Detailed Review [Kalles World Tour - Overall Review]

Prolusion. Here is a Danish band, KALLES WORLD TOUR, led by drummer Kalle Mathiesen (of Taylor's Universe fame), and the reviews of both of the albums they have to date: "Natural Underground" from 2003 and "Stop", which was released two months ago.

Disc 1 - 2003 - "Natural Underground" (63 min, Cope)

TRACK LIST:

1.  Po om Po 1:13
2.  For Syndfloden 4:17
3.  I Skridt 4:32
4.  Vores 3:05
5.  Er I As 11:28
6.  3 Steirnet 8:27
7.  Bunden 3:35
8.  I Am Not So Old 3:34
9.  Fra Her 5:22
10. Mortal Men Live 5:21
11. X-tra Bladet 7:28
12. Platinius 5:13

All music: by Mathiesen, except 1, 2, 5, 6 & 7: Mathiesen/Mortensen.
All lyrics: Ingerslev. Produced by Mathiesen & Mortensen.

LINEUP:

Kalle Mathiesen - drums; bass; melodica; didgeridoo; voice
Jakob Mortensen - saxophone & horn; bass; voice
Torben Snekkerstad - bass clarinet & saxophone
Jeppe Kjellberg - guitars
With:
Jess Ingerslev - vocals (11, 12)

Analysis. There is very little in common between the creation of Kalles World Tour and that of Robin Taylor and both of his 'universal' bands. The title, "Natural Underground", quite well reflects most of the album, considering the term "underground" in the context of "avant-garde". The excellent humoresque Folk Rock number Po Om Po, which opens the set, and its track list counterpart, Platinius, are the only tracks here with completely fixed arrangements. The other fine compositions include I Skridt, which is a combination of melodic quasi Jazz-Fusion and traditional Jazz, Vores, which is a piece of Avant-garde academic music featuring a few brass instruments and bass guitar, For Syndfloden and Er I As. On these, and also on 3 Steirnet, Mortal Men Live and X-tra Bladet, the playing runs the gamut of atonal noisemaking and voice exercises to exploratory Avant-garde Rock and Free Jazz, the former two being quite cohesive throughout, while the others are overloaded with unnecessary exclamations, particularly with those going with no instrumental accompaniment. One piece, Burden, is especially notable for the abuse of colloquial extravaganza, to put it mildly. Being filled with cries, laughs, recitatives, etc, this stuff much reminds me of that on Random Touch's latest, "The You Tomorrow", as well as I Am Not So Old and Fra Her, consisting almost exclusively of 'loops', sequences and the like processed sounds. These three are absolute potboilers, as there are no real music, composed or improvised either. The one with full-fledged vocals, Platinius is a bright dynamic Jazz-Fusion, which has become a prototype of the style the band turned to on their second recording. Overall, precisely half of the material (the first five tracks and the last one) is a pretty decent listen, but it's not enough to be satisfied with the entire album.

Disc 2 - 2005 - "Start" (42 min, Cope)

TRACK LIST: 

1.  Start 4:46
2.  No 4:51
3.  Normal 4:25
4.  Be 4:02
5.  Humor 5:37
6.  Tango 3:15
7.  Capitalist 4:26
8.  Kotelet 1:22
9.  Come Blood 4:46
10. Jeg Har 4:09

All tracks: by Mathiesen.
Produced by Mathiesen.

LINEUP:

Kalle Mathiesen - drums; keyboards
Marie Ingerslev - vocals
Peter Muller - guitar 
Kim Matzen - bass

Analysis. "Incredible Metamorphosis: From Chaos & Anarchy To Harmony & Discipline" would've been an apt epigraph to this band's creation. The two Kalles World Tour albums sound like being made by different bands, existing on different planes of time and space (using the language of amplification). There is not even the lightest trace of Avant-garde on "Start". Gone are brass players, and generally, everything, the instrumental equipment's content included, has been changed in full accordance with Rock standards, Kalle combining the duties of drummer and keyboardist this time around. Finally, we find a free vocalist, Marie Ingerslev, behind the microphone here, and her singing takes the central place in the project's new music and image. All ten of the tracks on the album are songs (with English lyrics in most cases), the primary style, which is a Prog-tinged Pop Rock, covering seven of them. Surprisingly, the songs aren't confined within the schematic couplet-refrain format and aren't devoid of certain dynamism in the arrangements. Everything is written and played tastily, with jazz and symphonic elements surfacing regularly through the Rock base, the skilful guitar and keyboard solos presenting on every number. Marie Ingerslev is definitely a jazz-trained musician; her singing always has a light, yet, distinct jazz sense and is highly diverse and spectacular in general, so the abundance of vocals on the album doesn't bore me. The notable digressions from the primary style include Jeg Har and Be, both of which are complicated Blues Rock ballads, and the speedy Folk Rock number, Kotelet. Overall, "Start" is a good album: very accessible, yet, very impressive.

Conclusion. Kalle Mathiesen is a many-sided composer and truly masterful musician, whose hour of triumph is yet to come. While personally, I am certainly more disposed towards avant-garde forms of music than to Pop-Rock, I like his second album better than "Natural Underground", on which the man too often slips to a blind abstractionism. "Start" possesses everything necessary to gain a solid success among fans of the so-called mainstream Prog Rock.

VM: September 29 & 30, 2005

Related Links:

Kalles World Tour
Cope Records