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by David Hintz
Kohoutek - I've extolled the virtues of this band before, so suffice it to say that they should be worth a viewing for anyone that likes psychedelic rock. I thought they nailed it well tonight. They kind of started with Pelt-like ambiance built into free jazz then into hard psyche rock, back to psyche free jazz and finished with a rock out. The drums seem to be the key as the percussion items and mallet/stick choices change the foundation considerably. The guitarist grabs the cue. The bass holds it down. The saxophone chooses his spots and two noisemakers, an oscillator/machine guy and a guy with a guitar on the floor do wild things as well. Good stuff Check it out. And, as usual, if this band opens, expect a good headliner.
Reviewed by Andy Beresky
I'll give Kohoutek credit - they've been along for awhile now, and every time they release new material (or I see them live...), I don't know what to expect. Their "anything goes" approach to psych rock puts them in the same experimental camp as bands like Sunburned Hand Of The Man. On Losslessloss, which is a beautifully packaged vinyl only release, the band dive right into surreal, free jazz influenced soundscapes. Think Claude Debussy composing on too much of Woodstock's fabled brown acid, or Bitches Brew on some serious downers, and you're in the right ballpark. It's obviously improvised, with some repeating melodic themes giving it cohesiveness, and it's quite obvious that these guys have jammed together quite a bit, in various altered states of consciousness.
The instrumentation isn't your typical guitar/bass/drums setup, there's a lot of electronic effects going on, along with some "effected" woodwind instruments such as flute and clarinet. There aren't any riffs or songs in the traditional sense either, and the rhythms are sparse and free-flowing. On the first side of the LP, they pick up the pace a bit halfway through, with some guitar playing that's as noisy as it is bluesy, punctuated by electronic flange sweeps and a loose, dub influenced groove from the rhythm section. Side B immediately starts out more frenzied and otherwordly before dissolving into the bliss of electronic bleeps and blurps. Even the electronics have an organic, warm sound to them though, and as noisy as Kohoutek can be at times, they never really venture too far into harsh or abrasive territories. Vocals drift in and out, along with bizarre drones and scrapes, before they peak it out in a trance inducing rave up.
If you're into psych rockers that take it as far out as they possibly can every time they jam, this record is a definite must have. You'll hear different things with each listen, different melodies or parts will jump out, as there's a lot going on, and a lot to take in. For fans of Acid Mothers Temple, Sunburned Hand of the Man, and all things acid damaged, recommended.
by François Couture
Lossless Loss is Kohoutek's second studio release. It was recorded in a single day during September 2007, with the core trio of Scott Allison (electronics), Scott Verrastro (percussion), and Craig Garrett (bass), plus guitarist Vic Salazar and multi-instrumentalist Damian Languell, who shifts back and forth between harmonica, clarinet, didgeridoo, and tape-delayed vocalizations. Released on gorgeous creamsicle-like orange-and-cream vinyl by Prophase Music, Lossless Loss features two untitled side-long improvisations (although some sources list them as "Lossless" and "Loss"). The first one is a placid, slow-brewing affair, a heady blend of trippy psychedelia and drony meditation. A slow beat and riff eventually emerge, but they hold back, refusing to become the focus of the track. The flip side is a different beast: noisy, momentum-gathering, beat-driven, jam-inflected, with Salazar's simple riffs taking center stage. Both are inspired, but the first track is more distinctive, while the second one, though more assertive, includes a couple of moments of awkward musicianship (Verrastro's beat is unsteady; Salazar clearly runs momentarily short of ideas at one time). The album is packaged in a gorgeous sleeve featuring a striking sculpture made of skulls (humans, rodents, and birds, it seems) by Mike Peter Smith.
Kohoutek is a lysergic improv band, that kind of jam that trips away uncommittedly until the drums kick in halfway through and everything lifts off. Lossless Loss is a continuous 44-minute improvisation that’s slow to start, long to conclude, but it’s definitely inspired. Jackie-O Motherfucker crossed with Emeralds. Solid stuff. Also released on vinyl (a nice creamsicle model - milky white and vivid orange). And great cover artwork (spot the frog!).
