Ki ( "English respelling pronunciation"> KEE ) is the eleventh studio album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend, and the first album in the Devin Townsend Project series. The album was released on May 25, 2009, on the independent record label Townsend HevyDevy Records.
Townsend, founder, songwriter, and frontman of extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and progressive metal group The Devin Townsend Band, disbanded both bands in 2006 to spend time with their families and avoid exhausting tours and interviews. After a period of self-discovery and a one-year break from songwriting, Townsend began working on a four-album series to clarify his identity as a musician. Ki includes themes of self-control and composure, and is more subtly musical than many works of previous artists, consisting of ambient rock music interlaced with heavy metal bursts.
The album is written, produced, mixed, and engineered by Townsend, who also performs guitar and vocals. Townsend garnered a support group of Vancouver musicians including blues drummer Duris Maxwell, rock bassist Jean Savoie, keyboardist Dave Young, and guest vocalist ChÃÆ'Ã… © Aimee Dorval to play on this album. While some critics find the album uneven, Ki received generally positive reviews for unexpected musical directions, along with production, vocal dynamics, and mixed influences.
Video Ki (Devin Townsend Project album)
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After dissolving the extreme metal strapping band Young Lad and his progressive metal project Devin Townsend Band in 2006, Townsend shaved his "skull" hairstyle and released alcohol and marijuana. Townsend felt "confusing" that he had trouble writing music without drugs, and that he had trouble identifying his goals as a musician. He spent a year producing the album without the absence of writing, but found it inappropriate and decided to "pick up the guitar and just write." It started a period of self-discovery where he learned "how to make without drugs".
For two years, Townsend wrote over 60 songs, and found that they fit in with "four different styles". In March 2009, Townsend announced plans for a four-album series called Project Devin Townsend, with the aim of clarifying his musical identity and being "responsible" for the person he projected publicly. Ki , the first album of Devin Townsend Project, was written to "set the stage" for the next album. The word " ki " represents the Japanese concept of "life force" ("," Ki "). Townsend chose the name as a tribute to Kitar 1981? album with the same name, which he "likes as a child".
The project concept includes a group of different musicians for each album. For Ki , Townsend selects a group of musicians who have never worked before. He found Duris Maxwell, a blues drummer who has played with acts like Heart, Jefferson Airplane, and Tommy Chong, at a blues club in northern Canada. Townsend was impressed with his energies and recruited him for Ki . Townsend also chose Jean Savoie, a music store employee who played in the band cover Beatles, to play bass on the album. Maxwell and Savoie are ideal for this album, Townsend explains, as they have a bit of heavy music experience, and have new perspectives that fit into the subtle voice Ki . Townsend also brought back Dave Young, an ambient keyboardist who once played in The Devin Townsend Band, and recruited Vancouver artist ChÃÆ'Ã… © Aimee Dorval as a vocalist on several songs. The album was primarily recorded, produced, and mixed from late 2008 to early 2009 in Devestate and Studio D; drums recorded at Factory Studios in Vancouver.
Maps Ki (Devin Townsend Project album)
Music themes and lyrics
Townsend channeled his new self-control and calmness into Ki , a "contrasted" controlled, melodious and calm album with the familiar heavy metal, while maintaining "signature sound". The album features an undistorted guitar tone, direct picks, no drum trigger, and relatively quiet mastery, with a musical style that combines ambient, progressive rock, jazz rock, and psychedelic blues. The album's recurring music theme is "tension and release," building gradually a sudden intensity and giving way to "something relaxing". The album's musical style has been compared to Porcupine Tree, Chroma Key, and Pink Floyd, with a comparison of Townsend's vocals with Steven Wilson and Steve Hackett.
Ki is mixed by Townsend, and features very little compression, in contrast to the usual wall-of-sound production style. Townsend explains that he originally "tried to do a wall-of-sound with it and it just ruined it... it turned it into a not very good Strapping note." This album deliberately distanced itself from the hard war, the music industry's recent practice of competitively mastering audio to sound as loud as possible. "I officially pulled my heart out of a loudness war", Townsend told his master's engineer. Songs of this album are mainly written in open tuning C, except for "A Monday", "Trainfire", and "Disruptr" in open B, "Heaven's End" and "Winter" in open B ? , and "Quiet Riot" in the standard tuning. Townsend has quoted Second Nature by The Gods Young, Paul Horn, Chants of India by Ravi Shankar, and Ween as influences on the album.
Townsend describes Ki as an introduction and morale on the "bigger concept" of the Devin Townsend Project. The album's lyric theme explores Townsend's inner devils, past addiction, self-acceptance, and "his new ability to say no ." The album opens with a short instrumental lead to "Coast", a quiet, bass-driven song that sets the stage for the album as "a metaphor for the new Devin's control." Townsend described it as "intro to story, quiet, dark, haunted and unsure". The song was built in intensity toward the end with a vocal layer, but instead exploded into Strapping Young Lad-style metal, fading into "loose and blues guitar work". "Disruptr" has been described as a "coffee house metal track", contrasting light instrumentation with songs and heavy metal-style vocals in a way that one critic compared to Talking Heads. "Gato" results in the same tone, but apart with backing vocals by Dorval. "Disruptr" and "Gato" continue the musical theme; each song is built in intensity towards the end but "stop and take a deep breath" before continuing. The album then faded into "Terminal", an atmospheric song with quiet vocals co-written by keyboardist Dave Young.
