Live review: YAMA + MANTRA MACHINE + THE FUR + NAUSEAHTAKE

March 28th, 2015. A sullen rainy Saturday in Amsterdam. One of those nights where gloom and misery seem to be cloaked around every hunched body dragging itself along the streets. What better time to dive into one of Amsterdam's rock n roll caves and immerse oneself in a full on stoner onslaught of four great bands from the low lands of Holland and Belgium?

The rock n roll cave in particular this time is Winston Kingdom, at the heart of the Red Light District.  First band of the night is Nauseahtake, a local lot from Amsterdam, playing a sludgy style of experimental improv stoner layered with spacey synth sounds. Great build ups make you long for enormous explosions, but the four lads excel in teasing and only rarely does a climactic thunder sear through our souls. But they deliver their music well, and with ferocity. Great band, and I look forward to hearing more from them.



Next in line is The Fur from Belgium. One look at their guitarist Jens Hugo is enough to ascertain the kind of music they will play: psychedelic seventies stoner. The guy definitely looks his music. The first few songs are very promising and take you on long and windy road. Unfortunately the road doesn't seem to be leading anywhere in the end, and the band starts to get lost within their own music, resulting in a messy second half of the show. Props for the banana marketing they did though. Handing out banana's is always a good idea. As The Fur states themselves: Not Enough Bananas.



Then it's time for Mantra Machine to take the stage. Tonight marks the vinyl release of their 2014 album Nitrogen. At least that's what the flyer for the shows says, because the lads of Mantra Machine themselves seem either to shy to tell the crowd who they are and which album everybody should buy tonight, or they just only give a shit about playing their music and screw all else. Their music warrants enough reason to buy their albums anyway, because their psychedelic instrumental space jams transcend the earthly planes and leave you begging for more. The bass lines especially are rad beyond the extreme. Go see them when they are around.



Last up is Yama, Tilburg's finest. I've had the pleasure of doing an interview with them some time ago, and it's great to see they are not only still going strong, but going even stronger still. After a long period of delay their first full length finally saw the light of day in late 2014. Their album Ananta can be considered as one of the finest pieces of Dutch stoner history already and their live shows add some extra raw quality to the songs. Tonight some technical difficulties mess up the first song a bit, but as soon as the bass is fixed the Yama freight train is on its way and cannot be stopped. Unsuspecting people in the front turn into rabid fans straight away when Yama sinks its fangs in their throbbing throats. Singer Alex Schenkels delivers his sermons in a most convincing manner, while Peter Taverne tests the foundations of Winston with his grooving bass lines. Guitarist Sjoerd Albers commands the Vedic deities with his riffs of mythic proportions, while drummer Joep Schmitz just about brings down the entire house with his relentless pummelling on his kit. During the title track of Ananta, everything seems to fall in its right place and all the gloom and misery of the beginning of the night evaporates in an effervescent cloud of joy. Far fucking out, man.

Roadburn 2014 Warm Up - Part 1: YAMA

It is only four more weeks until the Elysian Fields of stoner, psychedelic, doom and other related genres will be upon us once more. That's right, I am talking about the Roadburn Festival 2014, taking place of course again in lovely ol' Tilburg in the south of Holland. Those who don't know what this festival is about are either on the wrong side of the musical spectrum or have been smoking so much they cannot see further than their front door. Those who know about the festival either long have a ticket or are bummed out about not having one since the festival is once more sold out. The next few weeks I will be paying attention to the festival and everything it stands for. Mostly as a nice warm up for myself to increase the anticipatory feelings, but also as a small and humble hommage to the festival and the music it advocates.

Yama to play Roadburn

I want to to start off this series by focusing on a Dutch band that will be playing this year's festival. Hailing from Tilburg and making ferociously intense Roadburn music it was only a matter of time before they would appear on the festival's poster. Needless to say I was very stoked to find out a couple of weeks ago that YAMA were to play at Roadburn 2014, I believe on the Saturday at newly added location Cul de Sac. That feels like more than justice, because not only does Yama do a great job promoting both the festival and the city with their smashing music, but also by being great and hospitable guys. Last year I had the honour of doing an interview with the entire band at Roadburn 2013, where they were present simply as attendees and music lovers. I tried to combine that interview with some new insights into the article here below.

