Melanchoholics s/t

This is a six song CD, from a project I can't seem to find any information on except for live shows they have played in their native Germany. They pull together numerous elements; traditional instruments, ambient and noise textures, field recordings and sampling etc. "Lysergic Soldier" opens with a slow bass guitar rhythm and ambient drone, heavily processed, computer like spoken passages come in and the bass line is complimented with additional electronics and a very minimal surf guitar line. It's loose and lingering despite having the bass as a concrete core, with a unique overall feel to the track. "
Piss Stain In The Lobby" uses a distorted and reverb drenched chord progression as foundation, to this there are samples and clean guitar strums, and little melodies. The rambling of the spoken sample mixed with the dirge like tone of the music and the clear melody give this a sinister feel. Sinister in the way that you can see someone becoming slowly unraveled behind their eyes, but not outwardly. Crumbling low end distortions and subtle higher frequencies move through the mix as well.
"Desert's Harvest" is again rooted on a simple bass line and selective guitar accents and melody augmentation, muddied textures run beneath and loops emerge in time with the rhythm of the bass. There are clanks and clunks of field recordings and found objects that appear in small doses as well to provide some nice subtle details. "Noonday Demons" begins with buzzing electronics, and clanks as a vibrato heavy guitar melody emerges to form the foundation. Additional clean guitar over the top of this provides a secondary melody and the experimental elements and shifting electronics fill in the empty spaces.
 "Narcopolis" begins with news samples from the 9/11 attacks and a grinding slow loop. The clean guitars come into meet these elements accented with solitary distorted chord accents, and squirming, phased electronics swishing through the background. As the clean melody falls away, and environmental din emerges along with some "man on the street" commentary samples from that day, and the distorted side of the instrumentation gains prominence.
The final piece is entitled "Nuke" and uses a simple distorted electro beat along with a fuzzy guitar melody and slowed and obscure sampling of voices moaning in the distance. This album as really impressed me a lot. The feel is one of lamentation and dreariness as it trudges along. Yet there is a warmth and smokiness to it as well due in large part to that surf/spaghetti western influenced clean guitar tone. This doesn't really sound like anything I have heard before, it's ambient and droning, but has so much character and beauty to it's simplistic structures and melodies and is fleshed out well with all of the subtle textures and voices and what not. Really outstanding.
Scott

Lasst euch umarmen, schwarzgallige Brüder im Zeichen Saturns. Das ist der ultimative miese Trip durch die finsteren Kanäle von 'Narcopolis'.
Debro-Gitarre, Debro-Bass, Debro-Gemurmel und Lo-Fi-Electronics ergießen sich als zähes Fuzz-Gewaber mit fiesen Echokaskaden aus einem Leck geschlagenen
Bewusstsein, das unter der im Smog verblutenden Sonne auf Sand gelaufen ist. Vor Jahren schon. Das hinter den Horizont geschrumpfte Meer, unser kleines Herdenglück, ist nur noch eine stinkende Erinnerung.
Den Tag beherrschen die 'Noonday Demons'. Erst nachts schwärmen die 'Lysergic Soldiers' aus, zitternde Schatten, eher Beute als Jäger, bewaffnet nur mit ihrer Gier. Die 'Piss Stains in the Lobby' verraten, wo sie auf ihre Connection gewartet haben, lange und vergeblich. Welcome im dystopischen Wasteland, enjoy your Holiday in Mogadishu. Natürlich bleibt diese Klangwelt trotz aller angekränkelter Frequenzen, aller Drogen- und Psychotripäquivalenzen eine harmlose mollgetönte Idylle.
Jeder Newsflash, jeder Zeitungsreport von den Kreuzzugs- und Elendsfronten oder auch vom schamlosen Umbau des Sozialstaates in eine legalisierte Freibeuterzone schüttelt einen mit stärkerer Übelkeit und bittererer Ohnmacht. Aber keine Musik könnte damit konkurrieren. Auch sollte man den Melancholiker nicht mit dem Phlegmatiker verwechseln. Trübsinn ist nicht zwangsläufig der Schuhlöffel in die bequeme Passivität. Wenn die Melanchoholics sich als vom Trübsal Berauschte bekennen, dann hat das auch eine (selbst)kritische Spitze. Mit dem Einblenden von Broadcaststimmen von 9/11 liefern sie auch selbst den V-Effekt gegen das Sich-Einmummeln im Dröhnkokon. 
R. Dittmann