The premise for this album is three guitarists from three generations making an album together. Schickert started out on Brain and Sky Records in the 70's, Arbeit joined the 'Geniale Dilletanten' art group in the 80's and Dirk Dresselhaus played in Locust Fudge and Hip Young Things in the 90's. They have all gone on to do great things since, some of which I am aware of via Bureau B. The great news is this is not three guitarists showing off and trading licks, rather it is three musicians trying to create something together and a fine job they have done.
The album would seem to be dominated by the first five tracks which cover Celsius 37-41 on the temperature scale. A gradual warming maybe? They are all of a piece in essence and perhaps could even be one long track that has been broken up for sequencing purposes? No matter, jobs a good'un.
The final three tracks are titled differently and seem to be more standalone pieces. To pick out any individual tracks as superior would do the album a disservice as they are all par excellence. If you like your ambience moody you will appreciate ASS and I make no apologies for that statement.
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The Celsius tracks could soundtrack a Japanese horror movie and yet they have a warmth that makes them entirely listenable. 38 even has a staccato drum machine that meshes seamlessly with the whirring clicking tape loops and synth swells. This type of thing is so easy to do badly (meandering rubbish) and yet time and time again Bureau B artistes capture and retain my interest with their music. How do they do it?! I imagine they bugger off down the pub quite a lot and simply leave things to sort themselves out.
41 is almost a guitar track with playful bouncing almost sub-Saharan reverberation and very sparse drum machine involved again. Of the final three tracks the eight minute Acetyl is a hypnotic sinuous thing with trumpet and gentle percussion playing off each other. Salicyl ups the ante with guitar added to the pallete and a bit more bump and grind and Saure is chill to the max.
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