Sometimes it feels as though words like “experimental” were invented solely for critics to hide behind and explain away any bouts of unconventional creativity they may come across. “What do you mean this doesn’t have a chorus???” etc. Then sometimes you run into a collective like New York’s Kayo Dot, whose leader Toby Driver seems to have, by means of his output with the band, inserted himself into a lineage of avant-garde musicians that can be traced back over the last half-century to artists like John Coltrane and Peter Brötzmann all the way down to John Zorn and King Crimson’s proggy ramblings.

The latter is brought specifically to mind with Driver’s Adrian Belew-style vocal on “Calonyction Girl,” the opening track of Kayo Dot’s fourth studio album, Coyote (Hydra Head). Driver also handles bass duties throughout, but he’s by no means the whole show on the album. With both alto and tenor sax – courtesy of Daniel Means and Terran Olson, respectively – Tim Byrnes’ trumpet, David Bodie’s sundry percussives and the contributions of longtime member Mia Matsumiya on violin and guitar, Kayo Dot is as much a band on Coyote as it ever was. Each member has a specific role to play in the ultimately surprising and oddly engaging outcome.

Disjointed instrumentation is toyed with toward the latter moments of “Whisper Ineffable,” particularly between Byrnes on trumpet and Driver on bass, but there are also subtle injections of noise and drums throughout that confirm once again that nothing is ever simple with Kayo Dot. I’m not at all convinced Coyote has a straightforward moment, “Abyss Hinge 1: Sleeping Birds Sighing in Roscolux” being not much more than a 3:46 lead in for the 13:40 of “Abyss Hinge 2: The Shrinking Armature,” although the latter does see the horn section meet up, however briefly, for some memorable note runs, and that’s at very least planned out beforehand, Matsumiya’s violin and the drums playing out a patterned rhythm behind while the rumble of Driver’s bass provides a foundation.

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Hydra Head artsy rockers/metallers/experimentalists/thinky-thinky-doers Kayo Dot have yet to issue their new full-length, Coyote, which is due out, appropriately, on April 20. Nonetheless, the troupe, led by frontman Toby Driver, have embarked on their next offering already, dubbed Stained Glass. Some people just like to work. The PR wire has more:

Kayo Dot has entered the studio to begin recording their new EP, Stained Glass. The EP will consist of one, long composition of the same title, featuring the lineup of Coyote plus vibraphonist Russell Greenberg (Hi-Red Center, Yarn/Wire, Hunter/Gatherer). Kayo Dot will once again be recording with Jim Fogarty at Zing Studios in Westfield, MA — the man and studio behind Kayo Dot‘s Choirs of the Eye, Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue, Toby Driver‘s In The L..L..Library Loft, and maudlin of the Well’s Bath, Leaving Your Body Map, and Part the Second.

Additional recording will take place in various locations around the globe on portable four-track cassette and antique 1/4″ one-track reel-to-reel. The end result will be a dualistic rapport between Fogarty‘s super-clean, crystalline production and the intimate atmosphere of 2AM bedroom whispers. Stained Glass will be released by Hydra Head later in 2010.

Kayo Dot, “Whisper Ineffable” from Coyote:
Whisper Ineffable

Say what you will about experimentalists Kayo Dot, their music is always two things: atmospheric and interesting. I don’t even think I heard 2008′s Blue Lambency Downward, but the band are back now with a new one called Coyote through Hydra Head, and it just might be time for me to catch up. Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Toby Driver is also curating the month of February at NYC performance space The Stone, and the band will be doing a bunch of shows there with a bunch of varying lineups. More specific info on that is here. Here’s the PR wire goods on the album, which is due out April 6:

Coyote, Kayo Dot‘s fourth studio album, is a single, narrative-driven, long-form composition written with story and text provided by a close, terminally-ill friend of the band, Yuko Sueta, in the final stage of her life. Coyote was once again engineered by Randall Dunn (SunnO))), Earth, Six Organs of Admittance) in Seattle, Washington, forging a new genre of “goth fusion” which combines elements of early Cure, Faith and the Muse, and Bauhaus with Herbie Hancock‘s psychedelic album, Sextant, and Scott Walker‘s recent album, The Drift. The lyrics and story were constructed with deliberate melodrama to pay homage as well to the intended gothic vibe, expressing the protagonist’s loneliness and longing to be in a better place, and her journey through her own personal looking-glass through a hallucinatory world of fear and wonder.

The musical objective this time around was to create a piece of music that uses the sonic aesthetic of this specific era of gothic art-rock integrated with a more modern-classical approach to form and architecture. To achieve this, Kayo Dot has put together a new instrumentation, which features trumpet (provided by former Candiria trumpet player Tim Byrnes) and alto saxophone at the lead, backed up by violin, keyboards, piano, organ, bass guitar, percussion, and a pronounced lack of guitar across the album. This album also marks the return of former Kayo Dot member, Terran Olson, whose contributions were heard on the band’s 2003 debut, Choirs of the Eye, as well as with Kayo Dot‘s alter-ego, Maudlin of the Well. The music is also more rhythmically-driven than any previous Kayo Dot work, and being a performance-oriented composition, it was recorded mostly live (similar to 2006′s Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue). Coyote also brings back some of the aggression absent from 2008′s Blue Lambency Downward.

Tracklist for Coyote:
I. Calonyction Girl
II. Whisper Ineffable
III. Abyss Hinge 1: Sleeping Birds Sighing in Roscolux
IV. Abyss Hinge 2: The Shrinking Armature
V. Cartogram out of Phase