Kes Kes Band by: Thomas Mendelovits Fri:18-Jul-08 Label: Mistletone Year: 2008 WB rating 83 out of 100

‘Kes’ is an acronym of Karl E. Scullin, as well as the name of his band. Or are they now Kes Band? That could be just the record title. Anyway, whether as band name or album title, Kes Band as is an apt descriptor for Scullin’s third solo-like effort. It is an album reflecting both his idiosyncratic vocals and song writing, and the interplay between the members of his fine band. This band is made up of various members of the Melbourne music scene who are artists in their own right, including songstress Laura Jean and ambient composer Biddy Connor. In keeping with this dualistic Kes/Band dichotomy, the nine tracks move between lyrical songs and outright instrumentals. Far from being a hodgepodge of structures and styles, however, Kes Band winningly retains a conciseness throughout its 45 minutes. Seldom boring and mostly exciting, it’s the product of a band working both together as well as around its key creative force in Scullin.

There are moments on Kes Band that provide reference points for the attentive aficionado; the psychedelic take on folk-structures of Love, the simple and direct poetry of Joni Mitchell, Devendra Banhart, Desire-era Dylan. These are merely ways of describing the sound, however, because Kes are a rare band that sound as though they have learnt the lessons of the 60s the hard way, from the source. And through every nuance in their sound, which ranges from psych-folk jamming (‘Eventually’s breakdown is pure prog goodness) to soft classical mandolin and viola (‘Dm Instrumental’, ‘Kids of Equador’), they are never self-conscious about this diversity.

If you see them live, you will know they are “not about the haircuts” as Scullin put it to WB in a recent interview. Another aspect of this natural approach is Kes’ voice, which is extremely histrionic but solely his own and like a sonic extension of his trademark scathing guitar. For a vocalist with such a potentially off-putting squeal, Kes unexpectedly projects not just pathos, but humour too. On ‘Gentle Elf’ he sings: “what’s a knife fight between two brothers/what’s a nice kiss between baby and mother?”. On ‘Don’t Wear Too Many Hats’, when he lets go of his chosen affected squeal and speaks we hear a lovely Australian accent in a musical landscape of cultural cringe: “once I woke up feeling oh so rugged, I had a look and I was buggered”.

Opener ‘View You’ sets the mood for the twists and turns to follow. Beginning with a Celtic recorder melody (rescuing the instrument from Celine Dion’s Titanic clutches), the song slowly works into a folk-rock groove, with Kes softly telling us to “come into my room, all I want to do is to view you”. This intimacy is a standout feature of Kes Band. Throughout, the lyrics are warmly interpersonal and gently touching. With the introduction of mandolin and Connor’s viola, ‘View You’ reaches emotive heights totally belying the soft sentiment of the song. It’s a great surprise.

Where bands like Midlake or Arcade Fire rely on folk or classical instrumentation for grandeur, Kes Band have a more organic touch- pay-off for the hard-work put in over many years’ collaboration. ‘Gentle Elf’ is the album’s most touching track, but at the same time is Kes Band’s most upbeat pop moment. The intro and verse are classic head-bopping stuff, with an insistent beat, flicks of electric and acoustic guitars and rhythmic backing vocal ‘bom, bom bom’s. A chord change signals the chorus and brings the song into a wholly new affective mode. Kes’ reflective summary of the relationship with the eponymous creature is beautiful stuff: “gentle elf, how about I knew you so well, maybe too well, even better than I knew myself”.

There’s a lot going on across the record as a whole, but compared to previous effort The Grey Goose Wing, Kes Band is somehow much more uniform. Despite the breadth, the majority of songs have a similarly reassuring lyrical tone. Thus, while the troughs of The Grey Goose Wing have been evened out, so too have the adventurous peaks that came with the experimentation of that record. In its nine tracks, almost half of The Grey Goose Wing’s sixteen, Kes Band successfully attempts succinctness, a theme hinted at by Scullin himself in his recent WB interview. However, for a band as boldly exploratory as Kes, treading the pop line may obscure the genius that can only come out of the potential failures inherent in experimentation.