Initially active between 1987 and 1997, reconvening in 2011 to play a brace of live shows alongside Damo Suzuki, Ziguri has over its history existed as much as a theatrical project as a musical one. It’s taken until now, some 27 years on from their inception, to record and unveil this, their debut album.
Tribal percussion and a cavernous bassline dominate ‘General Clickman’, coming on like The Fall at their most Krautrock combined with Butthole Surfers and careening into a doomy chant over the course of its eight and a half minute running time. It’s one hell of a way to kick off an album. It is, of course, nothing less than you’d expect from a band consisting of Günter Schickert, Udo Erdenreich and Dieter Kölsch. While the Krautrock stylings and echo guitar associated with Schickert are strongly in evidence, there’s a dark post-punk edge to the album, not to mention a keen experimental bent.
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The intricate, echo-laden guitar work on ‘Massa’ and the infinite interlooping of ‘Bella Hopp’ compliment one another, the latter building an anxious, nervous energy, while ‘Yoyodine’ puts text by Thomas Pyncheon to a tense and angular musical backing. It all culminates in the 12-minute ‘Goa Constrictor’, a relentless, percussion-heavy slab of trance-inducing psychedelia.
Far from being a run-of-the mill contemporary revisioning of Krautrock, ‘Ziguri’ sees underground cult musicians with real pedigree expand the genre in exciting ways.
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