Perhaps yes, these are tracks from the dark 1980s, the apocalyptic Cold War mutual assured destruction never far away, but its musicality is hard to resist. I think I’m in for some further exploration of the Dotted realm.
Its musicality is hard to resist
The Vital Weekly chief/editor forwarded me this release with a note explaining that he thinks he wrote enough about The Legendary Pink Dots and reviewed a previous version of this release in Vital Weekly 917. I replied I knew nothing much about this group, which prompted the boss to send a PDF of Freek Kinkelaar’s book Close Your Eyes, You Can Be A Space Captain, which chronicles the first ten years of the Dots. Whilst playing the music I read the book cover to cover (well, I had to play both CDs twice and a bit to achieve this). Kinkelaar neatly lists all TLPD’s releases, but Traumstadt 2 as such does not get a separate listing, and this is what is mentioned about the Traumstadt series: “with the financial situation at a low point, the raiding of the Dots’ seemingly immense, ever-unending and kaleidoscopic archive was both an effort to bring order to chaos as well as an attempt to bring some money in. The unveiling started with releasing the Traumstadt-series, German for ‘city of dreams’ — five cassettes compiling various cassette-only albums and a selection of live and studio recordings from previous years. The cassettes featured homemade covers and were manufactured and sold by the Dots themselves from their soon-to-be Nijmegen headquarters.”
As said, TLPD were always under my radar; it was a name I heard in connection to things I like but I’ve never actively investigated, for no particular reason. As such, I do not know if Traumstadt 2 is a fine entry point to know more. From what I’ve heard, I wouldn’t say this is their typical 1980s sound. It is odd to consider they have been on many scene compilations with this material, as some of it I would classify as pop music: melodic, accessible, violin and guitar stuff. It makes me wonder: were hippies allowed in the cassette underground? Maybe their more experimental approach on some tracks puts the balance in their favor. For example, a piece like “World War 6” sounds like a bunch of decaying reel-to-reel loops, slowed down, Basinski style.
Singer Edward Ka-Spel has a distinct voice: lively, vivacious and very present, though I have to say I have no idea what the lyrics are about most of the time. Quite enjoyable music, and ‘music‘ it is, more so than my daily intake of the noisier variants. Some of this even put a big smile on my face, and that’s always a good thing. Perhaps yes, these are tracks from the dark 1980s, the apocalyptic Cold War mutual assured destruction never far away, but its musicality is hard to resist. I think I’m in for some further exploration of the Dotted realm.
Review by: Lukas den Warme / Vital Weekly #1434. Reprinted with permission.
Traumstadt 2 is available on Klang Galerie. [Bandcamp]
