Ahkmed are Going the Distance
Despite the douchebag rantings of privileged US economists to the contrary, the world is far from flat, and so, when I listen to the sweetened, mostly-instrumental post-rock of Melbourne, Australia trio Ahkmed, I can’t help but get a sense of isolation out of the music. A certain loneliness. Even the title of their Elektrohasch debut, Distance, would appear to convey a feeling of separation, and all the more if they’re referring to the emotional spaces between things rather than the physical. Lonely either way.
Think about it: even with the album art above a single iris and the vast reaches of space are pictured, so what’s essentially carried across is a feeling of singularity in something much bigger than one’s self. Even if the sunrise in the pupil as we see it is a reflection of what an interstellar traveler is watching, there’s no denying the weight of cosmic motion is a humbling experience. That kind of thing is bound to make you wistful.
But the music has moments of gorgeousness nonetheless, and the heavily reverbed guitar of Carlo Iacovino and the warm bass of Dan McNamara provide no shortage of them. It’s a tone and technique you could take as far back as Kraut rock, but we’ve seen it most recently and most effectively of late with the likes of Red Sparowes and the neo-Neurot set, though Ahkmed are far less pretentious in their delivery. They refer to their style as post-stoner, and I suppose that works. Psychedelic post-rock would do just as well.
Distance has seven cuts, varying in length from the 2:15 “Soma” to the 11:46 closing title track, and likewise the songs’ personalities evoke different moods and move in different directions. Structurally they rely on the jam method of building and executing apexes, but the sporadic vocalizations of drummer John-Paul Caligiuri provide some manner of grounding to the otherwise spacey proceedings, even if they are used more for atmosphere rather than being the central focus in the traditional rock sense. The overall volume of the CD is low, so it’s easy to get lost in it, but especially among longer pieces like “Saltwater” and “Temple,” I’ve yet to find an individual one not worth the attention paid to it.
They’re not mind-bendingly psychedelic, but it’s plain to see Ahkmed have given these songs time to become what they need to be. For that alone, Distance shows the 11 years the band has been together hasn’t been time wasted. Whether you sit and mine nuances in each track or you just put it on, tilt your head back and let go, the record has plenty to offer heads seeking something other than the straightforward fare of typical stoner rock that’s not such a departure from the overall aesthetic, just trippy enough to stand out on the shelf. And just lonely enough to really hit home. I look forward to the next round.
Tags: Ahkmed, Australia, Elektrohasch, Heavy psych, post-rock
