KRAUTROCK

So a trio this time with one guest adding percussion. We do get vocals from both the bass player and organist and I like them, and lets just say the music is better because the musicians are better and somehow this one just resonates with me. Not many fans of this one but I have my hand up. It works. And don't dismiss this based on the start of the record where we get the band whooping it up having fun, some laughter reminding me of a Kevin Ayers track. A party-like atmosphere shall we say. It turns very experimental around 2 minutes then back to the music before 5 minutes.

Man the vocals have character and are quite insane before 9 minutes for example. I have to say I really like the bass player's style. Glad the original bass player switched to organ also because it's perfect for this music. It settles right down at 12 1/2 minutes as the organ pulses quietly. Drums return then vocals but check out that bass before 15 minutes. Love the vocals here. A uniform but adventerous piece of music over 16 minutes in length. Nice.

"Magic Carpet Ride ToThe Alps" is a slow ride but it very slowly picks up as it goes, barely noticeable as our ride is smooth. Floating organ, drums and bass in this slow ride. "Feast Of The Pickpockets" is over 8 1/2 minutes and is quite adventerous with experimental stuff along with catchy melodies as we get repeated themes. Vocals just before 4 minutes as he cries out the words. Nice bass before 6 minutes.

"Stony" is my favourite. Again this album is so much better than the debut as far as ideas go, it's like they got serious here after that first few minutes of letting it all out at the start of this record. This track sounds amazing the way the percussion, drums and bass interact. It gets pretty intense too.

This is a keeper and quite the surprise given most people's opinions of it.

"Are You With Me?" sounds like another catchy punksy stuff under pop cultural structure. Their funky, freaky, and silky chorus are quite attractive. "Den Stora Kärleken" involves excessive dark matters and disquieting sound situations. Melody lines are simple but the whole music circumstance in the track cannot be simplified at all. Such a complicated musical construction should be their characteristic I guess. In "Siri's Hymn" we can attend to their quirky but solemn atmospheric choirs. What a mystery their hymn is due to their mysterious aptitude or tendency.

On top of that, let me say the last longest song "Lay Us High" should be one of their masterpieces, that is drenched in weird eccentric Krautrock cellular liquid. Especially in the middle part, crazy dissonant fiddle dizziness launched by Cecilia completely thrusts me into the sixth dimension. And finally the dizziness is transferred to obvious comfort. The rhythmic wonder via drums and percussion is also crucial. The last musical celebration on a large scale would express SIRI KARLSSON's current spirits and feelings. A long combination of repetitive melodic masses will not be monotonous nor tedious, but kinda splendor that shows me another dreamy dream.

Maria and Cecilia always ease us up. Good.

"The Summit" is like a slow dirge with organ and electronics. Spacey and experimental at times. "Mountainside" has some cello and spacey sounds along with electronics and haunting vocals. "Dark Path" is sombre with keyboards and atmosphere. "Nicmand Verstent" features more organ, vocals and spacey sounds. The closer "Daruber" has some rare drums in it along with organ before it changes after 3 minutes to a spacey soundscape which I like better. Another change after 6 minutes as it sounds more nervous and ominous and the organ floats in late.

There are many who think this is an incredible 5 star release but I find it to be just a pretty good record overall.

I think it's so cool that Julian Cope knows this band's music and that he referred to them as being Druids whatever that implies. "Museum Robbery" opens with some words before drums, organ, bass and atmosphere take over. I like the organ and drums as this trips along. Piano before 2 minutes as the previous soundscape fades out. Love the spacey winds after 7 minutes with frantic drumming and much more. Electronics galore 8 1/2 minutes in. Some insanity before 15 minutes with a laugh before a circus melody kicks in with drums and bass supporting. Mellotron-like sounds 17 minutes in with experimental percussion. It's more keyboard driven before 19 minutes then some jazzy bass after 20 minutes along with the organ to the end.

"Sterling's Over" opens with crowd noise, a lot of people talking here as keys join in. That noise continues until before 2 minutes when electronics and organ take over. It's more organ led at 5 1/2 minutes then back to the electronics around the 10 minute mark. The organ is back before 13 minutes as the electronics continue. The tempo picks up and it brightens some at 16 minutes before returning to the previous soundscape to end it.

Krautrock from my end of the woods? Kind of cool and if the boys are ever up here they need to look me up.

This band comes from the city of Hangzhou and founded in 2014 with the intent to explore the outer regions of space rock, freeform psychedelia and avant-garde jazz and has only played a few live shows. After releasing the EP "Smoke A Haiku Cigarette" in 2018, DOLPHY KICK BEBOP returns in 2020 with the live album BRIEFVISIT which offers a veritable smorgasbord of psychedelic escapism laced with frantic avant-garde jazz, Japanese inspired free improv noise rock along with traces of 70s prog and drones. Looking abroad for an audience this band features English track titles as well as the few vocals scattered through BRIEFVISIT.

