COYOTE

Probably my most anticipated release of the year so far, Kayo Dot's 2010 release is, as was expected from Toby and the gang, an incredibly enigmatic and poetic foray into a whole new world for the band. The album is not metal in any typical sense; rather a much darker, more foreboding lyrically based recording. The album is a single, narrative-driven masterpiece split into 5 tracks. Not only is this new territory for Kayo Dot, but new territory for progressive music - with the birth of a new genre (Goth Fusion), expectations were high, and indeed met. It isn't fair to categorise this album lightly, although this album is without a doubt truly progressive.

The lyrics and album are dedicated to a friend of the band, Yuko Sueta, who recently, and tragically, passed away due to breast cancer. The lyrics and concept detail the last days of her life. As expected, Kayo Dot mix up the compositions and instrumentation a lot on this one, with Toby on bass, and nearly no guitar at all. The main instruments are bass, trumpet and alto-sax, with an underpinning, loose and free drum section.

The album opens up with the first part of Coyote, 'Calonyction Girl'. The opening lyrics of 'Help me... I'm disappearing' are sung in a truly ethereal fashion, and the instrumentation is immediately distressing and dark. The bass creates an incredibly dark and heavy sound, which works with the drums to create heaviness in the absence of typically metal instrumentation and playing. The single syllable lyrics in the latter half of the track, combined with the sorrow-filled violin and crescendo of drums and bass, create an atmosphere that is both disheartening and frighteningly beautiful at the same time. This section closes with the tragically sung lyrics 'I want to live forever...'

'Whisper Ineffable' opens with soft violin commences with soft trumpets and evil bass playing. Fierce drumming and straining vocals with trumpet and saxophone layers soon join, helping to create metallic music without metallic instrumentation and building layer upon layer of brilliance. This track feels like a step towards the heaviness the band used to employ more thoroughly, although the instrumentation lends and entirely different atmosphere and quality to the music. Entering a moor of such dark sounding compositions was not really expected, although nothing Kayo Dot ever makes really is.

'Abyss Hinge 1: Sleeping Birds Sighing In Roscolux' is the album's only instrumental track, which consists of a repeated rhythmic section with a fantastic keyboard solo over the top. The occasional saxophones and trumpets cut in to help break up the pace, and the foreboding echoes in the background also create a solid base, which plays perfectly into the start of...

'Abyss Hinge 2: The Shrinking Armature' opens up with a slow bass rhythm and wonderful saxophone, trumpet and alto-sax interplay which is occasionally cut into by lovely, eastern sounding violin sections. The drums are probably at their rhythmic peak for the album here, which, combined with the trumpets and (absolutely wonderful) saxophone work, create a completely new beast, and take long, gallant steps towards uncharted territory. This section changes pace rapidly with slow vocals from Toby, with nothing but a pounding echo. This track is incredibly diverse as far as mood goes, featuring sections repeated from the first Abyss Hinge, albeit with much looser drumming (one of my favourite drum sections EVER) and even better saxophone and trumpet interludes and overtures. This track closes with more saxophone and trumpet over the familiar bass line, this time with semi-absent drumming and lovely background noises.

The 5 section composition comes to a close with 'Cartogram Out Of Phase', which is easily my favourite track as far as emotional value goes and is definitely high up in their catalogue for my favourite. This probably has what are my favourite, and what I consider to be, the band's most heart-felt lyrics to date. This slower piece is absolutely wonderful and provides a brilliant closer. The mood is once again incredibly unique, which to this reviewer sound like a resignation to fate... The album closes with the line 'With a perfect shade of love... Filling the empty holes in my heart'.

This album is easily my favourite of 2010 so far, and in all honesty, I don't expect anything to contest for this place. By creating such a unique album, which is still filled with Toby and the gang's signature style, I truly believe this band has shown that they're an entity at the top of its creative power. Although a departure from the old style of the band, I can't complain with the new direction Kayo Dot has taken, and as always, I eagerly await the next chapter in what I consider to be the artistic pinnacle of modern music. Its also worth mentioning that Yuko Sueta wrote the lyrics to this album, which helps give it a much more authentic feel, and at the same time makes it much more tragic and realistic.

Needless to say, 5/5 for this one.

-Joel