04 October 2023

ZONE SIX – Full Mental Jacket (2023, LP/CD Sulatron Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Sulatron Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, 180gr Colored Vinyl (comes with Download code), 500 copies

Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition (comes with a 4-page digifile), 300 copies

Release Date: 6 Oct 2023

I’m pretty sure that most of you out there are aware of Zone Six, but for some of you who aren’t familiar let me tell you a few things. Zone Six is one of the first bands of the Neo-Krautrock and Improrock movement, always evolving, started back in 1997 by Dave Schmidt (aka Sula Bassana, on Spacebass) with his Liquid Visions pals Hans-Peter Ringholz (Guitar) and Claus Bühler (Drums), when Dave got a concert request for Liquid Visions, but this band was not able to play the show. So Dave had the idea to form a new band just for this: Zone Six. The idea behind this was to play long tranceful space- and acid-rock improvisations. The line-up of the band changed very often which made their discography very colourful but never leaving the typical Zone Six manner! In the present time, Zone Six is Sula Bassana (also in Interkosmos, Die Raumpatrouille, Electric Moon, etc.) on bass, fx, Synth, loops, Pablo Carneval (also in Electric Moon, Interkosmos) on drums, and Manu Wohlrab (also in Yanos) on guitar, fx. I really liked their wordplay on naming their album because I’m sure that the first thing that comes to your mind after reading the title is that famous Stanley Kubrick movie from 1987, right? Well, let’s move on… “Full Mental Jacket” contains just 3 tracks, “Slingshot” (19:54), “Full Mental Jacket” (10:00), and “Chrono Trigger” (9:54), and Dave explained that “the playing time of the tracks is interesting too, leading to an interesting year in history and art: 1954”. The basics were recorded within the first three days of March 2022, influenced/affected by the news of the just-started Russian war on Ukraine. It took more than a year to do some overdubs and produce the whole album out of these jams/composing (in a few days/weekends). But that is only a funny sidenote. Also, Dave adds “In the track Slingshot, which covers the whole A-side of the LP, you can hear some ghostly guitar sounds from the older Zone Six guitar player Rainer Neeff and some soprano sax by saxophone legend Gottfried Klier, who already played in the 70s in the band Engerling among many others and is now living around the corner from Dave”…

“Slingshot” conquers the whole ‘A’ side, this is some serious inspiring Improvised New Age Space Rock! A powerful sidelong track, a little Post-Rock flirting, wandering into a dark dreamy Hawkwind/Floyd Space scenery, then entering a heavy super-sonic caustic environment, making the entire track act as a long Spaced Out Improvisational Heavy Jam… The opener of side ‘B’, “Full Mental Jacket” has a cold dark, and creepy-effected start, sures feels like the proper soundtrack for someone who is locked inside an insane asylum, slowly and progressively the track is being transformed into a HEAVY Space-Rock tune, the music in here is improvised (of course!), sometimes is extremely Psych-flirting but without losing its heaviness not for a second… On “Chrono Trigger” the trio built an amazing mind-bending trip-a-delic lysergic (at times) mushroom-filled SPACEY atmos, the ghost of a late 70s Pink Floyd is hovering the place, automatically the track becomes an instant personal highlight, while the track ends in a huge amount of guitar feedback… So, in conclusion, Zone Six is leading this unique hand-crafted Space Vehicle entering with every release into different mines, orbits, nebulas, galaxies, or whatever… The Trip isn’t always safe but the adventure is guaranteed! Enter the Zone (Six) at your own risk… TimeLord Michalis