“Portable Shrine” by Earth Tongue

Our Day 28 song for 31 Days of May Madness, attempting to post a New Zealand track every day of the month of May, is “Portable Shrine” by Earth Tongue:

Heavy doom-rock duo Earth Tongue’s music is built around thick gooey low-frequency fuzzy riffs, and doomy sci-fi inter-planetary travel theme lyrics.  

It’s a bit too weird – in an agreeably H E A V Y psych-rock/ prog-rock/ space-rock kind of way – to be doom-metal, but it certainly shares some of the ominous frequencies of that genre at the same time as being a convoluted and interesting feast of restless rhythms, riffs and melodies.

Earth Tongue are guitarist/ vocalist Gussie Larkin and drummer/ vocalist Ezra Simons. Larkins is also one third of Mermaidens. 

“Hear The Rain It Calls” by Greenfog

Our Day 9 song for 31 Days of May Madness, attempting to post a New Zealand track every day of the month of May, is “Hear The Rain It Calls” by Greenfog:

Greenfog were Elliot Lawless, Scott Kendall and Rachael Elf and their album “Bruce Farm” was an independently created and released piece of stoner psych-rock experimental drone-metal wonder from 6 years ago. It’s instrumental, but clearly recorded live and loud because you can just about hear someone screaming along in the background of this 12 minute epic opening tune, which ebbs and flows with dark magic and heavy energy.  

It was recorded a year before the epic Kandodo / McBain album “lost chants / last chance” so, if you like that kind of heavy psych sound, this album sits alongside that work of wonder.