Escape Scene

brutalism in music

@aufgangb

release date: december

Aufgang B - Demo 4 - BAU001+

Acoustic, no-age krautrock from Berlin releasing on Glasgow label, Phase Group. 

The next release on Phase Group unearths a truly unique project that has existed as an outlier in the Berlin underground since 2002. 

A stage decked out with xylophones, tambourines, timpani, wooden percussion, two drum kits, a cello, harmonicas, saxophones and pieces of scrap metal. Eight unassuming musicians playing repetitive, trance-inducing phrases, at times serene, fragile and dream-like and at others wild, primitive and driving. This isn’t a scene you might associate with hazy nights out in Berlin but it’s what you’d find if you ended up at a Kulku show.

Kulku's music is a hard to define blend of percussive minimalism, folk, krautrock, post-punk and no wave, almost exclusively derived from acoustic sound sources. Their debut album ‘Fahren' presents this unique sound-identity that they have been crafting for the best part of two decades. 

The A-side presents 3 tracks of percussive propulsion, minimalist xylophone motifs and repetitive drums alongside monotone organ, dramatic narration and woodwind instruments moving in and out of dissonant howls and melodic improvisation. The B-side is devoted to lighter tones, beginning with the glockenspiel minimalism of ‘Unterm Himmel’ and rounding the record out with trance inducing drone of the album’s title track which builds up into a cacophony of snare drums, dissonant accordion and melodica before fading out like dream.

All songs composed and recorded in Berlin by Wenzlovar, Gatis Silde, Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer, Johanna Riska, Cornelius Onitsch, Alexander Samuels and Maxfield Gassmann

Artwork by Andrija Čugurović

‘Fahren’ is released in August 2022 on Phase Group Records. Distribution via Rubadub.

Fahren

Kulku - Fahren (Preview)

Sad At Sea

This week's 8:30 Throwback takes expanded listen to Canadian synth pioneer and concept album superfan Mort Garson. That, plus a musical mood that oscillates between summoning spring, and living with the last gasps of winter. All par for the course on your favourite weekly slab of off-beat easy listening, The AM on CJSW.

The AM: March 27, 2023

Blauer Montag- ... In den Wald

The first Asian shoegaze compilation in the world that Quince Records planned. It features together sixteen bands from Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Korea, China and Hong Kong. The compilation is including only for the new song, unreleased version and re-recorded tracks.

Blauer Montag- ... In den Wald

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