Everything about Kayo Dot totally explained
Kayo Dot is an American
avant garde group that was formed in 2003 by Toby Driver. They released their debut album
Choirs of the Eye on
John Zorn's
Tzadik Records label that year.
The music of Kayo Dot bridges several genres, from
heavy metal to
classical music. Their songs involve complex
instrumentation (composed by singer and frontman Driver). They are substantially longer than typical rock songs, often ranging from 8 to 15 minutes in length.
Tzadik's descriptive label on that album reads: "Kayo Dot powerfully integrates elements of modern classical composition with the layers of guitars and vocals more common to
rock and metal. With a compositional map that's strict in form yet malleable in execution, Kayo Dot uses a vast array of instrumentation to create an exciting convergence of
violence and serenity."
History
Kayo Dot was formed after the disbanding of
maudlin of the Well, a progressive heavy metal band which formed in 1996 and dissolved in 2003. Many past members of Maudlin of the Well — Josh Seipp-Williams, Sam Gutterman, Terran Olson, Andrew Dickson, and Toby Driver — studied at
Hampshire College in
Amherst, Massachusetts from 1996-2000, where
My Fruit PsychoBells...A Seed Combustible was recorded. At Hampshire, Driver, Olson, and Dickson were students of jazz musician
Yusef Lateef, whose theories of
autophysiopsychic music influenced maudlin of the Well's, and to a greater extent Kayo Dot's, albums.
Driver has gone on to say on their
website
:
"Some members of this project worked in the progressive-metal project-band maudlin of the Well from 1996 - 2003, at which time motW dismembered. Kayo Dot isn't much different from Maudlin of the Well musically - rather it's more like a continuation in the direction Maudlin of the Well had been progressing."
and has also said:
"People are too preoccupied with whatever connection there may be between maudlin of the Well and Kayo Dot."
In May 2005, Tom Malone joined the band as their new drummer after Sam Gutterman (who also played in maudlin of the Well) left the band in March 2005 for unknown reasons. Kayo Dot then signed to
Robotic Empire Records and released its second album,
Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue, in January of 2006.
In 2006, near the end of the latest tour, four members—playing guitar, bass, drums, and trumpet—left the band for personal reasons. On the tenth of December, Greg Massi also left Kayo Dot on good terms stating he was going "to try and figure out other aspects of my musical life and take some time to figure out where I want to be going."
Kayo Dot is now signed to
Hydra Head Records and has recently completed their new album,
Blue Lambency Downward, set to be released on May 6th, 2008.
Current members
Image:Kayodot2.jpg|Kayo Dot in Santa Cruz, CA
Image:Kayodot3.jpg|Violinist Mia Matsumiya
|Guitarist Greg Massi
Along with:
David Bodie (of
Time of Orchids) - drums
Terran Olson - Keys, Clarinet
Patrick Wolff - Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute
Daniel Means - Saxophone, Clarinet, Guitar
Discography
Choirs of the Eye (2003)
Split with Bloody Panda 12" (2006)
Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue (2006)
Blue Lambency Downward (2008)Further Information
Get more info on 'Kayo Dot'.
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