| CD REVIEW Klay |
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Band: Klay This quintet from the usually rather quiet British county of Devon was formed in 2005 (as a quartet) and first made themselves heard of in late January 2007 through a 4-way split release shared with This Familiar Smile, Resonate, and They Died Too Young. Only a couple of months later (during early May, actually) Lockjaw issued the band’s full-length debut Invitation To An Accident (after having allowed the original recordings to be re-mixed & mastered by Jim Turner at Worchester’s The Waiting Room Studios). Media response to the album was rather positive, raving even in some cases. The respected Rocksound magazine even went as far as to include a song by the band on their August edition covermount compilation CD (incidently, that was the magazine’s 100th issue...just a little trivia on the side, nothing actually important to the band, you know). UK radio show Total Rock Radio played the band’s music quite frequently for a while, and Häkan Persson did the same on Sweden’s national rodio P3. Additionally, the album got enthousiastic support from several german and Austrian radio stations. So, it was a good choice of Tribute To Nothing (one of the band’s influences, alongside other makers of diverse and fidgety angular Rock, such as Biffy Clyro, Oceansize, From Monument To Masses, The Appleseed Cast, and Sigur Ross…to name but a few) to take Klay on their early 2008 European tour! I guess after that tour the original bassist decided to up and go (or was kicked out), because there’s a long lap of quiteness around the band for the period leading up to current day events. Anyway, if I’ve got my information antennae wired correctly, the (remaining) threesome of lead singer/ guitarist Paul Maddick, guitarist/ backing singer Mark Bennett, and drummer/ backing singer Jules Tabberer then recruited Lucy Maddick for bass duties (and the occasional bit of cello), and added a third guitarist to their line-up (most probably to allow the lead vocalist to concentrate on his singing during live appearances) with Scott Thompson (whom àlso brings occasional backing vocals). Actually, Lucy had already contributed cello sounds to the band’s debut album (on the track “Swans Reflecting” to be exact), me trying to piece things together from insinuations and small bits of “evidence”, and I’m not at all sure whether she’s that new to the band’s line-up! Anyway, for some reason or other, Lockjaw has taken a year’s time to release this, the band’s sophomore album, recordings (done at The Waiting Room Studios with Turner) of which were already terminated by late April of last year! Just like in the case of the band’s musical inspiratons, you can expect highly atmospheric and epic tracks laced with lavish note-spielerei, the mood of which constantly swings from a calmer (near acoustic) one to a more energetic one where the guitars are more distorted, and where you can even occasionally hear shouted and/or screamed lead and/or backing vocals. Opening their new album is the weirdly titled “Victory Is A Fish”, a mostly instrumental track (vocals in the form of a couple of the repeated sentences “Maintain your distance” and “Maps of rebellion” only come in during the last 40 seconds of the “song”) which also includes the used of that great cello of Lucy’s! That same cello mày have been incorporated quite ingeniusly in the album’s third track “December 1964”, andreturns towards the end of the 10-track album in the ballad “Construct Your Own”…which sees Paul in a lone vocal capacity, accompanied only by acoustic guitar and cello! Weirdly enough, there’s no use of cello at all in the album’s only true instrumental “You Fight Great But I’m A Great Fighter”. With Paul’s voice being of the somewhat melancholic type, it would be easy to classify Klay into the Emo category, but anyone who’s listened to this band’s music will tell you that it sets ‘em apart from the clean-cut Emo genre, and justifies earlier comparisons to not only the band’s inspirational bands, but also the likes of Mogwai, Envy, Jetplane Landing, Explosions In The Sky, and more. Convince yourself by checking out what’s available at myspace.com/klay (also the band’s official website). If you’re a fans of any of the above mentioned acts, you can almost blindly trust to like Klay as well! Having been able to listen to the album several times due to a slow period at the Concrete Web office (our editor-in-chief momentarily being obligated to concentrate almost completely on his job as product manager with a wel-known record label, due to the increased concert season), and not having become bored with the album yet after…pffiieww, must be near 15-20 sessions now…I can only come to the end conclusion that “Maps Of Rebellion” has desérved its place among the nominations of this year’s “Best Albums Of 2009”-list of mine! 98/100 Tony. |