Suspension and Displacement

Artist: Djam Karet Label: Cuneiform Category: Music Average customer rating: Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 UPC: 045775012926 EAN: 0045775012926 ASIN: B0000488SD Release Date: 2000-01-18

Suspension and Displacement

Tracks:

1. Dark Clouds, No Rain
2. 8:15-No Safe Place
3. Angels without Wings
4. Consider Figure Three
5. Erosion
6. Severed Moon
7. The Naked & The Dead
8. Gordon's Basement
9. A City With Two Tales: Part One Revisited 1990

Similar Items:

1. Devouring
2. Reflections from the Firepool
3. Recollection Harvest
4. Burning the Hard City
5. New Dark Age

Customer Reviews:

WOW.......2004-04-18

Best "Ambient" Album of 1991.......2000-01-25

But although "Firepool" was a triumph, it was also a little schizophrenic. The savage blasts of "Red" era King Crimson did not sit all that well with the spaced-out ambience of "Wish You Were Here" Pink Floyd. And so in 1991, Djam Karet split the two musical avenues into two complimentary releases: the guitar based, metallic "Burning the Hard City" and the quieter, textured "Suspension and Displacement." Until recently, both these albums were difficult to locate, but with Cuneiform Record's decision to reissue them, many more people have a chance to enjoy this exceptional band. Both "Burning the Hard City" and "Suspension and Displacement" were excellent releases and the latter, in my opinion, was the better of the two.

"Suspension and Displacement" is wholly instrumental and it emphasises the band's Pink Floyd tendencies. But as with "Burning the Hard City" Djam Karet do not settle for simply aping one of their major sources of inspiration. This is no more evident than in the opening track "Dark Clouds, No Rain." Here, the band combine Floydian soundscapes with the work of Fripp and Eno. (The weird opening "drone" on this track recalls "The Heavenly Music Corporation.") As this 12 minute piece continues, ethnic influences begin to make their presence felt. The song becomes a collage of different musical sounds, ranging from exotic percussion to acoustic guitar. A compelling and highly original track, and the same can be said for the rest of the album.

Similarly, the sampling is fascinating, to say the least. Take the track "Consider Figure Three." The band somehow manage to enfold a medical school lecture (seriously!) into the piece, and the varieties of sampling elsewhere are far from ordinary. The band's exotic instrumentation and sampling are rounded off with several acoustic guitar segments, but on the whole, the electric guitar is banished to "Burning the Hard City."

So far as songwriting is concerned, Djam Karet have yet to better this album. Musical ideas are developed convincingly throughout. It is this attention to songcraft that sets this album far apart from most other ambient/new age releases. So far as progressive rock was concerned, this album did enter genuinely new territory.

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6. Cure For Bad Deeds ~ Martina Sorbara
7. The Bucket, Pt. 2 ~ Kings of Leon
8. Right Up Your Face ~ Sofia Loell
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