AFFENSTUNDE

The music is very minimalistic and very ambient. You will find no regular drums, bass or guitar on the album and in fact most of the sounds on Affenstunde is created by moog. The album consists of two side long songs. The 21:05 minute long Ich Mache Einen Spiegel ( Translates into: I make a mirror) and the 18:57 minute long title track. Ich mache einen Spiegel is divided into four parts and the only part which is not minimalistic ambient sounds is Dream part 5 which is 4:50 minutes of random percussion ( at least that´s how it sounds to me). The title track starts with seven minutes of ambient minimalistic sounds and then what appears to be Popol Vuh´s version of a melody is played for the rest of the song. Both songs are extremely repetitive. It has been an extremely stressful experience to listen to this album for me. I expected something to happen all the time but nothing did and I´m left with the feeling that I´ve just waisted 40:02 minutes of my life.

The musicianship? Hmmm....Let´s just say that I´m having a hard time respecting mindless noodling, with no sense at all for melody. This is an experiment for the sake of it. It´s like an artist who paints with his penis ( this is a reference to Danish artist Jens Jørgen Thorsen), or lets his monkey paint for him. Yeah it was probably new and exciting when it was done the first time, but the idea soon grows old ( and it wasn´t even a very good idea to begin with if you ask me). Art for arts sake is just not my cup of tea.

The production is, well how shall I put this? Allright. It didn´t need to be though. This could have been recorded in my toilet and it wouldn´t have made a difference.

I´ve heard and read so many great things about Popol Vuh but I sure hope that it wasn´t this album people were talking about. If you like ambient soundscapes with little to no variation for forty minutes this might be your thing. All sane folks should stay away. 1 star is so deserved here. I´ll use caution when I listen to the next albums from Popol Vuh.

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