| Summary: Toby Driver changes his line-up and brings us a less-diverse, more experimental version of his newly developed concept named "Kayo Dot". It hasn't lost its edge, it just seems to be a different kind of edge. |
2 of 2 thought this review was well written
It's difficult to define intensity in terms of music. It's easy to put in in physical terms as exposed by "current intensity", for instance, which is a measurable physical quantity, and as it grows larger, its effects can be seen more prevalent by external witness corpuscles (like magnetic fields or power dissipation. Nonetheless, the task seems to get fuzzier and blurrier as it approaches the music aspect.
How could intense music be defined?
The approach to distinct music genres will lead to different answers. A pop-music listener might define intense as a musical piece which is easy to relate to, whether for the emotional link it creates or, put more simply, the more it talks about getting dumped and guys being jerks. A sludge-metal-music listener will define an intense musical piece as that which most evident crescendos are put in particular, special moments of musical distress, or as those moments in which the song seems to have lost its entire point and goes back to tie links musically.
As a Kayo Dot listener, it's quite not so much of an easy task, since the most intense moments are not equivalent to each listener, nor is the focus each gives to a certain moment of the song. To put a clear example, Gemini Becoming the Tripod could be used. The intensity is marked by the screeching. helpless, anxious vocals by Toby driver, as if it wasn't meant to be sung, but screamed. And that's how it sounds. And it sounds fitting, as the birth of a new being from a once complete entity.
"The world closed its eyes..."
The poetic intricacies in the last line are obvious, once put in context and to a lesser extent out of it, whether its the sentiment it's sung with or the overall context of the piece as a whole.
On a different approach, one could take The Antique or more significantly __ On Limpid Form for an intense musical moment, given by the subtlety of instrumentation or the build-up necessary to reach... absolute nowhereness. And all three examples are distinct from each other, even being the same band. Leaving the philosophical dissension of what Kayo Dot implicates, onward with Blue Lambency Downward.
First of all, the most evident missing element are growls and other distinctive vocal experimentations present in "Dowsing Anemone..." and lesser in "Choirs of the Eye". Whether it was a creative decision or simply put, growing up, it can't be said that the appeal of the band was lost. Au Contraire, the feeling of the band is still there, albeit the lack of classically-understood "metal intensity". Given intensity is now given by the band's instrumental capacity, and rarely recurring to rock instruments to achieve it, so that when they do use them (like the intro to Symmetrical Arizona or most drum participations along the album) they actually seem like they are "in place" and not so much leaving a sensation of "oh, there goes another solo". As the album goes on, the musical intensity spikes at moments and unlike what was tried to be done with "60 Metonymies" by giving a lot of the stress work to the strings department, it seems like what Toby Driver knows how to do best is to create pieces of magnanimous proportions with as many elements as he can bring to the table. Nonetheless, it can't be denied his genius for ambient creation and minimalist touch, but the larger compositions happen to be what I perceive as his best work (given the chance, my personal preference is questionable at this point, I suppose).
Leaving the growls-are-missing part of the album, most of it flows amazingly, and each instrumental section is interesting as is on its own. When the news that Charlie Zeleny (formerly with Behold... the Arctopus) was going to be featured in the band as the drummer, quickly conclusions were drawn in the vein of the band becoming some kind of technical-core ambient sludge drone monstrosity. It's a good thing to know that it didn't. Actually, drumming seems to be level with the drumming in previous observations. Nonetheless, in some sections it can be noticed the eager technical approach of Charlie when performing, but it never really becomes annoying enough for it to be unbearable or that different from the usual drumming section in Kayo Dot. There seem to be less solo moments and more convergent musical moments than in previous albums, there seem to be less diffuse moments and more focused, mature musical moments. To put an example of this, you could extrapolate the album as "two large songs and smaller excerpts", since both large songs are constructed pretty much the same (or to me they seem to be structurally more similar) and the shortest songs happen not to lose much content even if the norm in Kayo Dot songs is to be considered larger compositions, rather than shorter notes. Altogether, it sounds just like Kayo Dot, as if change was the key element to the success of this band's musical observations among its avid listeners.
What might throw off some are the "jazz" moments which keep popping up in different opinion sectors, which are not really "jazz", if it sounds more fitting to the listener, it reminds me more of classical movies instrumentation where the key is not to make outstanding solo instruments, but where convergence of sound is to create the mood of the scene rather than accenting music itself, making it moreso interesting and making the whole picture to fit in together. Don't be mislead by some drumming and the saxophone here or there, other music genres other than jazz use such instrumentation and musical motifs and it doesn't make them "jazzy" or anything of the sort.
The sound of the album is your casual Kayo Dot here and there in terms of large use of dynamics and composition, but for those who are not familiar with Kayo Dot you could see it as what is considered "classical music". Instead of the extensive use of rock structures when writing (choruses, bridges, etc.) there's a rather large use of silence to build what is known by many as "ambient". The sound of the album could be pointed as it being a rollercoaster of sound, for those who are not as familiar to the band.