Yama - Seaquake EP

Homeland
Yama has been playing together in the current formation for about two and a half years. In that period there has been a slight evolution in their music. "We used to play a bit more stoner than we do now actually, when it was just Alex and Sjoerd playing together. Later Peter joined and when Joep was added as our drummer we felt complete. From then on Yama as it is now really took shape. We also got more serious about our music when we had become a four piece. It helped that people immediately responded to our music as well." Coming not only from Roadburn-city Tilburg, but also having the south(east) of Holland as home country, meant there was a huge potential of both fans of the stoner, metal and heavy rock genre as well as a lot of bands who played music along similar veins. "We've always had good support from Tilburg and basically the whole of Brabant. There are likeminded bands as Sungrazer and The Machine, although their music does definitely differ from ours. We have more of a focus on grunge elements, reminiscent of the nineties. Other good Dutch bands in the genre include Herder (although they are from a bit farther away), Orange Sunshine, Sons of the Patriots... It is all perhaps a bit of a niche market, but there is definitely a great scene for this kind of music. Plus here in Tilburg you have great venues such as 013 and Little Devil."

Yama - Ananta

Vedic mythology
In 2012 Yama released their first EP, called Seaquake. Although admittedly the production value could be a bit better, the enormous quality of the songs definitely makes up for that. The EP has been met with very favourable reviews and it is no surprise that the physical copies have long been sold out. Luckily, now there's new material. "We recorded our new album last year in Utrecht at Independent Recordings. It's a full length this time, and it will be released soon. It's around 40 minutes long and the sound quality is great, so we are really stoked about it!" For the title of the record Yama stayed close to their origins. Just as their band name (Yama meaning 'God of death and illusion, servant of Vishnu') the name of the record comes from Vedic mythology (related to Hindu mythology). "We've decided to call the record 'Ananta'. It basically can mean different things, but for us it stands for the thousand-headed serpent, representing the Infinity of Life." This intriguing meaning calls out for fitting artwork. Yama have found the perfect artist to help them out there. "We're good friends with Maarten Donders, who also does a lot of great artwork for Roadburn. He is also responsible for our band logo and he has made a great piece of work for our album. In the Bhagavad Gita there is a passage in which Vishnu, the supreme deity, sails across the world on the serpent. Maarten has done a wonderful job capturing that image."


Future
With an album full of quality music and majestic artwork, Yama is ready to take on the world, and to do so in a professional way. "We're kind of past the point that we will play just for a few beers and a laugh. It always depends of course who asks you to play and where the show is at, but we've definitely matured in that regard. The show needs to have some sort of relevance, whether it is for setting up a network or just because the setting of the show is great. We've done a few shows in Belgium and Germany now as well, and the people responded very enthusiastically. In Holland we've mostly played the southeast, but little by little we are conquering the rest as well! We have a great booking agency with Bidi Bookings so we will definitely have some great shows coming up. We are all committed to the band and our music and we will work hard to get our music out there."

Acid and spliffs
The hard work seems to be paying off, because the mighty Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats have asked Yama to open up for them at their shows in Amsterdam, Nijmegen and even Bochum in Germany. The future is looking bright indeed, and it is comforting to know that the lads of Yama know to combine the hard work with a little pleasure, considering their mantra: "No spliff, no riff!" Amen to that. Go check them out at one of their upcoming shows with Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats to get in the right high moods for Roadburn 2014!

Yama

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Yama is:
Alex Schenkels - Vocals
Peter Taverne - Bass
Joep Schmitz - Drums
Sjoerd Albers - Guitar

Upcoming shows:
- March 14 - w/ Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats @ Doornroosje, Nijmegen
- March 15 - w/ Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats @ Melkweg, Amsterdam
- March 16 - w/ Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats @ Matrix, Bochum (DE)
- April 12 - Roadburn festival, Tilburg

Music: 
http://yama.bandcamp.com/music