Labels: self released
Review by: Oli Saunders
Killie are one of the best screamo bands around so it’s about time they got a review on Collective. They’ve been going for 10 years now but I feel that they remain a fairly hidden gem and are likely to be only known to avid followers of screamo. And even then you have to put some effort in to find out what they are doing. Releasing a demo followed by numerous CDs, including a beautiful (looking and sounding) split with Off Minor, they’ve only released one record on vinyl (the fantastic two song ‘After All, The Opinion Of One In A Hundred Million Will Not Reach Anyone’ 12”). Some releases have been a little too bizarre for my tastes, not least ‘Offering A Sacrifice That Presents And Indicates Mournful Resentment Of Today’ which has too much talking in Japanese and not enough music. When they do get onto playing they do so at the highest level.
‘Ecology’ has a much shorter title than the aforementioned releases but is an instant nomination for most impressively made music release I have ever seen. So much care and sincerity but not gimmicky. I won’t go into details but check out the review picture. There’s even a small bag of kernels or seed attached; that’s a new one for me. There are some words from one of the members about ecology, including the concept of greenwashing. The tape consists of two songs but one is a “special edition” of the other. The main difference I noticed was the much more elaborate guitar showcasing at the end of the special edition. It’s kind of hard to keep track of a ten minute track which plays non-stop screamo without becoming repetitive or pulling post-rock tricks. Killie are the only band who have ever done this as far as I know. They’ve become less punishing over time (compared to early releases) but it’s still fierce.
Look, the bottom line is that you need to stop reading this and get on with checking out everything this band have ever done. They are that good.
1st September 2015