Kasper Rosa - 'Scaling Mount Improbable'
There’s a popular tendency towards snobbery when it comes to instrumental music. Personally, I rarely hear an instrumental band without thinking their sound would be greatly improved with the addition of vocals. Not so with Kasper Rosa however. The Belfast quartet manage to create music which is at times both intricate and powerful, drawing on a seemingly wide and eclectic range of influences to create something quite compelling. At times there are elements of a more laid-back Tool in their sound; heavy and occasionally dark (on tracks like EP2 opener ‘Team Building Exercise’), yet quite beautiful and capable of moving seamlessly into something much lighter and more melodic; the stripped-back, piano-led ‘There Is No Such Joy In The Tavern (As Upon The Road There To)’ being a perfect example in this respect.
One of the reason this instrumental record works so well is that there is such a range of different styles across the EP. Most of the time you don’t even notice that the next track has begun: not because the tracks are similar, not by a long shot. It’s because this E.P is so well-crafted that the music flows so smoothly from one track to the next.
As an instrumental band making this type of music – complex, and at times grandiose without being overpowering – there will inevitably be comparisons to bands like Mogwai. This, of course, is no bad thing. Kasper Rosa might not have been on the scene for long, but they have honed their craft well and if you’re someone who tends to be on the fence with instrumental music, this might just be the band to swing you.
Campbell Miller is a student at the University of Glasgow, a folk singer-songwriter, and deputy editor of Stereokill. 
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