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review by Dene Bebbington Kenotic is the superb debut album by duo Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson, both of whom are by no means strangers to the music business as they have been involved in songwriting and producing. Their artistic vision with this album is to avoid the distraction of modern culture and to make music that grabs peoples attention to listen. Recorded over a period of about two and a half years this electric guitar based album may have been long in the making but, as the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait. Right from the opening track "Before the Celebration" the thing that strikes the listener is the dreamy quality of the music, this is thanks partly to the prevalent use of delay with the guitar. I found it to be a bit like hearing something through a veil of sleepiness which leaves impressionistic memories. In a lot of ways this is a very earnest album. Besides the guitar we sometimes hear piano, cello, keyboards, a female voice, and also environmental sounds all used to pull the listener into an overcast soundscape. Most of the sixteen modest length discrete tracks (all but two are under six minutes) are built around non-rhythmic, and often non-melodic, musings of guitar notes and chords that die off slowly. Plus there is one track, "What Heaven Allows", that briefly contains some sung lyrics. By far the best track in my opinion is the longest called "Blankets of Night". I mean this as a substantial accolade because practically all of the tracks are very good. The night-time sound of chirping crickets forms an initial backdrop for mesmeric laid back guitar melodies and an equally unhurried simple drum and percussive accompaniment. In places the guitar melodies raise their voice to a greater intensity, then further in a doleful cello comes in along with a wistful female doing stretched out "hey hey" kind of wordless vocals. Though Hammock have a definite style of their own there are some occasional points of comparison. The slightly harsh metallic tones of the guitar producing an otherworldly atmosphere in "Through a Glass Darkly" put me in mind of parts of Greg Pearson's A Thousand Years. Also, the title track "Kenotic" is rather like a piece on Skyray's Mind Lagoons with its slightly hollow drum beats and Hawaiian sounding glissando guitar riffs that echo off into the distance. Mark and Andrew have succeeded in creating an album that easily makes one stop and listen. I feel sure that Kenotic will make my top ten list of albums heard in 2005, if CDs could wear out through repeated playing I'd probably need another copy by now! These guys have a prodigious talent judging by this album, and so I recommend it wholeheartedly and look forward to hearing their future work. |
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