PSYCHOPULS

King Crimson's fresh days of music are usually very extravagant, if we pause a bit from thinking back to their poetic, avant-rock, heavy classic years and exclude the more accessible, tiny-plotted songs of the 80s, focusing thus especially on the side of dark/stoned aromas or dynamics, jams or high improvisations and artistic/funky/heterogeneous "projeKcts" .

With a profound chemistry of bass plumpness, sharp energy and dark karma, there's a thing in hearing a KC so enticing, lustrous, devout - and their big step, if you add more metallic and heavy-sided albums like The Power To Believe, is an influence on prog bands that adopt this kind of progressive acoustic. Exsimio or Alquinbecil are pure modern "Krimson" bands, making an amazingly stimulating, hammering, speedy and complex spectacle of effects, dark riffs and interesting mixes, likewise the great band. Lizard, from Poland, finally fall devoted to their big influence in King Crimson once their second album, Psychopuls, sounds so strong, dark and electric, joining the familiy of Kcrimsoniacs.

For this band, their second album puts an end to a hiatus of studio recordings (as live concerts seem to have been part of their life) and grows on a perfect kind of art rock/nu-prog, in comparison with a very slim debut. Psychopuls, all the way from the artwork to the short-timed but tough-brewed substance, is Lizard's hope of becoming a fabulous, ahead-of-the-spirit band in many regards, with music measuring the same trippy, heavy, ingenious glow. To a point, the album is successful, worth spinning and highly-trained in the kind of hyper-kinetic or dark alembic it focuses on. That point veils a few broken strings and some gluey musicality, but after all that's crashed into this drink, the pleasure and shiver of listening to the music, of discovering its meddle gives a positive and gently amazed verdict.

From what seems a tight programmatic work, Psychopuls's composure is as tranquill as thinking about speedy improvisations, hard-mixed music and flapping vitality. The style only syncs with the one-side (but, by paradox, eclectic) bassed/dark/energizing electric jam King Crimson worked on, in their gripping metal/hard rock new albums (instrumental tracks from THRaK or albums like The Power To Believe, ProjeKcts and even the classic Red). There is a bit of pun in saying Lizard "cover" Crimson, but their own spectacle, here in Pyschopuls, is one talented work.

Psychopuls #001, #002, #003, #004 are practically concept-epics (the only quirky intermingle being the veracious #002,0A7), but again the idea of fast-improvising and huff-jamming simply shifts the musical gravity from one hi-fi theme to another. #001 and #002 are cut in three parts, in a sort of prologue-"craze"-epilogue arrangement; the instrumentality spins intense emotions, interlocks and dynamic/technical trances. #003 is made of two equal parts, which evolve similarly on hard, punching rock. The "intruder" #002,0A7 includes vocal effects and experimental slushes, while the 11 minutes imperative #004 puts the pedal of "pure Krimson punch", in a Starless feat. Larks ... part IV way. Psychopuls is not purely about dark, heavy, electric jam rock, the vocals sampling some expressions and the keyboards-guitar-bass-drums whole arrangement having more mellow spots where it simply tries alternative rock, heavy retro or low-psych music.

With Psychopuls, Lizard prog rocks! If choosing between this and the next record is more difficult, fans could actually love this one, for its fervent and artistic flummox.