TIME MACHINE

The band has changed a lot since their debut a year earlier, as only the bassist Reinhard Karwatky is left. The vocals are gone thankfully and their sound has changed quite a bit as well. Enter the sitar and more of an Eastern flavour as the result. I much prefer this one over the debut. By the way I really like the cover art, the image of driving down this tree-lined road gives us a clue that we are in a for a real trip with this album. I should mention that the new guitarist on this one is Eddy Marron who played for the psychedelic band VITA NOVA from Austria, and he adds a ton of talent to this record.

"Kabisrain" is probably the most difficult track to get into as it has no real melody just a lot of sounds that come and go. You can hear gongs, tambourine, acoustic guitar, keyboard sounds, sitar, zaz, super string and percussion. This is really a head trip, very experimental. "Magika" starts out in a more traditional manner with guitar and drums.This really impressed me the first time i heard it because it showed me how well these guys can play. They just rip it up, and the drumming especially is outstanding. It's like organized chaos after a while. After 3 minutes we get some keys that are followed up with an atmospheric section. Dissonant guitar sounds as well as bass outbursts come and go. The guitar sounds amazing 5 1/2 minutes in, as does the drumming. The bass is prominant late. Great,great track. "Light Shining Out Of Darkness" features some cool sounding classical guitar melodies with percussion. This is by far the shortest song but the guitar is so beautiful.

"Time Machine" is the title track at 18 minutes in length. This is more uptempo with more mind blowing drum and guitar work. A calm after a minute as some tasteful guitar comes in with light drums and bass in the background. I'm thinking MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA at this point. Back to the uptempo melody again as this contrast continues. Love the way this tune sounds. They just start jamming 3 1/2 minutes in as the bass and drums create the rhythm the guitar plays over top eventually laying down some blistering melodies 6 1/2 minutes in. The percussion eventually joins in as well.The last 5 1/2 minutes feature the same mid-paced drum led melody over and over. It's too bad they didn't just cut that off the end because it would have made it a better song in my opinion.

4.5 stars and a Krautrock diamond if there ever was one. A must have people.