Today he was fired. Has the day changed? Has its light shifted? Is it darker? Is it lighter?
Today she left him. Has time itself, the way it passes through his life, changed? Does he see his movements more clearly and slowly?
Today he saw the future. Has sound, the glue that ties his senses together, faltered? Does the sound of cars passing over pavement sound more mechanical? More wave-like?
Reviewing Kiln’s second LP (Ampday) for this magazine four years ago, the context for all of these questions — the questions asked when an album disturbs life’s drum machines — was altogether organic. The textures created by these three Michiganders read as a description for the subjects of a Japanese watercolor.
But since then, Ghostly International has utilized Kiln’s “organicism” to redefine its own electronic/techno/electro/ill continuum, one that was already left field. The result is a new synthesis, an album seen within a context of new, accelerated sounds. Though only an EP, the results seem whole, the chiming of opener “Royal Peppermint Forest” seeming to call those who are/wish to be converted to worship. “Hong” is more dubbish but with paperclips and zippers instead of bass drops and rasta meanderings. The final, “Season,” has beats but they are less noticeable than lightning bugs flickering in summer nights.
He awaits the full-length to finish off the beautiful, changed, atmosphere.
E-mail Carleton S. Gholz at [email protected].
