Thursday, June 20, 2024

KBD-III; eh? Records cassette #126, 2024

 

At eh? Records, KBD does not stand for Killed By Death. No sir. Instead it hearkens the Electro-Acoustic Music trio of Michael Kimaid on drums/percussion, Gabriel Beam on modular synthesizer/live sampling and Ryan Dohm on trumpet/sampler/tapes. Their third release has manifested, on cassette again, and goes by the title of III

Consisting of two side-long tracks, one performed in front of an audience (you can hear 'em at a certain point) and the other done in closed session. III's promo blurb touts KBD's ability to engage "listeners with deep and active" moves, and after several listens, Disaster Amnesiac is inclined to agree with this assertion. The well groomed men of KBD (no visible tats) each evince deep layers of facility within their extended techniques. That they are able to entwine their subjective moves into the greater whole required for compelling live group interactions is never in question on the tracks At the Threshold (the studio track) and On Waves, Under Stars (the live one). Going back to the promo, it's suggested that the former has more density while the latter is given to more sparseness. I have certainly experienced that effect at times, but have also perceived this dynamic to being essentially flipped 180 degrees at times, too. This has led to ruminations upon the very subjective nature of the listening experience, within all music listening really, but especially within the Improvised Music sphere of the realm. Disaster Amnesiac has also really enjoyed just hearing how KBD establish zones of call and response and otherworldly abstraction within this 90 minute plus or minus album. III features top flight Electro-Acoustic investigations sure to tickle the fancy of any connoisseur of that fascinating genre. 

Yo, Bryan Day, if you have any of those older releases from KBD laying around, my tape deck would surely accepting their spooling!

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