TRIP LAVA

My musical expectation by this time was for something fairly light and humorous, but it is only on the surface that this transpires. This album is intense, mixing psychedelia, space rock, RIO, krautrock, avant garde and so very much more into something which is incredibly compelling. This isn't music that could ever be listened to in the background, as it demand close attention, it is something that should only ever be played when the listener has time to sit down and devote themselves to it. The melody if often led by the keyboards, but the most important instrument is probably the bass, which underpins it all and keeps it tied together. This is progressive music which is refusing to sit anywhere the mainstream, and instead of following a path well-travelled is instead taking a machete and breaking through new ground. Bands such as Hatfield and the North are an obvious point of reference in some ways, and if you want your progressive music to be truly that, instead of regressing over tried and trusted areas, then this is for you.

Trip Lava's third album "Ounds" is one of those albums I suspect should sit very well among those who tend to enjoy the more challenging music that was and to some extent still is explored by the so-called Krautrock bands. Trip Lava is a bit more cosmic perhaps, and arguably a tad more abrasive, but I'd hazard a guess that for those into difficult music in this and related fields this will not really matter. How much of an appeal this CD will have beyond that crowd is something I'm unsure of, but generally speaking I suspect that this is the most conventional of Trip Lava's unconventional discography so far.

Joel Lee uses guitars, keyboards, synths, acoustic drum-kit, drum-machine, voice, and variety of electronic devices to create somewhat very special. His music flows and changes stylistic profiles constantly, even within one single track. Any attempt to classify it would be strictly subjective and determined by personal experiences of anyone who dares to do it... Nevertheless, the tacks on "Ounds" (understand "Sounds") are technically separated from each other. And it makes the task of classifying a bit easier. You can say at least that there are tracks rhythmically structured by acoustic drum patterns (like "Ounds, Pt. 1", "Ouseh Of Orsmirr", "Osmicc Oldeng Ordsw Of Onmeldag", and "Ounds, Pt. 2"), and they can be conditionally defined as bizarre and freakish Space-Rock or even Avant-Prog. As well as there are tracks not organized rhythmically or with loose sequenced/programmed rhythmic arrangements (like "Oblivision", "Orf Ontrastc", "Ongadays", "Oopl De Oopl", and "Oomsmushr") which relates to abstract Ambient-Drone, Illbient, or even Futuro-Techno. If/when you try to perceive the album in its contextual eternity, you would get quite weird and intricate Sound-Collage featuring a sort of electro-acoustic pictures/scenes rather than songs/compositions.

In my subjective assessment, this is the most principle characteristic of TRIP LAVA music. Joel Lee creates so called "Hybrid Music Sound-Collage" which can take any stylistic shape depending only on what the author wants to say/illustrate and on what audience he wants to appeal to. In fact, "Ounds" much reminds me a soundtrack to an adult animated film based on sci-fi comics or video-games. And I can guess that the album, aside from a funny anagram puzzle within the track-list, should have kinda funny cripping fabula-plot. Am I right? Anyway, it's definitely not for every Prog-Rock fan or rock-traditionalist, but it's strongly recommended to lovers of weirdly progressive, genreless, hybrid, collage, inventively experimental and loosely cinematic instrumental music.

Anyways, this is some great space rock, with lots of guitar and spacy analog synths. I really dig the synth sound as it really has that wonderful analog sound. I really have a difficult time comparing this to other acts. There's at times a Krautrock feel to the music, especially during the more "out there" parts. I never thought of Minneapolis to have much in a way of a space rock scene going on, but I'm glad at least Joel Lee/Trip Lava sure made a stab at it, and a wonderful one at it too.

Rewieving the album track by track is pointless because the album was clearly made to be listened in its entirety. I believe it's the album's biggest strength since the order of the songs, the passages and reprises are very well thought and turns what could be considered a collection of sounds and psychedelic improvisations into something more.

In many occasions I was reminded of Brainticket's "Cottonwoodhill" and "Tago Mago" from Can, with those funky tunes complemented with sound collages as well as avant-garde psychedelic sections and inventive mixing (I really love those rotating drums!).