Townsend controls reached the culmination of "Heaven's End," which Jon Wiederhorn of Revolver described as "a fun pop song that turns into a cruel and soaked nightmare." This was followed by "Is not Never Gonna Win", a live studio jam by four album musicians described by David E. Gehlke from the online magazine Blistering as trippy. "Trainfire", a classic country-style song inspired by Elvis Presley's cover of "Mystery Train", discusses the addiction to pornography by Townsend, which he describes as "crazy, crazy cocaine on the internet that nobody wants to talk about." This song continues the theme of the album of honesty and self-acceptance, both about pornography and musical tastes. Townsend explains his musical style of music, saying "yes, I like heavy music and I'm good at making it, but that's not all I listen to, and that's not all I want to play."
The album's climax was found in the title track, portrayed by the artist as "personal breakthrough" and was originally born from the Gray Skies demo, "Soft," previously released on Ass-Sordid Demos II . "Ki" builds the arceggio cyclical development that Martin Popoff of The Brave & amp; Bloody Knuckles is described as the "proggiest" moment of the album. This leads to "Quiet Riot", an acoustic version of "Cum On Feel the Noize" with new lyrics. Quiet Riot, Townsend explains, "basically sums up the notion that, even though I'm 'broken', I'm fine, and have chosen to make my life better."
Releases and artwork
Ki was released on the independent record label Townsend HevyDevy Records on May 25, 2009, in Canada. It was released May 22, 2009, in Germany, May 25, 2009, across Europe, and June 16, 2009, in the United States by InsideOut Music distributor. The Japanese release on Marquee/Avalon was released on August 26, 2009. When all four albums in the series were completed, Townsend released a set of eight-disc special edition boxes, including DVDs and various bonus materials. This set of boxes, named Contain Us , was released on December 9, 2011.
The art of the album was created by artist Konrad Palkiewicz, who created the art for Townsend's The Hummer album (2006) and directed the video for Young Lad's Strapping "Almost Again". The art of the album is designed to be viewed with 3-D glasses. The album art is a "two face in one" image. Although "not original", it is based on Native American and Chinese art. Palkiewicz directed the music video for the song "Coast", which was released on the Townsend website on July 28, 2009. The InsideOut division comes with extra lyrical sheets and features a green slipcase with the Devin Townsend Project logo, designed by Travis Smith.
Critical sales and revenue
Ki reached number 26 in the Finnish Top 40 and number 179 on the French Top 200, and appeared on the UK Indie and UK Rock charts. It sold 800 copies in its first week of release in the United States, and debuted at number 69 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. The critical reception of the album is generally positive. Jon Wiederhorn of Revolver says the album is "worth listening to" and praises heavier songs like "Disruptr" and "Heaven's End", saying, "Townsend mostly contains his anger, but he's at best when he lost it. "Martin Popoff from Brave & amp; Bloody Knuckles found the album to have an "odd identity", with "all sorts of things happening just below the surface" that gave many listeners. David E. Gehlke of Blistering was less impressed, and found the album inconsistent. Gehlke described "Winter" as "fertile and beautiful", but felt that the album "failed to hit the mark" at other points, such as "Never Will Win" and "Practice". Tyler Munro of Sputnikmusic said Ki showed Townsend "to his loosest and most dynamic figure", and praised Townsend and Dorval's vocals, but felt the album was being held back by repetitive music and extended guitar congestion. Greg Prato of Allmusic gave the album a moderate review, admiring Townsend's uncertainty, but felt the album was not "the most gripping or breakthrough album" in the Townsend collection. Daniel Cairns from Chronicles of Chaos praised KiBi as a "hard and unusual collection of music" that "may also be Townsend's best."
Track list
All songs written by Devin Townsend except if recorded.
Personnel
Musician
- Devin Townsend - vocals, guitars, fretless bass guitars, atmosphere, programming, production, mixing, techniques
- Duris Maxwell - drum
- Jean Savoie - bass guitar
- Dave Young - key, piano, atmosphere
Additional musicians
- ChÃÆ'Ã… © Aimee Dorval - additional vocals
- Ryan Dahle - additional vocals ("Gato")
- Bjorn Strid, Peter, Christopher, Grant, Corey, Jeremy, Ryan - additional vocals
Production
- Adrian Mottrim - recording help
- Mike St. Jean - preproduction assistance
- Brennan Chambers - mixing help
- Sheldon Zaharko - record
- Ryan Dahle - production, mixing ("Quiet Riot")
- T-Roy - master
Release
- Konrad J. Palkiewicz - visual consultation, layout, artwork
- Erich Saide - photography
- Omer Cordell - photography
- Jeff Cohen - legal, management
- Mike Mowery - legal, management
Diagram
References
External links
- Ki (InsideOut)
- Devin Townsend (MySpace)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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