Sadly, this Warsaw-based band called it a day, leaving us this record as the final chapter of their legacy. It’s a largely instrumental album, and whenever vocals do appear they come with strange melodies, like on the track “Tusan Homichi Tuvota”, where they even managed to work in a dulcimer, a kind of trapezoidal zither.
It’s equally unusual to have a violin as a full member of the line-up without falling into the folk trap. Ewa Jabłońska manages to blend in beautifully with the striking, ominous, dark and unsettling atmospheres found throughout “Idmen”.
Wawrzyniec Dramowicz handles the raw, barely processed drums, showing great instinct by always serving the compositions, knowing exactly what each moment calls for — going wild when it’s warranted, and staying tight and forceful at just the right point. His percussion work on tracks like “Indukted” or “Suken Bell” also deserves a mention.
The best part of it all is that when you listen, you pick up on a ton of reference points, but it doesn’t actually sound quite like any of them specifically. You’ll find passages as dense as Tool, atmospheres worthy of Opeth’s darkest periods, mathematical puzzles in the style of Meshuggah. Even the violin brings to mind the era of King Crimson when David Cross was answering back on that instrument, especially on “Aemaet”.
Guitarists Maciej Jaśkiewicz and Piotr Kocimski deliver their parts with precision and force, always knowing when to leave room for Andrzej Kaczyński’s bass, which particularly shines on the striking, gut-wrenching “And Who’s the God Now?!…”, where, in yet another daring move, Kocimski introduces a saz halfway through an otherwise dark track that suddenly takes a folk turn — without the violin this time — and it’s enough to blow your mind.
You can’t help but reflect on just how many bands have ended up making something this brilliant, only to fall into obscurity for lack of a strong enough platform and a wider variety of coverage in the mainstream press. But the great thing about social media is that it lets us go back and do musical justice to bands like Indukti, or others who for years only had the backing of the label Inside Out Music, back when physical formats still called the shots.
I know it’s a demanding listen, and not one you should put on as background music at work unless you fancy a written warning, or a trip to occupational health for some antipsychotics. But it’s a completely hypnotic, seductive and intoxicating album. Different from everything and similar to plenty of things, since it has every element of extreme progressive rock, always with a dramatic twist.
And if you fancy hearing more from Indukti, check out “S.U.S.A.R.” (2005), where you’ll find Mariusz Duda (Riverside) on vocals.
Writer: David Sàez