KRÉ

Prog releases are hard to come out of Venezuela,but here is a band that did well in the global prog scene.KRÉ were formed in 1999 in the capital of the country,Caracas,using a name coming from a poem of Antonin Artaud,meaning the lust for exploration and improvisation.The band performed at several gigs in Caracas since its formation, including theaters ,bars ,nightclubs ,universities ,even at museums.2002 is the year for KRÉ as they released their debut ''Ruido Domestico'' on Musical Mind.

STYLE: A weird blend of Jazz Rock,Fusion,Art Rock with even a touch of Post/Experimental music.''Ruido domestico'' is an all instrumental album,centered around the guitar work of Rubén D'Hers and his tight collaboration with Raúl Monsalve on bass and Hugo Mármol on drums.D'Hers performance has a lot in common with the mid-70's/early-80's Fripp's style,whle the album contains also extended improvisational parts with saxes on the front.Session performer José Gutierrez plays in the vein of 70's-era Chick Corea.Bass work is also very dynamic with Monsalve having his moments at parts of the album.The overall style turns to be contemporary Jazz-Prog with an intense experimental feeling,leaving the structures of the songs quite loose.

INFLUENCES/SOUNDS LIKE: Despite the obvious Fripp-ian influence,guitar work brings me to mind more of the modern Scandinavian bands like LIQUID SCARLET or Chileans TRYO and EXSIMIO.The loose saxes could be part of an early GONG or OUT OF FOCUS album,while the Fender Rhodes tunes are close to RETURN TO FOREVER's works.Add some obscure ambient passages here and there and you will have the result.

PLUS: Original and innovative music indeed,though the tracks differ at many points.Nice guitar work by D'hers,who seems to be the band's leader.A band with talent ,which seems to have a future potential.

MINUS: Plenty of soft parts without an evident reason of existence,at least to this extent.The electronic ambiences are of questionable creativity.The semi-structured songs are not my cup of tea,meaning a tight arrangement becomes suddenly an improvisation and the magic is totally lost.After four to five listenings the album becomes quite boring due mainly to the lengthy softer passages.

WILL APPEAL TO: Jazz Rock afficionados and people who don't mind their prog to have a slight experimental twist.

CONCLUSION/RATING: What I expect from a young prog band is to have personality...and KRÉ do have.This is unfortunately one of the rare occasions,where the music of a new and creative band didn't grab me at all.However the talent is there and I expect a more focused style on their sophomore effort...For the time being,2.5 stars is my rating.

KRE are an instrumental band from Venezuela who blend Psychedelic music with Jazz and pour a lot of atmosphere into it. Actually the songs that have a dark element to them are my favourites reminding me of ANEKDOTEN. This is complex stuff that takes a few listens to appreciate.

"Primera Cartada" is one of my favourites and the intro really got me excited the first time I heard it as it reminded me of the "Damnation" album by OPETH. Unfortunately it only lasts for a minute. We then get some sax melodies before some dissonant sounds 2 1/2 minutes come in. There is not a lot of melody at times during this song. "Doro" is a jazzy song that builds before 2 minutes to a climax, and the cymbals are prominant the rest of the way. "Tate Quieto" has a catchy melody of drums,cymbals,sax and bass. The electric piano takes a more prominant role later. "Onirica" is another favourite of mine. This one is a little darker with some terrific bass. There is a real ANEKDOTEN feel to this one.

"Ruido Domestico" is an experimental and spacey tune with some cello. "Ilvica" has a change of melody before 3 minutes that is beautiful. The guitar / drum soundscape is great ! "Sigiloso" is a jazzy tune led by drums and sax. "Champignon" features bass, drums and guitar that gets heavier 3 minutes in. Nice. "Ornamento" is another favourite of mine. The drums are excellent in this song. The sound is amazing 2 minutes in and afterwards. The guitar, drums and bass shine ! The tempo continues to change in this song from calm 5 minutes into an uptempo melody 8 minutes in.

For me this would have been so much better if the whole album was like the 3 songs I really liked. Still this is a challenging listen that is quite enjoyable. 4 stars.

KRé is Venezuelan instrumental band what has grown on their second effort from trio to quintet. This album called "El Radio Esta En La Cocina" differs quite lot from its predecessor "Ruido Domestico". The musical approaches on this record have hints to psychedelic space- and krautrock, ambient, latinoamerican music, experimental post rock. For me the first album "Ruido Domestico" was warmer because of its musical thoughts and using saxes and more juicy synths but playing in this album was maybe a bit more "hobbled". On this "El Radio..." album the musicianship is maybe more "open-minded" but the music is more "common" becouse of thats soundspectrum. Favourite tracks? Maybe "La Curva Y El Humo" and "Columpio".

