Probably no other musician in Germany holds the flag of the psychedelic higher than Christian "Doktor" Koch, the thought leader of the band Vibravoid founded in the late eighties. In music and lifestyle he orients himself on the forefathers of the movement and acts as an ambassador of an idea that is no longer present in the general public. The man from Düsseldorf himself did not experience the time and its vibrations, and yet he internalized them.
eclipsed: What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about 1967?
Doctor: What we have lost. Look at the last hundred years: Between 1917 and 1967, much more developed socially than from 1967 until today. Nothing new came in '67. Everything was just further commercialized. There were computers and radios back then, but not so many. People didn't have smartphones to say anything about it.
eclipsed: What about the music?
eclipsed: What do you mean by the programmatic title "Wake Up Before You Die"?
Doctor: As the title suggests, you have to wake up before you die. There's a life before death. Many people don't seem to know that yet, because they are in a kind of sleep state: social, political and spiritual. How bad is our existence supposed to get? Do we need more terror? More exploitation? More environmental degradation? We think all this bullshit is enough!
eclipsed: Have your numerous live, retrospective and remaster activities stopped you?
Doctor: Well, somehow I do. But above all the long pressing times today for vinyl. At just under six months, everything takes longer somehow. But vinyl is still extremely important to us, so we simply accept these times.
eclipsed: How are new pieces created? How do you inspire each other?
After their retrospectives, best-ofs and live-recordings there is finally a new Vibravoid studio album - with eleven new tracks and four live bonus tracks ("Ballspeaker" with 24 minutes!). With the short-crunchy "Alphawave" and "Rheinflow" you can swear your way into this acoustic lava lamp LSD cosmos in no time at all.
| Top albums 1. Vibravoid - Loudness For The Masses 2. V.A. - New Way Of Kraut Vol. II 3. Men from S.P.E.C.T.R.E. - The Claw 4. Rotor - Five 5. Wide Sea of Air - O.S.T. | Top tracks 1. Dead Moon - Tales from the Grease Trap (Dead Moon Live) 2nd Brain Pyramid - Magnetosphere 3rd Aqua Nebular Oscillator - Up To The Sky 4th Dead Sea Apes - Universal Interrogator 5th Surya Kris Peters - Hermitage |
Listen now:
Vibravoid have been working on their vision of psychedelic rock music for over twenty years now, trying to live up to the spirit of the lysergic acid soaked, brightly coloured sixties era with bands like Pink Floyd, Strawberry Alarm Clock or Iron Butterfly. Singer and guitarist Christian Koch, called the "doctor", gives information about past and present.
eclipsed: What is the significance of your debut "2001" for you today?
Doctor: It was definitely a good start for us as a band, because we didn't impose any musical restrictions on ourselves for the future, but offered a spectrum from which we can still draw today. I think the album still sounds amazingly up-to-date and fresh.
eclipsed: Especially abroad you enjoy a reputation as a true psychedelic band. Have you ushered in a new period of psychedelic music?
In connection with these we Underground Äxpärten present you here new tips from the underground.
Top Albums (June 2015)
1. Vibravoid - 2001 (Jubiläums 4 LP-Box)
2. Papir Meets Electric Moon - The Papermoon Sessions Live
3. Space Debris - Live At Finkenbach 2012
4. Mother Engine - Absturz
5 Handwrist - Random By Design
Top Tracks (June 2015)
ARENA - The Demon Strikes (4:12)
Album: The Unquiet Sky (2015)
Label/Distribution: Verglas/Soulfood
www.arenaband.co.uk
With "The Unquiet Sky" ARENA have found their way back to the form of their early years. Her eighth studio work extends her proven virtues with classical and film music elements. In top form the leading trio around singer Paul Manzi, keyboarder Clive Nolan and guitarist John Mitchell presents themselves.
MYTHOS MONTREUX Musician
Defilee at Lake Geneva
Montreux - these eight letters have an almost sacred sound in the world of music festivals. You don't have to stress that you appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival. One word is enough: Montreux. In this issue we trace the myth of Montreux: with a special on the history of this cross-genre event series, with an interview with festival founder and director Claude Nobs, and with a DVD featuring highlights from four decades of Montreux.
THE HISTORY OF THE PROGRESSIVE ROCK,
Part 3 North America/Sceneportrait: Progmetal
