REFLECTIONS FROM THE FIREPOOL

Djam Karet is a great instrumental progressive rock band that could appeal to many more people then just the few souls that are buzzing around the Djam Karet pages here. I've started to listen them only recently and I have a slight preference to their albums since 2000 as they sound more diverse and accomplished to me.

A selection of impressions:

The Sky Opens Twice consists (as the title suggest) of two parts. In the first part the sky is still rather nebulous but the second Sky Opening is all bright and shiny. Beautiful chord picking and excellent solos on a laid-back groove, Pink Floyd meets fusion.

Fall of the Moneywalk reveals another obvious inspiration source. Robert Fripp. I don't know if the guitar players use a similar technique, but the result sounds very similar to Fripp's looped fluid guitar soundscapes (flippertronics). The track has some world music percussion. A good 5 minutes in, it start to bog down a bit. They must have noticed it as well and try to save it by changing the pace. Not entirely successful though.

Animal Origin is a great slow paced guitar improvisation. Very stately. Run Cerberus Run has more guitar soloing on a slightly more up-tempo fusion progression. Again it's good but never stretches out into real excellence.

All Doors Look Alike is another slow paced improvisation, a bit over halfway it changes into a very ambient section that announces things to come on Suspension and Displacement. It is the part that works best for me and this aspect of their sound strikes me as their most original element.

The Title Track continues their more ambient leanings before it turns into another mid-paced jam. Again it is pretty good but not as inspired as on later albums.

Overall a decent official debut album but I believe they had better stuff in them.