Saturday, February 26, 2011

Damenbart, IMPRESSIONEN '71



DOM Elchklang, 1989; reissued by Psychedelic Pig; apparently available

Psychedelic Pig CD: 8 tracks, 59:31

When it was released, this was claimed to be a long-lost krautrock artifact. In reality, it was recorded around the time it was released by neo-krautrock/industrial tricksters Hirscht Nicht Aus Sofa (better known as H.N.A.S.). One major clue is the supposed band photos; the fake beards are fairly obvious! While the hoax aspect does raise questions, this is still really good in a kraut-revival kind of way. With such lengthy tripfests as "Innovative Schwingungen" and "Marihuanabrothers", Damenbart manage to sound convincingly like a genuine relic rather than a then-current pastiche. Their sound draws primarily from the spacier realms of krautrock, but there's plenty of odd sounds and tape manipulation along the way. Only the advanced synths used truly give its real age away. For the CD reissue, four previously unreleased tracks have been tacked on. One claims to be "live in Sief, 1972" while the others are session outtakes, but I'm willing to bet they're all studio recordings. These blend perfectly well with the rest of the album; in fact, the supposedly live "Ich Bin Der Wind" is one of the best tracks! While not truly essential, this would definitely be of interest to krautrock fans and H.N.A.S. addicts. I truly am not sure about its availability, but several online stores list it as being still in print.

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