This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
When some folks hear the words instrumental post-rock, they reach for our skip button. But Munich experimentalists Couch should keep anyone from pushing the doomsday button.
Neither a bunch of free-form musical anarchists nor some gang of proggy showoffs, this Krautrocky foursome champion a style that is equal parts disciplined tension and brooding repetition. A typical song on their fourth album Profane consists of a simple, three-chord piano vamp, a strait-laced drumbeat with a rock-solid bass line Krazy-glued in place, and an understated, endlessly repeated guitar line — so much precision and routine that the occasional, tasteful improvisations stand out like a prop comic at a library. If only all instrumental post-rock were this transfixing.
