Toby Driver + Kayo Dot (Rolling)

ericVI · 23 March 2019 12:39

Thought I would make a thread for one of my favourite artists/songwriters/composers so that I could basically post endless updates into the void. His 20 year career spans multiple bands/monikers/genres - 90s euro metal, post-rock, avant-goth and more recently chamber pop. Barely any two of his 30+ records sound the same but all sound like him.

td1000×1000 87.9 KB

Kayo Dot has never made the same record twice. To read various descriptions from magazines and reviews, you might feel like you couldn’t be reading about the same band. From chamber music to black metal to goth to jazz and avant-garde classical - nothing really fits. Is Hubardo the “true” Kayo Dot? Is Coffins on Io? Choirs of the Eye? Does the question need an answer?

Toby Driver, the primary composer and frontman for the band, has been fiercely productive over the years, and while that usually refers to how many songs or albums an artist has made, with Driver the productivity is in the realm of ideas as much as music itself. In the course of a single Kayo Dot song, the amount of risks and liberties taken with form and convention usually outnumbers what other artists cover in a full album. That’s not to say Kayo Dot doesn’t have an impressive catalog. Neither is the band jarring the listener from one absurd extreme to another just to prove a point. For as much ground as they cover, it’s always in the service of a carefully curated mood.

His latest solo record They Are The Shield was released in 2018 and is probably his most accessible and successful to date. Floaty, chamber pop talk-talk vibes.

In 2019, he’s started a subscription model type thing via bandcamp for super fans who want extras, outtakes, bonus content etc.

Kayo Dot LP9 has been finished since mid-2018 and is awaiting release on prophecy records:

Here are an assortment of favourite tunes:

Prog metal

Off-kilter murakami-esque post-rock ballad

Retrofuturistic goth fusion

Avant metal

Goth ballad

A song about his cat (that has a face like a squirrel)

Hopefully, you might find something to enjoy in his work.

ericVI · 23 March 2019 12:56

Vaura have a new record coming in 2019 too

Tiergarten · 23 March 2019 13:01

They Are The Shield was one of my favourite records from last year and wasn’t sure where to go from there, so really grateful for this!

ericVI · 23 March 2019 13:08

Madonnawhore would be the obvious place to go from there, or maybe Blue Lambency Downward if you think you’d be into woodwind skronkiness.

Tiergarten · 23 March 2019 13:34

Surprised I didn’t know Madonnawhore already, being released by The Flenser and all. Woodwind skronkiness is also good by me.

ericVI · 4 July 2019 15:54

New record ‘Blasphemy’ out in early September on prophecy yeeessssss

Tiergarten · 4 July 2019 20:40

Awesome!

The woodwind skronkiness of Blue Lambency was also much appreciated, as expected

allmediareviews · 4 July 2019 21:33

I love maudlin of the Well

ericVI · 4 July 2019 21:51

Weirdly I got into them last and i still struggle with them a bit next to KD.

allmediareviews · 5 July 2019 01:57

I have yet to find anything by Kayo Dot I enjoyed anywhere near as much as motW.

I find there’s something missing without the Metal and extreme dynamics, plus I often find Kayo Dot’s music to meander too much.

I think the last record I checked out from KD, while had some moments, Toby was constantly swallowing right up close into the microphone and it hurt my enjoyment.

ericVI · 6 September 2019 07:18

It’s out!!!

ericVI · 6 September 2019 07:29

9/10 from metal injection

Lot of people saying it’s their most accessible record.

mouth_breather · 16 September 2019 13:54

This is really good! Not overly familiar with any of their/his output but this is right up my street

jordan_229 · 25 September 2019 15:35

What are your thoughts ericV? Probably my favourite since Hubrardo. I think I prefer Kayo Dot when they’re more all over the place and doing shorter songs, even if that isn’t what you’d associate them with. The last two tracks are brilliant.

ericVI · 25 September 2019 15:51

i like it but wouldn’t say it’s fully clicked for me yet. got the deluxe vinyl boxset thing the other day so have sorta been saving myself for that. gonna properly blast it at the weekend

ericVI · 19 February 2020 22:21

Solo EU tour coming soon

I have some solo shows abroad coming up soon:
SAT 28 MARCH @ Atrium Žižkov, Prague, CZ (Žižkovska Noc Festival)
THU 2 APRIL @ The Hope & Ruin, Brighton, UK with Nick Hudson
FRI 3 APRIL @ The Yorkshire House, Lancaster, UK with Nick Hudson
SAT 4 APRIL @ The Peer Hat, Manchester, UK with Nick Hudson
MON 6 APRIL @ Servant Jazz Quarters, London, UK with Daniel O’Sullivan and Nick Hudson

Also, Nick and I have released a new collaborative meditation today, just recorded last week. Please have a listen and throw some support our way if you can! Black Feather Under Your Tongue | Toby Driver and Nick Hudson | Kayo Dot (and the music of Toby Driver)

jordan_229 · 19 February 2020 22:24

Manc on a Saturday!

jordan_229 · 22 March 2020 09:01

Let’s get this to Christmas number one!!

anon42112221 · 23 December 2020 23:49

made a thing which nobody will get

1101010 · 24 December 2020 02:53

Well you’ve inspired me to dive in and see.

That live video and sound near the start really reminded me of various DIY gigs I attended or was involved in where you’d get bands that called themselves ‘collectives’ who just got up and blew you away and then you felt like whatever money they might make that night was criminally lacking.

Starting my Toby Driver experience with Choirs of the Eye