Customer Reviews

Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue

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This is a very special band with a lot to share. In hindsight it is obvious from the first Kayo Dot that the band's past "astral metal" incarnation, maudlin of the Well, was not meant to be any point of reference.* The curiously titled _Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue_ a fortiori severs the connection to that lovable, obscure band. For one thing, although the instrumental lineup has not changed significantly (guitars, piano/keys, violin, trumpet, drums & percussion, with electronics), the music is virtually bereft of anything I would call metal or prog-rock (or whatever exactly motW was). The vocals turned farther away from the screaming and roaring and more towards schizophrenic and dreamy. The music is much more texturally and melodically based than riff-based, and the music is highly composed. If I may have the liberty of comparison, it sounds a little like an obsessed mutant child of Neurosis, GYBE, and a drugged-up Jeff Buckley, still informed by rock, jazz, classical, and ambient. All the while its structural approach reveals less favor for the Western convention of contrasting sections -- the songs of _Dowsing Anemone..._, most of which being 10 to 15 minutes-plus in length, are slowly-evolving, organic constructions. One must hear it to understand how unique and special this music is.

It begins rather like the first album. "Gemini Becoming Tripod", the first track, sets the album up with its lengthy, spacious arrangements, more 'natural' sound, and otherworldly intimations. It starts with a repetitive, harmonically static guitar being strummed with a more fluid violin accompaniment. This combination is whipped into a tumult then fades away as plaintive vocals and weird lyrics like "Geometry showed me its dark side and showered me with its arcing planes" emerge, delivered with tortured, incomprehensible moaning from Driver, which is beaten around by well-timedstrikes of distorted guitars, reaching through a Gorguts-esque apogee with chaotic violin lines and a squealing guitar solo. And that is only the first song! Then, "Immortelle and Paper Caravelle" could be the post-rock ballad to send lovers everywhere into crazier fits of ardor than Amando and Amanda from Ligeti's great opera _Le grand macabre_. It begins with a seemingly random sparkle of heavily-reverbed guitar notes, gradually given cohesion by the introduction of senuous bass lines and a jazzy drum rhythm. Toby Driver's falsetto vocals, the words totally unintelligible, are so delicate he must be hovering between a state of life and death. He sings some of the most perfect melodic lines recorded before a transition of multi-tracked violin pizzicatos and a simple guitar riff leaves the song to fade out in a blissful web of strings and effects. This beautiful slice of music, which is almost absurdly pretty, set against Kayo Dot's apocalyptic climax on "___ on Limpid Form", suggests a disturbing nonchalance about the clash of doom and beauty. But that's always been a theme of Toby Driver's bands...

"Aura on an Asylum Wall" jerks one out of the dreamy state induced by the previous piece. It starts in a dull cacophony of interlocking pieces of eerie glissandos and drunken half-talking/half-singing. It takes a weird vaudevillian twist with a 9/8 rhythm and trumpet solo, then it almost seems to imperceptibly change as thrusts of sustained tones appear and disappear over a steadily intensifying rhythm speckled with violin flourishes. The guitars start to sound more riff-like until it all explodes in a rash grind of crackling distortion over frantic screaming with really surprising, fast n' funky bass by Ryan McGuire and a crazy percussion track that sounds like it was put together with traditional tape-splicing.

"___ on Limpid Form" starts almost in verse-chorus mode, low, plaintive vocal harmonies singing of "a soundless rapture that dissolves the form." Jazzy horn solos and the weird rhythm make it seem like some kind of underwater fugue. Starting at about 4:50 or 5:00, the song takes a dark and disturbing turn. What starts as a handful of chromatic chords punctuated by tense silences, become more spaced apart, more distorted, and more crushing, until 10 minutes later when it is just slow, periodic strikes of heavily detuned chords from the book of Sunn 0))), each capped by a brutal squeal of feedback and surrounded by mechanical junkyard percussion. When the roaring distortion of "___ on Limpid Form" rolls over into "Amaranth the Peddler", one is humbled by Kayo Dot's masterful resolution. It starts with a very quiet introduction for solo drums rather like "The Ferryman" from motW's _Bath_. It is joined by irregular bassy grumbles that expand and contract for a few minutes before strange, overlapping whistling noises and violins that sound like pitch-bending sirens enter the soundscape. The instrumentation that concludes is complex, arpeggiated chord playing which wafts like an autumn wind through dry leaves. "Amaranth" is an incredibly haunting, strange piece and it ends the album PERFECTLY.

