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Rating:
It almost doesn't make sense to write this review; true psychedelia, whether it’s intimate or "heavy" like in this album, should hit you in the heart, drag you into hidden worlds, make you travel as much as or more than a hallucinogen. It doesn't matter if it does so in a delicate and fluid way or with walls of fuzz and a heart-stopping rhythm section.
Colour Haze are this, a psychedelic band in the truest sense of the word. Just three people: Stefan Koglek (guitar and vocals), Manfred Merwald (drums), and Philip Rasthofer (bass). I assure you they are more than enough!
"Los Sounds De Krauts" is even a double album to contain all the genius and explosiveness of this German group... 11 songs, 11 psychedelic gems like haven't been heard in years.
Psychedelia, kraut rock, stoner, and seventies hard rock blend seamlessly into a lysergic cocktail that makes the band's sound unique and easily recognizable among a sea of bands that all sound like clones. As usual, the band is dominated by long acidic and distorted jams, the perfect soundtrack for a party based on marijuana and LSD.
The first side of the record, to give a small example, features "I Won't Stop," "Roses," and "Zen", three tracks with an average duration of 7 minutes, melodic in vocals, obsessive in the rhythm section, but above all overwhelming and mind-blowing in Stefen's guitar which moves comfortably between lighter passages and rougher ones. Occasionally, the sound of a Fender Rhodes emerges that couldn't be more vintage... in short, if you haven't understood it yet, these guys blow away any other stoner/psych band of today!
The mind of the group is undoubtedly Stefan Koglek, vocalist but above all an immense guitarist, his way of playing is passionate, rightly dirty, full of feeling... something truly magical...
Other songs that leave an indelible mark are "Where The Skies End," a concise moment that encapsulates the trio's philosophy in a web of bass and effected guitars: expanding the listener's perception, a mission perfectly accomplished in the mood explosion of "Weltraummantra," almost twenty minutes beyond every bodily limit exploring with delicate touches the hidden corners of the human psyche.
Finally comes "Overrinding," and here we reach perfection, eighteen minutes that set themselves as the absolute pinnacle of the record: I hadn't heard anything so sublime lately, a collection of riffs and acidified wah-wah, saturated rides enriched by an organ warm like the sun, off-key vibrations, and such sweet melodic singing make this jam an absolute masterpiece.
So when "Schlaflied" arrives to close this fabulous trip, you wake up from a long dream and (unfortunately!!) return to reality.
No bullshit: this is a fabulous album... just let this fantastic sound flow split your head open like a melon instead of the heat.
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