SPACE EXPLOSION

Spacy yes, but explosive? Let's see ...

Now this is a product of a german krautrock supergroup formed by members of FAUST, AMON DÜÜL 2, CLUSTER, GURU GURU and DIE KRUPPS. The songs have been recorded at the Atom H Studios in Düsseldorf and are offered in 3 different versions in the meanwhile. What I'm writing about is the Captain Trip Edition from 1998 with one bonus track. Take a seat first and try to be relaxed. This is a very special album with some Miles Davis reminscences among other things.

Starting with Dino's Dream you might be confused a little bit for the first time. What you hear are stomping percussions with skrew violin contributions by Chris Karrer and a lot of spooky synth effects. Don't try to block and please give the song time to evolve - he will catch you after a while. Probably the perfect tune for a SciFi movie sequence about a space crew which is exploring an alien planet. Apparently meandering aimlessly but with a deliberated structure anyhow. Every time I hear this song it sounds different and there are some new elements to be explored. Definetely the highlight of this production.

Now you can imagine - this is something way-out - not rock as usual. But my impressions are ambivalent though. For example I can't chum up with Krakatau which is spacy in parts but near to Free Jazz in the whole with a lot of sax attendance. The title song contains some spoken words in french and the bonus track Alpha Express is even grooving and shows another facet of the project.

A controversial one - avantgarde industrial krautrock - very unusual and interesting in its entirety. Brilliant work but outstretched to nearly 60 minutes it's a little bit too much for me - 3.5 stars.

I have the Cleopatra Records version of this which is an expanded version of over 79 minutes of music. It's also a compilation album because the first five tracks were originally released in 1998 under the name SPACE EXPLOSION while the four remaining songs were originally released in 1996 under the name OTHER PLACES. That OTHER PLACES album contained more than these four songs though so they've taken what they feel is the best from OTHER PLACES and added it to the SPACE EXPLOSION record. And just so you know OTHER PLACES was a trio and those three guys also played in SPACE EXPLOSION hence the connection. Now not to complicate this too much but my edition goes under the band name AMON GURU and the album is called "Die Krautrock Explosion". It was the name AMON GURU that caught my attention on a music vendor's site while looking for Krautrock. And after some investigation I found out that this band includes many Krautrock heavy-weights from the seventies. I guess they used AMON GURU just as way to draw attention to the record and increase sales. Mani the legendary drummer from GURU GURU is here with Chris Karrer playing sax and violin. He is of course from AMON DUUL II. We get the FAUST rhythm section of Jean Herve Peron (bass, vocals, trumpet & acoustic guitar) and Zappi Diermaier (percussion) along with CLUSTER's amazing keyboardist / synth player Dieter Moebius. Also Jurgen Engler (synth, talk-box, guitar & keys) from DIE KRUPPS who I wasn't familiar with at the time but found out they were a band that started in the eighties and the Krautrock spirit was in that group. So a definite supergroup here if there ever was one.

A couple of things to keep in mind though are that one this isn't from the seventies but the nineties and two this is not very melodic like GURU GURU and AMON DUUL II could be.This has taken on more of an experimental flavour. I like how Uwe describes it the bio here as being avant-gard, industrial Kraut with a dark atmosphere. We get that relentless beat from Mani and Zappi while trumpet, violin, sax, guitar, talk-box, bass, synths, keys and vocals help out. I really didn't appreciate this until I gave it my full attention but even then this is music for those who like difficult and out there soundscapes. So this whole group is involved in the first five songs while the last four involve only Mani, Dieter Moebius and Jurgen Engler. Even though there are fewer musicians ( 2 keyboardists and drums) on the last four tracks there are more dynamics and energy as well especially on "Culture In A Small Room" and "Anabolica" and the latter is an incredible work.

I'm trying to temper my enthusiasm because I know not even Krautrock fans will necessarily dig this, but for me this is a huge find and something to brag about to my Krautrock loving brother-in-law. Happy tripping !