SEESSELBERG

Synthetik I - Elektronische Muzik 1971–1973

(Plate Lunch) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)

“Some of the most innovative electronic music this side of Conrad Schnitzler and Morton Subotnick,” proclaims Jive Time about the 2001 reissue of this self-released early-70s obscurity. “The Seesselberg brothers were clever electronics boffins who built their own synths, which obviously added special sauce to their distinctive sound. For 46 minutes two nerds revel in the temperamental strangeness of their gear, testing its parameters, and thereby drawing a blueprint for future synth iconoclasts…. Synthetik 1 starts spectacularly with “Overture (If Somebody Survives We Will Have A Return Match),” a compendium of burbling, zapping, and oscillating sounds that sets a disorienting tone and warns the listener that Seesselberg are serious about sending you to the craziest quadrants of the omniverse. The 62-second “Eintrachtkreis-Paranoia” is a staccato panic-inducer that resembles the Ronald Frangipane-composed “Fuck Machine” sequence in The Holy Mountain. The equally brief “Verhütungsfreudenwalzer (Kontinenzmusik Für Eine Akademie)” sounds like a computer stuttering a disturbing mantra. These two snippets come off like the brothers playfully fucking about with their equipment. The more focused “Speedy Achmed (Verhaltensanweisung)” offers low-key, sinister pulsations and eldritch screeches that foreshadow Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey…. The highlight, “Phönix,” a 10-minute piece composed for a 1972 film of the same name, is a dazzling menagerie of high-pitched synth discombobulations ruptured by pulsating spaceship-door percussion, emergency-warning bleeps, and weaponized drones.”