photo by Clemens Mitscher

Sula Bassana returns from the hyper-spatial outer rim, bearing gifts of otherworldly electronic krautrock.

Continuing the trance explorations of 2010’s, ‘Kosmonauts’ space odyssey, this album envisages a marooned space mariner, whom fortune has smiled upon, bestowing ‘Shipwrecked’ as a soundtrack on infinite loop.

‘Moonbase Alpha Alpha’, conjures the epic sci-fi fave from my formative years, it’s tranquility base setting, ripped from earth orbit, so beginning a series of extraterrestrial adventures, jettisoning a predictable past, for parsec measured, motorik pastures new; ‘Shushi Express’, is an expressionistic event horizon, replete with hypnotic throat singing, a robotic, ‘Realm of the Nebulae’, galaxy quest; ‘No Time : No Eternity’, limbers up with a sense of foreboding, it’s deliberate syncopation, seeking universal truth and arcane knowledge…

I have been smitten with the sounds of Chino Burga / 3AM, ever since I discovered him on the split release ‘Disappear / Waves‘, with Sula Bassana.

I then went on a vinyl mission of amassing his output, culminating in a live show in Zwolle with The Dead-End Alley Band, at the Sociaal-culturele vereniging Eureka.

Here is a conversation about what makes this man tick…

Every now and again, a band comes along that compels you to move heaven and earth to see them play live – 3AM are one such band.

“3AM it’s the solo project of Chino Burga (La IrA de Dios, La Garua, Necromongo, Los Entierros, Black Saqras, Espira) based on riffs, loops and a lot of tremolo.”

I guess it’s fair to say it was that, whole “lot of tremolo” that initially grabbed my “trembling earballs”!

I first heard 3AM courtesy of the ‘Disappear / Waves‘ split with Sula Bassana, it literally blew me away. I needed, and I mean NEEDED more. Thankfully there was the “UFO Blues Tapes” LP release to quell my raging vinyl-lust.

‘Transmissions’ is the new album by 3AM  – “the solo project of Chino Burga (La IrA de Dios, La Garua, Necromongo, etc) based on riffs, loops and a lot of tremolo”.

I first heard 3AM on the ‘Waves / Disappear‘ split LP, with the equally prodigious and multi talented Sula Bassana, and it immediately put the hook in me.

Debut recording ‘UFO Blues Tapes‘ quickly followed into my record box and completed my bedazzled renaissance.

The unique and distinctive tone Chino coaxes from his tormented instruments, instills a monomania that grips me firmly in it’s coiled embrace.

To say Chino’s “DIY !!! NO – FI !!! DRONE ON!!!” philosophy strikes a certain discordant note with me, would be something of an understatement, it’s life affirming essence is overwhelming and all encompassing…