Another thing I like about it is how it never gets too meandering: when you get too high in the atmosphere, there's a synth track, a distorted bass or a different section that pulls you back to the ground.

There's not much else to say, just experience it for yourself and enjoy the trip!

4 stars

Lee followed up with his sophomore "Octatroid," another sonic storm of strangeness in full psychedelic regalia only this time in the form of a concept album, thus upping the ante in pretty much every way, shape and form. While an expected third album should've followed suit a few years later, in reality an eight year gap has passed since any TRIP LAVA musical madness but finally in 2018, the third album has arrived in the form of OUNDS, a fine return to form that takes more from the debut than the followup but retains its own identity and, of course, packed with all that magic mushroom mojo that TRIP LAVA has become known for. While the project was never scrapped, Lee has spent the last eight years in other musical projects ranging from different collective improvs to rejoining his 90s art punk band called Marcus Noise for a reunion. One of these collectives has been the Twin Cities Electronic Music Collective which was basically a bunch of guys with synths, gadgets and gizmos gathering together every month to let their inner freak flags fly like a Star Spangled Banner. Some of the results would end up on TRIP LAVA's third album OUNDS.

After years of being distracted by playing drums in other bands and that dreaded reality game called "a day job," Lee finally perfected his next installment on Shark Records which to my ears sounds like a nice middle ground between the debut and sophomore albums. The first most noticeable quality about OUNDS is that every track begins with an "O." Why? Because most of these titles have scrambled letters such as "Ouseh Of ORsmirr" instead of "House Of Mirrors." Once that initial quirkiness gets soaked in, it becomes apparent that there is much less emphasis on the guitar sounds that made the first two albums more rockin' in the free world. OUNDS is more atmospheric and ambient yet hasn't lost the steady beat and bass line grooves that aren't too far off from what the debut album utilized. OUNDS takes the electronic liberties of "Octatroid," however and creates extremely bizarre sonic constructs around the accessible beats and grooves. However as the fractalization of the music starts to ramp up much like the acid starting to hit, BIG TIME, the music can start to melt like a sugar cube in a cup of tea. Steady beats, tempos, timbres and dynamics can morph into gelatinous and amorphous sonic slimeballs that slink around like an intoxicated swarm of honeybees.

OUNDS is noticeably much mellower overall than the other two albums. However Ozric Tentacles type rock energy is abundant. There are more echoes, reverb, flange and processed sounds that layer over the ubiquitous loops, drones and oddball progressive time signatures. The album has a more vintage analog feel than the digitally crazed pair that preceded. Once again there are lots of sound collages, funky bass, synthesizers!!!!! and what sounds like drum machines as opposed to the bombast of the real things present on the earlier albums. There is also synth solo craziness, lots of pitch alterations, stereophonic ping ponging, cartoony noises strewn about and the usual layers of the sonic onion skins where each sliver of sound is doing its own thing independently with a grounding groove submerged beneath the mind freakery. While this one is not as schizoid as the previous two, it certainly hasn't lost any of its psychedelic to the max qualities. In fact the trippiness seems to have been set to overdrive.

TRIP LAVA lives up to its name, big time. It is truly an eruption and pyroclastic flow of major trippiness that not only utilizes some of the freakiest ideas but also implements them in creative ways in the production process which uses the production elements as basically extended instruments. Much like bands like Coil, Throbbing Gristle and other electronically oriented bands throughout the years have done but TRIP LAVA takes extreme liberties in just about every conceivable direction with not only the tones, timbres and timings but also in volume control, echo effects and the good old trusted sound bank of 21st century synthesizers! Of all the three albums, OUNDS is probably the safest for newbies to sink their teeth in. While the debut was more grounded than the second album, it too had its wild ass bursts of weirdness. Not that OUNDS doesn't but this one is less jarring and pacifies the soul rather than freaking the crap out of it! This is a project that is right up my alley. The bizarre psychedelic eccentric restlessness of it all captures my attention throughout as one creative passage segues into the next. Once again, this is all instrumental and pretty much flows like a continuous albeit scattered stream of thoughts. Another cosmic winner here!

