HIRNKÄSE

Cheerful Insanity

Sideways Psychedelia

What do you do when you are 1) a Big-Brain, 2) enormously gifted as a musician, 3) bored by the mundane and the ordinary, and 4) bristling with ideas to push Beyond?

Well, Hirnkäse. Yes sir, ma'am, or some variation: Hirnkäse.

SPROINGG

On the surface this trio of musical individuals are SPROINGG, Freiburg, Germany-based anarchic, restless, punk/angsty, sound-shaping, known-language eschewing unit.

"Hirnkäse" reflects their third output, in which we find the three seekers assembling ten- with a bonus eleventh- whimsical, fever-dreamy, dark, edgy, mysterious, delusion-psychedelia, grim, humorous tracks.

Boundaries

Whilst SPROINGG does NOT do conventional or ordinary, there are cheerfully insane lines, plans, and borders- perhaps boundaries within these rambling, changing, lunatic expositions. "Bruschmarian - the quasi-mythical, nearly forgotten tongues of the people of Bruschmaristan," they say. That is, the guttural, wooping, growling, ersatz- folksong, vocalizing of the 'lyrics' that occasionally emerge from the miasma in this sideways psychedelic stew.

Changing rhythms. Textures. Multi-tracked guitar lines from clean jangly chord accents to fuzzy, edgy mutters, to held notes. Drumming that features stolid single drums to complex fills to congas and bongos and tom-toms and cymbal play. Bass lines and synth lines and pizzicato string plucking and violin passages and almost-mellotron sounds.

Not Your Dad's Progressive Music

But then, MY dad didn't much care for progressive music, so there's that.

Point is, this isn't long and extended classical progressive rock from the late sixties on, the lush symphonic passages, the super-metallic bark of progressive metal being unfurled, or the twin-axe attack of high energy power music.

Nor Does SPROINGG Obey the Rules of Time

That is to say, we start with Gniorps 2 and end with Gniorps 1, both cheerfully insane and spoken/barked in that quasi- mythical tongue. Or conversely, we have "And Her Name Was 'Jo-Jo the Dog-faced Boy' Part 2", and damned if I can find Part 1- so there's that absurdist and whimsical spirit that animates this production.

My Conclusion

Here's the thing- it's not my cup of tea, but it might well be yours. Challenging. Restless. Complex. Subtle. Cheerful Insanity. Rating: 3.5 sideways stars.