A music reviewer, by the very nature of the name, is sent music to review.  One of the advantages of being such a reviewer is that you are sent music by bands to listen to and write words about that you have never heard before.

This can be a double-edged sword. At the extremes, you either love it, or you hate it. Hopefully, there will be some kind of middle ground compromise when you can listen to and appreciate the inherent talent and quality in a work you are presented with. So, as a background to the words I write, for many years I shied away from the extreme edges and frontiers of progressive music inhabited by the likes of Zappa and Beefheart. A comfort zone, if you will, of more accessible music and backing off from the type of music that if, were my wife and I so disposed to hold one (we are not), at a dinner party, putting on anything other than “nice” stuff would be frowned upon by those nice, Abba listening, middle class neighbours and friends.

But when someone you respect so much, in this case Anne-Claire Rallo of Bad Dog Promotions, sends you music to write some words about, it forces you to counter your inner prejudices. And therein lies the ultimate privilege about what I do. The chance to listen to artists that you would, in a previous existence, not normally have touched, especially looking at the album cover which screams “utterly barking”. Zappa is a very good example of this, someone I shied away from for years.

Babel have been a recording act since 1999. Karen Langley on vocals, Rob Williams on guitars, synth, bass, and programming, with Jon Sharp playing bass & drums.

So, about as avant-garde as this website has tackled, there are five tracks on this, with the final two revisiting themes of the originals.

We start with a two-part epic, the first instalment being Smoking With The Devil. Mrs Wife and I gave up for good the terrible weed 20 months ago now, so smoking with the devil and taking in a lungful of Marlboro, as opposed to the vapid vaporists, resonates with us very much. This is a piece of music over twenty minutes long, so a huge track. It brings a smile to me immediately, that yearning for a smoke, craving, with the piece as it develops providing a loop for the ex-addicts pining for days gone past. With a cough, and a laugh on my part, the second part of this, Learn To Entertain Yourselves, has the most wonderful guitar lead set against a madcap bass and strange mixture of looping, psych notes, and symphonic sensibilities before we, in a dystopian segment, learn to do so. The voice and notes are disturbing, with eyes on seek and destroy with a track which segues into a commentary on all facets of modern consumer society. The drums of Jon Sharp are especially urgent here, leading the march of the dystopian guitars and keys. This is more a loop of involuntary feels, moods, and entirely random sounds and voices. The close is a modern chaotic classical segment, frightening in its impact and the essence of the opposite of comfortable listening.

Radical follows. Relatively shorter at just under ten minutes, this is a spoken commentary on modern corporate culture, hidden as it is in extreme eclectic, almost Daliesque music. Some of the riffs are exceptional, loud, and proud amongst the overall sense of a listener and composer descending into madness, but with some gorgeous impacts along the way, trancey guitars, jazz infused percussion, thumping drums, a bassline which entrances, and voices and words which beguile and pull you into a post punk nightmare of a world. As I indicated at the start of this review, it is about as far outside of my comfort zone as it is possible to get.      

Going Home is yearning, powerful in its minimalism, written from the viewpoint of the observer looking down at human visitors, and it really is quite starkly beautiful.

We then have variations on a theme. Firstly, nine minutes of a Radical instrumental mix, dreamy loops interspersed with dystopian riffs and altogether something which is a cousin to the original track, related by blood, but destined to move apart as time goes on and lives separate. The orchestration in parts is expansive, alongside Frippian guitar impacts and thumping drums, closing with the type of psychedelic sounds The Beatles might be making as a younger band in 2023.

We then close with a vocal mix of Going Home which is an interesting companion piece to the original which surrounds and embraces you tightly with voices and ever more intense sound as it progresses.

This is a fascinating album, one to be experienced, and something quite special in its experimentation. Not to be treated lightly. https://babal.bandcamp.com/ with the album itself at https://babal.bandcamp.com/album/lets-get-lucid

The band’s website, well worth paying a visit, is at https://babal.rocks/