Gila - 1999 - Night Works

Gila
1999
Night Works

01. Around Midnight (5:46)
02. Braintwist (7:45)
03. Trampelpfad (6:11)
04. Viva Arabica (5:24)
05. The Gila Symphony (13:46)
06. Communication II (3:04)
07. The Needle (0:52)

Conny Veit / guitar & vocals
Fritz Scheyhing / keyboards
Walter Wiederkehr / bass
Daniel Alluno / drums

Although this album was never officially released at the time, this should be the second Gila album and even if only played as a radio broadcast, all of the tracks were brand new and not available on their other two albums. We can thank once again the great label Garden Of Delights for releasing officially this great album out to the public. Unfortunately this is not a studio album, so the sound is not perfect, but it is rather good given the conditions and the complicated story of the tapes.

This album is a real gem if you enjoy psych/prog rock and confirms Gila's reputation as the German Pink Floyd (much more than Eloy will ever be), but by Floyd, one should understand the pre-DSOTM period. Yes we are dealing with mid-tempo tracks allowing for great mood swing and many semi-improvised instrumental interplay while the lyrics are generally open enough to allow flexibility. Most of the tracks have a feeling as if they were the extended versions of Floyd's More soundtrack and you could easily glide through the skies with a doobie at your disposal.

After this record, Veit will form Popol Vuh , but will come back with Fichelscher and Florian Fricke to record the following concept album Wounded Knee about the organized massacre of Amerindians. In the mean time this posthumous release is fo be seen as a full-fledged Gila album and right on par with the historical two albums. A must for psycheads and Krautheads.

This is a live recording from Cologne in 1972 that was broadcast live by a radio station. As has been mentioned, all the songs on this album are new and different from the 2 studio albums they recorded. After this recording the band would eventually break up and guitarist Conny Veit would join POPUL VUH and play with them on their "Hosianna Mantra" and "Seligpreisung" albums. Conny decided between the recordings of those two records to reform GILA with 2 of the key POPOL VUH members(Florian and Daniel) and make one more album called "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" which would also sound more like POPOL VUH than the 2 earlier GILA recordings(i'm including this live one). Conny would then go on to play for GURU GURU after his stint with POPOL VUH. I was reminded of the live KOLLEKTIV record when listening to this because they both have no crowd noise at all. Maybe they were all too wired, I don't know. I have to say though that i love this record. I can listen to this all day long, it's so trippy and hypnotic and well played.

"Around Midnight" is just one of those songs i was talking about that you just close your eyes, relax and enjoy the catchy repetitive beat. It opens with different sounds starting to form a melody that slowly builds. Organ 3 minutes in before it settles down, then it kicks back in a minute later. "Braintwist" is a song that builds to a nice raw sound. The organ is great. Check out the guitar 1 1/2 minutes in that goes on and on for almost 2 minutes. Drums then lead the way with the organ helping out. Vocals after 4 minutes by Conny are theatrical at times. Maybe "crazy" is the right word, the lyrics sure fit that description anyway. Very trippy stuff man. Guitar is back before 7 minutes. "Trampelpfad" has such a good rhythm to it. It's mesmerizing to say the least. Amazing sound ! Guitar comes in before 3 1/2 minutes as the beat and organ continue. The guitar starts to get more aggressive. Nice.

"Viva Arabica" opens with a steady beat that eventually starts to speed up. The guitar joins in at 1 1/2 minutes. The organ starts to rip it up after 4 minutes. "The Gila Symphony" is almost 14 minutes long. It opens with experimental sounds with no real melody. These sounds do stop as organ, bass, drums and other sounds come and go. A beat arrives 3 minutes in. A minute later a full sound kicks in including the guitar soloing over top. The sound starts to get more intense and the guitar is back 6 minutes in. It settles down 7 1/2 minutes in. Organ is back. Guitar is too 11 minutes in as this song blends into "Communication II" with no change at all as drums, guitar and organ continue to mesmerize. "The Needle" was cut short by the radio station because the alloted time was up. That's disappointing as we get but 52 seconds of this final track.

So this is in the same style as "Free Electric Sound" and is for me a valuable historical document,and besides I love the music presented here.