Kino Oko, Grzegorz Magnuszewski from Poland, is out with a new EP. I have Kino Oko's two albums, which are both trippy as hell, have excellent production and Oko's unique flavour.
I feel like the 3 tracks on Sultriness Breathing are trying to step a little away from what he has done before and it has mixed results for me. The first track, Cold and Sinus feels tranceier. Imagine Kino Oko collaborating with Stage One. In fact I was instantly reminded of their track Space Maneuvers with the trancey synths and even the sample sounds similar at first. Overall though, I don't feel the atmosphere and it gets a little to scratchy towards the end.
The second track, Bodice of Sultan is a gem. Just like Kino Oko's trippy album tracks but with a more ambient atmosphere. Cool, quick but soft beats and ambient synths put me in mind of collaboration with Lauge. Great melodies, chilled out vibes and quite summery. I'd like to include this in my summer beach set I'll be playing later this year. It is very nice stuff indeed.
The third track, Motormouth is a much more upbeat track in keeping with what I have come to expect from Kino Oko. Heavy techno beats, a plethora of trippy background noises and melodies that sound like they are coming from some other dimension passed the ether and beyond our knowledge. It's great stuff but it lacks context being on an EP with 2 totally different tracks. This I think would sound better on a story telling album surrounded by more fitting music. Great track though.
Of course, like all Kino Oko releases the cover is fantastic, I really like the trippy randomness of it and the simplicity of the sketching. |