A while back we got a
sneak peak at the forthcoming Wot Gorilla? album in the form of their single Snow White, and after waiting patiently over
the summer we have reached the time for the full album release of Kebnekaise, expanding on the single with
another ten tracks of unique sounding rock music packed with complex time
signatures, hooks, and the unique vocals of frontman Matt Haigh.
Reading the previous
review of Snow White should set you
up well with a good idea of what Wot Gorilla? have done with the rest of Kebnekaise – not really pushing the boat
out hugely in terms of the overall sound, instead allowing for their almost
trademark shifting time signatures, dynamics, and pacing to work their magic in
creating eleven songs which, while all fairly similar in sound, all stand
separately as distinct tracks on their own right. Opening track I Beat Up The Bathroom, I’m Sorry
straight away leads off with the sort of timing that confuses those expecting a
normal 4/4 and takes you a few repetitions to figure out and skips through a
few sections of different styled playing and noise levels before quickly
morphing into the first real track Melted
Welly – almost a quick intro to the band and sound before leading you off
into the songs proper. From there on the pattern is set and the band do little
to stray too far from it, with just enough variation and uniqueness to each
track to keep you listening and prevent boredom.
Normally I would
attempt to try and give you some idea of how tracks and sounds vary throughout
the album, but honestly with Kebnekaise
it is pretty hard to pin down anything as being ‘that’ track – the heavy
sections that normally make for the ‘heavy’ track of an album are instead
paired up in the same song with some of the album's lighter and more intricate
moments – the heavy section of 655
for example being immediately followed by a short but sparse section of just
simple clean guitars and vocals before picking up the intricacies seen
elsewhere in the fantastic layering and interwoven nature of the instruments
common throughout and Matt Haigh's distinct vocal style.
Whereas with many
albums listening to the single can be a bit hit or miss in giving you an idea
of how the rest of the album sounds, in this case I can’t really recommend
anything else – check out the video (and our previous review) for Snow White, and if it tickles your fancy
then you will definitely be on to a winner with Wot Gorilla?’s Kebnekaise.
Kebnekaise by Wot Gorilla? is out August 27th 2012
DL
No comments:
Post a Comment