Kine: Meditations In April Green (Alrealon Musique, 2013)
September 8, 2013 at 10:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Kine: Meditations In April Green
Droney, sometimes noisy meditative music by a group featuring Vietnamese vocalist Dao Anh Khanh, as well as members of PAS Musique. The vocals on here are an acquired taste and I couldn’t get into them at first, but they’re spirited, joyous, and ultimately transcendent. The first meditation here builds on a relaxed, almost bluesy (or at least Blues Control-y) rhythmic loop, before Khanh’s gruff, sometimes wailing vocals set in. The track takes its sweet time layering in synth textures and guitar lines. Around 13 minutes, the vocals are delivered through a vocoder and the music breaks from the rhythm and enters a more concentrated state. The second movement has a really nice synth texture to it which for some reason reminds me of Toro Y Moi but droned out, minimal and ambient, plus there’s this buzzing motor feedback sound behind it which might be a bit distracting for something more poppy and polished, but works fine here. This texture/loop kind of disappears after 7 or 8 minutes, after which we’re left with a bunch of mysterious, squirmy echoed sounds and more ecstatic, sometimes laughing vocals. Movement 3 has another soft, minimal rhythm, and lots of wild flute blowing, plus plenty of feedback guitar in its second half. Movement 4 is the shortest (just 5 minutes) and has lots of whooshing synths, and vocals and rushing feedback which build to an ecstatic climax. The final movement is the calmest, with bits of meandering guitar, until more whooshing synths build during the second half and more vocals worm their way in.
The Answer Is In The Beat 
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