Reviews: Rob Harrison, Lili Refrain, Akem Manah, Mines (Matt Bladen & Mark Young)

Rob Harrison - Overflow (Ragged Ocean Records) [Matt Bladen]

I think music always needs to be a bit weird, a bit experimental, bands who are in the prog genre especially have always embraced the oddness.

Be it acts like Gong, Cardiacs, Gentle Giant or the crossover brilliance of Zappa, Captain Beefheart, any Krautrock and of course the proggiest of the prog bands King Crimson. 

Performing and composing music that is experimental and against the norm has always been their raison-d'etre and they have left a legacy behind them of artists who are unafraid to follow in their oddly timed footsteps.

From South Wales Rob Harrison is just that sort of weirdo, when he's not blasting the sax in instrumental prog rockers Z Machine or Mascot Moth, he's making his own left of centre noises as a solo artist. 

His debut Explode My Head was applauded in these pages, but I am a sucker for quirky, prog rock that features, irregular time signatures, jazz percussion, large instrumental sections and of course a brass and wind section.

With his head exploded, the Overflow is next, these creative ideas spilling out on to a Vinyl/CD/Digital Sphere as eight tracks of tightly packed genius where Rob shows off his multi-instrumental artistry as well as his claymation skills with in the visual media aspects of this project that are just important as the music. 

Rob plays sax and flute here but he's also responsible for the throbbing basslines, intricate guitars, synth swirls and even some glass bottle/water percussion just to make sure it's not what you would expect from a prog rock record.

The latter is important as Overflow is a loose concept album about the nature of water, as Bruce Lee once said "be like water my friend" and if there's a record that flows freely and fills any space it comes into contact with it's the freeform nature of this album. 

Tributaries drawing from various streams to make a consistent whole, adding the harp of Rhodri Davies (of Hen Ogledd), glockenspiel of Giordano Maselli and xylophone of Oso G, for a sound I can only liken to that of water.

Elsewhere Bioluminescence feels like those bright blue invertebrates just floating in the sea all the different colours coming on each individual section, like swimming though multicoloured hallucination. 

The constant switching is a kept moving by the drumming of Eliseo Salverri, the groovy, funk-like sections of Upstream and Downstream which are the same song played in reverse of each other, I told you it was weird!

The final trio of Pools Of Glass, featuring violin for Julia of Who Knows Sound, Azure Veins and Delirium, all vary wildly between in approach, connected by the water theme, though on Delirium, I came to the realisation that really the only other person doing this currently is Matt Berry.

Rob Harrison has the same deep love and appreciation of this music and with Overflow he again perfectly pitches the absurd with the divine. 9/10

Lili Refrain - Nagalite (Subsound Records) [Matt Bladen]

Nagalite is the sixth solo album from Rome based musician Lili Refrain and you probably all know how much I like music with layers, especially when they're done without computers using loop stations, building in to huge dynamic pieces of often repeating rhythms that make for hypnotic listening.

It's Mike Oldfield, it's Radiohead, it's David Ford, it's Robert Fripp, Steven Wilson, Peter Gabriel and The Anchoress, if you want to get into the prog side of things which loop artists very quickly do. 

It's music for musos, often the realm of solo multi-instrumentalists who can compose and play everything for a full creative control and a singular vision.

Lili Refrain fits that bill, a solo multi-instrumentalist who blends genres in real time creating songs that are extensions of her technical wizardry. 

Pulsating synths, real and electronic drums/percussion pads, electric guitar shimmers, bass thumps, keyboards bringing melody and shamanic vocals, these are expressions of raw emotion that are shaped through music.

She's performed at Roaburn (obviously) Desertfest and more, joining a wide range of artists such as Mehsuggah, Napalm Death, Lingua Ignota, Author And Punisher, Gojira and The Cult on stage and this sixth record is inspired by a stone totem of rebirth, it's a record about metamorphosis, reflecting the times with live in with resilience.

Nagalite is an album that words can only do so much for. It's an existential piece that you need to listen to fully and be consumed by, the highest level of skill formed into a dense journey of hypnotic rhythms. 9/10

Akem Manah - Threnodies (Black Lion Records) [Mark Young]

There are often albums that for one reason or another slip through the net when it comes to having a review ready for the day of release. 

