Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier (2012)

Spacerock … oder kein Space, eher Wasser. Subrock … U-Boot-Prog. Vespero haben offenbar ihr Raumschiff abgestellt und sich in die tiefen der Meere begeben. Gleichzeitig wurde die Mannschaft vergrößert, sind doch auf dem vierten Studioalbum der Russen nun acht Musiker zu hören. Diese werden in der Besetzungsliste übrigens auch bestimmten Abteilungen des U-Bootes zugeordnet: Maschinenraum (die beiden Perkussionisten), Turm (Bass, Sax), Funkraum (Tasten, Elektronik) und Zentrale (Gitarre und Cello). “Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier” nennt sich das Ganze.

Das Label – die Russian Association of Independent Genres, kurz: R.A.I.G – bezeichnet das Album als “a conceptual framework for six instrumental kraut-rock songs which are inspired by Russian Futurism of the early 20th century, German musical underground of the 70’s, modern American fiction writers, as well as mysteries of the Great Ocean still not completely explained by mankind.” Ja, Futurismus und Krautrock ist da, wohl auch die Science-Fiction-Inspiration, scheint doch ein Teil des Albumtitels aus einem Roman von Matt Ruff zu stammen.

Einen krautigen Instrumentalspacerock spielen Vespero auf “Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier”, ein schon auf dem Vorgängeralbum stilistisch vorgezeichnetes kosmisch-elektronisch voran jammendes Gemenge an allerlei Tastenklang, E-Gitarren, Bass und viel Schlagwerk, gelegentlich angereichert mit Sax- und Celloklängen, das sehr hypnotisch und dicht vorantreibt. Im Vergleich zu den ersten drei Vespero-Alben ist der Gehalt an retrokrautigen bzw. neopsychedelischen Tastensounds und Elektronikgeweben größer geworden, treibt das Ganze deutlich repetitiver und etwas kantiger dahin.

Allerlei elektronisches Fiepen, Hupen, Dröhnen, Zischen und Blubbern strömt hier aus den Boxen, durchsetzt mit retroprogressiven Tastenschüben und sequenzergesteuerten Elektronikmustern. Darin eingewoben sind ausladende, psychedelisch-spacige E-Gitarrenlinien bzw. mit demselben Instrument erzeugte sperrige-knurrende Klangwände, die schon erwähnten, eher getragenen Einlagen von Sax, Flöte und Cello und natürlich die umfangreiche Perkussionsabteilung. Gesang, oder andere menschliche Lautäußerungen, gibt es nicht.

Sehr farbig und abwechslungsreich, aber natürlich mit dem genretypischen Hang zu minimalistisch-reptitiven Abläufen, rocken Vespero ihr U-Boot, pendeln dabei geschickt zwischen flott-treibenden Momenten und gemächlicher dahinschwebenden Abschnitten (die flotten überwiegen allerdings) und kreieren ihre eigene, sehr mitreißende und frische Version des Genres.

Das Album kommt übrigens in einer hochformatigen, mit knochigen Wal-U-Booten bedruckten Kartonschachtel, in der neben der CD auch eine grosse Seekarte zum auseinanderfalten steckt. Sehr schön! Neben dieser “Standard-CD-Ausgabe” gibt es auch eine streng limitierte (50 Stück) Spezialauflage (genannt “Seebar Edition”) des Albums, welche als buchartige Pappbox geliefert wird, die neben der CD die Seekarte, ein U-Boot-Wimpel, eine U-Bootfahrer-Hundemarke, ein U-Boot-Buch, allerlei U-Boot-Fotos und andere vermeintlicher U-Boot-Memorabilia enthält. Als Doppel-LP ist “Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier” natürlich auch zu haben. Spacerock-, Neopsychedelik- und Retrokrautrockfreaks sollten eine dieser Versionen des Albums dringend antesten!

