In The Guru Lounge

In the Guru Lounge is a brand-spanking new studio album by Guru Guru, and what a strange creature it is. It features 14 new tracks with a lineup that includes drummer Mani Neumeier, guitarist and reedist Roland Schaeffer, Luigi Archetti on guitar, and bassist Peter Kühmstedt. Everybody in this band sings. There are also a number of guest appearances here, including Hans Reffert on guitar and lap steel, and a pair of vocalists: Lisa Kraus sings on "Cool Baby" and "At the Guru Lounge," and Etsuko Watanabe sings on "Tokyo Girl" (the strange and beautiful opening track) and "Bo Altai." Here elements of funk, slide guitar blues, space rock, lounge music, warped torch songs, and (of course) spaced-out Krautrock weave and wend, move and swirl around the mix. These folks take their camp seriously and it feels like it. This is nearly indescribable music, which is indeed a compliment. Song structures juxtapose against a serious need to improvise and stretch — give a listen to "Bo Altai" and "Pow Wow" during the album's first half, where free jazz, funk, Native American-styled chant, and Delta blues beat each other into submission and the music gets all the wilder as a result. The second half of this set is devoted to the seven-part "Guru Lounge Suite." This is the place where time ceases to matter and space is the place, though it is also held within the tension of these tunes. On part one, "Cool, Baby," saxophones and slippery laid-back funk grooves shimmer and whisper as wordless vocals, Indian stringed instruments, and various percussion elements find their way into the mix, easing their way in before the suite explodes into full-blown jazzed-up Krautrock excess with "Expressions." The tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk ("Kirk It, Roland") is one of the set's finer moments, with a loose and spooky funk groove driving the cut into oblivion before skronk guitars paint the spaces and the tempo picks up into a blur as the saxophones bleat and the vocalist tries to keep up. Ultimately, this is a recording that gives up its secrets slowly, but the effort to listen and find the linear path through In the Guru Lounge is a rewarding one. Comparing this recording to Guru Guru's older work isn't fair. This needs to be taken for what it is, and as such, it's a fine and labyrinthine listen.