More welcome re-issues from Peaceville here and I was stoked to receive these as had not heard them for a long time. Neptune Towers is the work of Fenriz of Darkthrone and shows him experimenting in a very different style than we are used to. This is the work of someone spurred on by dreams of space and a fascination that grew up from a boyhood dream. If Fenriz had gone into a career of a scientist and been a bit of a hippy this music would have been a perfect art form for him. He may have sewed patches on the elbows of his jumpers rather than on denim and leather and he may have watched the stars rather than watching out for a band of the week. As he states in the informative album notes of Caravans, this came from a time when he was growing up and apart from space a time when he was discovering the likes of Jean Michel Jarre and other spaced out music. The finding of Klaus Sculze’s Timewind was a bit of an epiphany and armed with a synthesizer paid for from Darkthrone royalties he decided to step back to the 70’s and go in search for space himself.
The journey begins with two planetary sized tracks which make up the whole of ‘Caravans To Planet Algol.’ The title track itself meanders in an ambient vacuum and it owes more to the likes of strange sounds emanating from the likes of the Radiophonic Workshop than anything particularly structured. It is the sound of a boffin playing around and seeing what noises they can create whilst leaving things recording it. It strikes as being done in one take and if it were not recorded it could never be repeated. Luckily it was not going to ever be attempted live. You can easily pick up a Krautrock feel from it and the droning somewhat repetitive rhythms and frequencies are calming on the whole but occasionally hint at danger when the effects become more strident. It is brain music and in a sense it is also somewhat brainy, you just cannot help but think you are in some crazed boffins lair when listening to it. The caravans trail across the solar system on a never ending search, perhaps like those on Moonbase Alpha looking for another planet to inhabit when earth is destroyed (yes I too was a 70’s sci-fi nerd). The liner notes kind of tell you everything you need to know that these albums are designed to be heard alone and to be heard on large black stereos. Yes you would be a real tool to pick these up on a digital release. The synthesized string sounds flow sinuously around me and the whooshing and pulsing noises increase. We are almost at the end of this 24 minute search and are preparing for ‘The Arrival At Empire Algol.’ and it really sounds like touchdown has been achieved and a springy one too judging by the sounds ponging (yep that word fits) coming from my speakers. I have to laugh as some of the noises also remind me of cult kids classic (sod the kids remark could happily watch again for hours) The Clangers! You begin to think by now that there could be some sort of structure to this, there is a definite progression in the sounds that are harmonically altering states. Perhaps they are somewhat on the alien side but that is surely the intention. The one thing that really does get to me though is that although this originally came out in 1994 it sounds like it could have been transmitted 20 years early.
The word transmitted is in fact perfect which leads on to 1995 follow up ‘Transmissions From Planet Algol.’ We assume our interplanetary travelers are now more settled and so is Fenriz armed with an accompanying borrowed Casio to add to the £1000 piece of kit he was already using. We again have to similarly sized opuses and start with First Communion. Mode: Direct. Perhaps like all good colonists from a Robert A Heinlein novel (perfect reading material to this) religion is being formed. The sound here is more pulsating with large echoing emphasis being put on the sonic shapes swooshing out the (big black) speakers. You can imagine Fenriz with new toys thinking “what does this switch do, ooh reverb let’s have some of that” and grinning like a loon. A sudden organ trill is like a summoning to church and adds to things with a certain reverence. Oops I just zoned out there, which is one of those things you will do listening to this. Luckily I was suddenly bounced back to reality just in time to catch the drool as we move into a toccata of Bach like proportions. It is austere and foreboding and has that spark of danger about it. Solar surfing sounds take up the harmony now flowing and elongating away again harking back to some strange film or series from the 70’s. They warp, mutate and by now your head is probably doing the same and you are having flashbacks to that Hawkwind concert that involved brown microdots. As the melody takes on form there is no denying the influence of synth greats Kraftwerk at play here, perfect! Then we move to a segment that reminds more of the likes of Tangerine Dream another band who are referenced as being an inspiration. The keyboard melody is well played, quirky and memorable but downs tools as things move towards conclusion and final part of the quartet of tracks; ‘To Cold Void Desolation’ If on a parallel universe there was a hit single to be taken it would be this one even at 12 minutes as the opening part is the most focused and linear we have heard with great Kraftwerkian and early Human League sounding synth play. It’s not to last as effects again take over but whilst it lasts it is truly magical. Before we are done some Vangelis sounding Blade Runner worship also takes form and all boxes have certainly being ticked.
Fenriz mentions needing a couple of cigarettes to come back down to earth after recording these, listening to them your brain is going to certainly need a jolt but we are not quite finished yet. There was an unreleased third album that may well have come out if Fenriz had not been so tripped out perhaps. We have four parts to this here for the first time ever; I am assuming excerpts from the finished pieces. They have left me wanting to hear the whole thing so I am not reviewing here but shouting out that Peaceville has a word and gets this released. I am sure there is a market for it even if they just canvas it to science teachers and nerds like me.
Mission Ends!
(7/10 both albums Pete Woods)
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