THE MEN FROM DYSTOPIA

Beware of getting your fingers burnt! This is hot spaced-out stuff produced by a croatian acid psych band with the support of Kawabata Makoto and Tsuyama Atsushi from the japanese Acid Mothers Temple. Continuous 74 minutes cut in five pieces and released with a limited amount of 500 numbered copies. Weird, weird, weird - spacey soundscapes, synths, raga - somewhat krautrock bordering because containing a repetitive phlegmatic rhythm guitar work.

The first two tracks are completely crazy, swirling synth patterns during more than 20 minutes as the background for a mix of alienated voices and mediaeval singing by Tsuyama Atsushi and Lidija Dokuzovic. This is all decorated with Kawabata Makoto's hurdy gurdy drones. SEVEN THAT SPELLS' rhythm section begins to take action not until III is starting reminding of the typical Amon Düül II improvisation style combined with sitar solo excursions.

My favourite track IV is dominated by an excellent eleven minute and Jimi Hendrix alike guitar solo supported by powerful bass and drums. The last track named V for simply matters is provided with absolutely weirdness and brings matters to a head with recurring noisy sound waves and high-toned drone walls plus mystic voices. Boh!

'The Men From Dystopia' is filling an extreme experimental position and not my prefered sort of psych/space music. Anyhow - who likes straightforward puristic hypnotic jams with a strong Acid Mothers Temple touch will be fascinated by this recordings for sure.

This record is a complete full album suite, tracks only marking the changes of five most relevant changes in progression of themes. It has also some changes in the line-up and both Kawabata Makoto and Tsuyama Atsushi as visiting musicians. The philosophical qualities of this group have already been quite close to Acid Mothers Temple, so this collaboration is most logical and righteous union musicians from different sides of the globe.

The long voyage is evoked by spacey sounds and folk-toned guitar runs, where a distant singing brings a new element to the music, which associates to ancient pagan rituals. Music grows steadily with power, and then fading to pile of echoed random guitar pickings and gibberish. The second phase opens convincingly to pleasant mantra, led by chanting and being a playground for vivid instrumental scale variations. Third phase starts the most focused and intensive part of the journey. Upon a theme evolves a furious epic guitar solo, which returns among even more manic singing, at some moments steady flow visiting these deeper cores of planar chaos, then after twenty minutes calming to the fourth sequence. This gives a view to a singular ethereal scene, with vast universe pulsing around. After a long glance, the group assaults there with massive one note thrust, celestial theme being borne behind the sound mass. The heavenly chaos swirls in the turbulent sea of sounds, aching for psychedelic redemption of the electric archaic call. The final movement hurls vast echoes disappearing to the mythical void, which return to the beginning mantra with fine vocal layers and electronic shades.

As associations from my own listening experience so far I could compare this epic to both Råd Kjetil and The Loving Eye of God's "Mattmar" and "Rotvälta" by The Spacious Mind. This is also so far the lightest of this group's recordings, orientating most coherently to scarce amount of ideas and developing quite much out of them. As a record I consider this also as huge leap forward as a group achievement towards more sophisticated psychedelia, still keeping the original characteristics of their early sound. The vinyl version has the five movements arranged on two LPs in slightly different order, covered within huge gatefold awesomeness.