Bunsen Burner Day is celebrated on this date because it is the birthday of Robert Bunsen, born in 1811.

10 things you might not know about Bunsen burners.

https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2014/03/31st-march-bunsen-burner-day.html

#BunsenBurner #Science

Bunsenburner – Reverie Review

By Dear Hollow

My relationship with Germany’s Bunsenburner grows with each release, and you could say it’s getting pretty serious, like a dark romantasy. I completely ripped third full-length Poise a new one which garnered the ire of mastermind Ben Krahl. But like any hate relationship that borders on masochistic, he saw the light and sent in follow-up Rituals – and our love blossomed. The act’s backbone lies in the fuzz and jam-sesh vibes of stoner metal, but with enough free jazz and crystalline ambiance to kill a full-grown elephant, it embraces the psychedelia in tasteful ways with instrumental prowess.

Reverie, then, is a continued honing of Bunsenburner’s seemingly scattershot influences, reflecting the pedigree of its contributors.1 While the free jazz of Rituals is certainly present, it is anchored by much-improved fuzzy stoner riffage a la Poise, owing a certain “thinking man’s jam sesh” vibe – oxymoronic or not. Reverie simply feels like a better form of Poise altogether, that the riffs are in the spotlight, but all atmospheric elements shine in enacting a psychedelic shimmer that adds to the weight and teleports it otherworldly planes. It’s the best album Bunsenburner has made, but then again, they made a song named after me. So.

Reverie’s best qualities amp the accessibility. The grooves are tighter, the songs shorter to enhance the effect, and there are still riffs I can’t get out of my head since. There are covers aboard Reverie,2 but Bunsenburner’s sound is so organic it could as easily have been original. As always, Bunsenburner has never felt lacking in its entirely instrumental approach, and with a better track formula focusing on organic movements from riff to riff, the stoner-focused track shine (“Gleam of the Goddess,” “Trigger,” “Catfight,” “Bagbak”) with a renewed urgency that hits hard and fast and doesn’t overstay its welcome, not to mention its trademark atmospheric tricks (e.g. flute in “TORO,” nintendocore synth in “Bagbak”). The jam sesh chemistry feels more palpable here, owing to a fuzz that doesn’t overwhelm and a rich rhythmic tapestry that adds to the replay factor. The album is forty-four minutes, with thirteen tracks to its name – only a handful of songs exceed the three-minute mark, which adds to the conciseness and punch.

A stark departure from Poise, Bunsenburner isn’t all ballsy riffs. Experimental moments abound, like the two part “Letting Go (softly)” and “Letting Go (hardly),” which are in essence the same song with all its melodies and motifs but one feels like a crystalline post-rock song and the other a stoner metal riff-fest. Slower chuggy passages abound that add a sludgy swampiness to the sound (“Golden Shower,” “Triskaidekaphobie”), without dragging the sound into stagnancy. Longer tracks (“Ballade Four,” “Triskaidekaphobie”) balance the two approaches in thick stoner riffs that move smoothly into gentle plucking and back again, in places feeling a tad like a more stoner-oriented Hex-era Earth. The influences of classic guitar abuse reminiscent of psychedelic Jimi Hendrix is felt throughout (“Zodiac Shit,” “Golden Shower”), while bluesy southern rock melodic sensibilities rear Gothic and mysterious heads (“Waltz, alone,” “Ballade Four”). The most obvious remnant of Rituals’ free jazz is track eight, “Dear Hollow,” a minute-long gush of wailing noise, warbling synth, and punky blastbeats – obviously and objectively the best track Bunsenburner has ever released and likely ever will.

Bunsenburner continues to hone its skills. While it sacrifices a bit of the holistic cohesion of Rituals with its more riff-centric attack, Reverie feels more a redemption arc of Poise – its pieces, however disjointed they can feel, are done with stunning clarity, organicity, and power. The grooves hit harder, the atmosphere is more complementary, and the experimental flare is palpable without sacrificing the album cohesion. Its cover’s cuddly black metal kitten is playful homage to the act’s jam-seshing chemistry, although its experimental and atmospheric elements are more than meets the ear. Next time, make the song about me a little longer for a higher score, okay? Kisses!

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: January 17th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AmbientMetal #Bunsenburner #DoomMetal #Earth #FearMyThoughts #FreeJazz #GermanMetal #Jan25 #JimiHendrix #LongDistanceCalling #PostRock #Reverie #Review #Reviews #SelfRelease #SludgeMetal #SouthernRock #StonerMetal #Triptykon

Killing Spree – Camouflage! Review

By Dear Hollow

As the old ball bounces, I guess I’m becoming the jazz guy around here. Hey, did you know that the phrase “jazz” probably comes from the word “jasm,” which is an archaic American phrase that means “drive” or “energy?” Now you do. Either way, when the inimitable GardensTale claimed this one, he was like “what the hell” and asked – no, demanded – that I take it after seeing my work with Mamaleek, that whack-ass La Suspendida project, and Bunsenburner’s redemption arc. But Killing Spree is here to kick ass and take names, like down in NOLA or some shit. Does it jazz? That’s the question. It jazzes, it’s got jasm, and you best fall into the jasm chasm with me, you dig?

