THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF KRAUTROCK: AUM

The title says it all: "The Death and Resurrection of Krautrock" is what this Croatian trio offers in this five-song album, which was released last year (2011) and which I fortunately downloaded when the band offered it as a free digital album in the Christmas season. This was my first experience with a full-length album from this band, and so far my clear favorite. The album has a total time of 60 minutes, where three tracks have an average length of 6-9 minutes, while the other two are longer journeys of almost 20 minutes each.

One of the crucial things for any album, is the choice of the opener track, in my opinion it is really important because it opens the gates to their music, so the listener can decide whether to keep listening or change the CD. Man, what "In" offers is a terrific repetitive, hypnotic, addictive trip to the psychedelic prog realm. The rhythm is the same during the whole track, the guitar never ceases to play the same notes, though one may think it is boring, it is not, because the beauty of this is different elements that are being added by synths while the seconds pass. I have adopted this as my totally favorite Seven That Spells song.

The first epic track is "Aum", whose 19 minutes are a feast of that mixure of psychedelic rock with krautrock (we know kraut has inherent psych tunes, but we know the difference) and even some other styles. The guitar work is fabulous during the whole track, making powerful long riffs (not in the metal sense) and implementing different colors and emotions. They would not success if there is not a competent drummer, and here they have a superb one! When the song reaches the seventh minute there is a change, it slows down a bit but seconds later it explodes once again, but now with some screaming voices that turn the song even more interesting. The vocals continue for some minutes, but then disappear and the hypnotic music keeps creating that psych and spacey trip.

"Zero" is the other long track, so we had two songs in a row with long duration (both could make easily one album, or at least an EP). There is a significant difference from the previous tracks, seems that here we have a moment of stagnation because the song does not take off, I mean, the first minutes are slower, repetitive but never hypnotizing, on the other hand there are moments where I actually felt disinterested. I had a problem in this track, because I was expecting it to change, but no, it maintained the same direction and goal (just like the previous tracks) but here I did not quite enjoy it, which makes it of course in my opinion, the only weak passage of the album, though pure kraut lovers would maybe love it.

With "Rock Ist Krieg" the faster, rockier and heavier sound returns but this time with a crazier style. The song starts with a man screaming the title, and then a great offer of drums and strings begin to build up an orgasmic structure, which reaches its climax after two minutes with a powerful and energetic guitar riff. Later bass and drums create an addictive background, while guitars make their job. I really love the energy here, it makes you feel alive and crazy. A fabulous track that made me wake up after the previous boredom.

The album finishes with "Out" which is another extraordinary song. The structure is repeated over and over, just like in the opener track, the first minute is introductory with a sound that does not change, but later a voice enters and can be truly appreciated. Here the same feeling than the first track, an addictive repetition that makes me feel trapped into their musical realm, to the point that I don't really want to escape, nor the album to finish. But well, after six minutes, it finishes.

I am fascinated with this album, though my problem with it, as I previously exposed, is the third track, if it was not included, I am almost sure that my rating would have been five solid stars, but now I will limit to four, since that track takes almost 20 minutes of the album. But well, the other four are what make it so great. Congrats to Seven That Spells for such a great release, and for the terrific music they create.

Enjoy it!

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