CULTURAL NOISE

CULTURAL NOISE were an Electronic trio out of Austria who released this sole album back in 1980. The description of the music here alone had my mouth watering, I mean mellotron and guitar on an Electronic album?! I'm in! Well this isn't exactly what I was hoping for as this is a pale comparison to say RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL who also use guitar and mellotron on their Electronic albums. The guitar comes across as being generic with those Gilmour-like soaring leads. And more mellotron please! Anyway it's a pretty good album and one of the few albums of this style where I was actually looking forward to the sequencers which for me says a lot. We get two side long suites with tons of synths.

"After The Selfdisintegration In Time" opens with an atmosphere that would leave you to believe we are in outer space. It picks up and brightens some before a minute. Mellotron follows and a lame horn-like sound. A calm before 2 1/2 minutes with electronics and percussion sounds. Organ before 3 minutes and it dominates briefly until the sequencers take over. They stop after 5 1/2 minutes as atmosphere and a haunting section takes over. It's dark and mellotron will return. The guitar starts to cry out after 8 1/2 minutes. Sequencers are back after 10 minutes as the guitar plays over top for a while. A classical sounding high pitched synth arrives after 14 minutes. Not a fan. It changes before 18 minutes with loud synth sounds, a beat and more.

"Pursuing The In Time Disintergrating Reality" opens with these ominous synth sounds along with spacey sounds and more. A change before 1 1/2 minutes with soaring guitar and mellotron taking over. A minute later it's mellotron and synths but that soaring guitar is back. Sequencers then replace the guitar. I like the sound 5 1/2 minutes in when the loud synths stop and it turns haunting. A change 7 minutes in as sequencers take over. Other synths join in including abrasive outbursts I'm not into. Another change after an explosion as it turns windy before 9 minutes. I like this but then it gets loud and that will come and go. Organ 10 1/2 minutes in followed by mellotron and synths. It settles back with mid-paced sequencers and plenty of synths as this goes on for some time. Abrasive synths are back before 16 1/2 minutes and it gets kind of crazy late.

So I guess my expectations were too high for this one and it just wasn't what I was expecting.

I just discovered Cultural Noise. Well, better late than never, but then with music this obscure, I'm not one bit surprised I never knew of these guys before. Cultural Noise is the only Austrian group I know of playing Berlin School electronic music (I know Paul Haslinger was Austrian, but he was a member of Tangerine Dream in the late '80s). Like Tangerine Dream of the mid '70s, these guys used sequencers, Mellotron, and analog synths. But they don't try to copycat the TD sound, even though the influence is a bit obvious. The sequencers tend to be more ominous, and this group has habit of abruptly stopping the sequencers unexpectedly (TD had a habit of fading them out when they want to give them a rest, obvious example being near the end of Rubycon) and going into weirder territory. Somewhere the band does a quote from Bach on the synth. I really love the mood these guys create. This album appeared in 1980 on CBS but the original LP is now very hard to find and expensive. It did go through a second pressing, released by the band themselves in 1981, but can be distinguished by a more generic black and white cover. I can't believe I still keep finding obscure and amazing electronic music. Right there with the likes of Zanov or Anna Själv Tredje (although Zanov has been recently getting much more attention than ever before thanks to his back catalog being reissued and brand new recordings from him) when it comes for great obscure electronic music. This album is truly worthy of your attention and clearly my favorite from 1980.