Schubmodul Premiere “Ascension” From New Album Lost in Kelp Forest
German heavy instrumentalists Schubmodul are set to issue their sophomore LP, Lost in Kelp Forest, on Feb. 23 through Tonzonen Records. As the title alluding to submerged plantlife hints, the album follows a submerged conceptual narrative such that the sun-reflecting lead guitar in “Emerald Maze” around six minutes into the total 9:57 genuinely seems to discover something as it shifts from its exploratory outset into a more linear pattern ahead of a thicker riff’s return. Samples bolster the affair and fill in some of the places vocals might otherwise have gone — according to the PR wire below King Gizzard did that at one point?; fair enough — as across the six-song/42-minute rolling horizon, the three-piece of Christoph Kellner, Fabian Franke and Nils Stecker bring purpose to a weighted and progressive-leaning, clear-headed psychedelia. This could easily have been an LP of jams that afterward the band decided was about the ocean. That’s not what’s happening here.
Schubmodul‘s material is composed and brings a sense of intention even to the nodder chug in “Silent Echoes” that feels like it could be anything. It’s not that you feel like you’re underwater or that, thankfully, the music itself sounds like it, but the power of suggestion, the commonality of the metaphor within the genre, and your own willingness to go should be enough to get you there. The trio open with “Voyage” and offer the first of the six individualized progressions within the songs, each carving out its own space of the entirety both in terms of story — I’m just cut and pasting the credits so I don’t spell anyone’s name wrong: the spoken narrations are France’s Alma Chomel and Shane Wilson in the US — and the alignment around and movement through structured parts. A band with a marker-board in the rehearsal space? They might be. Somebody, somewhere along the line, has arranged the parts of Lost in Kelp Forest, if not as a cinematic experience, then certainly with a mind toward evoking an emotive or associative response in the listener. As the swinging ‘verse’ of the penultimate “Ascension” (visualizer premiering below), with its proggy bass punches and strutting groove emerges from the spaces cast in the largesse of “Silent Echoes” just before, Schubmodul offer dynamic of intention as well as volume, reaching into varying niches of microgenre while thoughtfully distinguishing their songs in conceptual approach and the finer details of their layering.
An example of that lies in the acoustic beginning of “Renegade One,” the five-minute finale of side A. They open into a groove bordering on huge, as one will, and are both methodical in terms of pace and mindful of when the changes should be. A switch to lead guitar here, some flourish on drums to mark the transition. A stop before you jump in again. Complemented by a captured tonality that is sharper at its corners than one might at first expect, Schubmodul can gear a given part or track toward impact or atmosphere seemingly as they choose,
and more often than not on Lost in Kelp Forest, they choose both. The record is stronger for it while still remaining cognizant enough of their basic underlying riffage to be likened to later Karma to Burn, though certainly Schubmodul have layered an entire aesthetic atop that most straight-ahead of instrumental structural foundations. “Ascension” ends sharp and gives over to the Wilson voiceover, naming a deep sea wreck of a ship named Renegade One and revealing the mission to harvest kelp forests that, well, don’t let me spoil it. Ambient guitar behind, the heart of the story ends in closer “Revelations” with an urging to “protect our planet and all living things” before its meditative roll takes hold in earnest. And of course they build around the finale as they’ve been building all along to their various purposes either in storytelling or kicking ass more generally.
It’s not quite a blowout, but it’s the end credits as the pace picks up in the second half of “Revelations” and the band push into the last fadeout. I’m not quite ready to call Schubmodul heavy prog, though there’s some distillation of an Elder influence audible in the shimmering of the guitar and some of the sway in their larger grooves. I can’t get away from feeling like someone in the band — be it Stecker, Kellner or Franke — has some noisier background, but across Lost in Kelp Forest, everything the band put into the record is funneled into the central purpose of the narrative and the songs themselves, and the story being told is that much clearer and expressive for that. Giant kelp can grow up to 250 feet tall, two feet per day if it’s the right kind. An underwater forest is an entire ecosystem, with predators and prey, eggs laid behind leaves and fish living off the plants that are their entire world. Humans I think mostly use it as a place to keep discarded plastic wrap.
But our pitiful species’ disregard for the (actual) treasures that surround us nothing new, and if part of Schubmodul‘s intent is to remind of that or at least pull the thought out of the listener’s brain, then they have succeeded in affecting the mood and mindset of their audience — I was thinking about genocide, now I’m thinking about climate crisis; welcome to the 2020s! everyone’s sad and everything is why — and that’s not an accomplishment to discount. Their debut, 2022’s Modul I, functioned similarly in terms of impact and atmosphere, but what’s found in terms of method and purpose throughout Lost in Kelp Forest is a marked forward step that comes with a greater breadth of production to match that of its basic sound. I don’t know that their next effort — the e’er crucial ‘third record’ — will tell the same kind of tale or not, but I would expect the refinement of approach that Schubmodul have undertaken in the last couple years to continue, and that means that’s an album I’ll want to hear.
Please enjoy the visualizer for “Ascension” premiering below, followed by more from the PR wire:
Schubmodul, “Ascension” visualizer premiere
Lost In Kelp Forest is a concept album that doesn’t take place in the vastness of space like its predecessor, but rather in an underwater world. The six mainly instrumental pieces are accompanied by narrator voices, which reveal a coherent fictional story on a dense atmospheric carpet of sound. The voices were professionally recorded by Alma Chomel from France and Shane Wilson from the USA.
As a foundation, the triumvirate, formed by a classic line-up of guitar, bass and drums, thunders a mix of space, stoner and progressive rock onto the stage, which is occasionally supplemented by synthesizers, sound and voice samples. Dreamy, atmospheric passages combined with colossal riffs will often lead to an epic melodic zenith of voluminous, warm sounds, over which gentle to fast guitar solos are released.
The compositions use a large modal palette and versatile harmonies that are intended to continually surprise the listener and at the same time follow a driving, natural and catchy rhythm. Lost In Kelp Forest has a very high level of attention to detail and should remain exciting even after repeated listening.
The band’s inspiration for this album was genre-typical greats like Elder, King Buffalo, more progressive bands like Dream Theater and elements from Hans Zimmer’s film music. The idea using a spoken word on top of the music was inspired by the albums Eyes Like The Sky and Murderer Of The Universe by King Gizzard & Lizard Wizard. Lost In Kelp Forest was recorded in August 2023 in the legendary Tonmeisterei in Oldenburg, Germany. The entire album was recorded in just six long days. The band was housed in the studio for the entire recording process, which created a unique atmosphere. The first tracks (Emerald Maze and Silent Echoes) were written shortly after the release of the first album in spring 2022 and set the basic mood of the album. The remaining pieces were completed by summer 2023.
Tracklist
1. Voyage
2. Emerald Maze
3. Renegade One
4. Silent Echoes
5. Ascension
6. Revelations
Schubmodul are Christoph Kellner, Fabian Franke and Nils Stecker.
Tags: Bochum, Germany, Lost in Kept Forest, Schubmodul, Schubmodul Lost in Kelp Forest, Tonzonen Records
