Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward
Kayo Dot’s Blue Lambency Downward isn’t really a collection of songs insomuch as it is a single composition. Sure, the music is divided into tracks (I prefer to suggest they’ve divided the music into movements), but the overall sense of this 2008 recording from the masters of experimental psychedelic metal is that it demands to be heard as one inclusive work.
To say that Kayo Dot bridges the gaps between genres is quite accurate, as defining one tangible sound to slip the Boston band into is a awkward proposition at best and a fruitless operation at least. Hell, when their 2003 debut record is released on John Zorn’s label, you know there’s going to be trouble at the henhouse when it comes to traditional genre placements.
Fast-forward to 2008 and Kayo Dot hasn’t compromised a damn thing. Using instrumentations related to classical music and improvisational jazz, Toby Driver and Mia Matsumiya have upped the ante with Blue Lambency Downward.
Now signed to juggernaut Hydra Head Records out of Los Angeles, Kayo Dot’s multi-instrumental saturation bombing conjures up musical influences from just about every corner of the globe and channels them into one gratifying wall of sound.
To provide an indication as to the sound of Blue Lambency Downward, a quick list of the personnel on the record should do. Driver plays acoustic, electric, 12-string, baritone, and bass guitars. He also plays soprano clarinet, piano, organ, gamelan, analog synth, and toys with a laptop mellotron. Matsumiya wonderful violin is present, of course, but she also plays synth bass and mellotron.
Adding to the standard players, Blue Lambency Downward features the services of Charlie Zeleny on drums, Skerik on tenor and baritone sax, Hans Teuber on alto sax as well as soprano and bass clarinets and flute, and Dave Abramson on gamelan and additional percussion.
This orchestral line-up uses every inch of every instrument, providing a winding and complex work that pins five shorter pieces between two ten minute bookends to formulate a complete work of art. The shifting time signatures and elegant song structure used here is often very bizarre, but ultimately very satisfying.
There are moments of psychosis to Blue Lambency Downward, just as there are moments of reflective harmony and serenity. Compositions erupt into bedlam (“The Awkward Wind Wheel”) and fall apart into unusual waltzes (“Right Hand is the One I Want”). Others play with tempered noise and deep guitars (“Blue Lambency Downward”) while some (“Clelia Walking”) stroll through crisp guitar terrain using clarinets and Mia’s lovely violin as a guide.
This is a complicated, needy record. It demands several listens to explore the dark corners of the music and requires a vigilant ear to determine everything that is occurring within this monstrous composition. At the conclusion of several listens, however, it becomes evident that Kayo Dot has constructed something beautiful, haunting, delicate, and extraordinarily exquisite.
Call it a forward-thinking masterwork. Call it ahead of its time. Call it an unclassifiable tour de force. Call it Blue Lambency Downward.
10/10
