Ashra Sauce Hollandaise

This album presents a generous helping of the Ashra concert recorded at the 1997 KLEMdag. The line-up of “Ashra 1997” is Manual Gottsching on guitars and keyboards, Lutz Ulbrich on Guitar, e-bow and keyboards, Harald Grosskopf on drums, and Steve Baites on sampling, keys, and rhythm machine. The sleevenotes point out that this is the first newly recorded Ashra album in 9 years, and the very first official Ashra live album. I’m not really an Ashra expert, however judging by the ecstatic audience reaction this concert was much more than a token appearance of a band living on past memories. The performance is tight and accomplished and, aided by excellent recording quality, the newly found rhythmic angle to their music comes through to dynamic effect. The three tracks range between 21 and 31 minutes in length and often evolve from restrained percussive origins into an orgy of pulsations and searing guitar refrains. Ashra fans will buy this anyway but it’s good to hear that, not only is it an attractive souvenir and collector’s piece, it also makes the grade in the musical sense. (GG)

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