Minneapolis natives Kazyak make music which blends the distinct characteristics of dozens of genres and obviously closely held influences and manages to produce something unique and free of any possibly expected sense of musical misappropriation. This is a band that allows their own personal musical predispositions to lead each song, never knowing exactly where they might end up from the time the first note is struck until that final ringing echo dissipates in the studio. By never pinning down their sound to any definable end, the band seems set free from the constraints of genre boundaries and is free to mix and match as it sees fit.
The latest single “To The Manner Born” from Kazyak combines an indie folk aesthetic with just a touch of electronic experimentation. Singer and guitarist Peter Frey knows exactly how to suspend a melody just above the din of the instruments so that his words seem to intertwine with the notes and explode outward at the slightest provocation. The subtly sequenced drum beats mix programmed and live instrumentation and create an almost palpable sense of the organic and the artificial–though the organic wins out every time. The song reaches for and captures a sustained sense of forward momentum and charges headlong into its cathartic end-piece without looking back or resting to catch its breath. And seeming to revel into the interplay of musical details, Frey lovingly obsesses over how each sound becomes saturated with one another–how the drums blend perfectly into the softly struck piano keys and how the acoustic guitar bleeds into the orchestral strings at the just the right moment to create an almost panoramic vision of the desperation of love lost.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere the latest track “To The Manner Born” from Kazyak’s upcoming album See the Forest, See the Trees.
