KAYO DOT

My observation of Toby Driver through his various projects is that he is very much an artist and seems to strongly emphasize his musical output as works of art and beauty. I would call CHOIRS OF THE EYE the best of his statements I've heard thus far simply because it's the most memorable.

What ends up happening is that this is one of those albums where the album is meant to be viewed/heard/understood as a whole rather than a collection of ''songs'', and that listening to one song by itself would have little meaning as it is part of a whole? or something like that. It's an album that exists to be appreciated, revered and respected as a high-brow form of art metal. Capturing the mood of post-rock, avant-garde music, classical and metal sounds over the course of the album (and in some cases, just one movement/song) is an impressive endeavor considering that the ebbing and flowing between any two ideas is smoother than traditional ''every genre but the kitchen sink'' albums.

There still leaves one problem with me, and why I don't automatically consider CHOIRS OF THE EYE as a masterpiece. While this is a respectable artsy album, the enjoyment factor is near a lull here. I typically like to listen to music as a means of escapism, a time to appreciate life without taking it far too seriously. It's not an album for everyday binging; you've got to be in the right mood at the right time. It's almost like how Neurosis albums work, except Kayo Dot is less extreme in the metal sense. Speaking of, the euphoric moment of this album is the cascading crashes of metal at the tail end of ''The Manifold Curiosity''.

Somehow on overcast days, the mood that I normally couldn't find in CHOIRS OF THE EYE just hits me all of a sudden. Try it out on one of those days and see if you get that sense of wonder like I did.

Vibraphone and loose drumming with hushed vocals and light brass provide a light but gloomy atmosphere before a darker synthesizer lead comes to the fore. The vocals are light and dreamy. This being a twenty-minute piece, things thankfully don't remain stagnant; unfortunately, not everything Toby Driver and company present is wonderful. The screeching, distorted noises are rather unpleasant and distracting. Six minutes in, it becomes a more twisted rendition of Gentle Giant's "An Inmates Lullaby." After that, it is a drowsy affair full of experimental sounds and somnolent expressions. The depth of instrumentation is, as usual for a Toby Driver project, generally brilliant. The composition is, as usual for a Toby Driver project, generally suspect.Vibraphone and loose drumming with hushed vocals and light brass provide a light but gloomy atmosphere before a darker synthesizer lead comes to the fore. The vocals are light and dreamy. This being a twenty-minute piece, things thankfully don't remain stagnant; unfortunately, not everything Toby Driver and company present is wonderful. The screeching, distorted noises are rather unpleasant and distracting. Six minutes in, it becomes a more twisted rendition of Gentle Giant's "An Inmates Lullaby." After that, it is a drowsy affair full of experimental sounds and somnolent expressions. The depth of instrumentation is, as usual for a Toby Driver project, generally brilliant. The composition is, as usual for a Toby Driver project, generally suspect.

Gamma Knife is a short one, clocking in at barely a half-hour. The long, dense tracks we've come to know Kayo Dot for are gone and replaced with average-length 5-7 minute tracks. The artsy covers we've come to see from Kayo Dot has been replaced with a blank pinkness (although I've heard talk this is only a placeholder for the cover, but it's been a long time now so I'm starting to not believe). So really, there's no telling what to expect if you're a Kayo Dot fan coming into this album.

Well at the start, it's a quiet peaceful track. Seems normal enough. Then hold up, what's this? The second track is just pure metal, and the most prominent instrument is... saxophone? We also have growls, which we haven't heard in a while. The next two tracks continue this vein of chaotic jazz metal, often dissonant and almost without direction it seems, but it's still quiet fun to listen to I find. The production is pretty muddy, but it works for the album, kind of like how it works for maudlin of the Well.

So this is pretty unlike anything else Kayo Dot has done, but it's really what we'd expect from a brilliant mind such as Toby Driver, who really can't seem to bear making the same kind of music for any amount of time, but it does work to his advantage being the mastermind he is. I can't really see this album appealing to that large of a group of people, being as it lacks any sort of melody in the middle 3 tracks, but to fans of aural insanity and squealing saxophone, you might fancy this album a bit more than others.

