Unknown Pleasures · 18.01.2026
This album unites all my favorite bands from between 1987 and 1993. During that time, I spent a year in the Middle East and increasingly discovered Arabic music, both classical and pop. Around 1987, my interest in alternative rock, new wave, noise, gothic, and Americana began. And 30 years later, this Portuguese band appears and blends these seemingly contradictory styles into a song-oriented, harmonically organic work of art. Everything about this music seems authentic, from the murmured...
Comments & Stories · 07.10.2025
On first listen, I was almost blown away by the album, but something in my subconscious told me something wasn't quite right. So I reread the press release, which listed numerous prominent musicians, something that put me off, as someone who doesn't snoop on names. Then I listened to the lyrics and had them displayed on Spotify. Ah, Western musicians imitate oriental music because oriental music has a clear canon of themes that can be sung about. This includes unrequited love, but not love,...
Heavystoned Albums · 21.07.2025
After a creative break of just six months, the Washington band is releasing their second album, and I can already tell you that it will take you across the Sahara, from one oasis to another, and thus from one style to another. The more rock-oriented debut is now followed by a more relaxed version of the desert trip, with significantly more oriental influences. The opener, "Earth Wisdom," is a pretty hard-rocking song, but the following song, "The Search Continues," reminds me strongly of Peter...
Daily Peaks · 04.02.2025
If you look at a map, you can see that Greece is closer to the Orient in terms of music and culture than to Europe. The Greek band "Naxatras" manages, like no other band, to effortlessly bridge the gap between western, progressive music of the 70s and oriental music, in this case Turkish music. "Numenia" is based on a fantastic bass line, the 4/4 time of the Tsifteteli - the traditional Greek women's dance - which gives the rather stomping, western 4/4 time a less static note. Somehow I wonder...
Unknown Pleasures · 29.06.2024
It is one of the most exotic mixes I have heard during my time with Heavystoned. After the first few notes, the listener feels transported to the Middle East, or rather to Turkey, because there are a few quarter tones that our western ears immediately recognize as foreign. Then two bands actually play next to each other, for example the oriental band plays in one rehearsal room and the psychedelic band plays in the other rehearsal room, and the listener stands between the two rooms. As the song...