MOMENTUM

3.5 stars. AGITATION FREE might be my favourite Krautrock band, I mean they are right up there with AMON DUUL II for me although not nearly as adventerous as ADII they are just so darn melodic, trippy and spacey. Those first two studio albums are classics then add "Last" and "At The Cliffs Of River Rhine" my two favourite live records by them and we have a lot of 5 star albums. Hearing that they were releasing a studio album in 2023 had me cautiously optimistic with a lot of that based on that live record they released in 2011 but recorded in 2007 which was amazing. Except for the second guitarist that five piece on "Shibuya Nights" was the original lineup. Once again the second original guitarist is not here but his replacement on that live one is back but also we have a new bass player so three of the five original members are here.

If you were expecting this to sound like the old AGITATION FREE your going to be disappointed. Not that it's a bad thing that they have created something different here but to my ears this sounds nothing like them. So that first listen was interesting. I didn't know what to make of it because I thought it was good but knew I needed a lot of time with it. This is very much World music with electronics being front and centre. We have three of the guys adding electronics besides other instruments. The ethnic vibe is strong my friends. This is truly unique sounding but that doesn't mean I like it or even get it. Those many listens helped of course but I'm just not warming up to this one. So the 3.5 stars is part respect(that half star) and part I'm just not enjoying this enough so... a 3 star rating here.

I have to say that it doesn't even sound like Ulbrich playing lead guitar here and Rausch the drummer while really impressive again has that World music sound going on here with the different percussions he uses. Hoenig is Hoenig on the keyboards and he produced and mixed this record too. He even adds electronic percussion. There are so many sounds on this album that I'm just not into. I miss that warm, melodic 70's sound they mastered so well. Hey I get it it's been 50 years but just rating this on it's own regardless of what they did in the past this for me isn't a 4 star record but still I am impressed.