WHATEVER … INSANE – Political Experiments

An independent release from Greece, with almost no background information available at all, makes one, involuntarily, approach this five track EP with an open mind. Not such a bad idea, although probably not done on purpose, as that is required for the musical (free)style of Whatever … Insane. The 29 minutes of Political Experiments offer a fresh approach to Rock music in general, mixing different influences in a unique way to create a maelstrom of ideas and sounds forced into frames of long compositions that –- surprisingly –- manage to remain comprehensible to the listener. This is mainly achieved by a sparse, sometimes even minimalist, instrumentation where each sound and tone has its place. In this, the maturity of the songwriting is absolutely astonishing for this band’s first recording attempt!

All songs have a few things in common, which is experimental sounds with undistorted guitars that eventually lead into Hardcore shouting. But, regardless if it’s Funky or groovy parts, melodic choruses, or laid back interludes, there is always a lot to discover in every track. Only the opener, “Pill Taken,” coming in at only 4 minutes –- in spite of its Atrox-like insanity — is relatively easy to digest.

The longer songs demand more from the listener, as it seems the guys can hardly keep a song on the same course for more than a minute. The two singers, one responsible for the “screams” and one for the “vocals,” manage to create a great variety in sounds and use their voices not only to mouth words, but support the songs in various instrument-like ways, while an incredible abundance of musical inspiration flows out of the two guitarists –- not of the Malmsteen type, rather the Progressive, accentuated way that geniuses like Steve Wilson or Jim Matheos do when every note has its place and meaning, creating single sounds like planets in a solar system, each distant from the other, in its combination defining the whole, but still each one remaining unique and different enough to be a wonder of its own, patched together by involuntary revolutions around the common sun called “The Song.”

As this is an independent release, also the quality of the recording impresses as the sound is rough, but flawless; a good balance between the underground and the necessary clarity needed for the music. For the regular four songs of the EP, there is nothing bad to be said. The fifth song, labelled as a bonus track, unfortunately can not retain the maturity of the songwriting and remains below Whatever … Insane’s possibilities.

So, Political Experiments is certainly not everybody’s cup of tea, but every open-minded music lover should give it a try on their website and then contact the guys to support them and buy the CD. It may well be that in a few years this is going to be a sought after rarity as the band has the audible potential for becoming a lot bigger …