SCHWINGUNGEN

I could have drawn that front cover when I was 8 years old and still not have won any prizes at school. In fact I'd probably be told that I should forget any ambitions of being an artist... It's really poor isn't it? It put me off buying this cd for a long time, that's for sure.

If you can put the sleeve to one side what you're left with is an excellent Krautrock album.

Track one - 'Light: Look at your Sun' has a drug laden, eyes almost shut we're so wasted sound. Funnily enough, it also has intro guitar chords that could have been lifted directly by David Sylvian on 'The Healing Place' from 'Gone to Earth'.

There's some extreme phasing amongst the pandemonium of 'Darkness - Flowers Must Die' which I love. The vocals by a certain 'John L' are pretty tuneless and shouty but seem to fit the style of music being played. This is really quite an intense track with frenetic drumming and uber cool guitars played by Manuel Gottsching. Strobe lights and wobbly acid patterns on walls and ceilings are the images conjured up here.

Vibraphones herald the intro to 'Suche & Liebe'. Quite apt really as 'Schwingungen' means 'Vibrations' in German. This lengthy instrumental piece is a far more laid back affair. This noisy side one, quiet side two approach is something they used on all their early albums. This sounds very much like sequences from Floyd's 'Ummagumma' ending on a beautiful heavy bass, vocal and guitar harmony which makes it my favourite Ash Ra Tempel album.

One thing's for sure, they didn't miss Klaus Schulze who had temporarily left to record his first solo LP 'Irrlicht' during this year. They got on perfectly fine without him.