KILN: Holo [re/lux]
Kilnaudio

Until the fall release of the new full-length Dusker, KILN fans can tide themselves over quite nicely with this digital-only re-imagining of the group's 1998 release Holo. Newly joined by one previously unreleased track, all of the album's original material was ‘reconfigured, edited, and cleaned' for the re-issue which finds Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison, and Clark Rehberg III once again proving themselves masters of tetra-dimensional textural flow. Forced to impose a classification, ‘instrumental rock' comes to mind but KILN's music challenges the label by eschewing the prototypical trajectory of the genre. The group avoids dramatic build-ups and crescendos, opting instead for even-tempered, atmospheric flow more akin to rich panoramic vistas that extend through time. Propelled by an aggressive percussive attack, tidal guitar waves roar at high volume throughout “Billionwatt” while “Kekker,” with its lazy funk beat and hazy electric guitars, flirts with ‘post-rock'; acoustic folk elements, by contrast, give “Sienna” a back-country feel. Most tracks exclude drums altogether, and thereby deepen the music's lush ambiance: “Sunsculpture.One” punctuates loud streams of gaseous emissions with guitar accents while “Gauss” is all blurry industrial swirls and rumbles. Much like past releases Sunbox and Twinewheel, Holo [re/lux] impresses for its opulent splendor and meticulous craft.

August 2007