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Volume 1 CKY |
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Dead on with the account that the band sounds like no one else, damned again and again in a matter of four minutes from the onset, I can hear probably about six or seven different familiarities of the past but cannot quite put my finger on any one band or artist they sound like. Truly independent in mindset and musicianship, CKY hails from the hotbed of musical talent, West Chester, PA., which ironically is a place that I just returned from and to call it a quiet and unassuming place in kind of akin to calling Larry Flynt a conscientious writer of children's novels. The oddly named foursome has established an impressive following in the underground community maintaining their edge by abstaining from all things mainstream and a lasting devotion to the Skate/Punk crowds riding the pulse of musical integrity. Opening with "96 Quite Bitter Beings," it documents the woeful population of Hellview, or maybe any other listless town North of nowhere, calculating a means for escape, ringing hollow with a windswept minor-key rhythm and oncoming vocal prevalence, it's a storm of a song, cloudy in nature, edgy and harmonic with a catchy hook that draws you in with eyes wide open… and then, "Rio Bravo," and "Disengage The Simulator," both continue ahead on the path of indifference lining the roadway of reality-a narrative of sorts dispelling the notion of things always as they seem… and not so. There's a quirky Urge Overkill swell rising up for "The Human Drive In Hi-Fi," and this could well be the early breakthrough for an album that'll be as admirable for its easy to identify song characteristics as it is for ambitiousness. Let's fast-forward to the spacey-Classic Rock infused "Lost In A Contraption" and all at once you're lost in a world of Soundgarden and King Crimson… sound improbable? Most of what they do, and don't do, is actually-expect nothing close to a Pop lick or million-selling choral arrangement, they extend outward in a multitude of different directions like a patch of weeds, never to lie dormant for too long, theirs is a musical arrangement that will find a way to rise above in spite of the lack of fertile soil. Released by Island Records Review by Vinnie Apicella
[va85@columbia.edu] |