LUCIFER RISING (OST)

There's a whole lot of mystification surrounding this cult-album. And even if it is a good piece of music, the circumstances surrounding its inception sound quite more interesting then the actual music. It connects seemlessly with the style of the lazy-hazy psychedelica of the early 70's, and as such it owes a lot to bands like early Floyd, Ash Ra Temple and Cosmic Jokers. But it doesn't reach the same level of quality.

The album is entirely instrumental and consists mostly of guitar/psych-blues with hints of progressive electronic. The recording quality is very low-fi, and becomes a bit of a problem as the album continues. It's one of the main reasons why I would only recommend this to collectors and avid kraut fans.

The music is quite good generally, with the opening part as the standout. It has very mysterious layers of chords and effects weaving in and out of focus. The instrumentation has more guitar then synths but the effect is sure that of progressive electronic. Part II is less experimental. It's got a kind of ballad pace with a slow melancholic melody that keeps intensifying as it goes along. Typical 70s psychedelic soundtrack material. Part III further explores the dreamy pastoral mood. Part IV concludes the very good first half of the album with a short a nice melody that gets perverted with experimental effects, sounds like a musical box that goes berserk.

Part V and VI make up more then half of the entire length and it is here that the album succumbs under its dreary mood and amateurish recording. Part V is 15 minute variation on part II and quite dull to these ears. Part VI is more fun, but again it sounds like 1970 Pink Floyd outtakes that were recorded from 3 miles distance.

'Lucifer Rising' has a couple of good tunes but is ultimately a disappointment due to its bootleg-y sound and lack of ideas. Somewhere between 2 and 3 stars.