01	Dream Portal						05:27
	02	Hungry Ghost						09:17
	03	Chimera Moon						07:08
	04	Heads Of Ni-Oh						08:03
	05	Scary Circus						03:41
	06	The Falafel King						03:23
	07	Sexy Beast						04:25
	08	Ukab Mared						07:56
	09	The Red Thread						10:31

Additional Musicians:
Steve Roach - Ending Guitar Atmospheres (Track 8)

Produced by Djam Karet




Djam Karet
A Night for Baku
Cuneiform (rune 169)
USA 2003

Gayle Ellett, electric, ebow, & slide guitars, organ, analog & digital synths, 8-string lute, theremin, field recordings & effects;
Mike Henderson, electric guitars, ebow, synths, field recordings & effects;
Aaron Kenyon, bass;
Chuck Oken, Jr., drums and percussion, analog & digital synths, sounds & sequences;
Henry J. Osborne, bass

Tracklist:
1. Dream Portal - 5:26
2. Hungry Ghost - 9:17
3. Chimera Moon - 7:08
4. Heads of Ni-Oh - 8:03
5. Scary Circus - 3:41
6. The Falafel King - 3:23
7. Sexy Beast - 4:25
8. Ukab Maerd - 7:56
9. The Red Thread - 10:29

total time 59:54


brandon

Djam Karet is, in a word, dependable. Although I haven't heard any of their studio work since The Devouring, from what I've read it seems that they always turn out predictably enjoyable instrumental prog in their particular style. It's a style that's hard to pin down, a guitar-led jammy kind of music that flits between, and often integrates, spacy electronics and heavy riffing. The earlier stuff that I'm most familiar with, particularly Reflections From the Firepool, has a nifty, pseudo-ethnic, almost creepily alien feel to it that really grew on me. That said, I feel that Djam Karet is sort of like the Ozric Tentacles in that you only need to hear so much of their stuff. After a while it all starts to sound similar.
A Night for Baku brings no surprises. The synth presence is definitely heavier and more noticeable than before, bringing much of the album closer to traditional "prog" idioms, but the wailing guitars and relentlessly driving rhythm section is still there doing what they do. This is certainly one of the more intense outings I've heard from the band (they claim it's their heaviest so far), as the tempo outside of the requisite spacy, effects-laden parts tends to be quick and the solos tend to be fierce. I have no doubt that fans of the band will love it all.

As for me, I enjoyed what I heard, but I can take it or leave it. This will probably become my second favorite Djam Karet release, behind Reflections From the Firepool, as it's undoubtedly strong both compositionally and performatively. But I just don't find the formula particularly gripping anymore.

4-22-03 - post a comment (0)

(c) ground and sky



Member: Sean
Date: 6/20/2003
Format: CD (Album)

Djam Karet is a California based group that has specialized in instrumental progressive music for the better part of twenty years now. A Night For Baku is the band's latest cd and features a great blend of all that makes this band's music so enticing. In fact it may be the best the band has yet offered.

I am a DK fan and have especially enjoyed some of their more riff oriented material. Their 1997 album The Devouring really hit all the right notes for me in that department. The albums they made since then have all been good, but don't seem to capture that same intensity. It seems they were looking to cover some other areas for a few albums. More textural ones. Also acoustic timbres like on their excellent Ascension album.

Baku manages to merge the best of all those elements into one. "Dream Portal" is a great opener and has some really lush ebow work on it. One of my faves is "Hungry Ghost" which really covers a lot of ground musically. Funk and metal crop up here at various times, along with newer flashes of electronica. "Chimera Moon" has a great blend of bluesy guitar and electronic touches. "Scary Circus" is a really wild arrangement. I can hear why someone would say this sounds like a tune on some demented circus' soundtrack. It starts kinda mellow and then some triplets on the organ come in and this sucker kicks into overdrive!

