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Review & Track Premiere: The Spacelords, Spaceflowers

THE SPACELORDS SPACEFLOWERS

[Click play above to stream the title-track of The Spacelords’ Spaceflowers. Album is out Feb. 21 through Tonzonen. Preoders are here.]

They say that in space, no one can hear you fall into a trace of repetitive heavy psychedelic bliss. Germany’s The Spacelords — guitarist Matthias “Hazi” Wettstein, bassist Erhard “Akee” Kazmaier and drummer Marcus Schnitzler; all of whom are also responsible for sundry other effects and/or noises — wrap up a trilogy of three-song full-lengths with Spaceflowers, taking what began on 2016’s Liquid Sun and continued with 2017’s Water Planet (review here) for their fourth release total on Tonzonen Records including last year’s live outing, On Stage. Whether they’re in the studio or not, the trio emit a cosmic vibe of marked depth, and in the three extended pieces of Spaceflowers, they bloom in true fashion, each one seeming to spread out in all directions at once, circular petals opening wide to catch the light of some strange sunlight and thereby be sustained. To say the least, 24-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Cosmic Trip” is nothing if not aptly named.

“Cosmic Trip” is joined by “Frau Kuhnkes Kosmos” (11:43) and the closing title-track (13:35), but its course is set early and maintained well throughout the 49 minutes of the proceedings overall, which isn’t short for an LP in this day and age, but doesn’t find The Spacelords at all overstaying their welcome. Be it Schnitzler‘s deceptively intricate kick timing in “Frau Kuhnkes Kosmos” — he was doubling for a while with Electric Moon, whose Sula Bassana put out The Spacelords‘ 2014 album, Synapse (review here), but parted ways with the band in 2016 — or the patient underlying wash of effects and the close-your-eyes-and-get-carried-away bassline in the second half of “Spaceflowers” itself, The Spacelords bring a personality and vibrance to their material, and though the overarching vibe is serene, they aren’t by any means still throughout these proceedings.

On the contrary, while “Cosmic Trip” and its side B counterparts want nothing for fluidity and are plenty atmospheric on an almost preternatural level with all of the effects surrounding the guitar, bass and drums — not separate from them at all but still bolstering the individual performances as Wettstein demonstrates early in the synth/guitar intertwining of “Cosmic Trip” circa the five-minute mark — they’re never entirely still throughout Spaceflowers. And neither are they overblown or launching the motorik space rock hyperdrive without sonic call to do so. In fact, while never really subdued in the sense of fading to drone or anything like that, they find a marked balance that allows them to explore without departing mid-tempo push. The build that ensues across the first eight minutes or so of “Cosmic Trip” pays off in satisfying fashion and gives way to joyous guitar drift kept in this dimension by Kazmaier‘s gotta-hear-it bass tone and Schnitzler‘s drumming, and gradually, patiently, pushes itself forward again, this time over the longer stretch of the remaining two-thirds of the song.

After the guitar solo arrives and eventually shifts into the riff that the drums and bass change with immediately — it’s announced by the drums, but let’s call it 22:22 into the 24:20 — it becomes clear to what all of the progression has been leading, and that obviously-prior-constructed move underscores a key factor in The Spacelords‘ approach throughout Spaceflowers in that these three songs do not at all come across as being “just jams.” That is, while there are no doubt improvisational elements at work and in all likelihood a great deal of jamming took place to put them together — and given the flow throughout, there was likely a proportionate amount of jamming in the recording process as well — there’s at least a blueprint being followed. They never come close to what would be commonly regarded as structure in the verse/chorus sense, and nor do they want or need to, but neither are they floating through the galaxy without a mission.

Tonzonen Records Labelnight 3 The Spacelords

Given that, and taking into consideration Spaceflowers as the purported end of a trilogy of releases — they had two early self-released studio albums that seem to be unavailable and at least one other live recording, so fair to say it’s at least their sixth LP overall — one has to wonder if there’s a narrative taking place in the tracks or across the progression from Liquid Sun to Water Planet to this album. If there is, and it’s fun to think there might be, then perhaps it could be derived even just from the titles of the three full-lengths in question. A star, a planet, a landscape. Is this The Spacelords describing entering a strange solar system with a different kind of life source and discovering what sort of life might flourish there? Have we landed? The best answer I can give is “maybe,” which is to say that listening to the tension in the latter half of “Frau Kuhnkes Kosmos,” and the ensuing space-hippies-bathing-in-soundwaves vision of “Spaceflowers” itself, it’s open for interpretation.

Certainly the latter could be viewed as a landing point, even as Wettstein‘s guitar seems most to soar and the band — kudos to whoever is handling the organ sound there, whether or not it’s an actual organ — push to a rousing and, again, planned-seeming finish. Its mellow beginning picks up gently from the centerpiece before it, and it unfolds with a lighter sense of gravity but still brings a welcome and by-then-characteristic blend of earthy groove and floating guitar. It would be difficult for a single instrumental piece to serve as the summary of three albums’ worth of outward journeying, even one 13 minutes long, but “Spaceflowers” nobly pushes in its midsection into a section of thicker riffing before embarking on its final cosmic sprawl and solo-led ending.

It’s by no means the first such build on Spaceflowers, but it emphasizes the point of the power trio dynamic in the band, with the rhythm section functioning to hold the central groove together as the guitar — and more, in this case — adventures through the outer reaches of the great kosmiche beyond. Is this The Spacelords‘ last time at the helm of their particular starship? One doubts it. The creativity on display in these tracks and the will they put into making them does not seem the sort to be dissuaded, and the progressive aspects even in the final moments of the title-track make it plain that in terms of the band’s own story, the end is the beginning. Another trilogy ahead? A full saga? Could be. WettsteinKazmeier and Schnitzler clearly show they have the readiness to paint the universe as they see fit, so really all the listener has to do is be ready to go and be gone.

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One Response to “Review & Track Premiere: The Spacelords, Spaceflowers

  1. Tommy Castorff says:

    Well, that sounds quite familiar and trippy so far. Very nice and floaty. Can’t wait for the release! Is it true the invited guest stars on Spaceflowers?

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