I’m particularly pleased to be reviewing this album, as it comes from a VERY local band.  They were living in city of Claremont, California, a college town minutes from my home, and the drummer, Chuck Oken, Jr., owns Rhino Records, by far the best independent record shop in the Inland Empire.  It was the first place I whet my appetite in new music.  Also, the fact that it’s on Cuneiform Records, who were based not too far from me (in Silver Springs, Maryland) when I my then-wife and I lived in Germantown.  It’s so nice to see this album being offered by the label.

Djam Karet are a progressive rock band, but I saw the comparisons to Pink Floyd off-putting.  Floyd is Floyd.  Karet is Karet.  There may be points of commonality here and there, but Djam Karet drift off into a more exploratory mode of long rock improvisations.  If there is anyone who DJ should be compared with, I’d reckon it would be King Crimson between 1973 and 1981, though without the intricacy of Adrian Belew’s guitar skronk.  This is exceptionally good prog, even after 22 years.