FEATURED 2003 Album: Krakatoa - We Are The Rowboats

[Poisoned Youth]

For the next week plus, we're going to feature 10 albums that were released 10 years ago and are now a decade old. How have they held up? You may have forgotten a few or have yet to fathom the album is now 10 years old.

Remember this one? I thought not...


Review from Sea of Tranquility (Pete Pardo)

As elcectic as any other band on the Cuneiform label, New York City's Krakatoa have once again managed to defy all categorization on their new release We Are Rowboats. While Krakatoa's music is clearly in the prog rock zone, they have a very fresh and modern sound while still drawing from influences ranging from Frank Zappa, King Crimson, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miriodor, and even John Zorn or Mr. Bungle. There's a certain "tug of war" going on throughout this CD's sixteen tracks, which helps keep the listener hooked at every moment.

Glendon Jones' violin passages really did it for me, especially on the quirky "Cat's Eye", a complex yet lovely little ditty that also contains some nice piano noodling from Val Opielski. "Snoopy with Mohawk" is one of the few vocal numbers, an engaging piece with electric mandolin from Jones, plus trippy loops and guitar effects from Ted Casterline. The band almost hits a Canterbury level on the jazzy and complex "Albatross to Betatron", featuring some intricate drum work from Ely Levin, and go for the stop-and-start zaniness on their cover of the classic "Sabre Dance." Fans of Boud Deun will like the simmering "Rotor Blade", a piece that really builds tension well and is highlighted by some romantic violin and cello work, plus some pretty intricate rhythms. Things get a bit heavy on the raging closer "Numbskull", a punk influenced rocker that also has some Mr. Bungle and King Crimson influences floating around, with fiery guitar and mandolin passages weaving around each other and smashing drums.

Interesting stuff here from Krakatoa-definitely not for every listener, but most certainly for someone who is into avant-garde music forms. There's enough intricate instrumentation here to satisfy most progressive rock fans, and the lovely violin work will no doubt draw in the jazz and fusion crowd. Krakatoa dares to be different, and manages to keep you on your toes at all times, and for that they need to be congratulated.

http://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Rowboat.../dp/B0000996IH

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/krakatoa.html

[Kavus Torabi]

I love this album. I still play it all the time.

[Steve F.]

I remember it, and Mike Prete does too...

Really great, promising young band. Very sorry that they split up so soon after making/releasing this album.

I still talk to Val, once in a while...

[Facelift]

I played this one just a couple of weeks ago. I still like it a lot.

[Progmatic]

I liked it first time around but did not have time to get back to it...

[Udi Koomran]

Great album !

[arturs]

I admit I have not played it since 2003 or 04, but I remember really enjoying it. Very influenced by Eno, with the goofy humor of the 90s indie rock bands. The one lyric that has stuck in my mind for the last decade and still makes me laugh whenever I think about it is "we got cars and we got planes. A lot of good it's done".

[Progbear]

The only one of theirs I don’t have. I love Plan Ahead and Togetherness a lot. Plan Ahead was a review disc back when I was writing for Exposé and I had zero expectations for it. It completely floored me!

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MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

"'Thin Thighs For Your Man.' But I don't *like* men with thin thighs" --Daria

N.P.:“A Trial in Our Native Town”-Savage Rose/In the Plain

[Polypet]

i really like this album a lot. bought it on the strength of one tune i heard on internet radio and was not disappointed.

K

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

10 years already!?!

havent played it since the year it came out but I do remember liking it

gonna hafta spin it tomorrow

[alanterrill]

I love all three of their albums and still play them regularly. Great playing and memorable tunes -they really deserver to be better known.They're sort of 'fun-prog' along with maybe Klotet and T-rond and the Suburban Savages - in other words all the musicianship and interesting time changes of the best prog, but no free-form passages or vocals to put you off, plus a certain difficult to define sense of humour.

[Progbear]

I love all three of their albums and still play them regularly. Great playing and memorable tunes -they really deserver to be better known.They're sort of 'fun-prog' along with maybe Klotet and T-rond and the Suburban Savages - in other words all the musicianship and interesting time changes of the best prog, but no free-form passages or vocals to put you off, plus a certain difficult to define sense of humour.

I kind of agree with the “fun-prog” assessment. It’s chamber-prog with violins and pianos, but they have a sort of sunny, upbeat fun feel that belies their avant-garde nature. Like Univers Zéro with smiles on their faces.

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MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

"The world of the heterosexual is a sick and boring life." --Edith Massey

N.P.:“Bonjour chez vous”-Univers Zéro/Ceux du dehors

[Scrotum Scissor]

I kind of agree with the “fun-prog” assessment. It’s chamber-prog with violins and pianos, but they have a sort of sunny, upbeat fun feel that belies their avant-garde nature.

I suppose so, and Alan's likening of them to Klotet and Tr-Ond fits as well, along with perhaps some of the easier-going stuff by radical European acts like Dog Faced Hermans, Die Knödel, PEST, Look de Bouk and Debile Menthol. The one band Krakatoa always reminded me of first and foremost, was Interference Sardines from Quebec. Some of the same expertly executed, at times even "death-defying" dynamic between rock energy and classical sensitivity - and the same overall playfulness. There might also have been one or two hints from the zeitgeist of the late-90s post-pop weirdness (Gastr del Sol/O'Rourke solo, Isotope 217 etc.).

I still spin the debut more than this one, but they're all very good. And I think there was listener's potential in them - without any blatant "hipness" factor whatsoever!

[Pr33t]

I remember it, and Mike Prete does too...

Really great, promising young band. Very sorry that they split up so soon after making/releasing this album.

I still talk to Val, once in a while...

Man, just caught this thread now because of the mention in the Cuneiform thread made me search. I just started posting again a few weeks after this, or I definitely would have caught the shout-out This album is pretty special to me because I had heard most of it played live a bunch of times for a year or so before they recorded it. All three albums are outstanding in their own way, but they really hit their stride here.