Premise: An album comprised of five tracks.
-Five tracks, man? Pffft, how long could it be?
-Like, you know... longer than that Locust joint.
-No way? Which Locust joint?
-Any of them, and yeah way.
-Kayo Dot's on Robotic Empire. So, this album's a combination of spazzy drumbeats, everywhere guitar parts, and harsh vocals - that I love, of course - right?
-Well, kind of. Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue's got all that, but it's really different.
-What the hell are you talking about, "it's really different?"
-Just listen to it, chieftain; it's all orchestral and shit.
-Yo, man. I'm not into that slow-ass pussy music.
-Chill! It's cool man. It's almost, like, dark and shit. You know, heavy in its own right?
Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue, Toby Driver & Co.'s most recent concoction of sounds, clocks in at just under one hour. Take the dissonance your favorite "dissonant" band, add extreme vocal styles and an array of instruments, multiply by distance over time, and subtract all the clichés. That pretty much sums up Kayo Dot, and their latest album in particular.
I'd love to take the time to do a track-by-track review of this album, but I know I'd probably bore you with every single detail that there is to write about. Honestly, listen to this shit and tell me you could write a concise explanation.
If you're into anything "spacey" and raw - although the production is nothing short of mastered - or, like I mentioned before, orchestral-ish music, you'd probably enjoy at least some parts of this album. I say "orchestral-ish" because it does tend to represent that quality and then it tends to, well, not. The instrumentation is, without a doubt, composed like a cathartic orchestra, but Driver's intense vocal technique blows that preconceived notion out of the metaphorical water.
No "Easy Listening" section of a record shop would dare house a record such as Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue. Kayo Dot's music could be listened to as background music, or listened to intently - the way it should be. I'm not going to compare them to other groups even though people probably categorize them as post-rock. I say, "bump genres." This album, this band, is something quite unique.
