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Electric Mud — Lost Places
(Bandcamp no#, 2022, DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2022-06-08

Lost Places Cover art

On February 1st, Electric Mud released their new album The Inner World Outside, featuring an expanded five-piece lineup and a whole new outlook on the way they make music, definitely a new lease on life for the German duo. A mere ten weeks later they released yet another album, Lost Places, but one might be led to believe that the six songs contained therein are of older vintage — the only clue is the album’s subtitle: Outtakes & Drafts; no other recording dates or personnel listings are given, though one might be inclined to suspect that these outtakes and drafts are from the post-Deconstruction of Light period, perhaps ideas that were hatched and worked on for one or more albums that were never completed. The album’s closing track, “Durance — First Draft,” is an alternate take of a song from their Quiet Days on Earth. In fact, though, this does not sound like an album of leftovers — the six tunes represent yet another excellent facet of the band’s persona. Right out of the gate we have “Metamorph Diaries,” a tune that introduces itself with a mystical sounding ring, but quickly gets off the ground with a repeating bass sequence and an absolutely searing guitar solo. Four minutes later we are at the threshold of “Last File of the Digital Nomad,” an interesting soundtrack-like piece that cycles through a number of ideas along its brief three-minute journey, until just before the end where it sounds like the groove is broken and the tape is getting chewed. “Giant Kraut Chromosome” offers a twelve-minute electronic-underpinned mood piece, parts of which may occasionally remind the listener of early Neu! or Harmonia, a drifty, spacy beast with floating bass solo that eventually gives way to a sequenced groove and high soaring synths. “Empress of the Last Days” opens with a grand symphonic entrance, then walks the listener down a dark gentle spiral where sonic oddities, curious melodies and experimental sounds punctuate the path. Even darker is the intro to the oddly titled nine-minute epic “A Digital Phantom: The Plus in 0+1,” eventually leading to a mysterious opening for a wandering cyclical keyboard melody. All taken, Lost Places delivers a solid collection of mysterious tunes that offer a different perspective on this excellent German band.

Filed under: New releases, 2022 releases

Related artist(s): Electric Mud

More info
http://electricmud.bandcamp.com/album/lost-places

 

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