Most of us are well aware of Aidan Baker's and Leah Buckareff's legendary dronish shoegazer metal outfit Nadja. However, Aidan Baker has many awesome alternative projects, one of which is krautrock, shoegaze and space rock influenced trio Caudal, who are based in Berlin. While Nadja dwells in the more harsh shoegazer metal realm, then Caudal have a more subtle krautrock and postpunk influenced spacey and even dreamy feel to them. Most of Caudal's tracks ascend gradually but persistantly from subtle catchy repetitive basslines and dreamy ambience to noisier psychedelic shoegazer jams. The keyword here is krautrock infused shoegaze, where catchy basslines evolve to even catchier basslines through every Caudal song. Followed closely all the way by mellow catchy drumming. We can see this on albums like Ascension and Forever In Another World. Like the album titles claim, then they are all about ascending to another world and that is really what Caudal offers. Listening to these dreamy yet noisy sounds can make you forget all your everyday surroundings and ascend.
Now some might say this is pretty much the same as with Nadja, but having seen Nadja play live and having heared Caudal, I can safely say these projects have a different feel to them. Caudal's way of ascension differs from that of Nadja's. When seeking ascension through Nadja one should prepare for the lightning way. A harsh and uncompromisable ascension even if it doesn't seem like that in the beginning. Ascension through Caudal is more a way of wandering down meandering dreamy paths not quite knowing where they lead, sometimes even forgetting why or where you are going, and just gaze at the dreamy surroundings. It is a way of forgetful ascension. It's almost like a dream. You can easily listen to Caudal on a bus and daydream yourself into forgetting where you were supposed to go off. Then again it doesn't even matter. Buses and places change, dreamy krautrock in the vein of Caudal remains.
One should not however expect a totally dreamy lull here. Caudal does have its feedback filled noisy psych jam aspects and even some psychedelic noise rock influences. Japanese psychedelic underground isn't too far from it either. This comes especially apparent in their latest album Murk. Perhaps it's time for some murky ascendance. The way is never clear.
Some links
Bandcamp - https://caudal.bandcamp.com/
Discogs - http://www.discogs.com/artist/3260613-Caudal-2
Last.fm - http://www.last.fm/music/Caudal
