One Way, It’s Every Way is a Technicolor
miasma of tightly coiled synth washes and burbles, brimming
with finger-tapping rhythms and ripe, multi-layered
harmonies, all of which is bathed in the warm hum and
crackle of homemade production. Thought of by its creators
as an ode to death, there is none of the prickly distortion
and despondent moods that one might expect, but bold,
chugging rhythms and guitars chiming sonorously amongst
robust fluctuations of sound.
The sluggish, melodic electronica of Clue To Kalo’s
past presently serves as a cozy mattress against which
plush psychedelic orchestrations toss and turn, twisting
and flanging into jittery vibrations that slowly descend
into complex phase patterns. The splintering energy
of the rambling Seconds When It's Minutes,
with its incongruous blend of insistent pulses and flickers
and rainbow-colored synth glissandos, is a pattern much
repeated in successive pieces. The result is an intriguing
brew of thick textures jibing into a florid collection
of sonic patchworks. The qualm to be picked here, however,
is that Kalo often goes overboard on the flavoring and
marinating of these compositions, making works like
Come To Mean A Natural Law and As Tommy
Fixes Fights too busy, too sweet, too lacking of
any decisive direction. His boyish, gravely voice, which
plays a more prevalent part than in past efforts also
works to the albums detriment; its indecipherable, lazy
whisper adds little emotion to the proceedings and fails
to endow moments with coherence, becoming another blurred
sound amongst the ailing bushes and branches of this
cluttered forest.
The latter half of the album warrants more of one’s
attention. Ignore The Forest Floor picks out
a particular melody and stays with it long enough to
tend to its development; the chimes, accordion and shimmering
bank of flutes accentuate as opposed to trample its
distinctive curves and shapes. The Tense Changes,
meanwhile, is more of an evolution of the soft, sentimental
electronica that Kalo harvested on his previous full-length:
sparkling electronics dart magically between frolicsome
nursery rhythm melodies and duskier, more introverted
fields. The soft trumpet tooting and skipping piano
melody of album closer The Older The Young
carries this more intimate, sparse approach to expansive,
lovely pastures where every note resonates like a bird’s
voice on the air. One Way, It's Every Way seems
an exaltation of the world’s density, the development
that comes from another’s presence and the meaning
brought by a finite life.
Max Schaefer
3/5 |