I am a sucker for really tasteful guitar playing and I am sure that is one of the reasons I am a fan of DK. Gayle Ellett and Mike Henderson are the most soulful two guitar team in progressive music at the moment as far as I am concerned. It is nice to hear adventuresome music that still has a rooting in blues. There isn't enough of that in this genre, imo. Never was. So this is refreshing, soulful stuff. Even when they get into modal or exotic scale excursions, there is a bluesy quality to their phrasing that is really appealing. Wailin' stuff!

I would suggest this cd as a great entry point to the band. It really has a bit of all that Djam Karet have to offer. One of the best instrumental bands around for sure, check them out if you haven't already. And if you have and liked their sound, this cd is a must.

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Djam Karet - A Night For Baku

Released: 2003
Label: Cuneiform Records
Cat. No.: RUNE 169
Total Time: 58:28


Reviewed by: Stephanie Sollow, August 2003
Djam Karet are band who should be doing soundtrack work, something I've said before. Oh, I don't mean winding up on a teen-flick soundtrack or the like. No, rather the film would be as slick and sophisticated as the band's music, more a thing of high art that easy entertainment. The kind of film that doesn't see wide release but becomes an art house classic. A Night For Baku is but one further example of this and shows a different side to the band, a bit harder edged at times, a bit jazzier at others. "Chimera Moon" is a little audio movie in and of itself. Things are idyllic at the beginning - here painted by chirping birds and ambient textures -- cut off suddenly by an industrial sounding clang of a heavy door. Oddly enough, what came to mind was Silent Running. I can't explain it, but if you just think of the change in tenor of that film from beginning to end, the same dynamic is here. Things are good at the beginning, content, but then something happens that turns everything dark: and far from idyllic.*

Djam Karet's latest opens with an atypical track where crisp and sinuous guitar lines sing at front and center, leaving one with the impression that Djam Karet are a guitar based jazz ensemble. In fact, in contrast to some of the band's past material, "Dream Portal" seems almost sensible and mundane -- except that it sounds great. And children's voices do add a hint of the otherworldly. A more recognizable DK emerges however with the very next track "Hungry Ghost" the guitars take on their familiar distortion. Later in the same track, the band venture in metal-like realms of fusion -- a la Planet X sans high velocity keys, though keys are an element.

"Heads Of Ni-Oh" is another guitar centric track that gets Pink Floydy towards the end, "Ukab Maerd" is a chunky psychedelic trip though a colorful fractal-filled landscape -- much like the artwork featured on the cover (by Bill Ellsworth). But like many of the tracks here, it is not just one thing, as this also gets into dark and rumbly atmospheres -- the dark and hidden corners of your nightmares, maybe -- then morphing in what sounds like a typical day on the street market (in some Middle Eastern city), all the while something lurks, watching, waiting. Again we see the band's cinematic quality at work. This track also features a guest appearance from Steve Roach who closes out the track with those guitar atmospheres that signal the patient darkness.

But for the guitar atmospheres, "The Red Thread" would be - at least at the outset -- a classic AOR track (san vocals). One can almost hear Journey in the driving rhythm. This being Djam Karet, you know that's only a momentary state, a point of departure. Especially since in the same breath we could say, but for the AOR elements, "The Red Threat" would be a classic avant-garde prog rock track. One can almost hear King Crimson in the driving rhythm. Oh, yeh, maybe Crimson is the band that comes to mind specifically because of the title : but I think that would be a true impression anyway. And, you might even find a hint of Yes (and of Wakeman like keys specifically) long about the 7 minute mark, and later, a hint of blues rock, in each case given a DK flavour.

All in all, I feel its another solid release from Djam Karet, a band who don't seem content to "sit on their laurels" and continuously underscore what progressive rock means, even as the defintion of that term shifts.

Rating: 5/5

* for those not familiar with the film, I recommend you rent it and see it at least once. Some might find it's ecological themes a bit quaint, and the decidedly 70s/folky sound track doesn't age well, but I have always found the film quite moving (no pun intended).



