KYRON x GRIDDLE - "City Made of Teeth"
(Black Note Music 2008)
From Aural Innovations May 2009 update
First some basic facts: Kyron is a project of one (JC Mendizabal) who according
to the liner notes has constructed this entire album from the sampling/remixing
of one single tune ("City Made of Teeth") by the band Griddle (originally
from their album Klimty Favela). I have not heard this song, but I'm guessing
it's either 1.quite the epic track or 2.quite the BUSY track...and hey, probably
there's additional production from Kyron. I won't be able to critique the album
based on any of these facts and speculations, so here's a rundown of the mere
sound artifacts (and packaging).
These titles help to evoke the general mood here...theoretically you're probably
meant to imagine a surreal and often frightening vision of the skeleton of a
post-apocalyptic metropolis, with its fallout a morphing of dead humanity melted
down with the various industrial debris. On the other hand, other titles like
"Tooth & Nail", "Dentata Maxima" and "Bicuspid
Jitterbug" might lead one to suspect there's some "tongue in cheek"
(ooph!!) at work as well. (Though "Tooth & Nail" in this context
could also be a symbol of the merging of organic and technological elements
in such an afterworld).
The music is fairly rhythm-driven, heavy during the band parts with slow doomy
drums, interspersed with more electronic pieces that are glitchy at times though
never overboard on the avant-erratic side of things, rarely bordering on the
dancy, all pretty much welded together piece by piece, and intermittently haunted
by the quiet stoic female chant of the album's main vocal line: "In the
City Made of Teeth, that's where I will lay my body down...". And yet,
as compelling as this concept is, the purely musical aspect of this album really
isn't much to rave about: there's very little we haven't really heard. The intent
is there, but somehow most of it comes across as bland and academic; for lack
of a better word, there's not much actual "oomph!" here, the part
that makes the brain and body tingle. The parts that should frighten or intrigue
don't quite suck you in, it's more like just watching from the outside. I can
appreciate how "Scratch & Bite" reprises and cuts up the title-track,
but more as an exercise than anything.
Still, there are a couple gems hidden in the rubble that make my cut, such as
the really cool passage of "Zahnestadt", the above-mentioned lone
vocal being looped, faded in/out and impressively counterbalancing a moody drum
groove with quietly spaced keyboards...there's a sense of originality here and
it feels good, too. "Dentata Maxima" gets a pretty good thing going,
with some extra voice samples and nice programmed percussives that create a
higher energy and more authentic atmosphere. Now the closer - "Beyond City
Walls" is a great wrap-up and conceptually I take it as some sort of escape
from or even transcendence of the dead/decadent state, the voices morphing/hyperspacing
from the corporeal to a pure electronic buzzing...various other synth tones
and far-out wails round out this beautifully spaced rhythmic collage. It's hard
to say anything negative after this track...you may have your own favorites...I
just can't recommend this album on the whole.
Check out the project web site at: http://www.deconstructionist.com/blacknote/kyronx.htm
Reviewed by Chuck