Postcards From Arkham
ÆØN5

Sometimes postcards can be a bit delayed in the mail delivery system and these postcards from Massachusetts can be claimed to be just that. It is the second album of this Czech project masterminded by Marek “Frodys” Pytlik whom I know absolutely nothing about, it is said that he has been part of some Czech bands but I have not heard of any of them – it may point towards Czech stuff being a black hole for me because the only Czech thing I come to think of just now is the awful carmaker Skoda. But let’s not be misled into the diversities of the Czechoslovakia and let us instead focus on their new album that has been given a rather cryptic title but reading about dreams and stuff in a press release makes it sound interesting and should we assume somewhat Lovercraftian as well?

Post rock or something in that fashion is what it is about, I don’t really know all the nuances if the postmodern rock scene so let’s stay with post rock for now. It is a bit dreamy, very atmospheric and melodic but with a hint of aggression as well. The vocals range a bit all over the place with spoken words, growls, whispers, and a lot more, it is very interesting. I think the album has a lot of depth and longevity and it feels fresh and exciting to listen to as it sounds a bit less like most other stuff being released today. Excellent production and variation, the songs interlace very nicely and gives the album and interesting sensation of progression from the opening to the ending tone – I think that the album overall feel very well and carefully thought out to form a whole that is mesmerising and fascinating to the listener. The soundscape is quite impressive.

This is a great album! It is worthy of a high rating on our scale and thank goodness that I had not yet thrown the album away due to the fact it was released quite a while back now because then I would have missed something. I like this quite a hit, it is fun and dramatic and great to enjoy listening to. They hit the mark really well with their music and there is not much to be critical about, they have put together a really solid album here. It is good that they offer music that has depth and is worthy of thought, but best is probably that the album is made up of some great songs and of course that they are not satisfied to be just another clone of something done to death already – hats off to these guys, I like this album a lot.

Maybe one might argue that they miss a hit song but this album feels like it does not really need one as it feels built to be a great unity than a good collection of songs and it is best as a whole rather than picking out single songs. I can clearly recommend this album to anyone reading this webzine and I would say that there are not many reasons for anyone not to appreciate this album – I think you need to be a bit of a lunatic to find this album anything but really good. It was maybe a late postcard but when it arrived it was mightily appreciated and I think that this is definitely worth to look at for you as well.

HHHHHHH