Karuna Khyal – Alomoni 1985 [LP] (1974, Voice Records)

 

Karuna Khyal's 'Alomoni 1985' is something very special - unburied treasure, indeed - thoroughly corrupted rock n' roll, steeped in ragtag R&B and crisscrossed by croaked vocal mantras and deliriously dizzy slide guitar. On the first of the albums two 20+ minute fractured tracks of rambunctious, bass-led "song," 'Alomoni 1985' invites comparisons to nothing less than a low-rent 'Faust Tapes' - less dependent upon Faust's bucolic demeanor and rigorous studio-as-instrument directive - or a particularly gone Magic Band outtake (free from the Captain's authoritarian censorship). And while Karuna Khyal is at least more deserving of the "Japanese Faust" descriptive misleadingly bestowed upon Brast Burn, even this seems bluntly dismissive of a unique, remarkably potent brand of madness. Liberally laced as it is with dated Canned Heat-isms, copious shofar-squawk harmonica riffing, grim oompah/cosmic jug-band plod, smears of visceral feedback, and truly insidious tape-work, 'Alomoni 1985' is most uncannily analogous to the early catalog of Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, which directly inspired the first communal stirrings of Krautrock. 

Heaping historical complication upon confusion, the smoking second half of 'Alomoni 1985' winds through a noisy tribal exorcism-cum-hoedown. With a bacchanalian commotion of scrappy percussion, a dozen shades of vocal damage (overtone chants, wordless mumbling, tuneless singing, raucous whoops and hollers), gusts of modulated (wind? synth?) noise, and spurts of volatile, psychedelicized improv, Karuna Khyal bursts through the free-music barrier - albeit in a stomping, stumbling Cro-Magnon fashion. No-Neck Blues Band adherents take note. Surviving lore about Karuna Khyal, however, places 'Alomoni 1985' quite a few years earlier (maybe), in Japan (maybe), with an unknown (maybe), substantially more menacing quantity either cut adrift of its contemporaneous musical timeline or orbiting decades ahead of such. But consider that such modern concerns as Ectogram, Ulan Bator, Ghost, and all aforementioned and kindred souls could have stickered their names on the cover of 'Alomoni 1985' without anyone batting an eye. It just doesnt add up, does it? 

In fact, so many questions concerning Karuna Khyal persist for any information about this enigmatic crew. 'Alomoni 1985' may lack the provenance needed to calibrate its actual historical import, but the album remains a compelling oddity -brash, bristling, baffling, and all but inexplicable. One is left wondering what might have become of Karuna Khyal, whatever year's model 'Alomoni 1985' represents. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]

 

 

Label: Voice Records – VO-1002 

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo 

Country: Japan 

Released: 1974 

Style: Avantgarde, Psychedelic Rock, Experimental Rock, Krautrock, Noise Rock

 

Tracklist: 

A Untitled 24:32 

B Untitled 22:30 

 

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