Then the kids from the Chromatic Mysteries/kohoutek collectives, the DC underground improv scene all stars, get up. The guitar player and Scott Verrastro provide a rythm section for a band playing out of time: The guitar delayed and effect-pedalled into oblivion such that he can play a minimal, tribal bassline against what sounds like a deep organ vamp from a 30-minute late 60s electric Miles mind bender against runs of virtuosity that sound like Charlie Christian pitch-shifted and run through a black hole. Verrastro starts with his signature found object patter and cymbal scrapes which give way to a tweaking Elvin Jones impression which coalesces into a late-Unwound Sara Lund gallop.
A twisting fire of inspiration from a city shit deep in the midst of a condo and khaki Northern Virginiazation, a collective birthed during the 8 horrible years the town was home to the “world's most dangerous retard,” Kohoutek somehow managed to alight from these fallow times and slowly burn through live show after live show of improvisation-cum-pyschadelia. The sound of marathon JAMS building into and out of the mindmelding visions of fata morgana, which leave you feeling like that wolf-man looking guy in the jean jacket losing it to “Under My Thumb” in Gimmie Shelter, or which have you opening your eyes wondering, what the hell am I doing on the ground in the back of the club, curled up against the opening band’s drums? The sound of Kohoutek live. Forget formaldehyde, this is the shit to lace your Js with. Hand-numbered edition of 100 on lathe.
"First official release from this Washington DC group. Sounds of experimental stoney sludge improvisational Japanese-psychedlic jam-outs. Three longer tracks and one 3 minuter. Influenced by bands such as Can, Bardo Pond, Ghost, early Floyd & Ash Ra Tempel. These guys blend in right along with them! All instrumental. Get ripped, lay in the sunshined grass meadows and trip the fuck out, stoney!"
by Phil McMullen
Perfectly timed to whet the appetite of heads gathering for this summer's Terrastock, Washington DC USA-based experimental collective Kohoutek have released their first official CD via the estimable Music Fellowship imprint (run by Landing's Daron Gardner). Psychedelic improvisation is the key here, ranging from unsettling, discordant guitar noise to delicately floating melodies, often within the confines of the same, admittedly usually expansive, number. They claim to draw inspiration from a litany of familiar names: Can, Agitation Free, Ash Ra Tempel, Skullflower, Dead C, Bardo Pond, White Heaven and all the usual suspects: their signature guitar sound though, used to great effect throughout, reminds me very much of Terrastock 1 veterans Hovercraft, whose instrumental musical vision likewise veered somewhere between industrial noise, ambient sounds and the soothing lull that comes with repetition.
'Glacial Tears' opens with a bee-swarm maelstrom of guitars poised on the very edge of feedback, backed with electronics tuned to the rhythm of a revving motorcycle. Miscellaneous production flourishes worthy of ‘Are You Experienced?’ see the track out through a slow nodding dawdle to psychedelic oblivion. The title track in comparison hurries along, building like the wind whipping up a prairie dust storm. Feedback crackle and the twisted, knotted singing strings of guitars tuned along to the Cul de Sac songbook introduce ‘You Owe Yourself a Good Bath', which unexpectedly becomes almost melodic and lilting amongst the furious static scribble as the layers are slowly peeled back. This is, I think, my favourite number on here. The band return to the tin-can percussive onslaught and meandering, Beefheartian slide for the epic closing piece, 'There is No Consolation Prize'.
If that all sounds like a challenging listen, fear not; the trip might be abrasive at times, and not one for the faint hearted, but that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. Sometimes raucous and grinding, sometimes serene and hypnotic, ‘Expansive Headache’ has no lyrics to get in the way - just guitars, drums, bass, and assorted electronic gizmos. Consider me hooked.
By David Dunlap Jr.
Standout Track: No. 4, “There Is No Consolation Prize,” a 33-minute blast of cosmic instrumental improvisation from the D.C. psychonauts. Scott Verrastro, the band’s drummer, percussionist, and occasional flautist, plays pots, pans, and glass bottles as well as his own kit on the track. Bassist Craig Garrett “laid down a groove thicker than crude oil,” he says. “We locked in, and the magic just took over.”
