| CD REVIEW Codasync |
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Band: Codasync Concert going people from cosmopolitan cities are só lucky!!! They get to follow around new exiting bands in their beginning stages and witness the development of such bands during a multitude of local gigs in the many venues of the main city and its suburbs, venues which are easily accessible thanks to local public transport! Since a couple of years now, those fortunate enough to live in the Antwerp region were easily able to get acquainted with the extravagance of Codasync, an instrumental band composed of guitarists Jonas ‘Jokke’ Meersmans and BramVan Houtte, bassist Bruno Morez, and drummer Matthias Meersmans. Although formed only at the beginning of 2007, the members already had some previous band experiences. If my interpretation of the time-line posted at the band’s MySpace page is correct, Bruno and Matthias are the “veterans” in the band, getting together in 2001, and starting the band Nimmerland in 2002. That same year Jonas apparently started activities with a band called Greyness. Bram would be the “junior” in music, joining In Progress during 2005 and switching to Spirals that same year. Such was the eagerness of the band when they’d formed in early 2007, that they had already gotten reactions to demo recordings of three songs sent to Goddeau’s Demoproject 2007 in March. They got into the Top 5 of that competition and laurelled with the words, “…Friemelrock, it’s a genre on its own, but it now also has its Flemish followers. Undoubtedly, you’ve heard it: instrumental Mars Volta, with never ending solo’s and guitar wanking as a logical consequence, but boy, does it sound good. […] And this way, their vocalist issues have been solved as well, [Codasync] has done a nice job…” There’s no real good translation for “Friemelrock”, as a lot gets lost in translation, but the word “friemel” means “to fumble around” which, in relation to the guitar work, should give you a good idea! Actually, there’s a bit more “fumbling around” in the equasion where Codasync is involved. With an overall sound that is strongly based in the ‘70s but has a modern Progressive touch as well, the guys dare to miggle genres within one song. Take this album’s opening track “Maria Puppins”, for instance: A more exhilerated opening with Math Rock tendencies grows towards a calmer but definitely still quite Rocking passage, when the track suddenly gets into a lounge passage, after which the music again grows to a furious Math bit and then tones down to a Progressive Boogie Blues passage, followed by some spaced-out playing around with the effect pedals (the “experimental” side of the band) to return towards a more conventional bit…well, conventional, if you feel like having a somewhat Funky passages again being followed by a Bluesey “outro”…only as an interlude here, because the track goes on with freaky inventiveness. You get more of the same stuff in second track “Rostislav Grovgast”…and the combination of these two first tracks has probably been the cause of some music journalists utter the opinion that Codasync’s music is simply born out of jam sessions and imprompu Free Jazz improvisationalism! Mocked as self-indulgent spaced-out jams and dysfunctional bombast by some, the amount of people who’ve recognized the quality and prolific technical play of these four musicians is however luckily much bigger…among them the likes of Jennifer Beckers (Cuting Edge Magazine), Ben Provoost (from news journal Gazet Van Antwerpen), the judges at band contest Frappant (who gave the band a wildcard in spite of the few negative reactions from a part of the audience which was obviously rather into Poppy tunes), the judges of the StuDay On Stage (Antwerp University student organisation) contest (which the band won)… Quite normal really, because anyone with some common sense and an understanding in musiclogy will easily come to the conclusion that this quartet’s music, born out of initial jam sessions and improvisation as it may be…is too complicated, too measured, in its many tempo and genre changes…which is followed through by all four of the musicians…to nót be thoroughly rehearsed! And when you’re a music journalist with at least an inkling of integrity, that kind of details in a band’s album are the stuff that will lead you in your personal evaluation of a band’s work…and nót the direction of your own musical preferences! It took the band 11 months to get their debut full-length out on the streets: recordings with Adriaan De Belder at Aka Joe HQ in Koningshooik were done in December 2007 and January 2008. Editing, mixing and fine-tuning was done in Wilrijk, Antwerp and Brussels from March till September 2008, and the mastering finally, was done by Koen Heirman at Record Office in Sint-Niklaas during October. Release parties for the CD (and nót a cd-R affair, but the genuine article) were done on November 14 and 15 (in Antwerp and Hove), and since then the positive reviews have been coming in from the most unexpected places (Ed Mann, formerly of the Frank Zappa band; Metalzone, etc…), but obviously things became even better for the band after coming to terms with our editor-in-chief for the use of his contacts. At myspace.com/codasync, you’ll be able to find mp3-files for àll 6 tracks on the album [although it only has these 6 tracks, the album still has a total length nearing 43 minutes…thanks to lengthier tracks like “Rostislav Grovgast” (8:14), “Akà Joe Houttequiet” (10:33), and the album closing “Harold Greets Arnold” (10:14) which, in spite of their length, never even stàrt to bore the listener as the musicians simply don’t give you the chance to get such awkward feelings], and I’m certain that anyone into highly technical music which is not devoid of some atmospherics, and which stands with one foot in the ‘70s and the other in this millenium…aaààhhhh, take a breather…is simply gonna lóve what this band does! The guys obviously have a great sense of humor, which they work out in their song titles (the aforementioned “Mary Puppins” for instance, but also the title of the album, which is a “slanged” version of “Moe’s Art” – one of the tracks on the album). Wanna have some fun? Take out your Led Zeppelin album Houses Of The Holy to play the opening track “The Song Remains The Same”…and drink 10 cups of espresso coffee (or a six-pack of Red Bull, or their Aldi or Lidl equivalents – it’s much cheaper) while listening to it. I’m almost certain that’s what the boys did at one time before going into the rehearsal room to compose “Count Spiro’s Return”…but you won’t find me complaining with the outcome! Just listen to it for comparison, eh? Anyways, this IS regretably a 2008 album, and as the year-lists have long been closed I cannot therefore still nominate Mows Arred to be included in such a list still…on the other side, that will not refrain me from giving the album a top rating, you know?!!! By the way…for those interested (and you must be, why else would you have bothered to read on thus far?)…the band has already started (in January) recording new tracks (reportedly to include the likes of “Centipede Jackomino”, “Substituent Hump” and “Wokkin’ With Dynah’s Sours”, tracks which were already written by April of last year) for their second album. Providing that comes to us before the closing of the year, we’ll have a Codasync album in our 2009 year-list yet!!! 98/100 Tony. |