Astrel K - The Foreign Department

 

Darren Jones, also know around here as Starbuck the scrupulous and steadfast mate of It Starts, has come up with another suggestion which escaped my notice. And typically it's another good one.

The Foreign Department. The latest album by Ulrike Spacek's Rhys Edwards. Darren directed me to the previous Astrel K one. It was total amzeballs! This is another winner.

Like Ulrike Spacek who I saw last year, Astrel K have a clockwork quality in terms of the way their parts work. Where they seem to differ is that there is a Mittel Europa paranoid quality to The Foreign Department.

I was led to thinking of Central Europe. Of Vienna, Prague and Budapest. Cities which have a special place in my heart.

These cities, particularly the latter two, have a tendency to be referred to as Eastern Europe. I'd contest this is a misnomer. They're very much Central Europe to my mind. The home of great novelists and playwrights. Kundera, Kafka, Koestler and Musil. Film directors such as Milos Forman. Classics like The Third Man. atmospheres of general ennui and slight confusion. But fabulous nonetheless.

The Foreign Department has it's finger an diesem puls.Schalte deninen geist aus. Entspannen sie sich unt treiben sei flussabwarts. Danke sehr Starbuck. Ein leben auf der meereswelle.