Das Rad? Strewwelpeter? Titles like ‘Eisblume’ or ‘Tiefes Blau’? Just looking at the cover and the band name would lead you completely on the wrong track. Because behind the name and optical mystery hides a trio from Sheffield, England, which turns completely to the experimental and “not always easy to appreciate” tones. Nick Robinson (guitar, keyboards, electronics), Martin Archer (saxophone, keyboards, synth bass, electronics) and Steve Dinsdale (drums, keyboards, electronics) move in the border area between avant-garde, ambient, open free forms and jazz rock. It is especially the saxophone and various electronics that shape the timbre of Das Rad.
Here a certain openness is required from the listener, because you have to get involved with the sometimes quite scratchy, bulky material, even the floating, melodious sounds require time and space. An improvised sound experiment such as ‘Deuce Of Gears’ leaves behind a certain question mark, but on the other hand the band manage to create intense and quite exciting structures, such as the title song, which comes up with a Mellotron background and a lot of reverb.
In the sluggish, lazy sound cosmos, it sometimes goes in the direction of hypnotic, mystical Ambient / Space / Krautrock, in other moments electronic sound cascades find their way. Occasionally, memories of the electronic and soundscape-shaped projects by King Crimson are awakened. The stark alternative to this is the fragile ‘ice flower’ carried by beautiful melodies. In the truest sense of the word, this is progressive music in which the three instrumentalists let themselves be carried away by their ideas. Even with a certain preference for angular, unpredictable tone sequences, it is advisable to listen to “Adios Al Futuro”.
Kristian Selm