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Released

“Wulftsan II”! What a great song. Geoff Barrow of Portishead sat down at the drums for real, at some point, and in 2009 he brought out this trio, very much a child of Neu! and Can. After Stereolab, Beak> is the most direct descendant of krautrock we have. There is that wonderful sense of time elapsing in a human and active way, where repetition has the room to become change. Lots of nice analog synth crunch and contained bass and guitar figures. No big barre chords or drones really—this is that same kind of gourmet selection you hear in Portishead brought to some rocke musicke. And the vocals work? Very undercelebrated album.

Sasha Frere-Jones

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