Kayo Dot are a splinter faction formed after the breakup of maudlin of the Well. Whereas their predecessor band made pretentious claims of using lucid dreaming to acquire music composed by ghosts in the astral plane, Kayo Dot disavowed this compositional method, and indeed the compositions do seem to be a bit more cohesive than on Bath/Leaving Your Body Map. However, their mixture of quiet and loud parts - the standard post-rock formula, really - doesn't quite work for me, mainly because I just can't bring myself to like the quiet parts, which seem rather bland and uninteresting. Still, it seems to work for some, so it might be worth giving a try - just don't feel bad if it turns out they're not to your tastes, because you're not alone.

None More Blue, Er...Lavender

The Beatles have the White Album. Spinal Tap / Metallica have their black albums. Toby Driver couldn't let someone out-pretentious him so we get the blue-out album. A gamma knife is a kind of pinpoint radiation therapy where cancerous tumors are removed from areas often unreachable by conventional surgery. The brain is a common target, and as such Toby once again gives an album mean to slice our minds into pieces. Subtly, or maybe artistically. To that end, Driver's metal roots are back from hiatus. Distorted guitars and guttural vocals return, but with the same avant-jazz noise ethos that reached it's mind- numbing climax on BLUE LAMBENCY and its most depressively evocative on COYOTE.

GAMMA KNIFE certainly has ingredients we've heard before from Driver, but he's cooking something different this time. There's more energy, more tension, and more dangerous pathos than we've had for awhile. Mental illness still seems to be a driving force behind the music, but instead of the massive weight of depression, here we have the frenzied need for escape, the burning anger, acute rather than chronic pain. This isn't a lobotomy, this is a good old fashioned drawing and quartering.

Now I listen to a section of the song "Ocellated God" which reminds me quite a bit of my most hated work of all time (Naked City's LENG TCHE). But there's something strange here. Where LT eventually becomes laughably stupid, on this track there's enough texture, variation, and relative brevity that I actually get it. Maybe I even like it. Driver also has the artistic maturity to immediately contrast this distorted torture scene with the title track's clean piano and floating sad vocal. I once accused Driver of serving only himself and forgetting the listener. Not anymore. Similarly, Driver's brat-teen vocals are finally starting to acquire a bearable timbre and some of the singing on the title track is simultaneously as skilled and haunting as any I've heard from Toby.

The most remarkable thing about this album is the effective broad variation in sound. The title song "Lethe" is comprised of bells, strings, soft vocals in an almost classical feel. The second track is harsh and chaotic, with obvious death metal influence. But it really works, if you're into moody avant art music.

This is a 3.5 album that I'm rounding up as I listen more intently, the best rating I've given a Kayo Dot work yet. I've also been listening to MotW's BATH recently, and it clearly is another notch up entirely, though significantly less demanding.

I want a real new MotW album, Toby. But this will do nicely for now.

Another fascinating album from Kayo Dot, but really, when has Kayo Dot not been fascinating? Personally I think Gamma Knife is a bit less interesting than the two releases that preceded it (Coyote and Stained Glass), but it's still a very good release from a great band and one that's certainly worth hearing if you're a fan.

"Lethe" begins the album with a melody played on bells, with a mysterious sounding string part coming in after a short time. This part of the track has a definite post-rock feel to it, a feeling which is cemented by the somewhat subdued and hard-to-make-out vocals that come in midway through the track. Additional vocals are added at about the 3 and a half minute mark, in a chanting style that sounds like it wouldn't be out of place in some secluded monastery. Overall, "Lethe" is a very relaxing, laid back track, and one that sounds totally unlike anything else I've ever heard from Kayo Dot, or any of Toby Driver's projects, for that matter.

"Rite of Goetic Evocation" begins with a riff that one could almost mistake for groove metal, but this doesn't last long before winds are added, along with growled vocals, and the track takes on a more experimental feel. "Rite of Goetic Evocation" is definitely a much heavier, more guitar-led track than was "Lethe," and I can hear aspects of maudlin of the Well, previous Kayo Dot projects and even a couple moments that hearken back to the Tartar Lamb II project "Polyimage of Known Exits." Unfortunately, it doesn't quite grab me the way that those previous projects did. There are moments of brilliance (the last minute of the track is amazing), but there are also moments that feel a bit muddled, as blasphemous as saying that makes me feel.

