Katedra - We Are Not Alone

[DoktorG]

 

 

Katedra We Are Not Alone

2019

 

The MoonShip (mix 2019) 7:57

First Contact 10:41

Ring of Fire 8:58

Nagual 10:40

You Are Not Alone 9:15

Alienated Hallucination 10:20

Radiointerference (mix 2019) 9:50

The Edge Of Spaces 9:05

 

Drone Trance - Chthonic Swampdelica 

Was I sleeping or in a trance? Why did someone not tell me that there was a new genre when I woke up? Did anyone else notice that drone trance somehow slipped in under the radar and became a thing. Along with all things slo-core like drone metal (Sunn 0 and Bong), dark ambient (Lustmord et al), and drone jazz (Neptunian Maximalism), there is now drone trance, and I name Katedra's We Are Not Alone as a foundational album in this new genre. 

I don't know which mix I am listening to, but this is interesting and original music. This is Sloa Goa with a relatively slow, measured, unhurried pace. The rhythms tend to the industrial and have a grinding quality to them, which at times seems a bit linear and monotonous; I occasionally wanted more syncopation and percussive drama and different drum and cymbal sounds. However, the simple rhythm section avoids the plasticky psytrance sound completely and does tend to create hypnosis in the listener. Moreover, the simple pounding drums and pulsating bass are well balanced by rotating and whirling Goa melodies full of reverb and echo, often quite quiet and subtle, and most of which do not build to climaxes. This is the opposite of extroverted full on psytrance with its plastic rhythm section and bold shiny leads. Further, the bass is heavy and the sound is quite soft and muddy, almost lo-fi. The overall effect is entrancing - sucking the listener into a deep, dark vortex of murky chthonic intrigue. This album is all about the subconscious, that reptilian soup of instincts, repressions, desires, illegalities, unacceptabilities. Whilst this album reaches out to the stars, it also reaches deep within. So whilst all the ingredients are familiar, the way they are mixed together is unusual enough that a strange new dish is created: introspective swampdelica. Original! Just goes to show that there's more to this genre than we often think; imagination is the main limitation. ~*~

PS - beautiful cover art!

 

[Tsotsi]

On 4/13/2023 at 8:39 AM, DoktorG said:

 

 

Katedra We Are Not Alone

2019

 

The MoonShip (mix 2019) 7:57

First Contact 10:41

Ring of Fire 8:58

Nagual 10:40

You Are Not Alone 9:15

Alienated Hallucination 10:20

Radiointerference (mix 2019) 9:50

The Edge Of Spaces 9:05

 

Drone Trance - Chthonic Swampdelica 

Was I sleeping or in a trance? Why did someone not tell me that there was a new genre when I woke up? Did anyone else notice that drone trance somehow slipped in under the radar and became a thing. Along with all things slo-core like drone metal (Sunn 0 and Bong), dark ambient (Lustmord et al), and drone jazz (Neptunian Maximalism), there is now drone trance, and I name Katedra's We Are Not Alone as a foundational album in this new genre. 

I don't know which mix I am listening to, but this is interesting and original music. This is Sloa Goa with a relatively slow, measured, unhurried pace. The rhythms tend to the industrial and have a grinding quality to them, which at times seems a bit linear and monotonous; I occasionally wanted more syncopation and percussive drama and different drum and cymbal sounds. However, the simple rhythm section avoids the plasticky psytrance sound completely and does tend to create hypnosis in the listener. Moreover, the simple pounding drums and pulsating bass are well balanced by rotating and whirling Goa melodies full of reverb and echo, often quite quiet and subtle, and most of which do not build to climaxes. This is the opposite of extroverted full on psytrance with its plastic rhythm section and bold shiny leads. Further, the bass is heavy and the sound is quite soft and muddy, almost lo-fi. The overall effect is entrancing - sucking the listener into a deep, dark vortex of murky chthonic intrigue. This album is all about the subconscious, that reptilian soup of instincts, repressions, desires, illegalities, unacceptabilities. Whilst this album reaches out to the stars, it also reaches deep within. So whilst all the ingredients are familiar, the way they are mixed together is unusual enough that a strange new dish is created: introspective swampdelica. Original! Just goes to show that there's more to this genre than we often think; imagination is the main limitation. ~*~

PS - beautiful cover art!

 

I never managed to find a way to summarise this album properly but this review is spot on. 

I didn't have a wide enough range of listening genres to make the connection with drone, but again...spot on. 

I still put this album on a lot, everytime I do one track leads to another only stopping when all the myriads of life get in the way. 

[DoktorG]

Thanks Tsotsi. I like this album because it really does induce a trance - a plateau state of hypnosis - in the listener. I think it also tickles those deep, uncomfortable places in the psyche that are close to, even within, the so-called "reptile brain". 

There's a Goa antecedent: one of my all-time favourite albums Orichalcum and the Deviant. Here's what I wrote about it back in the day:

There was some weird voodoo going on in the studio when this album was recorded... To this day, I still don't know anything that is quite like it. When you have been around the block a few times, you realise how unusual and exceptional that really is. Orichalcum had this swampy chthonic feel that is unique. The sounds on this album are not designed for maximum contrast and crisp delineation. Rather what you get is a deep sound with an emphasis upon the bass - there are no bright cymbals or snare, no pixilated shining melodies. Nevertheless, this murky sound is packed full of detail, creating a sense of a downward journey into the realm of the unconscious. Here be sea monsters, dinosaurs, trilobytes, sea slugs, the great old ones. Orichalcum makes the music of the primal soup. None of this should suggest that this music is not danceable; Orichalcum brings a good percussive sensibility to the savage table. Wonderful, and rare!

Now there is another album a bit like Orichalcum and the Deviant: Katedra's We are Not Alone. There may be lots of others, but I don't know of them. 

Big ups to Global Sect, a label with the courage to put out Astral Projection clones (no disrespect intended - the Centavra Project album is excellent), but also this deeply  uncommercial album.

I can't wait to hear what Katedra does next! ~*~
 

[Aspartic]

I sometimes go to sleep listening to this album. It puts me into a trance straight away.
Extremely good album.