DATURAH

Daturah is a German post-rock outfit with an emphasis on a slower and more atmospheric way of playing. With three songs and an album clocking in at 45 minutes this will surely please the more casual fans of the genre.

In this self-titled debut this band prefers to take things slowly and with patience letting the spacyness take you for a ride and repetitive guitar lines to show you the way. This album is chuck-full of these ambient sounds and softer guitar parts in which both take most of the space in their songs. Like many guitar oriented post-rock like Explosions In The Sky and Mono, the songs always end up having a crescendo sooner or later and these songs are no exception. In the heavier moments they sound like Isis or other "post-metal" bands, but they always keep that airy feel no matter what (maybe because of the distortion used as ambient background in these parts, but whatever it is it works great). The mood is mostly melancholic almost sounding as if you were lost at space alone with voice-overs echoing in the distance like a desperate call to see if anyone will notice you...

In the end this is a great band that carries all of the traditions of Post-Rock that bands like Godspeed, Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky created. Nothing really innovative or daring. That may be the only problem I have with these guys, they need to take chances and create new paths instead of following the pack, but by no means a bad album to check out (quite the opposite, really). If you're looking for a band like Mono, Mogwai, God Is An Astronaut and others with a spacier, but still powerful sound, then Daturah is the band to check out.

3.5 out of 5