KALLOCAIN

As I said in the forum, I've just fallen in deep love with this group, which to my disappointment I only came across a few days ago. The first thing I want to stress here is that I'm truly amazed by the quality and quantity such a scandinavian country is able to put on the market at a high rate in the last years. There must be something in the air over there that inspires people in composing music of such a great beauty. But anyway, back to the review. The album starts with a gitan or gipsy riff: this is Gasoline. For a supposed prog group, which I supposed is more correctly labelled as art rock band, is a very interesting start and the curiosity keeps you going ahead, and you'd better do it. Gasoline then continues on with a more Bregovic style, mixing balkanian and syncopatic sounds to an incessant and ripetitive background synth that, for some strange reasons makes me compare some parts of the song to Front Line Assembly. Please, I know, the comparison is odd saying the least, but this is what popped into my mind the very first time I listened to it. Holding On is the second song and together with Happiness are my favourite ones. I'd been looking for a calm and quiet band for a long time, which at the same time was also capable of giving me intense sensations of melancholy and passion. They succeeded in that open wide. Guys, if you like Chroma Key, if you like Radiohead and Dub music, mix all them up in a homogeneous blender and you will have Kallocain. I've just found out (Sorry for my ignorance) that Kallocain is a book by Swedish novelist Karin Boye "that envisiones a future of drab terror. Seen through the eyes of idealistic scientist Leo Kall, Kallocain's depiction of a totalitarian world state is a montage of what novelist Karin Boye had seen or sensed in 1930s Russia and Germany. Its central idea grew from the rumors of truth drugs that ensured the subservience of every citizen to the state". It reminds me of 1984 by Orwell, and I will defintely read that book. Absinth minded presents a mesmerizing atmosphere, whose landscape could be also well depicted and drawn by Bijork. Open chords and wide use of the legendary Hammond helps the atmosphere become more "scandinavian" and "Edvard Grieg"-like. Look at us is a relaxing and easy-to-listen song, some sort of bedtime song, with a hint of carillon sounds in background. Reality is perhaps the more "Massive Attack"-like composition of the album, but what really strikes me is this underlying sense of nostalgia and sadness, not so uncommon for Swedish, and in general scandinavian music. For a latin, this is a pleasent ingredient to be added to the recipe. Stream follows the same wake of Reality, but with some influences from Pink Floyd, especially in the synth chords. Won't be coming back sounds more as a progressive song, at least as far as the rhythm is concerned. Arpeggios and many different accents in the melody let the song be more sustained and groovy somehow. Kallocain ends with Time, that I would define as the perfect end to an album largely dedicated to moody and melancholic atmospheres. Mike Oldfield and new age music are present in Time in a non mysterious way. To conlcude, if you are after something different in your collection, add this album and you won't regret it. I will give 4 stars to it, but I would tend towards 5 at least to celebrate this "low profile" attitude that the band has, which is clear in contrast to the tendency of the prog community these days to turn up the volume and becoming more heavy metal rather than prog, as far as the adjective and terminology are concerned.