Kaki King
Dreaming of Revenge

A few days ago, I was surfing the web visiting the official sites of my favorite bands, overwhelmed by a tremendous nostalgia to listen to something new, until it occurred to me to return to the site of the American guitarist Kaki King; with the wonder of a child, I discovered that her fourth studio album had been released: "Dreaming of Revenge" dated March 2008.

 Upon a first superficial listen, I am pleased to notice that the talented guitarist has returned to using the techniques that made her famous, still blending them with the sounds developed rather embryonically in the previous "... Until we Felt Red".

Rhythmic and folk arpeggios, various tapping on the guitar's soundboard, slap, and tapping, merge with spacious and rarefied atmospheres, often cold and detached, until the voice that appears here and there (in a few tracks to be honest) re-establishes a human contact, although timid and insecure, with the listener.

Some pieces are enriched by well-crafted orchestrations to which Kaki's acoustic guitar often provides a backdrop.

This album somehow continues the evolution/experimentation in search of new goals and fusion between acoustic/electric/electronic, also seeking wider approval with some "songs" having melancholic and dreamy tones.

Unlike the previous work, this "Dreaming of Revenge" turns out to be less varied in sounds and less engaging.

 Opening the record is "Bone Chaos in the Castle" which starts with a tapping in her most classic style, but rather repetitive and accompanied by a ghostly synthesizer; the combination of arrangements awkwardly recalls the music of Battles.

The second track is a melancholic song with a voice accompanied by acoustic guitar arpeggios that does not particularly engage, in fact, the voice seems almost annoying... as a start to the record, we're below mediocrity (alas!).

With the next track "Sad American", the atmosphere remains the same color, quite evanescent even with slightly more rhythmic accents, but compositionally of an embarrassing repetitiveness and without great compositional creativity.

"Pull me out Alive" is a rock song where the author returns to using the electric guitar to accompany her weak voice; four-quarter verse - chorus with a pleasant invention in the variation before the last chorus.

Still fails to engage me, unfortunately... quite banal...

If I really have to nitpick (ouch!), I can say that the next "Montreal" arouses more sympathy and thankfully breaks the patterns of the first part of this record with a bit of rhythm; I challenge anyone not to even move a foot to the 2/4 of this piece, very reverberated electric guitars played with the "slide" relieve the rhythmic tension and still give the piece a rarefied dimension.

Finally, one delves into the depths of Kaki King's soul with the next "Open Mouth", a landscape expertly drawn by a couple of violins takes us into a magical atmosphere, in an enchanted forest populated by who knows what presences that appear as dancing shadows at the end; perhaps the track that involves me the most...

The listening continues with two short atmospheric tracks, the second of which is enriched by overlays of a weak and melancholic voice.

The interesting sonic blend of the next "Air and Kilometers" awakens my slumbering attention; rhythmic chords, harmonics, and barely hinted rhythmic instruments give way to more airy and psychedelic parts that fade into a brief and sparse closure with an acoustic guitar.

The last instrumental track with a lengthy title is quite pleasant and well-crafted, managing to engage the listener thanks to well-orchestrated arrangements of violins and a more decisive rhythm section; the entire track is crescending and closes in a rather majestic way: certainly the best of the entire record.

Finally, "2 O'Clock" ends the album suggestively but with an almost unbearable voice... a good rhythm speeds up the entire track towards the finale which then plunges back into a nocturnal evanescence... and everything calms down again.

 What to say about this record? Quite disappointing; few ideas that engage the listener, few inventions (although some are very beautiful).

The sung tracks are certainly the weakest of the entire work, and even if on a couple of occasions one encounters interesting and rich arrangements, in its entirety the record is not pleasing but rather boring.

I'm sorry to say that the talent of this guitarist has somewhat gotten lost in the depths of a sonic search that has not yet found its maturity and moves miles away from that famous album "Legs to make Us Longer" which made hope for a completely different evolution.