Kaito - 'Band Red' (Blast First)
4/5
By: Toby L
More thrashing, trashing chick-punk from Kaito, in their first full-length for Blast First Records, as recorded in LA. Flash bastards.
It's a glimmering insight to their whirl/world of noisy nonsense. Scrappy, half-tuned guitars cascade against cavernous, enveloping, crashing drums and vocals sound as if they've been sung under water. And that's track-one, 'Enemyline'. F**k, this could get messy.
Not that we'd have it any other way. The antithesis to any notion of 'production'; the raging answer to 'song-crafting'; and the feedback-strewn retort to accusations of being ultimately, filthily unfocussed; 'Band Red' is an impressively snotty, arty collage of confused structures, yelping voices and fuzzy angst.
Even the closest they border to 'pop' is positively terrifying - the looming bass-bounce and Yeah-Yeah-Yeahs-in-a-blender chaos of 'Should I', and just when you need it, (temporary) lite-relief surges forth in the form of a prettily intricate 'Try Me Out', with its interweaving guitars and cutesy-wootsy purrs from Nikki Colk (and just wait for the melodica to get going).
And, for the curious listener, Kaito are able to answer some of our greatest music-related teasers of our time: just how would The Strokes sound like if they were performed by a scary Clinic-cum-Queens of the Stone Age abortion (answer: 'Anamoy'); to what extent do build-up intros and smacked-up Trail Of Dead morbidity combine to form a valiant outlet (well, if 'Think Twice' is anything to go by - bloody well); and which is the finest way to end an actually clearly genius album (through the best airing of all the previous, of course - just indulge in the doubled-singing minimalism and non-stop clacking of '3AM': positively haunting).
And despite being often coupled alongside a modern-day arsenal of obscurely tantalising contemporaries - Erase Errata, Le Tigre, et al - Kaito are well destined to furrow their own groove: that of distorted, disaffected, decidedly awkward abandon.
Artists in this article: Kaito
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment