Flieg Vogel Fliege

The fifth volume of the prolific Selbstportrait series

Like being confronted with a skipload of Status Quo or Muslimgauze albums, it becomes progressively harder to write anything new about each successive Selbstportrait volume, and this was the fifth of a prolific 1980-81 period. And yet those in thrall to Roedelius' ineffably looped analogue synths, this is arguably the most criminally neglected album in his whole oeuvre - and is still awaiting its first CD release (Bureau Buskies are due to plug the gap some three decades after its original release). This is the first album to be adorned by his (then 8-year old) daughter Rosa's artwork, and the contents are similarly home-spun - ten fizzing vignettes of Farfisa organ that often leave you wondering if there's anything going on within their repetitive cyclical motifs only to finally seduce you with their sublime inner motion and subtly evolving tonal colours. The odd one out here is the final ten-minutes Wanderung, a magnficent Korg apparition that hangs like early morning mist over your speakers.

Source: Stephen Iliffe