Blue Lambency Downward

Toby Driver, the mastermind behind Kayo Dot, has been quietly toiling away in the underground now for nine years, in Kayo Dot's initial incarnation as avant-death metallers Maudlin Of The Well. He's had an absolutely sterling run of albums, with Kayo Dot's 2003 debut Choirs Of The Eye getting my vote for “album of the decade”. His hard work seems to be paying off, as both bands have built up a substantial internet following, and have recently signed to Isis frontman Aaron Turner's Hydra Head Records. All seems set for Kayo Dot to take over the world... But, with their new release, Blue Lambency Downward, Kayo Dot have abandoned metal entirely. It's proven to be a controversial move, as fans of the band's blend of jazzy, classically-influenced post-rock and crashing metal crescendos, have given this record some scathing criticism. The band are now entirely Driver's project, with the remaining members of Maudlin Of The Well departing after the band's last opus Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue. Only violinist Mia Matsumiya remains from the line-up that produced that towering slab of art-metal, Toby Driver choosing to handle nearly all the instruments here, except for a few parts handled by session musicians. Most notable among these is Behold... The Arctopus drummer Charlie Zeleny, who sounds completely unrecognisable here, far removed from the warp-speed technicality of his main band, playing fairly standard quiet jazz, although you can almost hear himself reining in his playing. The journey through this record's seven movements, (and they are movements, as it all feels like one big overarching piece with several tracks flowing together) takes place almost entirely in a jazzy dreamscape, with only Driver's sparse guitar keeping us barely, just barely in rock territory (and I do use the term rock loosely). His vocals are also a little more prominent here, and he sounds a lot more confident as a singer. Of course, the guttural growling and shrieking he employed on previous works has been excised here. The songs are all a lot shorter, with none of the 14+ minute strolls in the park we've grown accustomed to seeing. Only closer Symmetrical Arizona strays over the 10 minute mark. The record continues in the same mood set by the title track, although there are some deviations from the formula. Cliela Walking comes the closest to the classic Kayo Dot sound with the only taste of heavy guitars heard throughout the record, while The Awkward Windwheel is positively breakneck speed for Kayo Dot, being a more playful track that clocks in at three and a half minutes. Nothing will really jump out at you on first listen, admittedly, but the music reveals itself to be oddly charming, despite the initial cold-water shock of the new. It seems to be a more low-key and straightforward Kayo Dot on first glance, for sure, but upon closer inspection it reveals itself to have as much depth as either of its predecessors, perhaps more so. The music has an almost soundtrack-like quality at times, from the cityscape of Right Hand Is The One I Want to the sinister swarm of locusts that is The Sow Submits. It's more than a little unfair to compare Blue Lambency Downward to what came before it, as it's a totally different beast. If Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue sounded like the apocalypse, then Blue Lambency Downward is a brave new world rising from the ashes. Only time will tell whether it'll stand as tall as Choirs Of The Eye, but as the very least, it's a more than worthy addition to Toby Driver's body of work, and proves him more than capable of both confounding and charming.