Reviews

Leicester kindly provided for us tonight Kiajaroovah. These are the flip side to the previous band this evening: I’d heard of these over and over, but they are a well established and great band, and unfortunately played a virtually empty venue. There’s four of them, and I find myself enjoying the rocky, psychedelic Faith No More, Incubus-ey with veins of metal in there without realizing nobody’s singing. Turns out they do have vocals on a fair few of their tracks, they just chose an instrumental set tonight due to the lack of numbers in the crowd. They are really good, I hate to use the words “experimental” and “sophisticated” when it comes to trying to describe music in the appalling way I do, so “something a little different” and “if you like your live music to be a form of expression, then see Kiajaroovah” will suffice- but you metal, rock, punk types, don’t be put off- there not a pretentious moment to be had!

Kiajaroovah next who come in hard straight away – wild guitars and drums and distorted vocal splattered across the mix. They have a busier internal texture than the previous band but inhabit a similar territory of collective power where the vocals are used for their granularity rather than verbal comprehension. In the great tradition of the blues and rock n roll? Often in the best of these musics the grammatical meaning of the vocals is subordinate to the emotional power of hollers, whoops etc. Voice used as instrument. Kiajaroovah remind me of a long gone local band called ‘Potatohead’ who were a bunch of inspired lunatics playing postpostpostpunk or something with the same edge and use of vocals riding the electricity. Loud! When they finished – ears were ringing! This is powerhouse stuff – and not easy to follow!

Kiajaroovah opened the Showcase with a low, oscillating bass rumble and clanging discordant guitar, before kicking in with a rocking groove. All well and good while the singer actually sang, but then he went into that demented nu-metal hollering that regular readers will know that I feel obliged to lampoon!
Haaauuuurrrrgggghhhh!
Technical drum problems resulted in a percussion-free, melodic and laid-back follow up, where I warmed to the unpronounceable outfit.
From here on in they fascinated with some free-flowing drumming, experimental avant-garde backing and extended psychedelic wig-outs with guitar feedback, finishing with a maelstrom of sound.

Onto the stage come the wizards from planet Kiajaroovah. This is one of Leicestershire's best heavy, bands hell-bent on moving the ideas of rock and roll away from long guitar solo's, boring whining American accents and pointless machismo. Instead they launch head-on into a grinding, rusty assualt aimed at scratching and scathing at anything brave enough to stand up to it. They have their moments of carefully executed calm seen in 'Viable MAterial' and moments of melodic assertion in 'Pop$ong' which punches and grinds like Iggy Pop getting raped by a hoard of ants and the end of this inconcievable set it felt like The Attik was about to become The Basement.

Kiajaroovah: Mediocrity Sells Millions EP I think it's fair to say you won't hear a more unusual EP for quite a while. Built around an almost absent riffage, viable material sounds a little like Conflict would if they were only pretending to be anarchists. Kiajaroovah are the kind of band that you feel would really have a good shout and moan, if they could be bothered. Vocalist Darren might once have said "I'll shout, just a little bit, but not too loud, and then I'll go get another beer". Rabbits continues in the same vein but is considerably more rapid. Initially repetitive guitar could pass off as Everclear with the fast-forward button held down, and the largely unimaginative vocals do have more potential, but the overall effect is a lot more interesting than the sum of its parts. The crazy groove and dissolution in the middle of the song is nothing short of excellent, and gets better every time I hear it, and thus the following kick-in is more than rewarding. Great credit must go to the band for not getting diluted into any particular, comfortable genre, but something as consumable as a tune might not go amiss either.