KROBAK

1. They're all shot this winter (6:12) Beautiful guitar begins this piece, slowly building with patient ambience. Serene waves of sound broken by sudden blasts of shrilly guitar with jagged rhythms and metrical patterns. Minimalist approach at times with a lonely guitar plucking gently in the silence.

2. Three Tired Hands (4:00) This has a quirky rhythm 'click' effect that echoes while a western guitar twangs out of sync. A very off kilter and effective approach to the music and very atmospheric. Reminds me of the music from a Tarantino film, a western genre, and highly evocative and pleasant. For me this music was inciting images of a plain desert and a man wandering aimlessly as the sun beats down.

3. As Fresh as the Air of the Night (4:06) A strong bass line begins this and the influences of Godspeed You! Black Emperor shine through. Probably not as meandering and subtle as that band but still as effective. Music to tune into on headphones. The swirling seascape sounds are overlayed with the off kilter rhythmic guitar tones. It feels like a night atmosphere and as if something is creeping slowly towards someone. The rhythm gains momentum and becomes estranged until it locks into a strange metrical pattern. There are no drums on this track again unnecessary. The ending is very creepy.

4. Everyday I set my Gaze towards the East waiting for the Sun (6:38) Terrific title for a track. A violin sound begins this track. Perhaps inspired by GYBE's East Hastings, though not as good as Godspeed You! Black Emperor's track. This one sounds most like Godspeed You! Black Emperor of all tracks as it feels very minimalist and shrouded in mystique. The creepy sound is ethereal due to the use of plucking strings out of sync with low bell tones. Sounds like a horror movie soundtrack but never overbearing. Some sections are ambient and others are unsettling. The low drones and low fi instruments are balanced beautifully to create the sense of isolation.

In summary, there is a collection of ominous, foreboding unsettling music in sections and yet it is restful in other places with heavy influences of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Very funereal and bleak at times, while there are moments of bliss and serenity. Close your eyes, turn up the headphones and let the music transport you to another place.

The music is slow building instrumental post rock which is clearly influenced by Godspeed You! Black Emperor ( at least to my rather untrained post rock ears) and if I´m not mistaken I also hear a bit of Mike Oldfield in the music even though I´m not sure it´s intensional. Normally I crave more busy music but for a thoughtful quiet time this melancholic and beautiful music is very suiting. The songs have both long atmospheric parts and more intense climaxes. A powerful dynamic mix. As mentioned there are no keyboards on the album so the dominant instrument in the music is guitar. Often multilayered and melodic. Not commercial melodic though. The drums which I´m sure are programmed are not the most interesting part of the music and a real drummer could have worked wonders here IMO. The 20:52 minute long The Fried Bull's Blues is my favorite on the album. It´s also the most experimental song of the three.

The production is a bit too lo-fi for my taste, but still enjoyable. It´s not comparable to professional productions though. This sounds like it´s been recorded on Igor Sidorenko´s computer and not in a professional recording studio. It´s probably an aquired taste if you´ll enjoy this kind of production.

Igor Sidorenko is a good musician and composer IMO. His playing is pationate and his love for the music shines through clearly.

The Diary of the Missed One is an interesting album but I have to be honest and say that I´m not the right target group for it. I don´t seem to have the patience for music this slow building, but on the other hand I do enjoy it when I´m in the right mood. If you enjoy slow building melancholic post rock I would recommend that you check it out though as there are many good qualities in the music on this album. For me personally this album is somewhere between a 2 and a 3 star rating. The production drags my rating down a bit but I greatly respect the one man effort and the emotions put into the adventerous compositions. Therefore this is a 3 star album for me. Before I end my review I would like to mention the beautiful cover art. I don´t know why but from the first time I saw that picture it just sucked me in. A good and interesting choice for cover art.

So it is good to see that inside ProgArchives forums there are not only members who write reviews or help the site in a different way, but there are also members who have a musical talent which is shared to all of us. One of PA members is the man behind this project called Krobak, a man from Ukraine who i am sure will give something to talk about in the next years.

The Diary of the Missed One is his first CD (not EP or split) and was released last year, i knew this album via lastfm, and i enjoy it every time i listen to it. This album has only 3 but long songs and a total time of almost 47 minutes full of excellent post rock oriented stuff.

The first song is entitled Park Luny which lasts 11 minutes and is actually the shortest track, the album is completely instrumental and is played all by Igor Sidorenko, so it is a one man project which shows more the talent of Krobak. This is a very nice opening theme, the music is progressing gradually, it has a great introduction and after a couple of minutes some bass lines enter, followed by those experimental and clearly post rock guitars, as background there will be always a sample programming, and the emotional element is always shown in some moments, mainly with the guitars, reminding me a bit to EitS. The second part of the song shows a louder guitar playing and maybe a heavier style, pretty good song.

