Kraft - The Mysteries of the Sacred Universe

[Rotwang]

Kraft - The Mysteries of the Sacred Universe (Insomnia)

 

 

Press Release:

 

Here is another stunning debut from Insomnia research lab - Kraft's first album 'The Mysteries of the Sacred Universe'. Produced by a local Moscow talent, this album is inspired by blasting goa experience and more then 10 years of life in international psychedelic underground. Are you looking for new fresh Russian trance sound? This goodie is cooked specially for you! Deep and spacey sound which always was distinctive feature of Moscow's scene is coming back in these 10 brand new tracks. As a result - many lost human beings worldwide. The police suspect they all dissolve in outer space somewhere near Proxima Centauri.

Most people probably haven't paid too much attention to this, and they can't be blamed for that; listening to short samples, it would be easy to imagine that The Mysteries of the Sacred Universe is just another bog-standard darkpsy album. All the ingredients are there: the rolling bassline, the atonal hissing and the almost complete absence of melody. But in truth it would be a mistake to stick this on the pile with Shantikillargh 4 from Psylocaust records, because in my opinion Kraft's album belongs to a long line of works which manage to be psychedelic trance in the most literal sense, and should be listened to accordingly: free from prejudice about the relative merits of darkpsy versus fullon versus Goa, without expectations and preferably without any context whatsoever.

 

Note: although the sleeve and Saiko Sounds only list 9 tracks, there are actually 10 on the album. Because of this, the sample of Kriya below is from Wirikuta.

 

 

Tracks (click titles for Saiko Sounds sample):

 

1) Entropy (ver. 1) 6:30

 

A solid opener. There isn't much by way of peaks or build-up here but it nonetheless stands head and shoulders above most darkpsy, simply because it's packed with great sounds - lots of them. This will be something of a recurring theme: Kraft's idea/track ratio is remarkably large, and consequently almost every track on the album contains an impressive array of different timbres and themes. This will mostly pass without comment from now on.

 

2) Lunaris 7:33

 

This is largely more of the same, though that doesn't mean a lack of variety. On the contrary, there's plenty of variety within each individual piece, and Lunaris is no exception. Among other things there's a couple of nice melodies, which somehow don't sound out of place.

 

3) Vibe Tribe 10:30

 

There's not much I can say about this. It's not bad, far from it, but not particularly memorable compared to many of the other tunes on the CD.

 

4) Far from Earth (Hyperspace Remix) 9:02

 

Something about this album that really sticks out for me is the level of thought that's gone into the way tracks progress, and Far from Earth is probably the best example. Whereas many artists would be happy to find a hook and flog it to death for nine minutes, what we have here is the musical equivalent of a journey along a vast, winding road, constantly taking unexpected turns and ending up in a completely different place to where it started. I expect it's difficult to include so many key changes in a single tune without it becoming tiresome, but Kraft pulls it off; the end result manages to constantly surprise without sacrificing coherence. Epic.

 

5) Innerverse 6:57

 

Compared to the previous track, this one is something of a filler. It's a competently made, better than average bit of darkpsy, but nothing about it really stands out.

 

6) Rondamn 8:15

 

The noises used in Rondamn bring to mind an enormous room full of old supercomputers, covered in flashing LEDs and whirring reels of tape. Like Far from Earth this is a track with a story to tell, but relies less on key changes or gaping, chasm-like breakdowns and instead mutates smoothly between different sections, and as such is one of the more danceable parts of the CD.

 

7) Marsbeing 6:57

 

Along with track six, this one sounds more aggressive and focussed than most, and as such I find it difficult to listen to without a certain amount of head-banging. This is especially true of the deranged finale, which features some of the best use of echo and stereo I've heard, before giving way to a simple but devastatingly effective sustained note as an entire dancefloor collectively falls to the ground with exhaustion.

 

8) Syncopath 7:34

 

Another fantastic one up next. Syncopath builds slowly to start off with, before experimenting with an ominous melody and a confusing (in a good way) bassline that periodically becomes louder in the middle of a bar. Then it finally builds into a terrific spiky climax. This is the kind of music that just makes you want to stand next to a huge rig and forget what universe you're in.

 

9) Dark Star 6:53

 

Although this track, like most of them, contains many good ideas, it is dominated by some rather scary alien shouty noises. As such it kind of reminds me of Kiriyama vs. Hishiryo's Yuuutsu Mori, so if you like that you'll probably like this.

 

10) Kriya 7:52

 

Listening to Kriya, I can't help thinking that the artist was taking the piss when he wrote it. Partly it's the fact that the intelligent progression displayed by the rest of the album has been replaced with 32 or 48 bar phrases separated by lazy, artless breaks, and partly it's the way the track just stops dead, as if to say "there that's 8 minutes I'm going for a pint". Even if it's a joke, this is still really, really good. Loads of nice noises to get your head banging and effects to screw with your ears.

 

 

 

Overall: Excellent. While the style will not be everyone's cup of tea, listen closely and you'll find that this music has everything that makes trance psychedelic: complexity, variety, attention to detail and a continual element of surprise. 9/10

 

Favourite Tracks: 1, 2, 4(!), 6, 7(!), 8(!), 10(!)

[longloststar]

Great album name, sound reminds me a bit of Bodhisattva 13:20 and that kind of dark, perhaps with a more aggressive tone, very interesting.

[Guest antic]

Great album name, sound reminds me a bit of Bodhisattva 13:20 and that kind of dark, perhaps with a more aggressive tone, very interesting.

 

 

IMO it's much better than Bodhisattva 13:20, which to me was - so far - hugely disappointing...

[longloststar]

IMO it's much better than Bodhisattva 13:20, which to me was - so far - hugely disappointing...

 

If you haven't listed to Bodhisattva 13:20 a lot, I suggest that you do, its my favorite album of the year so far (together with the new Kaito album, Im such a sucker for him).

[Rotwang]

Great album name, sound reminds me a bit of Bodhisattva 13:20 and that kind of dark, perhaps with a more aggressive tone, very interesting.

 

I haven't heard the Bodhisattva 13:20 album yet (at the time of writing my copy is in the mail), but based on the samples I can't hear much similarity between that and the Kraft album. If you like the jangly, mechanical timbres of Equations then you should check out Kindzadza's Waves from Inner Space for something similar, in the unlikely event you haven't heard it already. On the other hand, if you're after more "psy-funk" then maybe you should give Mubali's Shenanigans a try.

[Sawfly]

Great album name, sound reminds me a bit of Bodhisattva 13:20 and that kind of dark, perhaps with a more aggressive tone, very interesting.

 

Alot better than Bodhisattva 13:20... Only listened to it couple of times but this is the best darkpsy album of 2009

[longloststar]

Well I've finally gathered an opinion about this album; I like everything about it, the name, the cover and music is outstanding, strong contender for album of the year. Particularly great tracks are hard to pick out, but the madness late in Dark Star tickles my brain very nicely. Rotwang analyzed this album well when he said that the "idea/track ratio is remarkably large", I find that Dark typically has high such ratio, but Mysteries stands out even in this context.

[frix]

great album.

I find a lot of dark psy dull and not entertaining at all but this one is an exception.

Standout track for me is "Far from Earth (Hyperspace Remix)"

Love the part with the insane laughing echoing around

[frisbee]

totally amazing album. and it's still available at beatspace...

 

http://beatspace.com/dettagli/dettaglio.asp?id=4980