PAATOS

An excellent serving of trip-rock from Europe's leading prog label. With a little help from Mikael Akerfeldt (OPETH) and friends from PORCUPINE TREE, the musicians of PAATOS achieved considerable renown in their native Sweden. The scale of their popularity can be judged by the fact that even before releasing their debut album, "Timeloss," the band managed to record the soundtrack to an enduring classic of world cinema — Friedrich Murnau's "Nosferatu." "Kallocain" is the group's second effort, named after the dystopian novel by Swedish author Karin Boye. Smooth trip-hop in the vein of PORTISHEAD — occasionally "rocking" out with stray grooves, sometimes rippling with the electronic mathematics of MASSIVE ATTACK, but for the most part drifting, enveloping, mysterious, and lulling. The album opens with a frenzied violin solo: as if a devil-possessed Paganini set out to saw his poor instrument in half. But just as the pain and despair reach their apex, the first wave of velvety whiteness spills from the speakers — "Gasoline." The band's vocalist, Petronella Nettermalm, is often compared to another Scandinavian diva — Bjork. And indeed, without her sensual voice, the band's music would lose a great deal. It's impossible to say whether the album carries a unequivocally positive charge: among the tracks evoking a pleasant melancholy — "Reality," "Happiness," "Look At Us" — one encounters decadent overtones ("Absinth Minded") and cold existential undertones ("Stream"). Finally, "Won't Be Coming Back" invites you on a nocturnal drive down a deserted highway, headlights off, speedometer screaming from a speed overdose. This is that rare case where the music doesn't crumble into dry numbers but stretches like a resonant living membrane, letting through only the lilac aftertaste of a musical absinthe. The only drawback — the cover art hints too concretely at industrial clamor in the vein of EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN. Then again, this sharpens the joy of discovering "Kallocain" in its own way...