SH.TG.N, "Sh.Tg.N"

Spooky metal psychedelic jazz-rock? That's what SH.TG.N is about, on their inaugural Sh.Tg.N (Moon June 046). Belgian keyboardist Antoine Guenet, who is also a member of The Wrong Object, put together the band a few years ago and they have a good go of it on this first record.

Antoine joins Fulco Ottervanger, lead vocals, Wim Segers, vibes, Yannick de Pauw, electric guitar, Dries Geusens, bass guitar, and Simon Segers, drums. This is well put-together music with an active comp-arrangement factor and some scary keys, blistering guitar, and rapid sequence vibes adding a distinctive sound.

I've listened to this one five times now and it's growing on me. There is nothing hackneyed or cliched, it's pretty out there much of the time and it has nice energy and plenty of musical content. It feels like a band going somewhere, but where that will be it may take a few albums to reveal. Meanwhile, happy ears from this one.

Zweiton, Form

Here is some expanding post-prog-metal-minimalism of the good kind. Zweiton makes its debut with Form (Unsung 4260139120864) presenting six instrumentals that go to nice places.

Zeiton is Alexander Paul Dowerk on the U8 Touch Guitar (playing guitar and bass parts via overdubs) and Alexis Paulus on drums, with added guests here and there on acoustic guitar, tuba and viola.

It's post-late-Crimson sounding at times, always musically rich and diverse, and it rocks. The ten-minute "9 Days of Tripping" is a complicated suite-like number and goes pretty far out there while still keeping with the advanced drumming pulsations. But it's all worthwhile. If you like lyrical outness with a metal kick, you will like this one for sure.

Matta Gawa, Tambora

Avant psychedelic metal? Free rock? Matta Gawa does that. It's Ed Ricart on very electric guitar and Sam Lohman at the drums. Their second full-length album Tambora (New Atlantis) continues where the first left off, with barrages of guitar power, effects-laden, voltage drenched tirades of skillful and smart amperage, punctuated by all-over drumming that brings the controlled chaos into the clear channel of musical mind-blow.

Take the two-minutes of true outness of long psychedelic band jams from the classic era and use that as the basis for your musical existence. That in many ways is what Matta Gawa is about.

Such freedom requires much creativity and discipline. The fact that the music hangs together convincingly and in exciting ways shows that Ricart and Lohman have it.

The audience for this music is probably in part self-selecting. Those that might like this sort of thing, do, assuming they get the word. Here is the word...