Ramleh -Circular Time (2015)

Ramleh -Circular Time (2015)

“Human evolution, at first, seems extraordinary. How could the process that gave rise to slugs and oak trees and fish produce a creature that can fly to the moon and invent the Internet and cross the ocean in boats?”

Steven Pinker

By: Ghost Writer

It seems to be a long, long time since Ramleh was one of UK's primordial noise band, initially, Ramleh dwelled in an almost completely electronic world, making some organic music in their live shows, evolving to the point of becoming something else, these days, Ramleh is my type of band, hard driving near mechanical rhythm and hallucinating psychedelic guitars, in a way, their music is a cosmic ritual of epic proportions much in the manner of Japanoise favorite sons the Boredoms, exploring the space much in the way of psychedelic bands like the mighty Hawkwind or the thunderous (at first) Ash Ra Tempel, first track Re Entry may start like something more placid, but overdriven guitars quickly take form and drums start a too damn lethal ride for the listener to take, Ramleh remind me of those great freak out bands that play incessantly until their fingers bleed and minds melt away under pure feedback waves.

For the next we get the bass intense Incubator which features more guitar pyrotechnics and detail, a motif repeated again on the intriguing American Womanhood whose guitars are obvious departures from the previous songs, here the band goes for a more groovy attack, yes, we get those abrasive riffs, but there is also some 70s inspired soloing, the band getting really loose and ending up again with really interesting results, and then again leaving us blown away with Circular Time, another impressive instrumental of pure space rock proportions.

Ramleh music has become pretty unpredictable, at times going for the monotonous, and then going into really laid back druggy rock, like in the brain melting The Tower, a great rocker with an impeccable swagger, showing the band embracing jams like never before, displaying a prodigious interplay and almost indecipherable vocals in the background.

You can identify some of Ramleh's glorious noisy past, somehow reconfigured in St John of the Cross, a piece that dives fully into mash up, free form and pure noise without much regret, followed by the CAN like heavy and hypnotic rhythms of The Ascent, the band working hard on their mythical aura, working on the abstract at times and then moving into the truly swinging, while on Flamen Dialis they lose some focus and production wise they sound a little weak.

Circular Time is a transitional record for Ramleh, the band sound fearless and embracing musical freedom thru heavy jamming, sounding insanely tight on the marauding The March and then remembering their old feedback symphonies on Weird Tyranny.

Never Returner is a very strange way of ending such a high volume record, one that shows this amazing band embracing a truly eclectic approach at music, one that obviously liberates them, and exhibits them as fearless experimentalist in love with high volume, electricity and the truly mind altering, a great record, one of the best of the year, a big chance to start a journey into the deepest and darkest confines of our minds.