WALRUS

These guys who are all Swedes apparently met in a bar in the far north of Norway in 2010 and decided to make an album together. They call their music "Polar Kraut" since this bar was on the Polar Sea and yes the style of music they play brings Krautrock to mind for sure. Leo Svensson who plays cello and mini-moog played with Mattias Olsson(ANGLAGARD) as guests on GOSTA BERLINGS SAGA's most recent album called "Glue Works" and those two along with the bassist here Kristian Holmgren played on the 2014 release by NECROMONKEY. Matti Bye a key part of this band plays mellotron and a variety of keyboards and he's released sountracks for movies over the years and he certainly leaves his mark on this recording.

So we get four tracks clocking in at a total of 33 1/2 minutes, just right. Up first is "Tromso III" which has this urgent sounding groove that is fairly intense. It does settle briefly before 5 minutes but then kicks in even harder after that. A catchy track overall. "Signals" is slow paced with atmosphere and it's quite dark as sounds come and go. Haunting female vocal melodies come in after 2 minutes and I love when the organ arrives after 3 1/2 minutes. Such a great sound right here. It does settle back but then we get some intensity 7 minutes in before it fades back and trips along.

"Spitsbergen" is the longest track at over 14 minutes. It's slow moving and minimalistic with those haunting female vocal melodies returning to this album once again. The song kicks in around 4 minutes as we get some nasty fuzzed out bass. The mellotron is gorgeous around 12 minutes in and I like the way themes are repeated on this tune. Such a trippy ride. "Static" opens with...well static. Liquid sounding keys, drums then cello join in on this 3 minute closer.

A solid 4 stars and a project that I hope continues in the future. This is dark, experimental and trippy, my kind of music.