Poor old K-Bar-T, their MySpace site states that Stephen DeVito, their lead singer/guitarist has left the band. The current personnel list only Jason Davidson on guitar, from those who played on this CD. On top of this, the band is going to be renamed, and relaunched with a completely different line-up!
As a result, this review is not as in depth as it might have been. K-Bar-T formed in the summer of 2007, and their roots reach back to a project that Jason Davidson, who is the guitarist/songwriter, set up in Idaho in 2003.
The band blends melodic indie pop, shoegaze and progressive rock, and this is their first (and only) offering. Overall, there is nothing too bad with this CD; however, it does not distinguish itself from thousands of like CDs by thousands of ‘alternative’ bands. The main problem for me is that the vocals are buried a little low in the mix and are muffled and indistinct (think of REM’s ‘Murmur’) which makes it difficult to get any story or background the songs. For me, they don’t paint a picture.
There are twelve songs on the album, all of which stand firmly within the indie pop genre. Of the twelve, five songs stood out for me, those being: -
‘On First Impressions’, which has a long chiming guitar intro and is reminiscent of some of Echo & the Bunnymen’s earlier work.
‘Optimism’ with choppy guitar and good lyrics (those that I could decipher) which is almost taunting at times “You’re coming out of hard times, anyway you’re optimistic always” turning to “You’re not so optimistic are you?” this was one of the best tracks on the album, and would clearly hold its’ head above water on any indie compilation.
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‘The Sound Of Distance’ which stood out being interspersed with the background of radio broadcasts, again, one or two good lyrical twists.
“And you always had to get the last word in, but you never knew what to say.”
‘In Theory’ which is quite Pink Floyd like with slower rhythmic guitar and psychedelic breathy, dreamy vocals.
‘Where it Begins’ which is another good slice of indie pop with contradictory lyrics that make perfect sense. “Sometimes there’s too much going on, but nothing’s happening at all”
I did find that the last few tracks on the album were a bit samey, which meant that it could never end on a high.
Overall, I thought that when this worked well, it was good, and when it didn’t then it was fairly mediocre. As said, there were a few stand out tracks, and rather than this standing as an epitaph for the band, maybe in future it could be looked on as a stepping stone for Jason Davidson, and one that allowed his abilities to develop.
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