Musical Motivation: Expansive Headache is the band’s first studio album. Vinnie Van Go-Go recorded the sessions at 611 Florida Ave. NW, Verrastro’s residence and performance space, using a mobile 8-track lent by VHF Records founder Bill Kellum. Launched in 1991, VHF released influential records by Flying Saucer Attack, Skullflower, Pelt, and Rake (which included Kellum and Vinnie Van Go-Go). Verrastro was deeply inspired by VHF’s stable; the label, he says, “was releasing improvised psych-rock, freak-folk, and drone way before any of it was considered hip by the indie-rock cognoscenti.”
The Prize is Right: Kohoutek is an instrumental band, but during the recording of Expansive Headache, the band members asked a friend, Jim Brophy, to sit in the next room and improvise lyrics. In the end, the band decided not to use the words because, Verrastro says, “they were detached from the music.” But Brophy’s efforts weren’t a complete waste of time: Elements of the extemporaneous phrases ultimately became song titles. “I chose the ones that reflected the music best,” Verrastro says. “I like ‘There Is No Consolation Prize’ because it sounds so utterly nihilistic.” —David Dunlap Jr.
Words: Mats Gustafsson
"People interested in music that defies the pop song convention, music that challenges that part of your brain that lies dormant during most aural experiences, need a band like Washington DC’s Kohoutek. This quintet began their wildly meandering journey across the more peripheral realms of free-form psych rock a few years back and from the very beginning they seemed determined to try to cross swathes of interstellar drone, guitar squall and loose, slowly evolving improvisations of drum and bass grooves and squelchy electronics with tapestries of gravitationally flowing darkness. What we get is a sonic bag that is raw, gorgeous, loud, dreamy, dissonant and mystical at the same time, somehow managing to transcend all sorts of seemingly limited genre barriers. Dedicated followers of bands such as the Spacious Mind, SubArachnoid Space and Ash Ra Tempel will for sure want to check these cats out, with a musical style that at its best rarely goes wrong in the live setting."
from Intangible Arts, 1/25/2008
"Opening the show was DC's own Kohoutek, who droned out a very strong, hairy wall of psychedelic trance-rock. It was hard to figure how much of it was improvised, and/or how much of a structure was worked out beforehand, but it came across like a fairly telepathic jam, with alternating passages of riff and loose noodling. The set sounded like the louder side of early Ash Ra Tempel, or The Spacious Mind, or maybe F/i... Not a bad thing, if you can pull it off. And they did."
"Second release we've been able to get our hands on from Soil Sing Through Me, a sort of underground freak folk supergroup featuring members of Feathers and Sunburned Hand Of The Man, who for this disc have teamed up with DC outfit Kohoutek for an evening of communal music making, the results should be no surprise, a druggy blown out meandering laid back psychedelic folk free for all. Blasted, stoned, groovy and fucked up.
You can definitely hear more SHOTM than Feathers, or maybe it's Kohoutek who we had never heard anyway, but this is not so much folky as sort of spaced out and trippy. Simple propulsive tribal rhythm jams and simple stripped down rock beats are the framework for these inner space excursions, wah guitar and slivers of silvery feedback drift to and fro, melodies are spread out over the proceedings like a tattered old blanket, there seem to be vocals too, but they are minimal and are usually buried under a ton of FX and psychedelic shimmer, keyboards buzz and huge spacious expanses offer the players plenty of space to stir up subtle bits of percussive clatter, glistening flurries of blurry buzz, strange spidery little melodies all tangled up amidst the stumbling drums and rumbling bass. This definitely has a Dead C vibe, but then what improvised noise rock psych jam doesn't? No good ones, that's for sure.
The usual suspects will eat this up. Sunburned Hand obsessives for sure need this, as do all you free folk noise rock cd-r freaks...
