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Ahtoon Eskaloon

(sic!), som de heter, är ett projekt av medlemmar från S/T och Crevice. S/T från Tyskland, och Crevice från Texas, USA. Enligt texten på baksidan av skivan så är alltså skivan inspelad i Texas, sedan mixad Frankfurt. Det låter ganska omständigt, men de har säkert lagt ner en massa arbete på det hela. Och jag undrar var all skitighet uppstod, var det i Tyskland eller i USA? Detta är en riktigt krut rockare full med expriment i psychedelisk anda. Båda banden som ligger bakom (sic!) har en bakgrund av psychedelisk och exprimentell musik, trots det så är inte Ahtoon Eskaloon det mest lyckade album av denna typ av musik. Lite för skränigt, och de har en tendens att stå och stampa lite för länge på samma ställe tyckar jag. Men skivan har trots allt några få fina stunder, men lyckas inte fånga mitt intresse fullt ut.

2002-09-21: Stoner Planet

Kraut-Irrsinn und Psychedelik-Abfahrt,

S/T aus Frankfurt/M. und Crevice aus San Antonio, TX werfen ihren Pillenvorrat zusammen, um gemeinsam unter dem Banner (sic!) auf diesen langen seltsamen Trip zu gehen. Sechs Stücke Kraut-Irrsinn und Psychedelik-Abfahrt, mit irrlichternden Geräusch-Collagen dursetzter Space-Punk, archaische orgeln und rumpelndes Schlagwerk. Unter dem Einfluß von Brainticket, Can und anderen meistern des Handwerks haben diese Herrschaften hier ein durchweg originelles und bizarres Album geschaffen.

2002-08-12: Trust #95

Roseate Glow

... while on the trail of Crevice, a seventies “United Artists” (Amon Düül 2 / Hawkwind) roseate glow surrounds their collaboration with a name familiar to these pages; the Frankfurt duo of S/T. Under the name of ( sic! ) the Ahtoon Eskaloon LP combines hard space riff-rock and kozmik cloud waft with bizarro tape froth and “noise” ( several band members’re credited with the latter - bless ‘em ). Strange choirboy ( ? ) samples and insidious IRMIN SCHMIDT (Can) style incantations (more UA refs!) give Hamburger Fonts suitable frisson. To up the ante a tad Automotif has a bass cousin to Floyd’s One of These Days which, during its journey is fired upon by a crack squad of Eno-men packing sound cannons. It’s an album full of freakish incident replete with secret trap doors dropping the listener into other dimensions (inc. Ladbroke Grove 1972). You’ll not find a more successful example of “Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft” this year.

 

2002-01-17: Ptolemaic Terrascope #31

Mats Gustafsson: Low-Key Drone with Dogs Barking

(Sic!) is a multi-national collaboration between two of the finest contemporary practitioners of intergalactic kraut/psychexploration. We see German S/T teaming up with Texas' spaceheads Crevice for a seamlessly shifting krautrock explosion of unequalledfrenzy andbrain-stimulating swelling textures. Both sides of this vinyl onlyrelease weave three long time-bending tracks. Der Gesang der Atome starts things brilliantly, beginning with an alien low-key drone with dogs barking in the distance, before amping up into the rumbling artrock jamming of Ahtoon Eskaloon (including C2H5OH). It's an absolutely wonderful looping piece of music, a mesh of supersonic guitars, trebly echoing keyboard, rumbling saxophone and monotonous percussion. The fact that it holds some strange sort of spiraling intensity with the staggeringly adept saxophone against the noisy squalls of echo and feedback only gives me more respect for their chosen track. In the last section it calms down and disappears with some odd dialogue snippets over soft layers of keyboard. Airbag in My Head ends the first side and offers a somewhat altered brain chemistry as sirens, horns and highly enjoyable washes of sweat-inducing guitar attacks create a jaw-droppingly bizarre mix of sound.The b-side kicks off with a dark folk chant that naturally leads to the full-on monster groove of Automo.tif. It's a constantlyevolving myriad of sounds that at times float parallel to one another and in the next unite in a full-throttle voyage through a wall of fuzz. The epic finale continues even further out into cosmic territories, occasionally incorporating German spoken word among the atmospheric yet intense textures, which certainly adds something tothe general oddness. (Sic!) is heavily influenced by the early krautrock movement but as with contemporary rock icons like Japanese Boredoms and Acid Mothers Temple, they shape their own unique mantrasof phased guitars, electronics and odd sounds. This highly recommendable LP can be yours from Get Happy!! Records.

Link: Get Happy! Records

Link: The Broken Face

2001-04-04: The Broken Face #11