Sula Bassana – Loop Station Drones

Sulatron

Dave Schmidt AKA Sula Bassana invites us yet again into his personal cosmic world with his very own inventions for electric guitar. This album was recorded over three nights and expands Sula’s ever shifting psychedelic sound, using only a very basic setup of instruments to keep the mind focussed on the universal otherness.

“Roadburn Haze” starts like a Brian Eno and Robert Fripp mood piece before the drum computer brings in a Neu!-like motorik beat so that swathes of lush echoed guitar can dance Shiva-like over the top of this set up. Sula keeps the phrasing minimal and lets the space between the instruments do the talking as well. Occasionally, it reaches a Steve Hillage-style lift off, where jagged chords roll in a aerial display of connecting with the cosmos. This is the beginning of the ride, so strap yourself in for the rest of the album.

“Rolling In Outer Space” begins in an Atem-style early Tangerine Dream fashion, with sounds spiralling upwards that lead on to hanging organ chords and a melodic lead line that gives images of a camera moving over some planetary landscape that you see in documentaries. Again, this builds up dramatically until it sounds quite grandiose, and the use of astronaut samples at the end adds to its spacey vibe.

“Die Karawane Der Unsterblichen” has a slower drum pattern beneath chiming electric guitar chords. The melody is melancholic, but also the soundtrack to a journey over some vast inhospitable plain on Mars. Wind sound from the synthesisers swirl around and you are in a sci-fi desert scene from Dune as echoed lead guitar plays over the top, giving a sense of vast emptiness.

More swirling synth sounds introduce “Wastelandgarden”; at first this seems to have a darker feel, until an up-tempo drum pattern leads away. Even though some of the synth chords hang ominously in the background, these feel more like Geoff Downes science fiction moments than the darker side of Tangerine Dream. Here and there are flourishes of Vangelis within the track’s sound palette that open it up to become more expansive.

“Dopeshuttle” has the kind of title that feels like it’s a comment on films like Dark Star or scenes from the animated Heavy Metal film. Here we are treated to a Hawkwind– style space rocker with a heavy guitar chords over a steady drumbeat and some fluttering synths all piled on top to add to the ambience. Guitars headbutt against each other in a race through the rings of Saturn. This is seventeen minutes of pure space rock bliss-out that would get many heads groove dancing in the outer reaches of Andromeda.

“Stargate” has a slower start, its drone spinning around the speakers gently and sounds like a glorious Om call to the universe. Guitar slowly emerges from the single bass note, as does a slight rhythm arpeggiation. The track drifts in a blissful way that gives you a pause for meditative thought among the chaos that has surrounded us all within the last twenty months. For me, this was my highlight track (there is always one for me on all of Sula’s releases). The album closes with “One Way”, a desert guitar track with a beautiful sound as the notes echo over each other and gives off a similar vibe to some of the tracks on Eno’s Apollo album and is a perfect way to end the record.

Sula’s solo releases always show a different side to the composer and see him playing around with ideas that reference not only his own work, but that of his musical heroes as well. Some of these pieces appear online on what was a home-streamed concert and is still available there to view. 2021 needed more music like this.

-Gary Parsons-