Kintaan – Kintaan album review
Paul is a musician, writer, and teacher living in Tacoma. When not engaged in the endless task of raising his six year old whirling dervish James Sparhawk, he spends his time creating music, pursuing a bachelor's, working out, and living. He is originally from the east coast: Worcester, Mass. born, and Providence, RI bred. Having traveled around some, the Pacific Northwest tends to feel more and more like home with each passing day, Very similar to New England in some ways, but different in a way that is refreshing. Rock on.
Hailing from the west end of Providence, Rhode Island, Kintaan revel in rhythmically energized noisiness. Comprised of drums, effects heavy bass, and distorted, oppressive synth washes of the dissonantly atmospheric kind, this trio functions quite effectively in that borderland between ‘noise’ and ‘music’. The most engaging aspect of the sounds they produce is that they’re really quite unclassifiable.
The first thing that may grab your attention is how tight these guys are. Eric Grieshaber’s drumming and Josh Yelle’s bass playing meld together in a highly unified fashion; this might sound like an anti-climactic statement on the face of it, until you actually take the time to listen to the music, at which point you realize that they’re shaping the phrasing, not just bashing out mindlessly repetitive cliches in 4/4. For example, the first track, ‘Timebeard’, is in essence a modified binary type deal, with the first half phrased in 5. The beginning section is built around Josh’s bassline, with syncopated accents provided by Eric that impart a serious amount of drive to the whole thing.
The way Eric utilizes his drumset to communicate with Josh is really intriguing. Of especial interest is his use of the high hat in its various positions to reinforce the accenting. Seriously inventive in his playing, the impression of thoughtful premeditation comes through. The two of them create a dead solid rhythmic foundation; even on a track as relatively repetitive as ‘Boring Everyone’, their tight rhythmic interplay goes a long way towards sustaining interest.
On top of this matrix, keyboardist Marc Jameson creates ambient textures of a highly convoluted and dissonant nature. He uses his keyboard to generate a tonal wash that fills out the high end nicely without actually playing chord progressions or a lead line. Check out the beginning of Frownz, which features severe tonal bends against a rhythmic vamp. When the band enters, it’s like a bomb going off. Here, the interesting contrast between the driving quality of the rhythm section vs. Marc’s angsty ambient washes highlights everything about this band that makes it such an interesting listening experience. If you’re in Providence, and they’re playing, go see them. To find out when, visit lotz of noise.com
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