POLYTOXICOMANE PHILHARMONIE

I had to laugh last night as I was taking notes while listening to the opener "Opinion" because it starts out with Ned buzzing around loudly and my cat suddenly is up on the counter seeking out that fly. We can hear a car start up and rev it's engine then drums take over before a minute as male vocals and bass clarinet enter the scene. Sax before 1 1/2 minutes as the vocals stop briefly. Guitar after 2 minutes and this all sounds so good. A calm after 2 1/2 minutes though then the sax and more returns but then some sampled words only after 3 minutes before the music with male vocals returns. A phone rings before 4 minutes then this doom-like soundscape takes over. Oh! Oh! Spoken high pitched words from Ned follow then some aggressive guitar before ending with sax, Ned, vocals and more.

"Mini Rock" is quite spacey to start before drums, sax, guitar and female vocals kick in, bass too. I like this a lot. Catchy stuff. Some excellent guitar before 1 1/2 minutes then samples and quivering male vocals take over. Those vocals will turn passionate. How good are the distorted keys, love that sound and it will return later. The sax is back along with the female vocals after 3 1/2 minutes along with some male vocal expressions in the background. There's those distorted keys again 5 minutes in as the sax and drums support. I like the instrumental section that follows and it goes on and on with guitar, bass and drums.

"Late Train To Casket Country" is a killer tune. Samples and experimental sounds to start out then check out the female chanting with snorking sounds(haha) and more. Where do they come up with this stuff? So cool. It's not until around 3 1/2 minutes that guitar, drums and samples take over as it kicks into a groove. Love that angular guitar and the bass 4 minutes in. Spoken female and male vocals trade off as the guitar grinds away. So good! It all stops before 6 minutes as this dark and mysterious soundscape takes over, casket country indeed. It turns experimental and haunting after that.

"Sotto Voce"is the longest tune at 14 1/2 minutes and it opens with a buzzing atmosphere before drums, sax and guitar take over. Female vocals after 1 1/2 minutes and check out the angular guitar 2 minutes in. Bass clarinet follows with female vocals and that relaxed beat. More sax then these gruff male vocals arrive. Female vocals are back around 3 1/2 minutes. Such a chilled start for the most part. That all changes after 4 minutes with those guitar expressions. A change 6 1/2 minutes in as the music stops and this dark atmosphere takes over. A beat rises out this at 9 minutes, sax too. More experimental sound and the guitar makes some noise after 11 1/2 minutes. Male vocals after 12 minutes. Sax and bass clarinet 13 minutes in as the vocals stop. Some laughter then guitar.

"The Mirrorman" is such a good closer. Atmosphere builds as a beat with sax and bass kicks in. So catchy! Some sampled spoken words before 2 minutes then the male vocals return. Grinding guitar before 3 minutes and I really like the percussion and guitar before 5 minutes. Just bobbing around to this. A calm before 6 1/2 minutes then spoken words and experimental sounds end it.

This is closer to 4.5 stars. I just love how adventerous this is and all those ideas. Great album!

Layers of instruments highlight the many mood and tempo changes, assuring the listener new discoveries upon repeated listening. From simmering classic heavy rock to indigenous tribal freakouts, the vintage rock sounds on this album are sure to please the adventurous rock audiophile. The accessability of the artists' eccentricity is the real charm, as the weirdness never goes too far.

++++-

A blending of styles and influences, not that unique as I was meant to understand, but very well accomplished.

This is the kind of release which could have landed, here in PA, in any other of its sub-genres, from Krautrock to Prog-Rock/Electronic to Jazz/Fusion and of course Psychedelic/Space Rock.

Its variety in experimentation could also be tagged as Avant Garde inclined and Rock in Opposition un-structured, but of all those sub-genres I would have chosen Krautrock. It has lots of weird electronic noises and quirky time signatures, but always comes back to basic Rock or Jazz lines.

This band's sound, considering its date of release, should be thought as retro, meaning no real "new" groundbreaking directions, but a faithful extension of the roots they somehow reenact.

