With a hometown show in Bordeaux tomorrow night (Nov. 12) to mark a limited 180 gram vinyl release, French heavy psych trio Mars Red Sky will embark on their latest European tour in support of their self-titled debut full-length. The album, in short, is a fuzz masterpiece. In the new European tradition, it melds heavy-weighted tonality with a laid back, natural vibe that comes through in hazy riffs and sweet melodicism. It is every bit the product of the desert sunshine in which it was created.

The band — guitarist/vocalist Julien Pras, bassist/sometime-vocalist Jimmy Kinast and drummer Benoit Busser — uses straightforward verses and choruses to build pyramids of undulating riffs and grooves. They did record in the desert, traveling to Spain‘s Bardenas in the south of the country and soaking in all of the atmosphere the mostly-barren landscape had to offer. As Pras describes in the interview below, part of the idea came simply from the need for isolation.

And though Pras (also an accomplished solo artist and a member of Calc) is described by Kinast as the “brains of the operation,” each member of the band has a distinct role to play in creating the sound. Without Busser‘s insistent bass drum and deft snare work, “Way to Rome” would fall flat in its militarism, and as they form the crux of Mars Red Sky‘s aesthetic, Pras‘ and Kinast‘s tones are majestic and consuming all at once. I reviewed the album in August and it’s been on a short list of releases to which I keep returning. Though the songs are simple, they lose none of their appeal with repeat listens.

As such, I was thrilled to be able to send Pras some questions for the following email interview. In it, he discusses how Mars Red Sky came together, the process by which the songs on Mars Red Sky were created and the assemblage of effects and amplifiers that results in such engrossing tones, the appeal of the contrast between the instruments and the vocals, and much more.

Complete Q&A (plus the tour dates) can be found after the jump. Please enjoy.

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I’ll admit I’m posting this news in no small part because of the cleverness of the video below, but it’s still cool as well because Mars Red Sky‘s self-titled debut is one of the warmest and thickest heavy psych records I’ve heard this year. Takes all the riffy and all the heavy and caps it with dead-on melody that’s never over the top, but just a perfect mix. Of all the albums that have come and gone from my player since August when I reviewed the CD, it’s been a constant. Perfect for vinyl.

Plus, for anyone lucky enough to be in Europe this November, they’re starting a tour one month from tonight in Germany that’ll be worth adjusting your travel plans. I left the month second in the dates below for that continental flair. Check it out:

The French psychedelic/stoner power trio Mars Red Sky is about to release their excellent self-titled debut achievement as the 180g vinyl. The record is due to be released on Nov. 12 and is a limited edition of 500, comes with a bonus tracked called “The Ravens are Back” and includes a download code. To preorder this amazing album check the links below:

http://marsredsky.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-lp-debut-album-vinyl-tote-bag-free-shipping

Besides, the band is about to kick off to the European tour this November, check the dates below and don’t miss a chance to experience stoned psychedelia at its best.

17.11 (D) FREIBERG Dipol
18.11 (PL) POZNAN Reset
19.11 (PL) WARSAW Chwila Da Klub
20.11 (PL) LUBLIN Tektura
21.11 (UA) KIEV Guitar Bar
23.11 (UA) KALUSH Velzha
24.11 (HU) BUDAPEST Roham
25.11 (CZ) PRAHA GreenDoors Café Na p?li cesty
26.11 AVAILABLE D, CH
27.11 (FR) PARIS La Maroquinerie
30.11 (ES) MADRID Wurlitzer Ballroom
01.12 (ES) ZARAGOZA Arrebato

Making their home in the rich dirt of France’s Bordeaux region, the trio Mars Red Sky specialize in gorgeously-toned and natural-sounding fuzz that comes on huge and overwhelming, but is rife also with engaging melody and psychedelic flourish. Guitarist Julien Pras (also Calc) is like the non-evil distant cousin of Electric Wizard’s Jus Oborn, the massiveness of his sound and his ability to turn a simple melody into something memorable come across immediately on Mars Red Sky’s self-titled full-length debut (Emergence). Preceded only by a 7” called Curse, the album is going to be the band’s first exposure to most listeners, and I’m hard pressed to think of a finer opening statement. In 39 minutes, Mars Red Sky – Pras, plus bassist Jimmy Kinast and drummer Benoit Busser – affect the kind of perfect laid back atmosphere that Dutch peers Sungrazer have been able to harness, blending Hendrix fuzz, Sabbath riffs, Kyuss’ keen sense of desert sun, Dead Meadow’s subdued melody and a rolling low end groove into a brew both inviting and heavy. Whether it’s Pras‘ sweet, high-pitched croon on “Strong Reflection” or “Way to Rome,” Kinast’s bluesy David Eugene Edwards-style vocal on “Marble Sky” or overdriven tone on “Falls,” the album is a riff worshiper’s dream and easily one of 2011’s best debuts.