_Dowsing Anemone in Copper Tongue_ is only the second album under the Kayo Dot banner, and so perfect and brilliant that the band may never surpass it.

* if you are at all interested in progressive rock/metal or original music of any kind you must do yourself a favor and hear everything by maudlin of the Well.

Impossibly, Kayo dot combine disonnance, delectable melody, heavy metal flourishes, avant-garde excursions and post rock dynamics into a whole which is never sprawling-it seems focused, tuned, intended and overwhelmingly, and most importantly, it feels _right_ and _good_.
The first track for instance, starts off much as Marathon from _Choirs_, but twists and turns in an almost imperceptible way into a somehow perfect, extended break which sees Toby Driver emitting some bizzare, unsettling screams and practically wordless vocals....yet when the full force of the instruments, his vision and the chord structure collapses on top of his anguished 'Gemiminiiiiiii' everything is dragged, impossibly, right into place. '_On Limpid Form' is a nightmarish journey, descending into SunnO)))-ish repeated chords driven home with the force and inevitability of continental drift-yet when this shift is juxtaposed and infiltrated by scattering, schizophrenic percussion, the near 10 minute wait to reach this point takes on new meaning. The point of this journey is not to arrive. So violins, guitars, trumpets, and, importantly, Drivers frighteningly versatile voice may seem to be battling it out for primacy in a messy and baffling blend of insanity, but KD works like Tool-everything is positioned and nothing is wasted.
Ok, this review is pretentious and not entirely coherent, but the point I wanted to get across most-that this album is odd and difficult, unique, yet impossibly, overwhelmingly, it feels _right_, is what I would like you to take from it. Driver never ceases to amaze me. With this record, he doesnt just push the envelope, he stamps on it, sets it on fire and shoots it out a big cannon into The Sun. Pretty much the future of music, or at least the music I want to listen to. Buy buy buy!

Hot on the heels of the excellent "solo" album from Kayo Dot frontman Toby Driver we reviewed earlier, comes this new opus from Kayo Dot proper. They've moved from Tzadik to metalcore label Robotic Empire, but Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue is no less avant-garde than previous KD output, that's for sure (you ought to be able to tell that just by the title, eh?).

A confusing, crushing blend of Godspeed, Neurosis, John Zorn, Amber Asylum, Oxbow... Kayo Dot's apparent points of reference make for a mysterious listen. It's chamber-prog rock, it's metal, it's melodic and mysterious, with cryptic lyrics softly intoned amidst the creepy, ambient beauty, marred (not really) by violent outbursts of claustophobic heaviness, when and if the track builds to such a climax... Or marred by jazzy saxophone solos, there's that too. You can tell why John Zorn likes 'em! Actually, sax only surfaces significantly on "Aura On An Asylum Wall" which also has some of the album's most brutal blasting passages to make up for all that jazziness. There's also rumbling percussion and droning strings and sensitive singing and long stretches of ominous, dark, weighty quietude -- track lengths reach up to 18 minutes and are often more soundscapey than anything "song-structured". It's about as experimental as you can get and still appear on a nominally "metal" label.

Dropping the multi-track collages and electronic effects of their ghostly debut in favor of more live performance minded arrangements, Kayo Dot step out of the haze only to prove to be just as enigmatic as they were in the shadows. As with "Choirs of the Eye", Driver divides the album into five, long, moody pieces that draw from jazz, rock, and classical influences. The slow evolving opener,"..Gemini " teases the listener with the wintery landscapes and blustery metal that opened "Choirs of the Eye" before a lone foreboding guitar emerges from the droning calm left in it's wake. Appearing from thin air like some sort of Lovecraftian terror ripping into our reality, Driver's vocals swell and contort as the music becomes harsher and more demented until the song closes in an eruption of all out metal menace.