After three years of fine tuning his new batch of crazy psychedelic spawn, the sophomore album OCTAROID was released in 2010 and was quite similar in compositional construct with more improvised music that was tied together with even more various effects. The difference though was that this one was even MORE ambitious in that Lee shaped the music to conform to a conceptual sci-fi theme about a heroic robotic warrior named OCTATROID who helps to save a village from the former king Meldagar who once ruled in total tyranny. After being dethroned and exiled, the mad king, bent on revenge found a new home under a mountain where he constructed a secret robotic army to wreak havoc on his former subjects and usurp control once again. And then the war begins and here is the chaotic soundtrack to it.

OCTATROID is a completely instrumental album with absolutely no storyline laid out in vocal form whatsoever however the CD liner notes narrate the tale as it unfolds track by track and by reading each track, you can pretty much get the gist of the storyline. While this is cool and all, to be honest, instrumental concept albums always completely baffle me and i'd rather just think of this as random sounds battling it out on my speakers! However, for those who like these sort of conceptual things, it's a nice bonus touch. All in all, OCTATROID is a much busier and bombastic affair than TRIP LAVA's debut 'Oddball In The Corner Pocket.' The tempos are quickened and gallop like a herd of horses getting zapped in the ass by a lightning bolt and freaking the fock out. Lee obviously got more crazy, more ambitious and pulls out all the stops to create a ridiculous amount of sound effects with some of them being scary, some gleeful and some just spacey as friggin' hell.

Once again the music pretty much segues from one track to another with a dramatic theme unfolding and then connected with bizarre tempo effects, stereophonic ping ponging and acid blotter weirdness. In fact the whole thing comes off as somewhat of a sonic version of a fractal or something with steady rhythms and grooves spiraling off in myriad directions until all the sounds merge into a cacophonous soup. Overall this one is not as accessible upon first listen and requires a more active listening experience whereas the debut sorta skirted the line between mesmerizingly hypnotic and active. The first listen of this one left me cold as it completely passed me by since i was only half focused. Subsequent listens have yielded much more detail although it's quite a focusing experience as funky bass lines whiz by surrounded by a swarm of synthesized effects in a caffeinated schizoid dance to hell and back. The only calming track is the finale 'Peace Returns.' Guess who won the war!

TRIP LAVA is pretty unique actually. The cartoony setting reminds me a little of Buckethead's warped sense of humor as does the penchant for the most avant-garde and extreme sounds possible. This one is much less melodic overall than the debut and probably will lose all except the most hardened experimental rockers who love the incessant mixing it up of tempos, dynamics, timbres and weirdness. In fact, this is the kind of music that could cause seizures to anyone who can't tolerate strobe lights or something really intense like a roller coaster ride. These sounds are on steroids and unrelenting as they lambast the senses. For my tastes, i actually prefer the debut album but i'm in utter admiration of how this album is stitched together in all its avant-garde wackiness. This TRIP LAVA is one of a kind with an extra helping in the TRIP department!

ODDBALL IN THE CORNER POCKET is the first release which emerged in 2007 after a two year series of recording sessions. This album is basically a compilation of all the improvised 4-track jams of this period which utilized real drums, guitar, bass, synthesizers and many drones and loops all mixed together in bizarre rhythmic AND arrhythmic ways. Different riffing sessions, bass grooves and drumming patterns were selected, arranged and tied together with myriad sound effects and then implemented strange sonic segues to tie it all together and create on continual piece of music. While the tracks are quite clearly individual, they are tied together by bizarre electronica freakery that provides as the sinew to create a larger listening experience.

