HYPERTHALAMUS

Calling this a 'Supergroup' is a violation of the Trade Descriptions Act.

'Frumpy', 'Thirsty Moon' and 'Tomorrow's Gift' decided to get together and go on the rampage, but fail to deliver anything of historical importance whatsoever.

'Hyperthalamus' is an extremely poorly recorded album which sounds muffled, live and rough. I expected much more from these three moderately respectable Krautrock artists. It sounds like it was recorded live onto a a second hand BASF audio cassette, resembling a pirate bootleg rather than a professional recording. This basically sounds like someone playing music too loud down the stairs when you're trying to get to sleep, where nothing sounds clear and the dynamics are lost in a sea of sludge.

Everything is so straightforward and run-of-the-mill. It's chock full of the aimless guitar jams I should have expected before purchase. The piano-like keyboards are quite nice in a 'Floyd' - ''Animals' kind of way, but then some dreaded saxophone rears its ugly head which has me running for cover as though there's been a bomb scare.

There's too many good Krautrock albums out there without having to bother with this. 'Hyperthalamus' has fleeting moments of respectability with flute and ambient keyboard work, but overall it's something of a disaster in my view.

I have very few commendable observations to make about this feckless, repetitive and one dimensional album. It's one recording that's finally heading for the bin after many years of lying around, wasting space and gathering dust. Calling it truly awful would be unkind but unfortunately it's true.