| | Full Review | Ratings (311) |
Give your Rating |
| 5.0 classic | AnimalsAsSummit | June 20th 16 |
Music straight from the future... Utterly jawdropping.... Everything we could've hoped for
7 Bumps | Bump |
| 0.0 | DanielNightLewis | June 21st 16 |
Utterly no idea what I think about this beyond the odd, warm feeling I am left with. This is very, very good in a way I don't really understand at the moment so I need to listen to it a bunch of times.
6 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.3 superb | Benjamin Kuettel EMERITUS | June 25th 16 |
Kayo Dot take the sci-fi aspects of Coffins on Io and funnels them into a surreal amalgamation of progressive rock and synthwave. The music is dense and unrelenting at times, but also lush and with plenty of beautiful moments. Avant-garde and electronic musical styles, along with the lyrics, conjures forth strange imagery of a neo-noir future reminiscent of Blade Runner. Plastic House on Base of Sky embodies an identity of its own with electrifying energy and incredible musicianship.
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.5 great | ggglllooommmppp | June 24th 16 |
Edit: I've come to appreciate this album more over the years. I still have some hangups in spots,
and it's not one of my favorite bits of the KD discography, but it can hang.
Original comments:
Not bad compared to music in general, but leagues off the bottom of the chart in the context of
Kayo Dot, imho. Can't wait for them to get bored of both futurism and linear/pop music really. In
regard to some of the timbral decisions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k0SmqbBIpQ
Definitely lots of cool and interesting material here, some amazing moments, and the unique
perspective of the composer shining through some unexpected lenses, but feels like it could've
used a few more passes of consideration in bringing it together, across the individual pieces
and album as a whole.
There's a sense of lacking gestalt for the first time ever on a KD record. The arc of the album's
journey feels fractured and incomplete. A collection of songs that mostly happen to be synth-
heavy – which at times feels imposed in order to generate cohesion. Tensions neither resolve
nor combust, but modulate slightly across the album's duration. Sections seem more arrayed in
sequence than motivationally developed from one to the next. This is without a doubt the least
dynamic and most rectangular/modular of their works, on all axes. All of this could be
intentional, certainly. They've proven mastery of absurdist juxtapositions and uncomfortably
wrong moves in the past. Here for the first time it doesn't seem to add up to all that much of
real consequence to my ears.
Beyond the shock of freshness on the sonic surface, there are some pretty decent songs
here... as in songs that would have been the "pretty good" tracks on a classic Cure record.
Albeit, often with a characteristically bizarre twist somewhere, which, totally cool and
borderline conceptual in regard to pop music and idiom as such moments are, there's not
terribly much here that feels absolutely essential, unforgettable, definitive, inimitable,
groundbreaking, truly conceptual in the way that many of the band's toweringly inspired and
iconic compositions of the past have been.
The more I listen, the more I'm grasping the internal logic, and my intellectual appreciation is
growing gradually. Instinctively though, my admiration and dismay are locked in stalemate.
Ultimately, my feeling boils down to the band's legacy.
I've come to expect things beyond the level of mere mortals from Kayo Dot, because they've
only ever delivered on that level hitherto.
PHoBoS is their first flawed piece of work, in my book.
*Pours out a 40 of Chernobyl Piss*
See you next time, space cowboy.
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 2.0 poor | EasterInTheBatcave | June 24th 16 |
Takes Coffins on Io's synth-driven sound in a more abstract direction. The drums are rollicking in odd times, the vocals are back in the mix, and the song structures are decidedly variegated. Whereas Coffins was, for the most part, accessible, this is a willfully difficult album, transplanting Coffins' '80s vibe to a surreal realm of muted blues and floating keys. Plastic House on Base of Sky is an idiosyncratic work, peculiar and effective.
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 5.0 classic | Herbie Chrost | June 22nd 16 |
WHY THE FUCK IS SO MUCH INCREDIBLE MUSIC BEING RELEASED THIS YEAR???