The second track is By the Music of Autumn Trees, with a total time of almost 15 minutes, and it is not the longest track yet. Ite begins with a soft and delicate guitar playing, which actually is what predominates in the first part of this track, the music may be labelled as soft post rock, or even ambient due to the sound and atmospheres created here. You can close your eyes and feel relaxed, you are listening to some calm, tranquil and nice music. Then, there is clearly a kind of an interlude and the song changes a little bit, though the calm atmosphere prevails and continues, after minute 9 it begins to progress and it raises until minute 11 when the music is louder, bass , guitars and drums appear and make great music with an emotional ending.

The longest track and last one of the album is named The Fried Bull's Blues and lasts 21 long minutes, a true epic of post rock music. The first minutes show only some ambient/electronic noises that reminds me a bit to Biosphere or Schulze's moments, then guitars appears making a repetitive but hypnotic sound that will last several minutes but during those minutes some other instruments and noises appear, the song is progressing little by little, then those guitar lines become bass lines and the song goes on the same way until minute 8 where it becomes heavier, like post-metal, some may say. Then at the half of the song it changes again, it slows down and the work of a distorted guitar begins and then drums get on the song too, and it is like a new song that again begins a bit simple but throughout the minutes it progresses and some new noises or effects appear. The last part of the song, simply fades out. To be honest, this is my least favourite track of the album, i believe there are some moments that may not be as interesting as on the previous 2 songs, anyways is a nice song.

Congratulations to Igor for this album, which is great without a doubt, but i believe as the years go by, he will find his magnus opus.

My grade is 3 stars! Enjoy it!

Diary of The Missed One starts off with "Park Luny", a song that starts with a childish tune and quickly kicks it with the main tune, yet the second part of the song is where the song gets good with another great tune. The next one: "By the Music of Autumn Trees" is by far my favorite of them all. The crescendo part and the ones before the ending have a very melancholic feeling. Something to notice about the song is the ending in which the drums go ballistic and crazy and though it sounded good, it did ruin the momentum and the atmosphere created by the rest of the song. The last song: The Fried Bull's Blues which peaks almost at 22 minutes takes about 3 ½ minutes to really start, something I'm not a fan of and its around the 7 minutes where the song starts to get really good in which there are some heavy riffs with a sort of evil/melancholic feel to it. The next part of the song sounds OK but it feels a bit misplaced and it takes a while get used to.

In overall we get a great post rock epic with fantastic tunes and melodies and filled with memorable moments. There's really much to expect from Krobak in the future.

The album is cut into three songs, each one a little longer than the last, one is almost archtypical post rock, but more upbeat than you would expect, with an almost awkward start, but smoothes over, and builds into a great song. The second starts a little softer than the first, slow melodic, beautiful, but towards the end, introduces a more metalisized Krobak, with post metalish tones to a drop D palm muted guitar. The last the twenty minute magnum opus starts with a noise start, and gradually builds to what you might expect to be the typical GY!BEian climax, but goes into a huge metal riff that gradually progresses, and then builds down leaving you on edge. That's part of Igors music that is off the grind from normal post rock, it really is melancholic through and through, and it really is very guitar based, but instead of following the post rock greats he makes music that moves in waves, and doesnt really need a super climax to end a song, that seems so overdone in this branch of music. The guitar work is also great, though I cant say that the Agallochish super lack of treble tone is my favorite, he knows what he's doing. He's not afraid to put some acidic effects to the guitar, and not just really on reverb and delay alone, hell he even puts an incredible guitar solo somewhere in there.

Rating this is incredibly tough, there so many great things, but at the same time a lot of little things that just tend to annoy me. As good as the first song is, the first three minutes just seem awkward to me, and I cant say I'm a fan of the steel drum intro... Also the drums to sound pretty fake, but I gotta cut him some slack, one it's incredibly hard to get a drum machine the way you want it, two he's a one man band, we cant ask him to be a pro at EVERYTHING! The last problem for me is the super passive clean guitar tone, it just lack substance during the build up parts, but by itself, it serves it's purpose greatly.

Gotta hand it to ya buddy, you know how to make post rock, and pretty good post rock at that, four stars, BARELY!

At this point already, biographical or off-topic notes need no more heavy underlining. Igor moved on to compose post-rock (progressive/modern) music after a long line of reviews and appreciations written about the style itself and its pivotal or associated bands. Mostly subjective, but at the same time direct, such reviews mark a splint of influences on how Igor builded himself the style and musical direction of his own work, a couple of them (such as Godspeed You Black Emperor! or Explosions In The Sky) being easy guesses. Ironically, this musician from Ukraine doesn't even hesitate to call his work "the first post-rock album" coming from his own country. Igor composed many more pieces than those printed out, some experimental, other more valorous, which is why - particularly on this album - you get just a bit of what Igor can sketch and play as an artist - and we'll elaborate what exactly, further on... Here on ProgArchives, Krobak has its big fanbase, whose thoughts are mostly positive - understandably, therefore, the next step is a bit more recognition outside these walls. To say the least, the recommendation for works such as this one (or the previous Structura Tortura) is worthy.

Starting with Park Luny, a lot of ideas are in the end shrunk to only two main themes. The first two minutes are an interesting moment, based on some space-sound/new-age effects, but also on the impression that the artist would dislike the mood of long, endless melodies - due to which the switch towards the first theme happens fast and suddenly. That precise mood turns however to be the main drive of the rest of Park Luny. Dynamic through percussions and an inner fast tick, the first part rises up to any particular Explosions In The Sky moment that's based on those kind of "harmony-guitars", the climax coming slow but in an intelligent way. After this moment burns out (and it takes a couple of extra bars), a second theme emphasizes deeply on a guitar-made ethereal tune - the melodic catchphrase being quite simple, its development (through extra layers and electric volume boosts) being even simpler. So, in all, Park Luny is a first example of easy, typical post-rock music, with a calm seed of guitar melodies.

By The Music Of Autumn Trees probably points out exactly that kind of a "spleen" expression within the music, but more important is how the piece tops best the choice of guitars in the instrumentation. The style even drives away from post-rock, leading to the impression of a rock guitarist playing atmospheric, stretched melodies. In fact, the craziest impression I get is Robert Fripp doing mellow, yet characteristic soundscapes. The piece is formed of two main fragments yet again, the first 7 minutes being entirely dedicated to the "guitar soundscapes" art, what results being an accessible kind of a faraway music. Picking up from where this entire theme dies out slowly, the second part of the piece picks up, at least for me, a genuine Godspeed vibe, by two things: the dark bass notes and the guitar tremolos (or, alas, the climaxes) which resemble the depressing, bitter scales of Godspeed's dramatic well-known moments. With percussions and extra melodic lines, the finale picks up speed and chaos, but the actual finale is bit too freestyle; the explosion of hectic rhythms and fractured-like strokes is unconventional.

The longest piece is the last one and it should remind any Krobak fan or listener of The Fried Bull's Waltz, which was the centrepiece of Structura Tortura. The splash of effects and excellent modern post-rock cuts over there are similar, but only in a way, to the dark and agitated movement presented here. Definitely complex, this album's Fried Bull's Blues is the best piece of all three. Via an experimental, electronic first groan of ambient frizzles and airless space-sounds, the main theme abounds in post-rock rhythms, dark guitar tones and a lot of consuming loud sounds, which ultimately create nothing but a rumble of intense heat. Spectacular and raw are the main words, though the long drifts over the same portion of music reappear for at least 6 or 7 minutes in the middle part.

By the standards, Diary Of The Missed One is certainly not the most spectacular post-rock album, even (or, actually, especially) given Igor S.'s hard work into it, and it certainly reflects only a bit of what the artist can do, in terms of (free)style, music and originality. The album deserves credit, the only underwhelm coming from how exciting and intriguing the split from Structura Tortura really sounded like. Otherwise, three stars mean well, being perhaps required a plain taste for moody and traditional post-rock, with some experimental edges, taped sounds, blank atmospherics or raw fuzzes aside.

The main thing is that Igor focuses his attention not to technique and technical entry of music, but to melody and atmosphere above all. His music is a typical post-rock; typical within the bounds of the style, but not characteristic in terms of the songwriting way. I mean that Krobak, as a matter of fact, has its own style, or special sound, if this very expression may be tolerated.

I really recalled some events of my past during some spins, and that’s the thing which moved me a bit. When someone’s music touches my heart and soul, I fall in love with this music; it becomes my guide when I try to move ahead, my helpmate when I am in deep trouble, my salvation from being lost... Post-rock really helps me to be myself; it helps me to spend my days, to think over some questions inside me... It’s like a couch mixture for the sick.

Krobak’s music is very melancholic, sad and severe now and then. I appreciate the guitar work done by Igor: the album is full of beautiful melodies, breaks and climaxes. Park Luny glitters like gold, and is a great opener overall, being my favourite on the album. By The Music Of Autumn Trees, perhaps, is the most melancholic song on the “Diary of the Missed One” with a nice final section. The lengthiest track is the last one called The Fred Bull's Blues. If it’s not excellent all way through, then it does contain remarkable sections. I appreciated heavier and final parts most of all.

“The Diary of the Missed One” shows us in what way post-rock should develop around Post-Soviet area. The album is excellent and music is touching. True melancholic post-rock. Igor made the best of it.

The cover is great as well.

Good for you, Igor!