 "Photo: Deltasonic Records")
Kaki King Legs to Make Us Longer 2004 Velour/Epic Records Score: 3.5 out of 5
For a purported music critic, I must admit that I am rather uninformed in the area of quasi-mainstream artists. Few musicians have made me regret my veritable tunnel vision as much as Kaki King has with her new album Legs to Make Us Longer.
I have bruises -- that is, I've been kicking myself rather hard for having just found out about Kaki, particularly since she's had quite a bit of exposure with her performance on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" as well as magazine spotlights in Guitar World, Guitar Player and Frets Magazine.
After listening to Legs a few times over (once was simply not enough), I can now say that I'm officially hooked on Kaki King.
Entranced. Astounded. Fascinated. When I initially tried to explain this amazement, words escaped me -- it's oddly fitting when you consider that Legs is an acoustic album.
No lyrics. No sing-along choruses. No heart-wrenching cries of anguish or praiseworthy hymns. Nothing of the sort -- it's all instrumental, which is more than enough to keep you interested.
Kaki's music relies on inhuman rapid-fire chords, slides and drum-like finger-taps that evoke sounds both complex and catchy from her custom-made Adamas guitar.
Her songs are, for lack of a better word, tasty.
But it's Kaki in action that truly amazes. Stop reading this review and go watch her video for "Playing with Pink Noise" on Launch.com; you can come back and thank me later ...
Assuming that you've returned -- and that you were able to find your jaw after it unhinged itself and dropped to the floor with a hearty thok -- let us continue where we left off.
Kaki typically holds her own with her solo guitar work, but she is occasionally backed by drums, piano, bass guitar and a handful of classical instruments.
"Doing the Wrong Thing" is the best example of this musical merger, especially with the cello and violin accents. Other standout tracks include the toe-tapping "Ingots," up-tempo "Solipsist," and soothing "My Insect Life," wherein Kaki finally steps forward to grace the listener with her lilting voice.
Don't end up like me by missing out on the good stuff. Listen to Kaki King and make a point to pick up Legs to Make Us Longer.
The Zutons Who Killed ... The Zutons? 2004 Deltasonic/Epic Records Score: 3.5 out of 5
If I happened to hear the Zutons as a passing song on the radio, I would probably have dismissed them as one of the countless rock bands from the late '60s. As far as vocals are concerned, the Zutons' David McCabe is already vaguely reminiscent of Jim Morrison and John Lennon.
If one were to augment Boydon Chowdhury's jangly guitar, Russell Pritchard's low-down bass and Sean Payne's 4/4 percussion with the lo-fi quality of radio, you'd be hard-pressed to differentiate the Zutons from their forbears.
But comparing the Zutons to the Doors and the Beatles and leaving it at that is hardly fair; the Zutons are a much more ambitious project than a mere '60s sound-alike.
Abi Harding's saxophone certainly helps to set the Zutons apart, and she provides the Liverpool-based quintet with some interesting melodies and instrumental segments.
According to lead vocalist David McCabe, the Zutons "always wanted to be like Sly and the Family Stone or Talking Heads or Devo ... we wanted to cross jazz with funk and soul with country. We just wanted to mix everything together and get every angle on it."
While the Zutons may not have fully achieved this goal -- after all, it's quite ambitious -- their debut album Who Killed ... The Zutons? is definitely something else. It's something from another time, made modern and available to the masses. Tracks like "Dirty Dancehall" and "Long Time Coming" capture the funky flavor of the '70s while "Not a Lot to Do" plays like a jazz-infused waltz. "Pressure Point" takes on the role of the edgy hard-rocking single, and the country-fried "Remember Me," and "Moons and Horror Shows" call to mind a particular group of mop-topped Liver-puddlians.
"Basically, we just want to be the next modern soul band with angular guitars," McCabe said in the Zutons' online interview/biography. While I can't say with any certainty how successful McCabe & co. are in this endeavor, I do know that the Zutons are one of the best up-and-coming bands of 2004. Just watch.
The Zutons have tour dates scheduled for this November in support of Muse and the Killers. Grab Who Killed... The Zutons? and prepare yourself for the new British Invasion.
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