Labirinto - Anatema

"Anatema" is the first UK release from Sao Paulo rockers Labirinto, and it's not an album to be taken lightly. With a track listing of just six songs, the shortest clocking in at a mega ten minutes and some change, you need to take some quality time out to appreciate everything that is going on.

If you like your music to come complete with lyrics and vocals, maybe you should look elsewhere now; you won't find any of that sort of malarkey here, Labirinto are all about the letting the music speak for itself.

A slow build up into album opener "Reverso" with a sitar adding subtle melodies to the background is perhaps the first hint that this is not an album that will treat you with kindness if you start skipping from track to track on a whim. This is an album you need to devote the entire seventy minutes to without directing your attention elsewhere to get the full impact.

Gentle melodies give way to heavy guitar riffs, which in turn give way to light-hearted banjo, and surprisingly the transition sounds seamless despite the idea that these are instruments that don't play nicely with each other.

Labirinto do what they do so well that it is difficult to draw comparisons with other bands. That being said however, I think it's safe to say that if you're a fan of early instrumental Porcupine Tree (or in frontman Steven Wilson's words the "audio landscaping" present in early albums) you will get on very well with "Anatema".

It's not only the music that wants your attention, each CD comes packaged with a series of inserts (one for each song)with elaborate artwork designed by João Ruas, the artistic mastermind responsible for the covers of the "Fables" graphic novels, which are worth the price of purchase alone.

Overall, "Anatema" takes you on a musical journey that is rarely seen in a world dominated by X Factor and Pop Idol offcuts and is a refreshing breath of fresh air from the autotune generation.