MySpace a place for friends

Ah now this is soothing, one track single but hey, twenty-eight minutes, almost twenty-nine and not a moment too long (fine artwork as well). Simple, soothing, slow building, washing kraut/prog that starts off in a slow, delicate, minimal way. Slow driving, takes a few minutes to reach the first soothing key change (and when we do get there it's hardly noticed). Just sit back and relax like you do with your very best Neu! tunes. I don't know why this is so good, there's nothing that revolutionary going on and it shouldn't really be so brilliant, we hear lots of things like this, but hey, for some wonderful reason this just hits the spot and reaches the places the others don't. It's just beautifully dynamic and pretty much perfect. Einstellung pick you up and wash you away with their soothing, warm, slow-building sound - this is brilliant and beautiful.

Somewhere around 13 minutes and 43 seconds there's a subtly dramatic gear shift that lifts you up even further, ah yes this is right in every way. Einstellung are from Birmingham, they're Steve Hough (ex Godflesh/Cable Regime), Simon Rider (ex Grover), Andy Parker (ex Sally/Katastrophy Wife) and Andy Smart (who doesn't own up here to any previous form). Incidentally, examination of the small prints reveals some kind of involvement from Vanessa White from the much loved and much missed Twist. Just go get it and let it take you where it wants you to go - highly, highly recommended, one of the singles of the year.

The Sunday Experience:

Of Einstellung we have absolutely no information about other than they have a debut full length entitled Wings of Desire out soon on Chatterbox. Sleep easy Mr Parker featured here is in its edited form - the full version due out on Bearos any day now is a bruising 28 minute affair. Even in its shortened form this brute cuts a neat line in no nonsense krautrock boogie the type of which that Mugstar aficionados will swoon in the company of - think of an almighty Hawkwind at their peak bitten by the groove bug - ruddy awesome.

Blogspot.com:

As a general rule we don't memorialize here every single move of the bigger names in music, as there are enough more widely read publications -- and enough wannabes that will recycle their coverage -- around the blogosphere doing that sort of thing. So instead we endeavor to offer a different perspective, focusing on either acts to which we have pledged our undying love or to up-and-comers who distinguish themselves in a way meaningful to us. Two of the better ways for a band to gain our attention is to share a unique vision (a certain Ted Minsky record jumps to mind) or to offer something really outside the proverbial box. And so it was that we read with great interest about a band from the UK that released a 28-minute, limited edition single as their debut, performed it once live and then vowed to perform it never again. It's a move that takes the fetishism of limited edition singles and extends it into the live forum. Not a completely new idea, as every farewell tour from The Who and The Stones has at least partially built its success on a possibility of finality.

Anyway, we received email earlier this month from a chap representing the interests of Birmingham, England's -- yes, Birmingham *again* -- quasi-kraut-psych act Einstellung. It's true, the act had recently issued a 28-minute single, "Sleep Easy Mr. Parker." The track melds NEU!'s organic drone with some early Gilmour-era Pink Floyd, specifically the pastoral psych sounds evoked by that guitar legend's slide guitar work. When Einstellung's "Sleep Easy Mr. Parker" builds to its most tumultuous sections it reminds us of Dead Meadow. We've been given permission to post an edit of the track below (incidentally, you won't hear the slide guitar work in the edit, as it occurs in different sections of the track), and atop this item is a photo from the recent live debut and final live performance of the track. In addition to the edit of "...Mr. Parker," we're also offering the first track from Einstellung's full-length Wings Of Desire, which was released in September on Australia's Chatterbox Records. Dig it.

Lost Music:

Einstellung come from the Midlands. Birmingham, to be precise. But you'd never know it. Unless this Birmingham is located in industrial Germany. See, Einstellung have more than a penchant for the 70s krautrock sound. 'Sleep Easy Mr Parker' is a one track single. It's also a deeply hypnotic piece of Krautrock. You don't feel short changed by the one track though as it weaves it's way into your brain over the course of 28 minutes. It's a beautiful piece of music, calling heavily on Neu! and to a lesser extent Kraftwerk for it's influences.

The title of this piece of music, song just doesn't seem like the right word, is dedicated to one of the band's guitarist's father who passed away shortly before the recording. The CD comes packaged in a lavish fold out sleeve that depicts the remote Scottish isle of Jura, where Mr Parker's ashes were scattered. Back to the music, and let's be honest, it's the music that has got me here; the ebb and flow and swells of sound that earmark this as a rather grand piece of music. Like I said, it's a rather wonderful slab of music. As you pass the 14 minute mark the sonic assault of the guitars crashes in at full tilt. I'd imagine this would be powerful in a live environment. It's not often a song can hold my attention for 28 minutes. Einstellung manage this with ease. I am no aficionado on German Krautrock of the 1970s but from what I know 'Sleep Easy Mr Parker' would slot in with some of the best moments.