Putting this into the ol' disc reader I was highly given to actually having a smile on my early morning pre-coffee face and was thoroughly prompted to stop in my tracks and sit the fuck down and listen and read the extensive promotional liner notes. CELAN, apparently named after German/Jewish poet Paul Celan, is a collaboration between some dudes from EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN, UNSANE and a couple of them kids from a band I've never heard of named FLU.ID. Then throw in an OXBOW cat on guitar just for fun and feedback and you've got yerselves some glorious snake handling musicians who I guess should be called a supra-group. The music contained herein is a worthwhile, yet sagging exclamation of mediocre heavy hard rock meets noise rock basically pointed straight in the direction of their previous mentioned pet groups. Ari Benjamin Myer from Blixa Bargeld's serial combo, the aforementioned E.N., is here on keyboards and adds a soothing gentle piano promoted mellowness to the hype in parts as well as some scraping electronics/noise/(insert correct genre du jour here) in the form of in-between track screeches and synth rumbling. not overpowering the groups primarily structured sound at all.

Some of the chunky grooves they possess here possibly show they have done their homework and lets the group admit an interest in mid-paced to slower contemporary doomy and sludgy metal. The New York gravel road vox bellow up loudly and are mixed with just enough perfect distort guitar jags and HELMET and/or TOOL style power riffage that underlies and compliments the unit in a very smooth way. I'll bet these veterans can tear the shit out of some small club speakers and are preparing to do just that as I see they will tour soon, which also shatters the theory that they're only a side project. CELAN will most likely be popular with the more adventurous new generation kids that are into something halfway thundering and strong, but you never know. Like a more organized COP SHOOT COP they give off an emotionally charged shout out to the old school Am Rep crowd 'cept with a more modern day slant. My main complaint with this release is it's too darn long and the last track on the disc is a 12 minute plus epic that honestly bores me to fall asleep out on the steps. In closing I'd say this is a line-up that sounded a little better on paper, but is definitely worth a listen ot two if you if you're into this sort of thing.

- Mike IX

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/celanband

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