1) Radiation Meditation
2) Ground Zero
3) General Jigg
4) Gathering Of Soles
5) Articulate Hoover Nozzle (Slight Return)
6) Vague Mutterings
7) Charoid Plexus
8) Toga-Larone
9) Lyne In The Tyne
10) Yin Tang Meringue
11) Going Up
12) Sativaltva
13) Smelifant
14) Pzzarf
After I had recovered from the initial shock of a When's The Future sound devoid of words, a seemingly unfathomable collection of weirdness dominated by drum 'n' bass and samples and virtually stripped of guitar I found myself being drawn into the music particularly the more up tempo moments like 'General Jigg' with its liberal sprinkling of flute and vibes and the irresistibly entitled 'Articulate Hoover Nozzle (Slight Return)'. After the early promise of the Nick Mason inspired drum rolls of 'Radiation Meditation', the album really begins to catch fire with the impossible synth solo and organ stabs of 'Vague Mutterings'. My favourite piece of music in the first part of the album though is 'Choroid Plexus' with its crisp, snappy drumming, the strings curiously reminding me of Angelo Badalamenti (Remember 'Twin Peaks'?) and dreamy guitar. 'Same Time Tomorrow' is full of surprises, constantly restless in its (successful) attempts to grab your attention- 'Lyre in the Tyne' starts with plucked strings and continues with sampled double bass and 'skat' vocals that sounds like Lemon Jelly (A good thing in my book!). And who could resist the oriental strangeness of 'Yin Tang Meringue' or the aptly titled African rhythm odyssey of 'Smelifant'? All the music was written and produced by the Musgrove brothers, Dave, the guitarist and John the drummer (Both play keyboards) who many of you will remember from Kromlek and the album was mastered by Tim Jones at The Stone Studio.
Definitely an album that will figure prominently in the alternative musical history of the Stone Premonitions label, a very contemporary sounding release that will hopefully open up When's The Future music to a wider audience. Now I wonder what other surprises are in store?
by Phil Jackson - Zeitgeist
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From the remarkably consistent Stone Premonitions label, comes the second CD from the When crew, here a 14 track, seventy minute offering with tracks ranging from one to nearly eleven minutes long. First thing to say is that it's entirely instrumental - not a song in sight. That alone sets it apart from the first one. That said, it's decidedly psychedelic, but in a totally unique way. Musically, it's so unlike anything that you've really encountered before. Don't get me wrong - this has rhythms - tons of the things - and more drums and percussion than you can shake a shaker at, while the main body of instrumentation comes from electric bass, keys and synths and electric guitars, plus a variety of samples at odd points along the journey. In some ways, it comes across as a more psychedelic answer to the seventies version of the Krautrock band Embryo only without any jazz flavourings. Oddly enough the one thing you do notice about this music, is the absence of what you'd call any considerable lead work - you won't find searing guitar licks or wailing synth solos here - instead it's very much a collective, almost tribal in many ways - and its uniqueness is what makes it sound so refreshing and work just superbly. To give a track by track breakdown would take forever, but there are no fillers and what you do hear will have you transfixed as no one track sounds much like another and yet there is a flow to the album that carries you with it. The bass and drums take an upfront stand in the mix as much as anything else, and this is a rhythmic ride of statuesque proportions. With flavours along the way of nineties ambience, Middle Eastern rhythmic structures, tribal grooves plus layer on layer of addictive, driving, mostly percussive, rhythms, this is one of those easily accessible yet amazingly different albums that, once you play it and get inside its heady delights, you'll be playing it for a long, long time to come.
by Andy Gee - Dead Earnest Records
Check out the official Krom Lek page at Stone Premonitions website
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