2005 in a place called Bluesgarage Hannover. It was one of those few gigs that will always remember although I don't even remember so many details. At that moment in time I was a little heart-broken, pretty drunk, and banging my head off. As a direct result of all that I bought a "midnight wine" Stratocaster which accompanied me throughout long times in Samsara Blues Experiment. And it's no coincidence that I played this guitar at Samsara's concert at Rockpalast which was the very same place where Trower played his show. What an honour back then, although the Rockpalast experience didn't make me so happy, but that's another story. Anyways, Robin Trower, what a hero! And that Michael Landau too ;) ...

"A New Dimension" - the lyrics

A New Dimension Since the day when you have come to me I don't know what's happening, your pretty colors are all I wanna see Radiant lights and moonbeams burst across the ceiling  and I know that it's not a dream,  as we enter this new dimension I came as unprepared but then I knew that you would lend a hand All the things I did before don't mean so much to me and if sometimes we'd be lost for words, deep down I know that you will understand, that both we hold the key to this sacred land I've seen our love is in the gods' intention, there's no need to question it No time for sorrow when you do believe that truth is all I see by turning myself unto you It really doesn't matter where we'll gonna be Lunik IX Breathe in, breathe out - I know it's getting tough just to relax You gotta let go of all the fuzzy things that occupy your mind No I can't see why you still believe that this would be the only way to live, but maybe that's just because of all these clever things you read Say can't you see how these old ways have led you astray, while it seems that you even have forgotten just how to live and you're getting lost in this supposedly dark and cruel reality You know some of these moderns facts of life are more than a mystery to me There's just too many things these days that have run out of bounds Breathe out, breathe in - when you've lost all your fear is when your true life shall begin Now take a good look deep down inside of you, review on all the things that you can find, you better clear up now You gotta lay down your wrath Revise the morals of the past Engage true powers of your soul Trusting in life you'll never fall Just dare to follow the light Reveal the warmth of your insight, so that we'll finally break free And when you fall back into some of your old insecurities, remember how you've learned to breathe and look behind their iron wall: There's so many things that they don't know! Baby Bee Baby Bee, I just wanna thank you for everything that you've brought to my life I don't know if you can imagine how much you make me feel alive We've had an ocean to separate us, we had to wait for such a long time, and now the dream, that once we've shared, has become real And may the outside world go crazy I've got this undemanding love on my mind, where all the years of endless yearning come to an end In Her Garden All these years that I have been alone I saw her stroll through a garden with waving hair, and everywhere always so fine A colorful dream that was so, so far away I felt misplaced till the day I heard call out Hey Sunchylde, what if I told you it wasn't a dream, you just have to believe, one day it all will come true for you, just wait and see - When I was down and out I spent all my days in a dark and cold room, while almost growing numb, I heard her call from the moon Babe believe me I know, that we are descendents of a far away star Now we're trapped in this cruel old world with our hearts full, and a vision that goes beyond what science knows But just to see your garden bloom, made me realize, that finally I've found a home The Mushroom Park I always see you when the black rain falls You made things shine, when I wanted to cry out loud For so long I hid myself in this room until I heard your call from afar Back then I thought - I must be dreaming, when in your eyes I'd seen through the gates of dawn While everyone else had been so misleading, I held you very close to my heart And now you brought this new life to me A burst of joy for every-one else to see Together we'll walk this rocky path while the outside world is drifting apart Open your mind and answer my call With a kiss that blows up my heart Right after floating through that mushroom park each day I wake up in this vibrant wonderland You've pulled me out there from my cage in the dark You made me rediscover long lost feelings Babe I hope that every day I'll see you smile Let us make this incarnation very worth while and see how we're bound to stay together while the outside world is falling apart While everybody's in trouble to keep a clear sight, your gentle voice cuts right through this thick air All you got to do is to open your mind now and leave all the darkness behind

Furthur (instrumental) Tropical Rain Just left this gloomy valley of tears and further down by the road I stumbled right into your arms, gave all myself just to you And all the memories of where I came from will always be there - yet they're gone It feels as if I had been slumbering all through this previous life, waiting for someone to tell me where to go Yet sure I've always known, this current had been strong within myself And here I watch all my worries washed off by the tropical rain If that's the place where I always had belonged, I hope this love will sustain I'd love to promise that I'll never fail you by all the things you could read from my eyes 'cause sure I've always known, this current had been strong within myself Need For Simplicity (instrumental) Crashing Cascade And when the city has fallen asleep, I'll watch these freeks and those creeps in their slumber While they peacefully drift into another world I hear them banging on the doors to my realm Here where everyone is just the same, there'll be no angels, no sinners and no one else to blame for all you've done in this previous life Oh did you drown in your wealth, or could you barely survive Though in this place none of this doesn't matter you may hold on to your things, but then we all have got to die And I know how much you are afraid, but believe me that this won't be the end You will live on in their memories while the clock marches on (so relentlessly) You've left a mark within their minds No one stays left behind Here where everyone is just the same there'll be no losers, no winners and no one else to play They've build a cage to protect your life And when you thought you're immune, I watched you slowly die But you'll live on in their memories. Celestial Harbour (CD-Bonus) You had nothing to prove to me, you were the only hero that I've ever known, but now you're gone Blazed out - Guess it wasn't the wrong choice as I still hear you moan in pain through all the sleepless nights Things may have never been easy for you, but then I never even heard you complain From the days when you were just a boy, see how far you have come by now With no one to guide you through this path, suddenly you've got lost in the dark If they deemed you wrong, I hope one day you will return Please just walk into the light for now And everywhere that you will roam, carry this torch with you, you'll be a star Your own truth may never be wrong One more time need to be brave and find peace within you, right where you are You'll live on in our hearts and in this song While the days fly by like crazy, somehow I hope you'll remember me when you'll arrive up there in your celestial harbour Where righteous men will always struggle, while they keep pushing on, waiting for something new to become And everything you've given to me will come right back to you, but for now, just walk on Arapongas (CD-Bonus) (instrumental)

The new album is out!

Please go here to download: https://electricmagic.bandcamp.com/album/a-new-dimension

Until February 20 it will be possible to get it as a friendly offer although donations are very much appreciated. All other digital outlets follow later. If a record label is interested in collaborating on a physical release, feel free to contact me.

Fuzz Sagrado's "A New Dimension" is my first full length album including vocals, after already releasing two instrumental EPs in July and October 2021. After the break with Samsara Blues Experiment in 2020 and making a lot of synthesizer music with Surya Kris Peters, I came to realize where my other true passion lies and where I wanted to go in my life as a musician: back to that ol' Psychedelic Rock. After all also I didn't feel yet as if I should retire completely from that scene. So at this point in my life I feel just comfortable enough to self-produce my music the way I want to, without too many distractions from the outside world. I asked myself many questions throughout the last months and this album has had a few answers for me, and brought quite a big satisfaction as it showed of what I am capable and that there are still things that I yearn to master. It may be a bit of a selfish work but I am not at all here to impress (or to please) anybody, although I am happy to hear that people are influenced or moved by some of the songs I wrote in the past with my bands and I think that some of this new solo work may have that same potential. After all I hope you'll enjoy what you hear!

Mar de Minas

Just a few pics from our recent travel in our home state Minas Gerais. It's summer here which means a lot of rain and it's not really recommend to come close to the waterfalls in that period - yet there's a lot of other sights to witness. I am determined to take more pictures again this year also, I missed it.