MALLEUS CREASE

While listening to this band, one of the first words that came to my mind was "trip", now you can imagine why. Humus is an instrumental band whose psychedelic guitars prevail above all, and I am not judging only for this record. So this album was released in 1996 and it is called "Malleus Crease" released once more by Smogless records. Its peculiar cover art may be a proof of Humus weirdness, so I warn you because once you say yes to this trip; you may not find the exit door.

This album features 8 compositions and a total time of 47 minutes, it kicks off with "Some Blue Cheese", an 8-minute song that starts with some keyboard futuristic sound and then changes due to the entrance of electric guitar, however, some seconds later it changes again creating a very odd atmosphere, some distorted guitar, nice synth and constant drumming. Since the very first minute you will realize the music and structure is kind of weird, but quite interesting in my opinion, making you an addicted because you will not know what is going to happen next, there are several changes, change within a change, but great. Pay attention to the guitar, is excellent, and the song overall, becomes better and better through the minutes.

Next is "Nomads", starts with a slow time but at the same time with a rough sound, the bass and guitars along with the keyboards provoke some strange noises and create a dark atmosphere within the song, it reminds me to another Humus song called Fatscope which can be listened in their 4th album. Continuing with this track, the rhythm changes a little bit but the essence of the piece is still the same, hope you get what I mean. The last minute is very interesting, the bass lines are addictive and the constant drumming is great, nice song.

"The Coming of Odin" begins slow, drums is the first thing you listen and then guitar and some synth effects here and there, the mood is very strange, but then all of a sudden it drastically changes into a faster and powerful song. Again, several changes into the same song, and again, pay attention to the awesome guitar riffs which stays as the dominating instrument. Later, there are some strange noises and effects that confirm what I said in my first paragraph, this is a trip.

"Periplo III" is the shortest song with only 2 minutes, intriguing guitar sound at first, complemented by a raw sound a minute later, accompanied by great drums and very nice synth effects as a background, short but nice melody.

The following is entitled "Obonibus Eclectrico", weird name for a weird song which happens to be the longest one reaching the 10-minute mark. As you can imagine within this 10 minutes you will find several changes that came all of a sudden and that in moments are unimaginable, it is like you listen to a guitar riff and out of nowhere appear some odd synth effects with different rhythm and time and tempo, changes that actually make the music more interesting, in my personal opinion this "unstructured" composition keeps my total attention and gives to the band an extra point, since it is original music that may sound common. This song is a clear example of Humus sound, son pay careful attention to it and decide if you are interested in exploring more of their music, or not.

Next song is "Kat Man Doo", starting with kind of a rockish guitar sound, but with the same raw sound, while the drums and bass sound, the guitar keeps doing its riffs and giving a proper style to the music. A couple of minutes later the song slows down a bit creating a moment of doubt, but later again the sound increases as it began, and the guitar solos reappear.

The last song is "El Aprendiz", and starts very different with some nice and slow piano notes accompanied by drums, little by little they fade out in order to give entrance to a new structure, constant drums, keyboards and guitars making the same rhythm during more than a minute and later changing (I know) again, making some short stops and later exploding once again, a very interesting last song.

This is a nice album, now I cannot decide which of the two Humus albums I know I like the most, both are different but with the same style, the guitar sound is very iconic and those crazy changes make the music really interesting, though in my opinion sometimes it may be boring.

My final grade is 3 stars.

Enjoy it!