Having the words Sound System in your name might lure the listener into expecting heavy bass, strong percussion and rhythms going towards a reggae sound but think again, Trinidad-based power trio Kin Sound System have pieced together their second album based around a more conventional indie-rock sounding album. But to leave it at that wouldn’t be the whole story…
The album has come about after a forced break (due to guitarist Kiwan Landreth-Smith’s successful battle with cancer – hence the album’s title) and there is a change in the musical direction from their 2012 album ‘Trip Into Babylon’, but it’s not straight-forward rock, with shifting rhythmic beats and patterns it owes more to bands like Dream Theater and Rush than Kasabian or Kings of Leon and there is an undercurrent of punk running it’s way through the songs with lyrics such as “a government’s fallacy is a total tragedy” keeping the leather and safety pin audience happy.
The real triumph within these seven songs is the energy, it’s a large sound for three musicians to produce and never feels empty or underwhelming, this is clearly a band who work at their sound and each decision is made with thought and care, from the clever timings throughout ‘Oh No!’, the overdriven bass, the powerhouse drums and the double-tracked vocals, it all works and, with any luck will find its way into a lot of peoples ears over the next few years.
It’s good to hear a proper rock power trio again, one that isn’t content with sticking to the norm and one that brings so many differing influences together.
