Chilean Krautrock revivalists
Foellakzoid instantly bonded with
J Spaceman (aka
Jason Pierce, frontman of neo-psychedelia behemoths
Spacemen 3 and
Spiritualized) when they met at a
Wooden Shjips concert in London. The next time
Foellakzoid visited the city, during their 2016 European tour, they met up with
Spaceman and recorded live-in-studio renditions of "Electric" and "Earth," the first two tracks from the group's 2015 full-length,
III. Both of the songs are relentless 11-minute grooves, and while they haven't been drastically altered this time around, there are certainly some noticeable textural differences. The rhythms, while remaining nimble and hypnotic, seem slightly less bright and bouncy than on the album versions. There are some rougher, noisier guitar tones, and the results are somewhat darker. "Earth" leaves more of an impression than "Electric," mainly because of the shimmering guitar melody that pops up throughout the track. There isn't quite as much echo as on the original, so it feels a bit tighter, although inevitably these grooves are going to sound tighter if the band has been perfecting them on the road. The album version had a bit of a gritty crunch to it, and while there are traces of that roughness here, with some washing machine-like guitar noises rumbling away in the background, the most significant addition is a delicate spiral of notes that is even fainter and more distant. The track seems relatively calm until a couple of righteous bursts of crashing drums and feedback occur during the second half.
Spaceman seems to remove just as much from the
Foellakzoid tracks as he adds to them, providing some harmonic differences but keeping the steady rhythms focused. ~ Paul Simpson