Reviewing S/T: The Difficult Second Album (Save Our Sperms SOS 05)
S/T ("same title") is a duo of German record collectors (Mr. Miller and Horse Badorties) who create their own music at home on 4-track equipment and release it on their own Save Our Sperms label (great name!) housed in self-designed sleeves (they’re both professionally active in the graphic sector). They started this cottage industry about three years ago and so far released four singles, three tapes and a 10" mini LP Catatonic Airkraut. Last Year, this beautiful packaged vinyl release (on the Texan Lone Starfighter label also known for the I? CD by Mynd Muzic) drew our attention with its spaced-out Krautrock moves. Early seventies German psychedelic rock still determines most of the sound spectrum on this first full-length album (eleven tracks / 68 minutes) by S/T... The CD opens with Animals, droning psychedelic rock of the Amon Düül II / Hawkwind-type. Next comes Departure (it’s over) with its organ play and electronics , like a cross between Gila and Cluster. Autumn is Coming is stoned folk in the Tyrannosaurus Rex mould, and It’s Hot is heavy heavy space rock, right out of the sound system of a passing U.F.O., while Beissen Sie in die Kaulquappe aus Wachs (PS. 8) (which in translation boils down to "Bite the wax tadpole", L .) brings more lysergic folk,this time with a background of early Kraftwerk electronics. Kasim Müzik unveils an elegant Arabic atmosphere with its ethnic vocalisation, wailing violin and moody guitar lines. Corpses on my Way sounds like a psyched-out singer/songwriter exercise, preparing you for The Educator, a slice of American sixties psych withwarped vocals and instrumentation. Schnarch Song (intro) / I Can’t Sleep (Live from Villabajo) generates an impressive amount of psychedelic vibes via it’s weird samples, backward tapes, howling guitars, spacy keyboards and alien vocals - a real tour de force. Der Eiertanz concludes this very rich CD with its spacy, ambient soundscapes. Conclusion: S/T released a psychedelic killer album, a true piece of modern Krautrock made in the nineties with the spirit of the seventies. Same remark as with the Catatonic Airkraut mini LP: stoned ideas always shine through. Mega-recommented. Get Happy! Records are the ones distributing this very limited CD.
Unknown, Crohinga Well #12, 1997-04-02