Kanoi

Basque For Barrel EP

Written by: BV on 27/09/2013 20:43:57

Kanoi is the name of an Austrian one-man project founded by Benjamin Kantschieder in 2010, supposedly as “an outlet for his ongoing quest of combining ambient soundscapes and the experimental mind-set of seventies space rock.” His latest four-track EP, “Basque For Barrel” is the one this review will be about.

As “Insertion” opens the album with its vast and scenic one-chord drone soundscape, the vibe of a space enthusiast is already shining through. As the track progresses, the use of voice-samples from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” underlines the eagerness to write music that relates to the vast space of our galaxy as well as beyond, which is seemingly the driving force for Benjamin Kantschieder. Following “Insertion” is a fuzzy drone called “The Heather Blazing”. The vocal work that eventually appears is probably the most interesting part about the track, as it is mildly distorted – yet not directly fuzzy to listen to. The vocals are actually sung with a melancholic vibe to them that compliments the general mood the music seems to go for, which is also emphasized later with the added reverb and echo effects on said vocals. The guitar work is rather uninteresting though as the far too dry and fuzzy sound does nothing to compliment the overall soundscape, instead opting to only keep tabs on the rhythm (so to say). Seeing as there is an underlying (or rather dominant) theme going on here that concerns itself with outer space, one could argue that the track is in dire need of some wet effects such as echoes and reverbs to emphasize the grandeur of the very object of which Kanoi writes music about.

Closing up on the second long-runner out of four tracks, “Suspicions Aside”, one could argue that the balance of tracks is somewhat balanced with the album opening and closing with relatively short tracks, whilst the two long-runners provide the ‘filling’, if you will. However, the two ‘filler’ tracks are by no means interesting enough on their own to make up such a large part of the EP. Unfortunately so, the EP comes off as promising in some places as the guitar work gets noticeably more interesting on “Suspicions Aside”, but the overall impression of the album is that it still needs some sort of focus, as well as a ‘wetter’ or more lush soundscape to underline the influences and to create a well-textured soundscape. In other words, this particular project still needs some work before it’s up there with the heavy-hitters. But it’s not that far off.

6

Download: Suspicions Aside, Insertion, The Heather Blazing
For The Fans Of: Ken Camden, Jonas Reinhardt
Listen: Facebook

Release date 01.06.2013
Self-released


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