Lisnaholic

I´m glad you enjoyed this album, stp; I was hoping you would ! Like you suggested, it´s not for relaxing to, and I found that a problem a few times too, although in the end I was won over.

I admire they way they stick to just a handful of instruments, but cover a wealth of moods and textures. I don´t know McLaughlin´s music well enough to pick up on the comparison that you noticed. In fact, with the driving, anarchic guitar on the track Raki I was reminded of Interstellar Overdrive and thought that Kef might have this in common with early Floyd material; bold experimental tracks by artists who enjoy playing around, discovering what they can do while still figuring out what they want to do.

A couple of tracks I particularly noticed:-

> Sumlinian features a guitar workout of the kind usually described as "blistering", and I wonder if the title is a reference to Hubert Sumlin.
> On Wroclaw and Karasalama they dip into some upbeat, almost cheesy, gypsy music, but in keeping with the album in general, they´re just using that as a springboard to head off in some unexpected direction.
> The track 48 days seems to borrow something from And I love her by the Beatles - or am I imagining things ?

So altogether; not an album I´m playing round the clock, but one that impresses me every time I listen to it - Kef gets an "excellent" from me. And thanks for the link, btw, I´ll be checking that out.

Edit: just looked at Aram Bajakian´s modest website and it looks like "Kef" is the name of the band, and not the album, so this thread should really read, "Self-titled album by Aram Bajakian´s Kef". Also surprised to see that AB has played with a whole bunch of famous people, although as stp says, there isn´t much material under his own name.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953