First of all, i have to acknowledge that this is music for hardcore psychedelia addicts. Too many bands for far too long have relied on the overused and abused Pink Floyd paradigm for their entire musical outlook. TRIP LAVA is something else altogether. This musical project derives from serious music nerd moments that implement some of the most fascinating juxtapositions of ideas that one could imagination. The 13 tracks on ODDBALL IN THE CORNER POCKET may be all over the place psychedelically speaking but every single track is accessible for the first time listener in that it has a steady beat, groovy bass line and are basically, well rhythmically speaking, compositions in total freeform jamming mode. But that is where the normalcy ceases to exist.

While easily perceived rhythms and grooves exist, the rest of the musical elements are literally spaced out beyond belief. The first impression i got when listening to TRIP LAVA was that one of Lee's influences clearly had to be Achim Reichel as some of the subtle time signature changes and overlapping of slightly off grooves that incrementally fall out of sync and drift into chaos is straight out of the 'Die Gr'ne Reise' playbook from Reichel's A.R. & Machines days. While the Krautrock vibe doesn't come through in the overall compositional style, it certainly does in all the tricks and trinkets used in the subtle timbres, tones and synchronizations. Also, this is clearly a product of the 21st century with excellent production (especially for a 4-track) and quite trippy indeed how everything ties together.

On ODDBALL IN THE CORNER POCKET you will experience energetic rock jams that for the most part utilize steady and heavy drumming patterns, very busy bass grooves and repetitive rock guitar riffing that find themselves the dominate factor for moments and then drowned out by many layers of electronic accoutrements. There is usually an atmospheric drone, some sort of reverb, flange or other effects and just plain weird sound effects. Don't let the word 'repetitive' fool you either. There are many details paid to progressive touches that mix up time signatures, phrasing and musical motifs overall. But remember that everything is laid out in a logical manner and quite subtle in its unfolding. This could easily be just as meditative as it is an active listening experience. The best of both worlds. Personally TRIP LAVA hits my spot for some sort of progressive rock meets psytrance type of experience and even this early primeval debut of this style of music works for me quite well. Welcome to tripper's paradise in the 21st century!

We all know, this may take time, and afterwards, probably you are not hundred per cent sure that everything has been restored quite exactly. Now having a CD at hand, or ideally a vinyl cover, and enjoying the fine illustrations, this surely is serving some funny benefit. TRIP LAVA comes as a solo project, though comprises drums, keyboards, synthesizer, guitar, bass and vocals. What one regularly would expect from a music collective too. As for the music, well, Joel himself describes this as a 'fusion of collective improvisations, sound collages, minimalism, and free-form jams with funky beats'. Yeeees! Hell, I do need a proposal ... in order to get in completely, to take effect, for having a clue regarding the approach, how often should this be inhaled? Is there any leaflet available? Also concerning potential side effects?

It feels like I'm not skilled to describe what I hear in detail. The unusual blend. The unpredictable flow. Sometimes it's really beautiful. Weird often enough though, definitely useful when intending to terminate your next neighbourhood party, for what reason ever. Gripping, while waiting for the next surprise to come. Cinematic too somehow, could be a soundtrack for a movie possibly. Okay, basically what avantgarde music is standing for. Solely trust your own impression ... hey, and now beam me back to Start, I would like to reserve the letter 'O' once again!

The first titled strike is such a killa. Distorted, oddball electronic madness sounds rather clean and fresh for me. "Ouseh Of Orsmirr' is another pleasure of mine, that is filled with enjoyable, addictive electronic wave reminding me of authentic Krautrock voyagers like Neu! and so on. Sincere rhythmic stuff attacks my organ directly. Hallucinogenic repetitive endeavour can be heard via the following track "Orf Ontrastc'. Mystic acoustic sound dissection and melodic concentration 'Ongadays' might relax me for a while eventually.

"Oopl De Oopl' is my favourite stuff really, where mad experiments happens one after another, only with simple guitar-based synthesizer sounds. This one sounds leaning towards Manuel G'ttsching's 'Inventions For Electric Guitar' for me and notifies me Joel has opened a novel, innovative 'earsight' up. From the opening until the end 'Ounds Pt. 2' suitable for the epilogue, this fascinating creation should let me say cheers for Joel the multi-instrumentalist and psychedelic adventurer.