TOZÏH

It's been ten years since we heard from Captain Flapattak and his band RHUN. That debut "Fanfare Du Chaos" from 2013 was a solid 4 star album that reached into double digits when it came to the musicians who played on it. From dual guitars on that one to none here as they have dropped to a six piece and only the Captain remains as it's an all new lineup. Some of this music must have been around a while as in the liner notes it says this about the music here "rearranged and augmented by past and present members of RHUN."

So a six piece this time with dual keyboards, drums, bass, violin and sax. The lead singer from the debut is gone and I feel this is a weak spot here but not always. There's just some sections that are quite comical when I listen to him sing. A 38 minute album with three tracks including that 21 1/2 minute opener.

Man that opener takes it's time to get going then some humerous vocals around 6 1/2 minutes. Some obvious MAGMA love here especially "Mdk" but "Udu Wudu" also came to mind. The chanting and zeuhlish vocals don't hit the fan though until after 10 minutes and they will come and go. I like that electric piano before 13 minutes and the bass 14 1/2 minutes in as the tempo picks up. Very much hit and miss for me.

The second track is over 11 1/2 minutes long and my least favourite. Especially early on with the fuzz, music and vocals. I do like when the horns get crazy. It settles after that then turns experimental including some native sounding vocals and drums(lol). Comical vocals of a different kind later and I like how it starts to slow 10 minutes in to the end. The closer is a 5 minute dip into some powerful zeuhl. Love that bass and the horns too. The vocals are much better here as well. Huge bass lines after a minute and check out that bass tone 2 1/2 minutes in. Some energy on this one. More of this please.

This was a disappointment from the first spin and that short closer shows me what might have been. But give them credit for trying different things and carving their own path within that zeuhl style. Three stars is all I got.