By my count this is German Army’s first 7-inch after a metric ton of tapes and a few LPs/CDs, and they don’t waste any time claiming fealty to the format, sounding as if they’ve been pumping these babies out all along. “Crooning Ignorance” is sorta the show pony on this rodeo, and for good reason: Its icy dark-crystal synths and deep rhythmic throbs complement Peter Kris’ voice magically (I’m assuming Kris sings on a lot of GeAr recordings but one can never be sure). Then you have “Travelers,” a bouncy, bubbly, boom-bap-y jaunt that slowly becomes engulfed in sandy, static drone, almost like a villain leaving a superhero in a room filling with sand. A deep, echo-y voice, all too familiar to German Army cadets, entreaties a truce. To what war? We don’t know, we won’t know, we can’t know. Only continued audio excavations by the geniuses behind GeAr will yield an answer. Nový Svět seem destined for scapegoat status saddled next to the hottest outfit in sub-level not-rock, and that’s… not quite the case. At first it seems, for certain, that “Oneofakind” just doesn’t measure up to the greatness of my favorite band. But over the course of the entire side of thick-as-a-brick wax, a switch turns and appeal shines through the blinds with minimal dust, particularly when a trippy-ass, David Lynch-y tail-end turns “Oneofakind” into the embodiment of its namesake, sounding like I always imagined/hoped Sun Araw would eventually sound. That didn’t quite happen (say where is that fellow?), but we have Nový Svět, so rejoice! Still GeAr’s show to run, though; they’re a cancer on the anus of the tape game, ready to eat away major sections of rot in the next few years if not few months. Trying to keep up with German Army has been one of the unvarnished pleasures of my adventures in the audio sphere, and after more than 15, maybe even 20, releases imbibed and often reviewed, I’ve never heard a dud! Unheard-of resolve, rare dedication, and the consistency of a cold, calculating colonel: That’s the GeAr way. As you were.
More about: German Army / Nový Svět
