Review Summary: A flawless homage to the guitar, the drum kit and the keyboard disguised as a clumsy bedroom project from rural Eastern Europe.
The market for instrumental music has grown over the last decade, maybe thanks to post-rock and more avant-garde and specialist sub-genres that the average listener really does try their hardest to appreciate in order to seem to have that timeless broad opinion/taste essential for amateur music critique. As you may have guessed: I can’t help but start the review with customary pacing thoughts about genre tagging – why some of them need to exist and why quality, classic products are harder to exploit from some rather than others.
The seasoned ‘metal’ traveller will have come across the term Djent before. It’s not really got a definition, a boundary, a clear cut set of agendas and criteria, but to save time we’ll go ahead together, hand in hand, and say that Djent as a concept could be characterised by low tuned guitars, off-the-beaten-track rhythms and/or time signatures, and maybe a sweep picked solo or two for good measure. To spoil the plot of "Drawbacks and Benefits", released in 2010 by the Bulgarian trio Mindfold Express (to such minimal marketing that harvested a fan base that, still in 2014, is in triple figures), it’s quite splendidly quintessentially Djent for those among us that like our terminology and etymology.
It features 11 instrumental tracks of experimental metal incorporating ambient, trip hop and fusion elements, so says the blurb. But they’re not far off. Upon a virgin listen to "Drawbacks and Benefits", I for one found myself drawing many conclusions regarding influences from the Scandinavian quarter of the genre: Meshuggah, Vildhjarta and so forth, groups of musicians that must include workhorses run ragged on the drums, and guitarists honing their expertise on the dimensions of tuning drop Ü, or something. Except there were differences between them. "Drawbacks and Benefits", was far more diverse, far more skilful, with far more thought put into it, far more creatively challenging, technically fluent, precise, far more progressive, innovative, daring and all held together in a perfect balance, all 11 tracks as constant as Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros. "Drawbacks and Benefits" is, to cut a long story short, absolutely jaw dropping. I’ll do my best to convince you why.
Namesakes Stilian Kasimov, handling the guitar portion of affairs, and Stilian Tabakov, the rhythmic master behind the two sticks and the two pedals head the line-up, with a more side line but still integral effort from Tymon Kuridenier in charge of surplus guitars and synthesisers/keys. Part of my motive for the review is to, admittedly, extend the list of members in their appreciation society for their sesquicentennial skill and finesse at the helm of their instruments. I’d love to meet them. They’re probably very regular people, yet quite clearly enigmatic, proved by their capacity to produce something in the realm of calibre of "Drawbacks and Benefits".
Track 1 is a slow, ambient synthesiser, testing the water before the plunge into the cold bath, the bouncer turning down those accidental listeners who get a bit jittery at those artists who don’t want to conform. I like its presence on the album. It sets the scene, and although it doesn't feature the instrumental prowess that the subsequent 10 do, it feels completely at ease and in place, as does every track on "Drawbacks and Benefits". Track 2 is heavier, the time signature, as if out of nowhere, leaps out into 12/8 or something else that terminates with extreme prejudice any nit-picking one might be wanting to do with the music theory qualifications of Mindfold Express. A brief, amicable, not over-egged, guitar solo pops up near the end of the song, along with a bit of brief synth.
Track 3, another very pleasant synth interlude, with sweeping cadences, then transcends into track 4, which indicates the shape of things to come in regard to the guitar and drum only portion of the album. Track 5 even includes a rogue djent saxophone solo. But, equally possessed by the magic of this album, it just seems to fit. Believe it or not. I implore you to try it out, it’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face, maybe not for the same reason to each individual. The remaining highlights of the album for me are ‘Charge’, track 7, ‘Modern Vampires’, track 9, and ‘Cortex Closure’, the closer. Charge, once reached at about the two third waypoint through the album, is the deal clincher for the 5.0 rating status. No build up, no faffing about with drones or sampled monologues, Charge is man's fingers’ capabilities around the neck of a guitar at their absolute pinnacle, courtesy of Kasimov’s impeccable nervous system, his imported 8 string and his laptop. It’s not shredding, but it’s not dawdling, it’s that perfect balance. It’s truly one of the most incredible guitar solos I have heard. It snakes from octave to octave, teetering on the edge of tonal coherence to test one’s nerve before lapsing back to familiar ground, seldom exceeding pace to realms of showing off, but never slowing down its pace to bore anybody. By the end of Charge, Tabakov gets sick of Kasimov’s thunder and decides to steal it, pedals going off in all mannerisms to really make the listener ooh and aah, yet, and I’m sorry to keep going on about this facet but yet again, it is all held together so neatly and delicately.
You’re a fan of indie music? Try a band with a fan base this small and think again. I’d love to open the floodgates to Sputnik in order for more to appreciate what "Drawbacks and Benefits" achieves as a homage to the guitar, the drum kit and the keyboard, as well as what a versatile, robust, lean, at times painstakingly beautiful and lyrical, and impressive album it is.
