Bohren & der Club of Gore: Midnight radio

I've had a dull, mind-numbing day at work. I go home early, just to slouch down in my huge easy chair and put on Midnight Radio by Bohren & der Club of Gore. I turn up the volume really, really high, so that every sound bounces around in my tiny flat. Admittedly, I should be riding a car on the autobahn somewhere between Berlin & Dresden in the middle of the night, but nevermind. I open the window to let the music blend into the noise outside; car horns, birds, bus breaks, church bells - and the wind (it's a really windy day). Just as the other Bohren records, this is minimalist jazz/drone/ambient stuff. But as I've listened to all of the albums by the band (except Midnight Motel, yet to be found) I've come to notice some distinguishing marks of them all. Midnight Radio has a lot in common with Geisterfaust - they are both extremely slow, revolving around some very, very sparse, somber, resonating riffs. Yet there's a queer grooviness (however slow) of this album that sets it apart from Geisterfaust. Unlike Sunset mission, there's no sultry saxophone that would add some sweetness to the songs. It's often the notes of the upright bass that set the mood, but the use of percussion - it's used here and there - provide some variation and, also, a few surprises (esp. on disc two). Some of the riffs make me think of Neil Young's soundtrack to Dead man (great movie, by the way); one feels the resonance in one's head, literally, like a throbbing headache. There's also a lot of rhodes electric piano, and perhaps that's why "Riders in the storm" does not seem a far-fetched association here. There's something about the melodies on the album, the atmosphere and the road theme that resembles a lot of the stuff that goes on in that Doors song (I like the Doors, and esp. that song even though the lyrics are what they). Midnight Radio clocks in at over 1 1/2 hour, but you should here it from beginning to end. One of Bohren's best albums, IMO.