Review Summary: A forgotten eerie spacey krautrock gem fished out from the depths of obscurity
Listening to GAM’s
Eiszeit for me is like being on a boat trapped in a dim, half-flooded cave. Every sound is echoing, rippling through the walls, undulating in the water below. Percussive taps evoke imagery of water dripping from stalactites and splashing onto the dark mass below. There are hymns in the distance, and I don’t know if they are the calls of friendly humans, or a cry of some yet unseen monster. It is cold, dark and I have no means of moving the boat, so I let the waves take me wherever they wish.
But where are my manners? I haven’t even introduced the artist yet! So GAM is this German krautrock group from the 1970’s. Their sound is described as “high quality and super freaked out rockin' improvisations in the vein of the first Ashra Tempel, Zweistein, The Cosmic Jokers but creepier, much more haunted and infused [with] resonant cyclical guitar lines”, and honestly I can’t think of a better general summary for their approach to music. GAM loved their loops and they loved using their instruments to build soundscapes that unsettled their listeners. The liner notes to
Eiszeit straight up brags about this by calling its lead guitarist “A pioneer of the echo guitar”.
And echo their guitars GAM did. Repetition is a big part of the
Eiszeit’s DNA, as every instrument’s cycle builds upon the last to create a very uninviting soundspace. There's an ever-present reverb that encapsulates everything like a dense, inescapable fog. In the background there are the distant cries of what should be synthesizers, but the band says they are guitar effects. They give the music a sense of space, like the wails of some unknown creature way in the distance.
Eiszeit is structured around building a chilly, unearthly soundscape, and it does not let up until the end.
Another big aspect of the album’s sound is how
cold it feels. Take the first track for example, “Tropfstein”, the guitars’ fading drums’ low rumble evoke images of icy walls, whale calls from a below freezing ocean, and a stinging foreboding breeze, hinting at uglier weather to come, coalescing into a whirlwind of guitar loops processed into an almost synthetic sound. Even on songs where they take a weird left turn, like on the fourth track “Demons”, which is one of the few tracks that has vocals, the guitars are still played in a staccato manner, like the guitarists’ limbs are being frozen and the only way to move them is in the form of sudden jerks. And there remains a menacing hum in the background, like a reminder that whoever is listening to this is still trapped in this very cold, creepy cave.
Eiszeit was first recorded in the 1970’s, but it was shelved afterward where it languished in obscurity for decades. It was not until 2005 when it was finally rediscovered and released for the public, albeit with a very ugly, amateurish looking album cover, so it’s nobody’s surprise that the album still remains relatively unknown. This is unfortunate, because
Eiszeit is one of the most unique and fresh albums I have ever heard, even 40 years after its initial recording. If you are a fan of weird, creepy space rock, you owe it to yourself to at least check this out.
