Baba Yaga’s Raw Power Festival 2015
Richard Collins
Photos: Jose Ramon Caamono (Taken at various Cosmic Carnage gigs)
Baba Yaga’s Raw Power Festival is next week! For us, this festival is absolutely fucking essential. A celebration of all things weird and trippy but bolstered with power! Anthony deserves a knighthood for his services to innovative rock music and this event promises to see all his hard work collapse under its own gravity and explode sending tsunamis of riffs and rhythms across the universe and beyond. This tremendous psych gathering takes place at the Dome and Boston Music Rooms, Kentish Town. Weekend and Day tickets are still available but you’re dicing with death if you fuck about any longer… snap one up.
Here’s Richard Collins with a list of bands you can’t fucking miss.
They have two drummers and sound like the Butthole Surfers playing on a rollercoaster that’s lost control and is currently destroying the part of the theme park where the animals live. Essential!
Luminous Bodies
Gnod are an evolving body of musicians who’ve done everything from brutal maxed out psych to experimental electronics endurance tests. Do I know what kind of set they’ll play? No. Will it be awesome? Yes.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs
Heaviness and fun being fused on dangerous levels. It’s like doom, noise and kraut have gone binge drinking and with a couple of shrooms for good measure. Expect a hugely energetic performance from a band who could take over the world given a little push.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs
Extremely rare chance to catch this maxed out hypnotic doom band. Think Mainliner getting too baked to play but somehow just about managing it.
It’s three of the chaps from Circle playing spaced out jams. I’m not going to bother explaining why that’s going to be even more delicious than a deep fried Magnum.
A new project featuring members of Dethscalator, Mugstar and Partchimp. They sound like Drunk in Hell in a fucked washing machine.
I saw Earthless at the Borderline in 2009, it was the best gig I have ever been to in my entire life. That’s all I’ve got.
I heard their debut album last year and thought… what the fuck is this (in a good way)? It’s funky, fuzzy, innovative rock music with almost a voodoo groove. I’ve got no idea about their setup or how they make their noises, but we’ll forget that we’re in Kentish Town and think we’re on holiday.
This project featuring Mike from Bong and Matt and Johnny from Pigs x 7 have been around about a year (I think), but have quickly built a reputation of being one of the best jam bands in the country. Insanely prolific, they are on about their sixth album, which is ridiculous. They are seriously fucking good, prepare yourself to make some wonderful discoveries across this fine universe we live in.
Blown Out
Hey Colossus started over 10 years ago as a brutal maxed out noise rock outfit. These days they have refined their sound into some kind of delicate sonic kraut machine laced with power. You all fucking know who Hey Colossus are, why the fuck am I writing this? Just be there you twats.
Hey Colossus
So KK Null from Zeni Geva and Kawabata Makoto from Acid Mothers Temple are teaming up to make a right old racket? That’s going to be the most ridiculous thing ever. Got no idea what they are planning on doing, but it will be loud and bonkers.
One of the most loved and respected psych bands in the UK. Truly wonderful cosmic jams and it can really kick off when they play live. Prepare yourself for cymbal stands and hairy Scottish men landing on your face, just in case.
Black Bombaim are a stunning jam band from Portugal. They have dreamy subtleties that are tricky to describe, almost like pockets of magic from all over the world that are sprinkled throughout the trip. Needless to say they are incredible musicians, don’t fucking miss em’.
I’m not exaggerating when I say this experimental psych band from Finland are the most important on the planet! I caught them at Corsica Studios. I didn’t know who they were, I just went for the support bands, but their performance changed everything and I haven’t been the same since. They are a confusing bunch for so many reasons but it just fucking works. There is no better way you can possibly end a festival, or a lifetime. Circle live is the best thing ever.
