Music: Kruzr Ken: Addicts and Satan

Our Take

I think my brain may have just exploded and then put itself back together fragment by fragment. You see, I have just listened to Addicts and Satan which is the one of the latest releases by Russian based group Kruzr Ken. Maybe it’s the atmosphere or something in the water over there, but Russian artists have continued to push the envelope as far as noise and free form avant-garde material goes and Kruzr Ken is yet another brilliant example of this as their material moves between looped sound clips, ambient drone, and free jazz/noise without warning. It’s a hell of an experience and not a particularly tame one at that, but those who choose to give it a go will come away either impressed or confused.

Part of the reason that Addicts and Satan hurts my brain is because of its ability to constantly mess with its listener. The album starts off with looped sound effects of humans and animals, and from there moves on to embrace a variety of different noise oriented styles. But the thing is, just as listeners are starting to begin to figure out that some of these loops/bursts of feedback have some sort of pattern Kruzr Ken goes and completely changes things so that they are once again disoriented and trying to figure out what is going on. This sort of spur of the moment experimentation certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it does give the release a sense of spontaneity and intrigue that few can match. And though there are some softer moments on this release, listeners should be advised that this disc does make use of a lot of random bursts of feedback and very loud free jazz arrangements, so for them to truly get the most out of this release they will need to have some appreciation for the noise genre.

Kruzr Ken isn’t for everyone, that much is certainly clear, but those of you with an ear for the most random and bizarre experimentation will find that Addicts and Satan is an experience unlike any other out there. I’m not quite sure if I’ve managed to do the release justice with this review, but hopefully it makes an impact among the underground and those who seek out the avant-garde on a regular basis. The Russians are once again demonstrating that they can make some of the weirdest noise based music around, and Kruzr Ken could very well be at the front of this movement.

http://www.raig.ru

Chris Dahlberg
July 11, 2009