Durch Die Wüste

Late blast of Krautrocking fervour, but will the real Roedelius please stand up?.
 
A disparate solo debut that's actually mostly a duet with producer Conny Plank at the mixing desk. Here Roedelius seems more concerned to settle his accounts with krautrock than to assert his own voice. The sandstorm noise FX of the title track sleepwalks into a Plank-assisted juddering beats and squealing pitches. "Am Rockzipfel" is all wheezing multi-tracked guitars with delicate Satie-esque piano notes bobbing atop (pure Aphex Twin when he was still in short pants). "Mr Livingstone, I Presume" hacks through a jungle of popping and echo-laden drum boxes before stumbling into epiphanic synth strings. Yet it is on the two quietest tracks hat Roedelius unveils his future solo signature; the gently cascading arpeggios of "Johanneslust" and "Glaubersalz" - multi-tracked baroque dances for the 20th century, and setting the tone for his soon-to-be glorious Selbstportrait series.

Source: Stephen Iliffe