Three Argonauta Records groups, three different ways to travel.

RHINO

Catania, in addition to being a very beautiful city nestled in Sicily under the slopes of the volcano Etna, is a city that has often produced notable bands from the Italian musical undergrowth, and it is from there that Rhino come. With ‘Human farm’ they sign their second record, like their debut, also on Argonauta Records.

Rhino make a stoner desert with great psychedelic influences of the highest quality, an abrasive and dreamy sound, very desert and fuzz at times. The sonic blend of the Catanese band, born in 2012 and still with the same line-up, is strongly reminiscent of that of the desert masters Kyuss and the like, those forward escapes with multiple riffs that slap the listener and never leave him indifferent and still while listening. Like a car speeding along the asphalt, Rhino grind out octane and kilometres, with a sound that is aggressive and at the same time dreamlike and psychedelic in some of its phases.

The Sicilian band does all the phases very well, from the faster moments to the more ethereal ones, always with a notable underlying hardness, always at full throttle and with the urge to step on the accelerator and lose control. An excellent record of stoner desert rock, a work that has already been noticed abroad, and one of the best Italian releases in recent times when it comes to desert and distorted deviations.

MOONIN DOWN

Three Tuscan musicians with a lot of experience in the Italian underground with a great desire to range musically without genre solution, and here is Moonin Dawn with their debut album “The third planet” on Argonauta Records. They themselves define their musical universe as PsychHARDelic Rock, and the definition fits like a glove, since their musical direction always marks forward, a continuous expansion of consciousness without ever stopping and looking backwards.

Listening to the album, it is clear that there is no limit or boundary to the band’s sonic universe, and it is precisely the universe that is the protagonist of their music, a composite psychedelia that crosses over with hard rock stoner, but always remaining very psych. It is no coincidence that Moonin Down were included with the track ‘My nothing’ in a tribute collection to the Fuzztones, who are an important part of their sound.

There are a lot of very interesting sonic cues on the album and a dreamlike and very fruitful atmosphere, music that does not shock but makes the mind travel very far, with a very analogue and sixties sound, but with strong eighties psychedelic influences and lots of fuzz. Moonin Down is a very original band that makes intelligent and very open music, a record that is good for the soul and the brain in very difficult times and that renews the wonder of psychedelia crossed with hard rock.

AUTUMNBLAZE

“Auf zerfetzten Schwingen’ is the new album by Autumnblaze, a German duo formed by Marku and Arisjel, whom we have already met on these pages. Their musical world is mainly made up of emotions, and there are plenty of those, and even a few tears.

These emotions are declined in different ways and in different musical genres, starting with post black metal and ranging through shoegaze, something from doom and a little gothic, all constructed with great passion and competence.

The German duo takes us beyond the confines of chaos, where everything is indistinct and we have to cross it as you might cross a sandstorm where you cannot see where you are ending up, tossed about by the wind and the elements. This metaphor is also perfectly represented in the album’s beautiful cover, where symbolism is prevalent, speaking of death, darkness and light. The singing in German, their native language, is very effective and gives them that extra edge that almost borders on perfection for a unique band.

Their music is unhurried, it hangs in the air and in the mind, it drags when it should lead, it leaves you hanging in the air when you should close your eyes, and it always makes you swim. A record with a different and totally unique metric, a walk inside our soul, with tremendously beautiful music and penetrating lyrics.