Jess And The Ancient Ones - Vertigo

Then it was Monday again, this means that it is time to present "Record Of The Week".

"Vertigo" is the fourth album by the Finnish 🇫🇮 occult rock band JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES.

A band that has been around since 2010 where the psychedelic rock and tentative progressive rock have been their trade mark over the years.

Across eight tracks, "Vertigo" provide us with 40 minutes of occult rock where they capture that late 60s/early 70s heavy psych blues sound that they do best. Not as dark as the black and white tornado cover gives itself a gleam of. The white is more creamy white with a few drops of yellow, red and green. The album have some horror film samples added to the ominously retro vibe. The sound is fresh and cripsy in it's own oldieness. The musicanship is very tight and well played. The tunes are well-written and very moreish full of character and charisma. Great guitar playing by Thomas Corpse. Jess’s vocals are very powerful and soulful infectious which lifts the whole ship with its presence. The organs from Abraham are dominated and works just perfect to give the sound the extra dynamic soundscape. The rythm section is very powerful made of the bass player Fast Jake and drummer and percussion by Yussuf.

From the opening Hitchcock horror intro in "Burning Of The Velvet Fires", a groovy piece, with wonderful organ playing and excellent vocals give us a helluva start of this record. "World Paranormal" is another great tune where the mind fly away back to the heyday of the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, popish attitude with a very catchy chours and almost danceable rythms. "Talking Board" is a spooky piece with a darker layout and a horrified powerful background laughter. The single "Love Zombi" is a very powerful piece with a very groovy melody and catchy vocal and killer organs. "Summer Tripping Man" is a 60's garage rocker that sounds a little like THE DOORS on crack. "Born To Kill" is flowing in a more heavier landscape while "What’s On Your Mind" takes another direction into the progressive and psychedelic world. The album closes up with "Strange Earth Illusion", a real beast that passes the eleven minute mark, heavy psychedelic blues where Jess progressive vocal style gives a real spark to this piece, excellent guitar-leds, marvelous bass runs and where drums and cymbals sit like a sledgehammer, just magic. "Vertigo" is a marvelous album with a great selection of tunes written by guitarist Thomas Corpse. "Vertigo" was released on 21 May 2021 by Svart Records.

Lineup:

Jess – Vocals

Thomas Corpse – Guitars

Fast Jake – Bass

Yussuf – Drums and Percussion

Abraham – Keyboards, Organ, Synthesizer

Sum: "Vertigo" is very good, I mean very good. Make sure you don’t miss this out!.

Today's tune "Burning Of The Velvet Fires", taken from "Vertigo", enjoy!



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Jess And The Ancient Ones - Summer Tripping Man

"Vertigo", is the upcoming album from JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES, to be released on May 21 by Svart Records. The first video for single for "Summer Tripping Man" is out now.

The Savonian occult rock behemoth JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES have emerged with a new album. Their brand of heavy guitar and organ-led swagger has progressed from the twin guitar metal blast of yesteryear to Jess And The Ancient Ones’ very own take on soulful late sixties garage psychedelia.

What began on the previous record, The Horse & Other Weird Tales is taken further and deeper, towards a conclusion on Vertigo. Songwriter and guitarist Thomas Corpse comments, “To me this album sounds like a dark horse – a brother to the previous album. There’s a strange ominous feeling that hovers upon the entire album, maybe it’s the feeling of nostalgia that’s arising from the lyrics.”

Wrapped in a crude tornado-adorned old school sleeve, the album’s eight tracks bubble in a boiling cauldron of vintage pop culture influence and occult-tinged paranoia. Ranging from the softly fiery opening track ‘Burning of The Velvet Fires’ to the almost heavy metal -ish nihilistic banger “Born To Kill”, Vertigo is a spiraling journey of heavy Finnish psych rock at its finest.

Preorder Vertigo in various formats https://svartrecords.com/product/jess-and-the-ancient-ones-vertigo-album/.

Today's tune "Summer Tripping Man" is taken from the forthcoming album "Vertigo" out via Svart Records on the 21st of May 2021. Video by Giuliano di Girolamo. Enjoy!



