(By Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker, Lead Journalist/Writer, RiffRelevant.com)
The Windy City of Chicago, IL. has long been home to one of the U.S.’ most enduring, multi-genre music scenes.
From the early 1930’s blues movement, to the Sixties jazz and soul, ’70s classic rock ala Styx and the Rockford area’s Cheap Trick, and of course the last three decades of punk, hardcore, rock, metal, alternative rock, nu-metal, hip-hop/rap, house, sludge, death metal (Ex: Big Black, Local H, Broken Hope, SOiL, No One, Lungbrush, Macabre, Smashing Pumpkins) and on and on.
I recently ran across the latest from a newer aged, more contemporaneously timed band, The Kahless Clone. The all-instrumental collective within the unit recently released their second official effort, the “Our Never-Ending Loneliness” EP, and I must say it is quite interesting.
It is the five-song follow-up to The Kahless Clone‘s initial 2015 outing, ‘An Endless Loop’, and it is quite moving and powerful. See, most people make certain presumptions, or preconceived notions, when they hear the tag “instrumental”.
To do such here may be a huge mistake, depending on what you might assume. I’m stating such for what Ben Johnson (Keys), Zach Libbe (Electronic Drum Programming), and Novembers Doom members Vito Marchese (Guitars), Garry Naples (Drums) and Larry Roberts (Bass) have created here is nothing short of profound.
It is comprised and consists of atmospherically progressive expanses of the full emotional spectrum, set to sonic explorations. The songs themselves are so impacted with a palpable physicality (or “feel” if you prefer) in the music that it is impossible to not be enveloped in them. The band sets both tone and mood within the nuances of each composition, entreating you to step into their otherworldly realm.
The Kahless Clone use ample mixtures of progressive rock, post-rock, metal and other alternative components. They seemingly filter them through their own insightful instincts, knowing where to appropriately do what, when to unfurl this, or where to play that.
It more than merely works I might add, for the end result is this emotively majestic EP, “Our Never-Ending Loneliness“, and it speaks for itself. Hear what it has to say by streaming it now via the Bandcamp embed below or go the direct purchase route here.