This is a varied & unusual album, full of interesting tracks which blend in atmosphere, contrast in construction, and come across aas a surprisingly easily juxtaposed symbiosis of image & feeling. It fails to fit easily into any specific pigeonhole, while having many easily identifiable 'tags'. Side One opens up with two tracks from ALLERSEELEN - "Similaun" which opens on a huge, destructive blasting ground of white noise, through which the simplistic, yet occasionally breaking drum pattern emerges. Synths, spiralling downwards through the huge body make it sound more like an aural sculpture than a piece of music. It is music, but surprisingly bereft of conventional 'feel' - as if science had artificially created dance music in some huge isolation chamber. "Brachial", the second from them is a mildly Industrial piece, a churning of sound of cold electronic sequencing, a dense pattern of sounds which could inspire sheer panic in claustrophobes. It mills around, brooding, as if waiting to commit some dark deed. D'STURMPERCHTN offer the next piece "Stille", another dark & brooding piece, an ideal film soundtrack for some desolate, blasted futuristic SciFi landscape - a slowed-down JOHN CARPENTER mood piece reminding me a little of CMI's sound - cold, doomy, threatening. It's simplistic really - a two note bass grizzle over which a distant crashing sound punctuates while the air sizzles with tension. ALLERSEELEN finish off the first side with three more tracks, the first of which is "Saeta" - no, not the NICO track, but a curiously naive, childish sound - distant machine sounds with close-to muffled piano pattern. It's an unusually upside-down mix, giving it a curiously airless, timeless feel."Scheiding", from "Gotos=Kalanda" LP, is a simplistic pattern complicated by all manner of sounds which follow the matt piano, muted drums & distant Eastern synth sounds. It has a live feel, the fuzzy guitar & slightly distorted voice giving it edge. "Sturmgeweiht" - from the soon-to-be-released split CD "Sturmlieder" is a fast piece built up around a frantic drum pattern. It has distinct edginess which might make it a successful single. And the guitar which seems to skid to a feedback halt is just perfect for it, adding exactly the right ingredient to the sound, rather than over-complicating it. Here we have a potential dancefloor classic, although the lack of vocals probably reduces the attraction (as stupid as it sounds, non-vocal pieces rarely do well).
Side Two opens with KADMON narrating over the sound of the drummers & musicians on "Calanda, Nacht Der Stigmata", coming across like DEATH IN JUNE although a little more passive. It's a long track, giving you a good impression of the drummers & why their hands bleed after the performance - it's a huge barriage of sound, a martial pattern as if heard through natural reflections which dopple & thicken the sound from certain standpoints (for more info on these drummers, check out "Calanda, Nacht Der Stigmata"). Next up is "Die Wehen Des Todes" by KONNERSREUTH, follows a similar style, with spoken narrative (again in German) over a piece of Classical music which has both a sad emotion and a swelling sense of optimism, a mildly adrenal stimulant. ALLERSEELEN offer the next piece - "Sei Gegrüsset, Sei Geküsset (Konnersreuth Mix)" from the "Konnersreuth 12" - partly spoken word, narrative & found sound, which leads into a dense, tense drum thing, sounding closer to TG than to any ethnic drum troupe, a sound which fills the air with expectant threat, with impending, potential doom. LENI RIEFENSTAHL comes next with part of the soundtrack to "Das Blaue Licht" (I think). There's no data mentioned, but it sounds as if from the '30s/'40s! ALLERSEELEN conclude the album with "Hornung" from "Gotos=Kalandra" album. It's a medium-slow piece based around aa simplistic pattern, although it is full-to-bursting with sounds, all combining to create an unreal atmosphere, a dark, strange song which seems to evade easy categorization, although it has a steadying limb in Industrial.
An album with a very different atmosphere. It's strangely like going through an elderly relative's attic as a child - everything seems somehow dusty, and there's an element of fear there (of 'creepy crawlies', of a past angry with being disturbed from it's slumber), but there's that sense that every box opened will reveal wonderful treasures, some fantastic delight. If you can remember, or understand such a combination of emotions, then dig around in this cassette - a new world awaits the right person.
