The following, along with a few necessary comments from me in certain places, are the reviews from various magazines worldwide, for the Krel CD 'Out Of Space'. They have been reprinted as written, occasionally edited, The Krel momentum continues.......
The first review of the (at the time) new Krel CD comes form none other than ORGAN MAGAZINE, so let's hear what they have to say............
KREL – Out Of Space (Dead Earnest) - A collection of new and old (and the lost Shed Sessions and live tracks from the Teepee tour) from Krel. Very very Hawkwind indeed - that’s no bad thing, they’ve always had a good slice of the spirit of the age – no mere android replica playing up again. Krel have been hovering around the very healthy space rock/free festival circuit doing their much loved thing for fifteen years or so now. Without really bringing anything that massively different to the androids dreaming of electric sheep they race down to Motorway City with more than enough space rock style to keep your average lab-coat wearing idiot dance more than happy. Timeless locked-on space travel, tangerine dreams, that pulsing synth under the skin of the pod – warm inviting and deeper and deeper in to the white void, the silver machine is so hard to destroy….. Yes indeed, rather fine space rock. www.deadearnest.btinternet.co.uk
SEAN WORRALL for ORGAN magazine (UK) online and in print - good one, Sean!!!
Het wordt al snel duidelijk waar Krel haar intergalactische mosterd vandaan haalt en wel van het moederschip Hawkwind. Sterker nog, Krel heeft menigmaal in het begin van de jaren negentig geopend voor de aartsvaders en Hawkwind's space captian Dave Brock rekende Krel zelfs tot zijn favoriete bands, voorwaar geen slechte aanbeveling! De mosterd is van de oude variëteit, uit de beginperiode van Hawkwind: up-tempo nummers met heerlijk rampestampend drumwerk en snijdend en gierend gitaarwerk. De zang lijkt als twee druppels water op die van Brock en de gitaar op die van mijn favoriete gitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton dus dat kan niet beter. Out of Space is een compilatie van oefensessies voor de helaas nooit uitgebrachte tweede LP van de band en van enkele live-optredens en ik ben zeer blij dat dit materiaal alsnog uitkomt. Sommige hypnotiserende nummers hadden van mij nog langer mogen duren want een dergelijk goede spacetrip, daar kan je geen nee tegen zeggen. Space on, man! VETTE KRENT ANDRE DE WAAL foriO PAGES magazine (Netherlands) making it his "Vette Krent" or "Pick Of The Month"!!
"Out Of Space" has a guilty secret. While it may appear to be a new record, its roots actually lie in unreleased studio and live songs from '92, which have, in turn, been cleverly grafted to some newer material, to provide an alternative aural journey. Or so the story goes. But to be perfectly honest, unless you were already familiar with the originals you would never have guessed because it sounds like a brand new album rather than a patchwork quilt of old off-cuts. Anyway, if the title was not a blatant giveaway Krel revels in mind bending, hallucinogenic and guitar driven music with a fair helping of synths and samples. The hard-hitting contrast riddled throughout the record is like drifting in and out of the eye of the storm. Thus, even "Androids" and "Star Of Last", which appear rough on the surface, at times, melt into far-flung soloing. Lengthy, trippy jams, like "It's Alive" and "Space Trip" rise and fall akin to the orgasmic Liquid Sound Company experience. Similarly, "Release" and "Golden Tether" are dark, otherworldly soundscapes whereas "Barricades" just rocks relentlessly. If the words, wind and hawk, register in your mind then this is your calling.
http://www.deadearnest.btinternet.co.uk
DANNY ANGUS at PARIAH CHILD fanzine
2005 o Grande-Bretagne
Krel est le groupe d'un seul album,
l'excellent Ad astra paru en 1995.
L'histoire de Krel est intimement liée
à celle de Hawkwind puisque dans
leur première cassette demo, ils
enregistrèrent plusieurs reprises de ce
groupe. Ils se retrouvèrent également
en première partie de leur show en
1992. Out of space contient plusieurs
morceaux de cette tournée, couplés
avec des titres de studio de 1992 et
d'autres beaucoup plus récents. Bien
malin qui peut dire l'année de chaque
morceau ; mais la datation de la tracking-
list est somme toute secondaire
car le fil conducteur de l'album Out
of space est justement le space-rock
le plus efficace, le plus planant et le
plus pêchu… depuis Hawkwind. Pour
la petite histoire, Nick Turner et Dave
Brock amenèrent au sein d'Hawkwind
l'influence de la littérature de sciencefiction
tandis que la musique, constituée
de longues improvisations, mêlait
différents bruitages électroniques,
le saxo free de Turner, les solos de
guitare quasi heavy métal de Lenny,
les développements psychédéliques
de Del Dettmar au synthétiseur et les
imprécations du poète-chanteur Robert
Calvert qui plus tard… deviendra fou.
Rappelons qu'Hawkwind a grandement
influencé le parcours musical du maître
Steve Wilson de Porcupine Tree. Krel
va reprendre à son compte la recette
et développer cet univers avec une
maestria rare, en digne successeur. Les
synthés et les bruitages électroniques
se taillent la part du lion et dans cet
opus de douze titres qui alterne les
moments les plus planants (le superbe
release) avec une énergie de brutes
venues de l'espace (Androids). On ne
s'ennuie pas une seconde et pour votre
serviteur qui n'est pas un inconditionnel
du space-rock (malgré le fait d'avoir
adoré en son temps le Space Ritual
de Hawkwind), il faut reconnaître que
Out of space est bien joliment ficelé et
bigrement efficace. Ce CD nous permet
donc de sortir de notre bien aimé rock
progressif à influence symphonique
pour découvrir de nouvelles contrées
pleines de surprises, de rythmes en
apesanteur et de fureur contenue.
