Thursday 14 January 2010

Nackt Insecten - White Rainbow


Artist Nackt Insecten
Label Second Sleep
Year 2007
Genre(s) Drone

Two discs of beautifully composed and performed drone by Ruariadh Sanachan. Warm swells of sound painting a beautiful calming picture. Slowly soothing souls in the space age. There is a psychedelic gleam peaking around the slowly morphing drones, calling forth memories of Kraut Rock and early psychedelia. Built upon one main drone but padded out with beautiful synth and dreamy electronics. There are certainly elements of noise here, feedback is a prominent element of the compositions but always used to accentuate that which is on offer. Guitar makes a stunning appearance, being worked into the swirling vortex of sound. At the same time I am very much reminded of Popul Vuh. You see many bands these days described as Kraut Rock but none that I have heard captures the spirit and styling in quite the way Mr. Sanachan does.

The drones that are created here are never relegated to simple background music, there is too much going on. Sure you could play this in the background (It's common bed listening for me) but you really owe it your full attention too. Spacey electronics and dreamy synth dance together.

Disc two continues with more drones, this time darker and more ambient based. Conjuring images of desolation, the aforementioned vortex of sound suddenly sucking you in and throwing you into a desolate world long since destroyed. More dense drones with less breathing space. Harsher without crossing over into noise. All the elements from disc one are still here but they are utilised in different ways, showing a completely different side to Nackt Insecten. With disc 1 we were treated to a cosmic voyage on a cloud, disc 2 offers us the ruins of civilization telling us the story of the past. Mournful en yet still full of beauty. It closes without catharsis or resolve, we're trapped in this ruined landscape.

I don't usually do this but I also want to bring up the packaging on this release, 2 spray painted (Not to the point where it will flake and damage your CD player) cd-r's housed in a wonderful silk screened gate fold slipcase. Aesthetically linked with the music contained within. A wonderful package all round.

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