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Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen CD (album) cover

SCHWINGUNGEN

Ash Ra Tempel

 

Krautrock

3.74 | 196 ratings

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Eetu Pellonpaa
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars This appreciated album left a slightly disappointed feeling for me first, as I found the singing on the first side of the LP distasteful, and with the fine instrumental B-side the overall felling of the record was left to quite bipolar levels. Later I considered this feeling interesting, as I can adopt grindcore growls and operatic sopranos, so what was problem with this case? Most possibly my own orientation to this album, my own expectations limiting my capabilities for adopting the record as it honestly is. There are certainly some great musical parts included, mainly the aggressive instrumental moments form A-side, and then the open and calm B-side expressionisms. I think that Manuel Göttsching evolved the guitar sound of Jimi Hendrix to more archaic and atavistic directions, based on the listening moments devoted for this album. Supporting this hypothesis are also the experiences from live captures of Ash Ra Tempel on his "Private Tapes" series, along with the rock improvisations on this album. Maybe the studio circumstances harmed their innovation, as the tracks are truly minimalistic, "Light: Look at Your Sun" is merely a one note composition with bluesy guitar sounds and one phrase being repeated poorly. "Darkness: Flowers Must Die" has some nice instrumental moments, but the singer ruined the most of the track for me due my disabilities, which build from calm moments to more fierce ones. "Suche & Liebe" fills the B-side, and it has some really nice spacey moments on it. This psychedelic flower of musical innovation's beauty first resembles the King Crimson "Moonchild"'s end improvisation with more successful subtle focus, and then the conclusion follows the dramatic closure movement of Pink Floyd's "Saucerful of Secrets". The ending of this song is truly a wonderful strong moment, and with the romantic simple cover makes this album as really worthy unclear artefact, in spite of the weaker moments making its more luminous moments shine ever brighter.
Eetu Pellonpaa | 3/5 |

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