VESPERO’s fourth album is significantly referring to the German U-Boat tradition (how terrible!) in the same way as to the special German rock music legacy (how irresisitible!). Similarity and contradiction at once – ‘U-Boats Willkommen Hier’ – this sounds provocative to me, sorry, probably meant as a pun – tainted with considerable speculation overall. But now for some clarification, the official label (R.A.I.G) announcement tells us that the album ‘is a conceptual framework for six instrumental kraut-rock songs which are inspired by Russian Futurism of the early 20th century, German musical underground of the 70’s, modern American fiction writers, as well as mysteries of the Great Ocean still not completely explained by mankind’. Yup!

‘The Art Of Positive Thinking’ – well, come what may, the title of the last song points us in the right direction, right?. Also put with intent I’m sure … the song titles are alternating between English and German, just like following a policy or so … German efficiency, eh? Seriously now … there are bands I gradually have lost interest, since some repetiition in style and approach occured over the years. VESPERO obviously differ … every album sounds in another way somehow. Often accompanied by a trancy behaviour they have worked with native female vocalists for example, but now they are on another track. There’s a strong space jam appeal to state, which shows them close to Oresund Space Collective or the current Electric Orange style here and there. And subtle sax and violin input brings some variation to the general impression.

The groovy Underwater convinces me due to a very nice harmonic interplay of synths and space guitar. I can imagine a somewhat modern submarine boat incarnation – gliding underwater at first as usual, but then gathering speed, coming up crossing the surface, and finally blasting off into space. Another collaboration – I mean drums and percussion – is striking too here. Concerning the title Angriff, Ran, Versenken! this leaves me with mixed feelings, musically though the song is nominated for the album’s highlight on the contrary – expresses dramaturgy all through, it’s a very dynamic exemplar. I still do believe in artistic freedom by the way.

Some songs like Anpeilen! and Alarm … The Art Of Positive Thinking show a drum work tending more to a typical hypnotic respectively mechanical appearance anyhow. That said, for some reason this really might be the closest album to krautrock they’ve ever recorded so far. But – on the other hand – since VESPERO started with ‘Rito’ in 2007 such influences never could be denied for sure, are reflected in every album, sometimes more, sometimes less. Although thematically a bit problematic for me I won’t complain – music-wise this is another outstanding band output. If you still are not familiar with this crew, it’s about time.

Vespero is an instrumental band from Russia who generally specializes in space-prog. This is the first full album I have heard from them and it is obvious from the album title and the music itself here that there is a strong Krautrock influence on this album. I think the title translates to “U-Boats Welcome Here” and two of the song titles sound like made-up German words. Basically you get your guitar, keyboards and a rhythm section but also some guest musicians adding percussion, cello and saxophone to the mix. The music genrally reminds me of Ozric Tentacles but sometimes also of Hawkwind, with a good dose of motorik style hypnotic Krautrock of course. The music here is not very complex but rather rhythmic and hypnotic; it’s music you get into, not music you want to impress you.

“The Strangest Thing In The Ocean” opens the album in an almost Ozrics fashion. Eventually a groove is established. I like the percussion in this track, it adds a lot. Great spacey guitar soloing in this song. “Anpeilen!” is more in Hawkwind territory with its modified sax playing. Unlike Hawkwind there is no guitar riffs dominating this track. The guitar here mostly stays in the background adding texture. Some altered talking and/or laughing can be heard. The drumming becomes much more motorik and hypnotic as the song progresses. Later the drums keep a steady beat while additional percussion work gives the music an added urgency.

“Underwater” begins with some classic electronic prog sounds including some bird-like sounds done on synth. Gradually a beat on drums enters the scene and turns into another beat as sparse guitar notes join it. The guitar plays more notes faster and then eventually sort of solos as the music gets spacier and the cymbal work on the drumkit makes everything more hypnotic. As the guitar does its own thing, the drums kind of stop and then come back again with the main synth almost playing a melody. Some fast percussion and just a constant bass drum thudding as the guitar goes into some rockin’ tones. The drums play a beat again as the guitar does some great spacey soloing.

