Kimono Kult ‘Hiding in the Light’

Words by Sean Walsh

The debut 4 song EP from “supergroup” Kimono Kult, Hiding in the Light, released on March 4th through LA’s Neurotic Yell Records, features quite an interesting line-up.

The EP counts on Laena Geronimo to provide strings, Dante White for guitar duties, and Nicole Turley for all-things-percussion. In addition to those three, you have vocalist Teri Gender Bender, who is more or less the Latina version of Bjork, craftily-flowering layers of beautiful Spanish linguistics onto the auditory field as they marinate the experimental landscapes behind her. John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Omar Rodrigues-Lopez (The Mars Volta, At the Drive In) provide the final pieces of the puzzle that round out the impressive list of musical contributors.

Turely described the group’s upcoming release in their EPK as “four songs of electro/dub/afro-beat/avant-freak/jazz-like conversations of instrumental ecstasy.” Now if that sounds like something up your alley, well then join the party because this is some pretty avant-jaz-dub-freakin’ experimental shit right here.

‘Todos Menos El Dolor’ is the prime example of what you will be getting from the rest of this 4 song adventure. At times, the power of professionalism and experience lends itself quite nice to the audio output of the group, and at other times, ideas are left unfinished. These songs feel more like working-brainstorming sessions than actual finished / complete ideas.

There are several bright moments on this release, but for every little bit of light that shines through, there seems to be an equal cloud of confusion. Does “experimental” always have to mean over-the-top weird?

I’m not sure where this project will go, but if it takes the time to mature, I think the group can do some really interesting and beautiful things. This is a debut EP and I’ll give them that, but with an impressive artist roster like theirs, there is just so much more potential to be unleashed than what they have currently caged up on Hiding in the Light.