Reviewed by: Marcelo Silveyra, August 2003
Oh, but isn't it a real joy when the sound waves emitted by one's speakers not only reach out in pulsating intensity, but also grip one's very soul and bind it irremediably to the music being played? Isn't it deliciously infectious when grooves force one's feet to tap and one's face to produce grimaces that would cause immediate reddening if discovered by an intruder? And isn't it wonderfully satisfying when one listens to a new album that corresponds to all the promise one would expect from it? I hope you answered yes, yes, and yes. Otherwise you should probably be going to your local mall and listening to the latest Kenny G there. But I digress. Let me for once be laconic and stop beating around the bush, as I've been known to do often: Djam Karet's newest, A Night For Baku, rocks.

But please, do remove that look of contemptuous shock from your faces! What? Yours truly surrendering to brazen impulse instead of holding the outcome for later and thus allowing for at least a hint of critique development? Well, yes. But I blush not this time, for I can blame someone else, or something else, for this capital sin: the immediacy of this quite delectable nine-track cookie. Gayle Ellett, Mike Henderson, Chuck Oken Jr., Henry J. Osborne, and Aaron Kenyon have not spared a single chocolate chip; have made this the biggest circle of dough that this hungry youth has ever seen; and have stuffed it chock-full of sweet goodies. Electronic effects used to their utmost efficiency, placid floating, smothering grooves, exotic sounds : you name it, they stuffed it in there. These are the masters of the cookie. Bow down before them and get ready to get one tasty bite.

Because as soon as A Night For Baku begins with the childlike contemplation and innocent happiness of "Dream Portal," the experience becomes unavoidably absorbing, diving into the tendril's of one's body and then simply refusing to let go. Ellett and Henderson's guitars are aflame, screaming at every bend and boiling with an attitude that is only matched by Oken Jr's caveman capacity of driving ahead the oppressive grooves of tracks such as "The Falafel King." Yet the band is perfectly capable of braking like a beast midway and jumping into a funky jam that is as yummy as they get. And right in the middle of that electric monster called "Hungry Ghost," no less. The whole affair is indeed like a who's who of the band's capabilities, at one point presenting tracks that are largely a pastiche of effects, sounds, and field recordings backed by sparse instrumentation, at another peacefully gliding atmospheres, at another full rock bravado, and yet at another an impressive capacity for exotic grooves with a mean bite. In other words, this is Djam Karet at its finest.

And what a shaking experience it is! Even when the band leaves originality for a second while sounding too much like a full-throttle Deep Purple on "Scary Circus," the listener draws a guilty pleasure from the familiarity and the feeling that it could have easily been Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord themselves guesting on the album. Simply put, Djam Karet has turned its focus into an electric behemoth of sorts, set fire to the nations, and is sure as hell taking no prisoners. Welcome back boys.

Rating: 4.5/5

[See also Steph's review -ed.]

More about A Night For Baku:

Track Listing: Dream Portal (5:26) / Hungry Ghost (9:17) / Chimera Moon (7:08) / Heads Of Ni-Oh (8:03) / Scary Circus (3:41) / The Falafel King (3:23) / Sexy Beast (4:25) / Ukab Maerd (7:56) / The Red Thread (10:29)

Musicians:
Gayle Ellett - electric guitar, ebow, slide guitar, organ, analog & digital synths, 8 string lute, theremin, field recordings, and effects
Mike Henderson - electric guitars, ebow, synths, field recordings and effects
Aaron Kenyon - bass (2, 4-7,9)
Chuck Oken, Jr. - drums and percussion, analog and digital synth, sounds and sequences
Henry J Osbourne - bass (1, 3, 5, 8)
Steve Roach - ending guitar atmospheres (8)

Contact:

Website: www.djamkaret.com
Note: will open new browser window

Email:

