DJAM KARET - BURNING THE HARD CITY - 1991

Burning the Hard City is a great improvement over the debut album. The jams that serve as a basis for the guitar soloing are better developed and have more dynamic structures.

The great opener At The Mountains of Madness is a good example. Just like many tracks on the debut it consists of two parts, but instead of fading out one part and starting a second, here they have achieved to create a coherent structure with a nice heavy bridge around minute 6.00 binding both parts together.

Province 10 is a must for all Red-era King Crimson fans. It starts with those typical solemn chromatic guitar progressions that are dead-heavy even though the distortion knob is hardly open. After 3 minutes they turn it into a short and vigorous fusion jam. They end it with the opening theme. Again a great composition.

Feast of Ashes is the first slower piece. Simply beautiful harmonies on this one. It's the sound of a very tight band with an excellent feel for timing. Topanga Safari is a bit less. The bass-line seems to come right out of one of Oldfield early works.

Grooming the Psychosis and Ten Days to the Sand are strongly recommended to all Ozric Tentacles fans out there. The pieces are not only very similar to early Ozrics, they are also every bit as good. Warning: Hypnotic, bouncy stuff! The title track begins in a great reflective Pink Floyd mood. Around minute 7 they crank it up with a Led Zeppelin'esque hard rock blues on funk jam.

Burning the Hard City is an excellent album to check out Djam Karet.
'http://www.progarchives.com