GILA [AKA: FREE ELECTRIC SOUND]

This is some seriously jammin' music, complete with Hendrix-esque guitar playing, heavy organ sounds, and a spacey atmosphere backing it all up. Free Electric Sound, the debut album by krautrockers Gila, is one of the most consistent albums in the krautrock genre, though I wasn't entirely convinced upon first listening about 4 years ago. Luckily, this album's impression on me improved over time.

First of all, the album cover; it's awesome looking. It reminds me of the video games I used to play back in the '90s, and that was what first initially drew me to listen to this album (album covers are very important). Second, the music is great. This album, unlike countless other krautrock albums, doesn't contain any amounts of pointlessness that I can detect. Every element of the all the music seems to have a purpose and it all flows so incredibly well. There are occasional vocals, but they are used more like just another instrument in that they mostly just make sounds. This is very trippy and groovy music, but fairly accessible for krautrock, so I'd say this is a nice introduction to the genre as well as one of the best.

It's a shame that the follow up to this album isn't quite as fantastic, but the fact that the band couldn't do better just emphasizes the masterpiece quality of this album.