I’ve been a die-hard undeground and heavy music fan since my youth, but I began to understand the structure of the depth of it when I learned about more experimental, so called ‘post-‘ approaches to both hardcore and metal. My first introductions and endeavors were acts like ISIS, CULT OF LUNA, NEUROSIS, PELICAN, and dozens of underrated acts that would help me became more ambitious listener and more demanding when it comes to instrumental arrangements. A lot of recent releases were instantaneous classics stacked with incredible soundscapes, so we have some high expectations to meet with every single release. Our newest collaboration with Basel, Switzerland’s instrumental post metal act KRANE finds them to be really trying to expose themselves and establish their sound with their new concept record “Pleonexia”. While exhibiting their experimental themes, they keep an infectious atmosphere that is elegantly paired with its interesting concept, explained by the band themselves, below. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the first official stream of “Pleonexia”!
“Pleonexia” by instrumental post-rock/metal band KRANE comes out on October 27th via Czar Of Revelations and will be distributed via iTunes, Soulfood (Germany, Austria), Nonstop (Switzerland), Plastic Head (UK, Ireland & Import worldwide + digital distribution worldwide), Audioglobe SRL (Italy), Soundworks (France), Suburban (Benelux), Sound Pollution (Sweden), Border Music (N orway), Supersounds (Finland), Target (Denmark), Mystic Production (Poland, Czech Rep., Slovenia, Slovakia), and Mastertrax (Spain).
The band will be performing live at this year’s Deer Fest at Hirscheneck in Basel (CH) on the day of the release.
With the opus “Pleonexia” (gr. Pleon, echein), whose name stands for greed and covetousness, we try to reflect on the three different levels of war. In our times, the patterns in war seem more visible than ever, as we can understand different sources of information instantaneously. The implementation of these patterns proved to be a difficult endeavour, as the cooperation of these three levels works in seemingly transitionless harmony. This “transitionless harmony” is what we try to cast in sound with “Pleonexia”.
Pleonexia, sometimes called pleonexy, originating from the Greek πλεονεξία, is a philosophical concept which roughly corresponds to greed, covetousness, or avarice, and is strictly defined as “the insatiable desire to have what rightfully belongs to others”, suggesting what Ritenbaugh describes as “ruthless self-seeking and an arrogant assumption that others and things exist for one’s own benefit”.
Krane is a four-piece band from Basel that was already founded in 2012. Although the first album „ouroboros” was released after the first year, the band was only able to play very few concerts due to various fluctuations and thus remained largely unknown. For two of the band founders the following years were marked by the desperate search for fellow musicians to keep the project alive. This long-lasting search, as well as a flooding in the practice space, could not force Krane to its knees, and two new members were found in 2016/2017.
At long last the band is now releasing their second album „Pleonexia” on the label Czar of Crickets. While the first album revolves around psychosomatics and the accompanying emotional effects, „Pleonexia” takes up the topic of recurring sequences and patterns of warfare in illegal resource conflicts. With „Pleonexia”, Krane tries to show these sequences very soberly and neutrally and to musically implement them far away from war glorification. It was important for all band members to record the new album on their own. Thus, „Pleonexia” was created in the band’s own practice space without any digital sound generators. Mastering was handed over to Simon of BlackArtAudio. Stylistically Krane’s new album is to be placed in the postmetal/- rock genre.
