Style: Progressive Rock, Jazz Fusion, Psychedelic Rock (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Mars Volta, Thank You Scientist, Frank Zappa, Closure in Moscow
Review by: Christopher
Country: US-NJ
Release date: 28 April, 2023
Every now and then I become very conscious that the musicians I love probably aren’t able to make a living from their art alone. Prog’s not exactly the most profitable genre at the best of times, and in the underground of any scene the revenue stream is more like a trickle. Only a very privileged few can make a living from their music, regardless of how good it is. Maybe that’s why it took Karmic Juggernaut five years to give us a follow-up to their critically lauded debut LP The Dreams That Stuff Are Made Of, and maybe it’s why frontman Daimon Santa Maria’s bio describes him as an “illustrator, musician, puppeteer, songwriter, photographer, beekeeper”, among others—prog doesn’t pay.
The infectious psychedelic progressive rock/jazz fusion group’s sophomore was worth the wait. At a relatively compact thirty-eight minutes, Phantasmagloria is a breezy listen. Karmic Juggernaut are clearly a byproduct of the psychedelic fug emitted by The Mars Volta, but they blend this with the prog/jazz fusion vibes of Thank You Scientist—I’d be remiss not to mention Frank Zappa as an obvious influence, too. Daimon Santa Maria’s got a set of pipes on him; two actually, he’s a regular Ian Anderson as he provides flute as well. And his warbling howls bear a resemblance to those of Anderson’s, with a touch of Robert Plant in there too.
The jangling guitars, noodling bass, antiquated keys, raucous horns and jamming solos are back in spades. The instrumental section of “Sun Puzzle” is a wild ride through a variety of trippy soundscapes with wah-drenched guitar, breathy flute solos and even some theremin, while “Atomus Camera Obscura” manages to simultaneously provide a surfeit of complex soloing whilst maintaining an effortless sense of chill. “Dream Machine” may well be Phantasmagloria’s stand-out track, opening with pensive synth rhythms and journeying through a bunch of trippy phases, replete with solos, rapturous brass licks syncopated with vocoder, and some glorious bass work.
“Psaiko” sees Kevin Grossman go crazy on the kit for what is, essentially, a three minute tribal sounding percussion solo with whistles and gongs and suchlike accompanying, more like Stomp than a traditional drum solo. Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of drum solos and I prefer to hear the band go crazy together but it’s undeniable that Grossman is an excellent drummer and his work is riveting throughout, I’m just not sure I wanted three minutes of him on his own.
And this leads me to a more substantive criticism. “Psaiko” plus the “WKRM” radio broadcast bookends and the minute-long interlude “Succumb to the Static” equate to four tracks and nearly ten minutes that aren’t ‘proper’ songs on an already short record, making Phantasmagloria feel like an EP in LP’s clothing. It’s worth bearing in mind that The Dreams That Stuff Are Made Of ran to sixty-one minutes yet only held roughly three minutes of the playful non-musical whimsy. Call it seven minutes on Phantasmagloria, because I feel like I’m unfairly picking on “Psaiko”, but that’s nevertheless a near four-fold increase in relative terms. I’ve no issues with a short release if the music is solid and the music is solid. It just feels a bit like Karmic Juggernaut tried to boost the runtime of this release out of a feeling of insecurity.
The problem with storming out the gate with such a lauded debut is that matching and surpassing your first effort is so much more difficult. Phantasmagloria isn’t a case of sophomore slump by any means, but it does lack the expansive scope of The Dreams That Stuff Are Made Of, whilst also adding a little too much excess in the irreverent interlude track department. However, the core songs prove that Karmic Juggernaut’s compositional talents remain undiminished and they remain a deeply satisfying psychedelic force to be reckoned with.
Recommended tracks: Sun Puzzle, Dream Machine, Atomus Camera Obscura
You may also like: iNFiNiEN, The Mask of the Phantasm, We Broke the Weather
Final verdict: 7.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Independent
Karmic Juggernaut is:
– Daimon Santa Maria (vocals, flute)
– James McCaffrey (guitar)
– Cody McCorry (bass, theremin)
– Randy Preston (guitar)
– Jake Hughes (keyboards)
– Kevin Grossman (drums)
Guests:
– Joe Gullace (trumpet)
– Ian Gray (trombone)
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