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Baikal - Baikal CD (album) cover

BAIKAL

Baikal

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

2.96 | 4 ratings

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Eetu Pellonpaa
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars This band project has recorded a quite classical psychedelic album, having an approach familiar from 1960's/1970's improvisational acid rock bands. The sound is though much heavier here, as there are only guitars in the line-up in addition of bass and drums (and some vocal wailings). I guess this stuff could be called as some sort of stoner rock, though the rhythms are quite free and do not contain constant repetitive patterns, the songs having also very loose structures.

The guitars have phasing volume shifts, echoes and probably ebows used with them, and also a strong distortion used on some stronger moments. The music is divided to two over half hour long tracks, like the two sides of a LP, though I think these suites wouldn't have fitted to sides of normally carved vinyl discs. There's also some singing here, which is in my opinion the weakest link of the album, resembling little the atavistic bellowing of Ash Ra Tempel's "Schwingungen" album's A-side. That band is probably a source of influence also in other more pleasant elements too, though there are not as ethereal ambient moments here as in the music of mentioned krautrock band, partly probably due the lack of keyboards or other softer sounding instruments.

The two improvisational tracks are slowly evolving long waves, where more mellow moments slowly grow to chaotic and powerful peak moments. From the other modern similar bands, one comparison could be Acid Mothers Temple or The Spacious Mind without the calmest moments present in their sound. That lack of harmony contrasts made this album a slightly lesser interesting experience for me, but I would recommend it for the fans of bit more heavier sound and who are interested of experiencing a powerfully distorted bad trip. The long song lenghts are something I respect very much here, and I would not hesitate to check out how this band project would improvise on the stage, if such opportunity would be granted.

Eetu Pellonpaa | 3/5 |

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