American Cream Band – Dark Hemisphere
If the experimental fringe of the German Aerospace programme (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) were to have an official anthem, they could do much worse than taking a listen to Dark Hemisphere for inspiration. Tight motorik underpins its more outré moments, spacey vibes throwing up stoned Martian mirages, the American Cream Band’s trademark kosmiche-pop gently silvering the edges of otherworldly ambience.
The Minnesotan collective are led by Nathan Nelson and his dark and dreamy croon combines with louche sax to lend the album an edge as seedy as Hamburg’s underbelly, something that, in fairness, may prove difficult to get past the DLR’s censor. Forever on the verge of a bad trip, they’ll have to get over the off-kilter dub of “Electric Trigger” too, as well as the creepy Alan Vega art installation of “Best Of The Plague”.
Dark Hemisphere isn’t just weirdo chatter and trippy murmurs though. Woodblock percussion is used to tap out hypnotic grooves, shuffling shakers and meditative organ drones pulling up and over like a duvet in winter. Whispery, half-mast lullaby “Nocturnal Precognition” is even quite beautiful, the light hemisphere to the shadows of sheet noise found in “New Gods FM” and the abstract jamming of “Cinnamon Roll”. Dark Hemisphere may be far out but, in an alien kind of way, it’s almost welcoming too.
Best track: “Under The Dark Moon”
~Dark Hemispheres is released October 29th 2021 via Moon Glyph.~