Long Distance Calling - Avoid the Light

Though hailing from Germany, this five-piece doesn't merely regurgitate the motorik beat that has become synonymous with any dewy-eyed pastiche of the krautrock genre, expanding on its influence rather than repeating it. Hypnotic opener Apparitions sets the mood with bubbling ambience and sparkling guitars, hypnotically evolving over its twelve minutes - so far so post-rock – before erupting into spinning twin guitar riffery of the sort one can only imagine Mastodon tried to achieve with their latest. And those drums! They're up front in the mix, clean and in turn supportive or driving. And then there's the production - a job even Conny Plank would be proud of. When so many artists nowadays tout the influence of early ‘70s German underground as motive for their one-note, beeps and four-in-a-bar relaxed sleepy trance, it is refreshing to hear a band adopt and expand the sound, or the approach, in creating a work that, well, rocks.