“Target Selection” has a beginning that reminds me of some industrial music. Dark and spacey. Gradually things get spacier and noisier for awhile. Some nice cello here. Drums eventually appear, sounding low in the mix on purpose. “Angriff, Ran, Versenken!” opens with a very hypnotic sequencer pattern. This track has a Ozrics-meets-Hawkwind vibe with some motorik Krautrock elements as well. I like the beat the drummer goes into after 5 minutes with the Ozric-like flute playing over top. The guitar playing gets more rockin’ and the rest of the instruments get more intense sounding. The guitar plays a sort of melody at one point.

“Alarm…The Art Of Positive Thinking” has a hypnotic 3-note sequencer pattern lay the foundation for the other instruments. Basically every song here starts out this way with the original sequencer getting buried in the mix until you forget all about it. The drumming here comes and goes and the guitar is generally in solo mode, but not for the whole song. The drumming gets almost jazzy at one point. Gets into a nice groove towards the end with some great wah-soloing on guitar. This album is great modern space-prog with Krautrock influences. It’s fairly consistent with no one track standing out. The sound and production is good and the playing is more than competent for what the music requires. My final verdict will be a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

“Un quadro concettuale composto da sei brani strumentali kraut-rock che si ispirano al futurismo russo del ventesimo secolo, l’underground musicale tedesco degli anni ’70, i moderni scrittori di fantascienza americani, così come i misteri del Grande Oceano non ancora completamente spiegato dal genere umano”, questa è la presentazione tanto suggestiva quanto pragmatica del quarto album dei russi Vespero fatta sul sito della loro casa discografica. In copertina, dei sommergibili sparsi che con una specie di radiografia presentano al loro interno scheletri di balena, come se la Natura fosse stata “meccanicizzata” sul modello previsto proprio dalle visioni letterarie futuriste.
È dal precedente album che lo si vuole declamare: i Vespero hanno virato verso il kraut. Ma a dir la verità, nell’immediato passato sembrava che venissero portati avanti gli schemi già pre-esistenti, ulteriormente migliorati. Qui le cose cambiano. Perché in effetti la band di Astrakhan pare puntare verso dei ritmi ripetitivi su cui far scorrere i synth, ricordando a tratti gli Amon Düül 2 o addirittura i Popol Vuh. A ciò bisogna però aggiungere lo space-rock che li ha sempre contraddistinti, facendo sì, cioè, che non sia mai stato possibile – nemmeno stavolta – definirli come i tanti cloni degli Ozric Tentacles, pur essendo evidenti i riferimenti alla band inglese. In questa ultima uscita, proprio per la ripetitività, sembra di essere più vicini agli ungheresi Korai Örom, con il rimando etnico comune ad entrambe le compagini. E poi c’è questo oceano abissale, terribilmente sconosciuto e quindi misterioso, che fa emergere tante paure…
Ormai l’ossatura di quello che era in origine un ensemble aperto a tanti cambi di formazione è ben consolidata ed il gruppo porta avanti le proprie idee con convinzione, forte dell’autostima accumulata negli anni; i fratelli Ivan ed Arkady Fedotov (rispettivamente batteria e basso) sono la spina dorsale di questo sound “spaziale” che per l’occasione serpeggia nelle profondità marine, con la chitarra di Alexander Kuzvolev che compare quasi senza che all’inizio la si noti, per poi nuovamente immergersi tra i sintetizzatori di Alexei Klabukov. Uno scorrere uniforme e allo stesso coinvolgente, come nell’iniziale “The strangest thing in the ocean”, dove davvero la mente crea chissà quale figura dai contorni scuri. In effetti i richiami a certe atmosfere non erano per nulla nuovi, basti pensare alla versione live di “Tower”, ma qui si insiste maggiormente su quello che pare essere un sorta di concept strumentale. Anche le percussioni dell’ospite Ilya Semyonov hanno il loro effetto in tutto l’album, per poi invertire i ruoli con Ivan Fedotov su “Anpeilen!”, brano alla lunga ossessivo che con l’arpeggiatore di Elena Bolyozorova e soprattutto il sax di Alexei Esin si riconduce ai primi lavori (forse i migliori) del sopra citato gruppo magiaro, senza dimenticare la fonte prima in assoluto: i Gong.
Il mistero si infittisce sempre più con “Underwater”, tra scandagli che misurano profondità infinite ed esplorazioni ignote, toccando il suo apice in “Target selection”, profondo psychedelic space-rockcon il sinistro violoncello di Vladimir Belov che quasi evoca qualche strana creatura sul fondale buio della fantasia. E visto che ormai l’ambientazione è stata del tutto consolidata, il sax torna per “Angriff, ran, versenken!”, forse il momento migliore, dove si tocca l’apice grazie all’incotro/scontro con il flauto di Arkady Fedotov ed il chitarrismo altamente penetrante di Kuzvolev. Chiusura con “ALARM… The art of positive thinking”, ancora con il violoncello che tesse trame su solidi tappeti di sequencer, andando avanti con un crescendo di grosso impatto.
Si vuole ribadire quanto detto fin qui tra le righe: questo quarto lavoro non possiede la medesima “agilità” delle altre prove ed è una scelta ben precisa. A qualcuno potrà non stare bene e magari la sensazione di stanchezza può essere anche oggettiva, ma sono i rischi che si corrono quando una band non vuole per forza fare album uguali l’uno all’altro. Occorre poi segnalare che esistono diverse edizioni di “Subkraut…”: oltre a quella di base che ha nel suo interno una mappa del fondale marino, ce n’è un’altra di circa una cinquantina di copie, la “Seebar edition”, con una confezione cartonata, mappa e tante foto. A ciò si aggiunge la versione in doppio vinile della Krauted Minds Records (su licenza R.A.I.G.) che presenta i 20 minuti inediti di “Liventure n. 8”.

