Sunday, December 13, 2009

Twenty Sixty Six and Then - Reflections on the Future (1972)


Genre - Krautrock, Heavy Psych, Progressive Rock.
Review - According to ProgArchives.com "Krautrock (also called "Kosmische musik") is a German avant-garde / experimental rock movement that emerged at the end of the 1960's. It was intended to go beyond the eccentricities developed by the wild psychedelic rock universe of the US, by giving a special emphasis to electronic treatments, sound manipulation and minimal hypnotic motifs (continuing the style of "musique concrete" and minimalist repetitive music but within a more accessible environment)."

Nevermind the pretentious band name, Twenty Sixty Six and Then play a unique brand of krautrock (but then, Isnt Krautrock all about experimenting with your usual Psychedelic rock sound which was so famous back in the days). THis album will go down the throats of most of you guys here. I know there a lot of hard rock, psychedelic rock (?? Space rock too) loving crowd in this group (I am looking at you feather, ethan, Rectal, Poseidonx, Funeralmass). But this will also find favours with guys who like bands that like to experiment with their music.(I know a lot of you guys hate the experimental tag here). I remember someone posting a Randy Holden album here and it was well received by the truly grim crowd. Well this band is like a few steps of ahead of what Randy Holden did on Population II. The guitar tone is thick and heavy with too many melodic overtones to handle. While you are being bombarded with bluesy Jimmy Hendrixesque riffs, you also find slowly ascending spacey passages ala Nektar (Hey Hawkwind have become a household name in this group yoy know! but seriously this reminds me more of Nektar than Hawkwind). The vocals are husky and raw which will force you think of Garage rock movement of the 60s and is one of the reasons why I like this album so much. So if you love to dig the vocals of Blue Cheer and the legendary "The Electric Prunes", there is no reason why you wont love it. The drumming is immaculate and the fills and rolls along with long guitar leads impart a progressive touch to the music ala King Crimson. The bass is pretty much audible and particularly great on the title track.

The production is kinda poor, but I like it somehow because its the production that imparts an even thicker sound to the guitar tones and makes it sound closer to the garage rock/hard rock than your usual German Krautrockers. Oh and why the heck I was forgetting about incredible flute playing on the albums.

Krautrock was one of the most abused genre in the 70s, Infact the krautrock albums that came in the mid 70s made a mess of the legacy left by the early bands. But this is one of the early gems from a band that had a rather shortlived career.

I absolutely love the song BUTTERKING here, cheesy lyrics with incredible vocals (there are times when all you can hear is the vocals and the vocal tones are matched incredibly by the geeeetars!). I would say that go for this album just for that fuckin' song.

PS - The Link contains 8 tracks, The actual album has 5 tracks only (the first five ones) the rest are BONUS!
Your choice baby!

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