Kinski - Be Gentle With the Warm Turtle
(Pacifico)
Now that the third millennium is in full swing and all information and
culture are but a few keystrokes away, "innovation" in art and music no longer
seems to be about introducing something new but rather being
able to reflect upon several keys movements of the past and merge them together,
tying up any loose ends. This is what Kinski does, taking cues from
the last 20 years of space rock, art rock, psychedelia, and even post rock
and creating something new and invigorating.
Kinski is fucking massive. Songs like "New India," a psychedelic song
reminiscent of Bardo Pond, create a maelstrom of sound. Easily the best song
of the year, "New India" starts with the tribal pounding of guitars along with
loud explosions of heavy guitar, signifying--or perhaps warning of--the
impending aural assault. Then the first lead riff comes in, creating a sound
so full and loud it seems as if your headphones are not sufficient to contain
it all. This lead riff continues, subtly morphing as another guitar enters the
mix, tossing out shards of screechy feedback, creating so much sound that
children in Japan start having seizures. As the song ends, blood has rushed
to your brain, and you feel alive and revitalized.
Kinski do not let up, though, following this song with "Newport," the most
pop song on the album--sounding like accessible space rock bands like
Spiritualized and Voyager One--and the only song on the album that includes
vocals. When the low-mixed vocals are present, the song relies on the tension
created from a short, repetitive riff, but when the singer stops, it's as
if the band has separated the entire great state of California from the
surface of the Earth and transplanted it to an orbiting satellite, and people
are able to enjoy sun-soaked beaches along with a panoramic view of Earth's
place in the cosmos.
With all this power at their hands, Kinski can also be amazingly quiet and
delicate. The album starts off with "Spacelaunch for French"--seven and a
half minutes of incidental music reminiscent of Windy & Carl. Instead
of sounding like a "Spacelaunch," as the title implies, the song sounds more
like a study on the Doppler effect. The song starts off very gently
with an inexplicably quiet guitar drone, sounding like a field recording
from space. The droning, lulling tones from the guitar continue as other
instruments sprinkle noises: a few beats of a hand drum, a soft swell
of a cymbal, a few bass notes. Just when you are sure the song will continue
to drift your mind away for the foreseeable future, a spacecraft gradually
approaches, volume builds into a fury as the craft booms past you, causing
you to skip a breath. A few moments later it is gone, and you are returned to
the lazy, lulling drone.
Smartly, Kinski are unapologetic in calling out the styles and artists
they are adapting. The songs "Daydream Intonation" and "Montgomery" even
go so far as to basically name drop the bands they are copying sounds or
forms from in the title of the song. "Daydream Intonation" at times sounds
very much like a late 80s Sonic Youth song, especially in the guitar tones,
which are purely Moore and Renaldo. The song is not a straight copy of
style though, as where Sonic Youth would build to a freakout section
of noise, Kinski melds the song into something more traditionally space
rock, with loud, chugging guitar and fast rock drumming, creating enough
of a spark to fuel a teenage riot sufficient for getting you out of bed.
"Montgomery" takes its name and sound from the delicate, droning guitarwork of
Roy Montgomery. The sound is clean and beautiful, gradually shifting from
soft repetition to small bursts of lead guitar playing off the
rhythm of the drone--a very appropriate cool off song to an exhilarating
album.
Equally adept at quiet and loud, Kinski draw from several distinct
movements and mix them together masterfully to create an exciting,
energizing album.
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