Polished yet raw, daringly blending simultaneously all type of these Prog-non-mainstream styles, tainted with Frank Zappa's or Resident's like colors, close to G.A.M.'s or Ash Ra's hypnotic trances, but not really that original in their own music compositions, nevertheless extraordinary in performances, ideas and sound quality. Sound quality which really was ignored or unattainable in those early Krautrock days, which brought back with this top-notch engineering sounds amazing.

Anyway, if you enjoy this release you are a sure candidate to enjoy any of the before mentioned Prog sub-genres ( or F. Zappa's style), which have gone through some very interesting changes up to these days...like this Polytoxicomane Philharmonie's "Psycho Erectus", 2003.

3.5 PA stars for people already acquainted with these stylings and bands and 4 stars for young and hungry for non-mainstream Prog cats.

***3.5 PA stars.

Disc one starts with "Dervish" which has an energetic horn led start that is impressive. When it settles back I'm thinking ANEKDOTEN. Male and female vocals after 1 1/2 minutes then it kicks back in. The vocals are back as they come and go. Sampled spoken words follow and this goes on for some time then the horns return before 6 minutes. A calm with whispered female vocals and more after 9 minutes then those whispers become spoken, then theatrical bringing to mind BRAINTICKET's debut. Back to the mellow sound with female vocals before it kicks in again after 12 1/2 minutes, horns too. Some aggressive guitar follows.

"Fine Animal Gorilla" has a spacey atmosphere to begin with as drums and guitar join in and build. The guitar becomes upfront before 2 minutes as male vocals join in. When he sings 3 minutes in I'm thinking LEGENDARY PINK DOTS. The backing female vocals add a lot. Interesting how they sing a question about gorillas then answer it. Suddenly we get sounds from the jungle 7 minutes in as the music stops, so cool. "Spoonful Of Majoun" turns me right off early on with that Latino Pop music that sounds like a Ricky Martin song. Thankfully it short lived although it will return briefly later on. I do like how powerful it gets before 5 minutes instrumentally which is followed with a Eastern vibe. Some interesting male vocals later on then some ripping guitar before 8 1/2 minutes.

"Catwalk For Little Monsters" opens with male vocals and a fairly powerful sound at times. A relaxed sound takes over 2 1/2 minutes in and it stays this way until around 7 1/2 minutes when we get theatrical female vocals and a more passionate soundscape. It settles again before they kill it after 12 minutes. Nice. Disc two begins with "Open Letter To Albert H." and like outside my window here it's raining as horns and more join in. Suddenly it becomes freaky with samples. High pitched male vocals take over along with spoken words as it settles right down. It turns a little insane after 6 minutes and someone is yelling a minute later. Mellotron-like sounds after 9 minutes then more insanity after 11 minutes. Some powerful organ drones late.

"Apollo-Jive Beneath The Moon" hits the ground running but it settles down when the female vocals arrive. Male vocals and some aggressive guitar 7 1/2 minutes in. "Etude #27" is less than 5 minutes of spooky and experimental music that does bring some suspense later on. "Dryad Girl" is my favourite. And it's not because it's the longest tune at almost 19 minutes. Spacey winds as a drum roll kicks in followed by reserved female vocals, horns and drums. It kicks into gear before 2 minutes followed by some nasty guitar expressions. It settles down after 5 minutes and it sounds like vibes here with those spacey winds. Love the guitar expressions that follow in all that atmosphere. So good! A horn arrives after 11 minutes. This is trippy and then the horns get dissonant 14 minutes in followed by a calm with whispered female vocals. The guitar is back.

An ambitious release to say the least where they no doubt put a lot of time and effort into this. We get 92 minutes of music about apes, go figure. An excellent recording that's not without it's flaws, still an easy 4 stars from yours truly. Check out this band!

This "miraculous" band appear with another wonderful album, after their debut "Psycho Erectus", that represent an example of modern psychedelia, filled with surreal atmospheres. But now we're talking about their second album. "Drosophila Road". This one looks like a Concept Album, which tells the amazing story of a man, Ned Busckii, that one day becomes a fly.

