++SINGLE++ review by Emily Kendrick
With their robotic post punk and sinister reflections of dystopia, Project: Komakino are on a mission to spread the doom this summer. Emily Kendrick reviews their forthcoming EP, and finds a band who are conceptually satisfying, if a touch too indebted to their heroes...
Having lurked about in the leftfield of Southend-on-Sea’s Experimental Circle Club for long enough, Kris Kane has filled out his solo effort to join his off-kilter monochrome clad brethren with this debut EP.
Unsurprisingly for a band whose press release claims their intention is to purely ‘construct’, Project: Komakino are deeply embroiled in a torrid affair with post-punk - and one that whores itself across this 4-tracker.
"they could afford to push the boat out and display their extra dimensions - that is, presuming they have any... "
As much a lesson in angular design as it is music, the bands gloomy tales are elevated with some precise drumming and heavily effecting guitar pedals. Their sky-facing disorientation echoes These New Puritans, but in an altogether more accessible form.
Project: Komakino are also shadowed by their uncanny likeness to Joy Division – most firmly in ‘Transmission’, for it's monotone vocal and paranoid murmurings.
‘Walking On Glass’ with its spine twitching individual guitar notes feels like a positive mental attitude gone AWOL, succumbing to a less healthy pre-disposition with agoraphobia. The drums are relentless and the repetition of ‘I’ve need to get out, out of my mind’ only seals the induction of fear and disturbance.
With a somewhat familiar face to the new brand of dischord, Bonnie K of Electricity in Our Homes fame takes up the production helm. Where EIOH’s Shareholders EP was a prickly affair to challenge its listeners, Project: Komakino is a less intimidating prospect, although no less artistic an endeavour.
At a quarter of an hour in length, and including one instrumental in ‘KV-1’, they could afford to push the boat out and display their extra dimensions - that is, presuming they have any. The band emulate the ones they love, but you know what they say about romance; careful not to let it go to your head (even if it is quite good).
++ Emily Kendrick ++
Artrocker rating: 3
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