- Gurgel Meter 3:57
A few Blumfeld reminiscences and a mysterious story about “Pascal” printed on the inner sleeve, that’s the lure of the band METER from Heidelberg and Limburg, Germany. On their second release, almost everything that would be expected from a guitar-bass-drums formation currently in terms of studio technical gimmicks is left out – or it hides well. The darkly washed-out and seemingly unambitiously garage band sound of the no-longer-youthful quartet could be read as a liberation initiative for ears burned by today’s usual overproduction.
Is the vocal track in the opener Gurgel actually doubled, or is it the instrumental passages that wrap around the vocal melody so cleverly that it sounds like a chorus – who knows. In any case, Thorsten Rosam, vocals, Michael Braun, guitar, Jens Fischer, bass, and Timothy Färber, drums, are not performing a rockism spectacle. The song lyrics insist on their own personal relevance in a beat-shifted syllabic rhythm, similar to the rather shy than furious crescendo of the electric guitar. Behind a veil of scuffed, perhaps only imaginary violins, it moves to the line “A beautiful child with beautiful parents. Crystal and silver polished up.” But hey, “All of it, it all is fictional. As of today, as of today we’re finally meeting. To put an end to what one dares not to succeed in.” And then the strings rumble again and the drums vibrate, a bit as if through clenched teeth: “One hand seeks a foothold here and now. The other keeps the medicine on hand. Time itself shall burn and fade away – a glass with a dark liquidity.” Muted acoustics, or is it the old practice room carpets that reveal only as much as theyhide?. Even if Thorsten Rosam occasionally throws himself a bit more into his vocal chords and into the foreground, the restraint remains the basic motif.
To show that melancholy can also creep up light-footedly, METER have saved the small additional story from the provincial everyday life of the cycling suburban rebels. On this four-track mini-album, it forms the atmospheric counterpoint to the late-maturing bitterness of many a song line. Ultimately, the mysteries surrounding “Pascal” are not resolved anywhere, she herself does not appear in the lyrics, she appears as a comic figure in the layout and the record is dedicated to her. Yet the secrecy never comes across malicious, dismissive orin a know-it-all manner. On the contrary, it conjures up that warm, intimate feeling of childhood and adolescence that at some point detaches itself from concrete events and chronological processes and magically welds both protagonists and audience blindly together. And that is exactly why it is so vulnerable and easily destroyed.
SOURCE: Official Bio
LINKS:
http://www.metermusik.de
https://www.facebook.com/metermusik
https://metermusik.bandcamp.com/releases
