Review: Lafcadio - Kibosh
Label: Joyful Noise Recordings
Released: January 22, 2008
In a nutshell, Lafcadio could be described as King Crimson meets Dillinger Escape Plan meets Black Flag meets Black Sabbath meets Shel Silverstein. If you're not immediately turned off by the threat of that, then their new album Kibosh is probably for you. At times, they are as refined (though not quite as safe as) late 70s/early80s King Crimson jazz/prog. At other times, they play what sounds like noise, except...there's something to it. In between these two extremes is the heavy, discordant noodling that can likely only be picked up by locking oneself in a room and listening repeatedly to side 2 of Black Flag's My War. Just in case you're tempted to take all of this too seriously, check out that album cover with its 70s catalog spoof and the track list with the likes of "freewillynelsonmandela." That's right, on some level, it's all supposed to be fun. The result is hardly accessible, but for the brave and silly alike, there's something here that will catch you when you're not looking.
Rating: 8/10
Myspace
posted by bob_vinyl at 11:00 AM
4 Comments:
Okay, you sold me. I'll give this one a listen.
This is pretty close to the review I did, so I agree for sure. Love this disk, but I could see other people freaking out and running away from it.
Hmmmm... maybe I'm missing something, but I don't hear what you're talking about. To me, this sounds like what would happen if a third-rate screamo band decided to go to music school and learn about Ornette Coleman and Frank Zappa and whole tone scales and shit like that.
What's odd is that I could probably deal with the angular and prog songwriting, but the screaming kills it for me. Twenty years ago, I was all about screaming, but it's played out. Even when it's done well, it just doesn't matter anymore. It's how I felt about guitar solos in 1990: shut up and play the song, douchebag.
That approach doesn't even work for Lafcadio, though, becuse when the guy finally gets around to singing, he sounds like Geddy Lee with a bad headcold. As if we didn't get enough of that with Linkin Park.
You built this up pretty high, Bobbo. King Crimson but not as safe? Black Flag meets Black Sabbath? "freewillynelsonmandela?" My goodness, it all sounds wonderful. But it isn't. To paraphrase Bono: the Shel Silverstein I believe in doesn't need your third-rate, screamo-math-rock bands, mister.
Thanks for the review, sir. As always, our stuff runs right over most peoples heads.... You either love it, or hate it. There seems to be no middle ground with our band. But we're okay with that. We aren't doing this to please anyone but ourselves, and we're very happy with the way this album turned out. Thanks again.
LAFCADIO
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