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.0 good | TheManMachine | November 3rd 16 |
Synth layers upon sumptuous synth layers and semi-shrouded vagabond drumming are enough to spawn an immersive spacemosphere that's enthralling as it is jittery, and prevailing to the point where one may forget they ever tread in metal. Sounds great, sure; terrifyingly technical, totally -- also often compositionally unstable to a fault, sporting less sections of inspiration and solidity and more moments that seem indifferent+cluttered. Vividity that begs to get lost in but becomes tiresome and disorderly; though the whole 'woah space maaan' thing definitely deserves partial blame for any yawnin' that may occur.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 1.5 very poor | Xenophanes EMERITUS | July 5th 16 |
This is hot, fucking garbage.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | Alabaster Jones | July 5th 16 |
Does this new record from avant-garde giants Kayo Dot see them with their most reduced sonic palette to date? Yes. Is this record a logical expansion from their previous opus, Coffins On Io? Certainly. Is this album in any way accessible, following the trend of its predecessor? Of course not. This is a truly encompassing spin on 80's synthwave and gothic rock that, while definitely hinted at and explored somewhat on Coffins On Io, has never been more fleshed out or full of rich textures than it is here. And it's truly consuming. You know the cover art to Tycho's Dive? This album sounds like you're standing on that beach, staring at that sun, and hearing the wind whistle around you. Make sense? Probably not, but my point is it's a record that swamps you with its atmosphere and it works extremely well. I'm guilty of holding the opinion that sometime, someday, Kayo Dot will screw up. But, that day is not today, as Plastic House On Base Of Sky is another excellent record from the group.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 0.0 | andersvisa | June 23rd 16 |
I'm not listening I'm talking I'm talking
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.5 superb | Djang0 | June 23rd 16 |
It took quite a few listens for me to wrap my head around Magnetism when that came out, and this album is no less mind boggling and complex. Yet at the same time it's incredibly charming, if not really engaging at first.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | paradoxical | June 22nd 16 |
With this album, Toby appears to be in cohort with trans-dimensional beings from a place where the synth fused past is still alive or perhaps transcending in a strange amalgamation with the future.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 1.5 very poor | temptationFruit | August 15th 17 |
wow electronica with drums and instruments that are fast, random, and make no sense. HOW COOL GROUNDBREAKING WOW
Bump |
| 3.5 great | ThyCrossAwaits | June 23rd 16 |
This is, I think, a more cohesive and confident version of the Kayo we got on Coffins. rAlso, has anybody else noticed the acronym is P.H.O.B.O.S.?
Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | NeoZod | May 18th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | tomaraya | December 29th 22 |
| 3.0 good | ZIG | February 19th 22 |
| 2.5 average | gschwen | January 5th 22 |
| 2.5 average | Evreaia | January 4th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | vakuola | November 17th 21 |
| 2.5 average | Ryus | October 29th 21 |
| 3.5 great | xlev | August 5th 21 |
| 2.5 average | eirinn | April 24th 21 |
| 3.5 great | Harlz | February 23rd 21 |
| 4.5 superb | Juuso | February 7th 21 |
| 3.0 good | remi | October 29th 20 |
| 3.5 great | Risodo | October 16th 19 |
| 3.5 great | unkle | October 15th 19 |
| 3.5 great | A.R.O. STAFF | October 14th 19 |
| 3.5 great | Krpa | October 2nd 19 |
| 3.0 good | Prole | September 22nd 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | quorrouq | September 8th 19 |
| 3.0 good | alpsi | September 6th 19 |
| 5.0 classic | Kakz | September 6th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | lennsan | July 18th 19 |
| 2.5 average | JOK | June 28th 19 |
| 2.5 average | Nine | April 22nd 19 |
| 1.5 very poor | crab | January 5th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Hawks | January 3rd 19 |
| 3.5 great | Wolfe | April 3rd 18 |
| 3.5 great | tlos | February 27th 18 |
| 4.5 superb | JJKeys | February 6th 18 |
| 3.0 good | 2ool | January 29th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | Judith | January 6th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | RAGG | December 2nd 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | orakst | October 4th 17 |
| 3.0 good | MrSu | October 2nd 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | Michael | September 24th 17 |
| 3.0 good | bentl | July 31st 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | Piglet | May 1st 17 |
| 4.5 superb | hudso | March 25th 17 |
| 3.5 great | bSmith | March 25th 17 |
| 3.0 good | Rhyme | February 7th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | btati | January 14th 17 |
| 2.5 average | gilly | January 4th 17 |
| 3.5 great | rid | January 4th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | catzlol | December 30th 16 |
| 3.5 great | Pheenix | December 28th 16 |
| 3.5 great | Quarl4 | December 21st 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Suli | December 20th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Rodstar | December 20th 16 |
| 2.0 poor | Ulshad | December 19th 16 |
| 1.5 very poor | Lalka | December 19th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | elch21 | December 12th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | El Olam | December 11th 16 |
| 2.5 average | JS19 | November 22nd 16 |
| 3.5 great | Swarm | November 19th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | BeeRyan | October 1st 16 |
| 3.0 good | dosia | September 20th 16 |
| 3.0 good | GodL1ke | September 18th 16 |
| 5.0 classic | loulou | August 12th 16 |
| 2.5 average | SuzyC | August 11th 16 |
| 4.5 superb | iao | August 9th 16 |
| 4.5 superb | Pavera | July 15th 16 |
| 2.0 poor | Rail | July 13th 16 |
| 3.5 great | Wizard | July 13th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Thor | July 11th 16 |
| 2.5 average | Hati | July 10th 16 |
| 3.5 great | Hyndez | July 10th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | cb123 | July 5th 16 |
| 4.5 superb | Host78 | July 1st 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | p4p | July 1st 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Bierlag | June 30th 16 |
| 2.5 average | Spec | June 30th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | robin | June 29th 16 |
| 2.0 poor | fdrc | June 29th 16 |
| 3.5 great | Jeejee | June 28th 16 |
| 2.5 average | jmh886 | June 27th 16 |
| 3.5 great | Dmax28 | June 26th 16 |
| 3.0 good | eboph | June 26th 16 |
| 3.0 good | Steev | June 26th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | closed | June 26th 16 |
| 2.5 average | Elynna | June 25th 16 |
| 3.0 good | adr | June 25th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | TBH717 | June 24th 16 |
| 3.0 good | NBA | June 23rd 16 |
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