Pre-Order: Sunset Mission [Colored Vinyl] (Ylw) [Reissue]

Formed in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1992, Bohren & der Club of Gore emerged from the German hardcore and metal scene only to abandon it almost entirely - slowing their music to a crawl and inventing a genre all their own. Blending the hushed melancholy of jazz with the weight and menace of doom, the band pioneered what became known as "doom jazz" or "noir jazz": glacial, instrumental soundscapes built from mournful saxophone, spectral Rhodes, brooding piano, deep double bass and the softest brush of drums. Over three decades and a devoted international following, they have made after-hours darkness their signature. "Sunset Mission" (2000), their third album, is where that signature truly crystallised - for many, their definitive masterpiece and the blueprint for everything that followed. Here the band slow time to a near standstill, and for the first time push the saxophone of new member Christoph Clöser to the very centre, leaning into jazz more explicitly than ever before. Across nine tracks and a good 73 minutes, "Sunset Mission" plays like the ultimate soundtrack to a film noir that was never shot - dark, stark, hypnotic and hauntingly beautiful.