DOWSING ANEMONE WITH COPPER TONGUE

Kayo Dot

RIO/Avant-Prog

3.77 | 198 ratings

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russellk
Prog Reviewer

A fascinating album that will certainly not be to most people's taste. It's certainly not completely to mine.

Here's the problem. Music like this can't be divided up into those intelligent enough to 'get it' and others too dumb to understand. 'Getting' a song or an album is simply a function of listening to it enough times that the main themes become embedded in your memory. Familiarity allows you to relax and enjoy. An album like this is harder to 'get' on first listen because there are few themes. But the noises are so unusual it takes only a couple more listens before it all starts shaking out. It comes down to this: is the amount of effort required to embed the album in your mind worth the effect it provides you?

Well, yes and no. Certainly the outstanding '___on Limpid Form' comes together on first or second listen. A pleasant opening section is followed by a few minutes of a repetitive, jagged riff, which then forms the base for a frenetic final rhythm. This track bristles with energy and purpose. I have to admit, were the whole album like this, I'd be raving like many other reviewers. Instead, much of the record is ambient, almost post-rock, and really does not draw me in. 'Gemini Becomes The Tripod', for example, glistens like droplets on a metal surface, moodily atmospheric, but it draws me in too many contradictory ways; and, to be frank, the vocals are an irritation. It is not enough to transmit emotion: one must communicate with clarity to avoid confusion.

I repeat: forget the snobbery surrounding this and other similar experimental records. You don't need to be intelligent to get this, just stubborn. But buying this kind of record is a gamble. You won't know if it's worth it until you try.

russellk | 3/5 | 2007-4-13

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