Sounds Of New Soma ‎– Live At Studio Helmtown

Tonzonen Records (TON085)

I guess you can say that the appearance of this limited (just 200 copies on a very cool blue with black dust vinyl!) LP is one of the GOOD things the COVID-19 has brought us. Since live gigs were banned this German psychedelic, experimental kraut/ambient unit did a live stream gig in a studio for YouTube. The first part of this gig (around 35 min) was already released digitally on the band's Bandcamp site in April and now the rest of it (44 plus min) is out on vinyl. If you (like myself...) are sad that the whole gig was not released on 2LP you can always try to locate a copy of a tape release that have them both! This is even rarer with just 100 copies though.

Anyway, let's focus on this actual release/gig for a while. The line-up was this time just the core duo of Alex Djelassi and Dirk Raupach so no live drums for example. This LP includes one, massive cosmic ambient jam edited for the two LP sides as "First Mushroom" and "Second Mushroom". The sound quality is superb and I love the vibe these guys cancreate with just electric guitar, synthesizers, sequencers, keybords and drum machines! You will be transported to a mysterious, colourful and weird plane of existence once again. The first ten or so minutes are just peaceful, atmospheric floating until the drum machine kicks in. I get some Tangerine Dream vibes along the way but the music is still very original and highly entertaining and interesting. You really get carried away with it and just can't stop listening... Very addictive! There is another totally ambient phase again before the rather modern sounding beat gets added on the B-side. I like the organ sounding drone. Towards the end they go through some weird, very hypnotic sonic scenery... Phew! What can I say, another killer album by the superb SONS, get it while you can!

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