GIANT BRAIN (Plume) CD
Big Chief still belong to one of my favourite bands, and sometimes I ask myself if they will ever release a new album or what the members are doing now. This album of GIANT BRAIN, which has been released from Small Stone Records in 2007, is the answer to my question. Well, it‘s not the complete answer to all my questions, but among the names of the line-up from this band (or project?) I have found Big Chief guitarist Phil Dürr. Other musicians here are the brothers Andy and Al Sutton, who have also invited a few other guests into the studio. The result of this gathering is ’Plume‘, that consists of five long instrumental tracks, what makes it to a real album with a running time of almost 50 minutes. It’s very curious that most of the song-titles are in German language, but it can be seen as a hint to GIANT BRAIN’s musical roots. They draw a lot of influences from bands like Can and Neu!, especially this straight hypnotizing grooves which are the foundation for most of the songs. Phil Dürr's guitar adds a space rock flavour to the songs, so that the music do remind me to Hawkwind at times, as well as all the other psychedelic sound f/x, which have been integrated here. Due to the fact that most of the songs are about the ten minutes mark without any break between them, it's like listening to a long session which never becomes boring or pointless. 'Plume' is a trippy and psychedelic experience, and despite the 60's and 70's quotations it's far away from being a total retro album. It's fascinating how a song like 'Die Festzeit' is growing with every further spin, not only because an organ enriches the song structure, while 'Krauter' kicks off like an early Suicide track due to it's mechanical rhythm, before it changes the texture more and more. Overall this album is a real positive surprise, which unfolds more and more details comparable with a look into a kaleidoscope. I think, that people who are more interested into heavy riffs could have their fun with 'Plume', too, and I hope we will hear more from GIANT BRAIN in the future. Exceptional!
(KK)