THEY are known by many names: The Bandylegged Riders of the Ill-Promised Sun, The Fireblack Breechclouts Hides and Wagonsheet, The Crazed and Sunchocked Bones of the Vanished Herds but most prominently, The Givers of Illness.
I came across Ak’chamel awhile back while doing a deep dive of random tags on bandcamp. I can’t recall what twisted combination led to them but I’m glad it happened. When I got to their instagram and settled into the dark folk imagery combined with the desert scorched psychedelia of the music I became wholly obsessed with seeing what this was like in person. It turns out it’s a full sensory excursion to the outer limits of reality.
After a beautifully droned out opening set by CT based Tongue Depressor, Ak’chamel The Throwers of Sickness, invaded the room..literally…they came in through an exterior door chanting in tongues to bring us both plagues and dense, dissociative rhythms to flood our bodies. The narrative of the set was not unlike a sickness; beginning with the sense that something was wrong before eventually succombing to the fever dream. Long form, self induced ritual psychosis of the grandest order once you accept IT.
The pieces Ak’chamel played are not things from the record so I took the liberty on inventing names to fit the theme. Kudos to the Hudson Valley for coming out for this one. I recorded this from the back of a VERY packed room with some Schoeps and board feed from Tubby’s FOH engineer Wil. The recording came out excellent, but this is one you really need to experience in person.
Download and stream from the Live Music Archive!
Ak’chamel
2025-11-04
Tubby’s
Kingston, NY
Source: Scheops MK22 > KCY > PFA + SDB > SD MixPre 3 > SD (24/48) > Adobe Audition/Izotope 9 > Audacity Flac (lvl8) > Mp3Tag
Thanks to Tubyy’s FOH engineer, Wil, for the board patch!
recorded and produced by kliked
- Exposure
- Infection
- Fever
- Acceptance
- Burn Your Money
Support this excellent artist!
https://akchamel.bandcamp.com/
Support the venues bringing you interesting music!
https://www.tubbyskingston.com/music-calendar
