Inner Ear 2016
Chickn
Grasping the moment, Greek group mount up their impact to tune into time and space.
After a series of lo-fi download-only singles, these three musicians from Athens gather like-minded forces and come up with a work which has physical manifestation and is possessed with surreal logic. It’s signaled by the album’s very cover and the moos that lead into “Chickn Tribe”; but if the opener’s atom-heart throb and ethereal funk add another layer of allusions to the overall aural swirl, that’s as deliberate as Homeric laughter hidden heavy riffs. Not for nothing, they call the band’s style Jetztzeit Rock, meaning there’s history brought to here and now.
Often sparse, sinister and speared with psych intent, much of the record harks back to an era when “Paranoid” and "Warrior On The Edge Of Time" were all the rage, yet while the likes of “Modular Prayer” proudly wear such influences on their dark sleeve, they also take the flow to another level, once the group’s two drummers engage in a thunderstorm and usher in a joyous light. The past gets buried in the hypnotizing groove of “Aleppo” whose synths roll out a dance fever further down the line, whereas “Forget” finds trance pleasures in Eastern flavors before the chant and buzz of “Articulation” give it all a hymnal color.
Still, the brightest piece, in terms of spirituality and translucence, would be “Shifting Time Blues” – spiked with raga and possessed with shimmering harmonies: here, the trio’s suppressed emotions aren’t eclipsed, and their style is crystallized completely. If they shift this time to the future, there’d be no chickening out for the listener.
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