Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward

New York avant-rockers Kayo Dot are nowadays distancing themselves from both metal as well as the traditional post-rock quiet-loud structures which have seriously devalued today. Although it could be said that the earlier rockier references in Kayo Dot's work have served as an obligatory blandishments for listeners used to expect the chamber-like introspection pay off with a massive cathartic wall of sound. On Blue Lambency Downward, their third album, KD ups their ante on fluidity of free-jazz and the chamber arrangements. Instead of aimless noodling, even though the line is exceedingly thin, Toby Driver treats us to his compositions that are structurally fluid, floating and unpredictable, almost like dreams. Arrangements featuring even more prominent reed (sax, clarinet) instrumentation only help along the surrealist atmosphere of this record. It's telling that Toby Driver has polished his skills in the area of cerebral avant-rock. The result is at times remarkably similar to Tim Buckley's free-rock opus Starsailor (1970). It also confirms that Kayo Dot is nowadays perhaps the best modern equivalent to avant-prog legends Henry Cow.

*This review was published in Estonian in a journal called Postimees. This is the English translation