MI KUBBESI

So your looking for some sumptious heavy groove driven instrumental prog with a flare... well welcome to the world of "My Cube". Proving once again that music has no boundaries, Turkish band NEKROPSI's debut album is a real stunner! "Mi Kubbesi" is mostly instrumental (with occasional chanting) full of complex twists and turns. NEKROPSI offers a unique blend of heavy bass riffs with the highest of calibre drumming/percussion richly swarmed with multiple guitar passages. This is really a "guitar-lovers" dream with 2 skilled players used throughout in a variety of mannerisms. NEKROPSI is deeply rooted in the KING CRIMSOM school of prog with some heavy accents. Songs dip in and out of many different moods, tempos and forms which is one of the strengths of this listen. This cd is nice and long and songs are given lots of room to move and take your mind deep inside life's cube. I should mention that this is put to an interesting philosophical concept storyline centering around the notion that life is nothing more than a cube to which we all exist within. "Mi Kubbesi" is also a little psychedelic for the lava lamp lovers out there...

Unfortunately, I recently heard that these guys are no longer playing together. But, what a great band they were. NEKROPSI were part of a modern Turkish progressive music renaissance that began in the early 90s, and that is picking up steam today. Dozens of young bands, many of whom grew up on 80s metal, 70s prog/classic rock, while discovering classic local bands like ERKIN KORAY and MOGOLLAR, are experimenting with adventurous forms music that mix West with East.

In the case of NEKROPSI, these guys invented a sound that is instantly appealing. This instrumental band features two guitarists that were clearly influenced by thrash metal guitar. But they turned off their distortion pedals, and added Turkish, and prog influences. Their sound is rhythmic, light, clear as pure water, and can turn, or soar, on a dime. At times, I'm reminded of the [%*!#]ING CHAMPS, DREAM THEATER and even EL RELOJ. The two guitarists did an incredible job of staying away from typical metal cliches that many other bands can't seem to escape from. The drummer is also worth mentioning. His playing is light, yet fits perfectly with the metal-like sound of the band. Once in a while, though, he whips out fast drum patterns that are as frantic as the drums on CITTA' FRONTALE's "El Tor".

The CD isn't entirely perfect, of course. The first 6 tracks are top-quality. We find a band full of ideas, intelligence, and energy. But, for some reason, they decided to slow things down toward the middle of the album. Their PINK FLOYD influence, maybe? Things don't pick up again until the 9th track. "Mi Kubbessi" is also a long CD. A few tracks could have been left out, so things start to drag a bit towards the end. Overall, though, there is something for everyone. Metal fans, and guitarists will enjoy almost every track here. Prog fans who aren't really into metal will find most of the tracks appealing.

This truly is a unique album. It's an all instrumental record except for the few vocal melodies and yells, but no real lyrics.This band employs two lead guitarists, a bass player and a drummer / percussionist. Being from Turkey there is a middle-Eastern feel to their sound at times, and I would describe their music as dark with a great rhythm section being the driving force. There is a definite psychedelic vibe going on here and I can't in all honesty think of another band that they sound like, although I did think of TOOL once with the drumming. I also thought of IN THE WOODS... as well with the dark and heavy sound they often employ. Like I said,they are unique.This is a long record of 73 minutes and I think they could have taken out a couple of the songs in the middle where I found it dragged a bit. Hard to believe these guys were a Thrash Metal band because much of this recording is slow and atmosphereic.

Some of the highlights are first of all the opening track "Crying Game" with it's odd metered drumming and fantastic bass lines leading the way. "Fok" has a lot of time shifts with the guitar taking a more prominant role.The melody after 3 minutes is great. "Efsane" is the third longest track and it has a real middle-Eastern feel to it. There is an extended atmospheric section before it gets back to the original melody.

"Hindu" has some incredible bass and drums that create a heavy undercurrent with the guitars playing over the top. Nice. Lots of tempo changes in "Carklar" with the percussion dominating early before giving way to some heavy guitar and drums later. "Goc" has such a hypnotic rhythm and the heaviness that comes in after 4 minutes as the guitars grind away is simply awesome ! "Yollar" is all over the map.This is the one with the heavy TOOL like drumming after 2 minutes as well as having a spacey, psychedelic soundscape. Some mesmerizing percussion later.

Heavy, psychedelic, atmospheric and hypnotic. Excellent!

What an amazing underrated gem this Mi Kubesi is, a suprisingly unique blend of metallic melodic ideas, jazzy instrumentation and native Turkish influences. The majority of the album is clean and instrumental with a few distorted metal moments and for the most part it's actually surprisingly psychedelic which is an amazing feat which few metal oriented acts have ever pulled off well.

My favourite song is the opener 'Crying game' which is the perfect encapsulation of what is good about this band and this album and is one of the faster more upbeat and complicated songs of the album. Yollar comes in a close second for me with both some great heavy moments and some brooding almost meditative middle eastern passages. Unfortunately the album does wax and wane a bit in terms of intensity and it does get a tad boring in places as it is such a long album clocking in at around 73 minutes but there are a lot of great songs and a lot great music on the whole.

There is some amazing technical drumming here and it interplays well with the guitars which are the focal point of the album. The guitar tone is quite reverberant and is primarily responsible for contributing to the psychedelic and spacey textures of this album full credit must be given to Cem and Tolga it's one thing to play metallic type riffs loud and distorted but to play technical metallic riffs clean and then to add dynamics into the equation is quite the feat, I thoroughly enjoy the middle eastern influenced riffs, there is careful attention to melody that is evident all throughout this album.

Overall NEKROPSI's debut album Mi Kubesi is a fantastic piece of music highly recommended to anyone into darker instrumental prog or even metal.