Before Raff Iacurto became the guitarist of Robot God, he was already making a serious amount of noise with Thumlock in Wollongong, Australia.
Formed in 1994, Thumlock were part of that particularly good strain of Australian heavy rock that didn't seem too bothered about keeping genres separate. Sabbath, Hawkwind, Blue Cheer and the Australian underground all went into the mix. Thumlock was made up of four mates from Wollongong (Australia), Ben Lough, Greg Eshman, Wayne Stokes and Raff Iacurto who all shared a passion for playing loud fuzz laden stoner rock.
One old description nailed them pretty well: “high-octane, sci-fi-tinged, THC-fuelled rock.”
After Emerald Liquid Odyssey which reached #4 on the Australian Independent Record charts came Sojourns Lucid Magic in 2002. The songs got shorter and more direct, but the riffs stayed heavy and the psychedelic weirdness never completely disappeared.
Think less endless jam, more get to the riff and get moving.
Modulator. Time Machine. Bateye. Neotrantor. Zatthium Biker. Moondragon.
And this is where the story gets particularly nice for us.
When Kozmik Artifactz started out in 2002 as a tiny mail-order mostly CDs at the time Thumlock were already there. Their CDs were among the first records we imported directly from Australia from High Beam Records and put into the Kozmik catalogue.
So this isn't some random old record we've just dug up. We've been carrying Thumlock since the very beginning.
And then there's Raff. After Thumlock, he went on to play guitar in Robot God, a band we've been working with at Kozmik since their first release in 2020. So somehow, 24 years later, we're still following the same thread.
Different band. Different decade. Same strange corner of the universe.
Sojourns Lucid Magic was originally released in 2002 on High Beam Music.
Now, for the first time in way too long, we're putting it back on vinyl.
No reunion. No “lost masterpiece” bullshit.
Just Thumlock. Great riffs. Australian heavy psych. And a little bit of Kozmik history.
VINYL FACTZ
- 200 copies on heavy vinyl
- transparent yellow+red splatter
- high-quality vinyl pressed by Pallas Group (Germany)
- single sleeve with 3 mm spine, matte lacquered finish
- special vinyl mastering
