A Disappointingly Average Album
When it comes to writing a music review, I find it handy to have a press release to give basic information about an unknown band. The one I received with ‘Play To Ghosts’ got me a little confuses when areas of the biography differed to the material on the bands official web page. Therefore, I have disregarded all information about the band and focused on the music with this review and it is basically as pointless as the press release.
K.O.KAINE have created a frequently heard sound, which when listening though ten songs becomes a little tiresome and quite tedious resulting in there being nothing on ‘Play To Ghosts’ that makes me want to listen again. In terms of music, there is nothing much to interest anyone, nothing different to what we haven’t heard a million and one times previously. Some of the music is intense, there is a lot of drumming, an organ section that is admittedly a little spooky and otherworldly, with some chaotic musical arrangements. The vocals are very changeable and never really settled. Between the ten tracks on this release they range from faint, sharp and quite snappy, aggressive, shouting, a duo contribution is distorting and change pitch so often it hurts on some numbers.
To be honest, the only appealing aspects I came across were the few tracks that showed connectivity through vocals and music. Neither individually have a hope in hell of entertaining me but when united create a good mesh. ‘Actress Exits’ has slightly darker tones than previous tracks but when accompanied with softer vocal verses and more intense choruses create quite a tune. The vocals move well to the music of ‘Tired Of The Revolution’ where a whisper alongside the vocals is well put and makes you click to attention. The combination on ‘Look At Yourselves’ is completely compatible in rhythm, with it becoming difficult to tell whether the vocals are singing to the music, or the music is beating to the vocals.
Unfortunately, even with these positive points, the negative outweighs them.