Bohren & Der Club of Gore — Geisterfaust

You know the feeling when you just wake up and for a moment, you’re not sure where you are? For a moment everything seems half formed, sluggish and unreal. This is much like the feeling of Bohren & Der Club of Gore’s new album.

Instead of following the path of their last album Black Earth, with its wonderful deep, bass slow jazz, heavy with atmospheric sax. They have striped things down father; the sax is gone, except briefly on the last track. The tracks mainly consist of Rhodes Piano, bass and drums. They could have taken the easy route and done another Black Earth but instead they’ve taken a risk, a risk that pays off.

The album starts off with the epic Zeigefinger, which crawls along at such a slow pace, stopping often in its tracks. Making wonderful use of silence and anticipation. The Rhodes piano weaving a haunting melody. This brings to mind a wonderful feeling of isolation. With a vibe similar to Ennio  Morricone’s soundtrack for John Carpenter’s The Thing. The track stretching out before you like foreboding darkening landscape, which you slowly meld into.

Another highlight is Ringfinger, with its doomy bass that just about moves. With a feeling akin to a slow Khanate track reborn into a decaying dance hall. As a hunched backed female dances slowly across the floor, her hands tightly clenched.But really the album works best as one long murky trip, as it sucks you father into its half-light world.

The amazing thing though, is the pure slowness of the playing. I recall reading an interview with the band saying it took really concentration to play the slow speeds of Black earth, but this is twice as slow. But the melodies are still there, even when it shuffles into ominous silence, mid track. They pick the melody back up again. The album seems to slowly pick up pace as it swims though the blackness of its running time. Maybe from a dying crawl, to a slow shuffle. With out doubt one of this year’s nocturnal highlight