Kasper Rosa - EP2 EP Review

Like a series of mini film scores, Kasper Rosa deliver their EP2 in the strangest of formats. This must be the longest EP of all time, with its running time of 39 minutes, it's not too far from being an albums length of material.

What separates Kasper Rosa from others bands is the fact that they only make instrumentals, long progressive rock instrumentals. It might sound like mild torture on paper, but what unfolds over those stretched out 39 minutes is surprisingly intriguing. What starts off as thrashing power chords with showering of shredding in the form of Team Building Exercise, soon turns into the meek and mild chill out tones of Nailed to the Chair for My Own Good.

Things take a turn for the worse by the time a rather dated This Version of the Facts arrives, its moody guitar solos wouldn't sounds out of place on an old episode of Frost. Matters do, however, improve when Scaling Mount Improbable kicks in, its early intricacy is soon replaced by epic stadium sounding guitar playing and pounding drums. Before you know it, EP2 closes with the anthemic Good Luck with David, the kind of candle waver that most stadium rock bands would be proud of.

With some tracks spanning a length of 11 minutes, there is an air of Mogwai about these Belfast boys, perhaps they too can be pioneers of instrumental music in the not too distant future.

Sam Marland