This is really interesting stuff which has to be heard. The
tragedy is known, the story does not need repeating (in the review that is) and
this box (actively) makes the music stand apart from that. Whether the latter is by design is impossible to determine.
It’s obvious they are/were important, which makes the bare-bones
packaging perplexing as the box is presumably the last word on them. But there
we are.
Below is what was in Rumba (click on it a couple of times and it can be made big enough to read), and below that - for non-Finnish
speakers - is the English, before it was translated..
I had not heard Kingston Wall until a few weeks ago. I had
not heard of Kingston Wall until a
few weeks ago. This doesn’t matter. It’s not a problem. There’s masses of music
out there and it's impossible to have heard or heard of it all. The question
is: should I have heard of Kingston Wall? Based on this enigmatic box set, the answer
is yes.
Enigmatic as King Size
Box gives little away. It’s not a typical box set. There’s no photo-packed
booklet. There is no booklet. With no liner notes and the minimum of credits
and label copy, it’s obvious King Size
Box is about the music. The sole picture is of three young men. Two have
long hair, one doesn’t. Clues as what Kingston Wall might sound like come from
the tracks. Versions of Hendrix’s “Fire” and “Purple Haze” offer hints. So does
a version of The Beatles’ “Rocky Racoon”. Titles like “Nepal”, “Mushrooms”, “More
Mushrooms”, “Istwan”, “Freak-Out Intro” and “Freak-Out Outro” reinforce the
idea they’re looking to the '60s, the mystical and might know what drugs are.
But a version of Donna Summer’s electro-disco classic “I Feel Love” suggests a
broader outlook.
So it’s about the music. There’s a lot of it. The eight CDs include
a trio collecting the band’s three albums: I,
II and Trilogy. There are three discs of live material from unspecified
venues, with no recording dates given. One is a new remix of Trilogy. The eighth disc comprises
studio outtakes. King Size Box does
little to unlock the enigma.
Especially as the period covered is 1991 to 1994. The three
albums span 1992 to 1994 – no one made an album a year in the ‘90s. They still
don't. We're looking at an active period of 1992 to 1994, when us lot were in
thrall to Britpop and the Oasis vs. Blur war. Without even having heard the
music, it’s clear this could never have hit the mainstream in the UK.
After sticking the CDs on, it’s even more clear that
Kingston Wall are out there on their own. Sure, I’s “Used To Feel Before” borrows bits of Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” and
nods at “Been Caught Stealing”-era Jane’s Addiction. But there’s no pose here.
This music just is. The modal figure which defines I’s “Tanya” isn’t the sort of thing on the minds of many bands in
the ‘90s. II takes it even further.
It opens with the circular “We Cannot Move”, which segues into Led Zeppelin-ish
“Istwan”. But there’s a folk element too. Tracks bleeds into each other. This
is an album, not a series of disparate songs. The version of “I Feel Love” is
as straight as it could be. The ten-minute portmanteau composition “You” is the
album’s highlight. Trilogy is a more tense
album, with a greater contributions from early ‘70s-sounding synthesisers. It’s
the sound of a band testing its limits. “The Key: Will” leans towards the
sounds of native Australia. There’s some reggae in “Get Rid Of Your Fears”.
If Kingston Wall had caught on beyond Finland they would
have soon ceased sounding this idiosyncratic – the music business cannot
tolerate the individual. Templates and formulas rule. But it’s always the esoteric,
the individualistic, that lasts.
It’s impossible to determine if they could have made waves
beyond Finland. However, think on this – where did the second Stones Roses'
album, Second Coming, look to for its
inspiration? But that was rubbish, half-baked, directionless twaddle. Whatever
the imponderables surrounding Kingston Wall, they would have easily aced The
Stones Roses. That wouldn’t have been enough though.
No comments:
Post a Comment