Ann Bernath (drums vocals) & David Bernath (guitars) and Rick Whitehurst (Keyboards)
Influences
Everyone who played a song,
long before we came along.
Sounds Like
The second and last official Baku Llama release "ERIS" (2007) is our favorite. Very well recieved by critics and listeners alike, ERIS was an honest attempt to do something different with music, it is an album about changing moods, tension, and reflexes.. We enjoyed playing it and recording it on our Saturdays together over the course of one year. It's all improv with vocals and bass added afterwards. It's a very simple album committed to digital recording on Davids Mac straight off of the instruments in a suburban California bedroom. No practicing or planning. Some cutting & editing. We hope you like it.
“New music is dead. You must go backwards to hear something new”. That is the intriguing statement under the “influences” section of Baku Llama’s MySpace page. I’m not too sure if I agree with it wholeheartedly but, in one sense, it does apply to their own music as evidenced on Eris. I’ve not heard anything exactly like it before and yet there are references aplenty to old music, for instance the persistent use of space-rock riffing, à la Hawkwind, pervading the album. I’ll come back to genre definition later, as it’s a debatable issue at the best of times, and Eris is not so straightforward to define.
Irrespective of genre definition, I found it a very pleasing album and one that withstands, and indeed repays, repeated listening. The soundscape is both rich and mundane at the same time, and it’s that apparent contradiction that makes Eris so absorbing. Why exactly does it sound so good? I would say that there are two main elements to Eris’ soundscape: firstly, the very “bassey” (even when played on the guitar rather than the bass, it’s the lower register of the scale that is used) and repetitive space-rock riffing that infiltrates its way into the greater part of these 61 minutes; and secondly, the equally persistent timbral exploration, often sounding improvised, undertaken on electric piano and other keyboards/synthesizers. This latter feature is exclusively undertaken in the upper frequency ranges and its juxtaposition with the bass-region riff sound is quite fascinating. It sounds almost like listening to two bands at the same time, neither of which on their own would be particularly appealing but, bring them together and you have something quite special.
Baku Llama - Ann Bernath (drums, keyboards, vocals); David Bernath (guitars, bass) and Rick Whitehurst (keyboards) - hail from the USA. Eris is their first “proper” album, following a trial run with Devour My Evil Dream, an effort the band were not entirely happy with, to the extent that they lifted the compositions they felt worked onto Eris. The last four tracks are taken from the debut. Eris was released as long ago as 2007 and it is not entirely clear to me why they are now promoting it by sending out copies for review: perhaps they are entering a new phase of activity and wish to increase their public profile. Let’s hope so - I want to hear more from this band!
There are other aural colours mixed in with the main soundscape elements of this intriguing album. The three compositions on which Ann sings - in particular Betrayed and This Time - develop a different character entirely, despite retaining shadows of the main elements described above. This is due to the melodic phrasing written for the vocal line, absent elsewhere. They are simple melodies, probably written that way to suit Ann’s limited vocal range, but are pretty nevertheless and well sung; in fact on This Time delivering some powerful emotion. Eris itself is slightly different in this regard because some of the short vocal part is spoken: however, the piece retains a different aural character to the totally instrumental compositions. There is more structure, more composition.
Punch It also comes in a different flavour, its vocalisations and catchy rhythm, featuring handclaps, sending it headlong into “art-rock” territory. Discord, Discord Resolved and Tragic Mask act as the short album introduction, (pretty) linking piece and coda respectively. Although Discord introduces the two main aural elements, they do not dominate in these short, fairly conventional, compositions.
On the remaining compositions the main aural elements - the riffing and the timbral exploration - dominate. Through the keyboards and synthesizers we hear a range of sounds being explored: nothing unpleasant or extreme - we go from straightforward electric piano, through harpsichords to xylophones, flutes, choral synths and more, jamming away with that riff. The music is almost certainly often improvised, in particular on the keyboards, but it is never rhythmically or stylistically jazzy, this sounds more like a free improvisation “rock” jam. Somehow, the space-rock rhythm knits the whole thing together, allowing the ear to not only tolerate but take enjoyment from the twinkling on the various “ivories”; it’s the root that allows the improvisations to flower.
It’s actually a remarkably pleasant album as a whole: despite the “cobbling together” of the remnants of Devour My Evil Dream onto the end, causing a slight imbalance; the dominant sonic elements are strong enough to hold everything together within the framework of the Eris “album”. The lighter “art-rock” compositions also help to sustain interest in the improvisations that permeate elsewhere, almost as if letting the concentration take a breath and regain its strength.
So what is it’s genre then? Does it matter? It’s definitely “progressive” for its adventure and experimentation and that really should be enough definition. However... whilst there are elements of space and art-rock in this soundscape, there is enough to suggest from the other aspects that this sits more neatly in an “experimental” category. As such, it may not appeal to everyone, but fans of classic progressive bands, and their descendants, that have never been afraid to broaden the palette of their instrumentation and compositional structures - your King Crimsons, Van der Graaf Generators, Gongs, String Driven Things etc - may well enjoy it.
Having heard it many times and thought hard about the ranking, I’ve decided that there is enough of interest here to warrant a ranking worthy of a “recommendation” tag. Had this been a 2009 release, it would have made its way into my list for this year’s best.
Conclusion: 8 out of 10
ALEX TORRES Dutch Progressive Rock Pages.
NEW MYSPACE LAYOUTS!
Peace Sunday, June 5, 1982, Rose Bowl, no nukes - nuclear disarmament - stop nuclear madness concert - NYC - Central Park - June 12, 1982, 1,000,000 person march and rally for Nuclear Freeze. Photography and presentation by Curtis Rainbow. 'Give Peace a Chance' music by Achim Schultz. Inspiration by Yoko Ono. Dedicated to John Lennon.
