OR   Search for Artist/Title    Advanced Search
 
you are not logged in...  [login] 
All Reviews    Edit This Review     
Review: 'SCHNEIDER KACIREK'
'Shadows Documents'   

-  Label: 'Bureau B'
-  Genre: 'Pop' -  Release Date: '16th January 2015'-  Catalogue No: 'BB175'

Our Rating:
Having reviewed a Krautrock release on Klangbad favourably last year I was excited to be able to review this release on another current Krautrock label, Bureau B.

The artists in question here are Stefan Schneider (Kreidler, To Rococo Rot, Hans-Joachim Roedelius) and Sven Kacirek (‘Kenya Sessions’ solo album). Whilst working for the Goethe Institute and Unesco they made field recordings of Kenyan traditional music and two albums were subsequently released. In terms of this collaborative album the title ‘Shadows Documents’ is a rather large clue. It is an attempt to both shadow and document this tribal music of Kenya using electronic templates and analogue accents. Both musicians are fascinated by the complex rhythms of the music but rather than using the drum dominant tactics of say a NEU! it is more as if the drums become a synthesizer and the synthesizer then adds percussion. Verstehen?

I Guess you could say opening track ‘Doubles’ has a motorik pulse and as it moves along new sounds come in. A faint buzz here, a keyboard splurge there and extra percussion and then a long fade out. These are not traditional songs in the western sense but a lot of people like these kind of songs.

‘Hand An Wand’ is more stripped back. A minimal machine drum loop and then keyboard type sounds but more in the feedback territory this time. ‘To Microphone’ has some more natural sounding drums on it with occasional tom and cymbal hits but the track is propelled more by the bass this time. It feels more distinctly tribal. ‘Birds, Bell and Sticks’ is more a minimal percussion piece than a standout track.

‘Low Rhythm’ is a sonically deeper version of the previous track but around half way through a seductive little melody joins the fray. ‘Electro Electronics’ is subliminal, stretching out over nearly six minutes. The Krautrock influence is more to the fore. ‘Talwerk’ slows it down even more and utilises guitar for the melody, albeit a very simple one. Strange sounds fill the last minute. ‘We Will Need Each Other’ is filled out with vinyl crackle and is a real tic tic bleep bleep style track. The longest track on the album is saved for last, ‘Spiegelmotiv’. It’s much more heavy on the synth and plenty of verb on that.

There is nothing that you would class as astonishing on this album but I don’t think that is the point. Do all the parts come together to form a ‘piece’ that takes the listener on some kind of journey? The answer is emphatically yes.                        
  author: Leo Newbiggin

[Show all reviews for this Artist]

READERS COMMENTS    10 comments still available (max 10)    [Click here to add your own comments]

There are currently no comments...
----------



SCHNEIDER KACIREK - Shadows Documents