Kleistwahr — Winter/Music for Zeitgeist Fighters

Here’s another in a long line of superlative Kleistwahr releases from Fourth Dimension Records, this one collects up two previous albums by the Gary Mundy vehicle; if memory serves Winter was part of the amazing looking - but expensive - tape boxset put out by Helen Scarsdale Agency some years back, whilst Music for Zeitgeist Fighters was released on Nashazphone, on vinyl, in 2017. The two CDs come in a card wallet, with the album artworks on display, and the usual neat presentation that Fourth Dimension delivers. The CDs present each album respectively, and add some additional tracks, bringing each CD to over 70 minutes of music.  

The first album, Winter, is divided into four parts, with parts I and II joined, and III and IV joined to make two long tracks both around the twenty minute mark. ‘Winter Part I: We Sense It Through the Even Snow/Winter Part II: Rust Eats the Future’ begins with organ drones and twinkling keyboard notes, frankly the kind of thing you’d find on a Casio keyboard - and it’s great; there’s a genuine prettiness here but also a sense of cosmic movement, and approaching, submerged dread. An echoing dulcimer joins the fray, and after a while the track does indeed turn to darker moods, with spacey synth swoops accompanying the organ drones before noisy feedback - or electronics? - enter and smother the drones. The track cuts to more organ - possibly introducing ‘Part II’, but here they are more stately and weighty, melodically darker; again they are joined by noisier elements, a jittery distorted keyboard line that is further joined by a strong high pitched synth drone. The end of the track is announced with buried shouting, contrasting with the rippling electronic sounds that flutter through the section. ’Winter Part III: The Solstice Will Not Save Us/Winter Part IV: Everything We Loved Is Gone’ commences with a looping, bassy rhythm, and shimmering, distorted keyboards which soon overwhelm the loop; as the piece builds things become blurred and it becomes a glorious noise, and it’s hard to tell if sounds are distorted singing, or field recording loops, or… The track cuts to more quiet organ drone, this time more contemplative, and complimented by echoing noises and swells. Close-mic’ed percussive sounds appear, somewhat unexpectedly, and these rhythmic elements then dictate the piece; as the piece progresses it builds with a passage of what sounds like processed church bells or ambulance sirens, but underneath buried melodic themes play out; the track ends with loops filtered to shrillness before dissipating into looping unsettling ambience.

The second CD presents Music for Zeitgeist Fighters. ‘Music for Dead Dreams’ is just over twenty minutes long, and floats out a long expanse of murky, spacey, psyche drone; based around keyboards, feedback, and vocals - though as with much of this release you can’t always be certain about what you’re actually hearing - it builds up a strongly layered track that is noisy, but also melodic and melancholy. It’s a thick drone where elements rise and fall, separate and return; the vocalisations give it some agitation, and at points they do overwhelm the surrounding elements. The general atmosphere almost feels like a Godflesh (or Jesu) track mangled and washed out beyond recognition. ‘Music for Fucked Films’ starts off with vocal drones, layered and distant; these build into a moaning choir that gets smothered with reverberating lines that remind me of Cosey Fanni Tutti’s trumpet playing in Throbbing Gristle, and shrill, piercing whistling. This all dies down, revealing a section of organ drone, leading to perhaps the one weak point of the album, a passage of echoing ‘Casio piano-esque’ notes that doesn’t really go anywhere; however, the track picks up after that, ending in a noisy discordant blanket of organ and noise that is sometimes droney, sometimes chaotic; the ends ends proper with echoing, percussive hits.

Each CD is complimented with extra tracks: ‘alternate’ versions of Winter Parts I through III, and ‘early’ versions of the tracks from Music for Zeitgeist Fighters; truth be told given the nature of the music its hard to pick apart distinctive differences between these versions and the album versions, but it’s notable that structurally the versions are very similar - belying any criticism that the material is simple improvisations or churned out. Comparing the albums themselves, Winter has more sense of structure and dynamics, whereas Music… is more concentrated and immersive, but both are stunning; in fact, I was initially annoyed at the extra tracks: I’m the person who will always buy deluxe reissues with billions of extra tracks - demo’s, live versions, etc - but very often you realise that actually the original album was all you needed to hear, and that the extra tracks have diluted it. However, here, Kleistwahr have given you two truly great albums in one set, complimented by, essentially, different versions of those entire albums (the fourth part of Winter does not have an alternate version); they are different, but not in any way that radically changes the overall listening. Again, this is a magnificent release, and a bargain at that, collecting up two wonderful albums from a project that can do no wrong of recent. If you’re into noise, guitar psychedelia, or even shoegaze then this really is a no-brainer.