Kavus Torabi — Hip to the Jag (May 22, 2020) 
♦ Písně Kavuse Torabiho se zabývají smrtelností, láskou a ztrátou. Používá znepokojující témata jako způsob, jak vytvořit kontext pro transcendentní blaženost. Během posledních dvou desetiletí, jako jeden z nejvynalézavějších britských skladatelů v mnoha kapelách a projektech (včetně Knifeworld, The Utopia Strong, Gong, Guapo, Cardiacs), si Torabi vytvořil nezaměnitelnou identitu.
♦ Šestá „Cemetery Of Light“ má nejpříznivější akordickou sekvenci na albu, ale od této chvíle se dějí ještě podivnější věci. Perkusní pády a prudké harmonium v „Radio to Their World“ je podivně velkolepé, zatímco My Cold Rebirth nachází Torabiho na prahu zjevení, nejen samotného, ale díky instrumentaci. A konečně, prodloužený dron Slow Movements dosahuje nebeské jednoty: Torabi leží na oblaku nevědomosti, je to člověk transformovaný. Stejně jako nejnovější album Gongu i loňské album „The Universe also Collapseses“ (10 May 2019, KScope), „Hip To The Jag“ překonfiguruje psychedelii pro moderní věk, ale na osobní úrovni, protože Torabi dělá hudbu tím, že vyvolává změněný stav bytí. Je to odvážný, ale fascinující výlet. Devět minut, které zabírají „Slow Movements“, nás zavede do světů obývaných jeho prací v Gongu a improvizační a experimentální filozofií v bandu The Utopia Strong (Kavus Torabi, Michael J. York, Steve Davis). Rozšířená atmosféra dodává kosmické trippy finále. Prostě, varúj dušu na doline. Notes: 180gsm vinyl umístěný v přírodní hnědé kartičce 300gsm, povrchově upravený matným lakem a potištěným vnitřním rukávem na nenatřený umělecký papír.
♦ Hip To The Jag, Kavus Torabi’s debut solo album, is a blissfully skewed swan dive into the swirling cosmic kaleidoscope of the poet’s soul. From spectral, intricate and fragile compositions to psychedelic, joyous and open drone~scapes, it is brave, beautiful and beguiling throughout. Location: London, UK
Album release: May 22, 2020
Record Label: Believers Roast
Duration: 45:54
Tracks:
01. Chart the Way 2:43
02. Silent the Rotor 4:25
03. A Body of Work 2:32
04. The Peacock Throne 3:49
05. You Broke My Fall 7:03
06. Cemetery of Light 3:55
07. Radio to Their World 4:10
08. My Cold Rebirth 4:57
09. Where the Eyeless Walk 2:54
10. Slow Movements 9:26
Credits:
¬ David Barclay: Layout
¬ James Plotkin: Mastered
¬ Sima Torabi: Performer [Played]
¬ Kavus Torabi: Written, Recorded, Mixe, Performer [Played], Artwork Review
Tom Bolton, June 23rd, 2020
After 30 years of making records — with the Monsoon Bassoon, Cardiacs, The Utopia Strong, and others — Kavus Torabi releases his first solo album, and it’s a strange and psychedelic delight, finds Tom Bolton
♦ Kavus Torabi is a busy man. He has worked at the heart of British underground music for decades, playing in bands including The Monsoon Bassoon, Cardiacs, and Guapo. His current commitments, with Gong and as one third of The Utopia Strong, have left him short of time to work with his other band, Knifeworld. So after more than thirty years of music, we have his first solo album, recorded to release the music crowding through his head. The intensely relaxed astral sounds of Hip to the Jag make it clear just how remarkable a place Torabi’s head is, filled with visions that turn the everyday into something strange under a peculiar light.
♦ Torabi’s voice is soft, strong, and committed in yearning songs such as ‘A Body of Work’, which relates a fruitless personal quest, its exact nature hard to locate. The nagging melody is reminiscent of Richard Youngs, a fellow seeker with a gift for direct and affecting but otherworldly music. Torabi describes the album as “a letter home from beyond the looking glass”, and there is a consistent sense of something just out of reach, separated by a plane of sonic discord that ebbs and flows. Tracks including ‘The Peacock Throne’ feature an Indian harmonium, which can shift from ambient to disturbed in a blink, shrouding the vocals in a wave of haze. Torabi also deals in simply gorgeous tunes, such as ‘You Broke My Fall’, a song which layers the loveliness until it becomes a paean to friendship. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a musician with Canterbury scene connections, it has the nagging simplicity of Caravan records such as ‘In the Land of Grey and Pink’.
♦ The album lifts off into the clouds with haunting journeying on ‘My Cold Dream’, in which Torabi sees a “blazing world” that “frees us together”. Something transformative is happening, but related through creepy electronics, sliced chords and, always, eerily bright vocals. Each track is a voyage, culminating in the final track, ‘Slow Movements’, which patiently layers harmonium drone and blankets of synth over nine minutes. There are deep vibrations, atmospheric interference and a chorus — angelic, demonic or both — and Torabi’s voice melts into the sounds around it, reaching a kind of ecstasy. It is the only possible ending to an album that is ambitious, complex and nothing like the music most people write while on tour. Hip to the Jag is an album full of delight, and a fine contribution to the transcendent, the psychedelic and the glorious.
