Fracktura

Warning: This album is not for the faint of heart. It is not for those seeking their music in neat packages with familiar tonal themes. This is dissonance in all its chaotic beauty. It's conflict resolving into more conflict. It's the rich depth you get when you stack unholy chord on unholy chord on unholy chord.

Oculus is the first official EP release from avant-garde doom-jazz trio, Fracktura. An over-too-quick four-song album that tests the bounds of convention with grinding chords accompanying monstrous squeals and epic bellows. Though the roots of their simmering cacophony lie in King Crimson's work, fans of newer prog-jazz crossover projects will find parallels with one-off masterpiece Lingua Franca by the supergroup T.R.A.M., a band composed of Animals As Leaders axe men Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes, Mars Volta woodwind wizard Adrian Terrazas and Suicidal Tendencies drummer extraordinaire, Eric Moore. In addition to the discordant 8-strings and wild, flailing sax that T.R.A.M. had as their calling card, Fractura adds an operatic element with vocalist Karis Tucker. The result is an ominous piece that fittingly accompanies the Nietzche quote: “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

One is immediately drawn in by Tucker's incantation as she details the beginning of a perilous journey inward over gothic piano in the intro track 'You'. Her voice coalesces into chords that are perfectly off. They swell right into 'Gold Spectrum' with its meandering in the depths guitars. The strident chords cause something to shake in your DNA. It's a feeling that is fiercely avoided by so much music seeking to lull into a false sense of comfort. The conflict erupts into savage screams from the feral saxophone of Ander Petersen. 'The Fear Peddler' is given yet another layer with the addition of '80s horror synths to drive it to the end. The finale 'Identidade' acts as the last act of the tragedy with sombre piano and strings fading into the darkness.

Fracktura has crafted a beautiful, lush, and sonically challenging symphony with Oculus. A testament to what music can become when you let go of the reins and let it take you where it needs to take you. Bowie knew this and in both, his '90s work as well as his final ode Blackstar, he realized the importance and the effectiveness of this kind of composition. Fracktura has run with this philosophy and hopefully, they continue to do so with some full albums of discordant madness.