Carpet - Elysian Pleasures (2013) (Full Album)

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• published: 17 May 2015
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You could teach a college class on the influences under which Carpet work. Sounding here like John Lennon fronting Adrian Belew-era King Crimson and there meandering into Floydian ambiance offset by fuzzy heavy rock guitar work, the German progressive heavy rock foursome’s Elektrohasch-released sophomore outing, Elysian Pleasures, is rigorously plotted and technically accomplished. Like its cover, it is a collage, ably skirting the line of giving itself over to instrumental explorations, but never quite losing focus entirely on songwriting. This works markedly to the favor of tracks like ‘Elysian Pleasures’, ‘In Tides’, ‘Serpentine’ and ‘For the Love of Bokeh’, though with richly varied parts throughout, each of the eight cuts seems to find its standout moment one way or another in the album’s total 49 minutes. Such winds up being inevitable, since if the listener is going to be sucked into Carpet‘s world at all, it’s going to happen at the start, and with the variety of instrumentation the band utilize at any given moment, they establish a wide base early on, requiring the listener to keep a likewise open mind. The xylophone, in other words, appears with no delay. It practically opens the record, as a matter of fact, with Mader and Stephan announcing the arrival of Elysian Pleasures as a telling bit of fanfare plays out in the first 30 seconds. Like the best traditional prog, Carpet are patient and require a patient audience, but they do well in establishing a balance between what’s satisfying for them to play and still accessible for someone hearing it, which isn’t something that can be said across the board of the genre. The King Crimson elements strike quickly, a bed of subtle noodling on guitar backing Stephan‘s echoing vocals as ‘Elysian Pleasures’ begins to unfold. Ambient, jazzy and richly textured, the opener is a decent but not all-telling lead-in for the Carpet debut that shares its name, sounding modern in its production and classic in its ideology while a heavier tension lurks just below the surface later into the track as Mader rides his crash cymbal while Perner plays out the central melody on keys. It is busy from the word go and remains busy even in its quiet stretches. 1. Elysian Pleasures - 0:00 2. Nearly Four - 6:34 3. Man Changing The Atoms - 10:14 4. In Tides - 17:42 5. Serpentine - 23:29 6. Birds' Nest - 28:18 7. Smoke Signals - 32:37 8. For The Love of Bokeh - 35:51 If you have not heard, I have a backup channel called Stoned Meadow Of Doom 2. Check it out and subscribe. All new full albums will now be posted there. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkqjcQwTNvsxQWT44N6ESrA/featured Buy the album here! ~ https://carpet.bandcamp.com/album/elysian-pleasures Carpet Facebook Page ~ https://www.facebook.com/carpetband