HakenLike many, I have always enjoyed Haken’s original take on progressive music and their live shows. Their 2013 album “The Mountain”, which was full of feeling and originality, knocked me out and added to an already impressive portfolio. So I had great hopes for “Affinity”.

The signs were good when I listened to “Initiate”. It packs more heights and variations in one four minute track than I can remember. Of course the variations can be baffling with Haken but I immediately marked “Initiate” down as a track where I could re-listen to it in the knowledge I could get more out of it than I did first time, and so it proved. Haken allow themselves nine minutes for “1985”. Once again it has wonderful progression, flow and irresistible magnetism. The instrumental timing is immaculate. The harmonies, which in the past could be a touch crude, are perfectly handled. The keyboard, drum and guitar build up the scene to an ever-expanding crescendo. There are no gimmicks. It’s just imagination, flow and excitement. And even a bit of djent at the end.

“Beautiful and uplifting” covers just part of “Lapse”’s charm. It’s funky, jazzy, bouncy and epic. Its chorus bursts out to reach the heights of spine-tingling emotional magnificence. Such was the preparation for the fifteen minute “The Architect”. It’s an explosion of multi-coloured prog. Then the keyboard player plays a tune, and the story begins:“ You turned your back, turned your back on affinity … now it’s turning to, turning to toxicity”. The deep, throaty guitar and the keyboard samples create yet another mind-blowing atmosphere. We’re taken down a magical road like a cosmic Tubular Bells. One exotic atmosphere leads to another, as we move from softly spoken words through Opeth-like majesty and death vocals to an exhilarating keyboard-djent passage. In the tradition of many prog tracks, I don’t know how we got to where we did by the end of “The Architect” but by goodness, it was the most thrilling journey.

It occurred to me that to this point I hadn’t encountered Haken’s playful side, but here it came on “Earthrise”. It’s hard to say that this one of Haken’s simpler tracks because they don’t do such things. Transforming passages interweave with harmonies. The chorus was slightly overdone, I thought, and for the first time I was snapped back into reality. But this state didn’t last long as the haunting and faintly psychedelic “Red Giant” took me back to the ethereal world. It’s quite dark with the keyboard player providing the moody waves. The drumbeat picks up and the vocalist superimposes his majestic tones. By contrast, “The Endless Knot” has the quirky urgency, which Haken always deliver so well. But whereas this eccentricity once could stand in isolation, here’s it’s blended with a lush fusion of sounds to create a maelstrom of prog pleasure and delight. Again the keyboard player, drummer and guitarist combine to create the most sophisticated of atmospheres, yet in a way that is magnetic, warm and exciting. Expecting something of a climax from the final track, I was surprised when I first heard “Bound by Gravity”. It took me aback a little. Haken had spoilt me thus far with all the interconnected twists and turns, and instrumental supremacy. At first I recognised its quality as a lovely track, and the vocals are immaculate, but the more I listen to this emotionally powerful song with its wonderful harmonies and instrumental subtlety, the more I realise it’s a different kind of masterpiece, but a masterpiece nevertheless in common with all that has gone before it.

I was sitting on an X5 bus from Milton Keynes to Cambridge when I first listened to “Affinity”. It even managed to make that mundane experience into something magical. As the Dutch were exponents of total football, this is total prog. It’s that book you can’t put down, that painting which completely captivates you with its imagination and beauty. Every second of this kaleidoscopic and sumptuous experience is gripping. I’d like to award Haken an Honorary Degree in Imagination, but as I can’t do that, I can only commend them album for their brilliance.

(9.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

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