Sorry there's no neat picture today, Blogger wouldn't cooperate...

Kayo Dot | Trifle Tower | Great Tyrant | Vorvadoss (Rubber Gloves)
Kayo Dot are one of those bands that sound pretty suspect on paper; avant-metal mixed with Classical composition technique, decidedly non-rock instruments thrown in, someone in charge of gamelan etc. In fact it perfectly fits the description of what an old studio hand called "Duck Call bands," or any band on Tzadik that had John Zorn tacked onto their album credits, simply for adding duck call to one of their kitchen sink jazz-metal-classical recordings. To think there was a time, mostly in my teen years, where I bought ANYTHING on Tzadik or Avant.

You learn to break that habit the hard way.

Well, the good news is that Kayo Dot are not at all one of those cute, overly clever groups that really wants you to be impressed by the fact they can go from bossa nova to thrash in a nanosecond. We have more than enough of that music school dropout shit in the Lone Star State, though I won't name any names. Kayo Dot's music is actually interesting, the transitions in style and form, ominously ooze and stretch out of each piece over the course of eight or more minutes.

Add to that a diverse trio of groups featuring varying levels of darkness and complexity, and you have a fail-proof show.

Disqo Disco (Fallout)