♦ https://thequietus.com/
Bandcamp: https://kavustorabi.bandcamp.com/album/hip-to-the-jag
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Knifeworld
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Kavus-Torabi-104330127792377/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kavus_torabi/
♦ Šestá „Cemetery Of Light“ má nejpříznivější akordickou sekvenci na albu, ale od této chvíle se dějí ještě podivnější věci. Perkusní pády a prudké harmonium v „Radio to Their World“ je podivně velkolepé, zatímco My Cold Rebirth nachází Torabiho na prahu zjevení, nejen samotného, ale díky instrumentaci. A konečně, prodloužený dron Slow Movements dosahuje nebeské jednoty: Torabi leží na oblaku nevědomosti, je to člověk transformovaný. Stejně jako nejnovější album Gongu i loňské album „The Universe also Collapseses“ (10 May 2019, KScope), „Hip To The Jag“ překonfiguruje psychedelii pro moderní věk, ale na osobní úrovni, protože Torabi dělá hudbu tím, že vyvolává změněný stav bytí. Je to odvážný, ale fascinující výlet. Devět minut, které zabírají „Slow Movements“, nás zavede do světů obývaných jeho prací v Gongu a improvizační a experimentální filozofií v bandu The Utopia Strong (Kavus Torabi, Michael J. York, Steve Davis). Rozšířená atmosféra dodává kosmické trippy finále. Prostě, varúj dušu na doline. Notes: 180gsm vinyl umístěný v přírodní hnědé kartičce 300gsm, povrchově upravený matným lakem a potištěným vnitřním rukávem na nenatřený umělecký papír.
♦ Hip To The Jag, Kavus Torabi’s debut solo album, is a blissfully skewed swan dive into the swirling cosmic kaleidoscope of the poet’s soul. From spectral, intricate and fragile compositions to psychedelic, joyous and open drone~scapes, it is brave, beautiful and beguiling throughout. Location: London, UK
Album release: May 22, 2020
Record Label: Believers Roast
Duration: 45:54
Tracks:
01. Chart the Way 2:43
02. Silent the Rotor 4:25
03. A Body of Work 2:32
04. The Peacock Throne 3:49
05. You Broke My Fall 7:03
06. Cemetery of Light 3:55
07. Radio to Their World 4:10
08. My Cold Rebirth 4:57
09. Where the Eyeless Walk 2:54
10. Slow Movements 9:26
Credits:
¬ David Barclay: Layout
¬ James Plotkin: Mastered
¬ Sima Torabi: Performer [Played]
¬ Kavus Torabi: Written, Recorded, Mixe, Performer [Played], Artwork Review
Tom Bolton, June 23rd, 2020
After 30 years of making records — with the Monsoon Bassoon, Cardiacs, The Utopia Strong, and others — Kavus Torabi releases his first solo album, and it’s a strange and psychedelic delight, finds Tom Bolton
♦ Kavus Torabi is a busy man. He has worked at the heart of British underground music for decades, playing in bands including The Monsoon Bassoon, Cardiacs, and Guapo. His current commitments, with Gong and as one third of The Utopia Strong, have left him short of time to work with his other band, Knifeworld. So after more than thirty years of music, we have his first solo album, recorded to release the music crowding through his head. The intensely relaxed astral sounds of Hip to the Jag make it clear just how remarkable a place Torabi’s head is, filled with visions that turn the everyday into something strange under a peculiar light.
♦ Torabi’s voice is soft, strong, and committed in yearning songs such as ‘A Body of Work’, which relates a fruitless personal quest, its exact nature hard to locate. The nagging melody is reminiscent of Richard Youngs, a fellow seeker with a gift for direct and affecting but otherworldly music. Torabi describes the album as “a letter home from beyond the looking glass”, and there is a consistent sense of something just out of reach, separated by a plane of sonic discord that ebbs and flows. Tracks including ‘The Peacock Throne’ feature an Indian harmonium, which can shift from ambient to disturbed in a blink, shrouding the vocals in a wave of haze. Torabi also deals in simply gorgeous tunes, such as ‘You Broke My Fall’, a song which layers the loveliness until it becomes a paean to friendship. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a musician with Canterbury scene connections, it has the nagging simplicity of Caravan records such as ‘In the Land of Grey and Pink’.
♦ The album lifts off into the clouds with haunting journeying on ‘My Cold Dream’, in which Torabi sees a “blazing world” that “frees us together”. Something transformative is happening, but related through creepy electronics, sliced chords and, always, eerily bright vocals. Each track is a voyage, culminating in the final track, ‘Slow Movements’, which patiently layers harmonium drone and blankets of synth over nine minutes. There are deep vibrations, atmospheric interference and a chorus — angelic, demonic or both — and Torabi’s voice melts into the sounds around it, reaching a kind of ecstasy. It is the only possible ending to an album that is ambitious, complex and nothing like the music most people write while on tour. Hip to the Jag is an album full of delight, and a fine contribution to the transcendent, the psychedelic and the glorious.
♦ https://thequietus.com/
Bandcamp: https://kavustorabi.bandcamp.com/album/hip-to-the-jag
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Knifeworld
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Kavus-Torabi-104330127792377/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kavus_torabi/