Search - Djam Karet :: Reflections From The Firepool

Djam Karet is one of the few groups holding onto the progressive-music torch who aren't looking backward. This reissue of a 1989 release still sounds fresh a decade later, as it opens with the roar of an engine and then never lets up on the throttle. It's powered by the syncro-mesh of drummer Chuck Oken Jr. and bassist Henry J. Osborne, who lock into complex polyrhythmic, multipart compositions with a juggernaut intensity and then spin on a dime in another direction. Riding herd on this maelstrom are guitarists Gayle Ellett and Mike Henderson. Their sinewy solos swirl in refractions of electricity. On the Moroccan rhythms of "Fall of the Monkey Walk," their siren feedback guitars intertwine in long glissandos like elegant scrawls of light on slow-speed film. Djam Karet still show their influences on "The Sky Opens Twice." Split in two parts, one nods toward King Crimson, the other bows to the swirling organ and mantra-blues rhythms of early Pink Floyd. The title cut loses steam, although the train that rides through the middle, recorded right outside their studio, is a nice touch. --John Diliberto