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It's been a little while since we checked in with Landing, EvilSponge's favorite psychedelic, krautrockish, noisy, drone band. During the pandemic Landing embarked on an exciting (to fans) new venture: a monthly subscription series. For 2021 they released a new, long meandering song each month. At the end of the year, they edited those songs down into shorter tunes and released a cassette of the twelve songs.
That was kind of a grueling schedule, and i can see that. So since then the subscription series has released a new tune every other month. In early 2023 the 6 songs from 2022 were compiled onto cassette. And then, in July of this year, Sulatron Records (located in Jesberg in central Germany) pressed the songs onto vinyl! Apparently this is a limited release of 350, but i can't find a number on the one that i bought, so maybe Germans don't number limited releases like we do in America...
Like the cassette, the two sides of the record flow as one whole listening experience, so side A is Motionless I-III and B is Motionless IV-VI.
Side A starts slowly, meandering, very typical of Landing. It is two and a half minutes before a faint shuffling beat comes in as the song noodles along. Part II picks up the pace a bit, the guitar picked here in long echoing notes. This part reminds me of Landing's excellent 2002 release Seasons, with the picked guitar layer carrying a hint of melancholy while in the background everything echoes and floats in deep outer space. And then a kicking beat comes in slowly, as the song gels into Part III, which is the real stunner on side A. The beat here is a steady tapping, the guitars strummed and distorted, wavering, and the keys a soaring drone underneath it all. This has a great head nodding beat and really grooves along.
Side B starts, like so much of what Landing does, with wavering echo as the guitar makes a dense racket. Adrienne Snow adds a vocal layer to the drone, buried under the echoing guitar along with the keys. bout six minutes in, Part V starts, the drum beat here a chugging, shaking sound, the keys a low rumble, and the guitar tinkling. And it grows, layers and layers, the guitar building to a thick drone, the drums keeping that head nodding beat. Simply wonderful! It gets deeper and denser, until at about 15 minutes (out of the 20 minute length of this side), it swells up like something from a really dramatic moment in a movie soundtrack, or maybe the end of a long Pink Floyd song intro. This kind of soundtrack ambience is unusual for Landing, but they make it work, grinding the end of this collection out.
I am very pleased to have this selection of music on vinyl. It looks like the vinyl is sold out, and the cassette sold out between the writing of this review, and the posting of it. Oh well, at least the digital version of this is available.
If you enjoy Landing's work, then you will enjoy this.
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