They work in a few different modes. The aforementioned “Strong Reflection” opens the album and is one of its strongest tracks, boasting a straightforward structure and setting up the rest of Mars Red Sky’s tonescape. Pras’ vocal works surprisingly well over the guitar and bass, adding a lighter air to the verses, and the chorus, “But when I go upstream/I’ll meet you in a dream/And when I try to land/Please let me hold your hand,” is both sweet and catchy, Busser keeping a steady march underneath and transitioning between parts with capable but not overdone fills. Right away, groove is central to Mars Red Sky. Kinast’s bass plays a large role throughout the album, first filling out the guitar-less verse of “Strong Reflection” and providing heft across the board, but also keeping the flow going during Pras’ solos. The beginning of “Curse” reminds a bit of Colour Haze, but Mars Red Sky eschew airy spontaneous jams in favor of a shuffling groove that’s faster than that of the opener, but loses nothing of the tonal richness. Their adherence to structure throughout the album lends a sense of coherence to the listening experience, a feeling that you don’t mind going where Mars Red Sky take you because you know they’re in control. And they are. That said, the songs strike an excellent balance between the two sides – structured and open – and don’t come off as formulaic or more predictable than they should be.

“Curse” is the shortest track on Mars Red Sky at 4:04, and varies from the other material mostly in its pacing and in substituting the laid back feel of the first track with a more active vibe. The slow unfolding of “Falls” restores the softer touch Mars Red Sky prove so adept at throughout, building ever so slightly to another fuzz-fronted riff exploration, this one the first of the record’s two instrumentals. Kinast hits the wah to cut the bass through underneath Pras’ lead and Busser keeps steady hits on the ride cymbal, and if the purpose of the track – which caps in an undulating, moaning riff and tom hits – is to secure the listener’s full attention and confirm what the first two tracks stated, then it’s a purpose met. The intro to “Way to Rome” echoes Hendrix at his softest, but the song soon takes off on a mid-paced riff-centered groove with another landmark chorus, the stripped-down, “Ride/The dark horse/Through the fire/Through the storm,” reminding of how much can be accomplished when a band has a firm grip on the essentials of songwriting. Pras nails a solo after 2:40 with Kinast again driving home the groove on bass, and before you even realize the song is the album’s centerpiece – and worthy of its placement – you’re hooked by the repeated verse lines, “As we’re sent to die/On our way to Rome,” etc. Hard to pick between “Way to Rome” and “Strong Reflection” for which is the high point of Mars Red Sky, but both make a considerable argument.

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Droning, crashing, building tower after tower of riffs and choking the oxygen out of the very atmosphere you breathe while you listen to it – these would seem to be the objectives behind French post-metallers Year of No Light’s second full-length, Ausserwelt (Conspiracy). The Bordeaux six-piece featuring three guitars, two drummers, one bassist and a host of keyboard and electronics that can come from just about any of them present  four extended tracks to make up the album’s 48-minute runtime, the shortest being just over nine and a half minutes long, and the longest, “Hiérophante,” clocking in at 13:13.

With six people in the band and the most recognizable figure being guitarist Shiran Kaidine (also credited with vocals, though there aren’t any words on the album) of Monarch!, who came aboard after Year of No Light’s 2006 debut, Nord, it’s the wall of sound that’s the star on Ausserwelt. It would almost have to be. Throughout “Perséphone I,” “Perséphone II,” “Hiérophante” and closer “Abbesse,” it’s the full-on tonal weight the band crafts that makes the record memorable, if not necessarily the songs themselves, which are instrumental, given toward stretches of ambience and, frankly, going for something entirely different than catchy hooks or lead lines. In a way, Year of No Light have so many spontaneous elements in their music – the effects, the electronic noises – that they can’t really come out of Ausserwelt sounding like anyone but themselves, but that said, what they’re doing isn’t really all that original.

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