POINT OF ERUPTION

I have a penchant for the naive and childlike in music. Low budget production, one take, haphazard playing - splicing everything together on a whim, and then just releasing the bloody thing, instead of using 40 takes on a drum roll or a certain bleep sound that is supposed to sound like duuiiiiihht and not like duuuih...

Troya were an obscure German band who made their sole album Point of Eruption back in 1976, and even if the title sounds like a bad porn flick, the point of eruption is close at hand here. Bring those tissues honey! Regarding the quality of the thing, then everything I just mentioned about the naive in music goes for this album. The sound quality is rough and at times comes across like it is suffering from a bad cold. Every instrument reeks of garage and cardboard, and yet I find it surprisingly charming. This is by no means 'bad' production, but sounds more like a project that in spite of the lack of money - still found its way onto a record. Making lemonade out of lemons.

The music is a combination of psychedelic grooves akin to Krautrock - mixed up with some rather delicious symphonic codas which get delivered with trembling guitar accompaniment, that more than once made me think of The Future Kings of England, although these bands are separated by a couple of decades - if not three. Coupled together with some rumbling and distinctively bouncy drumming and bass work - the music is coloured with a somewhat unique touch. It's smooth and gentle with the hand lotion guitar segments and rivalling organ work, but with that rhythm section that bumps and jumps the overall feel is that of a deliberate counter-pointing effect made in heaven. This band reminds me of Italian space-rockers Sensations' Fix - both production-wise as well as that liquidy rawkous space symphonic music that ooze by like dense drifting fog.

Had it not been for one fatal mistake, I'd have given this album 4.5 stars and a raspy blowjob to boot, but it does sadly feature one of my biggest gripes with a lot of the German releases during the 70s: Bad English vocals! Boy... Sure there's very little of them - in fact only a couple of the tracks feature vocals, but when they do, I cringe and desperately start listening to what's happening in the background, where you often get floating organs, that sprawling rhythm foundation as well as that soothing and somewhat naive sounding guitar. Why oh why didn't these acts just sing in their native tongue?

It's a small nuisance and I can easily forgive Troya for making the same mistake as countless of their fellow country men did, but it still robs them of a whole star. However, if you're into Sensations' Fix, Eloy and Novalis - bands that managed to slip a couple of acid taps in the symphonics' drink, then you really can't go wrong with this album. It's charming, psychedelic and warm like a rainbow coloured moth dipped in coffee. 3.5 stars.

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