Kayo Dot

Brooklyn-based Kayo Dot fuses progressive, atmospheric, and black metal textures with abstract electro-acoustic techniques, modern chamber forms, and gothic rock, rendering the ensemble nearly impossible to categorize beyond the broad designation “experimental rock band.” At its helm stands Toby Driver, the sole surviving founding member, who serves as vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. The group’s first outing arrived in 2003 as Choirs of the Eye, issued by John Zorn’s Tzadik imprint and performed by an eleven-piece metal orchestra; subsequent releases have traced an ongoing series of stylistic shifts. By the time of the more restrained 2006 follow-up Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue the lineup had already contracted to a septet. The 2013 double-length, crowd-funded Hubardo, captured by Randall Dunn, marked a deliberate return to the metallic foundations of Driver’s earlier project Maudlin of the Well and featured both that band’s vocalist-lyricist Jason Byron and violinist Mia Matsumiya. With 2016’s Plastic House on Base of Sky, released on the Flenser label, electronic elements moved to the forefront of Driver’s writing process.

Following the late-2002 dissolution of the progressive-metal outfit Maudlin of the Well, several of its participants sought a fresh trajectory. In early 2003 Toby Driver (vocals, guitar, electronics), Greg Massi (guitar, vocals), Nicholas Kyte (bass, vocals), Sam Gutterman (drums, vocals), and Terran Olson (keyboards, flute, clarinet, saxophone) established Kayo Dot. Whereas Maudlin of the Well had operated within metal conventions, Kayo Dot embraced a modernist classical orientation, adhering to rigorously notated scores and presenting concerts in the formal manner of orchestral ensembles at traditional venues. Guitars and vocals retained rock and metal inflections, yet no Maudlin of the Well compositions appeared in set lists, underscoring the new identity. Tzadik released the debut Choirs of the Eye in late 2003. The critically praised Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue followed in 2006, succeeded in 2008 by the chamber-jazz-oriented Blue Lambency Downward. The 2010 long-form work Coyote unfolded as a single narrative-driven composition in five movements, drawing impetus from the Cure, Bauhaus, and Faith and the Muse; 2012’s Gamma Knife re-engaged the harsher metallic language of the band’s initial phase. Hubardo, the conceptual 2013 double album funded by fans, integrated black metal, post-rock, jazz fusion, and chamber music, while 2014’s Coffins on Io explored darkwave alongside what Driver termed “1980s retrofuture noir.” The group’s eighth studio album, the characteristically wide-ranging and largely electronic Plastic House on Base of Sky, appeared in early 2017. In fall 2019 the Randall Dunn–produced Blasphemy emerged, “based on an allegorical story” by ongoing studio collaborator Jason Byron; its plot centers on three figures whose pursuit of a treasure ultimately consumes them, and its sound merges blackgaze metal, melodic post-punk, and avant-prog.