PALLASCHTOM

After seeing Tatsuya Yoshida perform his one man show of Ruins' music at the Lars Hollmer Tribute Night I was immensely impressed by his talent. The man was handling drums, vocals and electronics work all at once while playing some of the most technically advanced music I've witnessed in a live setting. Naturally I just had to hear how his Ruins albums sounded in comparison to the crazy music that I saw him perform and Pallaschtom was the first step in my exploration.

A long album featuring 19 tracks of music might not be something that should be recommended for beginners, especially since there are more coherent alternatives available in the much more Magma-sounding Symphonica, but I just couldn't resist this album seeing that it featured the three medley tracks that I previously heard on Youtube. The sounds that are incorporated into this release are far from the familiar Zeuhl territory that I've witnessed on Magma records and, if anything, Pallaschtom sounds more like a pure Avant-Prog release to my ears.

The album can be roughly divided into three sections. The first 20 minutes (or 7 tracks) are what I would refer to as the crazy portion of the release where music just bounces in every possible direction and it's impossible to predict what the duo will do for every second of each track. This is also my most favorite part since I honestly can't recall if I've ever heard anything more extreme than the material offered here. The second portion of the album take the music into a lower gear and we even get a few groovy bass instances, like on Kippssidamn, atmospheric sections, like on Czerudmuntzail and even some slap bass action on Ffilhizabmn!

The final part of the album features two longer compositions called Quetzalcoatl and Yawiquo that basically give us a mix of the previous two portions of the album added together into comprehensive pieces of music. Still it's the the three medleys that seem to have caught the publics attention, which is completely understandable since each one of them has over 25 different familiar melodies featured withing a their very short time spans!

Pallaschtom is an album I would recommend to fans of John Zorn (including Naked City) and Mike Patton (including Mr. Bungle and Fantômas) rather than anyone expecting Zeuhl music. It is nonetheless an excellent ride that will add a new dimension to any prog rock music collection.

***** star songs: Pallaschtom (2:11) Znohjmo (3:39) Czerudmuntzail (3:45) Hard Rock Medley (2:33) Progressive Rock Medley (2:33)

**** star songs: Gharaviss Pedro (2:38) Nivaftopoftz (1:12) Celledomi Guazto (4:12) Guamallapish (4:21) Kippssidamn (4:55) Schovstess (2:01) Blimmguass (4:33) Bupphairodazz (3:56) Ffilhizabmn (4:14) Quetzalcoatl (5:37) Classical Music Medley (1:19)

*** star songs: Korromda Peimm (2:15) Jallamjikko (1:17) Yawiquo (6:48)