KEMET HIGH TECH. PART I: ARTEFACTS

'Kemet High Tech (Part I: Artefacts)' - Senmuth (7/10)

Music itself aside, the first installment of the 'Kemet High Tech' duology has the remarkable honour of being Senmuth's jubileum (50th) album. While only the longest lasting bands could ever aspire to make so much music over the better part of their lifetime, Senmuth has managed to do this in under a decade. With his productivity and inspiration in no short supply, 'Artefacts' is a celebration of virtually every aspect of the man's music, ranging from haunting ambiance, to booming electronics and guitar work. The end result is possibly Senmuth's most professional effort yet.

As a pretty significant milestone for Senmuth, it's very fitting that 'Kemet High Tech: Artefacts' would revolve around the exploration of ancient Egyptian culture, something that has obviously inspired the sound and process of Senmuth from the very beginning. Based upon and inspired by a trip the man took to the land of the Nile and the Pyramids, there is a very exotic sound here, despite not having the same ethni focus of other albums. In terms of sound, there is some of the best variety and moderation in style yet seen on a Senmuth record. While many of the songs still suffer from not being quite as memorable as one might hope, the production values and execution of the songwriting is of a very high grade. A very prevalent style here is that of electronica, which seems to have take a seat on the backburner for alot of the material Senmuth released earlier in 2008. Here however, no style feels contrived or thrust above the others, although all too many of the musical ideas here sound very similar from other albums by the man.

From the fact that this is merely 'Kemet High Tech Part I', this is only technically half of a larger project. Based on the pleasant experience I had with the much earlier 'Oracle Octave' duology of albums along with the first part of a new duology, I have the sense that Senmuth really puts the extra amount of effort with more ambitious projects such as these, over his typical work. While much of Senmuth's work does amount to a hit-or-miss measure, 'Artefacts' is indeed, a very promising first half of this double album project, and as being one of the strongest albums Senmuth has released thus far, I am all the more excited to hear what 'Part II' has to offer.

Kemet is the original name of the ancient Egypt, and today is a sort of esoteric movement called Kemetism.

The new with this Senmuth's album is that even if with the usual middle-eastern ethnic instruments it sounds more metal. The guitar solo on "Sarcophagus Mystery" is backed by distorted guitar and is excellent. In few words, this time instead of making an ethnic album with the addition of drones and heavy guitars, Senmuth has made a metal album with ethnic instruments.

Many times I thought about which album coul dbe suggested as start point to the huge discography of Senmuth. I haven't listened to all of them yet, but up to now this is surely one of the candidates. This is probably the first time when the two souls of Senmuth are well joined together.

The better parts are the most powerful. In general I prefer when Senmuth explores the electronics. In some albums he sounds quite close to Tangerine Dream, but in this album the metal element is very well exploited and things like the middle section of Archaic Sphinx are exciting. In particular this song has also an uptime tempo that would probably fit well into a rave party but in this context results very powerful and energetic.

A special mention goes to "Meidum Wsr" which has an hypnotic rhythm, with an unusual bass like a rub-a-dub. One of the highlihts.

From a melodic point of view, the best composition is "In The Red Pyramid, but there are other tracks wich deserve to be mentioned: the excellent "Museum Of Antiques" and the powerful "Glance of Amenemhet III".

This is surely an album above the usual level of Senmuth so I give it a star above the average