Serious Beak – Huxwhukw

I love Gjulin so much. This tongue breaking album has found its place among the best albums released in 2011 and I’ve been returning to it quite often during last two months or so. Firstly, I featured it in the ProgSphere’s AwesomeCast in the episode named „xCeptional“ and lastly, the band was included on the eighth part of Progstravaganza series of compilations with two songs, Han and Tuī / Tuō.

Huxwhukw is completely instrumental, avant-garde and technically progressive, with plenty different elements building its backbone. Comprised of 10 pieces (most of them are with the tongue-breaking titles, as well), Ausies are dwelling between calm and intense, fusion and homogenous, melodic and brutal – showcasing technicality wrapped up together with simplicity.

The simplest way of imaging what is Serious Beak all about would be getting a blender and loading it with Meshuggah, Napalm Death, Blotted Science, Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Mars Volta. Short and clear. The songs’ flow is streaming precipitately, thus a predictability factor is skillfully avoided.

Doesn’t matter is it a calm introduction in the shape of Baxwbakwalanuksiwé or mixture of math(core) and djent in Han, Tuī / Tuō, or sludgy and almost grindcore patterns of Anhrefn / Sporăs – Huxwhukw is something more than 40 minutes long journey through grooviness and melodiousness. And there’s more. An album which makes me feel seriousbeaksick when I am not listening to it.

Tracklist:

01. Baxwbakwalanuksiwé
02. Han
03. Swagger
04. Gödel !Xun
05. Tuī / Tuō
06. Anhrefn
07. Sporăs
08. Lähendama
09. Fljóta
10. Taheu Nadryvy, Taheu!

Line-up:

* Gene White – drums
* Tim Brown – telecaster
* Lachlan R. Dale – les paul
* Andrew Mortensen – bass

Nikola Savić is a prog enthusiast, blogger and author, in addition to being the founder of Prog Sphere, Progify, ProgLyrics and the ongoing Progstravaganza compilation series.