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Reviews:
Inade | Aldebaran
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| From Blow
Up: (by Paolo Bertoni)
Dalla stella più luminosa della costellazione
del Toro ma probabilmente ancor più dal significato di natura mistica
che assunse anche nel cosiddetto ‘nazismo esoterico’, presero
spunto i teutonici Inade per uno dei classici intramontabili della dark
ambient degli anni ’90. Pubblicato nel ’96 “Aldebaran”
è un lavoro che nel genere non teme la disfida persino con il Lustmord
più seminale, acutamente strutturando l’album su quattro
pezzi a loro volta divisi in due tranche che suggeriscono l’idea
di una quieta ascesa e di una scabrosa ricaduta sempre in un contesto
di oscurità abissale e insondabile che quasi si distende di fronte
al mortale nel suo tentennante avanzare tra sofferenza terrena ed espiazione
infernale, in una contornante dimensione di serafica glacialità
e irridente indifferenza. Straordinaria l’iniziale Signals From
68 Dimensions, abbrivio ad un viaggio spirituale prodigo di imperscrutabili
interrogativi e di pericolosi incroci col mistero, così come la
seconda parte di The Conquest Of Being Separated, un vagolare in sotterranei
di corridoi sempre più angusti che sembrano chiudersi alle nostre
spalle, con un blando, distratto, supporto percussivo che prima s’affaccia
in The Crushing Of Earthly Foundations sviluppandosi in una meccanica
iterazione che, conchiuso in un vortice drone, rimanda a tormenti da camere
della tortura, con la conclusiva The End Of The Beginning che ha il compito
di indicare la via nella forma di ‘the black light of the universe
illuminates the inner world, open your eyes the 68 dimensions, this is
the stair where the shadows of the secret knowledge darken the reality’. |
From Gothtronic:
(by Cindy E)
Twelve years after the original release Cold Spring
re-released the classic debut album “Aldebaran” of the German
band Inade. Aldebaran is one of the easiest stars to find at the night
sky in the symbol of the Taurus. After six years of being unavailable
also this album can be found again. Inade produces dark ambient and although
the album starts with drones based on natural sounds as the breaking in
a sea of this album the sound quickly develops to slow but more industrial
drones. The industrial drones start with a slow rhythm as in a production
line with humming sounds but develop in a faster machine rhythm with human
cries mixed in the drones. The atmosphere is spacious like traveling along
the constellations, the organs of the universe with their organic humming
and bubbling, its blood streaming through its vessels and distant human
voices reaching you like radio waves. Inade is quit active performing
all over Europe but it has been a while since their last release with
new material. Although Rene Lehmann and Knut Enderlein started with Loki
Foundation their own record label this album is re-released as before
on Cold Spring records. The original was released in 1996 in a digital
pack version. The re-releases in 2001 and the latest re-release of 2007
have a slightly changed Cover design in a jewel pack. |
From Chain
D.L.K.: (by Maurizio Pustinaz)
Released back in 1996 by Cold Spring Records,
ALDEBARAN was the first CD by Inade. The German combo already released
on their own label Loki Foundation two tapes but with ALDEBARAN they were
able to test their dark ambient sound with a wider audience. Divided into
four different movements, ALDEBARAN, is a sort of concept album focused
on "the black light of the universe which illuminates the inner world"
where the "68 dimensions is the stair where the shadows of the secret
knowledge darken the reality". The band's sound aims to make feel
to the listener the pulse of the universe and all the four movements ("Signals
from 68 dimensions", "The conquest of being separated",
"The crushing of earthly foundations" and "The end of the
beginning") tend to induce a dizzy sensation into the audience. Flowing/hissing
sounds come back and forth through the speakers and even if sometimes
the minimalism of the early tracks need more attention, there's a certain
development which make the sound explode during the second part of "The
end of the beginning". Here the hisses are coupled by obscure vocals,
trembling sounds and darkness. Listened nowadays this is still a nice
album and you have to listen to it loud to fully appreciate it. |
From Terrorizer:
(by WS)
The best kind of Black Ambient is immersive,
atmospheric, thought-provoking, mystical, bass-heavy, distinctive and
spiritual. The best kind of Black Ambient artist is Inade because they
are all these things. Fittingly titled 'Aldebaran', named after the start,
the piece pays homage to the myths and spirituality that the German Vril
society placed on the star. 'Aldebaran' takes the listener's conscience
into deepest space and will no doubt long be coveted by the thousands
of artists who have tried and failed to create this unique effect. (9/10) |
| From Musique
Machine: (by Roger Batty)
Aldebaran is plain & simple an industrial / dark ambient
masterpiece original released back in 1996, this is its third repressing.
