Reviewing S/T: The Difficult Second Album (Save Our Sperms SOS 05)
Very hard psychedelic rock bordering on lunatic punk and industrial metal by a German duo who play a plethora of musical instruments but mainly guitars and keyboards, don’t know their names but they look like serious loons. This is a very impressive album and very diverse. The first track Animals is aggressive, wacky and totally thrilling, a hybrid of Hawkwind and the Butthole Surfers with a touch of Big Black. Departure is a paranoia-inducving narrative debating the results of a car crash in the casual manner of a Genesis P. Orridge. A lot of the album is similar to Psychic TV or Throbbing Gristle with its shock-tactical lunacy and nonchalant narratives. It’s Hot is a welcoming psychedelic space-rockpiece, classical in many aspects crossing Hawklords and mid-period Floyd. Kasim Muzik is one of the highlights of the album, building up a rhythmic pace on the guitar while the keyboards swarm around this running sound, adrenalin pumping as we are chased by the music of the middle eastz catches in no time and holds us captive. It’s very psychedelic and very spiritual, if not enlightening and we feel compelled to pull out the mat and genuflect to the east. Corpses On My Way is a sick as fuck story about encounters with dead children and other unfortunates. Funny as sick as it’s sang with emotion. Well, it makes me chuckle but I’m a twisted cunt. Schnarch Song begins with an aggressive, dog-snarling type, snoring augmented by overdriven, distorted guitar riffs, extreme noise with a sort of Tibetan kids chanting in the far background. Meandering solos that come from full circle to the snoring, grumpy man. The whole album has an equal share of full-on headfuck sicko dementia and its sane and tranquil moments of musical harmony and general audial levitation. They’re bound to become immense especially now their first step of success has just now been awarded here, live from the Cosmic Crypt...Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present S/T with THE CRYPT COMPANION CERTIFICATE. Write into the Crypt for the address.
Unknown, Astro Zombie #1, 1997-10-16