OCTATROID

Octatroid is the sophomore effort by US one man band Trip Lava, and is an excursion into a musical universe where all regular conceptions on the art of crafting a musical composition have been tossed aside.

Carefully planned and crafted, we're treated to one piece of music divided into 13 chapters, where atonal fragmented sounds, dissonant motifs and noisescapes are the dominating melody providers, placed on top of energetic and often frantic drums and sounds of a percussional character. The bass guitar and the less freaked out guitar motifs does add grains of melodic touches to the proceedings, but it isn't until the final chapter that a melodic theme unfolds, to ease the listener out of this intense non-melodic universe in a more tranquil and laidback manner.

If the notion of extreme avant-garde creations with psychedelic leanings following a conceptual story sounds like something you might enjoy, this album is most likely one you have dreamed about. I referenced fans of Magical Power Mako as a suitable target crowd for Trip lava's first CD from 2007, and can only repeat that suggestion this second time as well. With the main difference that Trip Lava this time around arguably can be described as the most challenging of these two.