Review: kandodo – k20
Published on August 5th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams
Not to be confused with the esteemed music critic who was recently let go by The Independent, Simon Price was a member of Bristol psychedelic rockers The Heads and is now onto his second album as kandodo. The psychedelia remains strong within him, but you certainly wouldn’t describe k20 as rock.
Well, maybe ‘post-rock’; cosmically minded post-rock at that, a kind that swells and swells as if attempting to expand the universe of its own accord. Vast, roaring yawns of Sigur Rós-like guitar are let loose in “grace and”, which also scatters some radio chatter within its midst for that ‘subject under observation’ feel.
The notion of expansion is even reflected in the structure of k20: its first three tracks each clock in at under five minutes, two of those doing so at under three. On the other hand, the ensuing, closing trio of tracks all pass the eight-minute mark, two of them doing so quite comfortably.
There’s the thirteen-minute “kandy rock mountain”, a slow-burning/building type thing that shimmers like a gliding celestial body before becoming engulfed in soft, wibbly goodness as it burns out. (Yes: soft, wibbly goodness.) For its part, “july 28th” is an hypnotic combination of elements – tribal percussion, slide guitar, a twisty sort of high-pitched monotone synth sound – that lopes gently along as its glow intensifies.
Like Drifter’s Temple, the forthcoming new LP from Thrill Jockey labelmates Plankton Wat, k20 sounds a little bit like what the universe might elicit from all those little vibrating strings as it gazes down upon Earth. It’s stargazing stuff, man.
Be sure not to ignore final track “swim into the sun” as, at twenty-two minutes, it constitutes almost half of k20. Sounding commendably like its title, “swim into the sun” takes the form of a driving, Moon Duo-esquely monotone fuzzy jungle of splashing, buzzing, swiping and swooshing elements swarming the mix.
It submerges and bubbles, merely adding to the cross-sensory magnificence, the kind that doesn’t need melody to have a good time. Not to mention the kind of lysergic majesty that Thrill Jockey gobbles up.
It ends in choppy waters, depositing us back to Earth after quite the celestial trip. We likey.
k20 will be released on August 19th by Thrill Jockey.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
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