KOLBAK is a musical project for Amsterdam native Harold Pflug. Apparently, this project has been around for nine years as he was also working with Redbrick VCR and a punk band called In Stitches. I surmise that's why it took him four years of recording to get down six songs on his release Sea.
The description he has at the bottom of his Bandcamp page didn’t seem all that indicative of the music he makes. I sure as heck didn't hear anything that came close to sounding like post-punk. The music felt more related to bands like Air or Spiritualized to my ears. He opens with “Start To Live” which is a simple song revolving around a couple of strummed chords and vocals. It’s a fairly catchy song but doesn’t require much scrutiny. The second guitar helps to create a sense of space. The songs start to open for the better starting with “Independence for Arrogance.” As I mentioned there is a bit of a Spiritualize vibe and I thought that was overt on this song. The song has a optimistic almost gospel like feel to it that I thought sounded good. Overall “Independence for Arrogance” has some good moments and keeps building higher and higher as the song progresses. Pflug goes into different territory with “Help You/Help Me (an ode to Joy)” which utilizes electronic elements like pads and electronic beats. The song has an ethereal quality to it and by the ending crescendo feels pretty hectic. “Confusion Against” is a straightforward pop song with some catchy vocal melodies while “Up” has a carefree “Penny Lane” type vibe that feels quite different than anything else on the EP. He closes with “Older Than Me” which had some rare straight rock moments. Perhaps it was the four years it took to make this EP but there was a disparity between the songs which painted a blurry picture of the type of music he makes. Despite some incongruent aspects to the songs I thought the songwriting was solid along with the production and delivery. I‘d like to hear some more of his work under the KOLBAK moniker and hope it doesn't take four years to see the light of day.
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