39: Popul Vuh - Affenstunde

I don't even know what Popol Vuh is. Impossible to describe - especially the early version, again - outside of any convention or any reference point or any kind of music heard before or after. Affen Stunde - Ape Hour according to Google, Monkey Hour according to Cope. Never bought it, never seen it, never been that bothered. I have an odd relationship with Popol Vuh. I love them to death but I don't find myself drawn to them, at least not previous to this project. I fear that may change in the great krautrock re-evaluation.

So Affenstunde, like the best Kraut is two 20 minute tracks, the first being in the mould that follows and titled "Ich mache einen spiegel": I make a mirror. A mixture of watery splashes, leading into electro drone and bleepy ambiance with some frantic bongo action in the background. It breaks down into drumming half way through before returning to electronic whirs before disappearing off into the ether. The title track continues the electronic ambiance theme (and drums) but it's not ambiance without purpose - there's a deep method to madness. Nor is it avant or far out, it's just spiritual. Like Fricke is pouring out his essence onto the record and making it real through an electronic medium. It reads, and sometimes sounds like the worst kind of new age nonsense you've ever heard but as an album it really ties together. He takes you on this journey which from the outside appears horrifically pretentious but inside the moment feels like the most perfect glove.

So how does affenstunde fit into the krautrock life story? I don't know. The growing sense of the new and the reflection and re-understanding of life. Affenstunde makes the notion of pretention seem utterly redundant - that things that sound awful described can actually turn out incredible. Like Buckminster Fuller and his oustidely naff attempts to recreate the world, Popol Vuh create their world and it is wonderful. Soon I will live there and soon I will be one of the happiest people.