THE LIVING ROOM (Times Like Lakes) CD
Some bands sound so tender and lovely that one can mutate into a hippie while listening to their music. In this case it is the German sextet THE LIVING ROOM that give me the strong feeling as if we still live in 1967. Well, today we live in an era where it is fashionable to resuscitate the music of the 1960's and 1970's. However, THE LIVING ROOM isn't a new band and 'Time Like Lakes' has been recorded in 1997 so one cannot blame the band for jumping on the bandwagon. Due to the fact that this album was only released as a limited private vinyl pressing, which is now very difficult to find, Trip In Time/Word In Sound have done a fine job in re-releasing this rare album. As mentioned previously, the music is a soft blend of psychedelic pop, rock and folk themes with slight krautrock influences. Particularly the dreamy female vocals make sure that their music sounds very elfish.
The complete execution is absolutely authentic, not only because THE LIVING ROOM had used vintage equipment and effects such as Farfisa-organ, sitar, flute, fuzz and echoing guitars. They've also integrated the eccentricity and weirdness of bands like Hölderlins Traum and Amon Düül 2 into their music. The sound of the flutes wakes up recollections of times when one was forced to play the recorder or I was thinking of my last visit at the Christmas market. Every now and again the music sounds a little lopsided and crooked but that conserve all the charm of the period of krautrock. Some of you may find it annoying, but it is necessary for this sort of music. The CD, well remastered, comes in a limited digipack cover, with four bonus tracks taken from their debut record 'Chambers'. I think, that I won't listen to 'Times Like Lakes' regularly, but THE LIVING ROOM is more honest than all this pseudo-occult retro rock crap that is now in vogue.
(KK)