THE TRIP

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I must be great to be Djam Karet. I mean, it's pretty amazing that on listening to their latest album `The Trip', you realise all the different band members were clearly abducted by aliens as small children, injected with the DNA of German bands like Cluster, Dom, Amon Duul 2 and Tangerine Dream, with a splice of the early era of Pink Floyd, the Delirium Records-era Porcupine Tree and even Steven Wilson's electronic project Bass Communion. They were then dropped back to Earth, and somehow, probably through the electronic signal coursing through their implanted tracking devices that gave them all some sort of symmetry or connection, they were able to meet up later on and eventually get to record this little beauty. In fact, as this work bridges lysergic shimmering psychedelic rock, immersive electronic soundscapes and charging spacerock, blending them all together seamlessly, effortlessly moving from one passage to another before you even realise it, I'm more than convinced this is the sound of a band subconsciously recreating scattered repressed memories and glimpsed flashbacks of their time aboard the mothership.

You'll be surely trying to decipher the digitised phasing chittering that opens the work, hoping for an idea of just what language this particular group of aliens communicate with, but after a Mellotron- laced lethargic and reflective acoustic acid folk introduction, the UFO dope runs it's course and we begin to fade, David Gilmour standing over us clutching his `More' LP. Brooding, filtering electronics penetrate, offering us only the most electric oranges and most hypnotic tangerines to dream about, as waves of Post strums slowly build comforting arms around us. Weaving electronic winds blow us through the still streams, disorientating memories of empty AM city streets, intense loneliness threatening to overwhelm at any moment. Bubbling flotation tanks shield us from faraway cooing Clusters of monsters aboard cold monolithic spacecrafts, a droning klaxon alerts us as a fortean glistening chubby rain drifts over the Earth (you see, the aliens come down in the rain, therefore making it chubby).

A plodding beat, wavering synths and a sombre bluesy guitar weep away as our visitors make their way across the land, hinting at danger, confusion and possible assimilation. Oh sure, the members of Mindf - ...um, I mean Mindhead will tell you they mean us no harm, but if they do, we'll not go quietly. Twisting guitar melodies wear us down, percussion grows in tension and tempo, humming organ lulls all into a false sense of security. A division bell chimes out over groaning winds, or is it funereal and our time is at an end? Violating white noise encases our minds through metamorphic rocks and pin drop piano menace.

A Maiden-drum gallop takes up the fight of our lives, with the Psychedelic Warlords and the Kings of Speed ensuring we won't go easy. Chugging, snarling riff-heavy guitar attacks, looping synth raybeams and aggressive tribal poundings fight back, forcing the overlords to take a cloudburst flight back to their own world - gotcha suckers! What a marvel to hear...Ozrics, Hidrias, Oresunds, Wilson's and Duul's all coming together, freeing themselves of Agitation and winning back our sanity with a frantic kaleidoscope of colour and sound - only for us to be just as hastily dropped back onto that same acid-fried hillside, with Mr Gilmour strumming that same lulling acoustic psalm to shelter us and ensure that everything is alright...until the next trip. Has it been days, weeks, months that we've been gone? Apparently only 47 minutes, but it would be best if we put this on continuous loop and disappear forever...besides, greasy Homer told me `I'm pretty sure this business will consume our whole lives...'

Djam Karet's `The Trip' - never to be listened to the same way twice, never to have exactly the same emotional response from the listener, but always guaranteed to have you hypnotised and enthralled by this wondrous voyage. Almost thirty years into their career, the band are still exploring, searching, honing timeless psychedelic music to treasure forever, and who knows...if you play it enough, maybe those alien overlords will come and take you on that journey as well. Just ask David Crosby for advice - "Hey! Mr Spaceman, won't you please take me along, I won't do anything wrong!"

Five stars.

"The Trip" was recorded between takes during the "Heavy Soul Sessions" and it gave the band a chance to relax before getting back to the heavy lifting of that 2010 recording. This is one long 47 minute track that I would describe as being Psychedelic music in the early PINK FLOYD realm but more modern sounding. I also should mention they use lots of "effects" on this one and we also get mellotron. In the liner notes they mention that no compression or limiting was used in order to give the album a more lively and dynamic sound. Also the picture inside the cover is cool with the psychedelic pink and purple hallway that looks like it goes on forever with the welcome mat that says "The Trip".

It starts off with spacey winds before melancholic strains take over. I like when it calms down making me feel like i'm listening to a PORCUPINE TREE song back in their psychedelic days. A definite Krautrock vibe here that continues until around 8 1/2 minutes in when the spacey winds return but that relaxed vibe continues. A change before 12 1/2 minutes as mellotron and atmosphere take over along with some haunting sounds that come and go. A change after 15 1/2 minutes reminding me of PINK FLOYD.

Drums come in before 19 minutes as the guitar starts to soar somewhat. Some FLOYD-like synths after 23 minutes join in. A change 28 1/2 minutes in with the guitar solo stopping and this haunting atmosphere taking over. This is familiar to what has gone on before. Spacey winds are back as well. A change 33 1/2 minutes in as it turns brighter but that is brief as it quickly returns to that haunting and melancholic style. Love the mellotron choirs 37 minutes in with electronics then the drums take over aggressively a minute later. The guitar comes in and starts to rip it up and we get organ too then synths before it calms right down 45 minutes in. Those melancholic strains form the start are reprised here to end it as our trip ends.

While I still rate "Still No Commercial Potential" as my favourite from this band i'm really glad they released this album which is a nod to those late sixties early seventies Psychedelic bands from another era. Easily 4 stars.