Artist ....... Bong
Album ........ Live at Roadburn 2010
Genre ........ Psychedelic Rock
Source ....... CDDA
Label ........ Roadburn Records
Catalog Nr. .. RBR022
Release Date . Mar-28-2015
Tracks ....... 01
Length ....... 57:47
Quality ...... 44,1
Mode ......... Joint Stereo
Encoder ...... LAME 3.98.4 -V0
Size ......... 98,58 MB
Link ......... http://www.roadburnrecords.com/
Rls Notes
It wasn't so long ago, that UK heavies Bong were just an amusingly-
named band that counted one of our customers as a member. It took a
while, but eventually we got 'em to send us some records (you can
imagine, a band named Bong isn't the most businesslike and efficient
bunch, nice folks though they are). And their brand of stoned,
psychedelic, Eastern-tinged doomdrone improv proved to be right up our
alley, and appropriate to their moniker. Now, a couple years later,
we've sold many, many Bong lps, cds, and cd-rs - and one of us here
even got to see 'em live, last year. That'd be Allan, when he went to
the amazing Roadburn festival in Holland (sadly, he missed out on
going again this year, darn it). Of course, being a fan, he was
excited about seeing Bong in person. And even though they're not the
sort of band to move around much on stage, they weren't boring. In
fact, they were TERRIFIC. Allan was also told afterwards that their
performance was recorded, and would be released on by Roadburn's
label. Beyond that, strangely enough, Allan doesn't remember much else
specific about the show (there may have been a contact high involved
from their music that affected his memory faculties) but now at long
last here's Bong's Live At Roadburn 2010 release to remind him! And
for the rest of us to enjoy as well, and not have to be so jealous
that we didn't go to Roadburn too.
After some enthused hails from the crowd, the first of two loooooong
tracks ("Onwards To Perdonaris", 33:24) starts up, or seeps in, eerie
and airy and understated, quite lovely really, not at all heavy, but
nicely hypnotic...until a few minutes in when one may be rudely
startled (depending on how high you have your volume set) by some deep
voiced declamations, dunno what the fellow is on about, but that's ok,
'cause it serves to alert you that right about NOW the band is really
gonna get LOUD, everything stepping up a big notch, to accommodate a
constant drone backing, yeah now it's heavy, but still keeping the
hypnotic lovely thing going too, slow rhythmic pulsations punctuated
by an exotic zing of the strings (that's the "Shahi Baaja", an
electrified Indian zither / drone harp with typewriter keys that one
of the Bong-sters plays), once in a while joined again by more near-
throat singing... It's rolling, rumbling, atmospheric, Eastern, with
something of the quality of a cult ceremony or religious rite, in part
due to the those occasional low monkish vocals. At times, "Onwards..."
drifts back down into lulling stretches of spacey warbling electronic
FX, and hippy-kraut hand drumming, coming across like a sinister
Siloah or doomy Amon Duul. Or imagine the Master Musicians Of Bukkake
making an ambient album for Miasmah, maybe.
The equally epic second track, "Wizards Of Krull" (previously recorded
for the first side of their self-titled lp debut in 2009), continues
in this vein, with more powerful percussion, though. It's 24 minutes
of ritualistically pounding drums and crashing cymbals, low drone from
bass and voice both, gobs of distortion and spooky psychedelic
effects, those Shahi Baaja note clusters chiming in with regularity.
"Wizards..." gets (slowly) more and more intense as it goes, really
ramping up towards the end with rhythmic urgency. Damn this is good!
Bong bring it, all right, quite recommended, definitely for fans of
Om, SUNNO))), Grails, Sylvester Anfang... and of course Bong. And
bongs! Most if not all Bong releases thus far have been live, and this
one is much less of a lo-fi recording than some of those, making for
an essential document of Bong's unique trance- inducing potency.
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# track length
01 Onward To Perdondaris 33:24
02 Wizards Of Krull 24:22