KOMARA

KoMaRa's self-titled and only album so far -- as I write this in June 2016 -- is a fantastic discovery, just waiting for anyone who enjoys a wide fusion of prog (a la King Crimson or Tool), world music, atmospheric/ambient, industrial rock, and jazz. When I bought this a few months ago, it didn't take long for the album to worm its way through the subconscious corridors and into the darker recesses of my brain.

For dark it is.... as much as a largely instrumental album can be. The gloom seldom lets up, except to make room for the occasional spacey psychedelic (the band website's words, not mine!) trumpet solo or creepy half-mumbled monologue. Make no mistake, though: A formidable musical statement is being made on this debut record, a record which boasts many examples of the savvy use of foreboding textures, inventive percussion and the spooky sounding trumpet - all well integrated and nowhere in more exemplary form than on the album sample track present here on PA, "A Collision Of Fingerprints". In point of fact, Pat Mastelotto seems to have found an even freer reign on his equipment than he usually has when drumming for King Crimson. The often-proffered single from this album - "Dirty Smelly" - has a kind of Soundgarden-esque feel (even if it lacks vocals), although I would say that's the only track to exhibit this feature. This is probably because most of the remainder of the tracks are jam- or improv-based, and another reason I have for thinking so is that the live versions of them vary quite considerably from the studio versions.

Standout tracks, for my money, are: "God Left This Place" (which has a section in it, due to a girlish spoken-word vocal delivering fear-filled utterances, that makes my skin crawl the way the final section of Larks Tongues in Aspic Pt.1 does); "Pasquinade" and "She Sat In Black Silt", which are atmospheric and both quite pretty ; "37 Forms," with some very nice mellow moods being set by the delay-line-processed trumpets; and 2CFAC, a feast of dissonance worthy of appearing on any King Crimson record.

"KoMaRa" (the group or album) would be better known and more popular, if there were any justice. I suspect it is mainly known only to those who dig Tool's, and the more modern King Crimson's, musical efforts though. But they are fairly certain to achieve greater fame, if the prodigious talent assembled together in this band and the quality of this debut album has anything to say about it.