DOWSING ANEMONE WITH COPPER TONGUE

Kayo Dot

RIO/Avant-Prog

3.77 | 198 ratings

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laplace
Prog Reviewer

Now here's a disc that puts a thousand others into perspective.

Kayo Dot remind us that many musical ideas are cliches not because they are the best way of doing things but because they are easy to replicate, so it's a shock to hear true musical gentility on tracks such as "Immortelle and Paper Caravelle", which curls along the senses with whispered eloquence without offering a clear hook, and snatches away its most "song-like" moment almost as soon as it surfaces, because we have come to expect far more structure in a band's emulation of emotions such as joy, anticipation and wistful acceptance. Similarly, during the course of "___ On Limpid Form", which rattles with droning bass and eventually a certain noisy clatter, inevitablity is expressed more purely and directly than many artists would care to attempt. The closer, "Amaranth the Peddler" provides us with a gestalt song on order of the infamous Moonchild - and whether you think either band had a clear, planned composition or were simply improvising minimally on the spur of the moment, the final effect of both songs is profound.

I don't find there to be much metal on this album and consider Kayo Dot to be a band that has the genre on its radar - along with avant-jazz, post-rock and hardcore - rather than a metal band as such. Of course, the controversial and defining moment during "___ On Limpid Form" is thunderous but there are no conventional riffs to be found on this album, nor any powerhouse drumming and certainly no direct, sloganeering vocals; I find the lyrical content to be ethereal and somewhat vague - miles away from confrontational metal epic poems.

This is a polarising album for good reason: Kayo Dot have found a new way to transmit emotion. If your definition of progressiveness has upward limits, "Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue" will be way off your charts in terms of structure and sonic variation; sadly, you may not yet be equipped to receive their transmission.

laplace | 5/5 | 2007-4-7

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