Offering a much needed break from the horror of the opener, the jazzy lullaby "Immortelle..." sparkles into clarity like a shimmering dream coming into focus before your eyes. The centerpiece of the song is a brief but gorgeous vocal passage delivered in Driver's haunting falsetto. But as quickly as the song develops, it withers away in cryptic quiets, sweeping strings, and rain drop like melodies. Dropping the outfit's slow evolving approach, "...Asylum Wall" begins with a dark almost bluesy start-stop rock groove in full fruitation with Driver dropping the dreamy falseto in favor of a low, full voice only to puncutate the verses with high shrieks that are seemingly dueling with Mia's violin. Eventually the song shifts into a twisted trumpet kissed waltz before closing with a boiling eruption of distorted percussion and screams.

The album reaches it's nightmarish climax with the near 20 minute "on Limpid form " . Opening with a beautiful but creepy passage of swaying vocals and expressive clean guitar, the song quickly winds down much like "Immortelle" However, the silence is attacked by sporadic blasts of doomy, metallic guitars while unnerving feedback howls louder and louder inbetween explosions. A strange clanking, heavy rain like percussion gains in numbers and slowly surrounds the listener; making it an evil twin to the second piece. The sheer terror of this song is almost indescribable. Imagine the impending doom of being trapped in a lightless room while more and more flesh eating zombies from the original Night of the Living Dead bang on the windows and walls trying to get in. Following such a doomy nightmare, "..The Peddler" opens on a mysterious note before closing the album with haunting guitar chiming and a progressively emotional, almost hopeful vocal arc that seems to imply some sort of salvation after the certain death of the previous track.

There is a difference, between transformation and metamorphosis. Transformation is a complete change, whether it's in simple appearance or other more drastic areas, transformation creates a complete shift in something. It leaves what was formally there, dead, to pursue the new existence full force. Metamorphosis is more of an "evolution". With this, the subject gains new features and sometimes leaves old ones behind, but never completely loses everything they were. An example of metamorphosis is the butterfly. It changes from a land locked slow moving slug to a beautiful fluttering creature seen as a symbol of innocence and whimsicality. Kayo Dot is very much like the butterfly, except their metamorphosis is in a constantly shifting flux. "Choirs of the Eye", Kayo Dot's first album, was an epic of compositional masterwork and the obscure. It took a classical structure and intertwined it with the unholy worlds of Doom & Death metal, Drone and free-jazz to create a truly unique and uncomfortable album. "Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue" takes everything that album was and twists to the point of strangulation. The new album is even more obscure and progressive, making it almost unrelated to the previous album. The album starts out with probably Kayo Dot's most unnerving and sinister track ever recorded, "Gemini Becoming the Tripod". A beautiful string sections swells then advances into a gentle march of guitars and trumpet, then just as this wall of sound gains momentum, it escapes into near silence then emerges with Toby Driver's agonized moaning only to collapse into a black hole of distortion and chaos. This is Kayo Dot, every aspect meticulously thought and performed with perfected skill. The record continues along this path, evolving and changing, never really staying the same, but never truly leaving the core of what Kayo Dot is. "Immortelle and Paper Caravelle" is nothing like the previous track, instead emitting an aura of geniality and sweetness, with Driver's gentle voice accompanied by bouncing trumpet and meandering guitar. This schizophrenic approach is hard to take at first listen, but when truly experienced in a quiet and environment, it is an amazing aural experience. This record is not a "Choirs of the Eye" sequel, at all, it actually sounds nothing like it, except for a few elements that are engraved in the entity that is Kayo Dot. Think of "Choirs of the Eye" as the caterpillar and "Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue" as the butterfly; as a separate physical (or this case aural) body but still very much the same living creature. Some might find the new record completely un-listenable, and that's to be expected, because it is not an "easy" album. "Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue" is an immensely progressive and bizarre piece of music that upon numerous sessions of complete focus can become a truly rewarding experience.

