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Krief Chemical Trance Review by Gary Hill This album is actually released under the name Krief, and not the artist's full name of Patrick Krief. I previously reviewed another set from him, and that one was billed under his full name. So, to avoid confusion, it's the same artist, but with a different naming convention. I'd consider this set a tighter fit under prog than the first one was, and I landed that one there, too. This has a lot more 70s rock leaning to it. There are a lot of Beatles-like sounds here, among other things. It even works toward Pink Floyd textures on one song. I prefer this to the other one. It just grabs me a bit more. This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2020 Volume 6. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2020.

Track by Track Review

I Am The Pillar Of Darkness In Your Life This comes in a bit twisted and electronic. It works out through some sort of psychedelic prog pop zones. There are soaring high pitched vocals. Then there is a low register vocal section, as well. This has some decidedly Beatles-like sounds at times. It's proggy and yet so mainstream and fun.

I Love You Just The Same A mellower sound brings this into being. The cut has a great soaring, trippy kind of sound to it as it grows outward. This one also has some Beatles-like elements, but it's all set within an almost dream-pop prog texture.

Man About Lies Starting moody and rather understated, there is a dreamy electronic angle to the piece. There are some cool guitar fills built into it. The song explodes into a guitar based exploration further down the road that really rocks. It has a decidedly 1970s vibe to it. After that works through the number drops back to the song proper to take it out.

Line Stepper Moody and mellower, this is another cool piece of music. This one has another hard rocking movement built into it. It's a real powerhouse at times, serving as a great counterbalance to the mellower modes that make up a lot of the piece.

Chemical Trance With distorted guitar swirling around electronics and other elements, the title track is suitably trippy. The cut gets pretty powerful with a trippy, dreamy texture at its heart.

Svengali Another dreamy cut, this has some great trippy elements at play. It gets into some Beatles-like zones as it builds further down the road. Yet, it's still tempered with much the same textures.

One Up Two Down Seeming to come out of the previous piece, there is more of a bluesy kind of musical zone built into this cool tune.

The Light Between Your Eyes Mellow trippy textures open this number and hold it for quite a while. Around the minute-and-a-half mark the cut powers out into a driving, harder rocking zone. It still has plenty of dreamy, trippy texture built into it, though. I love the rhythm section on this part of the piece. It shifts to something akin to Pink Floyd from there. There is some particularly tasty guitar soloing in the mix along with some space rock kind of vibes as it drives forward. At almost six-and-a-half minutes of music this is the longest piece here. That allows for a lot of room for change and evolution. It gets into some powerful Beatles meets Pink Floyd zones further along the road.

Never Without You With an electronic edge to it, this has a Beatles vibe to it. This is gentler from start to finish than a lot of the rest. It's also less dynamic, but no less effective.

Gyp Million Star This is a short bit of trippy, spacey atmospherics.

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