This is the second album by a Polish duo featuring Rafal Kolacki, who can also be found in the rather prolific ritualistic metal percussion group Hati and avant-psych terrorists Innercity Ensemble, amongst others. The eleven cuts traverse a wide plateau of sounds mostly arriving from a mesmer-glare where they are forged into shapes clearly designed to reach deep into spaces both inner and outer. Spanning beyond the mere domain of the casual head nodding, however, the music often caresses a salubrious avant-garde sensibility rife with grizzled flourishes of an indiscernible nature always twisting and turning whilst aiming to astound. There’s a rich counterpart to anything conceding to easy enough listening at work here and I’m sure all this would make an even greater impact live. Opener ‘Antiphase’, delves into molten digital territory of an interstellar leaning whilst what sounds like a flute drifts in and out of the proceedings in an appropriate ghostly fashion more in keeping with the general feel of the album. This itself recalls Kluster at times, tho’ clearly filtered through a post-industrial sensibility at once earthy, organic, penumbral and ultimately hypnotic. ‘Basilisk’ could be a solitary Master Musician of Joujouka wandering the desert as a friend jams on percussion and ‘Baldr’ pays witness to a steady thud keeping an array of metal clanging in check that wouldn’t be too out of place in Hati themselves All in all, there’s a nice mix of sounds and ideas at work here that bode well for the next release. An extra four cuts to the LP, too. Smart. RJ.
by Progress Report
