MoRkObOt - MoRbO (Supernatural Cat)

Are you sitting comfortably? Well you won’t be for long! MoRbO, Italian instrumentalists MoRkObOt’s fourth record, has the impact to either make you slowly walk around in ever decreasing circles on the ceiling, or dance like you’re possessed by a doom-funk demon, and thankfully Bearded are leaning towards the latter.

After their last release, Morto, a single track album, the Italian trio of Lin, Lan, and Len have gone as conventional as possible on MoRbO as the seven instrumental tracks proceed to find their way into the pit of your stomach, and slowly erupt. Created with two bass guitars and drums, you’d be forgiven for thinking that their sound would be limited, but the Italians have merely been shown the boundaries set before them and gone about breaking them one by one.

The album opens with ‘Ultramorth’, a seven-and-a-half minute stoner-trance epic that manages to put you at ease on the edge of a cliff. When the bass twangs begin to bring you to your knees, the true power of MoRkObOt begins to rise to the surface as all the instruments play their part in layering the song with heaviness on top of dancing on top of riffs, carrying the listener on a wave of sonic vibrations, probably the closest you’d get to the feeling of actually living on the surface of a speaker.

If you’re not banging your head or walking in concentric circles, then you’ve no doubt grasped the essence of the band. It’s always difficult for instrumental bands to keep things fresh throughout an entire record without occasional lapses in concentration, or falling victim to dreaded “guitar-wankery” and overdosing on self-indulgence, but that never appears on MoRbO as the sublime ‘Orbothord’ excels in outlining as the burst of acceleration makes the record grow in stature and enables you to suddenly become aware that for the past few moments you became utterly lost, right up until the abrupt ending of ‘Obrom’ allows you to finally take a breath of untainted air.

Music is only worth bothering with when it brings out an emotion in you, be it good or bad, sometimes it will confuse you or leave you astounded, make you move about or remain transfixed. When a record such as MoRbO comes along, and many people will say from the beginning “That’s not for me”, you better ask yourself why not, what indeed is wrong with you, not the music? MoRkObOt are excelling at the moment in music that will fully absorb you, perhaps turn you into a doomy-robotic-dance lord, and at least make you feel something, after all, if all music didn’t do that, what would be the point?