SAAT

Emtidi’s first album has been described as an amateurish psych-folk recording from the mostly unknown duo of Maik Hirschfeldt and Dolly Holmes. I haven’t heard that one, but as far as psych music there really isn’t much on this, their second and final release. A bit of bending electric guitar and primarily on the opening track, but for the most part this is a rather innocuous bit of folk-leaning music. Loads of mellotron for those who are into that sort of thing, and plenty of other keyboards too: harpsichord, piano (including electric), Hammond and other organs are all played by Ms. Holmes, who also shines with her angelic vocals on much of the album. Hirschfeldt sings a bit as well, but I don’t care as much for his voice and it tends to be a bit distracting.

After the opening track things slow down considerably with the brief and ambient instrumental “Träume” accompanied by chamber- like humming from Ms. Holmes and instrumentally pretty much consisting of mellotron and other keyboards.

“Touch the Sun” includes mellotron as well, and also a fair bit of Hammond. Ms. Holmes’ vocals here remind me a bit of Kate Bush but without the dissonance she has a tendency to inject in her singing, but again Hirschfeldt’s voice is a detractor from an otherwise complex and satisfying piece. There’s a sequence of harpsichord toward the end that is quite striking but would have been more so without the accompanying vocals. “Love Time Rain” is the most folk-leaning track with Holmes chanting above the spinet, piano and acoustic guitar. This leads into the title track with its staid and almost boring arrangement of acoustic guitar and faint keyboards along with mostly Hirschfeldt singing. He doesn’t sound bad on his own, so I suppose it is Holmes’ superior vocals that make him sound worse when she accompanies him (or vice versa).

The final track is the ten minute “Die Reise”, a rambling German language piece that vacillates between keyboard forays and bard- like strumming/singing passages. This actually sounds like it should have been two different songs that got diluted by mixing them together into an attempt at something more ambitious than it ends up sounding like.

Several reviewers have mentioned Hoelderlin as a similar-sounding band, and musically that isn’t far off. These guys don’t seem to be in the same league though, and while their music is pleasant enough, it doesn’t really capture one’s imagination or inspire much at all. I’m tempted to give this three stars, but considering you would have to go to a bit of trouble to find this and would probably pay more than you’d end up being happy with, I’m going to say this is a high two star album and leave it to you to decide for yourself if it is worth picking up.

peace