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Jess By The Lake - Under The Red Light Shine

Jasmin Saarela, known as the enigmatic leader of the cult band JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES, has released her solo debut. To be released under the moniker JESS BY THE LAKE, the solo album "Under The Red Light Shine" is a more down to earth take on the traditions of rock music than the acid-heavy guitar walls and cosmic dimensions of her main band.

JESS BY THE LAKEs building blocks are more organic, with a focus on nature mysticism and a curiously Finnish brand of melancholy. The music flows unrestrained, with a few tasteful nods to genre forebearers such as DANZIG or DAVID BOWIE hidden here and there.

The first single "Nightmare" was released on April 12th. The straightforward no holds barred -type of song is built around a central theme that’s famous from many a DANZIG song – a hunter tailing helpless female prey – but turns the setting on its head by placing an empowered female protagonist as the hunter.

Saarela describes how the songwriting process has stemmed from a need to create and ponder one’s existence and surroundings.

"Music for me represents constant progress and a means to get by in our existence in this dimension. I’ve written these songs on the guitar or piano. I first started my solo project with Timo from JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES, but eventually gathered a solo band around me from people at my school".

Saarela considers the album a paean to nature and the human mind, also to an indescribable longing, so well known to all romantic artists of the past centuries.

“I named the project based on the fact that I’ve lived by a lake for more or less my entire lake. I’ve grown in the forest and felt a strong, unchanged bond with nature through the years".

JESS BY THE LAKE:

Jasmin Saarela – vocals, guitar, Wurlitzer

Marianne Heikkinen – drums

Heikki Leppäjärvi – bass

Aapo Kauppinen – guitar

Ethel Seppälä – keyboards

Today's tune is the title tune from the debut solo album "Under The Red Light Shine", it was released on June 7th on LP, CD and digital formats.



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Jess and the Ancient Ones - The Horse and Other Weird Tales

Monday, time to introduce "Record Of The Week".

Third time around for JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES (JATAO) on Tune Of The Day as "Record Of The Week", the female fronted finish occult retro rock band with their latest and third release "The Horse and Other Weird Tales", an album that was released last year on Svart Records on December 1st. Busy time when it arrived, all the focus was to sort out all the other releases, so it falled behind a little. Now it has got some air time, been spinning at work, at home, in the car mixed with other new records but I always returned to it and that is a very good sign.

On "The Horse and Other Weird Tales" they continue on the same highway as they painted on "Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes", but with a mystery trip to the psychedelic side of the sixties, with a more modern view point. The album is very groovy and organic and it's produced a very old fashioned album, 9 tunes and 31 minutes, recorded and mixed together with their live sound engineer.

Jess vocals is absolutely stunning, with high brilliance she dives into the mysterious depths, swirls one on her finger so you get absolutely mesmerize and disappear into the myst. The musical partners she have are amazing to capture the timezone and with a intelligence and accessibility with a lot of variety to keep it interest all the way.

From the opening chords to first sentences in the first tune "Death Is The Doors" the path for this record is set. Intro with a 60's horror movie theme and psychedelic keyboards aka THE DOORS slowly walks to the door and unlocks it and the tune swings to a quicker melody pattern by the rhythm section, catchy and amazing sining by Jess.
"Shining" is a groovy piece, keys is still strong here, catchy chorus and very colourful guitars makes it very hard to sit still.
A groovy bass line opens up the rocker "Your Exploding Heads", still with a 60's touch and a hell of a swing.
One of the albums longest tune, just over 7 minutes "You And Eyes", starts with a powerful soft vocals by Jess and it builds up as long the journey goes, psychedelic keys with smokey distorted guitars makes this a epic piece of music.
The albums shortest tune is up next "Radio Aquarius", ticks in under 2 minutes, radio propaganda with nice background music by the band.
"Return To Hallucinate" is a trippy piece with absolutly stunning vocals performance by Jess, with total control and incredible range she masters with fearless every inch of vocal space in the tune.
"(Here Comes) The Rainbow Mouth" with a great bassline, groovy melody, catchy guitars and of course Jess.
"Minotaure", Jess again, puh, I'm totally blown away here, 60's psychedelic rock with racing key riffs and a bass riff that kills, groovy like a beast.
The album ends with the longest paper back novel "Anyway The Minds Flow" have traces of everything on the album.

