currently conspiring to go to ventura show tonight with friends, too long of a drive to convince myself to go by myself, i know i'll get home from work and say 'nah, i just saw them last night.'
Another Kayo Dot thread, for several reasons...
- Thread starter NAD
- Start date
lizard
Member
it would be worth it if you could turn some people on to them and since it's a monday night, it should be nice and intimate (i.e. not alot of idiots there).
Yeah these dudes already know and like Kayo Dot. They aren't rabid fans just yet, but they definitely dig them.
oh shit i used the shift key, what a sell out.
oh shit i used the shift key, what a sell out.
lizard
Member
Nadrian: last night I listened to the indieworkshop sampler and the Mono track Halcyon is absolutely incredible.
I forgot the disc today but tomorrow I'll send you an mp3. I can guarantee that you will like it.
I forgot the disc today but tomorrow I'll send you an mp3. I can guarantee that you will like it.
lizard
Member
lizard
Member
woooo I just got taken out from being supervised by the gold digging woman who looks like an egyptian mummy, and put under a cool old guy named Bill who I'll be learning the phone systems and stuff from.
this is a pretty good day!
this is a pretty good day!
If she literally is a 49er, that sounds awesome!lizard said:
I downloaded the track at home, I tried at work but it went all stupid on me. Results to be posted later!
lizard
Member
lizard
Member
lizard
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lizard
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Black Winter Day
Member
lizard
Member
Choirs Of The Eye: Well, All Grown Up
Mar 28 '04 (Updated Mar 28 '04)
Pros
This complex album was built to grow, and will.
Cons
For me... none. The unfamiliar may not agree. It's quite different.
The Bottom Line
Though it may sound stand-offish at first, the more you listen, the more fruit this album bears. One of, if not the best album of 2003.
Full Review
I remember just a few short years ago, during a long and tired search for metal groups that brought more to the table than blastbeats and mic chewing, I stumbled across the cacophony-metal group Maudlin of the Well, a band that took practically all metal (and musical) cliches and stomped them to dust. A behemoth of a band which eschewed all conventions, melding multiple genres into one, and somehow making it work beautifully. I still consider their 2001 double releases Bath and Leaving Your Body Map, to be one of the greatest, if not most interesting metal releases ever (I guess you could call it that... perhaps metaljazzfolkfusion), and had been salivating for a new release ever since.
Enter Kayo Dot, formerly Maudlin of the Well, and a new album under composer kook John Zorn's Tzadik label. Now, while I enjoy a few of Zorn and Co.'s composition-based destroy all musical trappings releases (though to the everyman, they may sound like a tuba trainwreck), I wasn't exactly optimistic at what this might hold in store for a new Well. Safe to say, my fears disappeared once I heard it.
It's impossible not to try to compare Kayo Dot to Maudlin... they're comprised of the same members, after all, (only partially correct) and hold the same ideals of music-melding that their former incarnation pulled off so well. But here, now Kayo Dot, is a more mature version of these ideals with what seems to be a clearer vision of exactly what they've been trying to accomplish. These guys have grown.
Already from the 10 minute opener Marathon, Dot singlehandedly run the gamut from noise to jazz, ambience, doom metal, and post rock. No choruses, bridges, breakdowns, or any music theory pitfalls will be found here. Speed metal stops on a dime to wineglass-quiet atmospherics throughout, as vocular screams become whispered narrative. Just as different, Wayfarer's folksy, meandering opening moves to Floydian soundscapes and culminates in a soaring, choir like finish.
And the cycle continues throughout the entire album, each song topping the other in headscratching complexity. A Pitcher of Summer lulls into Yorke-esque falsettos, segues into a ballad and closes with a sludge freefall, french horns and layered vocals abound. Indeed, Kayo Dot have herded some 10 musicians to contribute to the project, resulting in sporadic uses of strings, winds, piano, and just about every creed of horn you can think of. Another example, the closer Antique, at first feels like a field recordings experiment before falling into a crushing dirge of doom midway (complete with roaring vocals), finally culminating into a beautiful ambient piano/trumpet neo-jazz finish. Not to gush, but it is just too good.
