SHAMBLEMATHS 2

The mature veterans who appeared out of no where with their debut album five years ago have upped the ante-- chosen to travel in a direction that may surprise some--yet do so with intelligence, resolve, and incredible talent.

1. "Måneskygge" (1:05) very cool horn over droning bowed double bass. Sounds like something exotic from the Middle East. (5/5)

2. "Knucklecog" (9:56) I had forgotten how mischevious Simen Å. Ellingsen's Ian Anderson/Peter Gabriel voice of impishness could sound: quite the theatric performance! Otherwise, the feel of this song and its sound palette feels quite like that of countrymen SEVEN IMPALE's 2014 debut, City of the Sun. Impressive drumming--very much like something out of the lexicon of the great jazz masters. And I love the insistent VDGG-like push of the main chordal theme's rhythm section. Great work on the keys and horns. (18.25/20)

3. "D.S.C.H." (Op. 110 String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Movements 1-2) "Imaginary Friend" (6:24) the sound here is so similar to the music Paolo "Ske" Botta was doing with Francesco Zago in the band NOT A GOOD SIGN that I'm rather shocked to see that Ske is not listed as a participant in its composition and studio rendering. Beautiful performance by the vocalists. I especially love the brief little duet between Ms. Pia Samset and the Mellotron! I understand that this is a rock rendering of a classical composition (intelligently done--with admirable creativity in the choices of instrumentation!), so it's a bit of a challenge to comment on the composition, so it comes down more to the piece's selection and arrangement. Interesting and commanding. (9/10)

4. "Lat Kvar Jordisk Skapning Teia Pts. 1-4" (6:37) beautiful innocent vocal-led introduction--almost child-like--from Anna Gaustad Nistad, which is then overtaken by the thick, driving VDGG-like bluesy rock of the full band, saxophone leading the barrage. The contrast with Ske's frequent and brief solo electric piano interludes is brilliant! Even culminating in a little two-minute mediæval motif in the fourth, fifth, and sixth minutes. Are my ears deceiving me in that I hear some traditional Christmas-like melodies entwined with a variation on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"? (9.5/10)

5. "Lat Kvar Jordisk Skapning Teia Pt. 5" (5:38) opens like the disorganized primordial soup that is the beginning of EUMIR DEODATO's opening to "Also Sprach Zarathustra"--even using the same Fender Rhodes and bass and drums sounds. As it begins to congeal it morphs into a kind of Miles Davis Jazz-Rock Fusion foray. The deep bass chords at 3:40, however, dispell any jazz pretensions--as does the UNIVERSAL TOTEM ORCHESTRA/Ana Torres Fraile-like layered vocalizations of Pia M. Samset Very cool song! (9.25/10)

6. "Lat Kvar Jordisk Skapning Teia Pts. 6-8" (3:43) the oddest, most angular stop-and-start, zig-zagging song on the album--even with an all-acoustic movement in the middle. Again, the similarities to the music of YUGEN/NOT A GOOD SIGN/SKE are striking. Great drumming and electric guitar work in the 8th movement. (8.75/10)

7. "Lat Kvar Jordisk Skapning Teia Pt. 9: Mørker vik på all Hans veg" (2:18) basically horns and piano over which small human (Eivor Å. Ellingsen, aged 6) sings. (4.25/5)

8. "Been and Gone" (2:13) a sparsely-populated YUGEN-like composition that has double bass and droning chorus of vuvuzela-like horns as its central elements. Nice cinematic tension filler. (4.25/5)

9. "This River" (9:04) a delightful and deeply rewarding exercise in restraint and spaciousness that includes two wonderfully tender performances by the male and female singers. The rise in intensity during the fifth and sixth minutes is probably my favorite 90 seconds of music that I've heard from 2021! I love the vocals and the drummer's cymbal play! Perhaps my favorite song of the year! (20/20)

Total Time 46:58

Shedding the comfort of pleasing melodies (the former Strawbs-iness that I alluded to in my review of their previous album), and treading into the dangerous waters of more chromatically-based musical constructs is a risk Simen and Ingvald were quite willing to make--and I think that their efforts have paid off: They have, here, created a work of sophisticated, intellectual music that bears witness to their other contemporary grandchildren of King Crimson, the Yugen/Not a Good Sign and Seven Impale world is not so surprising were it not for the fact that nearly one half of my 2021 Top 15 Albums of the Year are coming from either Norway or have some connection to Paolo "Ske" Botta! While Shamblemaths 1 really knocked my socks off with their out-of-the-blue technical and compositional high end, this one astounds me in the risks taken by the band to move away from the crowd-pleasing Yes-standards and, instead, explore more obtuse and angular fare. Kudos! Bravo! An even bigger and, ultimately, more impressive surprise than 1.

A-/five stars; a modern masterpiece of progressive rock music that every prog lover should definitely check out! I have no doubt that this will soon be considered one of the 21st Century's essential prog releases!