TIMOTHY LEARY & ASH RA TEMPEL: SEVEN UP

This is the first release from the "Cosmic Courriers" label lead by Mr Rolf Ulrich Kaiser.. And, what do I need to say, this is incredible, maybe one of the maddest and most emotional album i've ever heard, but be warned, this is kind of radical.

I hated it the first time, except the first blues part of "Space", called "Downtown" you will probably skip the first track because of some freaky screaming and scary-psychedelic sound. As mostly all of the Ash Ra Tempel albums, this is one LP featuring two long pieces of freak and hard music for the first side, and a wavy dreamy psychedelic as the second movement.

This has certainly been recorded in the chaos, as you may read the lineup, there is more than 8 artist involved plus the main Ash Ra Tempel lineup without Klaus Schulze (Hartmut Enke, and Manuel Gottsching), and yes, there is the LSD-guru known as Timothy Leary in there too! He sings, and he sings ...strangely, you'll just hear him "speaking" some simple, yet hyptnotical lyrics at the end of "Time", the second movement, as he whispers something like "You're beautiful, you're beautiful, she, she, sheeeeeee" amateurish? maybe, but this is in fact very great, there is a strong floating feeling on the end of this record.

Now what the hell is Timothy doing with these crazy junkies? This album was in fact recorded in a cellar in the old city of bern near the cathedral, in Switzerland. Timothy Leary escaped from USA to Algeria he and his wife, they were tracked down by the CIA because of Tim's drug propaganda, Tim then decided to exile back in Switzerland at Bern where he met Rolf Ulrich Kaiser. Rolf Ulrich Kaiser gathered all these artist in there to record what would be the first record for his label, the artists used to share Seven up drinks (containing some illicit substance) and jam some music.. Rolf then collected the recordings and got back to Berlin where he mixed everything up..

Concerning the music, as I said before the lyrics are simple sometimes silly with a bit of non-sense, but who cares? The first of the two songs starts with the incredible "Downtown" slow and dreamy blues were you could hear 3 different singers shouting and whispering "Downtown, Downtown, no pain, Downtown, nothing to think" and then it fades out and you can hear what i think the woman announcing departure and arrival at the Bern train station, not sure of that though. Next to "Downtown" is some hard blues hardly listenanble parts: "Power Drive" "Right Hand Lover" , and "Velvet Genes" are not very different between each others.. The second song "Time", the dreamy one, can be divided in three parts: "Timeship" is a slow Tangerine Dream like organ space journey, then "Neuron" and "She" fades in, that's where timothy starts his very short speech.

A very moody and mad record alltogether, it will grow in you, you'll either love it or hate it. Recommended for those who love the deep and atmospheric aspect of Krautrock!