Kaskadeur - Uncanny Valley

 

Kaskadeur - Uncanny Valley
Noisolution - September 2020
Prog, psych, jazz, stoner
Rated: *****

The artists formerly known as Stonehenge, newly minted quartet Kaskadeur from Germany delivers some of the year's most dynamic and bonkers prog on new album Uncanny Valley. Reflected in their name change, the foursome are moving away from their stoner rock past into weirder, jazzier territory, hints of which could be heard in their older material. After a brief instrumental intro, the fireworks begin with the title track's frantic onslaught of lightning fast guitar work. Merely calling the licks angular would do them a disservice. The riffs are bright, spastic, and ever-changing, turning on a dime with another groovy surprise around every bend. Somehow never disjointed in flow, the guitar and thrumming bass are held down by nimble, madman drumwork with a seemingly endless bag of tricksy fills. The cherry on top of all this top tier musicianship is none other than the Avatar of atmospherics, keyboardist Johannes. From classic Hammond blasts to spooky UFO blips and warbles, the keys add an extra dimension of psych and retro class that completes Kaskadeur's eclectic sound. After the initial eruption of the title track, "Flashback Fatkids" delivers lines of intricate, choppy guitar between swells of organ freakouts before a doomy, bass heavy crawl towards the finish line. (Slightly) less hectic but just as addictive is "The Death of Basic Trust",  building off a bright, punchy backbone that's almost tropical before soaring into epic bursts of keys and spidery guitar theatrics. The rest of the album should be enjoyed spoiler-free, but it has to be said the cymbal-splashing break towards the end of "The Death of Basic Trust" is just impossible not to move to. Helping to keep such a dynamic sound flowing are brief, jazzy instrumentals between the six main tracks, easing the transition from one epic to the next. Much of the album is instrumental, and Kaskadeur pull off the impressive feat of knowing when to use vocals and when to let the instruments speak for themselves, always in service to the music. Uncanny Valley is a beast of an album, fusing heavy prog, psych, and jazz in a combination of technique and groove that sounds like nothing else out there.

(Written by Shasta Beast)

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