I have tried to start a sentence several times to describe Kiev’s music and I restarted each time. Describing their music is a challenging task, and it’s even more challenging than the music itself, but let’s just say Kiev aren’t your average garage band. With lots of layered synth, guitar, bass, drums, plus a few sax injections in the mix, the quintet played a very dynamic and curious prog-rock jazz-influenced music during their residency at the Bootleg theater on Monday night.
When I listened to one of their tracks on the web before going to the show at the Bootleg, I got the electro-pop Junip vibe, but live they sounded totally different. And I may have had that same feeling at each of their songs, I thought I had figured out their style, but I had to review my thought after the next song. A lot of people were showing a great enthusiasm during their set, doing some crazy dancing along the rhythms, and without a better definition, their compositions were complex, intellectual, and psychedelic going into some trippy and endless jams. They have been qualified of art rock, prog rock, alt rock or experimental rock, I was hearing a lot of jazz and their propulsive songs which almost sounded like improvisations in situ.
They have only released 2 EP ‘Be gone Dull Cage & Others’ and a previous one, ‘Ain’t No Scary Folks In Or Around Here’, and if I would not be able to hum one single song right now, their adventurous music was enjoyable, or even orgasmic for other people if I believe the noises made by a few half-drunk guys around me. It was loud but not overwhelmingly loud, it was dense but singer/guitarist Robert Brinkerhoff’s voice managed to emerge from the rest each time.
A few years ago, they got a lot of success playing a stereoscopic 3D live performances with visuals projected and choreographed to their music, but there was no such thing this time, just the music offered to everyone’s imagination. They didn’t play for very long, or at least didn’t play a lot of songs, but when they announced it was their last one, people vehemently protested and they have to come back on stage, explaining they had to keep something for the coming weeks of their residency,… after all they have only released 2 EPS. ‘The only thing we can do is a jam’ said Brinherhoff, and so they did jam for a few more minutes, exploring more of their groovy experimental music, making people foot stomping and hand clapping, making everyone happy. I hardly heard a difference between this jam and one of their songs, which certainly demonstrates their great talent. Could they have been a little Radiohead-ish at times? May be, or may be not, they certainly didn’t play anything as catchy as ‘Karma Police’, that was not their goal, the band simply reached a great chemistry with thorny hooks and labyrinthic compositions, they just wanted people to get lost in their meandrous sonic exploration.