"Mirror Water, Lightning Night" begins with a flurry of sound, with drums, winds, guitar, and a myriad of other instruments all wailing together to create a sound that I can only describe as death jazz (man, do I love coming up with these descriptions). Vocals are added as well, though they're far from being the primary focus of the tracks. "Mirror Water, Lightning Night" is really a very good track, if a bit frenetic, and definitely proves that even after 9 years and 5 albums Kayo Dot can still turn out some of the most challenging, engaging music out there.

"Ocellated God" begins with a guitar drone, over which drums, winds, and growled vocals are added, and the track dives into an energetic sound that comes off sounding just a little too much like the previous track to me. It distinguishes itself a bit by featuring a section in the middle that's a bit more minimal and features vocals more heavily, but I think it runs into a little bit of the same problem as "Rite" in that it goes on just a little bit too long, and the sonic similarity to "Mirror Water" doesn't help it either. Don't get me wrong, it really is very good, it just suffers a bit from being placed after two rather similar sounding songs.

The title track abruptly switches gears, trading in the growls and howling instruments for a sedate guitar and vocal introductory section. Keyboards and winds add another sonic texture, and overall this track is very calming, though the shades of dissonance give it a slightly sinister feel. Overall, the song is a great closer after the aural assault of the middle three tracks and, along with "Lethe," is a nice bookend for the album.

So Gamma Knife on the whole is a bit of a mixed bag for me. As I mentioned above, there are moments that feel like absolute masterpieces, but there are also sections that simply fail to engage me in the way that most of the rest of Kayo Dot's work does. If you're a hardcore Toby Driver/Kayo Dot fan than this is absolutely worth a listen as it fuses together a lot of different styles in a way that's totally different from the rest of the band's work, but if you're new to the band this is not the place to start. Go listen to Choirs or Coyote first.

3.5/5, rounded down

It took me far too long to pick this EP up, especially given the legendary status I tend to assign to anything Toby Driver is attached to. On that note, Stained Glass certainly does not disappoint. This single track, 20 minute long EP blends together a huge variety of styles that have appeared on previous maudlin of the Well/Kayo Dot/Toby Driver projects to create a final product that, if not quite at the level of Bath or Choirs of the Eye, is still tremendously satisfying.

"Stained Glass" begins with a section that I think is heavily reminiscent of maudlin of the Well's quieter moments; it has that same kind of gorgeous texturing and (for now at least) lacks a bit of the harshness that is prevalent in Kayo Dot's music. There's even some very laid back vocals. However, this introductory section is short lived, and the motif quickly switches to a more ominous feel. This persists for a little while before distorted guitar enters, but almost as quickly as it arrives it falls away, leaving a variety of what sounds like wind chimes at the forefront of the track. The wonderful thing about this music is how well- arranged it sounds despite its often chaotic nature. No instrument is present unless it has a purpose.

The next section of the track strips back on the instrumentation a little bit and lets some high- pitched, haunting vocals take the forefront. The bells or windchimes or whatever they are continue to play a prominent role, though some distorted string sounds enter during this section as well, giving the main instruments a howling backtrack against which to play. This persists for quite a while before subtly transitioning to add bass and winds. This middle section of the track is definitely very experimental and avant-sounding, but it's also very beautiful music if you're in the right mindset. As the track comes to an end it increases in intensity, building up and then dropping down until it finally falls away to nothing.

It's always hard to assign EPs a star rating because there's such a tendency to want to compare the rating against the ratings given to complete albums. Nonetheless, this single track accomplishes everything it sets out to do with flying colors, and while I don't think it's the absolute best thing Kayo Dot or Toby Driver has ever released, it's pretty gosh-darn good.

