KITCHIE KITCHIE KI ME O · Are You Land Or Water | CD

Jewel case CD.

Background information about 'Are You Land Or Water'

There is a moment on "Are You Land Or Water" where the guitars stop shimmering and the whole room seems to hold its breath — and that is exactly the trick Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O pull off again and again across these six tracks. The Norwegian outfit carries serious bloodlines: main songwriter Robert Burås cut his teeth in Madrugada, whose Industrial Silence and Grit still stand as landmarks of Scandinavian alternative rock, before steering My Midnight Creeps into rougher garage territory. After his passing in 2007, the band grew out of that same restless soil, folding Dr. John-flavoured voodoo swagger and Mali-blues (think Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen) into something entirely their own on a self-titled debut that turned plenty of heads.

This follow-up lands at the tail end of a genuinely chaotic stretch — a demolished studio, a label takeover, and mainman Alexander Kloster-Jensen nearly walking away from music for good. Coaxed back into the room by Bez Farazollahi and Ulver collaborator Anders Møller, he came out with a record that sounds nothing like where they started. Earth, Grinderman, Talk Talk and Gato Barbieri hover in the background, but the result lives in its own melancholic headspace: nocturnal rock songs braided with spectral ambience, cinematic in scope yet never losing that primal charge.

"I wanted to design an experience that was warm and non-intrusive this time around," Alex says. "I have always been more interested in sounds and texture than making hit-songs." That philosophy runs straight through the album — texture first, hooks earned, atmosphere everywhere. "Are You Land or Water" describes the states of passive and active, he adds; you cannot be both at once, but both matter equally. You can hear that tension in every groove.

For fans of: Madrugada, Ulver, Talk Talk, Grinderman, My Midnight Creeps

Track listing

1. Barbarossa (Fire Birth)
2. Saleph (The Voyage)
3. Going Forth By Day
4. Are You Land Or Water (The Deluge)
5. Kyffhäuser (The Path)
6. Europa (First Light)

Manufacturer: ProMedia GmbH, Im Gartenfeld 1, 54516 Flußbach, Germany, Contact: www.houseofmythology.com