Switzerland again - BUT! this time no metal-band but an interesting Post-Rock-act called The Kompressor Experiment.
There are some bands who definitely state their idea of music within the name itself. The Kompressor Experiment from Switzerland is one of these bands, with a name that is partially German and English, even though Kompressor is only spelled a little differently. Nevertheless, what is a Kompressor Experiment? Are they experimenting with compressing air or rather – are they trying to push a lot of ideas into a record?
Well, the Sion-based quartet shows with the title and cover of their new record already which musical concept they are following: 2001 – more than a nod to Kubrick’s famous science-fiction classic – is a record that is as much influenced by movies as it is (seemingly) following bands like Tides from Nebula, Cinematic Orchestra or Oh, Hiroshima. The record is pure post-rock but with a lot of sounds seemingly straight from the modern movie alphabet. The cover is like a scene from Gravity with one astronaut apparently lost in space hanging on to the thin air tube for dear life.
“EMP.AI” is a good example for the cinematic aspect of the record as the track follows a long winding road through America’s Monument Valley with a lot of dust being whirled up because of a long trail of horses following a single rider trying to escape the attack of the wild west gang behind him. Or it is an astronaut finding himself in a sandstorm on Mars – both ideas are being promoted by the western-like, sandy sound of the guitar which purrs like taken from a Sergio Leone – movie.
However, there is more to 2001; the band is capable of playing crunching and gut-wrenching riffs, especially Monolith I (a kind of non-linear triptych on the album) is able to show real force and power and to combine all of the band’s ideas and motifs. The beginning could be a soundtrack to a new science-fiction movie with all its industrial synthesizer-like sounds – resembling the engine of a spaceship slowly passing by – opening the album before a strong, powerful riff kicks in and leads the track into a futuristic wasteland scenario.
The three longtracks are not always nicely balanced, some parts may be a bit long – to use a movie-like comparison: Not all movies are one-shots. Nevertheless, by and large, the band really shows a lot of promising ideas and blends them into a more than solid post-rock record with a strong concept and a lot of nicely ambiguous details.
