ABANDONSHIP

Bold, unruly, full of texture and sound effects, Dave Kerman's music is a strange and troubled statement of modern progressive rock. Kerman plays all the instruments but gets fine help from Udi Koorman on 'sounds' and singer Deborah Perry, both helping Dave's vision of living music to breathe. The album was recorded in Tel Aviv, giving the session an urgency that darkly reflects in the compositions. 'Avant garde', 'RIO', call it what you will, this stuff will put you off your corn flakes in the most delicious way.

My favourite 5UU'S album right here. This was recorded in Tel Aviv, Isreal at Udi's house.That's right Udi Koomran works his magic on here much like he did on the amazing AHVAK album and many others over the years. Interesting that with this album and the AHVAK record Udi is listed as part of the band even though he doesn't play an instrument on either one. Well if you knew how important this guy was to the sound on both recordings you would understand why. He's amazing ! His work can be heard throughout this album in the samples and sounds. Like the last album this is really a Dave Kerman solo album under the 5UU'S moniker. Deborah Perry (THINKING PLAGUE) is back on vocals along with some other guests including PRESENT's own Roger Trigaux who plays the part of a dictator on the third track. He seems to be a natural (haha).

"Yordei Hasira #2" opens with strange sounds and throughout really.Voices come and go. "Couple #3" has Deborah on vocals with all kinds of intricate sounds coming and going. Angular guitar before 2 minutes then it settles with spoken vocals. Drums and guitar end it. Nice. "Thoroughly Modern Attila" is probably my all time favourite 5UU'S track. It's very much in the UNIVERS ZERO / PRESENT realm. An ominous beat with other sounds to start. It's dark. Some crazy outbursts of sound follow. This is heavy and dark. Amazing ! Some insane spoken spoken words from Roger before 4 minutes. A calm follows and it sounds very cool. It's building 6 1/2 minutes in, this really reminds me of PRESENT and UNIVERS ZERO. Silence after 7 1/2 minutes then it kicks back in a minute later. "Penguins On Dizengoff" opens with a beat followed by piano. Guitar before 1 1/2 minutes. It turns dark and eerie after 2 minutes. It picks up before 5 minutes but not for long.

"Suits" has these deep bass sounds and female vocals. It turns dark after 1 1/2 minutes. Bob Drake's version of "Ringing In The New Year" can be heard on "Crisis In Clay".This one opens with someone talking with sounds playing in the background. "Noah's Flame" sounds great when it kicks in after a minute. Female vocals too. A change 4 minutes in. Spoken vocals 5 1/2 minutes in. A heavy beat and angular guitar after 6 minutes.The tempo picks up 7 1/2 minutes in as Kerman pounds away until it ends. "Hill Of Spring" has this light music with spoken female vocals. Both the music and Deborah's vocals turn demented. Great sound 2 1/2 minutes in after the lunacy ends. "Doubt Be Met" is solemn with female vocals. "Belly- Up" kicks in before a minute. Check out Kerman on the kit. A calm before 2 minutes. It's dark as spoken words arrive. I like the calm after 7 minutes to the end.Deborah ends it with the words "Okay cut" and the music and album stops. I'm still waiting for Deborah to say "Action" so we can get a new 5UU'S album.

Last to time 5UU's studio album, in fact it's more Dave Kerman solo album. He plays all other instruments,beside of usual to him drums.The only other artist participated on the recording is Thinking Plague singer Deborah Perry.

Album was recorded in Tel Aviv,Israel, and is unusually complex multi layered mix of drums,keys,loops and vocals. Very often one-man albums are very flat, even if contain interesting musical material. This album happily isn't! Thunder-like brutal drumming, many structure and rhythm changes, excellently mixed overlaps - this album sounds absolutely as it was recorded by real band.

Music is strongly influenced by RIO and avant both, and successfully balances on the border between too "out" and "still attractive". Not easy listening, but really interesting one. More release for fans of such kind of music though.

My rating is 4 - one between few successful one-man albums released ever!

I've been aware of Dave Kerman for some time, initially through his time as the drummer with Present and his involvement in Aranis' 2010 release, Roqueforte. I had been curious about this band for a while, and upon finding out that it was Dave Kerman who was responsible for almost everything on this album, my curiosity lead me to finally acquiring it.

Deborah Perry (from Thinking Plague, who I have not yet had the pleasure of exploring) does the vocals on this album, and the sound is by Udi Koomran. Other than a few guests, Dave does everything else himself here. Which is amazing because there is not a dud track on this album - everything is great!

The sound is generally agressive. The weirdness one expects from a lot of avant-prog, in terms of note selection and rhtyhms, are here. But you can tell that these tracks are composed by a drummer, for there are great rhythmic bases to all of them that really give the layers of music on top a lot of freedom and expression. Deborah's vocals are odd yet beautiful, and really fit well with the music.

There are definitely a few brilliant tracks on this album that really make it stand out. I should clarify - every track on this album is great, but there are a few that go beyond that, that stand to me as testaments to the validity of this genre of music as a rock form.

There is the simple "Doubt Be Met", which does not include as much of the density of some of the other tracks, instead relying on organ and Deborah's vocals to create a great but short piece. "Noah's Flame" must be mentioned, and is in my eyes the stand out track, featuring the best moments both instrumental and vocally, as well as being oddly catchy and aggressive. Couple #3 is a Solo is just odd, but in a very cool way, and perfectly composed.

If you are able to get your hands on this album, do so - you will not regret it.