For the curious the surname of Ned (Buskii) is a variety of a fruit fly (Drosophila busckii). A little curiosity that highlights how brainy they are.

The album floats through a sky of wah-wah, gliding downhill towards voices, noises of everyday life, tribal rhythms and psychotic improvisations. It starts with a ZZZZZZZZZ-zzzzz- ZZZZZZ- of a fly leaving to go somewhere. On the background the roar of a power car introduces the voice of "Commander I.M. Crab", a strange voice that makes more adventurous this journey. To enhance vocals thinks "Howling Mad Fishli", sometimes she let me think to Janis Joplin. It's maybe suggestion? The opening track play as a extravagant rock, with sax of Matelot Au Vin. This is the shortest track. They remember me first GONG- era of Gnome trilogy, (also for their pseudonyms) with some interesting elements, (like phone's ring), which at the end of the track with a mix of voices make the album surreal.

The other tracks, all as a small suites, are structured well (masterfully), with some improvisations, which relate very well with the original album sound line. It's the case of "Mini Rock". Impossible not to follow its rhythm diving into this vortex. "Late Train To Casket Country" starts with tribal rhythms, that keep glued your ears to the stereo!

The apoteosi is "Sotto Voce" with the title written in Italian, (quitely/ in a low voice). It is finely constructed an has psychedelic passages very delicious. One of them is after the psychedelic atmosphere part (one of the best I've ever heard) when on a background of a hypnotic keyboards and a "silent guitar", time is punctuated by a "warm rhythm". Other sound that my mind will never delete, is when the voice of "Howling Mad Fishli" says THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN with that short bass line unforgettable.

Accompanied by an engaging sax starts the last song "The Mirrorman", probably the most memorable for its musical line more constant and uniform.

Compared with their first album this appear more easy to understand, however with a unique creative power, more concrete and with more experience. A modern Hippy caravan intelligent, cultured and creative with a psychedelic genius. Personally what I was looking for.

5 Stars - Psychedelized!

"Entry" is the short intro track that's full of atmosphere. "Flight 858" kicks in with a beat right away as bass joins in and more. A calm before 1 1/2 minutes with atmosphere then that beat kicks back in. It turns haunting 2 1/2 minutes in as we get another calm then a minute later it kicks back in with that beat, sax and more. An atmospheric calm after 6 minutes but it's brief. Then we get an electronic vibe late to end it. "Poisonous Moth" kicks into a full sound early with vocals. Some brief spoken words before 1 1/2 minutes then the vocals are back but they're brief as well. So much atmosphere follows this then more spoken words 4 minutes in as the trippy beat and sound continues. "Pink Noise" opens with a dark and powerful atmosphere until after 3 minutes when it turns electronic to end it. "Sulphur" features vocals and a rich sound. Spoken words too. Cool sound. It kicks in at 2 minutes with dark guitar sound that proceeds to lay the soundscape waste. Nasty ! That changes before 5 minutes but it's still heavy and dark. Sax before 6 minutes. A dark atmosphere like the intro ends it.

"Too Sad, Lady Mushroom" is an uplifting piece with guitar and sax. Vocals before 1 1/2 minutes. Catchy stuff as themes are repeated. "Lokus Pokus" opens with guitar, a beat and running water. It picks up as the guitar echoes. Great sound ! Sax 3 1/2 minutes in. "Chanson Verte" has this beat with vocals and atmosphere. Backing vocals join in. Again a great sound here. Sax 3 1/2 minutes in as the vocals have stopped. Psychedelic guitar 6 minutes. This is so trippy 7 1/2 minutes in. Love it ! Relaxed sax comes in. "Kronos, Vomitting A Child" is dark, atmospheric and spacey. "Fuddle Pie & Puddle Tie" has a beat with vocal melodies. Some raw guitar 2 minutes in. "Lizard-Song" opens with drums then dual vocals and a dreamy sound take over. Sax too. It picks up after 2 minutes. Spoken words then a new sound 3 1/2 minutes in as we get a beat with guitar. We're grooving now. Vocals 8 minutes in.

