Review: The Papermoon Sessions - Live At Roadburn 2014

First up, a history lesson - back in 2013 Electric Moon met up with Danish band Papir and the result of this spontaneous meeting of psych minds was the absolutely belting 'Papermoon Sessions'. Fast forward a year to 2014's Roadburn Festival where Sula Bassana and Komet Lulu of Electric Moon renewed musical acquaintance with the Papir guys (and also Mogens Deenfort from fellow spaceheads Øresund Space Collective) and totally blew away the audience. For those of us who were unable to witness this cataclysmic union of sonic terrorists Sulatron Records has released the set on vinyl and CD (and the second live recording from Roadburn for Sula Bassana and Komet Lulu who, obviously, appear on the 'Sula Bassana Live From Roadburn 2014' disc, reviewed here just a few days ago).

The set was made up of just 2 tracks - 'Powdered Star' at 24 minutes long, and 'Blazing Milky Way' at 22 minutes - and in that just shy of 50 minutes we are taken on a truly cosmic journey that takes in psychedelia, krautrock, space rock, post rock and even a pinch of prog! It is a journey of ups and downs in terms of tempo and volume but the atmosphere created by this psych supergroup never falls below the intense level.

'Powdered Star' starts with some spacey synths, soon to be joined by bass and a twin guitar attack - oh those guitars! - and does not take long at all to get into it's stride and we are soon amidst a jamming session of psychedelic armageddon proportions. There are moments of relative tranquility where it veers into almost progressive realms, underpinned by spacey synths and the relentless rhythm section keeping the narrative on track. As the track progresses the space rock level is ramped up until it is a glorious cacophony of guitar led fuzz.

'Blazing Milky Way' starts in a more sedate and mantric manner - simple bass notes and percussion and spacey synths but you just know that it's going to kick off at some point. Slowly it builds (at times I was feeling some 'Bladerunner' vibes) and slowly turns into a heady kosmische workout, still constantly building. At it's acme the track becomes a another full on psychedelic assault, the guitars wailing as though shouting at the gods, the intensity level is somewhere in the stratosphere. Things quieten down towards the end, coming full circle, giving the enthralled crowd some time to catch their collective breath.

Sensitively mixed by Papir with EROC on mastering duties, this is another blistering release for Sulatron - the aural record of a group of musicians from different worlds meeting and gelling and producing a barnstormer of a live set. Fuckin' A!

The CD is available now on Sulatron Records with the vinyl due on 17th April - the limited edition comes with inside-out cover and 500 available on clear vinyl. All artwork as ever by Lulu Artwork.