SKU
KALCD1
Excellent Swedish jamming prog band scheduled to play at Progday 2007.
"Qoph are named for the 19th letter in the Hebrew alphabet, amongst others, and play the sort of psychedelic hard rock usually regarded as having puffed its last around 1972, although they mostly end up being lumped in with the prog mainstream, such as it is. I've seen their long-overdue second album, Pyrola, compared to Captain Beyond, amongst others, but one of their most obvious influences, at least to my ears, is fellow Swedes Anekdoten, so it comes no surprise at all to learn that guitarist Niklas Barker guests here on Mellotron. The material on the album veers between the song-based (Travel Candy) and the more psychedelically jammed-out stuff (Fractions), covering most points in between, while retaining the listener's interest throughout, although approaching this album expecting anything even remotely symphonic will only lead to disappointment.
Barker's Mellotron work is far from overbearing, with some weird, drifting strings on Korea, before Mats Öberg's bonkers MiniMoog takes over, and a similar part on Moontripper. Most of the time, though, the band concentrates on guitar/bass/drums basics; Half Of Everything even features a few bursts of harmonica, an instrument found on remarkably few of the albums reviewed on this site... There's a double-vinyl version of the album available on German label Nasoni, with no fewer than three extra tracks, but until/if I get to hear them, I can't reasonably comment on their Mellotronic content, I'm afraid.
So; a bloody good album from a new-ish band (their debut, Kalejdoskopiska Aktiviteter, appeared in 1998), and if their website is to be believed, they're working on a new one at the time of writing (early '07). Will it be as good as Pyrola? Will a Mellotron be involved? Let's hope so." - Planet Mellotron
- Style:Progressive Rock
- Record Label:Kaleidophone Records
Customer Reviews
Average Rating
Grupo Sueco de hard rock psicodélico con algunos toques progresivos. Corresponde a un disco grabado el año 2004 y curiosamente PYROLA corresponde a su 4ª producción, la primera en inglés, la cual dura aproximadamente 56 minutos y sin duda si te gusta este genero un tanto RETRO, gozarás de casi todo el disco. Encontrarás 6 temas muy entretenidos y con mucha fuerza y dinamismo, 100% 70. Curiosamente el disco es tan dinámico que te metes de a poco en cada tema, pero lamentablemente nunca llega el clímax, dejándote con ganas de escuchar la próxima canción. Todos los temas son muy entretenidos, con excepción del último (14 minutos) que te imaginas que será el punto máximo del disco, pero te encuentras con un tema un tanto étnico, con influencias de INDIA, que te baja totalmente la expectativa, pues todos los temas son hard rock psicodélicos, dinámicos pegajosos (sin ser comerciales) y llegas al tema mas largo en donde te imaginas un desarrollo instrumental de a lo menos 10 minutos y..............nada. PYROLA es un buen disco, pero con un final desafortunado. No me llenó este buen grupo Qoph.
Hugo Castro Salinas. Santiago de Chile. hcastro@ssmn.cl
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