And easy to see why this has been so popular as it mangers to balance
perfectly slowed industrial rhythms, deep, cavernous ambience & alien
tones into a hypnotic & distinctive sonic package, that hardly shows
it’s age.
It really gives the feeling of been sucked into an void, an strange
reality beyond ours that for the most part is vast empty and filled with
a darkness you can almost feel. They use sampled voices and singing tones
at the start of the album suggesting the slow fading of our world, as
the album progresses these samples get less and less as you seem to sink
or soak deeper into Aldebaran's strange world of rhythm, vast cavernous
tones and a really tangible atmosphere of ancient unknown powers at work.
Lasting just over an hour in all, broke into eight tracks with each track
having it’s own sonic themes, though really this has to be experience
as an whole- preferable in a darkened room with headphones.
Though there are no extra or bonus tracks offered here, which will
be a let down to those who already have this. I really feel they would
have very much ruined the flow and magic of the album. Simply put if you
enjoy dark ambient - you really cant be with out this as it’s up
there with the classics of the genre. (5/5) |
| From Judas
Kiss: (by Simon Collins)
Aldebaran, also known as Alpha Tauri or the Bull’s Eye,
is the brightest star in the constellation of Taurus. It also possessed
a mystical significance to the Vril Society and various other Ariosophic
and occult organisations which allegedly existed in Germany during the
interwar period, as the ‘Black Sun’, the source of hidden
gnosis and spiritual home of the coming master race of Übermenschen.
It is this esoteric current which informs Aldebaran, the second album
of German duo Inade, originally released in a 1000-copy limited edition
in 1996, long since sold out and deleted, and something of a cult classic
in the dark ambient scene.
When I interviewed Justin Mitchell, founder of Cold Spring Records, for
Zero Tolerance magazine, way back in 2005, he singled out Aldebaran as
one of the Cold Spring releases he was particularly proud of: “Some
releases really changed Cold Spring forever. Inade’s Aldebaran album,
for instance. The whole dark ambient community took notice of that one,
and went ‘Ooh, now that’s good!’”
Now, thanks to this re-release, those who weren’t clued up enough
to acquire this important release the first time around have an opportunity
to hear what all the fuss was about. This includes me – I can’t
remember what I was listening to in 1996 (oh, all right then – Pixies,
Sonic Youth and a load of Amphetamine Reptile and Sub Pop bands), but
it wasn’t Inade, that’s for sure.
“This is the beginning of the end for you and me. The black light
of the universe illuminates the inner world. Open your eyes - the 68 dimensions.
This is the stair where the shadows of the secret knowledge darken the
reality. Ascertain the traces of the past. They could show you the way
to the light. All is one! Breathe the energy! Feel the pulse of the universe!
Convoke the power as a part of the law! Fall! Rise! Rise! Fall! This is
a dream. And this is the end of beginning.”
This cryptic text printed inside the booklet of Aldebaran offers some
keys for interpretation of the work, for Aldebaran is a work composed
of waves, of cycles, of rises and falls. A steady, relentless pulse beats
through it. Somewhat confusingly, Aldebaran contains eight tracks, but
there are only four track titles given – each piece has a two-part
structure, which can perhaps be regarded as ‘rising’ and ‘falling’
aspects, or the ascending and descending nodes.
