Gila
Gila

With this report, we hope to make all krautrock lovers happy. This is the self-titled debut of these Germans (active since 1969), and the most "notable" work of their slim discography, often referred to by the "subtitle" Free Electric Sound, 1971.

Usually, the opener of a debut album aims to directly strike the listener; in fact, it's no surprise that Aggression is a lively and adrenaline-filled instrumental that immediately reveals the band's more prog-oriented side. The musicians chase each other, introduce themselves, and show us their extraordinary performance skills in the heart of a piece that actually has the sole purpose of "lighting the fuse" to put the listener in the most suitable mood to experience the full atmosphere of Gila.

An album made of cosmic evocations and astral calls (Kommunikation) where the vocal parts can be counted on one hand; and half of them are not lyrics but vocalizations, like the cries of a newborn at the beginning of Kollaps, a dark track built on heavy and martial rhythms where the uneasy notes of the keyboards and the sinister riffs of the guitars are unleashed: the desperate lament of a small human being trapped in some remote fragment of space and time. But Gila not only soars through the cosmos, but also plunges into Earth. A desert land swollen with heat and surrounded by sandy dunes: a parched oriental unplugged track (Kontakt) that partly mitigates the arrogance of the scorching sun, when an airy keyboard sequence (Kollektivitat) brings a breath of fresh air that frees us forever from the uneasiness and heat suffered in the previous tracks.

A bit underwhelming, Individualitat, the final track composed of a concoction of percussion that at times seems to reproduce a samba (?); a piece that, however, arrives when the magic has already been written.

Federico "Dragonstar" Passarella