Lemmings - Bachdenkel

Near-unclassifiable monolith of early 70s heaviness

Emerging from the ashes of one time Apple Music Publishing artistes U No Who and sensing their fortunes lay elsewhere, Birmingham trio Bachdenkel packed up and left the UK for France in 1969. They soon found themselves hanging out in Paris with the Art Ensemble Of Chicago and Anthony Braxton, and so began the legend of Bachdenkel’s long-lost debut album Lemmings.

Recorded in Paris in the summer of 1970, it was eventually released in Europe three years later by Philips, after both United Artists and Warners had dropped their initial interest. Lemmings is probably best described as the uncompromising sound of rock left to ferment in exile far from the prevailing stylistic trends of the era. Immersed in foreboding atmospherics and laden with a surplus of atypically structured songs, Lemmings, or, to give it its full title, Lemmings (And Other Songs Of Alienation) fuses elements of prog, heavy rock, psychedelia and free experimentation into a challenging hybrid that borrows from a multitude of sources. In addition to the original 10-track album, this expanded edition includes three bonus tracks and is the first time Lemmings has had an official UK release.

Ork | ORK 6

Reviewed by Grahame Bent
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