Definitely laying my reservations to rest, Maudlin have matured well beyond metal to become Kayo Dot... a rogue, tapdancing along the edge of every genre it can think of, but never falling in. As such, listening to Choirs of the Eye can simultaneously energize and drain you, and is best left for listeners who can devote time to delving into an album which most assuredly requires your strict attention. It may all sound confusing or taxing in print, but make no mistake, this is an album to remember.
Mar 28 '04 (Updated Mar 28 '04)
Pros
This complex album was built to grow, and will.
Cons
For me... none. The unfamiliar may not agree. It's quite different.
The Bottom Line
Though it may sound stand-offish at first, the more you listen, the more fruit this album bears. One of, if not the best album of 2003.
Full Review
I remember just a few short years ago, during a long and tired search for metal groups that brought more to the table than blastbeats and mic chewing, I stumbled across the cacophony-metal group Maudlin of the Well, a band that took practically all metal (and musical) cliches and stomped them to dust. A behemoth of a band which eschewed all conventions, melding multiple genres into one, and somehow making it work beautifully. I still consider their 2001 double releases Bath and Leaving Your Body Map, to be one of the greatest, if not most interesting metal releases ever (I guess you could call it that... perhaps metaljazzfolkfusion), and had been salivating for a new release ever since.
Enter Kayo Dot, formerly Maudlin of the Well, and a new album under composer kook John Zorn's Tzadik label. Now, while I enjoy a few of Zorn and Co.'s composition-based destroy all musical trappings releases (though to the everyman, they may sound like a tuba trainwreck), I wasn't exactly optimistic at what this might hold in store for a new Well. Safe to say, my fears disappeared once I heard it.
It's impossible not to try to compare Kayo Dot to Maudlin... they're comprised of the same members, after all, (only partially correct) and hold the same ideals of music-melding that their former incarnation pulled off so well. But here, now Kayo Dot, is a more mature version of these ideals with what seems to be a clearer vision of exactly what they've been trying to accomplish. These guys have grown.
Already from the 10 minute opener Marathon, Dot singlehandedly run the gamut from noise to jazz, ambience, doom metal, and post rock. No choruses, bridges, breakdowns, or any music theory pitfalls will be found here. Speed metal stops on a dime to wineglass-quiet atmospherics throughout, as vocular screams become whispered narrative. Just as different, Wayfarer's folksy, meandering opening moves to Floydian soundscapes and culminates in a soaring, choir like finish.
And the cycle continues throughout the entire album, each song topping the other in headscratching complexity. A Pitcher of Summer lulls into Yorke-esque falsettos, segues into a ballad and closes with a sludge freefall, french horns and layered vocals abound. Indeed, Kayo Dot have herded some 10 musicians to contribute to the project, resulting in sporadic uses of strings, winds, piano, and just about every creed of horn you can think of. Another example, the closer Antique, at first feels like a field recordings experiment before falling into a crushing dirge of doom midway (complete with roaring vocals), finally culminating into a beautiful ambient piano/trumpet neo-jazz finish. Not to gush, but it is just too good.
Definitely laying my reservations to rest, Maudlin have matured well beyond metal to become Kayo Dot... a rogue, tapdancing along the edge of every genre it can think of, but never falling in. As such, listening to Choirs of the Eye can simultaneously energize and drain you, and is best left for listeners who can devote time to delving into an album which most assuredly requires your strict attention. It may all sound confusing or taxing in print, but make no mistake, this is an album to remember.
lizard
Member
I don't know what happened to it! It was on my desktop at home and now IT DISAPPEARED! Feel free to email it again, perhaps it won't turn into a ghost this time!
lizard
Member
resent...I was listening to it the other night on headphones and there's one part that startled me, I almost jumped off the couch.
