If their first record was the soundtrack to a fictitious headliner gig at a summer festival during a hot, sticky, herb-induced, sweaty night, then this record is the aural assembly of sounds to be heard during the after-show party after that gig sometime between 3AM and 5AM when the sun quickly rises above the blue hour and into another scorching hangover. Welcome back, Zahn, long live Adria!
How talkative can an instrumental record be? Well, very, I would say. Especially when it’s a record like Adria which speaks in many different tongues and dialects. One of the more dominant ones in the lingua morricone which can be translated as a kind of Spaghetti-western infused riffing with some of the singular echo effects on the guitar which are then accompanied by a bit of a grand Italian opera soundscapes. This language certainly embellishes a longtrack like ”Zehn” that ends in a strong, uptempo guitar part that could break down walls with all the energy it seems to burst off.
Then again we also find small remnants of a langue electronique like the beginning of ”Schmuck” where small soundscapes are overlapping each other as if they were slowly fading away but when listening closely you will find some lurking guitar parts and a slowly ascending drumbeat underneath these moments, so that the track reveals its indie appeal in small doses.
If one thing is also clearly audible it is a kind of Yazyk Cohenow (or Язык Cohen) as there is a certain industrial grit below the surface level of many tracks and yet all of them are adorned with a kind of grandezza (which I very often associate with Leonard Cohen tracks, don’t ask me why). A kind of slang synthwavis is also undeniable on this record, just listen to ”Apricot” - which might also be the title of the artwork, that somehow gives my Hipgnosis vibes and simultaneously connects to Je Gong’s latest record. ”Faser” also talks this language but in a much more subdued and ominous way than ”Apricot”, but nevertheless their both native speakers of the same language.
Nobody will ask me but if I had to sum the record in one idea it would have to be – Sprache Krautikus. This record is so German in a Krautrock way, but only in the broader context of that “genre” (which it never was); it is Amon Düül as well as Can, as much Kraftwerk as it is Neu! That it is released via Chris Breuer’s own Crazysane Records label is no surprise but even if it wasn’t his own label, this record would probably fit no other roster as perfectly as it fits a roster which also has Velcros, AUA, Zement but also Twin Drugs or Entropy. All bands which share a love for sounds off the beaten tracks – and which thus would be a great fit for a VoS concert evening, if that ever happened. And then, after the last gig, we could play Adria in full during the after-show party!