The music of Inade consists of vertiginously deep chasms of rumbling ambient
atmospherics, overlaid with pulsating rhythms, occasional distorted vocals
and extended drones. It bears obvious affinities with contemporary dark
ambient pioneers such as Lustmord, Archon Satani and Mikael Stavöstrand’s
Inanna (whose Day Ov Torment was another recent re-release for Cold Spring),
but Inade sound quite distinctive, and remarkable, given the influential
nature of this album and the legions of dark ambient releases which have
followed in its wake during the past 11 years, it still sounds quite fresh
and innovative. Particular highlights for me include the fourth track,
‘The Conquest Of Being Separated, Part II’, essentially consisting
of one gargantuan drone, finely graduated in its attack ,decay and general
abrasiveness, which gives a vivid impression of existence as a poor abandoned
termite trapped in a digeridoo. After the quietly pulsing, oceanic heartbeat
morphing into urgent, tribalistic rhythm of the following track, the first
part of ‘The Crushing Of Earthly Foundations’, we segue into
the second part of this track, which sees a return to an acidic, aggressive
drone, this time accompanied by indistinct German vocals and crashing
waves of rhythm. One impressive aspect of Aldebaran is how varied it manages
to sound, without ever approaching conventional musical song structure
or melody. I guess this is why this album has been so highly regarded
in the dark ambient scene – it shows the range of possibilities
which are open to people wishing to work in this field. It also artfully
conveys a powerful impression of a malevolent intelligence, gazing implacably
upon the planet Earth and its paltry inhabitants across interstellar expanses
from a far distant constellation. It’s easy to see why a re-release
for Aldebaran seemed like a good idea – this is one of those genre-defining
albums, like Lustmord’s Heresy. Don’t miss out this time around. |
| From Brainwashed:
(by Simon Marshall-Jones)
Back in 1993, Inade released Burning Flesh on two cassettes
which immediately made an impression on the underground music scene, with
its blackest of black dark ambient sketches and soul-crushing gloom, and
established the reputation and credentials of the two protagonists René
Lehmann and Knut Enderlein. The follow-up, Aldebaran, originally released
in 1996 equally caused something of a commotion when news of its imminent
reissue–in a new third, unlimited, edition–emerged earlier
this year. For those of us who missed it the first time around, myself
included, this has been something of a much anticipated release.
Aldebaran is eight tracks of gloriously gloomy and hellish
doom ambience lasting for over an hour. Mikael Stavöstrand’s
Inanna had also explored similar territory around the same time, but Inade
had brought the genre to a pitch of perfection with this release; the
duo floated to the top of the black pool that is the dark ambient genre
and their reputation became totally entrenched, both in terms of their
vision and the quality of the releases.
Aldebaran is based around the German Vril Society of the interwar
years and their myths concerning the star. It was considered to be the
Black Sun of the Secret Knowledge, in other words, unadulterated spiritual
power. According to their doctrines the origin of that universal spirituality
emanated from this very star—along with the human race—but
given the later developments in German interwar politics and with the
creation of organisations such as the Vril and Thule Societies the malign
aspects of so-called 'spiritual' power became all too apparent.
With this in mind, there is, above all, a vast freezing coldness
bestriding the entire album, a reflection of that malignity and the cold
stretches of airless space in the gulf between our supposed origins and
our home perhaps. It must be supposed that members of this society lamented
the separation from their 'brethren' and that they keenly felt that separation.
On here it is captured in that very freezing coldness to perfection. In
keeping with history's view of later events, a streak of hidden malice
runs through this, with walls of solid black tones, pulsating waves of
bitterness, crushing explosions of noise, wails and voices dragged from
the very depths of hell itself, along with blanketing swathes of night-encrusted
hatred, alien skitterings echoing in dank cathedral spaces and, brooding
over all, a coldly calculating demonic intelligence that is the inhuman
heartbeat of the album. The word uplifting could never be applied to this
release, the malicious vein of misanthropy is almost a tangible force
that beats you around the head.
Just like any other type of music there are those whose output
is merely competent and workmanlike. There's no pretence at originality—simply
taking what others have done and regurgitating it—and they offer
nothing ground-breaking. Inade however were forging a new style then,
pushing the envelope to use the vernacular, and even today, nearly 12
years later and with all the developments within the genre during that
time, it still feels fresh and innovative and can hold its own. I can
almost guarantee that the same will hold true of Aldebaran in another
12 year's time. |
From Sonic
Immersion: (by Bert Strolenberg)
I received this cd together with the re-release of Sleep Research
Facility's "Nostromo". "Aldebaran" appears to be the
debut-album of Inade, aka the German duo Knut Enderlein and René
Lehmann . They have the intention "to go beyond the in part static
and often repetitive working principle of Ambient Music by adding further
attributes".
The album originally came out in 1996, and saw a second re-release
in 2000 before it saw this third reincarnation in November 2007. "Aldebaran",
named after the black sun of the secret knowledge, is a journey into dark
and cloudy ambient music with lots of drone fields, pulse rhythms and
minimal textures creating a dense and overall gloomy atmosphere. Vast
fields of desolation and coldness are featured on the whole album, while
some few influences from industrial ambient can also be noticed.
This is both weird and mysterious music in which you never
know what lies around the corner, so make sure to check out a few soundbites
before you step into the total isolated and hypnotizing world of "Aldebaran" |
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