darkwave / krautrock / drone
Sometimes I wonder, do bands look up their band name to see if it exists yet? I have been doing that for every single project I have ever been involved in, even in the days before the internet. Today, I see more and more bands who do not seem to care, like the noise rock act Kong who had no idea that there was already a Dutch band with that name. Or like Spirals. The search results literally gave me hundreds of pages and at least twenty bands. That must be confusing for festival organisers and fans, no? Or is that just me? Oh well, maybe I'm just becoming an old, whining man. Let's forget about this paragraph and dig into the music.
'Spirals' contains four track, each on ten minutes long and rather hard to describe. There are lingering basslines, reminding me of classic krautrock bands. There are guitar soundscapes, which come close to shoegaze, dreampop and ambient. There are slow, repetitive drums, bringing the post rock scene to mind. And finally there are vocals which somehow bring up the phrase 'Ministry doing black metal'. I know, all of that doesn't sound coherent if you read it but listen to this music and you'll be stunned out of your mind.
The accompanying biography mentioned acts like Om, Der Blutharsch and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand and Lycia. And yes, I can hear these influences. However, it feels like this music comes from deep within the souls and minds of the band members. These feel like long, dark and intense jam sessions in which the end result is way more than the sum of the respective elements. Yet, most of all, this is a surprisingly immersive album, one you can easily lose yourself in and let your mind wander. Try it, it's fascinating.
Serge
'Spirals' contains four track, each on ten minutes long and rather hard to describe. There are lingering basslines, reminding me of classic krautrock bands. There are guitar soundscapes, which come close to shoegaze, dreampop and ambient. There are slow, repetitive drums, bringing the post rock scene to mind. And finally there are vocals which somehow bring up the phrase 'Ministry doing black metal'. I know, all of that doesn't sound coherent if you read it but listen to this music and you'll be stunned out of your mind.
The accompanying biography mentioned acts like Om, Der Blutharsch and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand and Lycia. And yes, I can hear these influences. However, it feels like this music comes from deep within the souls and minds of the band members. These feel like long, dark and intense jam sessions in which the end result is way more than the sum of the respective elements. Yet, most of all, this is a surprisingly immersive album, one you can easily lose yourself in and let your mind wander. Try it, it's fascinating.
Serge
