NIMRODEL

From the lot that brought us Egyptian Kings and the album Almagest, here is a new digital-age project, Almuadem, with the album Nimrodel.

Comparing Nimrodel to Almagest, I'm glad to see an hear that the rock part in progressive rock has this time been taken into account, with a greater presence of drums and electric guitar, giving it more of a post-rock vibe than Space-Rock (just like Almagest was closer to Electronic) It seems a more complete recording, and I confess that, after some listens, I seem to enjoy Nimrodel quite a bit more. I appears to be a dash more tasteful and carefully arranged. However, the first times I heard the album I did so as simply background music - only later did I devote my complete atention to it. Again comparing it to Almagest, I found it a bit too strong and intrusive to serve just as soothing, simple ambient music. Yet with more listens I felt that the album could still not hold on his own.

So what do we have here?

The first track, In A Cold Chaos Place, is an 8-minute song beggining as an ambient piece in the vein of Almagest, with lots of keyboard atmosphere complemented by some indutrial sound effects and... a saxophone! Lovely touch. 5-6 minutes into the song, the industrial sounds turn quite naturaly into percussion, in a calm, slow tempo. The following track, Nymphomania, begins just like the first, with an eerie keyboard athmosphere. Close to the second minute, electronic sounds and drums kick in, and we get to hear in the backgroung a kind of chimes similar to those in baby toys, which gain more presence as the track comes to an end. The third track, Blow Up, is immediatly opened by the apearence of the distorted sound of an electric guitar and pounding percussion. It keeps that sound for some two minutes, when it bursts into a steady tempo and a quite acomplished guitar solo (with a nod to Pink Floyd) that carries the track until it ends.

The album's epic is a 12:30 piece entitled Dial D For Dream. Beggining with electronic sounds with urban noise in the backgroung, it fades away close to the third minute, only to regain force by means of percussion and gentle guitar playing, with the omnipresent keyboard athmosphere in the background. The guitar then takes the lead, with some calm soloing, although slightly less successful than on the previous track. The 6th minute gives way into another section of the song, with the keyboards again dominating, accompanied by drumming and the reemergenge of the distorted guitar, that provides an heavier vibe to the track. Nine minutes into the song and we get another shift in sound, with the return of a more ambient sound strictly keyboards and electronics. The guitar and drums then suddenly reapear in order to provide a grand finale. This track features some good ideas and sections, but it is overall a bit inconsistent and unsatisfying, which is a shame. The songs segues into the 5th track, Daisie, again beggining with a keyboard, drums and distorted guitar sound, but less enjoyable than on Blow Up. Here and there we get to here voices in the background. Basicaly a keyboard-driven track, with a dull steady drumming and some guitar noodling, it is the most uninteresting piece on the album. The final track, Airam Atir, begins with some annoying whale-like sounds accompanied by the trio steady-drumming/athmospheric-keyboards/floydian-guitar. It gains some more life towards the end, providing an enjoyable enough finale to the album.

The downloadable pack has the album accompanied by a couple of text documents, describing the concept and storyine of the album. I must confess the music didn't quite pass the feeling it was intended to as described in the text. About those, I must say that the english version has some minor flaws, which are forgivable. What is unforgivable is the appalling quality of some parts of the portuguese text.

Let us just hope that the overhype and shameful manipulation of ratings that Almagest suffered is not repeated in this one. Let the album be judged by what it is. And that should begin by denouncing the band's self-description: indeed, unless you have lived shut in a cave during the last 30 years, you will hear nothing pioneering or see anything innovative. All in all, it is a good effort and an improvement over Almagest, the highlights being In A Cold Chaos Place and Blow Up. This album is definitly a grower, one that will make you want to explore it again and again, so my initial 3-stars may well become 4 in the future.

Almuadem, they certainly are the pioneers of a new genre! Everybody that has heard this album seems to agree with me on that. This, sadly for the general public, is where the similarities end. Almuadem have been praised as geniuses, as modern philosophers and as innovators of a new style of music branded as Hyper-Sensibility. Hyper-Sensibility must be the technical term for misguided, ambient noodling. That is all this album is, and to the trained ear that is all one will ever find.

Where have all of these 5 star reviews come from? What kind of level must I stoop to in order to find enjoyment inside this rambling and snooze-worthy piece of music? Where in fact IS the music? These are just some of the many questions you will have after you play this album for the first time. However, unlike most other albums, these questions will not be answered in a multitude of listens, after which it is necessary to just give in and find something else.

After all of my ranting, it is important that I make a note of the band's epic track, Dial D For Dream. This is a very good insert into the album, I must admit. This track alone tacks an extra half star onto the side of my rating. Very nice smooth bass lines pulsate throughout the tune, and this is the first and only evidence I can hear of anything resembling Hyper-Sensibility, whatever that rubbish may be. The album's closer, Airam Atir also has some strong points, most notably the guitar tones at the close of the song.

Compare Almuadem to The Egyptian Kings? I would have none of it! The Kings compel me and drive me to listen deeper, investigate further. If you want some great earthy space rock, try 35007 or The Egyptian Kings on for size.

1.5 stars, rounded up. Happy New Years.

Devoid of genre

Portuguese band Almuadem are a new outfit, with one release to date "Nimordel". Their music can be tricky to pin down in terms of genre, as demonstrated by their classification on this site (psychedelic/space rock) and their biographical description ("experimental"). The overall mood here though is best described as relaxed but not quite ambient.

The opening 8 minute piece for example, starts out with loose ambient sounds, but a defined rhythm is soon picked out as the track takes form, supporting a pleasant improvisation. "Nymphomania" also centres around the keyboards of Gustavo Marques, the repetitive plink-plinks rather irritatingly diverting attention from some good old fashioned mellotron.

"Blow up" features the first discernible appearance of guitars (played by Thomas Belpalme), the track as a whole being somewhat heavier and louder thanks in part to the pounding drums. There remains though, an overall looseness to the music which never really seems to get out of first gear.

The feature track is the 12 minute "Dial D for dream". The drumming here is rather more intrusive in the post rock style. It is completely at odds with the delicate lead guitar work which, while recorded poorly, is played competently. Around the mid-point of the track, the sound disintegrates, the unrestrained drums winning the battle, taking with them any semblance of controlled guitar work.

"Daisie" is a softer, dreamier piece which restores the equilibrium, while the closing track "Airam Atir" perhaps offers the best reason for the "Space rock" classification.

In all, a decent but rather anonymous debut album which does not really grab the attention sufficiently to make me want to hear more. Being hard to pin down to a genre is not a crime by any means, indeed it can be a recommendation. Being devoid of a style is a different thing though.

While the album is entirely instrumental, it does have a continuing concept about " Andy Perelman, the inhabitant of a dying, morbid city". Details of each track, and its part in the story are given on the band's Myspace web-page.

At under 40 minutes, and given the relaxed style of music here, this is more of an EP than a full album. The complete album is currently available for free download at the band's myspace page.

This album is quite good, another free gem that deserves to be checked out, and has a very spacey atmosphere which I always love. It is some kind of concept album, one which I have not been able to decipher, but nevertheless it's there and alive as the music supports it very well. The guitar is very well played throughout the album, showing a David Gilmour influence, and although the drumming sounds somewhat mediocre the guitar always raises it back up. In the end though, I realize what attracts me to this album is the atmosphere it gives off. It's just simply amazing how it captures my heart, like a long lost friend or something. Maybe others know what I'm talking about... anyways this album is free so might as well try and see if it touches your heart like it did mine.