The lineup features 31 (guitar), 周一 (bass), 刘中天 (saxophone, guitar), 小萨 (drums) and 沈帜 (violin) and the album BRIEFVISIT has found its way onto the WV Sorcerer Productions label which is based in both France and China specializing in the sounds of the underground which includes noise, drone, ambient, psychedelic, free improvisation and black metal as well as traditional folk and field recordings. While emerging from China, there is really nothing other than the band member names who have retained their Chinese characters that would offer a glimpse of this band's origins. This band has crafted the sounds of the true spirit of avant-garde escapist's paradise with its five tracks that sprawl on, all over seven minutes and one close to fourteen.

While quite the diverse album, there are a few generally characteristics. There is often a drone that oscillates in and out of tune along with an atmospheric backdrop, usually bleak as well as a percussive drive seemingly borrowed from African jazz roots. The most avant-garde sounds emerge from the saxophone squawks that evoke a disoriented John Zorn on a most adventurous day as well as guitar heft that erupts in noisy atonal defiance and avant-garde angularity. The band cites the experimental pioneers like The Plastic People of the Universe, Masayuki Takayanagi, Pärson Sound and Albert Ayler as the true influences of its bizarre concoction of this sonic wilderness and does an excellent job at maintaining a sense of control that somehow navigates the listener through the freeform soundscapes and intangible sonic maelstroms.

This is perhaps the absolute best and most creative avant-garde music i've heard from China so far as i've been scouring the databases looking for lone examples of outstanding thinking outside fo the box characteristics and lo and behold from the city of Hangzhou i have found one. This is a beautiful album that despite being quite wild and adventurous still has moments of melodic beauty to reel the listener back to the reality of tangibility. This is an excellent display of avant-garde music at its best and DOLPHY KICK BEBOP is well poised to compete on the world's stage with an eclectic mix of noise fueled proggy jazz-rock. This is the stuff avant-garde dreams are made of and this Chinese band has transcended its geographical limitations to embark on an exciting world tour of sound. Bravo!

The nearly 33 minute jam that is At the Foot of Zodiac Mountain starts out life slowly at first. Electronics, guitar and vocals queasily and darkly groan away, often drenched in reverb and various effects. While drums and various percussion freely thump and clang, sparse and distant, before gaining momentum and tribalistic rhythm, rising in intensity against the backdrop, which has turned into a frenzy of buzzing and thrumming, feedback and noise, before falling apart and re-congealing into the void-like morass. This presents itself as a cycle, that of lysergy, slowly building into uncouth paganist noise, but upon the feverish plateau being reached, the tribal percussives, cracked and moaning guitars and electronics, whooping and hollering, everything inevitably and slowly slides back into abyss of zonked out and evilly twinkling sparsity. By the time the final recorded cycle has spasmed out into the darkness, you'll want to join in (or you stopped listening 5 minutes in cause you hated this wonderful mess, fair play).

I unashamedly love these communal groups who jam out wild, percussive, psych freak outs, and this dark and gloamy, paint spattered little cassette offering sits at the top of this niche pile.

1. "Say Less, Do More" (8:32) Post Rock with Krautrock's simplicity and voice-over. The first two minutes are pleasantly hypnotic, even melodic, but so simple. Interesting things begin to happed with Slowdive-like guitars and more cymbal action from the drums in the third minute, then the post-punk vocal rant enters (sung in accented-English). This could very well have come out of some young angry Brits in the early 1980s--like Joy Division or even The Clash (in their more introspective moments). In the end, there just isn't enough to make this anything more that good solid Post-punk Post Rock (though I do love the contribution of Jessica Moss' violin in the final minutes). (17/20)

2. "SMB" (6:42) pres de Disco Post Rock. Buce sound palette coming from the two guitars but all in all, even with its Post Rock slow-build and cresecendo, it's just too simplistic and unchanging. (8.33/10)

3. "Derive" (8:03) a mysterious, almost cinematic foundation with some great bass play and atmospheric synths, but, in the end, it's just too CAN-like. The crescendoing fourth, fifth, and sixth minutes (mostly from the glissandoing guitars) shows great promise, great energy, but then it all comes crashing down in a JAMBINAI/MONO way before resetting to the opening motif as if nothing had happened. Crazy! (13.25/15)

4. "The Failure of Stiff, Tired Friends" (6:02) smooth and pleasantly atmospheric; parts of this could come from THE CURE or some 1980s (John Hughes) movie soundtrack. I like it. Very much. (8.875/10)

5. "Feet Together, Face Up, on the Front Lawn" (16:36) A heavy start to this one puts them in the realm of Post Rock bands like SLEEPMAKESWAVES and MONO. At the three-minute mark the music shifts radically into a pure CAN mode--even with crazed vocals of the Damo Suzuki kind, but then we quite as drastically and mysteriously shift back to the heavy POST ROCK motif at the end of the fourth minute for a few bars, but then it reverts back into the CAN motif again. Back and forth a couple times before going Post Rock and drawing it out (and down) into a more SWANS-like form and style. Pretty ingenious if derivative. We kind of stay in the Swans and heavy Post Rock realms for the remainder of the song. (26/30)

Total Time 45:55

Quite a disappointment for I had very high expectations for this band after their stunning debut. Still, the album did get better the deeper you get into the album. And, overall, I do like the sound of this band! I am not done with guys yet, yoo doo right!

