KARABA

KARABA are a young band out of Germany led by keyboardist Andi Kainz and he is all over this. Advertised as a Canterbury/ Krautrock style this is all instrumental and includes Marja Burchard the daughter of former EMBRYO member Christian Burchard. She adds vibes here while we also get drums, percussion, bass and guitar. There are two different drummers plus that percussionist as each drummer plays on three tracks. While there was sax on the debut there isn't any this time around.

The album cover is nuts with it being a collage of skulls, statues. nude women, a blowup doll and knights including one picking his nose. Classy stuff. The actual cd has a guy on it dressed like a nun I believe from a British movie. It's black and white. So we get five tracks although the vinyl version has six tracks as they split "Der G.A.U. Theil" in half using the first half to end side one and the second half to start side two. This is an insane piece both experimental and adventerous with dissonance and intensity.

The opener "Der Fiesling" is 9 1/2 minutes long and features some impressive drumming and I like when the organ joins in before a minute. So good. There's a repeated guitar melody throughout pretty much and spacey synths come and go. So much going on. A calm before 2 minutes then it builds. Electric piano too this time and the bass is more upfront, yes I'm smiling. Great sound after 4 minutes with the electric piano and guitar as the drums pound away. Like old school Jazz/Fusion here. It's like it starts over after 5 1/2 minutes with bass first then lot of intensity. Nasty keys at 6 1/2 minutes.

"Frauke" is 9 minutes long and has a Canterbury vibe early on. So many intricate sounds coming and going. Dirty sounding keys before 3 minutes then a brief drum show. Check out the distorted organ that follows. I mean this is Canterbury after 3 1/2 minutes. It turns dark just before 5 minutes, so good again as it slows down. Man I can spin this section all day. Headphone music right here with all the stuff going on really to the 7 minute mark when it settles right down and stays that way to the end.

"Ozmose" is my favourite at 13 1/2 minutes and Marja is featured here big times on the vibes. Bandcamp shows this as the only song she is on. Powerful early on with keys over the heavy rhythm section. Bass is more upfront at 3 minutes. This is crazy. Check out the vibes 5 minutes in soloing over top and leading the way. Guitar is cool too. It settles back before 7 minutes and I'm just so into this. The guitar soloing this time tastefully. Electric piano then leads after 9 minutes. Percussion leads 11 minutes in then spacey synths. A calm over the final minute with random sounds.

"Zu Schnell" is the 6 minute closer. This has such an amazing keyboard driven groove to start. Come on! Drums are busy, lots of electric piano too. Synths and bass too before the guitar takes the lead 2 minutes in and I like that tone a minute later. The drummer has to be tired. That repeated melody holds this together and how about that outro.

What an album! My kind of music, all instrumental and complex with so much going on much of the time but they know how to contrast those insane sections with calms and repeat themes and so on. Those young Norwegian bands that keep popping up over the last few years have some competition from these young Germans. Biggest question is what sub-genre am I going to put this in.

Also just had a look at EMBRYO's 2021 album "Auf Auf" and it features Marja Burchard big time as she is a multi-instrumentalist, but it also has the bass player and percussionist here from KARABA on it. I need to check that one out.

KARABA is such an inventive band from Munich. In some way related to Marja Burchard's Embryo. This due to the fact that Jakob Thun (drums) and Maasl Maier (bass) actually are members of both the teams. Stylistically seen yet, at least on this occasion, there are not many transitions to notice. The new album 'All High Ways', their fourth production in the meanwhile, can't be pigeonholed right easy to the point. They already had released albums with more focus on psychedelic and space rock in the past. But this one particularly is developed in a jazz fusion vein, and canterbury prog so much the more. But just not exclusively on the other hand. Twelve tracks were collected for an event of round about sixty minutes playing time. Get ready! The instrumental flow is astoundingly virtuoso, yep, that's guaranteed.

The eminently canterburiesque Castros Spacecastle is featuring a guitar coming close to Gary Boyle, Al Di Meola, Alan Holdsworth. And this possibly is concerning Volker Kriegel too with his Mild Maniac Orchestra on the following Volkers Krieg. Apparently Maasl Maier has found respectively is still looking for his dreamland. There is some mysterious contribution to be found on the track. I initially rooted that in a somewhat Gregorian chant, but it seems to come from the synthesizer in reality, served by Andreas Kainz. Man, what a touching implementation! Then some Krautrock ambience is revealed on the repetitve and hypnotic Schattenmorellen. Great guitar impact again by Louis Bankvas on Atomkraft which delivers a wild ride. You won't find many bands regarding similarities in sound, only the US combo Harpo Jarvi is coming into my mind here. Very inspired and substantial. 4.5 stars on the PA scale.

This is a superb live album from a band comprised of friends and collaborators around the widespread Embryo community. Bassist Maasl Maier for instance is also regularly touring with Marja Burchard, who already had some appearances on former KARABA studio albums. But of course she predominantly concentrates on continuing the Embryo story. In her own, quite distinguishable manner, though surely also in reminiscence to her father Christian, who unfortunately died in early 2018. Also aboard here are the other known band constants Louis Bankavs (guitar), Andreas Kainz (keyboards) and drummer Jakob Thun, all seasoned musicians.

The recordings were taken in Vienna, five selected tracks from a gig at the Aera Club. A typical live setting. The quartet delivers a lively parforce ride, totally instrumental and with appropriate jamming attitude. Solely the first song Ozmose comes adapted from a studio album. And so, I would imagine, the other four tracks are the result of improvisations, more or less. Or alternatively are representing the preliminary stage for a new studio album? Who knows? Eh, although not covered in dust for sure, this blatantly reminds me of the 'good old' wild and rampant days somehow.

The jazz rock/fusion roots are evident. And they are mixing this up with a strong dose of Canterbury and Psychedelic. The aforementioned album opener comes close to the 1970s Embryo on the stage sound, I was happy to experience often enough. Though it's unique anyhow, rather eclectic, far away from a copy-cat. The guitar and electric piano presence is obviously differing all the way through. The title of Bemmselbrühl finally forced me to launch some www search, but I'm sure this all are fantasy names. The more I'm coming back to this, the more I'm thrilled. Well, now it's good with the praise, please listen to this, at least when you're keen on the described approach. The vinyl version is available via Adansonia Records. 4.5 stars.

This album is reminiscent of Embryo's DNA, in some way, I especially mean the vivid jazz fusion tinged explorations like Ozmose for example. And yes, somewhat obvious, KARABA is deriving from Munich too. Furthermore, when having a look at the line up in a more detailed manner, what definitely attracts attention is the involvement of Marja Burchard on the vibraphone. Daughter of Christian, the co-founder of Embryo. He sadly passed away early 2018, though she's holding up the earlier spirit, while turning away from their prior ethno world orientation. Back to the roots so to say. With both bands, also including some staff overlaps, for example percussionist Jakob Thun and Marcel (Maasl) Maier on the bass guitar.

So what makes it different to an Embryo album, one or two may ask? While assuming that the tracks are based on diverse studio jam sessions, Marja may not hold the artistical leadership here, I would insist. The impact of the other band musicians will lead into a more psychedelic and art rock direction, even showing some avantgarde approach. So this partly is also akin to the eclecticism of the Chickencage Experience, so much the more the predecessor Polytoxicomane Philharmonie. The split song Der G.A.U. delivers a funny gimmick in between with a monotonic advice to flip the vinyl album side. Truly an awesome production. This should not be missed by the open-minded prog community.