Kyte - Dead Waves
Posted by AlMachine on Wednesday, March 17, 2010



Anticipation counts for nothing. If it did, the arrival of Kyte’s debut record would cause fewer ripples than a gnat paddling in the wash of the Pacific. That’s not to say it hasn’t been a long time coming.
With each of their releases in the past two years, Kyte have consistently taken their sound to bigger and better places. While the band’s superb mini-album pointed at great things, Dead Waves takes that promise and makes it real.
There is a grandiose sheen to Dead Waves that could easily have been missed in the rush to get music on the shelves, or on the servers, but from the moment opener The Smoke Saves Lives breathes into life with a pleasing analogue swell it is clear Kyte were right to take their time.
Where they could so easily have disappeared into a fog of obscure and directionless post-rock cul-de-sacs, but Dead Waves is rammed with the sort of tunes the Pet Shop Boys forgot how to write after 1993.
It is a record brimming with fresh air and open spaces, a record that couldn’t have been made by a band obsessed with urban decay and greasy takeaways, a record that looks to the stars rather than the drudgery of day-to-day life.
That’s not to say Dead Waves is full of whimsy over substance. Designed For Damage, Fear From Death and Guns and Knives all erupt with choruses that Coldplay would bite Brian Eno’s arm off for, but with the swoonsome beats of M83 and Maps at their finest.
It wasn’t so long ago that someone somewhere tossed the label electro-gaze in the overcrowded sea of scenes. Kyte deserve more than being pigeonholed in such a crude fashion, but if electro-gaze is what it will be known as, you’ll not hear a better example all year. Outstanding.

Andy Robbins

8/10

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