KARMAKANIC: Dot (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

After an excellent "Who's the Boss in the Factory" and a slightly less successful "In a Perfect World", it is with curiosity that we discover "DOT". On the menu, a short eponymous introduction, a two-part sequel reaching almost thirty minutes, a ten-minute mini-epic and two short titles. The Swedes obviously haven't given up the tradition of opening their albums with a long fresco with an unlikely title ('God The Universe and Everything Else No One Really Cares About') in the great progressive tradition initiated by the dinosaurs of the 70s.

Certainly, these convoluted tracks that Genesis, Yes and other Van der Graaf Generator mastered on their fingertips have become over time a must for all bands claiming the progressive label. But a lot of contemporary bands get lost in this exercise of style, keeping only the form (duration) without taking care of the substance (cohesion), contenting themselves with juxtaposing several unrelated themes to reach the desired length. The more attentive ones try to take care of their transitions when the less delicate ones are content to stick together end to end what would perhaps have made four or five pleasant songs and turn into a laborious patchwork.

Karmakanic magnificently avoids this trap. What's the difference? Probably the fact that the Swedes have nothing to prove and have a story to tell. No laborious developments, awkward transitions, boring lengths. Everything seems fluid, in its place, without artifice. The melodies of the different themes are all superb, one goes from the most classical neo prog to jazz or hard rock without realizing it, from the tutti of generous instrumentalists to the crystalline flood of notes of a piano or the volutes of a bucolic flute with the greatest naturalness. Karmakanic even manages to surprise us when a childish choral song (performed by Jonas Reingold's own children...) that opposes a naive freshness to the rest of the band is invited around the thirteen minutes.

With only this opening part of 'God The Universe and Everything Else No One Really Cares About', we know we won't regret buying this opus. I could then conclude that the rest is anecdotal and that it is enough for an album to have such a title to justify its existence. But it would be to misunderstand the talent of Karmakanic's interpreters who, far from being satisfied with what is already a masterpiece, offer four other titles as varied as successful, evoking in turn the best of Yes, Neal Morse, Transatlantic, Spock's Beard, Genesis and, of course, the Flower Kings.

Some prog albums require several listenings for the listener to realize their beauty. This is not the case with this one, which delivers its delights from the very first listen. But, over the course of the listenings, it reveals again and again other treasures. "DOT" is a serious contender for the best album of the year 2016. - Official website

KARMAKANIC

DOT

INSIDEOUT MUSIC

PROGRESSIVE ROCK