EXPLOSIVE 1972 ? STEAMHAMMER ? KRAUTROCK PSYCH PROG

$

67

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Rare original                                 

1972 Hard & Heavy Psyched-out Spacerock                           

on the legendary Krautrock Green "BRAIN" label                      

       STEAMHAMMER

               SPEECH

                  ... GERMANY ~ GREEN BRAIN - 1009 

Rare and righteously sought, 1972 first pressing on the legendary GREEN BRAIN label...from the pionnering German "KRAUTROCK" days....

Steamhammer's SPEECH contains much wicked heavy rock with pummelling grooves, bearing echoes of both the rhythmic sensibilities of early Captain Beyond, but sounding overall more like Captain Beyond-meets-Three Man Army in an early Ash Ra Tempel space voyage.
 

‘Speech’ contains just three long tracks, and is progressive (psych) rock but very much of the underground variety. It stretches out into dark space and at times hits metal territory in a unique way that blows us away each and every time. Much of it sounds as though played out over some remote, icy Nordic waste under ageless permanent night.

Side 1 consist of just one track, the vast chasm of aching melancholy, pain and cosmic mourning that is ‘Penumbra’ [22:42], broken up into FIVE parts – ‘Entrance’, ‘Battlements’, ‘Passage to Remorse’, ‘Sightless Substance’ and ‘Mortal Thought’. It begins with solemn and ominous bowed cello intonations matched melodically by wordless vocals and underscored with a subtle drone from a resonant cello string. Actually, it might just be reverbed guitar scraped with a bow, and bowed bass doing the lower drone. It’s clear from the start that this is going to be a much different journey, and this unsettling gothic mood feels almost like having a tea party in a crypt with several animated corpses. In fact, it wouldn’t sound out of place in an appropriate Dario Argento flick. The tea party is shattered around the 3:30 mark by a synth-like drone fading in, the cello-substitute drones to a big distorted climax and guitars, bass and drums all kick into an instant galloping groove, rocking mean, lean and technical like a less-heavy Three Man Army stomper, crazed on crystal meth and ditching the blues for some agitated progressive hard rock. They’re riding along like the horsemen of the apocalypse, minus one, but made up for with the overdubbed lead guitar that blazes away with embellishments from speaker to speaker, before all crash down on one note that rings out, and it’s all solemn musical pronouncements again. We’re in the hall of the mountain king, as a regal but dark sparse riff reverberates with sombre spaciousness over some of the few vocals on the album. One might understand most of the lyrics but can’t figure out what he’s singing about – regardless, it’s all fairly solemn, fantasy-laden and devoid of future hope. The drums are crashing and resounding almost like gongs in some huge, sacred place of stone. Several minutes of this and another hard, complex riff kicks in, still with drums rolling and punctuating in their inner galaxy of reverb, and the guitar takes on a weird, spacey garbled tone as it claws out its sinister riff, which all sounds like some dark classical work for a small chamber ensemble, but played with rock instruments. A couple of minutes later it slows down, leading to a mind-enveloping gong crash, the wake of which opens out into deep space central, sounds resounding as far as the ear can see. Out of the void comes a mellow, exploratory groove carried by meandering bass and free-flowing, lyrical guitar work, the drums tinkering and rolling beneath holding it all up like a twinkling belt of stars. It all has the feel of some inspired three-piece West Coast acid rock band jamming themselves into the cosmos, somewhat like later Agitation Free. The drums push up the strength of the whole groove now, riding the toms and the cymbals simultaneously and lifting it all up closer to the sun without changing the pace. Hmmm, maybe more like Ash Ra Tempel now, and/or some highlight from the first Hawkwind album... Out of nowhere the guitar starts plucking the form of a very cool riff out of the passing clusters of sound, but it disappears almost immediately before the whole groove vanishes and a beautifully cosmic space opens out, created entirely by gorgeously reverbed and subtly echoed dual-tracked guitar, all faded-in strokes of glistening manna, angelically beautiful, and you feel like you’re standing awestruck in some glowingly whiter-than-white room on board a spacecraft just beyond the edge of the known universe. A minute or two and this again fades, and a massive oppressive groove enters, driven by a wicked repeated fuzz bass riff, sliding up and down like a striding dinosaur, and that very cool riff from before re-enters, here perfectly at home riding the bass and drums like they were just waiting for it, but nonetheless weeping and mourning like an already-dead soul that just won’t give up hope. Anguished vocals enter for the last time, crying out for some kind of relief from the confusion and sadness, the groove starts pounding along monstrously, before huge distorted clarion calls of guitar grind out periodically over the top of it all as tormented but defiant sheets of sound, heralding a signal to the gods beyond that these humans will not lie down and die without a fight. It’s all so heavy, but there’s nary a power chord in sight, nor any riffs of great leadenness – it’s all produced by that enormous bass and the overall oppressive vibe and relentless rhythmic drive laid down by the collective, somewhat like Sweet Slag, if you’ve had the pleasure of hearing them. After charging straight up to the battlements at Valhalla, the massive, imposing gates creak open with spaced guitar sounds echoing and scraping through your weary mind before it fades away and you can sleep and gather strength for a few seconds before turning the record over.