The tune references J.D. Salinger’s, "The Catcher In the Rye" and includes audio recordings of Mark Chapman, the man who murdered the late Beatles, John Lennon. Mark Chapman has gone on the record stating that "The Catcher in the Rye" inspired him to kill Lennon. Chapman believed Lennon to be a “phony”, with the song “Imagine” having the line about having no possessions while he himself was a wealthy man. This is a complex subject because John Lennon came from a very meager and humble background in a poor part of Liverpool, England, and as a self-made man he understood the fight to better oneself. “Anyway The Minds Flow” discusses the parallels between reality and what is assumed, and the fine line between the truth and misinterpretation.

A lovely red version of the vinyl.

The summery of this album: A excellent ride into the void of 60's psychedelic occult heavy rock.

Today's tune "You and Eyes", taken from "The Horse and Other Weird Tales", the clip is live at Tombstoned, Kuudes Linja/Helsinki/Finland January 20th 2018, enjoy!



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Jess and the Ancient Ones - Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes

New week, new year and it's Monday! It's time to reveal the first "Record of the Week".

Our neighbours, the Finnish occult-psych rockers JESS & THE ANCIENT ONES (JATAO) released its second album "Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes" at the end of last year.

JATAO is an Occult Rock Band from Kuopio, Finland. This six-headed orchestra have been created by Thomas Corpse and Thomas Fiend, where its purpose is the exploration of the magical worlds beyond and today. The band's lyrical concept based on personal occult experiences, the authors, which in combination with the music creates a strong mystical atmosphere. With singing talent Jess as its frontwoman and three guitars in the lineup, JATAO inspired by heavy metal and rock groups of the classical era, such as Mercyful Fate, Roky Erickson, IRON MAIDEN and ABBA.

Since their inception in 2010, the ascent of JATAO has been astounding. With a chart-toppingly successful debut album in 2011 and the occult surf metal EP Astral Sabbat (2013) under their collective belt, the group won over many new followers on their North American tour with KING DIAMOND last winter. Since then the collective have thinned their herd from seven to six, and spent months with minds locked inwards together, perfecting their craft and cultivating what was to become their second album.

"Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes"

Throughout JATAOs career, they have consistently developed. The psychedelic occultism which is their foundation, where development has taken a new direction from. With the new album as the band has become more milled and refined. The entire album breathes, the mysterious atmosphere that occurs when the Vinyl spins is magical. "The album title can be seen as a bridge between the past and now," and that's about as one can describe the album in short words.

"Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes" is magical, Jess singing is absolutely stunning that dives into the mysterious depths, swirls one on her finger and I got absolutely mesmerized and disappear into the myst. Over sixty six minutes of material gives the listener a lot to digest. Musically, this is a well balanced album with nine fine tunes where the final song clocking in at full 22:35. A skilled work is performed by JATAO

The summery of this album: A 65 minute moonlight ride into the nether regions of progressive occult heavy rock. And what rough beast it is!

Today's tune "In Levitating Secret Dreams" The video, directed and animated by Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu, is a gorgeous multicolor exploration. Song taken off the JATAOs album "Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes", released on Svart Records, December 4th 2015.



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Tune Of The Day - Top 50 - 2015 (40-31)

Here is the second batch of 10 records that we have choose to qualify to the best albums that 2015 have given us. Here is the albums between 40 - 31. Today's tune will be publish later on this evening. So here we go!

40. Saxon - Battering Ram

SAXON, the classic NWOBHM band that year after year give us a new record, "Battering Ram" is the twenty-first studio album that really rocks!

39. The Night Flight Orchestra - Skyline Whispers

"Skyline Whispers" is an excellent album that have a great swing where the 70’s muscle meets the 80's poprock.

38. Uncle Acid - The Night Creeper

With "The Night Creeper" does UNCLE ACID spreads their wings and explore some new sounds, but the main psychedelic horror is still the basic and the sound is still very unique UNCLE ACID.

37. Black Vulpine - Hidden Places

"Hidden Places" is an excellent album that mixes desert grooves with occult/doom vibes and themes.

36. Tau Cross - Tau Cross

Rob "The Baron" Millers project TAU CROSS have given us a cleaver album with lots of variety.

35. Lik - Mass Funeral Evocation

A band that loves DISMEMBER makes a record just for fun that ends up to be a real killer.

