Kunek

Flight of the Flynns

(Playtyme)

Record Review by Amber Henson

Oh, Radiohead.  You are the proverbial teenager who comes home from school and leaves a wake of shoes and papers and jackets and books for someone else to come and pick up.  After every album you make, you abandon your sound for a new one, and like shadows, other bands come out and pick up what you’ve left.

Enter Kunek.  Although they of course have their own sound, and quite an amazing one at that, they cannot escape the Radiohead comparisons, circa Kid A and Amnesiac.  Slow and haunting, Kunek are also a little more organic than either of these records, based less on synths than meowing guitars and harmonicas.

This entire album, it seems, is played in a minor tone.  But there are times when it will make you feel upbeat, just from its powerful melodies.  The album was originally conceived as an instrumental, and singer Jesse Tabish does not sing on five of the twelve tracks.  It’s refreshing to listen to a band that is courageous enough to have that be a sizeable chunk of their album. 

Aside from Radiohead, Kunek also blend Beatles melodies and cello with the beats of Electric Soft Parade—with musicians from Cirque du Soleil.  There is also a sense of paranoia humming through all their songs.  Lyrics about “under the microscope,” “the longer these devices attached to my skin, the longer they control my every move,” and “it’s all just a part of the thousand people dying like before.” I have to say, this is quite a trend I’m seeing in bands.  Are we getting more paranoid as a society, or is it just that most bands are in their early twenties, that being prime time to be paranoid?

Either way, Flight of the Flynns is a beautiful album that will capture you with its toy piano tunes and unrelenting drumbeats.  Put it on when it’s time to really think.