II really feels as if it has no time for the listener: but in a good, healthy, no baggage way, you ken?
II really feels as if it has no time for the listener: but in a good, healthy, no baggage way, you ken?
A great amalgam of thundering drums, thrashy guitar and a mile high attitude; II is not really for the faint hearted – though the record does work (like Ash Ra Tempel’s debut) as a meditational listen at low noise levels. The record’s beginning, Intro/SP, is a particularly brutal and frenetic passage of noise. It doesn’t really leave the listener in any doubt as to the group’s intentions. I would venture to suggest the music is created very much in the spirit of a Rhys Chatham record, or a harshly metallic take on an early Amon Duul 2 wig out: there’s a giddiness and exuberance about the whole thing that makes it one of those records that you can play over and over again if you’re I the mood for uninhibited noise.
There are passages that are quite theatrical, not to say camp: II often has a feel of an incredibly corny cop TV show soundtrack, especially when a track brakes down for a breather or is being “set up” like on the exhausting (and exhaustive) DDB; or on the marvellous racket that goes by the name of N6. And there are chops and changes in pace, texture and rhythm aplenty, enforcing the driven nature of the music. II really feels as if it has no time for the listener: but in a good, healthy, no baggage way, you ken?
I love this record and heartily recommend it to one and all.