Trouble in Mind website
Krakatau are a trio from Melbourne, Australia and Water Near a Bridge is their debut which will be released on July 29th as a vinyl only release by Trouble in Mind but will also be available digitally from most online retailers.
For a debut release, this is a very accomplished offering. The trio use organ, bass and drums on this EP to create a great variety of sounds, building great soundscapes which really draw the listener in. There is a good range of contrasts too, both within tracks and between tracks. The EP makes excellent use of the organ and very organic sounding percussion, sound effects are used very well. It is testament to the quality of the release that you don’t even notice that there are no guitar parts on this EP.
Riddells Creek – This song provides a solid opening to the EP. It has a kind of 60s feel to it, somewhere between ambient and psychedelic. It has a gentle melodic intro which seems to ebb and flow into a great lead line which is then accompanied by bass and drums creating a great groove.
All Water Near a Bridge has an eerie drone opening to it, and a completely different feel to the first track. Sound effects seem to emerge from the drone. There are some great sounds here, you find yourself listening more and more intently, you can almost hear voices and find yourself trying to make out what they are saying. The emerging sounds evolve into a melody, evoking all sorts of memories from the sound of an ice cream van to a fairground ride. It is a really mesmering track which then progresses switching between melody and drone.
Kuriere continues in a similar sort of vain with a wind type effect evolving into a drone type of sound. It kind of has a cinematic soundscape feel to it, a melodic shimmer without defining a groove. The organ adds a great contrast and helps propel the track along to a bass which suddenly grabs your attention and leads into another great groove with a hint of a middle eastern vibe. This gives way to a great lead line and change in feel building tension and releasing at the end of the track rounding the EP off very nicely.
