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Kayo Dot - Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue CD (album) cover

DOWSING ANEMONE WITH COPPER TONGUE

Kayo Dot

 

RIO/Avant-Prog

3.70 | 198 ratings

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octopus-4
Special Collaborator
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl,Neo & Post/Math Teams
4 stars Even if I can't stand too much with screams and chaos when it's apparently useless as in the second half of "Gemini Becomes The Tripod", I realized that this is a song that needs several listens, because it's only "apparently" useless. Well, I can't understand any single word of what is being screamed and probably the lyrics could help.

Then I'm surprised by the ambient music of "Immortelle And Paper Caravelle" with vocals and trumpet over calm and relaxing music, even if dark. This fits with my personal tastes and demonstrates, in addition, that there's much more in this album than what could appear at the first listen.

There's a bit of scream also on "Aura On An Asylum Wall", but the jazzy mood of the trumpet solo first and the violin later is excellent. It's still dark but of a different kind of darkness: the darkness of a smoky pub, at least until the jazz mood is replaced by the tension of an odd signature and a crescendo. Here the band demonstrates a lot of skill, too.

The "odd signature" makes me return to the first track. The key is the fact that there's absolutely no signature. It's demonstrated that our brains are constantly searching for schemes and rules. We are mathematical machines, and when a passage is too trivial there's no surprise at all, but in general we are used to rhythm and melodies because our brains need them. "Gemini" doesn't have anything of this and it's what makes it a challenging experience. I still don't like the screaming but it's clearer that the experiment consist in not giving to the listener any possibility to anticipate what is coming.

Now let's go on with the epic (in terms of length) "___On Limpid Form". When Kayo Dot goes into ambient it'e when I like them more. I like the trumpet, the slow rhythm and also the pauses of silence. When the jazzy mood disappears replaced by disconnected chords of distorted guitar and drums the change is not sudden but what comes is totally different. There's no jazz at all and we are back to the no-signature style of the first track. This is music for headphones. Without putting your mind "inside the music" this may seem meaningless and boring. I understand who has rated this album very low. They have probably chosen the wrong state of mind when approaching it. This track, in the most dissonant part puts me in a sort of hypnagogic state. Like being awaken but with hours of jet lag. Back to the band, it's clearly a jam session but as it happens in jazz they know what they do.

"Amaranth The Peddler" starts very low-volume. It takes about one minute before a bass piano note is heard. Here I see a connection with classic contemporary. The dissonances and the absence of a signature, plus the fact that the instruments are acoustic: piano, viola and percussions makes it strict. This time the singing is calm and warm. There's a bit of melody and metric and the voice reminds me to Art Garfunkel for the warmth. When the rhythm is added after a short drum roll it's more similar to a "normal song", but it doesn't last long. Floydian noises, I mean wind and discordant notes of piano and violin like in the middle section of Echoes change the mood, but more than psychedelic it's closer to classical authors like Ligety. Then it proceed seamlessly with piano, guitar and a background of sliding violin strings and percussions until the end. Very calm and relaxing even if not properly melodic.

It's an excellent album, the word "any" in the 4 stars definition makes me think. It requires open mind and attention. It requires the "right moment".

And I think I'll never like the screams on the first track.

octopus-4 | 4/5 |

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