Detailed Reviews [ Le Mur - 2023 - "Keep Your Fear Away From Me"]

Prolusion. German band Le Mur have been around for the better part of fifteen years at this point, releasing new material every few years. Following albums in 2012, 2013 and 2018 respectively the band have returned with a new album now in 2023. This production is called "Keep Your Fear Away From Me", and was self released in the spring of 2023.

Analysis. It is a very distinct variety of mainly instrumental progressive rock we get on this album. A defining aspect of the compositions as a whole is that the arrangements are sparse, with few layers and without the abundance of subtle details that has a tendency to be a part of progressive rock albums these days. As far as the various subcategories of this universe goes, this one is firmly placed inside of a psychedelic and cosmic context, possibly with some improvised features to boot. That being said, there is a great deal of variety to this album too. The opening epic '...the Past Will Be Perfect...' comes with a liberal amount of atmospheric laden keyboard passages that to my mind comes with references to the earlier albums by German band Eloy, alternating with and backed by details I tend to associate with the German krautrock bands from the same period of time. With a little bit of a jazzier feel brought into play when the saxophone appears a bit into the song, and with some sections coming across has possibly having a bit of an improvised touch to them to boot. This is followed by a song that features a striking lack of both keyboards and saxophone other than at the start and the very end, where the guitar takes on the role of being the provider of more subtle psychedelic resonances backed by steady drum patterns and a nifty, wandering bass guitar. This is a much more sparse variety of psychedelic hard rock and space rock, but also an efficient one where the tone, timbre and movements of all the instruments are tightly interwoven and with a vintage groove settling in really well. The next song kicks off in more of a post-punk oriented manner with the bass guitar and vocals leading the charge, and then has a massive shift over to a section where cosmic keyboard sounds and the saxophone goes to town in a manner that gives me associations to the Nik Turner era of Hawkwind, and stays put in this landscape also after the keyboards phase out and the saxophone continues as the dominant energy provided with a solid bass guitar support and unobtrusive rhythms beneath. A song that concludes with a starkly contrasting acoustic feature at the very end. When '...for the Puzzles of the Future' concludes this album, it is a more vibrant and heavy set variety of psychedelic hard rock that is the focus again, with borderline doom metal references in some of the more impact-oriented guitar riffs provided here and generally a more primal feel to the landscapes explored. The song does open with some nifty cosmic keyboards, and we get a piano and bass guitar interlude that adds a bit of variation, but otherwise this is a guitar and bass guitar driven creation with some fine guitar solo runs kicking in following the aforementioned interlude. Perhaps the most striking and most primal creation on this album, but this is by no means a song that is less interesting than any of the other ones present. As far as any misgivings goes, I really only have one, and that is a minor one too. The vocals, when present, aren't really at the same level as the rest of the contributions here. While this is normally an aspect of an album that will lead to me getting a bit less out of an album experience, the role of the vocals is so limited on this mainly instrumental production that in sum this becomes more of a minor issue in this case, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Conclusion. While many progressive rock fans as well as the artists that explore this genre universe tend to be fond of lavish arrangements with an abundance of details, Le Mur opts for a bit more of a less is more approach on this most recent album of theirs. If you tend to enjoy a more basic and down to Earth approach given to psychedelic hard rock and space rock in general, and find the bands that mix and blend psychedelic and cosmic elements inside what is arguably more of a krautrock approach and tradition, chances are good that you'll find this album to be quite the rewarding experience.

Progmessor: July 2023
The Rating Room