OUTTAKES

After recording four albums, Austrian Krautrock band Ixthuluh decided to call it a day. Their jazz orientated, jam based albums never really offered anything exciting or innovative, so this collection of outtakes from the period during which they recorded their first two albums was never going to be essential. The tracks here are presented chronologically, but since the period covered is less than three years, that is not significant.

On the majority of these track, de facto band leader Dita Lasser tends to dominate, his guitar work being the cornerstone of virtually all the tracks. "Foxy rock" has strong similarities with Jimi Hendrix "Voodoo chile", and "Underground crawler" is pure retro instrumental rock and roll". "Black dancers in fur in front of the mirror" has some reasonably pleasant softer guitar, some diverting flute, and some interesting if overlong bass noodling.

The rare vocals on the brief bass laden "She was no to buy" show all too clearly why the band almost exclusively recorded instrumentals. "Flags in sharp north wind" features the sax of Max Wedl, who also pops up on the all too aptly named "Boring Sunday afternoon, little bit drunk". This tedious rambling dirge makes freeform jazz seem structured and appealing. Wedl has a couple of solo flute tracks which display his virtuosity while also being reasonably interesting. I'm not sure if the closing "Radio gnome" is actually intended as a cover version. By the time this 12+ minute ramble through noises and effects came around I have to admit I was past caring.

While there are obvious influences taken from bands such as Gong and Can, Ixthuluh appear to have been determined here to take the worst of those influences as their starting point.

In summary, it is all too apparent why these tracks were originally left behind. Ixthuluh's quality control was at best dubious when it came to what did make it onto their albums. The fact that these tracks were deemed sub-standard says it all.

As with all Ixthuluh's albums, "Outtakes 1977-1979 is avalable for free download at www.matscheko.at/ix_dl.html