The Only Toby Driver et al Thread You'll Ever Need

I love this album, love it, and if it were an album by any other band besides Kayo Dot, it would be a five star album, but you cant give the same rating to one of the greatest masterpieces of all time, to a slightly lesser album by the same band, that's just not fair. So I'll have to reluctantly give this album a four star rating, but a good review will come with it.

2006, an awesome year for the music I listen to, Cult of Luna's Somewhere along the highway, Agallochs Ashes against the grain, Russian Circles Enter, Negura Bunget's Om, 65daysofstatic's One for all time, all albums I wouldn't rate less than four stars, especially somewhere along the highway. Yet, amongst all these incredible albums, you have Toby Driver, and his incredible band Kayo Dot throw in Dowsing the Anemone with the Copper tongue, a mesmerizing and enigmatic album, that, like almost all Kayo Dot/Maudlin of the Well albums go's from Minimalistic, to drone metal, to jazz all in five songs. This group knows no bounds, and with my twenty first century hero Toby Driver at the head of it all. Every song invokes a different feeling, and each completely opposite from the other, whether it be the avant garde chaos of the song Gemini becoming the tripod, or the drone/doom chaos of the last couple minutes of __On Limpid form, it's all different, it's all divers, and it's all excellent. This, like the Masterpiece that is Choirs of the eye is an album that needs to be addressed by song.

Gemini becoming the Tripod- If I had to choose a favorite song, this one would probably be it! The song kind of starts like Marathon, except with a little less edge, and not any horns, therefore you're not expecting hell on earth to jump up and bite you in the @ss like in the opener for Choirs... You are wrong! This song is just as evil as Marathon, except that the evil doesnt all come at you at once, you have to wait as Toby's voice gets more and more intense, as he eeks by every syllable, as if everything he is saying is paining him tremendously, and all that pain is spilling on to you. I love it, it's just a beautiful song, in a really sick and disgusting way, the ending of the song is almost as epic as The Manifold of curiosity's is, with one final scream from Toby, the song goes into one of Kayo Dots last metal moments as the drumming just gets ballistic while the guitars are wailing away to the end of the song.

Immortelle and the paper Caravelle- A very minimalistic song, almost no action, just an avant garde, easy listening song (that's right, I used the two in the same sentence), with odd instrumentation, pretty little jazzy forays, and some awesome, moody bass work. This song, unlike Gemini shows how the band has indeed moved from Choirs of the Eye, and metal in general, with no distorted guitars (barely any guitars to begin with), very little vocals, and almost no percussion. Yes, very minimalistic indeed, another killer classic in the book for Kayo Dot.

Aura on an Asylum Wall- The song that gets the most praise it seems, it starts kind of creepy, with some hushed vocals, and some driving piano, but as the song progresses, it becomes a jazz jam song, then a post metallish climax song, then just a weird metal song. Awesome no doubt, the best part is when the trumpet is flying around through the song while a semi easy going rhythm section just guides it along, while you're at the edge of your seat knowing this could not be the extent of chaos this song is gonna go to, ha, and it isn't. On the first listen, it's the easiest listening on the album, but as most Toby Driver albums, they usually end up being the least rewarding, but none the less, a great song. Now that you look back on it, this is also a crossover song to a lot of the music that would be on Blue Lambency downwards, heavy emphasis on the horns, and a lot of use of clean guitar for rhythm, rather than lead.

__On Limpid Form- One of the most controversial songs Progarchives has yet to hear, this is the song in which most of the listeners absolutely hated, and some have considered this groups their finest work. For the first six or so minutes, the song is just a weird jazzy song with some cool vocals, awesome atmosphere, a cool guitar solo, and semi chaotic closing. You must be asking what happens in the next twelve minutes of the song right? Hell happens. The same four or five chords happen, the most horrifying 12 minutes of your life happens, if you think you have the attention span to make it through *looks at The T and scoffs*. Unlike on The Antique off of Choirs, where he undistorted, dissonant guitar slowly distorts and become heavier, until your in death metal heaven, the guitar is already distorted, and the drums are already being hit faster than Keith Moon could have dreamt (The drums on this album are sick BTW), it's not more metal elements that come into play, it's more space and ambiance. Weird noises start creeping in, radio static, desks being hit with sticks, MANY MANY tracks of feedback. This keeps going to where you don't even need the guitars anymore, and when they drop out, you all the sudden find your in one of the scariest places in the musical spectrum this side of Universe Zero, absolutely terrifying, and I love every second of it, while it was hard to get into the song, when it clicked, it clicked, and I love it!

Amaranth the Peddler- Kayo Dots only downfall up until Blue Lambency Downwards. While a really easy going, and almost catchy four minutes starts off that almost reminds you of A pitcher of summer. This doesnt last, unlike Limpid, the last eight or so minutes of the song are just some simple dissonant minutes of Toby's guitar, while some horns either play, or make weird squeaking noises in the background. Other guitars come in gradually, and even some strings, but the song doesn't climax, maybe a cymbal hit every once in awhile, accompanied by the double bass, but really these last few minutes of the album are meant for ambiance, and minimalism, and really it's not bad, but when you consider the time, especially the time that could have been used for Kayo Dot to make some excellent music, there is a lot more potential then what is used. Don't get me wrong, I really like this final section, it's really soothing in a creepy kind of way, but I definitely was looking forward to something more grand than this to finish the album.

This album, behind Cult of Luna's, does deserve album of 2006. There's nothing else out there like it, it's completely original, the only other album that even close to this one is Kayo Dots first album, Choirs of the eye. Toby still has his edge on this one, he's still able to make captivating, and beautiful music, no matter in what form, everything he has done thus far has captured my mind, and I wont deny that he is my favorite musician to exist, and this collection of songs, along with Choirs, and the Maudlin catalogue are my reasons why. My only regret is that I am not allowing myself to rate this album the rating it probably deserves, but it simply doesn't stand up to Choirs of the eye, and to rate it the same as such a masterpiece is wrong doing. So this album will reluctantly get four stars from me.