ACCORDING TO LIFE...

This sophomore effort from Swedish outfit The Carpet Knights is a pretty curious affair, where the expression neither fish nor fowl most certainly applies.

Blending light stoner rock with slightly pretentious folk rock akin to Jethro Tull is a curious state of affairs in itself, but when more or less liberally adding psychedelic trait to the compositions as well we're dealing with a fairly eclectic end result, and one that balances on a very thin dividing border between the successful and the ones that aren't really up to scratch. Eclectic music can be that way, that the variety of the the styles used leads to an end result where the different expressions balance each other out rather than enhance the overall experience.

Personally I found the opening number on this CD to be the least eclectic and most successful, a brilliant number with quite a lot of Jethro Tull spirit. And the entire second half of the album works pretty well too, on these tracks the psychedelic embellishments are given more space and for me at leas this lead to generally more intriguing listening too. The compositions in between those left me lukewarm though, smelling fowl and tasting fish - or vice versa.

Still, a good album overall, with close to 40 minutes of strong material and a brilliant album opener amongst them.

According To Life (2009) is the second studio album by Swedish psychedelic rockers The Carpet Knights. Out of interest it might be worth mentioning that one or two members of the group occasionally perform with Oresund Space Collective, a space rock band that can also be found here on ProgArchives. Anyway back to The Carpet Knights and the pseudo-American vocals make them sound like a Californian stoner rock outfit, with the emphasis being firmly on the rock part. All lyrics are in English by the way. Musically, the twin guitars of Jocke Jonsson and Tobbe Wulff dominate and most of the 10 riff-laden songs are medium paced with a bass-heavy sound. Yep, it's a bit of a sludge-fest.

Flute is used to good effect on half the songs and this compensates for the apparent absence of any keyboards. I think that guitars produce what sound effects there are on the album. My main criticism is that the album lacks variety; there's little respite from the heavy, one-paced rockers. LOST is the first song where the pace varies and that's already halfway through the album. Actually, things pick up during the second half with some of the best tracks, notably IF SOON I WILL BE YOU and MAGICAL SPACE-STYLE. There's really not a lot wrong with According To Life - fab riffs, tasty flute, several great tracks - it just suffers a bit due to its sameness.

First thing that I like about this album is its cover. It's beautiful connection of nature and, ahem, nature. That's nature multiplied by two. And believe me, Sweden has beautiful nature (as the rest of Scandinavian Peninsula has).

Music on the verge of Psychedelic and Heavy (more Heavy for me in average, even though some parts are pure Psychedelic), together with certain Retro elements. Quite reminiscent of Motorpsycho (almost like its Norway's counterpart), sharing a lot of same motifs.

Thank you Olav for the word, Stoner Rock (I always forget this one), seems possible that this is the case. However, I don't have proofs. Sometimes it would be good to be stoner, but most of the times, put me out of drugs. I can enjoy it anyway. Very 'eavy (and very 'umble) sound with killing riffs. But never abandoning Psychedelic traces, they're still present no matter what.

Music like this is also good material to make longer tracks and so we get 60 minutes of these delights. However, this music can be boring, because there's quite low amount of eclecticity (variety), you simply have to take it or leave it as it is.

4(-), seemed like good rating at the time. Before I got drunk.

Swedish Progmasters are back in town, with another masterpiece, and a huge one! Back in town, yes, but with 2 new members, replacing the great drummer they had on ''Lost And So Strange Is My Mind'' and the interesting bassist. Is this good news? It had lots of chances of being a bad thing, to make the band suffer from their creativity. Well, in fact, it gave a different structure of bass/drum interplay, adding a different approach to the sound, closer to what you expect from a unique band like the Carpet Knights. The flute, less present than in the first 'opus', is there to give the sound nice little details, to give it an 'epic' sound. The songs are in general closer to stoner and rock than in their previous effort, wich could please of deceive you, depending on your tastes. I, personnally, am opened to a whole lot of styles, so it surprised me, in a good way. The singer is still one of the pillars, with his incredible lyrics, his beautiful voice. The guitarists, playing in duo, are amazing. Playing sometimes with strange effects that would make you doubt if there's a keyboard in the band. The drums are in general more aggresive than into their first album, wich is good for the slight change of direction they took. Aggresive, but not in an heavy metal way, just more powerful. Sadly this drummer seems not to appreciate tiny little details as his predecessor, but these last 2 facts makes them equal at my eyes. The bass is excellent, creative, far from the classic rock boring continuous rythm section. The production pushes now the drums on the main side, and still make the music so perfect. Modern in terms of quality, while vintage in terms of general sounding, far from the 'plastic' effect most modern compositions suffer of...

This album, a little different from their first one, is absolutetly excellent. A true masterpiece, no doubt about it. But I will not admit it is better or worse than ''Lost And So Strange Is My Mind'', for they each have their own way of being epic.

Give it a look, for sure, the Carpet Knights are genious!

I'm going to ramble a bit but I'm so looking forward to jumping into Psychedelic music with both feet this coming new year. This is sort of like throwing myself a bone I suppose listening to one of my favourite Swedish Psychedelic bands this past week. I'm such a fan of their debut "Lost And So Strange Is My Mind" released back in 2005. Well I scooped up their second album "According To Life..." released in 2009 with a new rhythm section in tow. They still are a five piece of two guitarists, vocals/ flute, bass and drums.

These guys create powerful music often but the flute and mellow sections are excellent contrasts. I like the vocals sung in English. This band has had connections with ORESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE right from the start but also one of the guitarists here and the new bass player started HOOFFOOT the same year this record was released in 2009. Funny how the new bass player Par Hallgren discovered RPI, 70's Jazz and Ktautrock all late in his life and he says that IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO's "YS" changed his life.

The music here is almost like a guilty pleasure with the guitar, vocals and flute and it's often straight forward. I'm not huge on the opener but after that I mean there's four straight tracks that hit the spot for me. Especially "Eternal Sleep" where they come out of the corner swinging but how good is this when it settles with flute. Vocals are reserved and join in quickly. Some wordless vocals and an excellent instrumental break. Check out the guitar before 4 minutes.

"Without A Past" is cool with that urgent rhythm with bass standing out. Nice uplifting chorus too. Wordless vocals on that second track as well. "Cosmical Mind" opens with distortion and energy with guitar leading the way as the vocals join in. I like the guitar solo starting around 4 minutes. More wordless vocals. I really like that Psychedelic chill to start "Lost" with that flute and laid back vocals."Why Am I" might be the proggiest but I'm not a big fan although I like the melancholy before 2 minutes with the guitar and flute. The closer is called "Forever Is A Long Time" and it's led by the guitar early and it's fairly heavy. A calm just before a minute as vocals join in and so begins our 10 1/2 minute journey.

So yes I'm a big fan of both of their albums and would highly recommend both.