Weite
Oase
Stickman Records
Some musical genres exist so far outside of the mainstream that they never seem to age and that’s certainly the case with psychedelic rock. Let’s face it; those extended instrumental jams and delay loops were never going to trouble the charts, so the scene never got tainted by crass commercialisation. Away from the spotlight’s glare successive generations have discovered the delights of altered states and now Berlin-based supergroup Weite are here to fill our heads with acidic visions. Pooling their considerable talents for their sophomore album Oase (German for “Oasis”), Weite have assembled seven tracks which take the listener on a mind-bending journey. Hallucinogenic (but without the hallucinogens), Oase uses all its charms to lull us into a false sense of security with elongated, flowery passages before inserting knockout blows; there’s a sense of danger emanating from the grooves that makes this album more Stooges than Donovan. Drawing equal influence from the UK’s “Canterbury Scene” and their native Krautrock, Oase take the best from both worlds and melds them into a cohesive whole, meaning those progressive suites are powered forwards by unstoppable motorik beats. In our age of bland, faceless musicians this makes Weite’s second album something of an oasis, or, more appropriately, Oase.
Review by Peter Dennis.