The "Further Unpleasantries" CD has 10 new songs including the KinkZoid treatment of a classic Pink Floyd song.
Go the web site at http://www.kinkzoid.com/ to have a listen.
A review of this CD by on Feb. 26, 2008 by Brad Glanden.
Their name recalls their past as members of The Blitzoids, and also—whether intentionally or not—rock music’s own past (The Kinks, Pink Floyd). But unlike the many generic indie-rock acts who strain to emulate the quirkiness of Ray Davies or Syd Barrett, Chicago’s KinkZoid is difficult to classify because their music has fewer precedents. This is one band that’s looking anywhere but backwards.
Like their previous releases, Further Unpleasantries could be designated as “avant-rock,” a label that admittedly requires further differentiation (should Henry Cow and The Red Krayola really be in the same category?). But what KinkZoid lacks in hit-single potential, it more than makes up for in originality, humor, and sheer sonic invention. While many of the sounds on display are not exactly “beautiful” by traditional Western standards, the way KinkZoid arranges and layers those sounds are, dare I say it, painterly, even if the painter that comes to mind is Hieronymus Bosch.
Perhaps best known for turning the currently jailed former president of the FLDS Church into an unlikely rock vocalist with “Warren Jeffs Explains” (from last year’s The Book of Pages), KinkZoid is practiced in the art of the disturbingly funny sample. Those abound on Further Unpleasantries, but the emphasis is on building surreal audio imagery that is apt to induce uneasy laughter.
And that’s just what the band does on each of ten meticulously composed tracks. “Holes, Veins, and Brains” matches darkly comical anti-drug lyrics with dense instrumental activity to stunning effect. “DateLine / Into the Light” suggests an out-of-body experience guided by Negativland’s Weatherman, and it contains the album’s nuttiest plunderphonic antics. KinkZoid even covers Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days” and out-weirds Floyd at their weirdest, crafting a singularly impressive piece of work in the process.
Further Unpleasantries provides a listening experience that, for lack of an already existing term, must be described as “KinkZoidian.” It may not boast the studio sheen or big-name draw of, say, a U2 album (and that alone may be recommendation for some), but its dark textures, twisted humor, and profound imagination ensure that certain tastes will find it exquisite.
Like their previous releases, Further Unpleasantries could be designated as “avant-rock,” a label that admittedly requires further differentiation (should Henry Cow and The Red Krayola really be in the same category?). But what KinkZoid lacks in hit-single potential, it more than makes up for in originality, humor, and sheer sonic invention. While many of the sounds on display are not exactly “beautiful” by traditional Western standards, the way KinkZoid arranges and layers those sounds are, dare I say it, painterly, even if the painter that comes to mind is Hieronymus Bosch.
Perhaps best known for turning the currently jailed former president of the FLDS Church into an unlikely rock vocalist with “Warren Jeffs Explains” (from last year’s The Book of Pages), KinkZoid is practiced in the art of the disturbingly funny sample. Those abound on Further Unpleasantries, but the emphasis is on building surreal audio imagery that is apt to induce uneasy laughter.
And that’s just what the band does on each of ten meticulously composed tracks. “Holes, Veins, and Brains” matches darkly comical anti-drug lyrics with dense instrumental activity to stunning effect. “DateLine / Into the Light” suggests an out-of-body experience guided by Negativland’s Weatherman, and it contains the album’s nuttiest plunderphonic antics. KinkZoid even covers Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days” and out-weirds Floyd at their weirdest, crafting a singularly impressive piece of work in the process.
Further Unpleasantries provides a listening experience that, for lack of an already existing term, must be described as “KinkZoidian.” It may not boast the studio sheen or big-name draw of, say, a U2 album (and that alone may be recommendation for some), but its dark textures, twisted humor, and profound imagination ensure that certain tastes will find it exquisite.
No comments:
Post a Comment