1) Lyssa (Czech) www.monochrome.at : Party like its 1986. Chicago. A dhingy club filled with people in flannel shirts and work boots, the smell of beer and sweat. Cigarette smoke to the ceiling and sawdust on the floor. Dave Sardy from Barkmarket just left the stage waving ominous handsigns to the audience, making room for local heroes Vertigo and then on for the blast of the mighty Helmet. No one is talking about major label contracts in these days. But instead of the line up, there is a change and surprisingly a band from the Czech Republic gets on stage to give everyone a taste of what is to come 20 years ahead in the future. People in the audience instantly plan to form bands on the influence of what they hear, and will call them Hammerhead, Guzzard or Party Diktator. Sardy and Page hectically start to conference on how to incorporate this new thing into their music, and while one decides to try to find the perfect psychotic guitar riff, the other goes for minimalism in heaviness. An hour later, the dust settles to the floor, people look around in bewilderment, not knowing what has happened. A young dude with the nickname �Haze� decides to start a record label called Invertebrate Speed (but he will change that soon enough). The surprise band leaves the room never to be heard of again. Time travellers? Space cadets? Noise rock prophets? Seriously now, when I first heard �amoral� I was amazed at the power and crispness of this otherwise quite old fashioned kind of noise rock. Remember, old fashioned is a good thing when it comes to noise rock. Otherwise we would be talking sissy shit like Electrosix or Ladytron. No, Lyssa hit hard and straight and target the centrepoints. And it is this kind of heavy punch that I have been missing for so long. All out blasts of guitar noise aplenty in these months, but almost all of them miss the control that makes the power so much more concentrated and, ahm, powerful. If that reminds me of one of the best times I have head, back then when Noise Rock was my way of life, that is all my own fault. (And boring you people to death with stories of that time as well, I know that too.) Lyssa also possess a friendly down to earth-ness, that ranges from the simple but effective guitar riffs to the inclusion of football speaker recordings (around the song �Armando�), and even though I have no clue at all what they sing about, because the lyrics are all in Czech, I would guess at the trifles and tribulations of everyday life in a society turning cold and heartless while capitalism rises. I could be completely wrong, though, but the way the singer screams and spouts with energy and intensity over the big and heavy arrangement, I just can�t imagine him singing about flowers, rainy afternoons or lost friendship. Oh, maybe I should include lost friendship again, if the reason for the loss was a violent death, a fistfight over an unworthy woman or something with a truck. After all they aren�t as backwards oriented as I made them out to be. Their vision of noise rock is a quite traditional one, but I can name you half a dozen bands from the last years (most of them from Germany � oh wherever did you go wrong Blackmail?) that tried something similar and weren�t half as successful or interesting. My guess, that is because Lyssa have really cleaned up their act, caring for every little sound but also let things blow they way they come at times. Too much control isn�t any good either, especially when there are so many nifty things available in the studio, that you might want to try out. That usually makes for bad records. Lyssa have reduced themselves to their simple drums / bass / guitar / vocals / lots of amps and effects approach and see what they can get from there. My brother was looking for a design to be spraypainted on the tank of his motorcycle (a Ducati! I don�t know what that means, but he is rather proud of it�) and I suggested the inlay totem you see when you fold out the cover. It includes the eye of god, an angel with a sexdoll mouth, a crown on a boars head, tits, a fish, a virgin heart, triple dick, a fish, a sack, football shoes and a disfigured head. He declined without looking at me too much.|How many words for heavy rocking can you come up with? I like Lyssa a lot. You guys should come over here to Vienna and play a show at one time. I�d like to get blasted back in time. Discography:|Striker, 12” EP, Silver Rocket, 1999|Lavanda Gastrica, 7“ split with Wollongong, Silver Rocket, 2003|Amoral, CD/LP, Silver Rocket, 2005 V.A.: Svinstvo z vesmíru (Macho Grande, previously unreleased version, Silver Rocket, 1998)|V.A.: Ten Years Ego (Macho Grande, taken from Striker, Noiseworks, 1999)|V.A.: Zwei Kessel Buntes (Koponya, previously unreleased, Noiseworks, 2002) |2) Lyssa (Dutch)|by chris ellinor LYSSA is simply the most exciting and prolific new rock group to appear on the Dutch music scene in years. Since beginning in 2003, the duo made up of Steef Tomas on drums and Marten Junior on voice & guitars has remained deep underground, forsaking all else in their quest to sculpt a new and unique sound devoid of the usual rock cliches. With a staggering amount of cleverly written and recorded original songs and an unshakeable belief in their ability to improve the groove, it seems that LYSSA is set to usher in a new era where styles melt into one another, genre boundaries are dissolved, and labels are rendered less relevant. Until now most of their time and energy has been focused on composing and recording original material in their secluded home studio known as the “Adilla Villa”. After their self-titled 2 track cd debut in 2004 the band has showed no signs of slowing down. Releasing no less than six cd-eps within the next year and a half (which contained a total of 28 tracks), the summer of 2005 saw the release of LYSSA’s first full-length album, “The Tale of the Red Scorpion”. Later that same year “Let’s Face It Sex Sells” - another full-length album - was recorded and released. Riding this wave of productivity into the new year, the latest album “Bought A Violin” has been written and recorded in 2006 and is now available in area stores and on internet. While proud of their achievments in the studio, the place the band prefers to be is onstage - be it in a theater, a local pop palace or a festival super-stage. Enthusiastic audiences in attendance at their recent performances in and around Zwolle have encouraged the band to continue to refine their original blend of new millenium minimalistic blues, modern psychedelic squall, and acoustic easy listening to a new level… LISTEN to see what we mean… |DISCOGRAFIE Lyssa (2 tracks, 2004) recorded in Zwolle and Zwartsluis Jesus Edgar (4 tracks, 2004) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen Lloyd Banks (5 tracks, 2004) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen The Magnificent Slovak Pavol (3 tracks, 2004) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen Sweet Lips ( 5 tracks, 2004) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen Opportunism (6 tracks, 2005) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen World Peace (6 tracks, 2005) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen The Tale of the Red Scorpion (11 tracks, 2005) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen The Lyssa Collection Vols. 1, 2, & 3 (comprehensive compilation. 52 tracks total, 2005) Let’s Face It Sex Sells (12 tracks, 2005) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen Bought A Violin (10 tracks, 2006) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen Against the Law (10 tracks, 2006) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen/ Pete’s Wythem/ Popfront Zwolle Shape Shift (9 tracks, 2006) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen/ Pete’s Wythem Lake DUst (15 tracks, 2006) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen Strictly UNDERGROUND (14 tracks,2006) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen LIVING WITH THE FLY’s (13 tracks, 2007) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen Winners Only (16 tracks, 2007) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen IT’S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!!!! (14 tracks, 2007) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen The Adilla Villa Legacy(compilation disc 20 songs 2004-2007) recorded in Adilla Villa Geldermalsen Peintre Maudit (7 songs, 2008) recorded in popfront Zwolle, rythem & music Zwolle, mixed & edited by LYSSA. The Tip (5 songs, 2009) recorded in de tip Heino, mixed and edited by Lyssa. |
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