Khuda is a duo from Leeds, UK. I saw these guys perform last week and they made quite an impression. Khuda plays stunnig Instrumental music that shifts from psychedelic and atmospheric Post Rock to aggressive Noise. A strong element of Khuda is the constant changing of rhythms. Their sound reminds me of bands like Red Sparowes, Pelican and Ahkmed. Khuda has released one EP and two albums. This one is their first album from 2010 called Palingenesia. This album contains six excellent tracks. Enjoy!
It’s taken long enough, but the album finally came out. I spoke to these two (that’s right, there are only two of them) after a show having been local supports for Mouth of the Architect. I asked about an album to buy, and apparently it had been finished for over a year without a label to release it until Field Records (Her Name Is Calla, Maybeshewill) picked them up, and granted a foothold in the current post-genre trend. They were incredible live considering how so much of their music relies on the guitarist’s feet, and whilst Palingenesia certainly doesn’t fall short of this, it sadly doesn’t have quite the same feeling either.
The album begins with ‘Laleh’ and some compulsory ambient noise which sends us into the main theme of the song, a riff layered with another riff with another riff with some chords, but it’s all interesting so it’s nice. The drums are already pretty stunning. Throughout the album, they manage to keep everything somewhat fresh even when the melodic themes become a little stale and similar between songs; I’m not sure they use any more than two keys over the whole album. It’s still less linear than your average post-rock though, as there are surprising transitions all the time, and only having one guitarist can occasionally make the flow more inventive.
The second track, ‘Black Waters’ is testament to this, as mid-way through the song the feel completely changes to explore some fanciful polymetric work as a bridge, but this excitement doesn’t really last. Mid-album leaves much to be desired, sounding much like the other tracks, save for the latter part of track four, one of the highlights of the album with more variations on a blast-beat than is normal. ‘Mescalito’ again becomes something we’ve heard before, what with its 5/4 and its looping; and the final track doesn’t seem quite epic enough.
What’s strange is how, when listened to out of context of the album, all of these songs are pretty damn good; it’s just that when I first played from start-to-finish, I couldn’t help but lose concentration and catch my thoughts drifting away from the music. Within each song there is change and progression and melody and structure, all of which is attractive, yet as an album something doesn’t quite work. Even the freshest of goods become stale and while, as a two piece band, they do an amazing job imitating Russian Circles, that’s exactly the problem; they sound too much like they’re imitating.
Technically brilliant, mixing done well, never anything lost in the blurriness that loops can sometimes bring; by all accounts this band are great, and they deserve a better rating than an album of background metal. So go see them live, enjoy them, buy some merch; just don’t expect anything as novel as that guy who made the electronica album out of insect noises.
Khuda - Palingenesia (2010)
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