A huge thankyou to David once again. And for all you space cadets out there please hunt this one down.

You are not familiar with this ensemble? I have doubts that I will ever come across a crew which bears more artistical weight and craziness at once. For example they use fantasy identifiers - hence the members' real names are probably the biggest mystery in the world. Well, I know, not the most spectacular thing really nowadays ... so let us continue with the packaging. When reaching for the CD version you will get something like a comic book featuring intriguing illustrations. This seems to be a progression compared to the forerunner album, which is dealing with the story of fly Ned Busckii.

Alex Kraus truly has provided some eyecatcher for this project. And once again Ahula Tinga (Natali Haug) is involved with a revealing story entitled 'Life Is But A Dream'. New protagonist is a grim gorilla, at one time sitting in a bar when surprisingly meeting Ned Busckii whilst drinking a banana cocktail ... enough now to convince you of the band's special attitude? Somewhere inbetween they promise 'Easy Listening for like-minded people' ... hmmh, I suppose they are kidding, but do we really know that? Never mind ... in the light of this let us go over to the music now, which is the most important issue of course.

Each disc contains four tracks - freakout krautjazz is the stylistical synopsis provided by the label. CD 1 confirms this as no other. Untamable - with the opening Dervish they immediately hurry up supported by heavy saxophone input, but also turn to weird spacey moments ... an unpredictable behaviour. No way to describe this - even if you sit down and keep a record. Jumping up to the Catwalk For Little Monsters they even enter heavy aggressive fields.

'What do Gorillas like to do most?' - the psych groover Fine Animal Gorilla tries to give a convincing answer - that's what you probably expect? Now they apparently have reached the Planet Of Apes. This is a fine, more catchy song which always forces me to sing along ... 'what makes you happy? what makes you angry?' ... but I have problems to get the literal sense though. Here we have wonderful polyphonic vocals with Zappa reminiscences plus excited guitars all around. And the song closes with ... surely authentic ... djungle impressions recorded during their Gorilla expeditions of course.

CD 2 starts with the hallucinatory trip Open Letter To Albert H. - far away from any rocking attitude, featuring soaring space guitars, loops, irritating samples and last but not least falsetto vocals, provided by The Emir Of Quaver I assume. 'Have a safe journey' is the band's helpful statement here unsurprisingly. The closing Dryad Girl can be treated as the album's ultimate space jam furthermore - suitable for recovering probably ... who knows who will need this finally? As for that another more accessible track with vocals by Howling Mad Fishli. Wow - that's it! This one bears great dynamic and a monster groove in parts, guitars, keys and saxophone are swirling around each other in active competition, very playful.

'Go ape' needs time to grow. With every new round I notice my impression to be confirmed - it's just more hazardous. Definetely a fascinating one. As usual you will find catchy grooves and melodies in between but they've widened their scope a tad more towards avant prog once again with several unwieldy moments and vocal acrobatics. Hard to digest for listeners with a more common taste - once my wife begged me for listening to music :-) More freakout and avantgarde tinged than ever, based on a conglomerat of impressions and surprises which certainly can appeal to Zappa lovers as well as to fans of sophisticated krautrock. All in all an adventure for your eyes and ears. I recommend to get in touch with this Philharmonie ...

POLYTOXICOMANE PHILHARMONIE appear with a new exciting output in 2007. 'Drosophila' is a genus of flies and this one can be called a concept album de facto handling the adventurous story of fly Ned Busckii who wakes up one morning with the feeling that a change is definetely needed in his life. The story is given in english, provided by talented german artist Natali Haug (Ahula Tinga) and can be checked out included in the ellaborated CD package as well as on the homepage.

They are following the crazy concept once initiated with the masterpiece debut 'Psycho Erectus' in 2003. Of course some references to other acts are coming into my mind listening to the album but the band members are able to conglomerate an amazing mix of styles and influences once more, unique and really hard to describe.

