Dark Matter Promotions

Golden Lion Todmorden
*With additional DJ sets from Was Ist Das? & Sie Norfolk

** With Dr Space

Northern California psychedelic sorcerers Carlton Melton return to the Golden Lion. They were the first band to play on the upstairs live room stage brought there by Ned Netherwood who is DJing for us as Was Ist Das?

Carlton Melton are brain surfers, mind trippers, … “psychlists,” if you prefer. The band will take your head for a ride, occasionally rushing at superluminal speeds through a wormhole or gliding softly on a gentle breeze in a leafy glade. Sometimes your brain needs to rage, and sometimes it needs to repose.

For a decade and a half, the band has yo-yo’ed, almost schizophrenically, between these two modes: walloping space jams with furious guitar solos in one hemisphere of the brain and ethereal, feather-light splashdowns in the other. Not to mention a track here and there that builds from the latter into the former.

But with two new releases in 2023, the band has evolved. Whether psych rock or ambient trance, their sound remains driving, organic, and flowing. With the addition of Anthony Taibi (White Manna, DDT), however, the group’s metal freak-outs are Hawkwindier and their droning kraut trances are Spacemen 3-er.

Carlton Melton (Rich Millman, Andy Duvall, Clint Golden, and Anthony Taibi) is an experimental psychedelic rock band formed in Northern California in 2008. Over the past decade+, they have released 16 full length albums (live and studio) and 11+ singles/EPs/splits on labels like Agitated Records,
Blackest Rainbow, and God Unknown Records from England, and Broken
Clover Records, Valley King Records, and their own Mid-to-Late Records in the US. They have toured extensively in Europe and the UK, playing festivals such as Desertfest, the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, Supersonic, Stumpfest, and Roadburn.

The Cosmic Dead

An amorphous visceral blob of space rock energy powered by celestial vibrations and hailing from Glasgow, Scotland.

The loudest psychedelic rock band on the planet.” – Kozmik Ken

Xeeland

Hypnotic drones, kraut rhythms, and cosmic textures. Xeeland is the solo project of Jason Stoll With a long history in the UK’s experimental underground Jason has played in many bands; Sex Swing / JAAW / KLÄMP / Bonnacons of Doom / Mugstar and many more. He also runs God Unknown Records.

Was Ist Das? promoted gigs all around Hebden Bridge and sometimes at the Golden Lion too from 2010 to 2015, including the valley debuts of Damo Suzuki, AMT, Natural Snow Buildings, Gnod and Carlton Melton among many others. Since then he’s been based in Pheonix, Arizona so this is a flying visit to play a set of the best krautrock, psychedelic and soundtracks. First UK DJ set since 2021. He will be playing back to back with Sie Norfolk on the Friday show.

Sie Norfolk
DJ and occasional Shindig magazine contributor – played as a regular at the hugely missed Liverpool Psych Fest and a regular guest at Andy Votel’s B-Music in Manchester . Also play his own nights / days in Lancaster.Owner of far too many records after spending most of his life looking for elusive and interesting sounds – expect to hear … Eastern European Electronics , Anatolian Psych , Cinematic Soul , Italian Soundtracks , 60’s Garage and much much more – all played from original vinyl. He will be appearing on the Friday bill.

Dr Space (Saturday) will be performing with Carlton Melton & The Cosmic Dead through the afternoon.
Carlton Melton meets Dr Space performed together at Roadburn 2014. And that Scott is in Oresund Sound Collective, long running Scandinavian Space Rock Collective.

Poster artwork by Brett Savage