Holger Czukay
La Luna
Tone Casualties
Hey look! It’s Holgar Czukay’s second album, and I’m in the minority that can enjoy Czukay’s work without all the Can baggage and referencing. Don’t like Can, don’t listen to Can. But I do like me some of that freakout/mystic/oracle romp that Czukay is putting out at a nice, regular pace. La Luna is one track, one looooooong track, in celebration of the goddess of the moon. Hey, everyone has gotta celebrate something, and maybe I would have rather heard an album in celebration of Ron Asheton, but maybe I’m splitting hairs here. It’s one boffo central beat, way creepy, and everything, all sorts of electronic mazes, and U-She’s surprisingly tuneful emotings, build around it…
If I had to give a reference point, I’d say the latter works of Coil crossed with Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings. I like this record for a lot of reasons outside of the music. One such reason is that my copy is way scratched up (thanks, Tone Casualties!), but get this: you can’t tell when its skipping ‘cuz it just sounds like a pleasant schizophrenic quirk in an otherwise lush soundscape. Just like early Oval records! Nostalgia can be forward-thinking, if you do it right. Secondly, and this is no slur, I just looooove the idea of Mad Boffin Holgar Czukay buried away in his sound “lab” with the full-on incense and candles treatment, making music in celebration of obscure earth goddesses and lunar bodies with his Wiccan wife. He’s probably not wearing any shoes. Does it keep him young? Certainly keeps me young…
Tone Casualties, 6353 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90028; http://www.tonecasualties.com