French duo Killing Spree consists of saxophonist Matthieu Metzger1 and drummer Grégoire Galichet,2 and Camouflage! is their debut full-length after 2020 EP A Violent Legacy (a collection of Death and Meshuggah covers). While sax in metal is not uncommon, with bands like Ex Eye and Corrections House utilizing it for haunting accents in sludge-worshiping offerings, Killing Spree goes for both the jugular in its death metal focus and for the pecker in wonkily improvised free jazz with a range of moods and auras. Fed through handmade machines and distortion pedals galore, sax becomes both the chuggy downtuned riffs you expect from an album devoted to death metal, and the wonky solos that you know from freeform jazz explosions. Ultimately, Killing Spree offers an album that surprisingly works even if it is weird as shit.

Camouflage! is a tale of two halves. Sparse death vocals appear on intro “A, C and B,” the title track, “Disposable,” and “The Psychopomp,” lending Killing Spree’s first act a distinct death metal vibe, the robustness of the saxophone surprisingly compatible with its mammoth distortion, complete with driving rhythms and pulsing heft. “The Psychopomp” serves as dynamic movement into the second half, chuggy riffs evolving from the configuration of death metal leads to the looseness and freedom of jazz. The second act embraces this freedom, that while death growls and rhythms still pervade, the melodics feel much more apt to Ornette Coleman, John Zorn, or John Coltrane in avant-garde discordance atop bass-heavy sax chugs that feel straight outta sludge. The “All These Bells and Whistles” binary offers a foundation of impossibly heavy staccato “chugs” while freeform improvised wails and robust arpeggios soar atop it, an expression of fluidity that feels ominous, plodding, and hateful. “250 Slaves” is a sidewinder, stealing a similar template for a suddenly major key interpretation, its upbeat rhythms approaching punk. The first half feels a bit like a misdirect, completely locked into its rhythms with a head-bobbing groove, while the second cuts loose into wild jazz ejaculations – Killing Spree is truly fluid indeed.

As you may have guessed, Camouflage! is fuckin’ weird. Aside from the inherent inaccessibility of its music, Killing Spree pushes the envelope of our comfort. Most prominently, upper-register sax wails in tracks like “Disposable” and the first half of “All These Bells and Whistles, Pt. II” are nearly migraine-inducing in their stubborn repetition and lack of variation. Otherwise, the disparate stylings of the two halves feels a bit jarring, even though it is neatly separated by the smooth adjustments across “The Psychopomp” and the clarity of interlude “Toute Cette Violence Qui Est En Moi.” While at its best in the wild-but-not-inaccessible attack of “All These Bells and Whistles,” first-half tracks not only feel less memorable but also too locked into their own rhythms, as “Camouflage!” and “The Psychopomp” grow weary across more gratuitous lengths. However, “All These Bells and Whistles, Pt. I” and closer “Chanson de Cirque – Corrida de Muerte” can feel too freeform in utter abandonment of structure. Because the death growls become expected, the clean singing and talkbox voice of the closer likewise feel jarring for Killing Spree.

Camouflage! is exactly what Killing Spree intends: death metal made of jazz sax. Contrary to the organic acoustics of Onkos, for instance, they embrace the synthetic and industrial in a machine’s distorted voice. Across a frankly protracted forty-six minutes, they finally seem to hit their stride and break out of a robotic rhythm in “The Psychopomp” then get a little too big for their britches by the time “Chanson de Cirque…” rolls around. Does Killing Spree jazz? Yes. Will it give you an orjasm? Remains to be seen.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s mp3
Label: Klonosphere Records
Website: soundcloud.com/killingspree
Releases Worldwide: September 13th, 2024

#2024 #30 #Bunsenburner #Camouflage_ #CorrectionsHouse #DeadSeason #Death #DeathMetal #DeathcodeSociety #ExEye #FreeJazz #IndustrialMetal #Jazz #JohnColtrane #JohnZorn #KillingSpree #Klone #KlonosphereRecords #Kwoon #LaSuspendida #Mamaleek #Meshuggah #NationalJazzOrchestra #Onkos #OrnetteColeman #Review #Reviews #Sep24

Bunsenburner, Squall (EP)
https://bunsenburner.bandcamp.com/album/squall-ep

#Bunsenburner #Squall #Music

Mistigram: are you tired of burning the candle at both ends? Modern science offers an efficient replacement: the #BunsenBurner! So fill up your Erlenmeyer flask with a celebratory hot drink of your choice and let’s get cooking! This #ANSIart observance of Bunsen burner day was drawn by AdeptApril.

https://mistfunk.wordpress.com/2024/03/31/adeptapril-mar31/

#31March #AdeptApril #ANSIArt #bunsenBurner #Mar31

FULL FORCE FRIDAY:🆕December 9th Release #40🎧

BUNSENBURNER - Poise🇩🇪🔥

Debut album from German Stoner/Doom Metal outfit🔥

BC➡️https://bunsenburner.bandcamp.com/album/poise 🔥

#_Bunsenburner_ #Poise #StonerDoomMetal #Bunsenburner #FFFDec9 #KMäN