Ostrakon

After a brief break earlier this year to recover from surgery, Russian madman Senmuth returned in July and has been pumping out albums at his usual absurd pace, with eight full lengths released since recovery. Ostrakon is Senmuth's fifth full length since that return and his 165th release to date. Many who have listened to Senmuth will tell you that his music is an acquired taste, and even at that, his albums can be hit or miss. With that said, Senmuth has pretty much been on fire for the past two years, with every album having something worthwhile delving in for and, despite his productivity, has been releasing high quality albums at an alarming rate.

Ostrakon, which dropped on Halloween 2014, is one of Senmuth's best albums of the year despite the fact that it contains no metal whatsoever. Senmuth often gives decent descriptions of his music to give the listener an idea of what's to come, but with Ostrakon he simply called it “ethno, score” music, which, to me, sounds quite vague. Taking the name of this album from the Greek word for pieces of broken pottery that were used for writing on, Senmuth continues his current trend of marrying his love of archeology and ancient civilizations with his love of creating music.

Ostrakon is a single, twenty-four minute track that flows between ethnic rhythms and melodies and quietude. The drum programming is fantastic, bringing a very tribal, primitive feel to the music, with heavy use of hand drums and shakers. But as good as the percussion is, the true focus are guitar melodies, which have an earthy, Mediterranean feel. It's pretty much the same pattern played throughout the entire track, but it's infectious. Throw in some ethereal woodwinds at various places and some dreamy, proggy keyboard notes in some others and there you have it. Despite the lack of intricacy, the songwriting is commendable, allowing a single twenty-four minute track to be as gripping and entertaining as this is. Coming across more as background music or mood music, Ostrakon is great music for old time strategy games like Civilization or Age of Empires and whatnot, so check it out if you're into that sort of stuff.