B/four stars; a solid album of Nouveau Post Rock that, though not as impressive as one might have hoped for after their delightfully refreshing debut, would still make a nice addition to any prog lover's music collection.

In "Get Your Personality Together" style is quite the same as in first album, it´s first straightforward, but soon there comes interesting complexity. Also violin and leslie effected guitar brings good spices into it! Sounding very 1970! But "Light Of the Day" is very proggy from the beginning, sounding something between Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull of the same time. Really beautiful song! Greatness continues in "Sunlights Beautiful Daughter", as it´s name, it´s very acoustic & hippie song. Walty Anselmo makes again great work with his harmonica and in the end there comes even sitar! "Tell Me What You Want" goes back to straightforward direction, but it´s more sixties sounding than the first piece with it´s very lovely melodies. "Blue Flashing Circle" continues in the same way, but it´s not as great song as the previous. It´s the most mediocre one in "Swamp", but has good musicianship. Sixties sounds come back in "Snow White and Blue". Again so beautiful melodies! "Human Bondage" starts as luminous ballad. It reminds me a lot a-side of Wigwam´s Hard n Horny -album. Soon comes harmonica and song changes to blues. Then leslie sounding guitar continues solo. In the end there comes one more verse and chorus. Awesome ending of the very good spirit album!

This album is not very far from the masterpiece, but because Krokodil made their most perfect album after "Swamp", I have to give this only four stars. Really these two albums are hidden treasures from the seventies!! I think it´s so sad for example some UK Circus album get much more attention than this these days, of course because in that band there was playing Mel Collins from King Crimson and it´s from UK! But the world is unfair. Anyway if you like for example Caravan´s first album, this is for you! Really these albums have lot in common although this is not as great.

'Remote Viewer' is a gentle yet brief entrance into their impending interstellar voyage with breezy synths charting the course. In a few moments, the intensity ramps up with 'Korb's Third Android' as the psychedelic guitar takes the front stage , boldly laying down some gritty phrasings, with choppy synths and percussion as co-conspirators. It has a both an organic and mechanical feel, electronic music with melody, soul and some atmospheric backbone. The more ominous sounding 'The Hunter' gathers quickly steam, as it throbs with determined bravura, the various synthesized layers coalescing into an ever-growing maelstrom of sounds, heavily reliant on percussive propulsion. The outro sounds like a soundtrack for a successful capture of prey. The mood veers into a higher plane, suggesting a visit to the towering Peruvian plateau, made famous for its geoglyphs etched into the desert sands and visible from a much higher altitude (aka airborne). 'Lords of Nazca' conveys the majestic enigma with bold synthesized lines, carving the musical foundation with sharp electronic dimensions that emphasizes grandeur, power, and mystery. A perfect segue into a similar vein, and peaking of great civilizations, 'Temples of Mars' may refer to the one in Rome built in the Second Century BC. This companion to the previous track only further underlines the creative qualities of this duo. A highlight track is the lumbering mastodon 'Rituals for the Gods ' , which perhaps neatly summarizes the devotion the Incas and the Romans had for their multiple gods , coincidently both eventually succumbing to a less inhumane form of deity (There is a recent theory that Teotihuacan, the huge and enigmatic complex in Mexico was abandoned because of the eruption of a civil war fighting to abolish human sacrifice). Regardless the 6 minutes + are a pure musical joy to behold, already ensuring that this album will get its just rewards. The blistering and raw 'Infrared' offers a short sonic wake up call, with a sound that may rekindle images of Astounding Sounds and Amazing Music era Hawkwind, a grittier resonance to keep the juices flowing and the interest forever avid and hungry. The more linear but equally compelling 'Robots of The Ancient World' keeps that science fiction mindset rolling, blending a vision of the future with hints from the past. While not a clone of anyone similar specifically, they nevertheless keep the ship zooming at a proper warp speed in keeping the adventurous ears balanced, content and even enthused. They also have mastered the ability to mix things up in terms of pace , such as the relative reflective intonation of 'A Rare Bird' , a sultry slice of euphoric atmosphere, very cinematographic and soundtrack-ish, a inspirational melody swooshing softly into the cosmic horizon, most definitely a master track that deserves celestial applause.

Of course, what better title for a finale than 'Cosmic Dawn' , an electronic goodbye, surely another futuristic future album from this up and coming band I was so glad to discover thanks to Gabriel of Prog Critique ! Merci! Their previous two albums, cockily titled I and II, are just as captivating and I have become a fan, big time. You should too.

4.5 timber estates