Djam Karet

[Duc De Montfort]

Yea I remember these guys..

I went to college with them..

First they were Happy Cancer.

Then they called themselves Kafka's breakfast. (I have a scan of a flyer
they did for a concert on campus somewhere)

Then when Gayle Ellet joined from a different on campus band they became
Djam karat.

Which means rubber time in indonesia..

Le DUc



::-----Original Message-----
::From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List [mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU]On
::Behalf Of DRider
::Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 7:12 PM
::To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU
::Subject: OFF: Djam Karet
::
::
::Hey Now!
::
::I saw this review at www.jambands.com and thought that I would
::share it w/
::everyone.
::
::~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
::
::New Dark Age - Djam Karet
::Ray Hogan
::Cuneiform Records 149
::
::Progressive rock - or prog-rock - gets a bad rap. Often times, it's
::justifiably so. After all, it's difficult to imagine many things
::worse than
::self-inflated bombast, prolonged synthesizer solos that say absolutely
::nothing and a toilet philosopher's sense of art/intelligence.
::
::Djam Karet, an instrumental quartet from southern California that named
::itself after an Indonesian phrase meaning "elastic time - the hour that
::stretches", isn't the type of progressive band that will give you bad
::flashbacks of the 1970s. Think the musicality and intelligence of King
::Crimson rather than the self-indulgence and corniness of
::Emerson, Lake and
::Palmer.
::
::Put together in 1984 to perform music that was completely
::improvisational,
::Djam Karet traverse some serious terrain. With this four-piece,
::the focus is
::on establishing a variety of deep moods and soundscapes instead of wowing
::listeners with their formidable chops.
::
::Take the opening "No Man's Land," which compliments its crunching guitar
::riffs with a feel that is more Eastern drone than hard rock. Guitarists
::Gayle Ellett and Mike Henderson both a have a heavy-metal sensibility to
::their riffing and soloing, which somehow fits well with the overall band
::sound. Several of the titles hint at the dream sequences the
::band - Ellett
::(guitar, synths, field recordings), Henderson (same), Henry J. Osborne
::(bass, percussion), and Chuck Oken Jr. (drums, percussion, synths) -
::creates.
::
::There's "Web of Medea," a slow trance-inducer, and "Raising Orpheus," a
::serious mind-melter. Djam Karet keeps the guitars as the focal
::point of just
::about all 10 tracks. They even get a little funky on the up-tempo "All
::Clear" but that's not surprising for a band that clearly is
::unhappy staying
::in a particular time signature, tempo or format for too long.
::
::On the flip side, the three cuts that under three minutes sound
::like filler
::while the four songs that last longer than seven minutes
::sometimes go on too
::long. The shorter cuts are mostly culled from field recordings would
::seemingly only serve New Dark Age if it were a concept album.
::
::~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
::Back when I found out about the ProgWest event, I visited the Djam Karet
::site http://www.djamkaret.com/ to find out what was new. It was
::then that I
::realized that I was missing the last 3 releases which are
::limited editions.
::And w/ the demise of Hawkwind.com, I have now made the Djam
::Karet website my
::new homepage........
::
::While I really like "New Dark Age" and "Ascension", I totally love the
::"Still No Commercial Potential". It's the best of the 3 by far
::IMHO. It's 70
::minutes of pure Djam Karet improvisation at it's best. The songs have no
::titles. It's just a release of a jam session.
::
::So if you like Djam Karet and you don't have "Still No Commercial
::Potential", I strongly recommend it! In fact, you can order
::their releases
::directly from their website. Mine came directly from Gayle just
::2 days after
::placing my order. Very cool!
::
::It's seems a bit odd that Djam Karet has been tagged w/ the PROG
::label, but
::I am glad that they have been embraced by someone.
::
::It would be awesome if they would tour w/ FARFLUNG!
::
::Space Is There
::
::D


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