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Krom Lek - "Inspirational Floatation Compilation"

From Consett, in the NE of England, comes a new release from what should actually have been one of the first Stone Premonitions bands. (A Krom Lek is the stone which lies across two upright standing stones as in the ones at Stonehenge.) Krom Lek plays trippy spacerock with hints of jazz, very much in the tradition of Gong and festie bands like Nukli and Omnia Opera; maybe even a bit of Ozric Tentacles in their lighter moments. The vocals often sound remarkably like Daevid Allen. But make no mistake, this is no copy band. Krom Lek is a four piece consisting of Dave on guitars, keyboards, and vox, Tonksy on flutes, sax, and vox, Bazz on bass, bogeridoo, percussion, keyboard, and vox, and John on drums, percussion, keyboards, and vox. They are joined by various guests including the ubiquitous Tim and Terri~B.

There are lots of guitar and keys in Krom Lek's music, but the prominence of flute and the varied percussion is very much a part of the Krom Lek sound. Like Gong , the band excels at setting a cool groove that trips the cosmos fantastic. Jazz and Reggae influences give the music its head-bopping toe-tapping beat, much in the way these styles do for the Ozrics. The male and female vocal combos are part of what reminded me of Omnia Opera . On a couple songs we even hear some cool doot-doot-dootin' scat vocals. The space synths typically like to set sequenced patterns that have a direction rather than just bleeping and blurping. The electric guitar rarely solos but when it does it has a rockin' jam quality rather than being flashy. But overall, it's the rock solid rhythm section that gives a mighty anchor to the musical festivities throughout. And Krom Lek is happy to have fun and experiment as the various looped and collage segments attest. A must for fans of Gong at their trippiest and any of the festie bands. The music on this disc compiles tracks from Krom Lek mostly recorded between 1993-1995, but the band is now back in the Stone Premonitions stable and working on a new release.

Jerry Kranitz, Aural Innovations