THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF KRAUTROCK: AUM

The band has reformed again with new personnel around Niko's powerful guitar and psychedelic vision for this latest record of Seven That Spells. The A(lb)um is composed within a satanic circle, this sinful sphere being present both in sonic architecture of the release and on the record cover's symbolism.

In the start of this sphere dwells an anticipating rhythm, wall of noise and demonic chanting, which leads the music to euphoric ride to cosmic rock patterns and repetitive ascending guitar themes. There are very pleasant hypnotic qualities in the rhythm, and later the logics in the song are torn down, wiped to random events of powerful chaos. The title tune "Aum" rises from the debris, containing some menacing rhythmic patterns reminding Rush in its opening, soon giving room to screaming guitar wails screamed upon a powerful bass riff. The instruments conjure forth very atavistic and formless musical moments; Solemn ritualistic passage appears, containing sacred primitive chaos present in the early shamanistic krautrock records. I liked this longer adventure quite much, as it contained both long hypnotic elements, and also really great chaos guitar solo. The minimal passages where math and soothing space rock sounds united, created fine kicks and powerful cosmic visions. The levels escalate with logical steps as the trio's musical layers get more aggressively entwined, drilling to the deeper cores of Aum's vigorous vortex.

In the middle of the record resides a real null chamber, "Zero", a gigantic shapeless ambient form without any detectable features. There is a feeling of distance to this sonic source, and it is much more beautiful than some of the earkilling tracks from earlier records. Large musical mass waves beautifully like a cosmic horizon, giving delicate associations Pat Metheny's "Zero Tolerance for Silence". This void, an eye of a storm on the album, ends to stagnant long note, followed by "Rock Ist Krieg", a more aggressive rhythm killer. Groovy themes color this bass dominant tune, which reminds slightly the sounds of John Paul Jones' first DGM solo album. After few minutes changes take turn and the characteristic chaos gear is switched in, aimed for cruising to the ethereal tunnelvision of nocturnal highways, eventually leading to rhythmless noise-electronics of a dying car radio. Fine tides are rolling in the dynamics of this song, containing much happenings and interactive dialogue between players, and these vivid details contrasted with determined minimal motives make this quite interesting assault for my ears. Finally, similarly both positive and mystic theme leads to the exit of this album. Chanting increases the mythic and more sinister potential of the coda, and the meeting of the song's stagnant musical elements create fine hypnosis as finale.

On this record there are in my opinion more musical elements than on the earlier record of this year, and they are studied without haste, and also with more focused sense of style present. The structure of the album is fine, as the first six-minute track warms up quite pleasantly for the upcoming epics. These giants also differ from each other pleasantly, and the two shorter 8-9 minutes flashbacks following them create quite logical aural trip. So, the elements from earlier Seven That Spells recordings continue merging and evolving on the unholy altar of this fine psyched-out band, and I would certainly recommend this album for fans of aggressive psychedelic music.

A wonderful trip to the psych and kraut realms!

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!