ICH BIN EIN SPIEGELEI

THE DECAYES has been one of those cult curiosities that remained well hidden in the weirdo underground of the musical world during its existence. Basically the brainchild of Ron Kane, this Los Angeles collective was not really a band per se but rather a rotating cast of similar minded musicians that enjoyed the stranger side of music. THE DECAYES had two distinct phases of its tenure, the first finding primary inspiration from the world of Krautrock with bands like Faust, Lard Free, Can and other free flowing psychedelic masters of the late 60s and the early 70s. This debut album ICH BIN EIN SPIEGELEI was the only album to venture into the world of Krautrock influenced minimalism before the band shifted gears into the world of post-punk influenced by the likes of Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and other out of the box thinking musicians of the day.

This debut ICH BIN EIN SPIEGELEI may be the odd album out of the pack but is surely the reason why Nurse With Wound added THE DECAYES to its underground weirdo music shopping list which has surely given this obscure band more attention than it ever would have otherwise. Sounding more like Faust's debut from 1971 than anything that came in 1978, this album featured two long tripped out tracks that each exceeded 21 minutes. ICH BIN EIN SPIEGELEI features only two musicians: Ron Kane (electric & acoustic lead guitars, electric bass, clarinet, voice, bassoon, loops, organ) and Paul Sakrison (drums & percussion, clarinet, effects, electric rhythm guitar, voice) and was limited to a quantity of only 100 copies, each with customized spray paint patterns on the cover. The album has still never been re-released beyond its original vinyl handmade pressing therefore extremely collectible but thanks to the internet anyone can hear it these days.

If you ask me this debut release sounds most like Germany's Annexus Quam which displayed a similar mix of continuous psychedelic rock streaming in the vein fo the most tripped out Krautrock of the early 70s with heavy doses of electronic free improvisation and a continuous monotonic rhythmic drive. Both tracks are very similar in structure, totally instrumental and saturated with reverb, echo effects, tape manipulations. Despite two tracks on board, the album is more like a stream of consciousness experience where the emphasis is on the meditative repetition of the beat while various sounds ooze in and out of the musical procession. The music is very minimalistic and even though many instruments are on display, none tend to overlap and wax and wane unexpectedly.

This album is every bit as experimental as the best of the freakazoids doing this kind of stuff around the 1970-71 timeline with heavily edited tape recordings that were run through feedback devices and then spliced and overlaid with bizarre mishmashes of sound effects in order to craft almost alien soundscapes that sound like no one else, which was especially rare in the Los Angeles area of the USA at the time (think Van Halen as the biggest thing when this was released!) Considering the album's title and two tracks are all in German, it's not hard to tell where the primary influences came from at all! The creepy ambience of this album has also been compared to Kraftwerk's earlier albums but i think THE DECAYES did a better job achieving this trip to the stars. Overall this is an excellent slice of American Krautrock which as far as i know wasn't attempted outside of Europe. Any way you slice it, for those seeking the farthest out trips possible then you can't go wrong with this DECAYES debut. It didn't end up on the Nurse With Wound list for nothing!