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES, most likely already out of print. Packaged in the instantly recognizable skull and crossbones Wabana purple painted digipak. "
"New instalment of Wabana's limited to 200 CD-R series is a big band collaborative shot from these two North American psych/drug units, with Kohoutek go up against a Soil Sing Through Me line-up that features Paul Labrecque and Ron Schneiderman of Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Some of the backwoods garage style of the attack has a nice Crazy Horse/Savage Sons Of Ya Ho Wha meets ballroom Kosmiche feel, with plenty of serpentine string action and upper atmosphere analogue tweaking. There's even some shots of Miles 70s electro/brass confusion, albeit transmuted in a similar style to Sunburned Hand's acid funk. All laid down with a great recorded-through-a-cheap-stereo feel."
by Mark Jenkins
Recorded live in Philadelphia last year, Kohoutek's "Hair on the Sidewalk" is not exactly representative of the D.C. quartet. No one release could be, as the band's music is improvised. But this package, which pairs a CD with a DVD, captures a particularly uncharacteristic performance, since it's one that includes a vocalist. Jim Brophy talks and occasionally sings, sometimes inspired by the projections (which can seen on the DVD version). The music burbles or throbs during the vocal parts, but the group -- especially guitarist Luke Wyatt -- periodically asserts itself. Though the result is sufficiently free-form to be termed jazz rock, the rhythms, timbres and aesthetic are decidedly punk.
This new-ish group from Washington DC has local psych/doom/noise patron and C-Blast buddy Scott Verrastro amongst it's ranks, so we were stoked to get our mitts on this self-released CD-R of smoke-blowing, heavy noise-inflected psychdrone. There's two tracks on hand, both instrumentals, with a total half hour running time: the opener, "The Burning Sea", starts off by invoking some gorgeous, bleary psychedelic noodling and skittery improv percussion with vaporous Middle Eastern melodies and twinkling chimes in the background, then slowly builds into a pulsating acid drone rock mantra akin to Skullflower hijacking Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold", throbbing single-note bass and muscular drumming laying down a limestone foundation for burning feedback-soaked guitar action to get down in an ocean of reverb. The second track,"Four More Years," is a swarm of helicopter electronics and rapid-fire improv drumming, a crackling free noise jam shooting sparks onto basement walls, sleigh bells and snakey bass drones squirming through a blizzard of buzzing cables and oscillating tones and noisy skree. These jams are righteous drone/improv/noise workouts, can't wait to hear more from Kohoutek. There's definitely much to like here for fans of Skullflower,Can,Acid Mothers Temple,etc. Comes packaged in an exquisitely handpainted/screened wallet, with the CD-R itself blasted with spraypaint.
Experimental music is a difficult genre to appreciate, and even more difficult to describe. Based on the fundamental belief that music is an art form as much as it is entertainment, experimental musicians strive to redefine what music is. Enter the D.C.-based Kohoutek, whose improvisational sets incorporate elements of jazz, rock, noise and pyschedelia. This is not music for those searching for melody, but for the adventurous, Kohoutek is the musical equivalent of a modern art exhibition. By weaving sound tapestries that vary from show to show, the band’s work can range from the abstract to accessible. Above all, the band remains interesting by coaxing unexpected audio from traditional and homemade instrumentation. Kohoutek is a phenomenal starting point for those intrigued by experimental music and willing to push their listening boundaries.
John Rickman - 4/2006
During the first two weeks in April, adventurous audiences will have more than one chance to catch a Kohoutek concert. If it’s a particularly clear night you’ll be able to witness DC’s premier experimental, psychedelic improv band explode into an impressive fireball of guitars, drums, and custom-built electronics.
Each Kohoutek sighting reveals changes in lineup and instrumentation, but the band has at its core three of four permanent members. The group blasts off in different directions musically from performance to performance, and often changes course more than once within each individual show. Doom, shoegaze, krautrock, post-rock, classic rock, noise rock–you name it, they embody it–but refuse to fully embrace any one particular sound.
Dig it on April 3 when the band plays at DC9 with Accelera Deck, Lance Romance, and Steve MacKay of The Stooges; and again on April 14 at 611 Florida Ave., NW, the headquarters of independent artist management cartel Clævius Productions. 611 Florida largely serves as the District stop along the underground music railroad–a combination of house and venue.
Some guy in Montreal - 5/2006
"Kohoutek followed and I had not had to the chance to check out the band beforehand so I was going into this pretty blind. The set started to some pretty interesting guitar and bass textures with some electronics thrown in. It was soon obvious that the band was doing so pretty average, and uninspired, post rock with the only difference being some electronic "noise", badly done at that. As they chugged along their very long songs, I was getting increasingly bored and wanted to get out. Fortunately they did not play too long and moved along as Bardo Pond was coming up fairly soon."