Started its way back in 2007 as an instrumental progressive / math rock band, KOALA KAMAJI is a progressive, grunge and emo tinged rock band from Moscow, Russia. The trio released one full-length album “Nonsense! My Good Man” and several EPs and returned with an excellent new album “Great Gravity” earlier this month. The new offering reinforces the role of vocals in rock aesthetics, and KOALA’s knack for a thick sounding, yet infectious, emotionally charged tunes makes the band an interesting force in the genre.
“Great Gravity has a combination of grunge aesthetics and math-rock ingenuity. It’s amazing how in this layering of styles several eras of alternative rock music can be clearly traced at once: the garage nineties, the emotional early zero, and the experimental tenths here and there make themselves felt. Although “Great Gravity” doesn’t lose its face”. – writes Georgy Otiashvili from the Russian alternative music public.
The lyrics are mostly permeated with social, existential and psychological meaning. Sometimes with a deep immersion in the inner state, moving away from the egoistic prism, trying to find answers to many unpopular questions that allow to be more harmonious in this crumbling place.
1. «Scene – Shifting»
The album begins with the longest song about an inevitable change in the order of things. It’s shown through the conflicts of generations which is functional and dysfunctional at the same time. So it is important to be critical of any information that enters us, as not to be a mouthpiece for things that are far from reality and can only increase the conflict.
2. «Grave Dangers»
This is a self-ironic song consisting of two dynamic parts. The song is about what we mistakenly think is dangerous, but it really is not. Fear is an ancient defense mechanism that subordinates the will of a person, sometimes severely limiting his desires and actions, which affects the quality of life. The song describes an example of the formation of the habit of being afraid, reinforcing it with the pleasure of avoidance. The vicious circle can only be broken by a new habit, looking fear in the eye and letting these “dangers” happen.
3. «Tolerant»
The Tolerant draws it concern from the constant mass protests that often turn into civil wars. The crowds that are fed up with sweet illusions seek to replace one crowned promiser with another, as a result bring the situation to social catastrophe. Who said that the other would fix the situation? He is also in the hands of the same system.
4. «Nower»
The most melancholic song on the album inspired by Eckhart Tolle’s book «The Power of Now». When body and mind are shackled by depression and a vain fight deprived the last strength, it’s time to fully embrace the present moment, freeing consciousness from heavy thoughts and emotions, focusing on sensory perception, dissolving in sounds, tactile sensations and in surrounding objects, getting into the eternal and marvelous “I am”
5. «Modern Paradox»
“Inexplicable but the fact” – that phrase explains the paradox formula. The idea of this song is an attempt to connect illogical things, phenomena and events. It somewhat looks like the modern approach in art and the desire to impress in order to attract the attention of a large number of people. It can be counter-logical and stretched beyond its limits. It can be born in denial or in the absence of suitable means but it also can be a purely practical interest, overcoming the fallacies, expanding knowledge about reality.
6. «Sweet Conflict»
https://koalakamaji.bandcamp.com/track/sweet-conflict
This dynamic song touches on a theme of conflicts in relationships. It’s about how easy it is to lose a temper and lose a lot. Sometimes we just don’t notice how we redirect aggression to an innocent person in order to give it a way out, sometimes we ourselves get hit, conflicts go with us through life. But how difficult is it to get into the position of another person? How difficult is it to empathize with a person being in conflict with him? Perhaps if we thought about how the other person feels, we would have less conflict situations.
7. «Grim Utopia»
What if the current social order is ideal? But on condition that we replace the modern advertised motivators – the desire to be happy, rich, glory and the rest of the shit on the opposites. For example, solving problems and difficulties will be a main motivator which gives us great pleasure so we can be very selfish if we are talking about rational selfishness. “I am happy to help you because by helping you I make something around better and therefore it can benefit myself”. This is a formula available to everyone, but the strong influence of one’s own ego overshadows it.
8. «Dreams»
The final acoustic song flows from the previous one. It’s a surreal story about a meeting in a dream with a loved one who has already left the real world.
