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Blotto
Singles Collection 2004-2007 |
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Tracklist |
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01 - FUEL
02 - cerastone song
03 - Snowscape
04 - ANARQ
05 - Take a shit
06 - fool proof
07 - silences
08 - ag FM
09 - Eric.W
10 - k. and his bike
11 - in my room |
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Review |
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I'm sitting in an airport terminal, waiting on one of those endless departures. Irate customers are fuming at the agents, and I'll probably miss my connecting flight. But here I am, immersed in the band apart's K. And His Bike, blissfully oblivious of the unfolding travel disaster just outside of my headphones. For all of the excellent music emerging from Japan's indie scene, very little envelops the listener in a deluge of musical pleasantries the way these songs can. And all this from a debut album, no less.
The band's instrumental skill and quickly-maturing songwriting becomes strikingly obvious afer a single listen of K. And His Bike, but it's the album's immaculate balance that makes it spin. In fact, the record itself toes so many lines it feels like a walking antithesis. Complex, yet utterly listenable. Laid back, yet unrelentingly energetic. Gentle, yet hard-rocking. Not to mention highly eclectic.
Of all the band apart's tricks, the guitar work from Arai and Kawasaki provides the most immmediate appeal. The levels of rhythmic interplay the two are capable of reaching will steal the breath from nearly any jaded critic pining for Television. The dueling, undulating jazz riffs on "cerastone song" sound clean and effortless, and even the shifting time signatures of "silences," propelled by Kogure's precise (and overshadowed) playing are no match for this pair. Most importantly, the combined output just feels natural and relaxed. While complex, the guitar arrangements are concise, never bordering on noodling or excess.
the band apart's keen melodic sense drives this album home. Underneath all of the bells, whistles and eclecticism tucked into the album's ten songs (not counting the 30-second "ag FM"), a solid, catchy melody lies at the foundation. This melody, delivered by Arai's pleasant voice, brings the album together, and imbues it with a refreshing, laid-back feel. Ultimately, it is Arai's adrenaline drenched fist-pumping highs of "fool proof" and "Take a shit" and the passionate cries on the title track that give these songs a permanent home in the listener's mind.
However, it is within Arai's performance that K. And His Bike's one noticeable weakness resides - those tricky English vocals. Fortunately, Arai's pronunciation avoids the dreaded Engrish pitfalls. On the downside, they've been recorded and mixed in such a way that while the final product certainly sounds like English (and not heavily accented), upon closer listens, picking out actual words is like trying to understand Keith Richards. While this doesn't impact the listening experience much, it is a slight disappointment for an album that demands precision in every other aspect.
With such a bold statement as K. And His Bike, the band apart placed themselves on the map with one of the best debut albums of 2003. However, considering this group of musicians' talent and voracious hunger for different musical styles, this release looks to indicate only what the band is capable of at its most basic level. Regardless, next time air travel starts going sour, do your blood pressure and a gate agent a favor and pull out K. And His Bike instead. |
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