MERKABAH

Their debut EP was a good post-rock record. Good but a bit generic. The same cannot be said about Lyonesse. Merkabah has taken a big step in the direction of staking out their own little patch of land in this scene.

The music on this supposed live EP (where is the audience, btw ?) is based on post rock and space rock. That's the base. On the top of that, you have woodwinds like sax which sounds a bit like Soft Machine. The woodwinds floats on the top of the pretty repetetive post/space rock which occupies the back of the sound. The sound is heavy and wall to wall. The bass also rumbles on, joined by guitars too in this very dense sound.

The qualities of the songs are good throughout. But the songs feels like one piece of music and not like three songs. The music is varied with the woodwinds adding a lot of dense texture to the sound. I feel though that the woodwinds sometimes are a bit unstructured and all over the place. Too much so, in fact. But this is a free download and it is well worth checking out. I like this EP a lot. But not enough to declare it great.

3 stars

The music is best described as psychedelic/space Rock with a modern sound and a very post- rock feel over it. It would call it a mix of post rock and psychedelic/space Rock. Everything here is instrumental and mainly bass driven with a generous helping hand of a twaang guitar sound.

If you spend your day standing upright and studying your shoes...... In short, being generally a shy and introverted person, this EP may be your soundtrack though. The music is very atmospheric and based on creating a mood. Not a type of EP which should be downloaded by suicidal persons though (please, please doctor....... don't read this review). But there are subtle and very effective melody lines throughout these twenty eight minutes. It is also some fully blast post rock ending to this EP. That makes me wonder what this band is doing in the Psychedelic/Space Rock genre and that they may find their real home in the Post Rock genre. In short; this is not the traditional Psychedelic/Space Rock genre EP.

Yes, I am wobbling around in this review like a drunk man........ which I am not. I am not sure if this is a decent or a good EP though. The quality...... well, I am actually pretty fond of this EP and would give it three stars. My heart has overruled my head for the second time tonight in reviews and I wonder why I bother maintaining a brain after all. In short # 2; if Post Rock is your thing, this is a worthy free download.

3 stars