Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Negură Bunget - 'n crugu bradului (2002)

The main problem here is a tale of two halves, one infinitely better than the other, over a real short number of tracks.  Having never heard this record through until this past week, the rigour of trying to figure out if the band have tried to be clever in making a true “grower” of a release or if they genuinely had brain storm issues and put everything into the first two tracks is tiring work.  I am leaning towards the latter opinion though.

For the opening two (of four) tracks, I am utterly lost with this album (if we can call it that).  The band’s songwriting and composition style appears to be an “anything goes” type format and literally the kitchen sink is in there as a result.  If I am not lost in the directionless and swirling chaos spilling out of my speakers like an exploding dishwasher then instead I am just completely baffled over how the band decided this was a good idea?

The pace, tempo, timing and structure aren’t anchored to anything and flit and dart all over the place like flies on a bin lid.  The changes aren’t even clever proggy shifts that layer tracks up making them more robust over their term.  They are just confusing and unnecessary disruption to what is a very limited release at just four tracks.

Occasionally some consistency of structure shines through and when it does it isn’t half bad but it isn’t around for long enough.  By the time things do actually settle down on tracks three and four there is a real sense of too little, too late.  Like we are shutting the gate and the horse is already five fields away.  The atmospheres and textures that occupy the more stable half of the release hold the attention well enough but only if you have the patience to sit through the near unlistenable first couple of tracks.