So what can be concluded from this album? Was this article supposed to change your perspective on what something intense should be? Was this a miniature physics course to try to demonstrate that change is not a subject of negative criticism but of praise to disorder? No more questions should be left from reading this than they were answered. Blue Lambency Downward is, in terms of Kayo Dot, another very nice set of musical leading always to want more, more mature musically, more cohesive, and outstanding as are its fellow observations by Kayo Dot; nonetheless, Blue Lambency Downward seems to leave this observation with a much more conclusive, grand finale song as Symmetrical Arizona is, which makes me wonder if it was really necessary after all to find closure from a finite number of tracks, or to always leave things hanging, wishing the experience lasted longer than it did.
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Album Rating: 4
Not a classic because Choirs is more epic tbqh.
Digging: Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward | | | Album Rating: 3
It's just symmetrical arizona, not assymetrical.
My feelings on this album are torn. I really want to like it, because I know I'm listening to expert composition, but it's so impenetrable at times, it's frustrating. There are several moments on the record where I was left craving a beat or a powerchord or something. I also wasn't a fan of how the normal Kayo Dot volumes were inverted, that is Toby's voice is now very much in the forefront and the instruments got moved back. I was disappointed by this release, and I was counting on it to be one of my favorites of the year.
Pretty Good review, though obviously I disagree. I wish you talked about the music a little bit more. I'm not entirely sure people reading this review will know what Blue Lambency Downward sounds like.
This Message Edited On 05.08.08
Digging: Spokes - People Like People Like You | | | Album Rating: 4.5
So far this is my favorite of the year. I think it's excellent, and superior to Dowsing, but I won't be surprised at all if this isn't received as well by Sputnik. As for the review, it's alright, some parts are a little tough to read, but I agree with your points.
This Message Edited On 05.08.08
Digging: Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward | | |
I have to review this for a local music magazine, and
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Originally Posted by electric city
it's so impenetrable at times, it's frustrating.
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sums it up quite succinctly.
also very good review
This Message Edited On 05.08.08
Digging: Sigur Ros - ( )
| | | Album Rating: 4
will add stuff electric city
sorry about making it too little profound but I assumed the readers of this would be kind of familiar with the band and would prefer to see how it relates to other music since it feels very different
idk 
on a related note idk wtf weird I read it as Assymetrical : /
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
it's not a lack familiarity, it's just a bit wordy at spots
| | | Album Rating: 3
Actually, with I think to Sputnik Kayo Dot is the type of band everyone goes on about but they haven't listened to yet, and in that case a more in-depth, sound oriented review would be most useful, though I agree to those familiar with Kayo Dot, the review does a pretty good job getting across what it sounds like.
| | | Album Rating: 4
the summary is awkwardly written i think
"how is it any bad"?
Digging: Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People | | |
I think I would've liked to hear more about the album, even though I am familiar with Kayo Dot's sound. But the review was well-written and made me a bit more excited to hear the album.
I should have the album in a few days, maybe tomorrow. 
This Message Edited On 05.08.08
Digging: Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye
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Nice review. This is like a 4- 4.5 for me.
Digging: Algernon Cadwallader - Some Kind of Cadwallader
| | | Album Rating: 4
yeah, the summary is kind of awkward, but I thought the rest of the review was really well written.
I liked this album a lot, up there with Choirs and with the one listen I gave to Dowsing Anemone a while ago. One of my favorites from this year.
Digging: You and I - The Curtain Falls | | |
I'm not too sure as what I want to give this, but I think I'm going for something like a 4. Some parts have too much of a feel of rambling for the album's own good.
Also, some of the chaotic moments in the previous two albums with screaming were brilliant (one of my favorites being the middle section of "The Antique"), but if you didn't like the screaming, I guess that's an okay reason to prefer the vocals on this.
Digging: Ambulette - The Lottery EP
| | | Album Rating: 3
The vocals are really mediocre. Them being such a focus bogs it down for me.
Digging: Running Wild - Black Hand Inn | | |
I need this.
Digging: Mors Principium Est - Liberation = Termination
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The vocals are really mediocre. Them being such a focus bogs it down for me.
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I don't think they're that bad, but his falsetto isn't exactly the best.
| | | Album Rating: 3
I didn't say they were bad I said they were really mediocre.
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I'm not sure why Symmetrical Arizona is getting so much praise. I mean, there's some cool chord stuff going on, but the main theme just sounds like a really badly performed blues solo.
Digging: Flobots - Fight With Tools
| | | Album Rating: 3
Because, man. Kayo Dot. Toby Driver.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Because, the lead guitar perfectly embraces the oddity of the chord phrasing in that section. It creates something unfamiliar with the familiar.
But, it is probably because it is Toby Driver.
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Yeah but it sucks. 'The Awkward Wind Wheel' is awesome though.
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