VOLUME 10

It was ELECTRIC ORANGE's "Morbus" album that made me a fan of these German space rockers. I proceeded to pick up a couple of their earlier albums from the early 00's but they weren't nearly as good in my opinion. "Krautrock From Hell" which came out after "Morbus" was an excellent release but I sort of lost track of these guys until this 2014 release called "Volume 10". Man this is such a good release and one that rivals "Morbus" for my favourite from them. It's interesting how different this one is from "Morbus" though as they've changed their sound to a much darker and melancholic vibe while delving deeper into the roots of Krautrock. In fact while "Morbus" is in my opinion a Space Rock recording, this is pure Krautrock. Again as usual with this band they get as close to 80 minutes as possible with this album.

Oh I have to mention the song titles which are BLACK SABBATH song titles but changed up some and they are quite funny. "Paraboiled" is dark as sounds come and go. I love the haunting atmosphere after 5 minutes and the violin that slices away throughout. "Slowbind" has this relentless beat that leads the way along with plenty of atmosphere as strange sounds come and go. "Symptom Of The Mony Nurse" features guitar feedback and atmosphere as we get this dark and experimental mood with spacey sounds joining in. It starts to build before 2 minutes and the guitar starts to solo. Some electronics later. "Suite Beef" has floating organ as percussion and other sounds help out in this relaxed journey. This is one of my favourites.

"A Tuna Sunrise" has these sparse sounds that come and go but it's slowly building. Despite it building it stays very mellow. Mellotron sounds late as it continues to be very relaxed. "Behind The Wall Of Sheep" is eventually led by a beat that becomes the focus. Fuzzed out sounds join in as well as spacey ones. The beat stops after 10 1/2 minutes as it turns quite spacey. Drums are back before 13 minutes. "Seven And Smell" is led by drums as atmosphere and spoken words help out. "Worn Utopia" is the most experimental track and the hardest one for me to get into. Sounds come and go until we get silence 2 minutes in then drums, atmosphere and more return and start to build. It's experimental after 7 minutes as strange sounds come and go then it turns spacey after 12 1/2 minutes. Organ to the fore after 14 minutes.

4.5 stars for this one. This band really surprised me with not only how good this record is but also with how prominent that Krautrock spirit is here on "Volume 10". A must!