This Venezuelan act's second offering might as well be one of the most amazing experimental prog recordings for the year 2005; definitely, kRé restates itself as a major prog force not only in the Latin American context, but also in a worldwide spectrum, giving proof that they can still impress prog audiences with yet another masterpiece after their impressive debut "Ruido Doméstico". "El Radio Está en la Cocina" finds the former trio turned into a quintet, with the incorporation of recurrent collaborating keyboardist Chemi Gutierrez and newcomer percussionist José Martínez as official members. But this is not the only novelty: the most fundamental one is regarding the stylistic evolution that the band has harbored, nurtured and craftily accomplished within itself for the new album's material. The incorporation of Latin jazz- centered rock (in many ways, similar to early Santana) and funky overtones within their own musical pallet allows the musicians to expand their musical vision, while keeping their tasteful sense of weirdness and sophistication (that is, preserving the influences from early 70s King Crimson, current post-rock and jazz-fusion that they so cleverly recycled for their debut album). The sequence of the first three numbers somewhat establishes some sort of canon for the album's overall trend. The fusion-esque of vibes of 'La Curva y el Humo' and the title track, and the eliciting funky grooves of 'Muco' transport the audience to a festive ambience refurbished under a moderately disturbing guise, which results from the well-ordained collision between the natural joy of tropical origins and the somber aura of psychedelia. D'Hers himself epitomizes this collision perfectly well with his Fripp-meets-Santana guitar flavours, while Gutiérrez indulges himself in his Wazinul-inspired loud, distorted electric piano input. No doubt that the rhythm trio plays a most crucial role at sustaining the whole thing with precision, while preserving the necessary exotic cadence to its purest essence. 'Columpio' goes to more remarkably ethereal places, with its minimalistic layers a la post-rock (a bit similar to GYBE! Without the string instruments): it allows the band to explore the realms of introspectiveness after the three-part fiesta that had taken place previously. But the fiesta has to go on, and so, it re-emerges in 'Entre 6 y 8', an exciting track which condenses the spirits of the first three tracks with a vengeance, making the casual and frivolous sound so tremendously serious and sophisticated: let me describe it as a sonic portrait of sheer joy with a proper touch of added neurosis. 'Eclipse Falcón' finds the band returning to the denser realms of post-rock inspiration, something like a dreamy vision among an unearthly fog: the second part is more lively, but not from a "happy" point of view, but from a "mechanic" one, more related to Neu! and 71-73 Can. The last two pieces are the longest ones. 'Exhalaciones' is a captivating amalgam of spacey ambiences that go continuously surrounding the listener's mind for almost 12 minutes. The closure 'Una Corriente Indefinida y Otra Finita' makes a sort or recapitulation of the most lively and darkest sides of the whole album, making them melt into a solid 13+minute sonic unit. The musical vision of kRé is, indeed, one of the most explosive and impressive expressions of contemporary avant-rock: their material is a real gem for the adventurous prog fan, and in a more specific note, "El Radio Está en la Cocina" is a masterpiece. It may turn out to be inscrutable to prog fans with incompatible inclinations, I understand and respect that, but to my ears this album deserves no less than the maximum Archives rating.

Attention - this is incredible instrumental electric fusion from Venezuela! Guitar-bass-drums trio with some excellent guests (cello, saxophone, Rhodes-electric piano, synthesizer).

KRé has maybe little musical relationship with Red-era King Crimson (sometimes Robert Fripp becouse of his soundscapes), Soft Machine... But the music sounds quite originally. Guitar sound, not playing, reminds me sometimes a bit Jeff Beck or Bill Frisell. Personally I have two real faves on this record: Ruido Domestico (athmospheric soundscape with cello and synth, no drums) and Ornamento (final monument with all guest-participants).

All in all - lovely and not tame music (3,5 stars really)!

Kré is one of the most bizarre instrumental groups in the current world of prog: their music is certainly designed to be an acquired taste, but lovers of avant-garde jazz, RIO and Mel Collins era-KC are very likely to fall in love with this band even at first listen, since these sources are prominent influences in the forge of the band's musical style. As bold as I may sound, I find "Ruido Doméstico" a true prog masterpiece of our times. Occasionally it may remind us of "From Within"-era Anekdoten without the mellotrons, and some other times, of post-Wyatt Soft Machine, but generally speaking, these guys managed to come up with a sonic foundation of their own. The first two tracks are based on angular musical ideas arranged and delivered in a most exquisite manner, with a delicacy that does not hide, but recycles the inherent tension of the compositions in a most peculiar way - 'Primera Cortada' and 'Doro' are showcases for Kré's ability to perform weird harmonies on complex rhythm patterns without getting pompous. There is also something quite special in the way that all musicians manage interact with flawless fluidity. The presence of a guest saxophonist helps to enrich the melodic potentiality of the track in which this horn appears, while a more recurrent guest on electric piano assumes the role of reinforcing the constant jazzy cadence of the band's sound. Tracks 3 & 4 are less complex, even more relaxing, but never too conventionally pleasing. And nothing could get farther away from the rules of conventional pleasing than the title track, a wicked architecture of guitar soundscapes and dense low-key synth layers upon which shades of cello go floating by. all of it in an almost 7-minute span. This exercise in minimalism has got a definite nerve-craving twist, yet its disturbance is delivered with total finesse. 'Ilvico' contains some hints to Latin jazz (perhaps the most "optimistic" track in the album), while 'Sigiloso' keeps itself solidly rooted on jazzy ground. 'Champignon' is a delicious rockabilly-meets-charleston based number with a brief jazz-rock interlude and a massive psychedelic coda, which is actually a reprise of teh aforementioned interlude. The major appela of this track is that it portrays an aura of candorous joy in the rockabillly motif that is twice interrupted by the disturbingly rough interlude and coda, as if the yhad the specific mission to destroy the joy - wicked! The final track is also the longest one: the 10+ minute 'Ornamento' brings the most intense passages of the album. The powerful guitar riffs are effectively adorned by soprano sax and cello interventions at places, while the rhythm due keeps the languid tempo robustly, anchoring the track somewhere between hard rock and Crimson-oriented prog - awesome!. Let me conclude by reiterating that "Ruido Doméstico" is a genuine masterpiece, and as such it deserves the perfect ProgArchives rating.

[I dedicate this review to my Venezuelan brother Guillermo Paladino]