| God bless the freaks! In this increasingly | | | | Earth, they're being priced out of it and |
| homogenized world any appearance of the | | | | taxed for it.It's into this stale slipstream |
| mutant tendency is a cause for celebration. | | | | that the nuts in Cloudland Canyon release |
| Think of it this way, the impulse towards | | | | their great new album, "Requiems Der Natur |
| rebellion and originality were traditionally | | | | 2002-2004" (Tee Pee Records). This album is |
| the purview of artists and mystics. Artists | | | | the cure for what ails ya! The tracks feature |
| inherited the previous generation's themes | | | | hypnotic synth washes and odd repetitive |
| and modes with the implicit mission of | | | | snippets of water, wind and animals. The odd |
| rejecting and reinventing them. Mystics have | | | | blend of motorik, Kraut-Rock inspired madness |
| always used the singular and visionary of the | | | | and the warm organic and churning field |
| inner as a method to change the uniform and | | | | recording samples give this album its' |
| stale outer. Both of these models have been | | | | engrossing tension and charm. Sonically there |
| usurped. In the mind's eye of the public art | | | | are splashes and dashes of such noisy |
| has been reduced to pretty picture making. As | | | | luminaries as Ash Ra Tempel, This Heat and |
| for religion, when did Jesus become a | | | | Can. Repetitive loops of ruffled and crinkled |
| Republican?What roles do art and religion | | | | warblings fold in on themselves with a fierce |
| play in this world? As far as I can see, art | | | | single-mindedness. Hushed and strangled |
| has become subservient to decoration. Musical | | | | mantras swell, congeal and finally sputter |
| expression has been reduced down to that | | | | out into their constituent parts.This is one |
| lowest of common denominators; the talent | | | | of those sound worlds it is best to |
| contest. While I'm sure that many find solace | | | | experience as a unit. Although it is |
| in their chosen faith, where is its' | | | | separated into songs the strength of this |
| dissenting voice? Nowadays we get religious | | | | release lies in its totality. So if you're |
| justifications and approval for everything | | | | aching to bust out of the gray world and |
| from this brutal war to funeral hazing of | | | | spend a little creative time in a technicolor |
| dead soldiers who MAY have been gay. What | | | | hysteria, check out Cloudland Canyon. Their |
| ever happened to love thine enemy? What ever | | | | music is a naked freak-out by moonlight in an |
| happened to the meek inheriting the Earth? | | | | electric forest. |
| The meek are not only not inheriting the | | | | |