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ESCAPADE
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REVIEWS
Expose - Issue #12 Spring 1997 -
One wouldn't think that music this trippy could come from the USA in the nineties; indeed, the references in Escapade's music go back to the experimental Krautrock of the earliest seventies - Faust, Guru Guru, Cosmic Couriers, and Can. What with a totally instrumental improvisational five-piece lineup of drums, bass, guitars, samplers/noise generators, and heavily processed bass and guitars, they manage to create three lengthy free-form psychedelic jams, each topping the sixteen minute mark, plus one condensed piece. The opener "Immersion" explores the same fertile territory that Amon Duul II's "Marilyn Monroe's Memorial Church" did; beginning with the second track, they begin to rock harder and go even deeper into experimental realms, combining driving rhythms with an industrial vengeance. Yes indeed, pass the sugarcubes, please. The ever-present electronics are purposely primitive, non-keyboard generated, and generally asynchronous, giving the music a decidedly free-form psychedelic feel, yet unlike so many of the modern neo-psychers who operate only a few beats away from the techno realm, Escapade revels in its rawness and energy, an affirmation of how far we need to go back to capture the true essence of space-rock. Recommended!
- Peter Thelen
AUDION - Issue #37 (UK) -
A step on from early Djam Karet, with a smattering of Ozrics and a lot of Krautrock type energy, Escapade are yet another American band that have done the wise thing. Yes, they've gone against convention, avoided songs, avoided normal rules, deciding to just whip-it-out, and whip it good! More than anyone else, Escapade remind me of an obscure early-80's band called Ra Can Row, but with a much greater degree of improvisation. I could draw in lots of comparisons if I wanted to, though most would be superficial. It's just great guitar with great bass and drums backing, good old "acid-jam" if you like. A personal concert in your living room!
- Alan Freeman
Jam Magazine Nov. 1996 -
For folks entranced by the mind warpage of Spiritualized, Experimental Audio Resarch, or Spacemen 3's acid jams, the psychedelic ambience here is bent on mashing your cerebrum inside out. This New York City quintet (a guitar power trio with a couple of guys sampling and processing) mixes Savage Republic's tribal grooves with Hawkwind's space rock attack in three long (16 minutes plus) improvs and a short rehearsal piece. While their sonic emissions are not as structured (nor hard rock) as Ozric Tentacles or Porcupine Tree, fans into any of the bands referenced here should take the opportunity to explore these brain teasers. ***1/2
- Richard Proplesch
Music Uncovered - Issue #26, Feb. 1997 -
Escapade in the studio are part mad scientist, part jamming rockers, and part drumming shaman. This NYC band improvised all the music on Searching for the Elusive Rainbow as they played it. Consequentley it often does sound like jamming, but it's interesting jammin'. Esacpade is Christian Doscher (guitar), Hadley Kahn (drums), Joey Murphy (bass), Paul Hilzinger (electronics) and John Ortega (processed bass, guitar).
The electronics generate noises ranging from loopy trilling, to bursts of buzziness that could be telemetry from a space probe. The drums and bass somehow count time, while the guitars and other instruments move through a variety of psych/space/free jazz/out there rock. Everybody has something to say instrumentally, sometimes one dominates, sometimes they all "talk" at once. 'Immersion' for example is an 18 minute track that builds up from ambient spacescapes to a blaring guitar workout.
- dp
NEW SONIC ARCHITECTURE - No. 1 -
That the CD insert includes a quote from Magical Power Mako should tell you everything you need to know about what Escapade are after: Acid-dipped electronic space-rock as transportational and transformational tool for player and listener alike. Mako's "Blue Dot" - itself obviously modeled on early Ash Ra Tempel - works in a similarly intuitive, improvisational fashion. Take all the time you need, start from the middle of nowhere, and, if everything goes according to plan, you just might be stratospheric by the twelve-minute mark. So - guitar, bass, drums, sampler, noise and effects create over fifty minutes of intensive meandering that tends to settle into insistent grooves and build from there, in a way that will be worth the while of Magnog and Jessamine fans, as well as Kraut-nostalgiasts.
- Michael Martens
ACID DRAGON - #18 (France) -
Escapade is a new American prog band playing psychedelic rock close to the early Pink Floyd and early Krautrock (Can, Tangerine Dream...) that is purely instrumental and hypnotic. Recorded live in the studio, this opus putting the stress on improvisation is definitely far from the mainstream charts (no catchy melodies here, folks!). If your musical tastes run to cosmic, spacy prog rock, you should find Escapade to be right up your alley!
C&D SERVICES (UK) -
"SEARCHING FOR THE ELUSIVE RAINBOW"
THIS IS PHENOMENAL! Forget your 'Unknown Deutschland' and your Krautrock reissues because here is a new band who knocks most of that stuff into minor league status. An instrumental band from the USA who manage to make the likes of Can, Agitation Free, Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru and Faust sound like also-rans, with a CD of music that is just so intense, dynamic, powerful, full-sounding and accessible that you will be playing it for a long,long, long time to come. Built around guitars, electric bass, drums, synths, sampler, feedback generator and electronically altered bass sounds, this is absolutely incredible music from start to finish. It has just 4 tracks, 3 around the 16 minute mark and one 5 minute piece, and opens with a dense, claustrophobic set of synths and space effects in brilliant 70's styled cosmic fashion for 4 glorious minutes before a rhythm emerges from the bottom of the mix and the mass of synths and effects is accompanied by a distant guitar lead, even more synths and treatments, all very much influenced by the giants of Krautrock, but never did it sound this good. By 8 minutes, the drums are turned up a notch in a sort of classic Guru Guru/early Ash Ra Tempel manner and a combination of synths and rumbling bass undercurrents as well as actual bass work drives the track along in a slow but heavy and deliberate fashion while the guitar begins to rise from the mix as the intensity and pace accelerate and the composition turns into a blazing supernova. Just unbelievable and the scorching guitar-led finale with the masses of synths, bass and drums swirling all around, will leave you gasping, believe me. The 16 minute track 2 reminded me a lot of classic Agitation Free only with one hell of a lot more going on in the mix and a sense of urgency that the German lot never had. Throughout the track there is some astounding electric guitar work with the ever present solid drums and endless miles of synths, space sound and electronics plus a brilliantly heavy set of bass sounds all combine to form one of the most fantastic tracks I have heard in years, and this is nothing short of perfection. Needless to say, the other 2 tracks are equally as brilliant, and this has got to be one of the very best instrumental albums of the last decade, not just in the field of Euro-rock, but in any musical field! Essential listening? You'd better believe it!
- Andy Garibaldi, CD Services, Dundee, Scotland
REVIEWS OF OTHER ESCAPADE RELEASES:
Inner Translucence
Obscured Dialogues
Citrus Cloud Cover
Due to a Faulty Premonition
Remembrance of Things Unknown
Rule #3
A Thousand Shades of Grey (split w/ ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE)