Khooman - Is a flexible liquid

[abasio]

Khooman

Is a flexible liquid

Ajana Records

April 2007

 

Tracklist

1 Slide! (9:36)

2 Helpless (8:02)

3 Below The River Flows (6:08)

4 Let Me Out (9:26)

5 Fly (5:35)

6 A New View (7:24)

7 It's Only Dust On The Road (9:05)

8 Shaman Desert (10:35

 

I must admit I bought this just because of the cover art. It looked fun with a (slightly) dark edge, which I thought would be right up my alley. After many listens I'm quite impressed without having my mind blown. It's steady & enjoyable without causing any liquid pants explosions!

 

1. Slide

We start off with an intro promising a lot of energy & atmosphere. The beat breaks in like a false promise, it starts & you think it's going to go crazy but it waits & gives us a nice little baseline with the beat teasing slowly before finally kicking in, in a nice relaxed tone. The sounds build & it ends up sounding like a Sci-Fi lounge track. Fat beats & sofa appeal, I can just imagine myself on a big purple sofa in the near future listening to this. The atmosphere gets denser while retaining it's spaciness towards the end.

 

2. Helpless

Still spacey yet a little more grounded. The string like sounds in the melody give us a more earthy atmosphere but everything else in the track tries to make it fly. The result is a positive confusion or blend of 2 opposites. It's quick & energetic while still being relaxed & atmospheric.

 

3. Below the River Flows

Strange strings & synths in the intro, would be a nice ambient drone but it shifts & changes & when accompanied by the beat it has a lot of energy & driving force yet manages to stay peaceful & zen. It makes your body move but also your brain shift. It's nice and it tweaks at your brains receptors but it never quite blows them away despite feeling that potential.

 

4. Let Me Out

A dense ambient intro drone builds a glitchy atmosphere before the strings melody in & the baseline pushes the track into a head nodder. I sit here nodding my head in time to the slow beats & enjoy the ambience & glitch behind them. The track seems to have no direction bu tit is moving, an interesting feeling like I'm trapped but I don't mind being so. Still, who wants to be trapped?

5. Fly

A nice melody right away, closely followed by a chilled baseline & some ethnic sounding human wails. Cool trippy beat work is very impressive & really adds oomph to a track that would be fine without it but is so much better for it. The strings reappear to give us a sense of continuity but they are much more involved than in previous tracks. The underlying beats, which lie under a 4-4 beat once again give us a head nodder of a track.

 

6. A New View

A very spacey atmosphere, a similar baseline & beat but added floatiness. The melody undulates & a sub melody flickers in & out beneath everything. As a spacey track it's a little pedestrian which is a little weird but not necessarily bad. The track never goes anywhere or evolves but manages to stay interesting enough through it's 7.5 minutes to make you want to listen to it again.

 

7. It's only dust on the Road

A much slower intro but we a fed back into familiar territory soon as a soft baseline then some intricate tribal beats & some dark ambient sounds whirl around. These things seem to contrast each other but it doesn't sound bad. They seem to work but you're left with a sense of confusion that isn't trippy, just odd! I'm left wondering if I like the track or not & whether or no this is a good thing.

 

8. Shaman Desert

A quality track to finish. The best of the bunch. More ethnic than any of the previous tracks but with a similar feel with it's beats & atmosphere, just more grounded & more eastern. Ethnic vocals & an soft muttered sample give this an almost crowded feeling when they are in but apart from them the track is very serene which once again presents us with a nice contrast that works well!

 

 

In conclusion then, I'm happy that I bought this album but not ecstatic. All the tracks are good & stand alone well but it's main weakness is that all the tracks are a little too similar. There is enough variation to keep one interested through the entire album but I can't really tell which track is which and apart from the last track it's difficult to pick out any favourites. It works as an album because each track is obviously from this album but from a chillout album I feel that there needs to be more story.

[Rotwang]

I really like this a lot. It stands out from the crowd as having its own sound; it's much more spacey and trippy than most of the psy-chill I've heard recently. Excellent, unique release.

 

Favourite tracks: 2, 6.