Kandodo - Kandodo

by Anthony Strutt

published: 2 / 7 / 2012

Label: Thrill Jockey
Format: CD

Fantastic psychedelic-influenced debut album from Kandodo, the solo project of Simon Price from the Heads

Review

Kandodo is the project of Simon Price of the Bristol band, the Heads. This self-titled record is his first solo work and is a homemade album, recorded on a secondhand Mac and using mostly guitars, keyboards and a drum machine. It is an instrumental album of textured psychedelia and mood pieces which will chill out your soul to its very core. 'Dawn Harmonix' features a gentle guitar, and has an almost Velvets like groove going on. Bass adds extra grit, while some keyboards in the background give it a sense of dreaded fear. It is the perfect soundtrack number. ‘Laud, the Hyena’ has doom-laden Krautrock beats which float over the landscape of your mind and haunt you in an ‘Exorcist’ manner, while the guitar screams at you like a maniac getting closer. ‘Ceramy’ is again eerie and guitar-based, while on ‘Yamadharma’ the drums, which are in the distance at first, slowly start to get closer and the haunting keyboards relax you into a dream-like state. ‘Dagga’ is both more guitar-based and psychedelic. The guitar is minimal and creepy. The slo-core keyboards add just enough backing before the guitar finally erupts on us My Bloody Valentine-style into a hailstorm of noise. ‘Witchdoctor’ is again all doomy, another possible soundtrack number. ‘Shaneri Last’ could easily sit well on a Dario Argento soundtrack, and keyboard-based is like a modern day Bach Toccata. The title track is heavy on guitar, but restrained in its trippy manner, one for the guitar freaks out there. ‘Lord Hyena, 3 am’ ends the work, has a big sound, is very trippy and a mood stealer, with lush layers that wash over you. This eponymous debut is an album of beautifully played and arranged textures of unknown pleasures for the head.