Südstern 44

Südstern 44 - The Dampfwalze

This is a 70-minute-long, psychedelic jam session featuring members of Zone Six and Weltraumstaunen. This CD-R really has only one, really long track of improvised music played with two guitars, bass and drums recorded in 2004. The track begins with a really psychedelic, laid-back and bubbling delay guitar that soon changes into heavy psych/acid guitar jam feast. The musicians jam very tightly without any sing of getting tired or bored and the end result sounds at times like a cross-breeding of Bevis Frond and Marble Sheep. Occasionally I’m also reminded of the rehearsal jams of Dark Sun… The atmosphere is rather 70’s styled, I think. This is really hard stuff, until the track cools down somewhere in the middle. Then they go with full power again, and I guess stoner fans could like this too. The very end is also peaceful, psychedelic delay guitar stuff that fits well after this otherwise rather raw jamming. Although the music was recorded with just a little stereo mike, the sound quality is totally OK, and Dave Schmidt has done a good job editing the whole thing. I’m looking forward to the band’s actual debut album that should be out on Nasoni this autumn.16.10.06 by Dj Astro at Psychotropic Zone

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Südstern 44 - Südstern

Südstern 44 is one of Dave Schmidt’s bands and this time he plays drums as well as synthesiser. The band features his band mates from Zone Six and other old bands (Growing Seeds, Weltraumstaunen). Prior to this, they have released one instrumental jam CD-R on Dave’s own Sulatron Records so this is the first official CD release. The band’s music isn’t just as psychedelic as some of the other stuff Dave does, but this high-quality studio album works and rocks extremely well.The mid-tempo psych rocker ”Panorama Spaceship” starts the album and the female bassist/singer Ellipopelli’s sedate and effected vocals fit in perfectly. It’s a pretty hypnotic track that has a more melodic chorus and some great guitar soloing. Works very well! The slower, a bit mystical “Mindfuck” comes next and again they go in a hypnotic style. This is a marvellous track in 5/4 time. The going is pretty monotonic and gets heavier occasionally. Before eight minutes have passed the track gets rather fierce and some discords and chaos follows. ”Kauderwelsch Maschine” begins with a narration in German and after that is rather fast rocking spiced with djembe. Some psychedelic, instrumental jamming comes next and there’s some more narration in the middle. “Südsee” has at first some sounds of waves and peaceful but hypnotic guitar. The comp joins in and the track grows gradually along with the psych sounds. The vocals on this number are just whispering which creates a special atmosphere. After three minutes the going breaks free and we hear some guitar soloing. There’s some more whispering in the middle. A very nice, dreamy and mid-tempo track. The album ends with the 14-minute-long ”Freischwimmer” that is excellent jamming. I really like the space sounds on this one! It’s a rather up-tempo instrumental, although it cools down after seven minutes. After ten minutes it grows again and there’s some more soloing in the end.This truly is a superb album and also the sound quality is excellent. The music is a little less far-out than for example the music of Zone Six, but this still works out great as tripping music! Absolutely worth getting if you’re interested in new German psychedelic post-rock.
05.09.07 by Dj Astro at Psychotropic Zone

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