Time Control

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Among the legions of neu-Kraut ensembles, it usually takes a superior rhythm section to urge a band's flattering emulations of '70s Teutonicisms beyond rote replication. In spirit, the young members of Kobe, Japan's Time Control subscribe to the hypnotic fascinations of Kraftwerk and Neu! and the polyrhythmic isometrics of Can. But they are failed by their uneven rhythmic section, and their grooves usually spill over into the wrong side of hypnagogia. Despite (or perhaps because of) his youthful enthusiasm, Shinya's drumming is too sloppy to match the illusorily exacting precision of Michael Rother or Jaki Liebezeit. His valiant efforts to keep "Control 3 Mix 2" alive, as it flounders for twelve leaden minutes, are almost amusing in their shambling arrhythmicity. Sunao Inami's bass, which should be fluently dictating hip-hugging grooves in every salacious dialect of funk, is too often a shapeless low-end rumble. Even with Krautrock's familiar quirks surfacing along the winding path, Inama and Sinya's rhythms are too stiff to engage and too relentless to ignore. Momo's wiggling and percolating electronics quote knowingly from the sounds of Cologne, both now (squishy digidubby treatments of the programmed counterrhythms) and then (blanket-thick tones and amorphous hum/driftscapes). He is stingy with melody, however, preferring the pallid haze of post-Eno Cluster over the supernaturally warm keyboard textures of Can, Neu! or latter Tangerine Dream. "Control 3 Mix 1" succeeds nonetheless, sustaining its engrossing dub-scattered grain over an extended course with a generous allotment of effects. A zippy opener ("Control 4 Mix 1," sounding like a lysergic Trance number with all edges melted down), the kinetic burst of "Control 2" and the closing sprawl of "Control 4 Mix 2" provide "Time Control"'s highlights, motorik mesmerism sweetened with gobs of axeman Masato Kawatani's electric Guru Guru-esque slobber.