KAYO DOT — Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue (review)

KAYO DOT — Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue album cover Album · 2006 · Avant-garde Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
Phonebook Eater
After the astonishing and beautiful debut, Kayo Dot in 2006 releases their second album, with a rather strange title, "Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue". At the release of this album, and still today, there has been a pretty big controversy: some think that it's a masterpiece (PA collaborators named it album of the year), while others think that it's a really bad and useless effort, where the use of avantgarde goes too far.

"Gemini Becoming the Tripod" starts everything. Copmpared to the genius "Marathon, it isn't much of an intro. But there are some moments here that really scared me: after a pretty soft intro, accompanied by Driver's soft voice, the song slowly becomes more enlivened, and Driver's voice begins to be more angry and creepy, thanks to some screaming and to his suspended vocals. Now the atmosphere is tense and kind of scary, it seems like it could explode into a fierce song any second. But that moment never comes, leaving the audience pretty stunned.

"Immortelle And Paper Caravelle" is much more minimalistic and calm, with many delicate moments. In fact, some are so delicate that you can barely hear them. A big contrast to the previous song, but very effective, so you can take a sort of a break from all those sinister moods.

"Aura On an Asylum Wall" is yet another contrast: the song is violent, with a very bizarre feeling, a little disturbing and creepy, but much more violent compared to the previous song. At least for the first couple of minutes: after a while, the sax comes in, the atmosphere is suspended between calm and strong, a peculiar balance that probably makes "Aura On An Asylum Wall" the best song off this album.

"__On Limpid Form" is the most controversial song off the album. Many have hated this song, because of it's excessive and repetitive moments. It's a 18 minute song, the longest Kayo Dot song so far, where at least ten minutes are stale and bleak, if not also monotonous, where the same chord is played, with a pretty violent and rude touch. I personally am not a big of this song either, even though I do find it quite interesting in many points.

"Amaranth The Peddler" is the final 14 minute song. Like "Immortelle...", it is quite a minimalistic song, and it seems like just a few cymbals are playing. Some moments are enjoyable, nice and calm, but certainly not melodic, a word that obviously does not exist in Kayo Dot's vocabulary.

In conclusion, I must say that it is a bit overlooked, and it really should be more appreciated by prog fans, since generally all the songs are worth listening. Of course, I don't think any die hard metal fan would like "Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue", for the fact that it truly has some excessive touches of avant garde. 3.5 stars.
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