I have a few this month, starting here with the Doom/Death/Gothic metal Akem Manah, who drop their latest via Black Lion Records for your perusal. I hope the band forgives me for quoting their own words here, but in terms of providing a description its way better than I could conjure up:

‘Threnodies is a cycle of human unravelling in ten dirges for those who sought the truth behind the world and found only the abyssal chaos staring back’.

So, taking that statement to heart and having that as this albums letter of intent they start off with The Inevitable Fate Of Francis Cobb (Intro) a short instrumental that acts to settle us in for the tales to be told. 

Suitably gothic, it does exactly what you expect it would do prior to The End Of Earnest Hollow arriving in that slow and unhurried manner. 

Straight away, it nails its colour to the mast by announcing that they are going to take their time with this, moving in different directions within the song in a way that attempts to keep you unbalanced whilst staying true to itself. 

If they can find a way of shoehorning strings into this, they do in an effort to make this as expansive as possible. I don’t have a problem with bands that try this, but for it to work it needs something that grabs the listener and keeps them with you. 

The song itself, the singing style develops as expected, from the cleans into the harsh and back again. You can see what they are trying here, but it feels overlong. 

As noted, it lays the groundwork for how the rest of the songs will unfold, each of them a specific tale of woe; The Mystery Of Mosef Mehul uses the strings to great effect, here they add a certain gravitas to proceedings and aren’t reduced to being a bit player. 

The riffs here are on it, and there is a feeling of malevolence about it and as a piece of work it’s a belter. The shorter runtime gives it a more focused energy to get from A – B and there is less repetition of ideas. The thing is that from my perspective, they look to make every song an epic, and this doesn’t always work.

I’m not against them doing it, it’s their art and only they can decide how these songs should sound, but Christ they should be aware of the golden rule of metal: Make it exciting. 

This is at the core of every classic metal album ever. It has to excite you, even in a doom setting. Let me confirm that the songs here are massive, all chock full of ideas that fit this style to a tee. The trouble is that they are dull. 

The Burning Of John Briggs, is too long, and it drags to the point I want to skip forward. I’m using that as an example because it fits for each song on here and yet each song is a masterwork in how to approach this genre. 

There is a disconnect between them and me, because I know that if someone else was reviewing this, they would be giving this all the plaudits but I can’t find it within me. I appreciate it for how it sounds, and I appreciate it for the way they have approached it for telling a story but I cannot forgive it for being so boring.

From a scoring standpoint, it sounds amazing, it really does. Its crisp, clear and they have a clear vision of what they wanted it to sound like. However, from an emotional one, it left me cold and I believe that those who love this genre will champion this, but for me it’s a 6/10

Mines - Nous (Mosaic Music) [Mark Young]

And now a short blaster of an EP from Mines with Nous and it’s the weirdest thing. Its like Matt Bellamy has taken leave of absence from Museand decided to go heavier. Which, according to my lad is not to far from the truth. 

From That Which Lies Beneath leads us off, and it sits in that space where heavy guitars and traditional clean singing lives, as a starting point its heading in the right direction and engages you in staying with them.

It succeeds in achieving what its needs to in a short space of time, there aren’t any elongated introductions or swelling instrumentals, its straight in and is refreshing because of this. 

The Doctrine, once the narrative wraps drops in, and once again I’m drawn to comparisons with Muse (I’m apologising now for the capitals, and I’d like to point out that this is a positive comparison, just in case) in the way its built.

Its interesting and you feel that played live it has that snap to it that will make people move. Thrones, Asunder acts as the palate cleanser into Vice Of Kings which has a storming riff set to it, its technical with heart as opposed to just an empty display of talent. 

Like The Doctrine, it has that build where there is so much happening and from a guitar standpoint it’s the kind of song you would have a lot of fun playing. This is the key here, they write music that you want to play, isn’t that the reason we get in bands in the first place? From that perspective if they can do that now, its surely puts them in a great position for the future. 

Design Divide is the closer and behaves in the same way that From That Which Lies Beneath does, it concludes this EP on a strong footing, four tracks that are pretty strong and show that there is a quite a bit to come from them, based on this. 

I appreciate that as an EP, you get to put your best on it and in that case, Nous works incredibly well. There was no skipping forward here, each song came in and built on the one before and in the case of Design Divide, it provides that classic end song that every release needs.

It’s a release that I would recommend to those who love a little bit of the technical whilst having the emotional heft behind it. If you can, get hold of this and support what could be your next favourite band 8/10