Of course the recordings are starting with Busckii's lift-off but then the band hurries up to follow him with the complex Opinion provided with Zappa leanings, some samples and tempo breaks. Mini-Rock is my personal highlight - here the band creates a tremendous groove only interrupted by some weird interludes. Additionally we have wonderful female vocals remembering me of King Cobb Steelie, jazzy brass contributions and spaced-out guitars - wow - I like that! Listening to Late Train To Casket County you would consider them to be under the influence of some mind-blowing substances during the recordings furthermore. The song has a longer opening section with didgeridoo and native indian singing later followed by whispering male/female vocals with a jamming band as the background and last but not least a weird finale with spacey guitars and samples.

The long track Sotto Voce has a nice relaxed floating start supported by a cool 'sexy' saxophone. But - who is familiar with the band knows - the only constant is variation. After some time the bands plungs deep in psychedelic twin guitar jamming 'til the ultimate downfall comes with weird ambient soundscapes/samples in the second half of the song. The Mirrorman finally is an amalgamation of heavier guitar riff spiked rock n' roll and fluffy easy going elements and therefore has a special avantgarde touch.

'Drosophila Road' is a recommended album, also appealing to Zappa fans as well as krautrock lovers, more angular than the forerunner as for my impression. I prevent to mention a special member because they are acting flawlessly. POLYTOXICOMANE PHILHARMONIE are worth it to be checked out - you should play this loud!

This is one of my favourite albums of the last weeks. I have listened to it for more than twenty times now within a relatively short period but it's still fascinating to me. POLYTOXICOMANE PHILHARMONIE are a wondrous project as the band name implies. The main influence is psychedelic/space for sure. But it would be too easy to keep it in that way. You can also hear that Frank Zappa is held in high esteem by some members and they are operating with uneven beats which are often unusual for jamming psych bands. Funky trippy hypnotic rhythms and a lot of saxophone attendance are referring to kraut and jazz rock. Ambient/spaced-out soundscapes are rounding up the debut of a band which has an eccentric identity. So for a first summary there is a unique style to notice which they create.

The short ambient opener Entry is announced as an improvisation fragment on their website where the band offers a special (german) album manual for the listeners. And that's significant for their concept - the manual, full of metaphors, leaves you behind with much more questions as you had before. Never mind - the instrumental track Flight 858 takes you on a 75 minute musical trip further on which you will not forget so fast! The instruments, first the drums, followed by e-piano, are coming in by and by providing the mellow dreamy main theme which wraps you up. But breaks and spacey soundscapes are also interspersed and this makes the song very entertaining and prevents you from getting phlegmatic.

I discovered the following Poisonous Moth on a sampler and this attracted my attention and brought me closer to the band. Basically a neo krautrock tune par excellence dominated by a hypnotic groove with nice female vocals and mysterious spoken words contributions. Bubbling synths and sensitive guitars are always swirling around here - fantastic! Pink Noise is heavy hallucinogenic pointed out as reminiscence to Tangerine Dream by the band and the complex Sulphur afterwards shines with an impulsive guitar solo, alienated female and male vocals and jazzy doubled saxophone.

The laid back Too Sad, Lady Mushroom with a rainy background and some weird inclusions is somewhat zappaesque and Lokus Pokus surprises with oriental respectively eastern polka moments. Heavy saxophone additions are imitating a brass orchestra and in the end the song is developing into a jazz rock finale. All in all POLYTOXICOMANE PHILHARMONIE offer a great variety and safety. Chanson Verte features a nice groove, excellent psychedelic guitars and a jazzy part in the middle whereas with Kronos, Vomitting A Child another change to spaced-out soundscapes occurs. The instrumental Fuddle Pie and Muddle Fie gets up in a happy mood with an excellent flow and Lizard - Song finally developes to a groovy jam which absolutely confirms their psychedelic/space home for sure.

'Psycho Erectus' is a completely rounded one which should be enjoyed from the first to the last minute without any break - hard to overtop. This album gets the highest rating from me. Please check it out.