Electric Orange :: Krautrock From Hell

Hell yes.

Or at least some place a bit more moody … dark … bigger … muscular … very muscular. I’m not going to throw out “They’re the Schwarzenegger of krautrock!!!” One, well, he’s Austrian and two, that would lead you to think Krautrock from Hell is nothing but a pummel fest. It is not. It’s got lots of meat to it that’s for sure, but it’s not a lumbering, pedantic oaf. Electric Orange can bob and weave with the best of them.

Bandwurm sets us up perfectly with some spoken word that bleeds right into a rolling ball of drive that, for all it’s repetition, never gets repetive or monotonous. It’s hypnotic. The bass and drums clearly have a mission and never let up their pump. Tell-tale krautrock traits are in there, but it’s almost as if Electric Orange reached in and took out some of that bothersome bone, and left us a greater portion of meat. And what is muscle if not meat?

Sundos pushes the krautrock into a more modern setting with a much heavier, druggier post-70s haze. In fact, much of the album carries that whiff of trippier smoke: like the records the older dudes on the block had that you heard about as you were growing up and sprouting antennae of our own. Or that tape a mysterious brother passed on … a hazy, trippy aura hangs over the proceedings … Chorg {Cpt. Gyrok’s} does nothing to clear the air … moody, somber and liquid, Chorg stretches it’s long legs out. Its full of keys that would make the little Emerson and Lord {and maybe even Hensley …} in you pee your knickers, while more obvious space rock blips of the future are thrown about. I’ll hazard a guess it was recorded on a Chorgan, whatever that is … Band built, of course.

Hers changes directions slightly after a protracted intro, turning into a fantastic psych-pop gem with a desert rock overtone towards the end revealing a whole other side to Electric Orange: think Wellwater Conspiracy, Brant Bjork … Kunstkopf keeps rolling us along {and up} until the unquestionable centerpiece, Neuronomicon. A 25 minute monster that lures you in with some acoustic picking before standing upright in the fire and taking full intergalactic flight. It’s a stunning workout with all types of interludes {drums, vocals, piano …} weaving in and out of themselves that somehow manages to go a myriad of places without sounding lost for one minute. Wurmloch quiets things down a touch, easing Krautrock from Hell to a conclusion that is clearly meant as a wrap up, but, like much of the record, is open-ended. To be continued? Hope so …

For all the references to krautrock, the name of Electric Orange’s platter has got to be a red-herring. Each track touches down on more than just krautrock, making Krautrock from Hell essentially progressive rock … if you have to put your seal on it. It’s a nebulous, sinewy machine working it’s way through their underworld haze and trippy pall methodically: driven, but never rigid or inflexible.

If this is Hell, then I’m in. I’m not sure what ring of Hell this is, but I hear there’s a few more …

Highly recommended.

Bandwurm :: Electric Orange :: Krautrock from Hell {Sulatron, 2010}

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