“Hermetic Armada“, the first single off of “An Imaginal Abydos”, the new LP from Primordial Undermind. Out 07.15.22, from Deep Water Acres and Sunrise Ocean Bender.

An Imaginal Abydos is Primordial Undermind’s eleventh album of all-new music, and the first new studio recordings since 2011. Through the band’s three decades of existence, Undermind frontal lobe Eric Arn has led the group through multiple incarnations – initially in the US, since 2005 in Vienna, Austria – that ranged along a musical spectrum from post-garage-psych stomp via spiky art punk and into avant-garde space, always maintaining an immediately recognizable aesthetic through-line. Of all the band’s incarnations, Vienna is the longest-lasting yet least-recorded, so just on that basis An Imaginal Abydos is a treat for longtime listeners, a studio snapshot of the current quartet (guitars, bass, drums) in hard-charging action in late 2019 and early 2020 (last days of the Before Times). Those good listeners will appreciate even more how the album’s musical contents channel sounds from all across PU’s past sonic scope – from structured songs to freeform improvisations, drone into dissonance, noise overload to hovering sparseness, a proper lysergic ruckus that snarls and spits when needed but is also quiet and understated in good measure. All of which makes it perhaps the most Undermind-ian PU LP yet, manna for old fans and a fine entry point for new ones; there’s plenty of guitar freakout, and it sounds mighty good with the volume on your hi-fi cranked way up. Seven songs, 39 minutes.

An Imaginal Abydos

Hermetic Armada / Primordial Undermind

“An Imaginal Abydos” is Primordial Undermind’s eleventh album of all-new music, and the first new studio recordings since 2011. Through the band’s three decades of existence, Undermind frontal lobe Eric Arn has led the group through multiple incarnations – initially in the US, since 2005 in Vienna, Austria – that ranged along a musical spectrum from post-garage-psych stomp via spiky art punk and into avant-garde space, always maintaining an immediately recognizable aesthetic through-line. Of all the band’s incarnations, Vienna is the longest-lasting yet least-recorded, so just on that basis “An Imaginal Abydos” is a treat for longtime listeners, a studio snapshot of the current quartet (guitars, bass, drums) in hard-charging action in late 2019 and early 2020 (last days of the Before Times). Those good listeners will appreciate even more how the album’s musical contents channel sounds from all across PU’s past sonic scope – from structured songs to freeform improvisations, drone into dissonance, noise overload to hovering sparseness, a proper lysergic ruckus that snarls and spits when needed but is also quiet and understated in good measure. All of which makes it perhaps the most Undermind-ian PU LP yet, manna for old fans and a fine entry point for new ones; there’s plenty of guitar freakout, and it sounds mighty good with the volume on your hi-fi cranked way up. Seven songs, 39 minutes.
credits
released July 15, 2022

Christoph Johannes Weikinger guitar, vocals
Xavier Scholz drums
Antonio Rosa de Pauli bass, xylophone
Eric Arn guitar, vocals

Hermetic Armada

Until They Break

Jury-rigged Makeshift Assemblage

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True Believers

Prana Crafter is William Sol, a musical mystic who blends the raw energies of nature with guitars, synthesizers, singing bowls, and a dose of flow-consciousness. The resulting sonic nectar flows out from the amplifier, cascading in the mind of the listener, splashing mantras against the listener’s third ear. Some music is meant to entertain, to be consumed like flashing patterns on a TV screen. Not so with the music of Prana Crafter. This music is a sonic-tapestry of energies that are meant to envelop the listener and deliver a message that, as Sol puts it, cannot be known through symbol or through sign. Prana Crafter has released albums of kosmische flavored psych rock and acid folk on Beyond Beyond is Beyond, Eiderdown, Deep Water Acres, and Reverb Worship. Sunrise Ocean Bender and Cardinal Fuzz Records are proud to join in the journey with the psych-folk boon ‘Enter the Stream’.

Likened to artists across the psychedelic and folk spectrums—Neil Young, Popul Vuh, Agitation Free, Träd, Gräs & Stenar, Ben Chasny, Elliot Smith—Sol’s self-professed mentors-in-spirit Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, and Manuel Göttsching are present as well in familiar and surprising ways. In review it has been said that Prana Crafter’s music is “an example of psych-folk at its finest” (Raven Sings the Blues), “like a long lost pressing from the early 70s, it’s a mist shrouded mysterious meditation” (Shindig Magazine), and even that, “few other musicians are making music as ambitious and genuine as Prana Crafter” (The Active Listener).

Sol has said he thinks of himself as a conduit for the music and ‘Enter the Stream’ once again proves it. At times highly personal and gently psychedelic, the album always wears its kosmic heart on its sleeve. ‘Enter the Stream’ is an album in the way that so many albums these days are not. Not a collection of singles, not tailor-made for an audience. This is a carefully flowing composition blooming into a kosmische-acid-folk opus. From start to finish, ‘Enter the Stream’ is a journey that takes the listener through a landscape of pristine natural beauty, human emotion, and esoteric undercurrents.

8 tracks, 38 minutes.

Limited edition transparent green/white or black with multi-format download included. Available as a download only or limited edtion Sam Giles version CD.

Releasing on/around 07/31/18

SOB Store

Old North Wind

Moon Through Fern Lattice

Enter The Stream

Geuglag Wansaeng

Eeeum

Ollim

Donggrami

Steve Palmer is a young guitar player from Minneapolis, and ‘Useful Histories’ is his second full-length release. The first, ‘Unblinking Sun’ (a 2014 CD on the Dying for Bad Music label) stood out with its wide-ranging instrumental mixture of American Primitive picking and psychedelic rock influences. As its title hints, on ‘Useful Histories’ those roots remain in spirit, reconfigured and developed due to time and circumstance; recorded over a two-year period as Palmer was required to adjust to a neurological condition that necessitated changes in his guitar technique, eventually catalyzing his larger musical approach in a more experimental and focused direction. The album divides roughly between extended “full-band” songs—alternately cruising down a straight-eight space highway into a full meltdown on the horizon, or avant-choogling their way into the air like some lost late-night ballroom jam—and layered guitar pieces that incorporate looping effects, fluid pensive picking, and the sound of pure electricity coursing through the power lines on a North Midwestern night. 

Joining forces once again, Sunrise Ocean Bender records and Deep Water Acres are honored to present Palmer’s latest offering of cosmic American psychedelia—five immersive tracks spread across 37 minutes, with audio mastering by Eric Carbonara at Nada Sound Studio. Released on standard black vinyl and limited edition transparent violet vinyl, multi-format download included.

Useful Histories

Thirty

Statesboro Day

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