Kamikazi Kat

After a long time of consideration, I have decided to start a thread for the purpose of giving me a place to throw my crappy album reviews... Don't really have much else to say, so I think I'll just get started:

Bygones
By-



This album is a collaboration that I've always thought would be interesting to see for a long time, a collaboration between drummer Zach Hill, most known for his work with Hella, and guitarist Nick Reinhart and his work with Tera Melos. This album is one of the many albums released this year with Zach Hill playing on it. I'm very excited to see one of my favorite drummers release so much music, most of it I haven't got around to listening to yet, and if any of the other collaboration projects are as good as this, then I'm set musically for quite a long time...

As expected with anything involving Zach Hill or Nick Reinhart, this album is very technical and mathy, but what I like is that its delivered in a way that makes it catchy. Its almost like pop music that you can't sing along with or dance to (unless you want to embarrass yourself), and with riffs that you will most likely never completely understand, but at the same time get stuck in your head, which I guess might be a complete turn down for many, but I know there is a crowd out there that loves this stuff as much as I do.

This isn't an album that brings something entirely new to the table, but it combines two musicians who's playful and upbeat personality and style mesh perfectly. Nick's guitar work is complex with a very odd sense of time and feel, but it never really sounds like that. His style has a distinct and recognizable sound that works great with Zach's frantic, yet precise drumming. In fact, most of this album doesn't sound that frantic at all, its not trying to be crazy, its not trying to merely be spazzy just for the sake of being spazzy. It reminds me of captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica in a way. After a while of listening to that album, it doesn't even sound challenging to listen to or avant-garde, it just sounds great, I don't even have to try. The only problem I have with this album is that although it has many great tracks on it, there are also many that just don't stand out among the rest of the tracks, but that may come as I listen to the album more (I've only listened to it about once all the way through).

Recommended Tracks:
cold Reading
click on That (Smash the Plastic Death)
Not What it is but What its Not

YouTube - Bygones - click on that smash the plastic death