GOLEM

To locate the seeds of this obscure Kraut Rock trio we'll have to go back in early-70's when brothers Ludwig and Ulrich Papenberg were performing with the five-piece act P.O.T. (Part of Time) in the region of Lower Saxony, but they had to move to the more open-minded city of Berlin to fully develop their sound, eventually forming Sand in 1972 as a trio along with Johannes Vester on synths and vocals.Their sole original album ''Golem'' from 1974 was a product for the Kunstkopf demonstration series on Delta-Acustic, produced by Klaus Schulze.

The presence of Schulze along with the trippy front cover already gives an idea of what Sand's music was all about, but unfortunately ''Golem'' suffers from repetitiveness and monotony throught its duration.''Helicopter'' opens with these loops recalling the propeller of a helicopter and develops into a very long hypnotic composition filled with soft psychedelic guitars and Electronics in a very boring trip.''Old Loggerhead'' is no different.The voice of Vester is accompanied by a low-tempo colorless groove and spacey Electronics from the start to the very end.''May rain'' is still grounded in the Psychedelic territory, but this is more of an emphatic piece of music compared to the previous tracks, a short acoustic-driven cut with some nice vocals by Vester.''On the Corner'' is more of the same with a very strong Syd Barrett-era PINK FLOYD influence, characterized by its narcotic acoustic rhythm and the questionable childish vocals of the group.The closing ''Sarah'' is not even music for the most of its part.Hypnotic loops and distorted vocals dominate this piece for 7 or so minutes, just before the entrance of a smooth acoustic groove and Vester's more listenable vocals.

This is not only very far away from the essential moments of the Kraut Rock movement, but I hesitate to call this a music album for half about of its duration.Very experimental and hypnotic stuff, which is not disastrous, but it is not even mediocre either, thus not recommended.