pyrolator: inland

Pyrolator's Inland (originally released in 1979) provides musical commentary on the late '70s in West Germany, with its undercurrent of paranoia and violence. Inland is one of the most radical, modern and unconciliatory albums of its, or any other, time. The cover for Inland illustrates this atmosphere: tones of grey and brown instead of '70s bliss. The political situation in West Germany is at its most volatile. The war between the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) and the State escalated two years before. The spirit of departure which characterized the early years of government by Willy Brandt and the socialist-liberal coalition, dissolved in the so-called "years of lead." Taking part in a demonstration against occupational bans could lead to the very same, and the chances of falling into a terrorist manhunt or staring a gun in the face were not so slim, particularly for young people. Pyrolator's aim was to make a protest album, one detached from all convention. A total absence of common musical structure and an unfiltered rush of sound recordings create a nightmarish, claustrophobic atmosphere. Pyrolator used a Korg MS20, SQ10 sequencer, B20R home organ, a Davolisint synthesizer, a Logan string orchestra and a dual-channel tape machine. Inland is both a rejection of the new form of protest song, the throaty, despairing scream of punk rock, and a rejection of the traditional form of protest song as nurtured far into the 1980s by the bards of the green, alternative milieu. Furthermore, there is another side to Inland: a desire for something new, a passion for experimentation, seeking to extend one's own horizon and that of others. This desire runs through all of Pyrolator's work, from his Inland debut to his 2011 release Neuland (BB 084CD). Thus Inland remains, in spite of its protests and rejections, a positive album. For inherent in every "no" is a "yes" to something else. Maybe something better.