4/5

Kayo Dot: Gamma Knife [2012]

Rating: 6/10

Gamma Knife is the fifth full-length album (and sixth overall release) from American avant-rock band Kayo Dot. Toby Driver's flagship band has been pushing itself to the forefront of modern experimental music ever since its inception in 2003. This group has reinvented itself many times in order to fit Toby's constantly fluid ideas. Kayo Dot began as an avant-garde metal band, but the metal influences slowly melted away from their sound. Coyote and Stained Glass from 2010 were full-on RIO/avant-prog releases, combining elements of jazz-fusion and chamber music. Both of those releases contain some of the most interesting and memorable avant-rock that I have ever heard, so I was happily anticipating a follow-up. This album was produced in quite an unorthodox manner. It was recorded in front of a live audience and was subsequently subjected to heavy doctoring, overdubbing, and reproducing. Multiple new instruments were added and all evidence of an audience was edited out. This is an odd way to record an album, but it works well. I would never have guessed that the album was made this way if I didn't already know beforehand.

Musically, Gamma Knife signals a return to the heavier and more abrasive elements of the band's sound. However, heaviness is approached differently here than it was on earlier Kayo Dot records. Albums like Choirs of the Eye and Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue featured crushing sludge-metal riffs and bombastic crescendos; Gamma Knife features black-metal inspired fury with hyper-speed blast beats. This ferocity is bookended by two mellow pieces of ethereal chamber music. The quiet moments of the album are wonderful, but the heavy tracks are disappointing. They lack the intricacy and finesse that I have come to expect from Kayo Dot. Instead, they often fall into indiscernible noisiness. Multiple ideas are repeated without proper variety.

"Lethe" is an unorthodox opener, to say the least. This is a haunting piece of gorgeous chamber music centered upon strings and bells. The vocals are what really make this track strange, however. The group harmonies sound like Gregorian chanting; in fact, they would not be out of place in a cathedral. "Rite of Goetic Evocation" takes the album in a radically different direction. Deathspell Omega comes to mind while listening to the crushing chords, cacophonous drums, and demonic chants. This is an interesting track, but parts of it end up sounding needlessly noisy and directionless. "Mirror Water, Lighting Night" continues in the same direction. The saxophones sound phenomenal here, but the track feels disjointed and anticlimactic as a whole. "Ocellated God" is more of the same: furious saxophones, abrasive vocals, and banging blast beats. The title track breaks the cycle of heaviness with a burst of calm. Toby's vocals are gorgeous here, and the piano/guitar interplay is seamless and beautiful.

Gamma Knife is a very good album, but it's a major disappoint after the phenomenal output that preceded it. Toby Driver is no stranger to harshness and density, but his music is usually much more finely-crafted than this. The entire middle of the album drones on with very little variety; the movements blend together with indiscernible structure and blurry noise. The bookending tracks save the album, however. "Lethe" alone is enough to demonstrate the diversity and beauty that Kayo Dot can deliver. I'm glad that the band continues to explore new ground, but this result underwhelms me. Kayo Dot is one of my favorite bands, but this latest release is unable to move past the "good" category in my book.

Kayo Dot: Stained Glass [2010]

Rating: 8/10

Stained Glass is an EP from American experimental music group Kayo Dot; it is the band's fifth release overall and their second from 2010. Coyote, the group's first release from that year, is an unflinchingly harrowing piece of dark dissonance and gothic melodrama. That album forged a new path for Toby Driver and his band; it took the RIO stylings first introduced on Blue Lambency Downward and pushed in the most extreme direction possible. I consider that album a masterpiece, but I also think that it would have been a grave mistake for Kayo Dot to try anything like it a second time. Thus, Stained Glass impressed me in multiple ways.

This single 20-minute track serves as a perfect complement to the depressive madness that was Coyote. Although this piece is equally experimental and avant-garde, it approaches experimentation in an entirely different way. It is difficult for me to categorize this EP with any sort of generic label. Although Stained Glass is not the strangest piece of work that Toby has ever done, it is the toughest to describe. This momentous composition is a semi-ambient voyage into minimalistic chamber music and shimmering vibraphone-laden jazz. The music lapses in and out of understated vocal passages, minimalistic tuned-percussion odysseys, and warbling electronic soundscapes. All of this is held together by a gorgeous sense of melancholy. While this certainly isn't a happy piece of music, it approaches darkness differently than Coyote did. That album focused on the brutal and gritty elements of sadness; Stained Glass centers on the pretty and poetic aspects of it. The result is a hauntingly beautiful 20 minutes of music.

