| CD REVIEW K2 |
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Band : K2 A little story of what went on at the Concrete Web headquarters, leading to my reviewing this album. As you may know, I regularly help out our editor-in-chief in updating the website. During those sessions we are occasionally interrupted by one or more of our colleagues passing by to pick up their next chores, euhm...next delights of their music journalistic activities. Thus was also the case some 3 weeks ago, and as always I had a keen ear on the stuff he passed onto colleague Erik Morren, when he came upon this K2. Well, I'd never heard of 'em, so my mind was at ease. Then he mentioned, “I'm not sure what type of music it is, but it's from a new label that contacted me, they're called Magna Carta”. With a swift turn of my head I responded, “Magna...,” (my heartbeat skipping a couple of pulses), “...Carta! That's real quality Progressive Rock stuff, man!”. So he turned to me and went, with a coy smile, “So, could you do it then?”, to which I replied with an equal amount of insincerity, “Well, I don't know! When's it coming out? Oh Sept. 20? Well, I suppose that gives me enough time to fit it into my schedule.”, and he concluded with a totally redundant “Okay, but could you give it some special attention then?”...a question which I left completely unanswered. I mean, when have I ever given àny album less than my total attention? Perhaps, in a way you might look at this intro as being the “special attention”? 'Nuff banter, let's focus on K2 now! You see, it's important to point out from the very start that thís K2 is not the Noise music project of Japanese musician Kimihide Kusafuka...nor is it an abbreviated form of Kee Marchello's K2 (Hard Rock band formed by Europe guitarist Kee Marchello), but an American Prog Rock quintet from Los Angeles, California! And we can thank providence on our knees for its existence, because it's purely by “accident” that the band came into being. You see, back in 2001 bassist/ keyboardist/ acoustic guitarist/ backing singer Ken Jaquess asked drummer/ backing singer Doug Sanborn to play on some new music he was working on, and as the two went to a total of 4 rehearsals and only 5 hours of recordings, they laid down the foundations of what was to become K2's 5-track conceptual debut album (dealing with the Egyptian “Book Of The Dead” - hence the title). Over the next 4 years, noted musicians such as Allan Holdsworth, Ryo Okumoto (of Spock's Beard), Shaun Guerin, Yvette Devereaux and John Miner added layer upon layer upon the foundation laid down by the original duo, and as the end result the April 2005 released Book Of The Dead was given its signature sound. The album (issued by California label ProgRock Records) praised by media worldwide, Ken & Doug decided to take the album to the road to promote it more efficiently, this with a line-up consisting also of lead singer Josh Gleason, guitarist Karl Johnson, and keyboardist Ryo Okumoto. K2 filmed its debut 2006 gig for posterity, releasing it on their 2008 DVD K2 Live In Hollywood (if I've understood it right, it was also released as CD). It's with the same line-up that the band started work on their sophomore album in mid 2007, the concept of which is this time around the mystical continent of Oceania (more specifically about the epic journey of the ancient Polynesians whom, over 2500 years ago, sailed over more than a third of our world before settling on the islands in the South Pacific). By January 2008, vocals were added to the foundation of guitar, keyboards and drums...but before mixing could commence, more guitar tracks needed to be recorded. Then, for a while, no updates on the band's MySpace page until Summer 2008, to let know that keyboardist Ryo Okumoto had broken his jaw. After an even longer period of update absence, news about a big announcement in early July 2010 is released late the month before. The big news? Their singing to Magna Carta for the release of their sophomore album, of course! As mentioned in their communiqué, K2 is a true Progressive Rock band of the '70s, taking influences from the likes of Genesis, Yes, ELP, and UK, with a sound which is heavily dominated by the keyboards [think Rick Wakefield-era Yes – and yes, two songs on the album (namely “Widows Watch” and the very short “Summer's Fall”) don't even have any guitar in 'em that I can discern], a driving bass (reminiscent of Chris Squire, again of Yes) and a nice semi-high pitched singer with a nasal quality whom may not be rock steady when he tries to apply some more energy to his voice to reach for higher notes, but whom definitely gives the band a face quite unique its own. Apparently, his voice has been likened to that of Peter Gabriel (Genesis, but you probably already knew that). With only 7 songs on the album for a total length of 56 minutes, you get 3 songs over the 10-minute range, but even those have a nice mixture of instrumental and vocal passages. The overall mood of the album is rather calm, but there's plenty of more energetic passages as well...in essence, there's a nice balance between the two! Of course, to those who are not really familiar with the dropped names (hey, you younger ProgMetal people, wanna try out something new and calmer?), the above description could remain a somewhat cryptic, so perhaps you'd better go listen to the songs posted at myspace.com/k2ken (besides 4 tracks off the new album there's also 3 off the band's debut album – one of which over 23 minutes long – and an additional 10 ½ minute track – the origins of which I am uncertain of...but that didn't diminish my joy when listening to it!). I have nothing but praise for this album (and with a rating as high as the below one you know it'll end up in my year-lists) and band (I'm définitely gonna try to get a copy of their debut album)! I mean, this is the kind of band I would actually wanna go and see live...in spite of the fact that I haven't been to àny concerts over the last couple of years! 98/100 Tony. |