01	Dark Clouds, No Rain						10:59
	02	8:15 - No Safe Place						04:45
	03	Angels Without Wings						05:03
	04	Consider Figure Three						07:50
	05	Erosion						13:01
	06	Severed Moon						06:30
	07	The Naked & The Dead						05:25
	08	Gordon's Basement						03:30
	09	A City With Two Tales: Part One Revisited 1990						13:26

SUSPENSION & DISPLACEMENT (1991)


1. Dark Clouds, No Rain (10.52)
2. 8:15-No Safe Place (4.42)
3. Angels Without Wings (4.59)
4. Consider Figure Three (7.47)
5. Erosion (12.56)
6. Severed Moon (6.27)
7. The Naked & The Dead (5.20)
8. Gordon's Basement (3.26)
9. A City With Two Tales: Part One Revisited 1990 (13.24)

Gayle Ellett - Electric 7-String and 6-String Guitars, Guitar Synth, Taped Effects, Keyboards, Percussion
Mike Henderson - Electric Twelve And Six String Guitars, Effects, Keyboards, Percussion
Chuck Oken, Jr. - Drums, Electronic Percussion, Keyboards Synthesizer Programming And Sequencing
Henry Osborne - Electric Bass, Keyboards, Effects, Percussion

Produced by Djam Karet and Rob DeChaine

(c) 1991 HC Productions






Djam Karet - Suspension And Displacement

Released: 1991/2000 (reissue)
Label: Cuneiform Records
Cat. No.: Rune 129
Total Time: 67:53


Reviewed by: John "Bo Bo" Bollenberg, January 2001
Suspension And Displacement and Burning The Hard City are two different CDs yet they complement each other. The first is calmer, sketching wide planes and disconsolate landscapes. The band stands behind Peter Gabriel saying in "Across The Wire": "I speak in pictures, not in words." There is a "worst case scenario" atmosphere present all over the Suspension & Displacement album especially by means of the minimal effect of dark sounds in the long epics.

Take opening song "Dark Clouds, No Rain" which has its minimal effect enhanced by long cello-like outbursts, creating almost an industrial sound filled with loops and ethnic percussion. The dark slow pace of "Angels Without Wings" is interspersed with playful bells which fall down like musical rain on an endless plain. A lesson in anatomy forms the backbone for "Consider Figure Three," which might make this track a favourite with aspiring doctors and nurses! The repetitive "Erosion" is Fripp at his very best, yet it is not our Crimson leader but more elementary stuff from the Djam Karet supermarket. The acoustic guitar which performs some heavy duty in "Severed Moon" maybe comes closest to vintage Porcupine Tree. That same guitar works wonders in "The Naked & The Dead," even when the mumbling grunt voice puts questions marks all over this "song." Fast, weird percussion tops it all. There is a bit of an amazon feel to be found in the final track "A City With Two Tales" mainly due to the inclusion of lots of percussion and bird noises during the introduction. Synthesized steel drums and furious handclaps lead this "piece of music" in a completely different direction resulting in weird and uncontrolled musical mayhem.

The music on this album is great as musical wallpaper as it enables each listener to fill in the images of his/her own. That's why film people and people who work with slides and video will find Djam Karet very interesting. If you are looking for a challenge then you have come to the right place. On the other hand, if you are looking for "songs" then I'm afraid you have come to the wrong address.

More about Suspension And Displacement:

Track Listing: Dark Clouds, No Rain (10:52) / 8:15 No Safe Place (4:42) / Angels Without Wings (4:59) / Consider Figure Three (7:47) / Erosion (12:56) / Severed Moon (6:27) / The Naked & The Dead (5:20) / Gordon's Basement (3:26) / A City With Two Tales: Part One Revisited 1990 (13:24)

Musicians:
Gayle Ellett - electric 7-string & 6-string guitars, keyboards, taped effects, percussion
Mike Henderson - electric and acoustic 6-string & 12-string guitars, effects, percussion
Chuck Oken Jr. - drums, synthesizer programming, sequencing, electronic percussion
Henry J. Osborne - electric 5-string bass, keyboards, percussion, effects




Djam Karet - Suspension & Displacement
Country of Origin: USA
Format: CD
Record Label: Cuneiform
Catalogue #: rune 129
Year of Release: 1991 (release 2000)
Time: 70:29
Info: Djam Karet

Tracklist: Dark Clouds, No Rain (10.52), 8:15 - No Save Place (4:42), Angels Without Wings (4:59), Consider Figure Three (7:47), Erosion (12:56), Severed Moon (6:27), The Naked & The Dead (5:20), Gordon's Basement (3:26), A City With Two Tales: Part One Revisited 1990 (13:24)
Dreadfully long soundscapes, loops and improvised tracks. Djam Karet's 1991 CD in a nutshell. No matter how much other people can rave about this kind of music, I cannot. I just don't like New Age.

Djam Karet formed in 1984 out of a group of LA-based musicians. The band's name means "stretched time " in Indonesian. Well, that's their music on this album indeed... This is one of these albums that just go on forever, and although the quality of the recording seems good, the music itself is a long collection of samples, tape loops and other effects. In fact this album was so boring, I could not listen to it in its entirety, I had to listen to it in parts. This is waaaayyyy too ambient for me. Just check out the sound files on the above mentioned page to see if you might enjoy it.

Conclusion: 4 out of 10.

Remco Schoenmakers




Suspension and Displacement
Date of Release 1991


1991 was a schizophrenic year for Djam Karet, splitting the sides of the band's musical personality into two album releases. Burning the Hard City captured their more aggressive, rocking side, and Suspension and Displacement delves deeply into their interest in experimental electronics. While not a full-fledged dark ambient album, Suspension and Displacement unmistakably bears that genre's stamp, full of shifting, unsettling, arhythmic soundscapes that drift like fog into the listener's subconscious. Found sounds, tape experiments, white noise, and acoustic instruments supplement the arrangements, which evoke not only more modern ambient music but also spacy progressive rock from the '70s; in fact, one of the most obvious touchstones is the creepiest material on Brian Eno's Another Green World. Like Burning the Hard City, Suspension and Displacement isn't really representative of Djam Karet's signature sound, but for fans, it's a fascinating stylistic excursion that resembles little else in the group's catalog. - Steve Huey



# No Commercial Potential (1985)
# Kafka's Breakfast (1987)
# The Ritual Continues (1987)
# Reflections from the Firepool (1989)
# Burning The Hard City (1991)
# Collaborator (1994)
# Devouring (1997)
# Still No Commercial Potential (1998)
# No Commercial Potential, And Still Getting The Ladies (1998)
# Live At Orion (1998)
# New Dark Age (2001)
# Ascension (2001)
# Night For Baku (2003)
# Recollection Harvest (2005)