GO APE

Okay, here we go - the POLYTOXICOMANE PHILHARMONIE are back from an extended and impressive tour (around 2 years) drifting through a mysterious parallel universe. Sometime in between they eventually must have arrived on the Planet Of Apes ... with the result of rather vivid memories. It is said later the decision came up to recall a 'smooth selection of Short Stories' and to name this epic 'Go Ape'. Berlin based Nasoni Records have released this experiences on double CD resp. vinyl. For some reasons a new challenge, believe me - even if you already call yourself an open-minded music aficionado.

You are not familiar with this ensemble? I have doubts that I will ever come across a crew which bears more artistical weight and craziness at once. For example they use fantasy identifiers - hence the members' real names are probably the biggest mystery in the world. Well, I know, not the most spectacular thing really nowadays ... so let us continue with the packaging. When reaching for the CD version you will get something like a comic book featuring intriguing illustrations. This seems to be a progression compared to the forerunner album, which is dealing with the story of fly Ned Busckii.

Alex Kraus truly has provided some eyecatcher for this project. And once again Ahula Tinga (Natali Haug) is involved with a revealing story entitled 'Life Is But A Dream'. New protagonist is a grim gorilla, at one time sitting in a bar when surprisingly meeting Ned Busckii whilst drinking a banana cocktail ... enough now to convince you of the band's special attitude? Somewhere inbetween they promise 'Easy Listening for like-minded people' ... hmmh, I suppose they are kidding, but do we really know that? Never mind ... in the light of this let us go over to the music now, which is the most important issue of course.

Each disc contains four tracks - freakout krautjazz is the stylistical synopsis provided by the label. CD 1 confirms this as no other. Untamable - with the opening Dervish they immediately hurry up supported by heavy saxophone input, but also turn to weird spacey moments ... an unpredictable behaviour. No way to describe this - even if you sit down and keep a record. Jumping up to the Catwalk For Little Monsters they even enter heavy aggressive fields.

'What do Gorillas like to do most?' - the psych groover Fine Animal Gorilla tries to give a convincing answer - that's what you probably expect? Now they apparently have reached the Planet Of Apes. This is a fine, more catchy song which always forces me to sing along ... 'what makes you happy? what makes you angry?' ... but I have problems to get the literal sense though. Here we have wonderful polyphonic vocals with Zappa reminiscences plus excited guitars all around. And the song closes with ... surely authentic ... djungle impressions recorded during their Gorilla expeditions of course.

CD 2 starts with the hallucinatory trip Open Letter To Albert H. - far away from any rocking attitude, featuring soaring space guitars, loops, irritating samples and last but not least falsetto vocals, provided by The Emir Of Quaver I assume. 'Have a safe journey' is the band's helpful statement here unsurprisingly. The closing Dryad Girl can be treated as the album's ultimate space jam furthermore - suitable for recovering probably ... who knows who will need this finally? As for that another more accessible track with vocals by Howling Mad Fishli. Wow - that's it! This one bears great dynamic and a monster groove in parts, guitars, keys and saxophone are swirling around each other in active competition, very playful.

'Go ape' needs time to grow. With every new round I notice my impression to be confirmed - it's just more hazardous. Definetely a fascinating one. As usual you will find catchy grooves and melodies in between but they've widened their scope a tad more towards avant prog once again with several unwieldy moments and vocal acrobatics. Hard to digest for listeners with a more common taste - once my wife begged me for listening to music :-) More freakout and avantgarde tinged than ever, based on a conglomerat of impressions and surprises which certainly can appeal to Zappa lovers as well as to fans of sophisticated krautrock. All in all an adventure for your eyes and ears. I recommend to get in touch with this Philharmonie ...