34. Jess and the Ancient Ones – Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes

The Finnish psychedelic rock band have released another flawless occult rock masterpiece.

33. Thåström - Den Morronen

Den Morronen is the more darker follow up to his previous master piece "Beväpna dig med vingar".

32. Paradise Lost - The Plague Within

"The Plague Within" is a really strong PARADISE LOST, a record that grows every new spin.

31. Avatarium - The Girl With The Raven Mask

"The Girl With The Raven Mask" is the second release from the doom master Leif Edling. Here the creativity have been very high and created a brilliant album, but with a late release and to few spins to climb higher. It's a position that I'm sure I will regret.


Today's tune will be posted later this evening. Cheers

Top 50 Album list at Spotify!

Jess and the Ancient Ones - Astral Sabbat

Although it’s been only nine months since the release of their brilliant and spellbinding debut album, Finland’s Jess and The Ancient Ones have already moved on. After a split 7" with Spain’s Deadmask last November on Doomentia, the band is already gearing up for something new. A three song EP titled Astral Sabbat is scheduled for release on Feb 22nd, and is expected to shatter most of the preconceptions some already did hold against the band.

Once again recorded with Swedish sonic wizard Tore Stjerna of Necromorbus Studio in their hometown Kuopio, ‘Astral Sabbat’ sees them pushing forward the boundaries of the sound established on their first full-length and forging their own path, as personified by the rather unusual choice of cover song: ‘Long And Lonesome Road’, originally written and recorded by Dutch rock outfit Shocking Blue, mostly known for their mega-hit ‘Venus’.

“We wanted to give these works a space entirely their own” reveals guitarist Thomas Corpse, “so that listeners are able to focus on them completely. For this purpose we consider an EP the perfect means. Regarding the surprising choice of cover, I had heard the song at a very young age. And now, after travelling many roads, it returned to me. It is a timeless song and I hope someone discovers Shocking Blue through us."

With its cover art designed by Adam Burke of Nightjar Graphics, its accompanying video (a first for the band) that will be released to the public on Wednesday 6th of February and its epic “More Than Living” that swallows the entire B side on the vinyl version, ‘Astral Sabbat’ will prove that Jess And The Ancient Ones are now way beyond all those occult, prog or retro-rock tags and playing a game on their own.

Preorder the Astral Sabbat mCD / mLP on Svart Records, Release date is set to Feb 22nd 2013.

The Vinyl will be pressed in following colors:

200 x green/red color in color
400 x transparent red
500 x black

Today's tune "Astral Sabbat" is the title track from the upcoming EP.



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Sorry no Spotify yet, will update on release.

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Jess and the Ancient Ones - Sulfur Giants

Again, a new week, time to nominate this week's album. An album that I have pyruvate on almost the entire summer, an album that actually has been playing alot at home. A great-looking record, then I think of the fantastic artwork on the cover.

Jess And The Ancient Ones are an occult rock band from Kuopio, Finland. With the vocal talent Jess as their enigmatic frontwoman and a rich trio of guitars in the line-up, the band draw their inspiration from the early years of rock.

The debut offers everything from witches at dusk of dawn to a jazzy exhibition for the infidels, a wonderful trip to the slightly occult places you never thought existed. It is covered with a lovely hypnotic atmosphere.

The band have since the release of the album made huge impact on me, so I can without hesitation recommend everyone to take a closer look at this band for their début album is really fun, really exciting and above all it is really good.

The band consist of:

Jess - Vocals
Thomas Corpse - Lead guitar
Thomas Fiend - Lead guitar & backing vocals
Von Stroh - Rhythm guitar
Fast Jake - Bass guitar
Abraham - Keyboard
Yussuf - Drums & percussion

Tracklist of the record:

1. Prayer for Death and Fire
2. Twilight Witchcraft
3. Sulfur Giants (Red King)
4. Ghost Riders
5. 13th Breath of the Zodiac
6. Devil (in G minor)
7. Come Crimson Death


Their debut album is out now on Svart Records, it is also available as a limited CD box as well as gatefold Vinyl.

13th Breath of the Zodiac - 7"

Todays tune "Sulphur Giants" is a long, but epic piece of work, thanks to her vocal skill this doesn't seem to pass 12 minutes! So now sit back and close your eyes and wonder off.





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Sorry No Spotify on this tune!

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