K’mono: Mind Out of Mind

The Minneapolis three-piece K’mono have no issue with making their influences clear. And if you are going to draw from others, you might as well draw from some of the best: Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and King Crimson. Mind you, they never ape those bands completely. Well, almost never. In short, they aren’t like The Watch, which might as well just call themselves a Genesis tribute band, although I must admit that they are a very good forgery. Instead, K’mono dabbles here and there with readily identifiable sounds from those groups throughout their sophomore effort, Mind Out of Mind, but not as successfully as their idols did.

The album kicks off with the title track, the longest song on the album. It’s very wordy, like the rest of the album. Musically, it reminds me of Wobbler at times and Genesis at others, with some Banks-type keyboard work. Despite the highly repetitive lyrics, it’s OK. The second song, “Good Looking,� is a dressed-up 80s-sounding pop-synth tune. The last minute or so is a nice instrumental passage, though. The band also released a 'radio single' version of this song, which is just one second shorter. It, too, closes with an instrumental passage, but a less interesting one. The third track, “In the Lost & Found,� is pretty jazzy and funky, actually, and reminds me of Steely Dan without the acerbic lyrics. Next is “Time Will Tell� at just over two minutes. You get some Floydian sound effects, Gilmour-like guitars, and keyboard textures that remind me of Wright.

If there is a total lift on the album, it’s “Tell Me the Lore.� You could very easily mistake it for a late-period Yes song in every respect. “Millipede Man� is pretty unoriginal too. It’s basically early 80s King Crimson. The vocalist goes from Anderson to Belew on successive tracks. The closer, “Answers in the Glass,� sounds like poppy Porcupine Tree or a tune off a more recent Wilson solo album.

You could do worse than Mind Out of Mind. It’s not so derivative as to be annoying, though it gets close at times. Getting back to the wordiness, it’s supposed to tell a story about a king banished from his own realm. Not a bad concept, but the verbosity takes away from the playing.

I like the cover, though not as much as the one for their debut, Return to the ‘E.’ The artist might owe Roger Dean some royalties for it. Given what I heard on Mind Out of Mind, I’ll probably give that album a shot.

Track Listing
1. Mind Out of Mind (9:46)
2. Good-Looking (3:57)
3. In the Lost & Found (8:13)
4. Time Will Tell (2:05)
5. Tell Me the Lore (4:43)
6. Millipede Man (4:33)
7. Answers in the Glass (8:12)

Added: February 19th 2024
Reviewer: Aaron Steelman
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 365
Language: english

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