Kino Oko
Alphabetically Divided Highway
Tribal Vision
26 Aug 2008
Trippy Psychedelic Funk
Tracklist
1 Any Kind Of Structure (6:41)
2 Made In Satisfaction (6:30)
3 Body And Mind (6:43)
4 Mother Mature (6:26)
5 Sympathetic Magic Death (7:06)
6 Story Of Forgotten Notes (6:55)
7 Stand By Me (6:19)
8 Pure Irony (7:20)
9 Remedy Express (6:52)
10 Messiah Formula (8:43)
11 Through The Round Window (7:46)
Forget the trippy as hell cover, forget the fact that this has been released on Tribal Vision, a much more clubby label than you'd expect to be releasing Kino Oko after the great first album Lost Entertainment which was to be honest a trippy masterpiece of sound. Dripping with acidic beats & melodies. Vocals added to the psychedelic feeling rather than detracted. Alphabetically Divided Highway picks up where the first album left off but also takes it much much further. Definitely one of the picks of the year.
1, Any Kind Of Structure
This track sounds broken, and a bit dirty. The opening is like a cracked open chill track with sporadic beats & melodic sounds. The beat kicks in as a slow driving one which gets more breaky. All the samples, sounds & melodies are trippy weird "non sci fi" sci fi. Like driving down a countryside road on a clear night, a perfect night for UFOs without any of it happening. An odd track that makes me wonder why I like it but like it I do, very funky.
2. Made In Satisfaction
A scratchy metallic intro leads into a nice relaxed beat & some cool melodies. The lead melody goes up and then sounds like it's falling down the stairs. The sub melodies are light & spacey adding a kind of ambience heightened after the breakdown & kick back in. Like the first track it's very funky and though it's definitely a modern track it has a kick back retro feeling like the 1980's. This retro feeling is completed with the vocal that sounds right out of some 80's synth pop. Cool.
3. Body & Mind
Feeling a little quicker now, a track more dancefloor worthy but no less interesting for home listening. Carrying on the mood of the last track with it's 1980's synth pop feel accentuated by the vocals. They sound similar to Made In Satisfaction but darker and more gravely. Even though both sets of vocals are put through effects it still has that feel. The melodies are more in the back of this track & it has more rhythm & glitch. I like.
4. Mother Nature
I feel the album really gets going with this track. It just manages to get so much energy out of the melodic elements. The synths are very tuneful and the on different levels play 3 different melodies conjoining each other. The feeling of modern retro synth funk is great. What I really love is that there is this slight higher pitch melody playing underneath everything that threatens to materialise into something big & after listening to the album many times I always think it's about to but never does. What a tease.
5. Sympathetic Magic Death
This track has a lush ambient intro & then just kicks into the main track with a really disjointed feeling. But it does it in a way that manges to sound well done and not a mistake. Adding to the trippiness not ruining the flow. All through the track it feels disjointed like it's broken as in Any Kind Of Structure. When the piano comes in it really gets an urgent feel, like the music is running from something always looking back over it's shoulder making it stumble but not fall. The beats are bouncy, it makes you move your body. It has great melody & rhythm, overall it's a great track.
6. Story Of Forgotten Notes
This for me is more reminiscent of the first album, it has that kind of sharp metallic tang to it that I loved in Lost Entertainment. More relaxed than the preceding track with more spacey ambience in the background. Very trippy, sounds like ambient with a beat and a bassline in the first half. It gets a bit glitchier as it goes on and more melodic with some very simple light melodies & squelchy sounds on the edge of the beats. The end of the track flips between funky & sci fi. It's all pretty odd but it's all pretty good too.
7. Stand By Me
Wow, wow, WOW!!! This is one of the melodic tracks of the year for sure. The main melodic line runs up & down, left & right and is accompanied by what sounds like a mix between crowd cheering & rain. I thought that would get tired pretty soon but it didn't at all. Each time it comes in I still smile. The melody moves around very pleasantly and it really is a feel good track in Kino Oko's weird trippy style. Love it!
8. Pure Irony
An ambient intro followed by some twisted laughter like a drugged up hyena! The laughter continues as the beat kicks in & through the rest of the track it is twisted & warped in really trippy ways. The long synth drones in the background gives us a nice spacey atmosphere again whereas the laugh bring me right down under the earth. I imagine a desert at night, cold and barren with threats in the darkness but also the beauty of the clear night sky filled with stars.
9 Remedy Express
This starts of glitchy but out of that glitch comes a clear crisp melody & bassline that really drives this emotionally. There is lots going on in the track on the sidelines, little blips of melody forming almost into a side tune, a lush natural melody that seems like it's trying to hide & scrathy bits of retro acid gleam in rusty glitter. Very cool.
10. Messiah Formula
This is one of those tracks that builds itself up from the bare bones to something truly wonderful. We go from just the beats to the synths to some clacks to a rushing sounds that seems to be powering up before it winds down & down until it disappears & the melody kicks in. The melody is accompanied by some long soft majestic synths & eventually some 80's synth pop sounding vocals. The rushing powering up sounds comes back in, build & builds as if it's all going to kick off & then it just lightly floats along on it's high notes. When the music finally does kick off it does so in a pretty relaxed way. It's all just very emotional, almost unexpected but very welcome. Great track, best on this great album.
11. Through The Round Window
A nice funky end to the album, relaxed with quite a slow beat. The melody & rhythm are quite a contrast to the dark creepy vocal that if it was put in some darker soundscapes could be quite scary. It almost sounds like someone is in pain, like the short stabs of melody are slicing through this poor soul's body & ripping him apart slowly. Resigned to a slow death surrounded by cool funky music.
So Kino Oko has made another essential album. It's fresh & retro at the same time. He has taken sounds from 20 odd years ago and blended them with a whole heap of other styles to create something that sounds pretty different to just about everything else out there. If you like really trippy cool funky music then you'll probably want to check this out.
