Search - Abunai :: Round Wound

Their best album, but a horrible introduction

Tommy Jacobi | New Orleans, LA | 06/15/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Just hold your horses! This album is incredible. From the organs to the decidedly psychedelic guitar work, there are few flaws. Wound Round runs for 79+ minutes, and flows from one track to the next, which is always a nice touch. There is no stand-out track, because every song is, well, very similar to the previous one. Nonetheless, this album is incredible.



Now, onto the second part of my title. This was the first album I heard from Abunai!, and I fell in love with it. In fact, I thought I had fallen in love with the band, but I was mistaken. After owning Wound Round for a while, I decided to buy an older album, which was Universal Mind Decoder. After listening, I soon realized that the two albums sounded like two completely different bands. Once I heard nearly all of their recordings, I concluded that Wound Round was the black sheep in the bunch. Abunai! was an AMAZING band, but Wound Round is not their definitive album/sound, even though it is an amazing album as well.



If you're looking for a great album, go ahead and buy this. If you're looking to get into a great band, try Universal Mind Decoder and other earlier works."

Abunai! - 'Round Wound' (Camera Obscura)

Mike Reed | USA | 01/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I cannot believe that only one OTHER person had revieved this disc before I did.Another thing I find hard to buy is this ensemble is actually an American band,coming to you from Boston.'Round...' is the band's third effort as I believe they may've recently disbanded.Who knows?Maybe they'll reunite sometime in one form or another.CD comes packed like a set of guitar strings,so you'll need to get a new jewel box to protect this precious sound artifact.A total of 21 tracks with a running time of 79:24.I understand this disc is more krautrock like than their two earlier CD's,'Universal Mind Decoder'('97)and 'The Mystic River Sound'('99).Tunes that about nearly gave me a natural high were "Time Of The Funk-Lords",the airy "Herb-Skirt",the way out-of-this-galaxy fourteen-minute "Fearsome Bat-Man/Drowning In Light","Anti-Twilight Arch",the straight ahead "Rolling Of The Stones","Electric Reynolds" and the dramatic closer "Buzz Bombs".Whew!Better have some time on your hands when you check out this audio gem.Beside kraut,some MIGHT describe 'Round Wound' as part space rock,part dream neo psychedelic.Line up:Kris Thompson-vocals,synthesizer,organ&theremin,Joe Turner-drums,Brendan Quinn-guitar and Dan Parmenter-bass.Should appeal to fans of Spiritualized,SubArachnoid Space,Hawkwind,Flying Saucer Attack,Spacemen 3 and Amon Duul II.It just doesn't get any better.A MUST HAVE!!"

Hardhitting super neokrautrock experience.

futurewave | 08/19/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album is all instrumental. It flows, soars. Brilliantly patched-together snippets from long jam sessions, it has a deja-vu quality to it. It has a funky rhythm section, drenching organs, and a jammy novelty quality to the guitars. Nothing groundbreaking or memorable on an intense artistic level occurs, but it is quite an experience to behold and very enjoyable to listen to. I would point it to Hendrix if I had to point it somewhere, which is probably why it is rather weak for spacerock. Give me Kinski's superb guitar textures and dynamics; give me Mogwai's ordered crescendos; sonic youth's expert nonconventionalism. This is ordinary spacerock that miraculously still puts out. (A modern pointer would be Subarachnoid Space). I would have loved to hear this group develop more cohesion but they have broken up. The moody portions are close but no cigar. But I wouldn't disregard this disk. Overall, it's great, it just moves too fast. It's like a spacerock palette."