Label: Cuneiform

Tracks:

1. No Man's Land (4:43)
2. Eclipse of Faith (2:43)
3. Web Of Medea (7:04)
4. Demon Train (2:56)
5. All Clear (8:31)
6. Raising Orpheus (6:56)
7. Kali's Indifference (2:28)
8. Alone With The River Man (8:03)
9. Going Home (9:55)
10. Eulogy (2:13)

Musicians:

• Gayle Ellett - electric guitar, mellotron, organ, synths, field cordings, effects
• Mike Henderson - acoustic and electric 6 & 12 string guitars, slide itar, acoustic & electronic percussion, synths, field recordings, effects
• Chuck Oken, Jr. - drums, percussion, and synths
• Henry J Osbourne - bass, percussion

New album of one of the ultimate bands of the progressive rock in the 90s. For those who still don't know them, Djam Karet is an American instrumental band, whose style usually is qualified as space-prog-fusion. Their sound relates them somehow to Ozric Tentacles though really both groups have their own personality and are clearly distinguishable. Djam Karet possesses very varied influences, among which I would emphasize King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Edhels, something of jazz - rock fusion, ethnic percussions and electronics/ambient Brian-Eno-like.

This new album approaches stylistically to "The Devouring" their 1997 work, for me their best album, and one of the best prog-rock works of last decade. But "New Dark Age" is more varied and explores more the ambient and electronic edge of the band. In general, the atmospheric and ambient tracks are short, between two and three minutes, whereas the more rockish and fusion are longer, between seven and ten minutes most of them.

As more prominent track, that is indeed one of my favourite tracks of the album, and of the whole discography of the band: "Web of Medea". Also "No Man's Land " and "Going Home" are very typical tracks of the band, the space rock of "Raising Orpheus", and a more jazzy composition, "All Clear".

Neither are absent the ambient, atmospheric and electronic tracks, inheritance of Brian Eno or Klaus Schultze, as are "Eclipse of Faith" or "Kali's Indifference", or the atmospheric/ethnic ones like "Demon Train" or "Eulogy".

While other current groups disappoint in their recent works, Djam Karet have surprised us again with another great album, which are not too far from the essential ones: "The Devouring", "Burning the Hard City" and "Reflections from the Firepool".

Rating: 8.5/10

Ferran Lizana