Labels: Thrill Jockey
Review by: james pacanowski
Second album from Eternal Tapestry in the space of a year, and not at all unwelcome; the first, ‘Dawn in 2 Dimensions’, was a bit of a monster. This second LP might even be the better of the two.
Kicking off immediately with a typically funky, Krautrock wig-out in ‘When I Was in Your Mind’, you suspect that it may be more of the same from Eternal Tapestry. However, things get a lot more interesting from that point. Chanelling the esoteric rhythms of German prog-rock also-rans Kraan and the late electronic experimentation of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, Eternal Tapestry launch into ‘Planetoid 127’ and from there the record really begins to take shape. Elements of great African blues artists like Ali Farka Touré and Boubacar Traoré emerge in songs like ‘Alone Against Tomorrow’ and the uncharacteristic closing track ‘Sand Into Rain’ (an Eternal Tapestry song with like, actual lyrics). However, when the band feel the need, they’re still able to bust out the cosmic rock jams, as they prove with ‘Apocalypse Troll’. Every now and again they throw you an ambient curveball as they do with ‘When Gravity Falls’. The overarching impression is one hinted at by the album title; a sense of having skipped through time and space, emerging in entirely different landscapes “” be it channelling the free jazz Afro-futurism of Pharoah Sanders in the aforementioned ‘Alone Against Tomorrow’ or the controlled, Rainer Werner Fassbinder evoking retro-futurism of ‘The Currents of Space.’ Yet, disjointed as it might seem from that description, the whole thing manages to feel fairly seamless.
Strong effort from a band I previously thought had already shown the best they had to offer this year. Check out both records if you haven’t already.