ENCODED

Now this is different! I like variety--and bands that experiment and grow. The album starts out with some very unusual and different sounds and styles (for Dirk Jan Müller) but then seem to revert to more traditional Kosmische Musik forms and styles. I would love to hear more "new" stuff like the opening song, but, still, I do love the serious dedication Electric Orange puts into their Krautrock revival releases.

1. "Partial Encode" (8:33) an excellent and refreshing opener using vocoded voice for vocals and a kind of straightforward Euro-rock groove to engage and hypnotize us. In the sixth minute the vocals get muddy and the music seems to "lose its way" (purposely), but the rhythm section slowly recovers in the seventh minute and we end on the hypnotic groove that started it all. (18/20)

2. "Low" (2:53) a very spacey, Blade Runner-like interlude. (4.25/5)

3. "Ekoshock" (8:05) Kosmische organ play with fast-pulsing bass underneath, both intensifying into a swirling cacophony before an American voice sample is used to bridge into a more hypnotic and traditional Kosmische rhythm track. Guitars and organ add incidental noises from beneath or from the periphery while the pagan dance rave goes on in the center. Very hypnotic and trance psychedelic. (13.25/15)

4. "Ghost In A Bag" (5:51) themed around the invisible that is electricity, there is a JIMI HENDRIX-like feel and construction to this one with lots of feedback and extemporaneous vocals thrown at us from all directions. At 2:05 a British-voiced psychedelic talk-vocal enters and takes the lead. Very trippy. In the fourth minute, after the voice has finished his incantation, a more heavy psych rock song takes form and carries on until the chanter returns around the five minute mark. Very cool, different, and interesting. (8.75/10)

5. "Prawn (3:32) more spacey synths, syncopated electric guitar hits, tribal drumming and bass rolling in the low end. Very traditional Krautrock of the CAN/TD order. (8/10)

6. "Passage (8:42) another Kosmische jam combining he space synth/keyboard sounds of TANGERINE DREAM-like music with the low end rhythm section of JAKI and HOLGER. The keys are the highlight at the forefront while the steadiness of the rhythm tracks provide the ocean of transport necessary to enjoy the show. (17.75/20)

Total Time 37:36

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of modern Kosmische Musik and a wonderful contribution to the prog lexicon. If you're craving some wonderfully engineered trance-inducing Kosmische Musik, this is your album to check out.