KL(aüs): Kl(aüs) (2016)
“Kl(aüs) is an interesting discovery which will please undoubtedly to these aficionados of TD's Schmoelling era”
1 Three Sheets 7:00 2 Proof Portal 6:01 3 It Hurts to Shoot Gloves from Your Stick, But it's Necessary 8:13 4 Feral Teapot 13:22 5 Big Dream and a Pinch of Towel 5:56 Kl(aüs) Music
(DDL 40:50) (VF) (E-Rock & Berlin School)
With a name as so usual as Kl(aüs), the expectations can turn out to be high for this Australian duet formed in 2013 by Stewart Lawler and Jonathan Elliott, two musicians with a good road map on the scene of Australian progressive music. Distributed by the English label Castles in Space, this first eponym opus is a project as interesting as that of Perge. Presented with great fanfare on vinyl, CD and digital formats, KL(AÜS) is an interesting discovery which will please undoubtedly to these aficionados of the kind, who are always in search of shivers connected to Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream in order to find a new name that will answer all of their expectations. Even the highest ones!
A rolling of sequences in colors of glass is tinkling at the opening of Three Sheets. The rhythm zigzagging of its imperfect approach is like a troop of centipedes which have soaked into the alcohol and whose uneven legs are limping now in layers of orchestral mist. The rhythmic harmonies of the sequencer skip with a perfume of White Eagle. Ambiospherical turbulence elements darken a little more the atmospheres which become finally the witnesses of a rhythmic invasion arising from percussive effects and from a powerful series of pulsating bass sequences. The initial structure always remains alive, giving a harmonious wealth to this rhythm which rolls as a sonic train and where the synths free solos as well as effects to drive Three Sheets towards one furious finale. We get our breath back with the introduction all in flute of Proof Portal. Nervous jingles and falls of prisms accompany these astral chants whereas an organic sequence caws of impatience. With these rhythmic elements in suspension, Proof Portal remains a motionless movement which offers to the Mellotron and its fluty partner its 5 minutes of glory. It Hurts to Shoot Gloves from Your Stick, But it's Necessary borrows the paths of a good electronic rock where percussions and sequences maintain a very lively pace which is of use as basis to a furious synth and its solos rolling in loops. This is some big E-Rock my friends! How to describe Feral Teapot, except the qualitative of splendid? It's with a piano which meditates its notes in a muffled throbbing that opens this brilliant track which draws its sources from the sessions of Logos and The Keep. Already the border The Keep is passed with these Mephistophelian breaths and these rattling percussions which roam in an atmosphere of déjà-entendu. Crystal-clear, the sequences skip as in a contortionists' ballet while the chords and the effects in background reminds to us the pond of the influences of this superb musical saga which will continue until far in the introduction of Big Dream and a Pinch of Towel. But let's get back to Feral Teapot and the solos a la Froese and the Schmoelling harmonies are engaging a fight which weakens its last breaths in an ambiospherical phase rather dark before leaning on one finale of the kind of Logos Red Part. Although well separated from this finale, the rather areal beginning of Big Dream and a Pinch of Towel wakes up rather fast on the ashes of Feral Teapot. The rhythmic rise espouses Chris Franke's multiple ingenuities while the guitar spits boiling riffs and turbulent solos which over size a rhythm feeding on ear catchy percussive effects. It's like to put Jean-Michel Jarre, for the slamming percussions, on the music of The Keep. My ears ask for more! I'm still very amazed that in 2018, there are always artists who are going to vibrate EM as this one which has so much seduced me in the years of Franke, Froese and Schmoelling. At this level, this album is a must have for those who listen to Perge; the eyes and the ears filled with memories.
Sylvain Lupari (April 3rd, 2018) *****
Available at Kl(aüs) Bandcamp