A Polish guy called Mariusz Kumala has created a progressive psychedelic rock project depicting musical space travel. “madeinside” is its latest incarnation.

“madeinside” is indeed like a journey through the clouds. Echoing, synthesised voices, cosmic interventions and other wordliness are part of the adventure, notably on “Nothing” and “A While”. Otherwise this is a largely dreamy and hypnotic progression. As I listened to the distorted sound waves of “Spice” develop into dreamy and mellow atmospheric territory, musical images of Pink Floyd, Opeth, Porcupine Tree and Riverside. The patient drum has an air of Cult of Luna. There is some edge but it didn’t cause palpitations. But above all I heard Novembre and their “Novembrine Waltz” (2001) in the haunting chorus and guitar line, the mellow mood and the lushness. “Believe in Dreams” is exactly this. Haunting, dreamy choruses match the pattering drum. Progress is steady. The air is melancholic. Drums pop gently. “Nothing” is typically pleasant and has a level of depth without being adventurous. The progression is engaging and the guitar work light and appealing. There’s a lot of hypnotic repetition in here and “Change?” suffers for being a nothing track. For me, by far the best is the title track, which captures the journey. The atmosphere is built up instrumentally. Built around the same rhythm, it is emotive and atmospheric. The vocal sighs enhance it. Inexplicably the whole mellow mood of the album is disturbed as the final track “Not Me?” gets under way. Now it is heavy and edgy, but the edge is nullified by the repetition. It stops – oh no, a secret track – and restarts. Why? The end is just confusion. Most unsatisfactory.

“madeinside” is not unpleasant and leaving out the final track, is relaxing to listen to. It is as unthreatening as it is unexciting. So much more could have been done to sweep me up, I felt. The overall mood captures a journey but musically it was a case of ups and downs without extremes of either.

(6/10 Andrew Doherty)

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https://brainstory.bandcamp.com/album/madeinside