Discography

No Commercial Potential (1985) (Out-of-print)

Kafka's Breakfast (1987) (Out-of-print)

The Ritual Continues (1989)
Reflections in the Firepool (1989)
Burning The Hard City (1991/2000)
Suspension and Displacement (1991/2000)
Collaborator (1994)
The Devouring (1997)
Still No Commerical Potential (1998)
Live at Orion (1999)
New Dark Age (2001)
Ascension (2001)
#1 (2001) (via band only)
#2 (2001) (via band only)
Afghan: Live At The Knitting Factory (2001) (via band only)
A Night For Baku (2003)






Djam Karet - A Night For Baku Country of Origin: USA
Format: CD
Record Label: Cuneiform
Records
Catalogue #: Rune 169
Year of Release: 2003
Time: 59:56
Info: Djam Karet
Samples: Click here

Tracklist: Dream Portal (5:26), Hungry Ghost (9:17), Chimera Moon (7:08), Heads of Ni-Oh (8:03), Scary Circus (3:41), The Falafel King (3:23), Sexy Beast (4:25), Ukab Maerd (7:56), The Red Thread (10:29)

We've all heard of The Grateful Dead, Phish and The Dave Matthews Band, some of us may have even have heard of Widespread Panic, but how many are familiar with Djam Karet? Another of the American 'Jam' bands, they, like the other groups mentioned, can instantly sell-out live concerts without blinking an eyelid, but have not been as succesful when it comes to shifting albums. Maybe it's because they have not confined themselves to any one musical area - they once released an album of 'bone-crushing heavy power rock with anarchistic guitar solos' in the same year as one of 'dark, eerie, ambient soundtracks' - maybe their name, which can be loosely translated from the original Indonesian to 'elastic time', has put people off, or possibly the fact that they are an entirely instrumental band has limited their mainstream appeal, but for whatever reason, a lot of people are missing out on some great music!

Founded in 1984 by guitarists Gayle Elliot and Mike Henderson, the band has released 11 CDs and inumerous tapes and archival CDs in their 19 year history, not bad considering they split for six years in the early 1990s! Drummer Chuck Owen Jr. and bassist Henry J. Osborne are the two other original members while last year the line-up was rounded off by the addition of a second bassist, Aaron Kenyon although, on this album at least, the two bass players don't perform simultaneously.

So what do you get for your money? Proclaimed as "a distillation of their musical visions across 20 years" A Night For Baku is a tremendously varied collection of instrumentals. Dream Portal sets the scene. An effortlessly smooth piece of languid atmospherics cut through with a biting guitar motif, it lulls the listener into a serene state before the hard rocking Hungry Ghost takes over. Featuring a driving drum beat that persistently pushes the track along, there is a some wonderful guitar - keyboard interplay as well as a few scorching guitar solos that will keep the air guitarists happy for years to come. Another change for Chimera Moon, which bears resemblance to Ozric Tentacles or perhaps early Porcupine Tree. The style of music makes it abundantly clear why Djam Karet have remained an instrumental band - there simply isn't room for a vocalist to slot in with the arrangements. Like the Ozrics, also an instrumental group, the compositions rely more on mood and soloing rather than riffs, choruses and melody lines but it is done with such aplomb and vision. Imagine one of Mike Oldfield's more adventurous large scale compositions distilled down into under ten minutes with a couple of up-front guitar solos thrown in and you get a rough approximation of the scale that Djam Karet operate in. Not afraid to incorporate slices of Eastern textures (as in The Falafel King), some modern psychadelia (Ukab Maerd), or even King Crimsonesque angular guitars and aggressive basslines (The Red Thread), the album is a guitar fan's utopia. Forget your goblins and court jesters, this is what real progressive rock sounds like!

There are many things one can do in an hour, but it is unlikely that many will be so rewarding as listening to A Night For Baku.

Conclusion: 9.5 out of 10

Mark Hughes