43 MINUTEN

First of all give it up for the most prolific reviewer here on PA, Mellotron Storm for getting me into this album. Here´s a big warm internet hug flying through the computer screen all the way from the windswept shores of Denmark. Thanks buddy...

I originally came into the wondrous world of prog through the sounds of the late 60s. Jimi, Doors, Floyd, Lovecraft, Arthur Brown, Stones, The Dead and so forth. All those hippie bands spoke to me about musical freedom and how such a form of expression should never be locked down in boxes. It was the wild guitars, the bobbling hammond organs, the cryptic lyrics and that whole notion of intrinsic musical sorcery - that was indeed what drew me in like a cat to a ball of yarn. The reason I´m talking about the 60s, is because of the effect it had on almost everything we dive into on this site - be that in the development of new instruments, or maybe in the way this time in space challenged how we think about the very nature of music. Last thing is perhaps the most important and that is heritage. Much of what happened during the latter part of the 60s was actually what the audience heard like echoing ripples all through the following decade. In another costume, another shape another world.

Os Mundi´s 43 Minuten is a testimony to this heritage. Whilst some people call this Krautrock, I´d stake a couple of fried llamas that it isn´t. Not to me anyway... To me this album sounds like 3 different things - like it has 3 musical building blocks, which all through this riveting album act like the foundation for the seemingly easy-flowing rhythmic melody laden gymnastics.

One side of the triangle sounds like Cream. Those breezy relaxing vocals hanging over the sluggishly played guitar riffing. The second side is when the music turns jazzy, and here I´m not talking about fusion a la Mahavishnu Orchestra going 500 miles an hour with everybody doing their own thing, no - I´m talking about old school slow moving Sunday smooth jazz with clear parallels to the debut of Jethro Tull. It´s obvious in the manner in which the flute is handled, but even more so felt in the whole ambiance of the band. Chill out relax mood all over the board, and you can almost picture how every animal in the forest would be inclined to drop by this good natured band, and a brand new Snow White scene suddenly unfolds. Last piece of the puzzle is by far the one with the most sway. It´s the dominant part of the music, and luckily so also my favourite of the bunch. This one sounds like a decisively more progressive incarnation of The Pretty Things. I hear a lot of SF Sorrow in this album, - and to tell you the truth, that is a damn fine compliment coming from me. The vocal harmonies along with the organs - then those spiralling rock n´ roll guitar sprees all wrapped around the familiar booming earthiness of the blues bass incantations calling you from the deepest depths of the music. Yeah there´s definitely something there...

This piggy´s got far more coils and twists to its tail than any of the mentioned bands, but the feel of it harks back to those warm 60s´ dreamings. This might lead you to think, that 43 Minuten is an unoriginal outing comprised of sonic re-runs and old sneakers, but strangely enough this album is very unique - just as their first one was. Os Mundi are one of the few acts that I´ve come across, who masters originality through the spirit and footwork of the artists preceding them. They sound like nothing else. This album is the proof of that, and I recommend everybody who´s into the early progressive scene to go have a listen to this fabulous record. Some parts of it are just gorgeously beautiful, like the hauntingly played But Reality Will Show with it´s slow climaxing orgasms and a sonic palette to it, that just takes me away like a paper cup caught in a hurricane. Swiish!!

If you want a cheap ticket to the beginning of our beloved prog lands, and feel like hitching a ride instead of listening to the mumblings of old geezers in Hawaii shirts, then you should probably start looking for this highly infatuating piece of spine massage.

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