RAYMOND SERINI at HARMONIE Magazine, France
Krel-Out Of Space [Dead Earnest]
Dieses Album enthält unveröffentlichte Stücke aus dem Jahre 1992 sowie
Livematerial der britischen Spacerocker von ihrem Toursupport von Hawkwind.
Hinzu kommen einige neue Studiotracks. Trotz der wilden Mischung klingt das
Album wie aus einem Guss. Ab stärksten sind Krel, wenn sie ganz ruhige
Stücke oder auch nur Soundscapes präsentieren wie etwa "The Visit", "Golden
Tether" oder "Release". Hier bekommt ihre Musik etwas Entrücktes und
Hypnotisches und erinnert an die frühen Pink Floyd oder, wenn Rhythmen
dominieren, an Can. Eine sehr gelungene Reise durch die unendlichen Weiten
des Alls.
JOE ASMODO for AHA (Germany)
This is the latest release of the spacerock band Krel. The music is comprised of live
material from 1992 when they were the support act for Hawkwind on the Electric
Tepee tour (I saw that tour and Krel were great, so you can expect good stuff from the
live elements on this CD), old studio recordings, and newer music from the present
Krel lineup. This has all been mixed so that it is very hard to tell which music is from
which session. The quality of the live recordings is very good; no bootleg quality here.
As for the music it varies between cosmic synths like the opening track"Mober", to full
on heavy spacerock a la Hawkwind: "Barricades" and "Star of Last". Some people have
said that Krell sound more Hawkwind than Hawkwind. This is a little unfair since the
Hawks themselves don't sound much like classic spacerock, in so far as their studio
albums are concerned and the music of Krel goes along way to filling that gap. If
you want your spacerock to be filled with blazing guitar riffs, heavy bass, space
oscillations, oceans of cosmic synths and Huw-Lloyd Langton style psychedelic leads
then look no further. "Out of Space" has all this and great dynamics as the tracks soar
and build. Some of my favourites included "Androids"and "Space Trip" with its soaring
guitar intro.
This is not "Space Ritual" but its a universe ahead of "Distant Horizons",
a great addition to any space rock fan's collection.
DD (well, that's all I have) for SEQUENCES Issue 30 in the UK (in which you can also find an interview with ME!!! Well worth buying.......)
Martin M. is an English guitarist/keyboardist/singer who’s a die-hard Hawkwind fan. At the end of the 80’s he founded a band called Krel with his friends to play some mind blowing space rock. Mr. Dibs, who now also works as Hawkwind’s stage technician and is better known for his own band Spacehead, has also played in Krel. The band released several cassettes with a bit different line-ups before Andy Garibaldi started his Dead Earnest label to put out the first Krel CD Ad Astra in 1997. Ad Astra, that can be considered more or less as Martin’s solo album with some guests, is perhaps the best space rock that was released in the 90’s by anyone except Hawkwind.
Out of Space, this new and long awaited Krel release includes newer and older material in a good 50/50 balance. There are both spacey synthesizer ambient tracks with samples and heavy rocking stuff on it, but all of it is suitably psychedelic. Some of the music is unreleased stuff from the early 90’s, both studio and live from the time they were successfully supporting Hawkwind on their tour. I must say that I’d really like to see the whole band record a brand new album in a good studio, but this combination of archive material and new stuff works very well too.
Hawkwind is naturally the most obvious reference point to the music, but I think Krel has a style of their own, although very similar to Spacehead. Fans of for example Ozric Tentacles will also find interesting parts here, for sure. Some of the best tracks are the long, hypnotic psych jam “It’s Alive” with plenty of spacey effects and a real Hawkwind style spacerocker “Space Trip” reminding me of “Magnu” by Hawkwind.
I can warmly recommend this excellent CD for all space rock fans. www.deadearnest.btinternet.co.uk/krel.htm
PSYCHOTROPIC Webzine Review 28.02.05 by Dj Astro
Out of Time“ heißt unpünktlich, nicht mehr in der Zeit; „out of Job“ heißt keinen Job mehr haben. Dann müsste Out of Space ja eigentlich nicht mehr im Weltall bedeuten. Krel sind also gelandet. Sie beehren unseren Planeten. Was Out of Space aber auf gar keinen Fall heißt, dass man nichts mehr mit dem „Space“ tun haben will.
Kein rechtes Booklet gibt wenige Information. Die Weltall-Nähe aber zeigen die fünf – zum Teil langhaarigen - Gestalten, die im Booklet in Orangefarbenen Raumanzügen stehen. Und der Planet in dessen Umlaufbahn die Space-Rocker am liebsten kreisen, könnte die “Silver Machine“ sein. Zwar bleibt man Härtetechnisch immer diesseits des Hawkwind-Klassikers, verabschiedet sich gelegentlich sogar in wabernde Soundscapes, die über gar keinen Rhythmus oder eine Melodie mehr verfügen, aber der Grundansatz scheint immer wieder durch.
Somit dürfte eins klar sein, wer das Raumschiff Krel besteigt, bewegt sich weniger im Raum, als in der Zeit und entschwebt in die 70er Jahre, die Zeit, in der die experimentelle Musik noch einen Teil ihrer Unschuld bewahrt hatte
Norbert Von Fransecky for AN SICH web magazine, Germany