PYROLA

QOPH plays a psychedelic brand of music and there is there is some variety here including an ANEKDOTEN feel at times. The guitarist does his Fripp imitation quite well as we get lots of angular melodies.The vocalist has a strong voice, and he sings in English. QOPH by the way is the nineteenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet. There are several guests playing a variety of instruments including moog, theremin, clavinet and percussion.There is also mellotron on a couple of tracks courtesy of Nicklas Barker from ANEKDOTEN.

Things get started with "Woodrose" and what stands out are the rolling sounds of the drums throughout.The vocals are strong and there are some flute melodies.The guitar sounds are angular. Nice. "Half Of Everything" features some brief harmonica early in the song and more later. There are more similar sounding drums and the guitar is great. I am reminded of ANEKDOTEN 5 minutes in as the bass is prominant. "Korea" is about Filip Normans trip to North Korea. So the guitar melodies are Eastern sounding. The instrumental passages are so good. The guitar reminds me of Fripp.The vocal melodies are nice but the guitar steals the show. Some mellotron waves 7 minutes in.

"Travel Candy" is an instrumental and along with "Fractions" they are the most psychedelic songs on this album. Spacey synths, psychedelic guitars, theremin, and the drumming are all fantastic. I have to mention Simon Steensland who plays theremin on "Travel Candy" because no one plays that instrument like he does. Incredible ! "Stand My Ground" is a blues flavoured song that has an ALLMAN BROTHERS feel to the guitar melodies 3 minutes in and later. Clavinet is featured as well. "Moonstripper" is a song where I find the vocals a little distracting. The mellotron after 2 minutes just goes on and on as guitar and drums play on. "Fractions" is a psychedelic tune with ethnic strings and sitar. The vocals are reserved and the song is spacey and drifting. The ending is hypnotic.

"Korea" , "Travel Candy" and "Fractions" are my favourites, while "Woodrose" and "Half Of Everything" are also good, particularly the instrumental passages.