The Brain is the Alias of Karl Gottlaus, a German-born guitarist and electronics engineer now living in Portland, Oregon. This is released on “Workshop of Filthy Creation, which is an allusion to Frankenstein. I was unfamiliar with either the artist or label. The label describes the album thus: “Featuring a battery of analog synthesizers, audio generators, and tape machines, as well as slashing, angular guitar and thunderous drums, All Human Is Error takes the molten past of 70s-era “kosmische musik” as an aural starting point before erupting into a volcanic hailstorm seething with calculated menace and unpredictable mayhem that at times recalls the instrumental fury of King Crimson and the industrial fumes of Heldon and Lard Free.” Sounds promising, so let’s drop this on the turntable and see what we have on the slab.
“Latent Violence Part 1” is a slow grooving guitar-based droning number. I was just starting to wonder where the experimental side would come in when “Latent Violence Part 2” kicked in with sweeping analog sounds and more Moog than you can shake a stick at. You could look at Part 1 as the solid and Part 2 as the gas version, in that one is much more solid and put together and the other is much more airy. “Red Noise in a Distortion Field” features “guitar, Minimoog, ARP Odyssey, ARP Omni, Audio Generator, Moog Filter Bank, Mu-Tron Phasor, Tapes” This is an analogfest with hiss and crackle and a repetitive beep throughout with a whole lot of phaser effects. Think 1950s sci-fi background sound effects and you’ll be on the right track.
Flipping the album over, we have “Scission,” which is almost funky with some serious drum lines by Body Hammer, who I could find nothing about, other than the bio that describes him as a Japanese drummer. “No Peace In Our Time” opens with a political speech snippet and then kicks into a repetitive synth line and sweeping synth washes. Finally, “Iron Lungs for Cities That Rust” closes it off with an atmospheric piece that evokes the title. Body Hammer plays both drums and sheet metal over The Brains sweeping synth, guitar wails, and static to evoke a post apocalyptic wasteland. Then, it just suddenly ends.
This is interesting stuff, and the variety is nice. If you like experimental with structure, this is well worth checking out. This album weighs in at around 41 minutes and is limited to 200 copies.