CHOIRS OF THE EYE

There is no sense here, besides the rapture found in a million guitars soloing at once. Besides the moody into of "Marathon"; a flute and trumpet converse in uneasy tones until a deranged guitar and vocals enter the fray. Things become slightly more conventional after that, a little more rock and roll--until a dreamlike post-rock section starts, complete with a heavily delayed guitars, weird percussive noises, unidentifiable samples, and poetry. Yes, poetry. But the Moody Blues this is not. As I said there is no sense here. Nothing I can readily grasp.

"A Pitcher of Summer" is probably the most easily defined song of Choirs of the Eye. It's got beautiful lyrics passionately (but imperfectly) sung, somber guitar notes, and a cool METAL outburst at the end. But it also contains no structure that I can discern, and has many lapses into tense silences. It's the shortest track here in Choirsland.

The aptly titled "The Manifold Curiosity" is a thing of beauty and terror together. There's poetry reading again, there are weird noises, and there's a section of multi-tracked violins (for the first time noticeable). Something that Kayo Dot never does on this album is repeat things unnecessarily. Once a section is over they move on. "Marathon" is a good example of this, there are many different sections of this piece and yet they all sound like they are part of the same "song". It's a pretty impressive feat.

"Wayfarer" is probably the most psychedelic on the album. And theres another excellent violin section in this song, along with some impressionistic guitar playing. Check out some of these lyrics:

Caves of candlelight with amethyst imbued, Opal skulls of opal creatures decorating tombs. Woods of columned water supporting ceilings breathing blue, Seascapes filled with poison, lonely, waiting for the few Final scarlet denizens to march into the scorching fumes.

Pretty cool, eh? Very ornate stuff. Almost Keatsian. Pretty prog rock too, for an experimental metal band.

My only complaint with the album is the last song, "The Antique". And while it's far from a bad song, it does take a while to get started. One could probably say that it stays most true to the post-rock method of quiet-into-loud, of all the songs presented. It also has the most coherent structure of the group too, with only a little metal at the climax.

For anyone who is interested in finding something that's somewhere in the middle of post rock and avant rock with a few metal and jazz flourishes I recommend you check it out. There is no sense here, but in its place is a great beautiful delirium, and I wouldn't have it any other way.