DEAD NEANDERTHALS - IXXO

Is it the fact that it's just one and a half weeks from now, until it finally happens again? Or does looking at the stuff queuing in my to-review-lists also help? Fact is: Roadburn anticipation intensifies.

In that spirit let's welcome another great live album from last year's remote Roadburn Redux, the - hopefully once in a lifetime - streaming edition of the festival:

DEAD NEANDERTHALS - IXXO (milky clear vinyl LP) (2022)

There's not much I could write about this show which I haven't aready mentioned before. As always with everything Dead Neanderthals the music doesn't give you many palpable events to elaborate on. It starts and after thirty-five minutes it ends, and the most noticable incident is that right in the middle - conveniently placed where you need to turn the record on the B side - the robotik drum beat takes a two-minute break, before René Aquarius gets switched on again.

Together with Otto Kokke, who we hear on droning synthesizers, he provides an extremely steady, hypnotically automatik backbone on which their two guests for this performance, Aafke Romeijn and Jonge Woudloper provide even more, mainly improvised keyboards.

As parts of my vocabulary have already given away - this is no drone noise or jazzcore, but pure, brain-washingly repetitive krautrock. It wouldn't be implausible at all if this performance was not from these guys, but from bands like Kandodo or Radar Men From The Moon (who Dead Neanderthals' almost alter ego Twin Sister are coincidentally collaborating with for the grand Roadburn finale this year).

It's one of those sonically layered things which after a while makes you question whether everything you're hearing is actually there or just made up by your own head to complement the rest. In other words: kinda trippadelic.

The cute and clever (back) cover artwork - depicting the four musicians becoming one entity by controlling a giant Keiju Jaeger of a Krautbot together - is just absolutely brilliant.
Add some transparent vinyl with the right label on it and you have the perfect physical item to accompany this great piece of music.