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Ahkmed, The Inland Sea: Bliss and Water

Posted in Reviews on September 16th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

ahkmed-the-inland-sea

Marked out by their tonal warmth and immersive progressions, the long-form fluidity of Melbourne trio Ahkmed makes a welcome return with The Inland Sea, the band’s first full-length since 2009’s Distance (review here). That outing was also released by Elektrohasch Schallplatten — which, if you know the label run by Stefan Koglek of Colour Haze, should be about as far as you need to read in this review to let you know you should get on board.

After seven years, there have been some notable shifts in Ahkmed‘s sound, veering away from post-rock more pure heavy psych jamming, here presented in raw, mostly-instrumental form across five extended tracks — “Kaleidoscope” (10:44), “The Inland Sea” (12:53), “Last Hour of Light” (20:09), “Pattern of Atolls” (11:54) and “The Empty Quarter” (15:31) — totaling a satisfyingly symmetrical 1:11:11 runtime.

Not a minor investment in terms of the front-to-back listen, but the dreamtones and spaciousness of the title-track, the graceful manner in which the songs unfold and the varied atmospheres between them assure that the journey remains engaging for the duration, drummer John-Paul Caligiuri adding vocals over the slow wash of “The Inland Sea” (though that might be a sample; it’s kind of obscure in the mix) and the subsequent centerpiece after the hypnotic opening of “Kaleidoscope” to bring a definitively human presence to the material just when it seems to be pushing out further and further.

Also the introduction of new bassist Finn Rockwell, who comes aboard to replace Dan McNamara, alongside Caligiuri and guitarist Carlo IacovinoThe Inland Sea casts out cosmic with a natural chemistry and patient execution, indulging itself as a release like this invariably must, but not doing so in an offputting or pretentious fashion.

That can be a hard line to walk, but Ahkmed make it work in the best way possible — by simply doing it. From the fuzzy guitar line that starts “Kaleidoscope” onward, the three-piece ease their way into progressive spacedelia with an underlying command that speaks to the years they’ve been at it, Caligiuri and Iacovino having started the band circa 1998.

As they approach 20 years in and mark their resurgence from a dormant period, The Inland Sea lacks nothing for vitality, though admittedly they’re not exactly shooting for uptempo party rock. That’s not to say their delivery isn’t energetic or they don’t sound like they’re making the music they want to be making — quite the opposite, actually — just that the trance that takes hold about halfway through “Kaleidoscope” and continues into “The Inland Sea” would seem to be closer to the endgame goal the album is pushing toward.

ahkmed

It’s about the texture and spirit that emerges from the material; something to get lost in. They build “Kaleidoscope” to a formidable apex and end it with a fading wash to let the title cut take hold with two builds of its own, patiently marched forward by cymbal washes as the guitar spaces out, the song almost dividing in half for when one part ends and the next one starts.

By its finish, it too gets to significant proportion, but the difference in ambience is noteworthy, and another balance Ahkmed strike subtly throughout The Inland Sea as “Last Hour of Light” — an obvious focal point, for even more than its sheer length — arrives with about two minutes of introduction from the guitar before the vocals and quiet drums join in. At this point, the ethereal mood is fully constructed, but Caligiuri does have a grounding effect when he starts with the first verse, something to give a sense of place to what can seem to be so willfully formless.

At first, it seems like “Pattern of Atolls” might be trying to bridge the the two sides between Ahkmed‘s post-rock and more heavy psych liquefaction, but it winds up pushing further, thickening its tones in the second half and pushing into territory more outwardly heavy than anything The Inland Sea has yet offered. Caligiuri returns on vocals earlier in the track but recedes into the molten flow that seems to rise up after his lines are done, and it’s Rockwell whose low end seems to signify the heft to come, fuzzed-out as it is.

They start to dive into a payoff but hold back, saving it for the end of the song, which feels about right once they hit the nine-minute mark and crash into a blown-out final three minutes that cap with bass-noise swirling directly into the guitar intro of “The Empty Quarter” — the most purposeful transition they’ve yet made and one that ties the final two tracks together in a way that brings to mind a linearity that The Inland Sea invariably wouldn’t have as a 2LP, on which “The Empty Quarter” and “Pattern of Atolls” would each likely occupy a side.

Maybe that’s Ahkmed acknowledging the digital/vinyl companionship, the sort of symbiotic the most and least physical formats have developed over the years since Distance, or maybe it’s just the way the songs flowed the best. I wouldn’t hazard a guess. Either way, the closer follows a similar pattern of a guitar intro leading to a verse that shifts into a jam quiet, louder, quiet again, noisy for a bit, then at last arriving at the groove that will carry it out.

To listen to The Inland Sea by this time and look for intricacies almost feels like missing the point, which is clearly to let the album wash over you and move you from one end of its span to the other. Nonetheless, “The Empty Quarter” and the four cuts before it do offer a depth of experience for those willing to dig in — headphones recommended — and the spaces they evoke seem vast enough to hold a presence until next time. Hopefully that’s not another seven years.

Ahkmed, The Inland Sea (2016)

Ahkmed on Thee Facebooks

Ahkmed on Bandcamp

Elektrohasch Schallplatten

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audiObelisk Presents: Live Roadburn 2010 Audio Streams from Sons of Otis, Night Horse, Fatso Jetson and Ahkmed

Posted in audiObelisk on July 15th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

It’s unreal how many bands they packed into the Roadburn festival. It could have been three separate killer fests and no one would have complained. Being there was like being at the Metropolitan Museum in New York — you couldn’t possibly see everything on offer in one day. Though it was fun to try.

Walter and the good folks at Roadburn have made available more live audio streams, and they sent me the links to share with you. I remember Fatso Jetson‘s performance was especially killer, but I wouldn’t count out any of these bands, because I’ve yet to hear one of these streams I didn’t think was awesome. Enjoy:

Fatso Jetson live at Roadburn 2010

Sons of Otis playing Templeball live at Roadburn 2010

Ahkmed live at Roadburn 2010

Night Horse live at Roadburn 2010

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Ahkmed are Going the Distance

Posted in Reviews on June 9th, 2009 by JJ Koczan

It's an interplanetary isolation thing, you wouldn't understand.Despite the douchebag rantings of privileged US economists to the contrary, the world is far from flat, and so, when I Ma'amlisten 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.

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