KOIAK

3.5 stars. KOiAK were a five piece band from Chile who unfortunately were not able to release a studio album, but we get the next best thing with this sole live release from the band in 2005. This was released on the excellent Mylodon Records label also based on Chile. We get eight tracks worth around 51 minutes. This is very much flute led music and there's way too much of that dancing and fluttering flute that I'm not into.

The guitar is second fiddle and different as he plays an electroacoustic guitar and classical guitar. We get bass and drums then a flautist who plays some other ethnic wind instruments along with a second percussionist who adds some ethnic sounds as well. This is all instrumental save for some spoken words and yells here and there. Some crowd noise after the songs too.

Without question this was a talented band and at this point they had ben playing together for a while as they formed in 2003. The flute is all over this! That guitar sounds cool to start "Sifilis" like a "Discipline" style here, so intricate. But just one guitarist not a Fripp/Belew type thing. "Abismo" is one of the longer pieces at 9 minutes. I like how spacey this one gets. It does kick into gear around the 5 minute mark. It settles with more flute late. It's surprisingly jazzy 2 1/2 minutes in on "Zandunga" but again flute leads the way.

Flute and drums really dominate this record so it's nice to hear the bass early on "5+4+7". The album opens and closes with the band celebrating in a Spanish way. The second last track "Odisea" is 8 1/2 minutes long and is ruined by the second half where the flute goes all freestyle on us. A good album with so many great moments but 3.5 stars is the true rating and I'm dropping it because of the dominating flute.

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