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Krobak, Nightbound: Pressure March (Plus Full Album Stream)

krobak-nightbound

[Click play above to stream Krobak’s Nightbound in its entirety. Album is out Nov. 4.]

Resonance is the key. Wherever Krobak decides to take their third full-length, Nightbound, at any given moment in terms of arrangement, whether it’s violin, wisps of effects-soaked guitars, or hypnotically rhythmic outside meandering across the four mostly-extended tracks, it’s a sense of resonance that ties them together — sonic and emotional.

The Kiev, Ukraine, outfit were last heard from on 2013’s Little Victories (discussed here) and began life as a side-project from Igor Sidorenko of Stoned Jesus looking to explore a more post-rock style of sound, basking in the influence of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the like on the 2008 solo outing, The Diary of the Missed One. Sidorenko‘s guitar still takes the fore in what’s become a full-band lineup, though I wouldn’t minimize the contributions of bassist Asya, violinist Marko or drummer Natasha, who add to the depth and textures of this material and make Nightbound all the more of an immersive experience.

Its four inclusions — “Stringer Bell” (13:21), “No Pressure, Choice is Yours” (7:04), “So Quietly Falls the Night” (11:21) and “Marching for the Freedom We Have Lost” (10:13) — only total just under 42 minutes, but they are indeed immersive, and though there are some tense moments in “No Pressure, Choice is Yours” and the apex of “So Quietly Falls the Night,” the prevailing sensibility is patient, the prevailing mood melancholic, and Krobak never seem to lose the control they’re quick to establish on “Stringer Bell,” which curiously takes its name from a character on the tv show The Wire.

Sidorenko‘s guitar begins the opener and longest cut (immediate points) with circa-five minutes of trance-inducing guitar soundscapery. The effect that initial movement has on the listener isn’t to be understated. If approached with due patience — that is, so long as you know you’re not waiting for the song to “start,” and that you’re already in it — the subtle intertwining of layers, periodic washes of cymbals, and outstretching reverb are a joy in which to bask.

At about 2:30, it breaks to just the guitar again as the foundation is laid for what will become the remainder of “Stringer Bell”‘s run, a gradual march joined by soft ride and snare, and bass, with the arrival of what might be the violin (I’d also believe a horn of some kind) a couple minutes later. By then, the opener is moving toward the halfway mark and a build is clearly in progress.

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More distorted tones push through in the second half, and there’s even a bit of faster thrust, some winding turns, and finally, a release of the tension before a final swirling surge, but Krobak never lose that patience in their execution, and as otherworldly effects noise rounds out the last minute-plus of “Stringer Bell” and fades to lead into the more immediately organic, string-led opening of “No Pressure, Choice is Yours,” that patience sets the tone for the entirety of Nightbound that follows.

As noted, the second cut is more active — at one point in the early going, it borders on surf rock — but it maintains a multifaceted feel with the guitar and violin working in and out of tandem with each other, serving similar purposes perhaps, but individually, as guitar, bass and drums gallop through the halfway point, Asya adding a choice fill right around 3:45, and finding common ground in the chugging build of the second movement, which ends cold and manages to feel short at seven minutes.

If one assumes a vinyl structure to Nightbound, that seven-minute runtime makes sense in fitting on a single, 20-minute side with “Stringer Bell,” and likewise, the pairing of “So Quietly Falls the Night” and “Marching for the Freedom We Have Lost” on side B works to fit not only in practical terms but thematically as well.

Two such evocative titles, positioned next to each other, invite the audience to provide their own context, but the prevailing vibe does so even more — a thoughtful moodiness, never quite despairing, but certainly wistful, almost nostalgic. Hard to position, but it runs deep in both the quiet early going and the later swell of “So Quietly Falls the Night,” which hits its crescendo in progressive guitar work and forward rhythmic charge, never out of control, never any more over the top than it wants to be before it gives way to the noise that once again rounds out.

Likewise for “Marching for the Freedom We Have Lost,” which, despite being instrumental like the rest of Nightbound actually finds Krobak naming the thing that has gone — in this case, freedom. In light of the conflict in the Ukraine over the last couple years, one can interpret that title in a number of ways, but sonically, it does indeed live up to being a march, if a subtle one. Natasha‘s drums form a consistent pattern around which the rest of the band moves, and even clearer than “So Quietly Falls the Night” or “Stringer Bell,” the finale holds to a linear pattern that proves to have an impact despite remaining somewhat understated as it peaks.

Most of all, it underscores the fluidity at hand across the release as a whole, the dreamy otherplaceness, and the underlying purposeful nature of the direction Krobak follow at any given point. Some might take it on just to get lost in its wash, and some might be drawn in by its ebbs and flows, but Nightbound stands up to multiple levels of engagement, and as looped snare leads the fading way out of “Marching for the Freedom We Have Lost,” it reminds once more of the balance between cohesion and sprawl that Krobak have brought to bear so organically throughout.

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