KoMaRa – ‘KoMaRa’ [Review]
Long-form music making is a rarity in today’s no-speed-except-hyperspeed world. With iTunes cherry-picking and Spotify playlist-generating the default mode of consumption for many, even the idea of the album seems old-fashioned in some quarters. Movies, meanwhile, tend toward tedious strobe-ridden shitfests riddled with action but devoid of connective tissue.
There are few places to turn for those who crave something more. However, KoMaRa – a fresh and forward-facing trio comprised of King Crimson lynchpin Pat Mastelotto, Slovakian guitarist and composer David Kollar, and eclectically-minded trumpeter Paolo Raineri – are adding to the list of such places with their debut album.
KoMaRa is based upon what the band describe as a “dark, deviant, and explicit detective story,” with further details provided by the music and your own imagination. This is a frequently grim, disturbing, and provocative album in which filthy industrial percussion and guttural riffs mingle with slippery horns and harsh textural touches. Just like your favourite horror movies, this album works best if you experience it with the lights off.
One of the beautiful things about instrumental music is how much it leaves to the imagination. Having everything handed to you on a plate can be fine if it’s done right – but then you know that your experience was exactly the same as the next person’s. Furthermore, if you go back and go through it all again, the experience is often reinforced; it rarely changes. With instrumental music, you never know how things will go the next time around. Something will certainly be different.
KoMaRa is a cinematic, widescreen, 4K-grade work that fans of progressively-oriented music need to check out. It will challenge you – but it will do so in all the right ways.
TMMP RATING: 94%
Links / Listen
KoMaRa is out June 30th.
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