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Hurray for throwbacks!
Brace yourselves, dear reader, and prepare to embark on a journey to the early days of the synthesizer. Sit down in a comfortable chair, press play on the bandcamp banner above and enjoy this masterpiece of Kosmische music. The album is available as a digital download, on cd and on lp. Might I suggest adding the latter to your collection. Here we're dealing with an album that takes us way back into a time before cd's, a time where downloading an album would take years (mainly because the internet wasn't commercialized yet).
Poligono Hindu Astral is a duo from Spain (Joni & Julio, half of Antiguo Régimen), formed in 2012. In their search for a unique but vintage sound they created some of the roughest pieces of analog synth music I've heard in a while. They borrow heavily from the early Berlin sounds of Klaus Schülze and Tangerine Dream and add a tremendous sense of minimalism to their music. Percussion, almost as deep as heartbeats, guards the synth-sounds and echoes. The result is quite amazing and immediately brings out memories of cosmic visuals and journeys through space.
So let's go back in time.
Although I've always considered myself to be a rock and metalfan, I've never been scared of electronic music. I've always loved Kraftwerk and I remember dancing my ass off at festivals where Underworld or The Prodigy were headliners. I adored New Beat, and I still do, and when I joined the gothic-subculture I was amazed by acts like Fad Gadget, DAF and Cabaret Voltaire. I've always admired the artistic integrity of electronic musicians, until 'sucking your dick - is what I wanna do' became a standard. By then, I gave up a little.
Of course bands like Ozric Tentacles have always been there for the nostalgic people among us, so rock music was save. Goa-trance still keeps hippies alive but apart from that ,let's face it, EDM is not what it used to be.
However, in recent years I've experienced a sixties and seventies revival, both in rock and in electronic music. Bands like Kadavar and Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats represent the old
seventies rock, just like acts like Majeure, Sankt Otten and now Poligono Hindu Astral do for the world of synths, moogs and drum machines.
Fad Gadget and Kraftwerk aren't mentioned by coincidence. At times Poligono Hindu Astral really sounds like a mix of these two. By blending the analog minimalism of the second and the darkness of Frank Torey, they roam into the gloomier regions of electronics. This is what makes 00110010 so interesting and well-varied. It begins almost ambient like, but evolves into something danceable but never reaches a point where the music becomes too upfront. Many modern day EDM acts have a very obtrusive attitude, this one doesn't. 'Bronce' for instance is a solid dance track, nudging towards trance while maintaining that vintage atmosphere.
'Miles de Millones de Años' has a noisier approach and evolves into something Brian Eno could have written. But he didn't, so he's not the only musical genius in this review. I really consider Poligono Hindu Astral a high quality act, maybe a bit dark for some people but I like it that way. '51o18’15”' is perfectly suited for the early hours of every new wave party. 'Rocas gravitando a la deriva', my favourite track, is a high calibre dance tune that can get a lot of parties started.
'B3 CIII.Y.E37' has a bit of a psychedelic nature, another vintage influence that shines through once in a while. That's why I advised to get this album on vinyl. It truly belongs on a shelf between Kraftwerk, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, The Normal, Chris & Cosey and Liaisons Dangereuses or any Neue Deutsche Welle or electronic avant-garde act for that matter. This is a brilliant album and a solid candidate for my best-of 2015 list...
Serge
Brace yourselves, dear reader, and prepare to embark on a journey to the early days of the synthesizer. Sit down in a comfortable chair, press play on the bandcamp banner above and enjoy this masterpiece of Kosmische music. The album is available as a digital download, on cd and on lp. Might I suggest adding the latter to your collection. Here we're dealing with an album that takes us way back into a time before cd's, a time where downloading an album would take years (mainly because the internet wasn't commercialized yet).
Poligono Hindu Astral is a duo from Spain (Joni & Julio, half of Antiguo Régimen), formed in 2012. In their search for a unique but vintage sound they created some of the roughest pieces of analog synth music I've heard in a while. They borrow heavily from the early Berlin sounds of Klaus Schülze and Tangerine Dream and add a tremendous sense of minimalism to their music. Percussion, almost as deep as heartbeats, guards the synth-sounds and echoes. The result is quite amazing and immediately brings out memories of cosmic visuals and journeys through space.
So let's go back in time.
Although I've always considered myself to be a rock and metalfan, I've never been scared of electronic music. I've always loved Kraftwerk and I remember dancing my ass off at festivals where Underworld or The Prodigy were headliners. I adored New Beat, and I still do, and when I joined the gothic-subculture I was amazed by acts like Fad Gadget, DAF and Cabaret Voltaire. I've always admired the artistic integrity of electronic musicians, until 'sucking your dick - is what I wanna do' became a standard. By then, I gave up a little.
Of course bands like Ozric Tentacles have always been there for the nostalgic people among us, so rock music was save. Goa-trance still keeps hippies alive but apart from that ,let's face it, EDM is not what it used to be.
However, in recent years I've experienced a sixties and seventies revival, both in rock and in electronic music. Bands like Kadavar and Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats represent the old
seventies rock, just like acts like Majeure, Sankt Otten and now Poligono Hindu Astral do for the world of synths, moogs and drum machines.
Fad Gadget and Kraftwerk aren't mentioned by coincidence. At times Poligono Hindu Astral really sounds like a mix of these two. By blending the analog minimalism of the second and the darkness of Frank Torey, they roam into the gloomier regions of electronics. This is what makes 00110010 so interesting and well-varied. It begins almost ambient like, but evolves into something danceable but never reaches a point where the music becomes too upfront. Many modern day EDM acts have a very obtrusive attitude, this one doesn't. 'Bronce' for instance is a solid dance track, nudging towards trance while maintaining that vintage atmosphere.
'Miles de Millones de Años' has a noisier approach and evolves into something Brian Eno could have written. But he didn't, so he's not the only musical genius in this review. I really consider Poligono Hindu Astral a high quality act, maybe a bit dark for some people but I like it that way. '51o18’15”' is perfectly suited for the early hours of every new wave party. 'Rocas gravitando a la deriva', my favourite track, is a high calibre dance tune that can get a lot of parties started.
'B3 CIII.Y.E37' has a bit of a psychedelic nature, another vintage influence that shines through once in a while. That's why I advised to get this album on vinyl. It truly belongs on a shelf between Kraftwerk, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, The Normal, Chris & Cosey and Liaisons Dangereuses or any Neue Deutsche Welle or electronic avant-garde act for that matter. This is a brilliant album and a solid candidate for my best-of 2015 list...
Serge
