DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT: KI

Although I first heard this album a while before it was released, I decided to hold fire on reviewing it until I had heard it at decent quality through a good audio system; after all, if anyone's recordings reward those with decent audio hardware, Townsend's do. I am glad that I did so.

Ki is quite an unusual album, especially for the artist behind SYL, but I would hardly say it has come out of the blue. The way in which Townsend has constantly moved forwards and sought out new things in his career is highly commendable, and shows how much talent this man has. So the fact that Ki is different from any other Townsend album is pretty much to be expected, and I expect the same thing from the next three albums this year.

The first thing you notice when you listen to Ki is that it is very quiet, very subdued. The second thing you notice is how melodic it is. There are a lot of songs here that remind of moments like Mental Tan on Synchestra or Down and Under on Terria that were beautiful because they were isolated. Here, the beauty is created because the mood is sustained. Ki never really lets it all go, never goes fully forte, although it threatens to do so for a great deal of the time. Songs like Disruptr and Heaven send are as heavy as it gets; there is nothing to compare to Color Your World here.

Contrary to what I had heard from some quarters prior to listening to it properly, Ki is not less subtle or less deep than previous work by Townsend. Yes there is far less compression, and yes the production is far more open, but it is still very much present. There are a lot of aural goodies tucked away here for the patient listener that are only really revealed when Ki is played on competant equipment; and that's been true of every Townsend album from Ocean Machine onwards.

In terms of the actual quality of songwriting on offer here, I think this is more or less as good as Townsend has ever been. Yes, there might not be quite the bombast of Terria or Ziltoid, but there is still drama here; it is just that the drama is more gently put across.