Instrumental, modern, progressive and experimental.
Admittedly, these attributes apply to all albums by the quadraphonic Dutchmen, who particularly impressed me with their live performances in the 90s. The musicians play from the four corners of a room, all around the audience, which is a completely new experience and makes the listener focus on the music and not the musicians. So let’s say right away, if you’ve already liked KONG, you can check out “Traders Of Truth” in the Bandshop order, the four continue with their typical sound.
What is that sound? KONG combines rock and metallic riffing with electronic sounds, sometimes post-rock, sometimes loungy, with samples and sometimes loud and erupting. There is relatively little of the latter on “Traders Of Truth”, but the beginning rock trio ‘Radiance’, ‘Hit That Red’ and ‘Fringing’ are good ear food for the quality rocker. With ‘Rök’ the electronic influences are allowed to rise more, roughly in the same way as ‘Earmined’ and ‘Freakcontrol’ were perfected in the band sound. In the following, the experiments can then also increasingly find their way in, like ‘Mirrorizon’, which builds on a great, hypnotic riff, but it also gets weirder like in ‘Glasslands’. You have to get involved with the KONG sound and see the disc as a journey of discovery.
Nevertheless, most of the tracks have both feet on a rock foundation and contrast fried guitars with synthesizers and samples, which means that the whole album probably shoots into the absolute sidelines commercially as it has always been in the band’s career, but gives the unblinkered music listener a very special enjoyment. In the overall context of the discography, I would place “Traders Of Truth” in the middle in terms of quality, but that’s mainly due to the fact that albums three to five, i.e. the phase from 1995 to 1999, are emotionally not surpassed for nostalgia reasons can. From that point of view, I’m very biased and can’t get out of my skin. So I would say listen for yourself, here are
‘Hit That Red’
‘Chaos As Law’
and the experimental ‘Mirrorizon’
Cool, isn’t it?
- Note:
- 8.00
- Editor:
- Frank Jaeger