Stained Glass is a triumphant EP that even further illustrates the depth and diversity of Toby Driver's compositional personality. Parts of this piece are absolutely masterful; the first three minutes constitute some of the greatest music that I have ever heard. Unfortunately, some of the other sections fail to live up to others. Because of this slight inconsistency, I am unable to give this the masterpiece rating that it would have otherwise deserved. Still, this is one of the best and most unique EPs that I have ever heard. Avant-garde aficionados will adore this, and those unacquainted with the style should also be able to find a rewarding experience here.

Kayo Dot: Coyote [2010]

Rating: 9/10

Coyote is the fourth album from American avant-garde group Kayo Dot. I have found that many great bands tend to change and grow throughout the course of their careers. Although some artists are able to stick to a specific style for decades without sounding stale, most respectable musicians find themselves evolving and adapting their sound to fit new artistic goals. Toby Driver's music has undergone numerous transitions throughout his relatively young career, both within Kayo Dot and with his other projects. Kayo Dot began as an experimental rock group focused on combining metal, chamber-music, and ambient to create a unique take on rock/metal music. However, 2008's Blue Lambency Downward showed the band almost completely eschewing the metal elements of their sound. Coyote takes this approach even further. All metal influences have been completely eliminated in favor of mercilessly dark avant-garde jazz-fusion.

I tend to roll my eyes when the word "dark" is used to describe music. Artists that deliberately try to make their music dark often fall into needless melodrama and unnecessary disharmony. Kayo Dot take this approach on Coyote; the lyrics were based on a story from a dying friend of the band. This is one of the most unrelentingly bleak records that I have ever encountered, but the darkness sounds natural and genuine throughout. The music here has been described as "goth fusion", and I cannot conjure up a more apt term. Coyote combines the experimental jazz-fusion sounds of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock with a dark and brooding atmosphere that would not be out of place on an industrial-rock album. Guitar has been almost completely eliminated; trumpet, violin, and saxophone are the primary melodic instruments here. These are backed up by a stunning rhythm section that brings a strong sense of groove to this pitch-black madness. All of this is complimented by Toby Driver's vocals. Toby's voice can be either pretty of horrifying, and his vocal work on this album trends towards the latter. His singing on this album is horribly tortured and emotional.

"Calonyction Girl" has to be one of the most emotionally harrowing and stunningly atmospheric pieces of music that I have ever heard. Toby's tortured vocals stay with me long after the track has ended, and the instrumental interplay is perfectly seamless and fascinating. "Whisper Ineffable" is probably the most disquieting piece on the album, which is certainly saying something. Toby sounds like an unhinged lunatic, spewing sounds that one would not normally consider musical. However, it all sounds cohesive, and even the most discordant sections are driven by a sense of musical purpose. "Abyss Hinge 1: Sleeping Birds Sighing in Roscolux" is a darkly groovy instrumental with insane electronic effects. The impressive drumming contrasts well with the madness. "Abyss Hinge 2: The Shrinking Armature" is, simply put, one of the greatest pieces of jazz-fusion that I have ever heard. Each and every musician is in total prime form here. The instrumental interplay is nothing short of astounding; the groove is irresistible and the melodies are disturbingly compelling. "Cartogram Out of Phase" is a short concluding piece. Oddly enough, this track manages to sound both pretty and disturbing at the same time. Toby's voice is fragile and the instrumentation is darkly lush.

On Coyote, Kayo Dot managed to do what so many bands cannot. They created a melodramatic piece of darkness that doesn't even come close to sounding forced or artificial. This is no emo snoozefest; it is a bleak desert of disquieting insanity and complex pain. Such things sound unpleasant, and they are. But must all art merely reflect the positive and simpler side of things? Kayo Dot have created a rewardingly dense piece of work here, full of fascinating musicianship and intricate emotions. However, do not expect music without a significant degree of challenge. It took me several listens before I even began to understand all of this album's intricacies. Such challenges should not deter; in fact, they should encourage. Any open-minded music fan who is willing to spend a lot of time with an album should find a plethora of things to appreciate on the masterpiece that is Coyote.