#003: Das Kitchen – “Golden Vault”

What is music? What is friendship? What is innocence? When the members of DAS KITCHEN stopped playing TECMO BOWL and plugged in the 4-track, little did they know that they would open the GOLDEN VAULTS of knowledge that store the answers to such questions. From their humble beginnings in a dirty ALLSTON kitchen, to their humble middle period performing in public only twice for college students and then GEESE, to the humble and somber moment when members parted ways, it was a period of rigorous experimentation. Since they shunned the stage and only joked about releasing this music, this archive is the world’s first chance to examine these inept yet singular sound baubles.

They were their own biggest fans- still are- and biggest critics to boot. Fueled by MOLSON keg cans and saag paneer, the sessions often got quite heated and malodorous. A neighbor once informed them that it was difficult to sleep while DAS KITCHEN music was performed. Other times, they marveled at the petal-unfolding beauty they discovered within and felt good when a young student in CHINA wrote them a fan letter. Years later, the dust has settled on the tapes from which these introductory tracks were culled. This isn’t even the raging, really out, die-hard stuff, more a survey of the most accessible landscapes traversed by the group. It’s not hard to make ridiculous comparisons to established artists: Casios get kosmiche in the manner of CLUSTER, sample collages touch on the ethnographic concerns of THIS HEAT, the outlandish clattering of THE SHADOW RING is audible in retrospect. Not that the group was aware of any of those groups at the time! BLUEPRINTS? More like brewprints. Anyways, what’s important is that someone got around to making us get around to make this stuff available, and here it is!