First of all, Steve Dinsdale, who plays drums and sometimes keyboards in the legendary English electronic trio Radio Massacre International. Then there’s Nick Robinson, an absolute ace of guitar loops, which he brings to life, evolve and disappear at will, like a magician of sound. Finally, Martin Archer, who as an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, plays saxophone, clarinet, flute or keyboards, officiates in nothing less than Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere and Combat Astronomy, and who, of course, also founded the label Discus Music.
So when three musicians of this huge calibre enter the same studio, we are already certain of the stratospheric quality of the result. In fact, therefore, the DAS of Adios Al Futuro remained the same as for Das Rad. And the level of play and composition also remained the same, ie quite ruffled. This gives eight rich, dense and exciting pieces, from which stand out in particular the two major and magnificent pieces that are Inside Reverse and Tiefes Blau, which last more than ten minutes. All this is bold, refined, mastered, always excellent. Very great art, really, just like the first album.
What has changed, because obviously something has changed, is the urgency distilled in large drops in all this. Yes, we say goodbye to the future, as an echo of the “No Future” of punks, and we hurry to live while we still can, to enjoy the good time we still take before tomorrow is nothing! So DAS RAD puts even more of everything into its already fabulously rich recipe. More rhythms, more guitars, more mellotron, more of everything Itell you!
In a 1970s musical film (whose title I forget), a guitarist said to the other members of his band: “You have to play hard so you don’t hear the world fall apart.” Adios Al Futuro is a bit like that, one last frenzied dance before today falls into oblivion. But when it’s done by musicians of this level, we console ourselves with the coming apocalypse by thinking that it will be after all a demented reminder at the end of a monstrous concert!
Frédéric Gerchambeau