KOMARA

I couldn't help but think of the quote by Bill Bruford in 1995 when he said "When you want to hear where music is going in the future, you put on a KING CRIMSON album". With long time KING CRIMSON drummer Pat Mastelotto being part of this trio I couldn't help but think that THIS could have been something like what KING CIMSON could have recorded instead of the pedestrian "A Scarcity Of Miracles". In fact I'd love to hear Fripp and the guys play this. Along with Mastelotto on drums we get Italian Paolo Raineri on trumpet and David Kollar from Slovakia on guitar and electronics. This has immediately moved into my top three albums of 2015. This is dark, powerful, atmospheric and experimental. I like the spoken male words on a couple of tracks, they sound perfect and were done by one of the engineers of this album Bill Munyon. Most of this was recorded in Prague at the Faust Studio.

"Dirty Smelly" has the most memorable intro I have ever heard on any album as we get some brief atmosphere before this massive, rolling, nasty, fuzzed out sound kicks in causing yours truly to turn completely giddy. It comes and goes as pounding drums and distorted guitar join in. Trumpet after a minute rips off some dissonant licks that are hair raising to say the least. It's KING CRIMSON-like before 3 minutes and this is some powerful [&*!#], I'll say that. How's this for a introduction to the band.

"37 Forms" has these haunting trumpet sounds along with percussion to start. Deep sounds join in then the pace picks up at 1 1/2 minutes. Some interesting sounds here. It picks up more after 2 minutes with some prominent bass from Kollar and these nasty guitar sounds. A calm follows as that haunting trumpet becomes the focus once again. Drums return when the trumpet stops then we get some insane sounding trumpet 5 1/2 minutes in with vocal expressions and drums. Oh my! A calm 7 1/2 minutes in to the end with that haunting trumpet. "A Collision Of Fingerprints" has quite the rhythm to it, it's dirty man. Love the drum work. Some filthy electronics joins in as the trumpet plays over top. I'm thinking Miles after 2 1/2 minutes as the trumpet cries out. More wicked sounds 3 1/2 minutes in in this dark and experimental piece.

"She Sat In The Back Silt" is dark and melancholic as sounds come and go then the trumpet cries out over top. Drums to the fore 3 minutes in and vocal melodies join in as well. The trumpet is back and continues to the end and we get picked guitar late. "2CFAC" has this fuzzed out beat(first time I've said that) as the trumpet joins in. This is experimental yet I'm so into this sound. A calm before 3 minutes then it kicks in again. "Pasquinade" is dark and ominous sounding with plenty of atmosphere as guitar and trumpet sounds come and go. Soon the trumpet and guitar lead the way as this nasty, fuzzed out sound comes and goes. It's building as well but then it settles right back. It kicks back in at 4 minutes. Nice.

"Abraso" is a very brief trumpet interlude before "God Has Left This Place" arrives and those spoken words which add so much to the vibe here. They sound so serious but they are humerous as well. The music kicks in before a minute with these strange dark sounds along with atmosphere and voices. Filthy sounds 3 minutes in and then some crazy trumpet as this distressed female voice arrives bringing to mind "Cottonwood Hill" only not that extreme(haha). Male vocals help out as well. "Afterbirth" opens with a metalic and grungy sound that comes and goes as the drums join in. It settles back around 2 minutes but it's still experimental with these strange sounds along with guitar and trumpet. It kicks in hard after 3 minutes. So good! Chaos after 5 minutes. "Inciting Incidents" is the short closer of male spoken words like at the start of "God Has Left This Place".

The music like the album cover is something alien, strange and different. This is a monster people.

The return of the son of King Crimson.

KOMARA formed by the genial Pat Mastelotto alongside David Kollar and Paolo Raineri first release, same name, 2015, best referential aside from the obvious King Crimson one , the 1995-2003 years to be specific, holds in its drummer and his vast collaborations and ensemble works experience, its main ingredients to make this album highly explosive as everything he touches or is involed with.

Having witnessed how he is able to make his fellow musicians, whoever they are, go beyond themselves, is something that still marvels me and certainly is worth watching.

Anyway back to the music. KOMARA's "KOMARA" sets itself apart by the up front raw, heavy handed, experimental music composition they deliver, as relying on Raineri's trumpet as main light on most of its songs.

If you can imagine a late Miles Davis playing alongside the heavier version of the King, tainted with Porcupine Tree's polished chaos, with all the balls of the RiO's first bands and sheltered by Mastelotto's guiding hand, you might get a more or less accurate picture of what to expect from this new PA's eclectic prog inclusion.

Easy **** 4.5 PA stars.

I've always considered Pat Mastelotto the most progressive member of the post-millennial KING CRIMSON: the musician who arguably best embodied the higher aspirations of a historically forward-thinking band. And with the once-noble King now reduced to a puppet ruler recycling past glories, it's reassuring to hear the drummer maintaining that time-honored Crimson tradition of dangerous creativity, in effect becoming the unofficial keeper of the royal scepter.

His latest-to-date venture is a natural sequel to the year 2000 "Heaven and Earth" album by the pseudonymous KC ProjeKct X, updated with a shock dose of industrial mayhem filtered through the mind of Trent Reznor, electric Miles Davis at his farthest out, and other alien influences too bizarre and frightening to face in broad daylight. Anyone familiar with the cut-'n'-paste critical beats of Mastelotto's BPM&M project (alongside producer Bill Munyon, a collaborator here as well), or his eclectic local Austin band Mastica (likewise deserving a berth in these Archives) should feel at home listening to the new group's self-titled album.

The band moniker conflates the surnames of each player: David KOllar, Pat MAstelloto, and Paolo RAineri, together forming an unorthodox power trio of guitars, drums and trumpet, with Kollar adding the 'electronic textures' that help give the music its unnerving intensity. Credit is also given to a Sound Designer, and with good reason: Raineri's distorted trumpet often becomes analogous to (and indistinguishable from) the wail of an electric guitar, providing an effective substitute for an instrument already anachronistic in modern music making.

At first exposure the album might sound harsh and unsettling, much like the visceral cover art. But there's a living, beating heart inside this malformed beast, and its possible to discern a semblance of actual melody hidden underneath all the fraKctured ambience. Aside from some isolated vocal narration orphaned from an imaginary film-noir soundtrack ("vengeance chokes my breath...am I breathing?") the album is entirely instrumental, and largely unscripted. But the implicit song forms do exist, and give the music extra resonance.

It's not a stretch to hear the effort as a preview of one possible future for Progressive Rock, shorn of any retro-symphonic refinement. Which would make it a shame that Mastelotto is back on the KC payroll again. Komara will never enjoy the influence or popularity of King Crimson, but this bastard stepchild of the aging monarch at least inherited all the audacity now dormant in the Crimson court.