BURU HAZE

I'm not big on these one man projects that seem to be everywhere these days but I just had to check out Benjamin Kantschieder's latest record called "Buru Haze" simply because this Austrian is listed under Krautrock. Yes I was very curious to hear this album after reading the review from octupus-4, and i'm glad I picked it up even though it did leave me unfulfilled. The vocals are what i'd describe as "thin" almost weak sounding, which is fine when it comes to psychedelic music but I do wish a professional did the recording and mixing as I find that part of the album to be lacking a lot. Benjamin needs to find some like-minded musicians in my opinion and just go for it. Easy for me to say I know.

"Naeco II" opens with relaxed sounding guitar as mellotron-like sounds add some atmosphere. Relaxed vocals then drums add to the sound. That light mood is broken by some heavy guitar before 3 minutes. Nice opener. "Buru Haze" has a good heavy groove to it as the vocals join in. Not a fan of the vocals here or the lyrics but I love the guitar especially 4 1/2 minutes in to the end. "The Golden Country" is an instrumental with a spacey atmosphere and relaxed guitar expressions. "Windchild" does remind me of "Moonchild" by CRIMSON as far as the vocals go and sometimes with that mellow sound. Mellotron and picked guitar to start and it stays mellow and spacey throughout.

"Song Of Distance" opens with an excellent instrumental intro with prominent guitar. It does settle back before 2 minutes then the vocals arrive. Another calm piece. "By The Sunrise" opens with birds singing as mellow guitar and bass come in. Reserved vocals follow and I like the laid back guitar solo before 2 1/2 minutes. "Quokka" is a short instrumental that builds right away and it sounds really good. "A New Beginning" is the over 14 minute closer. Atmosphere is created by the organ as we get some relaxed guitar then vocals. Another chill-out tune until the guitar starts to light it up before 3 1/2 minutes. Another calm before 6 minutes and it's almost silent before 8 minutes but not for long.

Man this could be one of my favourite projects with some changes. I just really like his compositions and I did get glimpses of legends like GURU GURU and ASHRA TEMPEL but unfortunately "Buru Haze" is but a shadow right now of the incredible albums that those bands created, in my opinion of course.