Australian Mark Mitchell heads up Clue to Kalo. Their second full-length recording, One Way, It's Every Way, is an engaging collection of indie pop/IDM songs. Mitchell enlists a host of collaborators, who play a wide range of instruments. Despite the prevailing electronic pop ambience, a number of acoustic instruments make appearances on the record, including saxophone, accordion, recorder, strings, and gu-zheung (a Chinese harp). These elements give a prog flavor to some of the song arrangements. They are counterbalanced by swirling, often dreamy production, which develops the tracks into multilayered, intricate electronic pop. Indeed, some songs, like "The Tense Changes" and "Nine Thousand Nautical Miles," revel in synthetic experimentation. "As Tommy Fixes Fights" is a leisurely journey through a dazzling array of instrumental colors and fleeting vignette-like formal sections.
Amidst all this busyness, One Way, It’s Every Way is permeated with tuneful melodies. "Seconds When it's Minutes" features a scatting sing along chorus, while "The Younger the Old" and "Come to Mean a Natural Law" have multiple voices dovetailing in cascading counterpoint. Also particularly fine is the rhythmic interplay between the various instruments; songs like "Ignore the Forest Floor" and "The Just is Enough" are filled with the push-pull of multiple time streams and buoyant syncopations. The album closer, "The Older the Young," with its catchy chordal piano accompaniment and beguiling vocal melody, demonstrates Mitchell at his best, as a songwriter who composes accessible, memorable material and presents it in pleasingly varied fashion. Clue to Kalo may give acts like Postal Service and Her Space Holiday a run for their money.
1. The Younger the Old
2. Seconds When It's Minutes
3. Come to Mean a Natural Law
4. The Just Is Enough
5. As Tommy Fixes Fights
6. Ignore the Forest Floor
7. The Tense Changes
8. Your Palsy to Protect You
9. Nine Thousand Nautical Miles
10. The Older the Young
More about: Clue to Kalo
