Gunter Schickert - Kinder In Der Wildnis LP

$26.98

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Label: Bureau B

Our Review:

Originally released as a cassette tape in 1983, the material on Kinder In Der Wildnis consists of disparate DIY recordings drawn from Schickert's archives, so it's a bit more varied than either of his earlier albums, though if you've heard those, you'll recognize right away that you're back in Schickert's sonic realm, one of organic field recording atmospheres and trance-inducing minimalist pulsations. But something about this is so much more nervy and dark, and more "rocked out" too at times. Maybe it's the influence of the Neue Deutsche Welle, but we're still talking krautrock.

Even though Schickert does everything himself (guitar, tape, vocals, percussion, trumpet), it somehow sounds like a whole band, and that band sounds like Amon Duul II and Faust trapped together in a bunker, jamming endlessly in the middle of the night. The music is dark and claustrophobic despite the environmental nature sounds that Schickert likes to weave into his recordings. There's the children's voices on here too (his daughter sings on the jittery title track) but that's in stark contrast to the druggy darkness of so much of this. Tracks like "Rabe In Der Nacht" and "Hollentanz" are a dense lo-fi mesh of percolating beats, wailing psych guitar, and sound FX. Bird twitter-y field recordings (and crazy crow-like cawing from Schickert himself, we assume) meet overdubbed layers of chanting vocal parts, including more animal-like cries, in the hallucinatory mix. Swirling drones of synth coalesce into hypnotic throbbing rhythms, over which lilting keyboard motifs hint at the likes of Goblin.

Yep, it's a freakin' great record all right. Trippy and weird and psychically round the bend. In other words, super satisfying.

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