The Answer Is In The Beat

Günter Schickert: Überfällig (Sky Records, 1979/reissued Bureau B, 2012) + Samtvogel (self-released, 1974/reissued Important Records, 2013)

December 1, 2013 at 8:40 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

So one of my new year’s resolutions for 2013 was to buy more Krautrock vinyl, because there’s so many reissue labels putting out vintage Krautrock on vinyl and I just want to collect as much as I can because so much of it is incredible. Other than all the Neu! albums and a few other things, I didn’t get around to buying that much this year, but once I finally get around to listening to everything I got this year (and, uh, last year) that’s just been sitting around my room, I’ll try and get some more. But one of the main reasons I wanted to get really into this music was because I heard someone on WFMU play Günter Schickert’s “Puls” when this reissue of Überfällig came out, and I just had to hear more. Just a really stunning web of minimalist guitars and drums, which sounds precise and sequenced but it’s not electronic at all. Effortlessly hypnotic, doesn’t seem nearly as long as its 15 minute runtime. “In Der Zeit” is a much more down-to-earth slow acoustic folk song with rushing water sounds, but “Apricot Brandy II” and “Wanderer” return to the panned, precise guitar and drums of “Puls”, but not as fast and forward, more of a slow-burning rhythm, with lots of rim-clicking sounds. Both sound kind of lost and desperate in some ways, with “Apricot Brandy” possibly being in a drunken haze, and “Wanderer” lost and worried. The album ends as it begins with dripping and splashing water sounds.

Earlier this year, Important Records reissued Schickert’s 1974 debut Samtvogel on CD for the first time ever. The album was originally self-released, then issued by Brain a few times, reissued by Spanish label Wah Wah Supersonic Sounds in 2010, and is now finally available domestically on CD. The first version of “Apricot Brandy” seems like an embryonic version of its sequel, not really settling into a rhythm, just consisting of rippling guitar and vocals. The remaining two tracks on the album are expansive suites of guitar looping and vocals, creating furious clusters and patterns with mountains of echo and delay, and forging hypnotic rhythms without the use of any percussive instruments. This year a Russian label also released a private session Schickert did with Klaus Schulze in 1975, which already seems super limited and hard to find. Bureau B also just reissued his 1983 cassette Kinder In Der Wildnis on CD and vinyl, so I’m sure I’ll get around to buying that at some point. But Schickert seems like somewhat of an unheralded visionary, I’m glad a bunch of his recordings are getting out there and reissued.