ADVENTURES AT THE BABOOINUMFEST 2017

This album is one that I never would have reviewed if not for the fact that it was a request. The reasons for this are that as well as this being from a band I had never heard of, and likely would not have discovered, it's also a live album, which are usually massive turn offs for me. When it comes down to it, I am quite grateful for such a request, because this album turned out to be great. The sound quality and production is great, and the mostly improvisational style of the tracks works well on a live album. As for the songs themselves, I find them to be quite exceptional for the most part, being plodding, slow, psychedelic jams with some really great emphasis on the bass clarinet during the majority of the highest points on the album.

The tracks on the album all have a fairly consistent, psychedelic sound to them, which makes this album fairly easy to listen to and simply tune out to while the mostly calm music just plays on. 'A Dedication To The Floydian Sun' is a fairly obvious homage to 'Pink Floyd'. I find the bass clarinet here to be quite good and the way it adds more elements of guitar near the end to be well executed and enjoyable to listen to. 'A Flower In The Smoke' is one of my favourite songs on the album, starting off with a consistent beat and some really fun use of the electric piano, before continuing nicely throughout with a decent guitar line. The next track, 'Coming of the Troubled Waters' becomes somewhat more interesting with last 20 seconds of the song heavily using soundscapes, making for some great, trippy atmosphere that then carries over to the next track, which has its one minute intro solely use the electric piano with a lot of reverb, further having the listener become enraptured in the atmosphere. I like the post- rock vibe the next couple of minutes have, almost sounding like the first album of 'Magyar Posse' at points in the repetitive groove that slowly changes and becomes more powerful, until the final portion of the song uses the electric piano to sound like an organ, which does sound quite pleasant. I really love the slightly eerie tone 'My Soul Melteth For Heaviness has', with some really cool sounding interplay between the bass clarinet and guitar. 'A Dedication To The Babooinumfest' is the improvisational peak of the album for sure, with each instrument having compelling sections that both sound great, and are also quite skillful as well, with the couple of freakout moments on it being quite short and adding a lot to the track, rather than taking away as they often can do if they go on for too long. I enjoy the fact that the next two tracks borrow elements from the songs that share parts of the same title as them, as I always do find reprises such as these to be quite entertaining as long as they aren't overused. 'The Light of Things' is a short, fun track with heavy emphasis on the bass clarinet. 'And A Heaviness Falls From My Soul' stands as the single weak point on the album for me, as I really don't find too much about it to grab me in any particular way. It is fortunate that the final song, 'Forsake Me Not' easily makes up for this slight misstep, utilising both bass guitar and standard clarinet, having some incredibe moments throughout, both due to the grooviness of the bassline, and due to the subtle melodic elements scattered throughout, especially with the clarinet.

Overall, I find this album to be very high quality, with almost every track being extremely compelling and entertaining, which can be quite tough to do, given the nature of the sound that is achieved on here. It isn't quite worth 5 stars, simply because there were very few points in which I was truly 'wowed' by it, but it was undoubtedly wholly enjoyable nonetheless, and I'll definitely be sure to check out any future works by this band.

Best Songs: A Flower In The Smoke, A Dedication To The Babooinumfest, Forsake Me Not

Weakest Songs: And A Heaviness Fell From My Soul

Verdict: I do find this to be an album that would be fairly easy to enjoy on some level, as long as the listener enjoyed instrumental music, as none of this is particularly challenging, with most of the music being quite soft and pleasant, with fairly short songs in general, the only issue being that by the end, it can start to feel quite tiring, despite the great closing track. Definitely worth a listen in my opinion.