NEON HEART

1. "Hashima" (09:52) fairly boring and exceedingly steady rhythm track over which heavily-treated guitar, viola, and sax weave a very airy, spacious, and loose tapestry of floating music with just a hint of Middle Eastern sound. (17/20)

2. Det händer ingenting (07:27) opens with heavily-effected and echoed solo voce before bass, toms, and buzz guitar set up rhythmic riff-oriented tracks of their own. I feel as if this is the kind of music Brian Eno would facilitate from the TALKING HEADS or even the DOORS were he producing an album from them today instead of 1980 (or 1969). Odd sounds creating an even odder yet-super interesting and surprisingly engaging and hypnotic sonic weave. (13.75/15)

3. "Dagarna försvann" (03:59) deep, primal groove with experimental electronic noises coming form guitar and viola. In a very weird coincidence, a DAVID BYRNE-like vocal issues forth from Johnny Kern. Again, the groove and soundscape is so trance-inducing. Probably my favorite song on the album. (9.25/10)

4. "Till dig ännu en gång" (09:09) very interesting modern soundscape of modern sounds, effects, and stylings filtered into a Krautrock form. The bass line is almost Reggae. The vocalist is almost Adrian Belew. The horn notes and fuzzy electric guitar give it a 1960s feel. The effects on everything make it sound so acid rock. Then odd plucked muted-viola notes are somehow added to the mix in the third minute throwing everything into a small world cacophostry, beginning the unsettling process of what seems like the unraveling of world order. Quite new and unusual. Kudos! Another top three song for me! (18.5/20)

5. "Tupolev in the air" (08:55) has a little bit of an acoustic jazz feel due to the bass and drum play, while atonal viola is plucked and fuzzy guitar buzzes and cries. There's a little KOOP-like feel in that repeated, hypnotic rhythm track. Sax and heavily-fuuzzed guitar strums sounding like a bank of Caribbean horns enter in the fourth minute really throwing things off. Then the bass and drums slowly, almost imperceptibly begin to shift the rhythm track, changing the speed, as well, becoming a straightforward CAN-like song. Interesting how they got all these wild "synthesizer" sounds without using keyboards. (17.25/20)

6. "Dagar försvinner" (03:19) more experiments with four or five tracks playing their linear music in what feels like each their own separate universe. Somehow it all stays fairly close together, works as a "loose weave." Nice melodies from the viola, vocalist, and saxophone. Intriguing! An entirely alternate universe version of song #3! My final top three song. (9/10)

Total Time 42:43

An amazing album of completely new sounding music that has totally caught me off guard! I am stunned and under their spell. I find it interesting that the weakest song is the long instrumental opener. Had I stopped listening there, I would have missed something extraordinary!

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music pushing the boundaries of Krautrock farther than I've heard them pushed in years! I so badly want to issue the full five stars for this album--it's that interesting--but that opening (long) song is just too weak.

If you check out this album, please either skip the first song or don't stop there: There is some amazing music to discover in the rest of the album!

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