Entertainment

Noise Annoys: Vampyrotuethis by Mons Olympus, Malojian's Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home

Space grungers Mons Olympus have just released their debut LP Vampyrotuethis
Space grungers Mons Olympus have just released their debut LP Vampyrotuethis Space grungers Mons Olympus have just released their debut LP Vampyrotuethis

AND the new albums from local acts just keep on coming, Noiseniks: last week you read about newies from Sea Pinks (Watercourse, released May 26 on CF Records) and Joshua Burnside (Ephrata, out now on Quiet Arch), while this week I bring you words on fresh long playing sonic documents from Malojian and Mons Olympus.

It's barely six months since Stevie Scullion gave us the current Malojian LP, the excellent This Is Nowhere, but the Lurgan man is already gearing up to release a follow-up.

"A few months ago I started recording some songs at home with the intention of taking them to a 'proper' studio at some stage and turning them into an album," says Stevie.

"Lo and behold, like an ugly duckling or something, they grew and took on a life of their own and have taken me on the most incredible musical journey I've been on yet.

"From recording in a lighthouse to collaborating with some of my favourite musicians ever, they've become my next album. It's called Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home and features Joey Waronker (Beck, REM, Atoms For Peace), Gerry Love (Teenage Fanclub), Jon Thorne (Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, Lamb) and more.

"It's available now for pre-order and if you fancy it that would be very style."

If you know anything of Mr Scullion's musical DNA, you'll realise that collaborating with Gerry Fanny is probably an even bigger deal to him than recording the last album in Chicago with Steve Albini.

Yes, he's living the dream and pre-orders for CDs, downloads and limited edition vinyl (virtual releases will appear on August 1, with vinyl and CD to follow on September 1) are already flooding into Malojian HQ, which is advising fans down south to contact Rollercoaster Records in Kilkenny to save on postage while also supporting "the happiest little record shop in the world".

Those folks should dial 56 776 3669 on their blowers, while the rest of us can get sorted online via Malojian.bandcamp.com.

Keep your eyes peeled and ears cocked for news of the new Malojian single, Some New Bones.

Onwards to Belfast-based Mons Olympus, the funky spacesuit-clad space rocking prog-grungers headed by former Chocolate Love Factory foreman (and sometime Banned It) Rory Dee, who launched their epic debut album Vampyrotuethis last week with shows in Belfast and Dublin.

This record has been gestating for a long while now – our first taste came in the form of the superb single Critical Mass back in 2014: "eight minutes of epic intergalactic rock action that's right out there with the likes of fellow star children like Smashing Pumpkins and Muse," according to yours truly.

Thankfully, Vampyrotuethis (a deep-sea 'vampire squid') is a bit of "a doozy", as Ned 'Needle-Nose Ned' Ryerson would no doubt describe it, from the arresting static interference abstraction of Intron's fuzzy, Captain Scarlet-sampling intro to the funky planet-killing climax of the aforementioned Critical Mass.

In between, listeners will moonwalk to moody cowbell-enhanced guitar wailing on the slow-building Voltage (which suddenly becomes the suitably (in)tense soundtrack to a knife fight on Mars) and stomp their space boots to the spiralling riffs 'n' beats of the thumping Incognito, before floating off across the red desert in a state of zero-G ecstasy to shimmering/droning slowie Mirage, which eventually picks up momentum as orbit is attained.

Epic eight minute album centrepiece Inertia begins as an energetic post-hardcore flavoured chugger before gradually morphing into a head-nodding prog-shoegaze workout, while In Plumes is another extended sonic shape-shifter which transmogrifies from throbbing post-disco funk to soaring space rock odyssey before you can say "my god, it's full of stars".

Available to hear/buy now at Monsolympus.bandcamp.com, Vampyrotuethis establishes Mons Olympus as a musically ambitious quartet to be reckoned with.

They return to Earth for another album launch gig tomorrow, at the Cornstore in Magherafelt (where most of the record was birthed) courtesy of the good folks at The G-Sessions.

Kryptic State are supporting, admission is £5 and doors are 9.30pm.

I for one welcome our new spacerock overlords.