Kes BandKes BandMistletone
Melbourne’s Kes – Karl E
Scullin – is a self-made enigma. Androgynous in appearance – all
delicate features and silken long hair – and elfin in voice, he’s an
anomaly in a scene of sound-alikes and look-alikes. He’s moved from
folky bedroom arranger to rock-band bass player to raucous solo guitar
whig-outs to gnarled twee pop to who-knows-what-next. With
Kes Band
he has delivered the most coherent and accessible expression of his
current musical vision – a record at once sumptuous and tattered,
besotted with vintage 70s rock and leftfield freak-outs yet diverted
through a brown-panted indie aesthetic. The wonderful production by
James Cecil (from Architecture in Helsinki) pits the classical
rock-band sounds against curling arrangements from the assembled
talents of the Melbourne indie scene’s leading lights. Clarinets,
viola, mandolin and recorder flutter around, battling like the lashes
of big-eyed band-leader Kes.
Kes Band follows on from
The Grey Goose Wing, a no less adventurous but definitely more obtuse record.
Kes Band
is the closest Kes has come yet to delivering pop songs. With two of
the opening trio (“View You” and “Gentle Elf”) you get hooks snaring
from within the folk-cum-rock-cum-pop undergrowth, plus catchy choruses
and almost baroque instrumental flourishes cohabiting like they haven’t
done since the 70s. It’s a gentle mind-bend of a record (see the
duelling guitar riff of “Owner Has Control” weaving in and out of the
milder sections), proudly displayed idiosyncrasies welcoming you into
Kes’s strange world. Alongside the solo work of fellow band member
Laura Jean, Kes shows the way back to beautiful, intricate production –
the swirling stuff grunge’s simple chords were pitted against – without
ever descending into soft-focus middle-of-the-road obviousness and
mediocrity. Kes has a vision to sustain his every venture – the guide
to a trip always worth taking.
by Ben Gook