Hills are probably the closest recent band I've heard to conjuring up the spirit of the original Krautrock movement. Mistakes and all. Hills restrain themselves from the endless jam that befell bands like Acid Mothers Temple and, as noted recently, Sulatron's latest signing from Detroit: THTX. Plus Hills reintroduces the flute as an all important ingredient, starting right away on 'Death 1', adding a much needed soft lead instrument to the typical harsh textures that the genre calls for. 'Istiklal Street' reminded me of the Cosmic Jokers, though a slight 2 minute trimming throughout the piece would have helped. 'You Talk The Talk!' is a dead ringer of Kraftwerk's debut (for you kids just startin' out, that would NOT be like the Kraftwerk you are familiar with): The echoed flute, shimmering guitars and pounding metronomic drums are to die for. ' Rainship [Solregn]' is like a psychedelic Neu!. The familiar driving beat but with obvious space rock / psychedelic textures. Bonus track 'Schlaraffenland' made me glad I bought the CD just for this. Similar to tracks 3 and 4, but even more in the vein of Ash Ra Tempel's 'Freak N Roll' from Join Inn. A hypnotic space rock jam. 'Messias' is another bonus coming from a previously released cassette.
Hills have enormous potential. I highly recommend this album as it is. However, I'd like to see them tighten the ship a bit, focus on a little melody and add in some more compositional structure, as they could really put out a monster album here. They have the RIGHT sound.
Ownership: LP: 2009 Intergalactic Tactics
CD: 2010 Sulatron
7/15/11 (new entry)
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