BLANGA

The music on 'Blanga' can be described ... maybe as acid garage space rock. Some elements like Rick Hake's straightforward drumming remember at HAWKWIND. But to let this stay so would be way too short-sighted. Many hallucinatory moments force you also to think about a recording session under heavy dope influence. If you have a look at the cover/sleeve art you will detect pictures from China with opium smoking people all around. It's said the expression Blanga results from a band's internal joke related to a german band named Amon Düül. And krautrock influences can't be denied for sure.

When you are listening with headphones on please don't close your eyes and don't forget where you are staying. Hypnotic rhythms, rumbling bass lines, twittering/bubbling synths and distorted guitars are accompanying you all the way on the journey and you run into danger of losing the orientation. It all starts with the typical space rock jam In The Garden Of Blanga,one of the album highlights. A stoical drum work provides the background for meandering guitars and synthesizer, apparently working on their own but acting in harmony in fact and finally closing in a heavier mood.

Blanga's transformation now appears much more weird oriented at the old school of krautrock. Starting as a heavy rocker with a cornucopia of psych guitars the song transforms into a melancholic spheric part and later gets back to the roots with repetitve guitar riffs remembering me at the geman band GAM featuring Günter Schickert. And then for the next ten minutes a lovely girl is dreaming of Blanga. The band draws on sitar and tabla to provide an oriental tinged hallucinatory track which gathers speed after a while. The music dramatically culminates supported by electronical effects and then falls down again alternating ... open your eyes! You have been warned!

This sounds completely rounded - probably the result of one exceptional session recorded in summer 2004. On the surface this may appeal somewhat monotonous to some listeners. But 'Blanga' is interesting for sure for genre lovers which have no problem to leave familiar paths and to turn towards some more experimental stuff - 3.5 stars.