Tinnitus

Hello my dear readers and fellow alt-rock gourmets.

Today I won't be reviewing anything, due to the fact that I have recently received tinnitus from a live show.  I'll be back next week, with any luck though.

   Best,

     -Daniel Trainor-Mckinnon, Track-By-Track

Chance: Worth Taking

            This is a review of the EP Chance, by Australian artist Kigo, and the 17th review of a release, here on Track-By-Track.

            Well, mixtape month has come and gone, but I'm returning to my normal review style with a bang.  Australian artist Kigo (Solo artist D.P. Pearce) has been on my radar for a while, and with every new release (which tends to be nearly monthly), the sound gets even better.  Kigo definitely has a shoegaze sound, but interestingly, with digital and sampled-sounding drums, instead of the generally live-sounding drums most modern shoegaze artists have.
            A certain kind of sheer raw power comes through each track, to a degree that is incomparable to any band I can think of.  My Bloody Valentine is definitely an influence on Pearce's writing and performing, but mix-wise, Kigo stands alone.  And this is just part of a prolific, albeit young, career: Since February, Kigo has released 4 EPs, and a single with a b-side, amazingly, comprizing 20 songs.  Get ready for raw and amazing sound.
             Here's my TBT:

            Chance starts with "Dress", which in the beginning sounds like My Bloody Valentine's "She Found Now", leading into their "Soon".  The chord structure and style are very similar to "Soon", but the vocals and lead instrumentation show the differences.  The entire track is overdriven to the extreme, and the vocals are decimated out of understandability.  Loads of glide-guitar, over a drum sample or two, with bass and plenty of reverb and delays over most of the tracks.

            Then, coming out of seemingly nowhere related, the title track changes the whole trip.  Huge tremolo-affected guitar, a fast drum sample -- used slower before in Kigo's "Eyes so Bright (See the Spark)" -- and a great screeching feedback sound in the beginning are immediately noticable.  Vocals are once again obscured, mainly by eq, and not by distortion.  It's a fast song with loads of the energy that Kigo has had from the beginng, just with a slightly more-refined sound than the earlier releases, like Guilt and Closer (Hear My Voice).  It's a bit space-rock as well, like Duster's "Echo Bravo".

            "Leave Me Behind" is the third track.  The beauty of the sound is once again driven by the power, but it's a slower, more contemplative song than would be expected with the general guitar sound.  This is something I really like about shoegaze in general; artists can play powerful and huge-sounding guitar tracks, without actually playing abrasive songs.  Emotive synths show up in this one, drums are digital, and guitar is sublime.  The bass track is also more noticeable than usual, and it really drives the track into Debbie Googe territory.  Vocals are breathy and less-obscured than the previous two tracks, but still not clear enough to my ears to make out words.  The vocals in Pearce's songs are mostly equalized out of recognition, through hi-passing the base notes almost completely out, or emphasizing the higher frequencies.

            The last track is "When You Look", which again emphasizes synth and bass, and this time, vocals are even clearer.  The overall sound of the song is really warped and introspective, and it's a bit droney (genre, not boring by any means).  It's like if Spacemen 3 turned into a prog-rock band in the late '70s, but better than what that might sound like.  The only perceptable beat in the track is a soft bass kick, which might be just the bass's strings being touched, which makes it a bit more like the previous (and uncharacteristically slower) Kigo EP Some Other Place, which I also highly recommend.  The guitar, bass, and synth combination is dream-inducing, and the whole track is a fitting end.  For anything.  It feels like the end of an avant-garde movie, in one of the rare times the ending is satisfying and full of wonder.

            Overall, this is an amazing EP, and the sound of Kigo has loads to offer to the genre of shoegazing.  The raw power and soft emotion that comes through Chance is as genre-specific as it is unique.  Kigo will be coming out with an LP soon, and Pearce has also created a black-metal solo project (Afterwalker).  You can get this album (and all previous releases) for pay-what-you-want at: http://kigo.bandcamp.com/.  This is a Chance worth taking.