JOURNEY

'Journey' is a promising debut of the german band KARMIC SOCIETY which has the home in psychedelic/space but shows also several transitions and excursions to other styles like kraut or jazz rock and the typical US west coast sound. The album consists of self-composed songs and covers halfway through. A great plus is the unmistakable joy of playing and the good interaction between the individual musicians.

With the permission of author Peter Thomas the band had the chance to rework the melody of the famous german 60s Sci-Fi seriesRaumpatrouille Orion. Nostalgia is coming up. The song is dominated by Mario Schulz's excellent guitar work first of all with a riff which intones the main theme - recognizable for the most (aged) germans at once. Later he also adds a very nice guitar solo. A successful song indeed! The following Bees (Don't Like The Bass) and Manhattan Bank Chase are uptempo grooving songs with a jazzy touch - intensive Hammond and Stratocaster included. After The Flu was recorded live and is representing another mood - much more trippy psychedelic.

The title song Journey sounds similiar to the contemporary KRAAN whereas Winnie Rimbach-Sator is using rhodes piano and moog here. Yoo Doo Right on the other hand is the band's reminiscence to CAN with its typical hypnotic bass theme - nearly in the same length. The QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE cover Witches Moon is unmistakeable sounding like the output of US west coast bands and Dark Star with a bluesy main theme, psychedelic moments and sparkling e-piano closes the album. The band members are demonstrating once more their technical abilities reproducing the jam qualities of GRATEFUL DEAD.

KARMIC SOCIETY delivers a good start meandering between several styles with this debut - 3.5 stars really - with uptrend.