For my money there are a scant few bands, instrumental or otherwise, that continue to push the sonic envelope further with each subsequent release as effectively as the Russian space rock outfit Vespero. Now four albums into their career, their latest opus entitled Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier is a concept disc of sorts that finds the band keeping the crux of their sound and many of their key musical ingredients firmly intact, and yet at the same time, it also see’s them continuing their relentless affinity for self discovery by carving out new paths in the search for those missing layers required to take them to the next level.

Visually, the so called standard edition of Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier is anything but, as it comes housed in a gorgeous cardboard folder /box that includes an underwater navigation map and features some absolutely exquisite artwork from Russian artist Zonder Zond. If you’re so inclined, and that is if they have any left, make sure to check out the special limited edition, which is completely off the charts.

Containing six instrumental compositions and clocking in at around an hour, Vespero once again thrive on guiding the listener through yet another one of their multi- dimensional, kaleidoscope journey’s through the cosmos, and also in this case the murky depths of uncharted oceans. Although comprised of six individual tracks, the music presented here is woven seamlessly together in the rich and dense warmth that can only be achieved through analog sources, not to mention it is also a welcome contrast from today’s music culture, which still favors pushing individual ‘tracks’ as opposed to the complete album listening experience. The shimmering atmospherics, heaping amount of synth washes and innovative guitar textures and effects are on full display throughout, as they mesh perfectly with the ever shifting rhythms and complex percussive patterns. Their 70’s inspired Krautrock approach is further complemented on a few tracks with the subtle addition of sax, flute and cello. When you put it all together it comes across as yet another masterpiece from these Russian pioneers.

What continues to set Vespero apart from many of their contemporaries operating in similar musical territory, is their continued desire to explore new sounds, without sacrificing any of the main ingredients (for lack of a better word) of their sound. With each new release comes the spontaneous and subconscious desire for growth and until they prove incapable of delivering on their promise, they will continue to offer us masterpieces like Subkraut: U-Boats Willkommen Hier.