As a calling card for the album these two songs are perfect, showcasing Kini’s ability to express deep thoughts and explore the modern psyche whilst using wonderfully off kilter music as a vehicle. It is pop of sorts but pop for the thinker, pop for those who want to be made to react, pop that doesn’t play by the rules, pop looking for new musical frontiers. It is deconstructed music, sometimes only just hanging together in a form that you could call a song, more usually following its own blueprints, or perhaps none at all.
Kal in particular is a mercurial beast, always feeling as if it is just about to come together as a song but tantalisingly never quite meeting the listeners expectations. But if music always met our expectations how would it evolve? And to counter Kal’s clipped and curious noises, Rimay drifts through on a haze of industrial echos and Nuna has the disembodied feeling of a song being channelled from deep space or heard through the filter of a thick wall, with only certain frequencies carrying through to the listener.
Kini is an interesting prospect and A Room of Ones Own is a remarkable collection of songs. What you have to admire is an artist who knows that her own musical vision will appeal to a very discerning and niche audience but persues it anyway, an artist who knows that they could make life easier on themselves but also that honesty is the best policy. And Kini’s music is honesty. It is also strange, beguiling, wonderful, challenging, risky and exploratory but honesty is where it all begins.
