SCHADELIJK

Sébastien Gramond's highly diverse discography could be said to be too varied to collapse under one label or term, there are certainly recurring traits that pop up in his music that build an ever-growing cohesion between albums. As part of what I could call the 'main line' of Gramond albums, the strangely titled 'Schadelijik' reprises a quirky, organ heavy brand of fusion rock that has an odd tendency to jump from such sounds as those of Frank Zappa to King Crimson in a heartbeat. While this album shows Gramond further improving his skill as a recording artist, there is still issues that have been left unresolved from previous albums that is really keeping Gramond's work (up to this point in his career) from really breaking through and making something magical.

The album's cornerstone piece and highlight is the self titled 'Schadeliljik', which has been broken up into halves to comprise the opening, and closing tracks of the album. This song shows Gramond and what it is possible for him to do; making music that doesn't sound cheap, and can really sound like anything Gramond wants it to sound like. The title track opens a relatively bright and cheery album up with a dark, sludgy main theme, which sounds like it could have been plucked out of the latter-era King Crimson repetoire. Instruments are used well to create good contrasts; the organs here for example are not used throughout, but only to accentuate certain key moments of the music. This, to me, shows a good deal of maturation on Gramond's part.

The rest of the songs here are of lesser importance, although 'Andromaque' and 'Is There Someone To Blame?' both stand out as being quirky, charming pieces of music to hold an interest in the album.The album's bigger issues sweep throughout the entire album however, as opposed to localized problems. Chief among these is the somewhat weak production, which may not have bothered me earlier on in Gramond's discography, but is now showing itself to really be a drag for his musical aspirations.

'Schadelijik' shows Sébastien Gramond crawling ever closer to mastering his art, but he is still a long ways off.

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