Offering up over forty minutes of raw, in the moment rock composition, instrumental and experimental yet lost in the groove in a hypnotic manner, this second session from Croatian alternatives Saddle On The Bomb is undoubtedly a thing of artistry; and well worth spending time with.
Taking you back to the days of gathering round the new album – CD, vinyl – from the likes of Pink Floyd or even certain bands during the nineties, Session 2 is a creatively free expression of deep thought and passionate musicality.
While the album length meets that of a classic project, the four compositions within each take their time to envelop you, showcasing a band in no rush to simply grab attention with a quick riff or a single idea, but rather, a band who are more than happy losing themselves in the moment and letting the music guide them. As a result, listeners can effectively and fully lose themselves in the moment too. And though there are only a few layers to this, minimalism at work thanks to just Tomislav Poje on Drums and Aleksandar Vrhovec on guitar, there’s a definite fullness to the whole sound, which manages to fascinate in a powerful way.
The first half of the project has a certain meditative, ambient calm about it – flickers of character and dreamlike intention trickle through. Then during the latter half, the drums take on some thing of a raw and almost tribal-like sound. Distortion joins the party, and rhythm takes things into a more energetic groove for a while.
As you get right towards the end, the experimental aspect pours through all the more so, as multiple riffs and mind-boggling audio moments cascade around you, elevating the experience and creating something much more intense. If before you were floating through the moment at ease, there’s a certain sense of fastness or running to the composition that is Mammoth. It works well right where it is, at the end of this journey, and it helps showcase the band as more than musically capable – as well as artistically purposeful, and consistently interesting.
There aren’t too many bands or artists creating in such a free manner these days – free from concern or time restraints, unaffected by the outside. When you combine that level of purity with impressive musicianship and a shared desire to escape or create escapism for an audience, the results can be superb. Enter Saddle on the Bomb – a band well and truly intent on building that kind of sound and experience for their listeners.
Check out both Session 1 and Session 2 over on Bandcamp.