‘Telegram’ [12:00], opening side 2, fades in with an unsettling rising tone over a humming drone like some mundane machinery on space deck 8, before a big ‘whoooooshhh!’ sweeps out and whacks you between the eyes with a strange, malevolent prog-metal riff matrix, guitar grinding away like a meshwork of intersecting blades, bass sliding up and down scarred ravines like a lupine predator. A fiddly change comes with notes flying and locking together before that gong from space hits again, dissolving all into blissful dreams of starry night, as a gentle guitar melody is plucked, floating sweetly before being interrupted by great reverbing gong strokes and segments of the soul-eating riffage from earlier. Then the beauty is banished altogether as guitars, bass and drums kick back in with a vengeance, slicing out a savage grind of a riff that digs tunnels through mountainsides, and indeed the king who hangs out in that mountain hall is back and pissed, stomping portentously between bars like the giant beast he is, before a voice plaintively moans “it’s under control...” and the riff exits stage left, with only the funereal ceremonial beat of the king’s kettle drum and wordless vocals chanting like Gregorian monks at a way-serious ceremonial do. No laughing in here, chum. As they finish their thing, guitar and bass emerge with a quiet, complex mediaeval riff, soon joined by clattering military drums. This gives way to a spacey segment of knob-fading-in heavenly guitar strokes, bass and percussion meandering in their now regained consciousness, before all coalesce and build to a jittery peak, then BAM, re-enter the serious riffage, now heavier and more furious than before, and more limber from the brief rest, but keeping just enough behind to make it tense and thrilling, before leaping on the fleeing being and tearing it asunder as everything rolls to a close.
‘For Against’ [10:58] begins with a complex flurry of notes, bass and guitar matching each other at each step, with a second guitar intermeshing but not copying the others. After building to nearly mind-boggling levels of inter-coordination they flow into a kind of funky sub-Santana groove of the sort that seems destined to lead shortly into a drum solo, which of course it does after a bit of complex progressive noodling. It’s good as drum solos go, and Mick Bradley here definitely shows his worth as a talented progressive rock-worthy drummer, but yes, it is a battering solo for nearly 8 minutes, book-ended by instrumental segments of complex riffing and closing in a spacey swirl. Regardless, the album remains a classic for the previous two tracks alone, which fortunately make up over 3/4 of the whole record.

                                             Side I

1. Penumbra  (22:34)

Side II

2. Telegram
3. For Against (23:46)

CONDITION: The cover fragile gatefold cover is laminated, VG++ with no problems other than a little use and light crease at top right corner, only light, not bad. The seams are solid, no bends, no writing...looks VERY collectible...

The vinyl has the original shiny luster on both sides, "EX" (excellent) one short soft scuff is all (not audible) ... overall enjoyable = the album reflects killer hardpsych with interludes of spacy overtones...

The green BRAIN labels are both clean...

                keeper copy!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for more & more of similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record