POOR GENETIC MATERIAL: Free To Random

Cover	Release	Style
	2005-06-01	instrumental soundscapes
	Label
	www.quixote-music.de
	Website
	www.poorgeneticmaterial.de
	Contact

	Playing Time	Cat. N°
	56:29	QXT CD29
	Review by	Rating
	Danny	7/10
nederlands	Review
I ended my review of the previous album of this band with expressing my hope what Spring would bring, because they already used all the other seasons as album title. What a surprise when their latest release arrived, with the title “Free To Random”. But no panic, because this is an intermediate release to fill the gap as we are waiting for the new album and also a chance to buy something from the previous life of PGM. The newest album takes longer than expected, because of the change of drummer and they are building a new studio. To say it with the words of the band, taken from the liner notes in the booklet: “The pieces on this album date back to what might be called PGM’s formative period. On the one hand we wanted to preserve as closely as possible the original atmosphere of the recordings, on the other hand we wanted to bring the old material up to PGM’s present state of the art, so what you’ve got before you is a mixture of past and present.” Of course, they miss their major asset, the voice of Phil Griffiths (Alias Eye), which has come the most important trademark of the band. But this is from the time before, instrumental and mostly improvised. A lot of the material was used for soundtracks for films and theatre. “Free to Random” was already released as a part I and part II by the band, but they were only available on CD-R’s. The track “Open” which lasts 16 minutes and is a group improvisation recorded live in 1998. It has been divided over the album and consists of a lot of quiet piano with some occasional guitar and other keyboard sounds. The tracks that are giving a break to the “Open” parts, entitled “One”, “Two”, “Three” and “Four” have a sometimes more rhythmic feeling and contain more keyboard sounds, guitar and Hammond. But it all stays very laid back and relaxed, tracks that can be filed under soundscapes. “Meanwhile” was recorded in February of this year. It’s a little jazzy, quiet piece of music. “Shut”, the final track, dates from 2000 but was completely re-recorded this year. It’s a great track with again some quiet music, but it’s a bit more song-related than the rest of “Free to Random”. You really have to like these soundscapes to appreciate this material. It’s not the easiest of music and takes a while to get into. It’s a way to fill the gap to the next album, but I don’t consider this album as a real Poor Genetic Material release. The music is completely different from the PGM concept and my hunger for the next PGM album hasn’t been stilled. I think the two directions of the band will remain, but my interest goes completely to the vocal line-up.
Musicians
Martin K. Lengsfeld: piano Stefan Glomb: guitars Philipp Jaehne: keyboards
Tracklist
Open (3:49) One (6:47) Open (2:13) Two (7:23) Open (4:50 Three (4:31) Open (4:36) Four (10:43) Meanwhile (4:34) Shut (7:00)


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