Favorite Track: "Gemini Becoming the Tripod" and "Immortelle and Paper Caravelle"

You might like if you like:

Khanate-"Capture and Release"

Toby Driver-"In the L..L..Library Loft"

Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsent-"Sister Phantom Owl Fish"

Check out my music journalism page, which has an actual interview with Toby Driver of Kayo Dot at:

http://www.myspace.com/panopticmedialtd

This is bloody amazing stuff folks. Similar to being thrown in a mixer of sorts, being tossed around and ravaged for a good hour, then being spit out, you're experiencing Kayo Dot. This is one of those bands that should essentially be loved by any sort of music lover, yet, as unfortunate and as dismal as these sort of matters are, they are not. In fact, this is a band that falls into the "criminally underrated" sort of category.

Hmm, to describe the sound here is indeed a challenge ... although being labeled "avant-metal" for the sake of calling them something ridiculous, or to not labeling them at all (people seem to like labels, it's horrible), Kayo Dot defies classification. You have moments reminding one of a dim-lit city, rain-washed and bleak (i.e. Taxi Driver) to being lost in rusted halls seething with madness and horror (i.e. Silent Hill). The atmospheres are diverse, as is the music, but in both cases there is an underlying theme present. As stated earlier, Kayo Dot is referred to as "avant-metal," however, I'd say 93% of the album isn't metal. The sounds range from your basic set of rock instruments to instruments such as piano, violin, trumpet and clarinet which are never exploited; all instruments, sounds, vocals and ideas present here are used with excellence and class. Nothing is overdone, at all.

I suppose I should be more descriptive and detailed, although I'd rather avoid the many cliches here. This is simply diverse music for a crowd that delves in truly experimental and progressive music. If your like your music different, look no further.

Some truley inventive musicians. Good meditational music. Hardly any metal though. Truely avant garde. Highly recomended. Sorry i'm in a hurry.

Just as showy, almost as silly, and a little more solid than their acclaimed debut, DAWCT may splash even more restlessly and genre-free, but an underlying method to this madness feels marginally more enthralling than before. Momentum however does feel drained in the end, with a prolonged conclusion of musical ambiguity to make one realize Kayo still have ways to go before presenting the masterwork of weird they seemingly strive for.

I was searching through amazon 3 days ago when i found this gem and was completely amazed by what i herd in the previews. I ordered it right away and got it today and have been listening to it since. The cd starts out with "Gemini Becoming the Tripod" which actually kind of almost made me regret buying this cd it just wasnt what i had been looking for. Lucky for me I kept listening and discovered what has to be the greatest music I have ever herd. Some of the reviews i read mentioned the similarities between Kayo Dot and GBYE! and it defintly reminded me of them , long songs and very ambient at times. If your into them you should defintly check this out.

If there was somehow any lingering doubt about the unadulterated creativity of Toby Driver and Kayo Dot in your mind, this album will put it to rest. Despite the fact Kayo Dot had allready achieved a strikingly unique sound on there previous effort, they basically see fit to reinvent there sound all together for there latest excursion into the avant-garde.
Yes, the music is still executed more like a composition than a rock song, and does follow some similar patterns. However, this time around there is much more emphasis placed on ambience, noise and other extremley unconventional forms of music. Leangthy incursions into the stark, unsettling and disquieting make this in general a darker and more ominious listen than there debut. And yet when the band does venture into more standard melodic moments they are tighter and see the band acting more as a cohessive whole. They are also more overtly melodic then the somewhat broken and disconected melodys on Choirs of the eye. This makes for an especially intense listening experience as you are hoisted from one extreme to the other. Alas, I still feel this is ultimatley a flawed album. My main complain is the lyrics ( in my opinion ) are either bereft of any meaning, or so intentionally esoteric as to be cold and feelingless. I loved lyrics like "a pitcher of summer" or "wayfarer". There is noting of that sort here. Personally I am also partial to the more full scope that Choirs of the eye had to offer. The haunting, the beautiful, the ugly, the tragic even the light and hopefull. This album seems to be mirred in gloom. It makes for a considerabley less emotional listen. I judge this album very harshly because it is the follow up to one of my favourite albums of all time. Despite my rebuking I would not be suprised at all if this was my favourite album of 2006. This is genius. Just a little cold.