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Album Premiere & Review: Kesem, Post-Terra

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on September 21st, 2021 by JJ Koczan

kesem

Los Angeles four-piece Kesem release their debut album, Post-Terra, this week on Sentient Recordings. And since it turns out the only problem with ‘some saying the world will end in fire and some saying in ice,’ etc., is that it didn’t include an all-of-the-above-and-more option, the nine-song heavy prog outing, peppered with arrangement nuance, melodic shifts and rhythmic urgency, is nothing if not a record for the times. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — has it that, inspired by the wrench-to-the-face clusterfuck that has been recent existence, the band comprised of vocalist/keyboardist Ben Daniel (also percussion and horns), bassist Josh Austin (also vocals and 12-string), guitarist Jay Howard (also synth and samples) and drummer Scott Werren (also djembe) collectively envision a scenario whereby humans simply leave earth in search of another home somewhere out in the stars. Evacuation in a stolen rocket.

They’re not the first to posit some form of humankind finding a Second Earth found out in the stars, but they certainly make it rock, without fully making it a rock-opera. In our universe, it would become political. An ideological question. Not everyone would go. People would argue; possibly violently. And if you don’t think so, ask yourself if god exists on other planets. I’m sure you’d get enough of a representative sample of human genetics willing to build a new population — several thousand? one ship? — but aside from the logistical nightmare of organizing such an escape, subsequently colonizing a presumably otherwise unpopulated world, and framing new systems and institutions for that group, doesn’t it kind of feel like getting away with something to be able to totally trash the planet and then just leave in search of another. Would humanity ever have been more the locust devouring the living everything? Or do we just accept that eventually we’ll destroy this new planet too and sweep it under the rug while celebrating the achievement of getting there in the first place?

That sounds like the humanity I know.

It says something perhaps about the provocative nature of the question that Post-Terra asks that one’s mind might head down such a sci-fi rabbit hole. kesem post-terraOur actual future — as in, the one in which we live — is markedly sadder. “No Future” opens Post-Terra and makes immediate use of its complexity to convey its idea. Guitars are twisting and turning, synth and keys bring atmosphere. The first thing you hear on the record is a sample that says, “If you listen carefully, we will prove our ability to transfer our thoughts to you.” No minor ambition, and the nine-track/40-minute outing meets it face-first. “No Future,” “We Will Be Ready” and “Let Go” would seem to be taking the listener through the launch process. They balance structured songcraft and noise experimentalism as a part of this process, and the lead sample is by no means the last. “We Will Be Ready” starts punk and ends rumbling and cosmic, while “Let Go” — instrumental and the longest track at 6:54 — builds from an initial piano line and balances prog rock coursing lead guitar with more languid groove until the keys freak out at the end and shift into “When the Stars Cave In,” which would seem to cap side A in what I’ll hesitate to call a more grounded manner only because it would be so inappropriate to the theme.

For any kind of offering, let alone a debut, Post-Terra is poised in its presentation. That’s not to say it’s staid — because it isn’t, at all; songs vary in mood, arrangement, purpose and structure; there are moments when it’s dizzying — but that even its most experimentalist aspects are there to serve the overarching purpose. On a record of this type, it cannot possibly be a coincidence that “Headfirst Into the Void” is the centerpiece. It is not only a highlight of Kesem‘s work here, but the beginning of side B. It matches “No Future” by beginning with a sample, and then with its insistently tapping snare drum, it builds on the progressive aspects of the opening salvo while manifesting the rawer urgency as well. Laced with horns, it recalls King Crimson and Slift at the same time, crashing into psychedelic noise only to turn and run again, making the momentary breather of the acoustic-led interlude “Starbirth” all the more necessary.

“The Tyrant” follows and is suitably mournful if surprisingly not-angry considering the subject matter, and “Drifting Through Time” boasts a particularly impressive performance from Werren as the foundation of a synth-laced fuzzwinder just over three minutes long that manages to stay on the rails while sounding like those rails occupy multiple dimensions. One does not envy “The Light From Distant Moons” its apparent task of summarizing the course of Post-Terra leading up to it, but in this too, Kesem are prepared for the occasion, melding various genres into a sometimes deceptively cohesive and individualistic intent, making complicated ideas sound easy, and flowing across however many star systems’ worth of portrayed bumps along the way.

Do we make it? Do we survive? Not to say it couldn’t happen — and I haven’t had the benefit of a lyric sheet — but Post-Terra at least in the listening process seems to leave things open for a sequel. Whether Kesem continue to explore along this plotline or their journey takes them elsewhere, they go forward bolstered by the significant display of potential here.

Full album is streaming below, followed by some comment from the band and PR wire basics.

Enjoy:

Kesem on Post-Terra:

During lockdown in 2020, we put all our emotions from what we were going through, from being in lockdown, to anger from political insanity, to hope that any moment we would be free. We took all of that and put it into writing and recording our first full length album. Post-Terra is about stealing a spaceship and leaving this world to find a new place to start over in the stars.

Hailing from Los Angeles, Kesem, originally formed in 2018. Meaning “magic” in Hebrew, the band’s name aptly summarises their sound. Inspired by the progressive and psychedelic, with some added punk rock influences, the resulting soundscape delivers a captivating effect. Their new album, ‘Post-Terra’, follows the release of their self-titled EP in April 2020.

‘Post-Terra’, Kesem’s first full-length album, was born with the help of the legendary L.A. punk icon Paul Rossler (Screamers/45 Grave/ DC3) to produce and engineer. The writing process for this album was fuelled by frustrations about racial injustice, the 1% ruling all, and the Trump administration.

Kesem are:
Josh Austin – Bass, Vocals, 12 String Acoustic Guitar
Ben Daniel – Keys, Trumpet, Vocals, Mellophone, Bells, Woodblock
Jay Howard – Guitar, Sampler, Synth
Scott Werren – Drums, Djembe

Kesem on Facebook

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Kesem on Twitter

Kesem on Bandcamp

Sentient Recordings on Bandcamp

Sentient Recordings website

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