Artists starting with K

Threepenny Opera

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Kurt Weill, “Threepenny Opera” (MGM, 1952).
This belongs in “rock” as much as (if not more than) in classical. The guy sounds contemporary to Randy Newman, VanDyke Parks, or Tom Waits, all of whom he in fact influenced. This is razor-edged, pounding cabaret music shot through with overtones of post-Schönberg dissonance, a perfect musical equivalent for Bretcht’s black-humor lyrical take on amoral Weimar capitalism carving itself up to serve to the waiting Nazis.
Try A/7, A/12, B/2, B/4.
4/19/13

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Five Ways of Disappearing

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Kendra Smith, “Five Ways of Disappearing” (4AD, 2012)
Ms. Smith was the bassist in the legendary, explosive first Dream Syndicate lineup, then formed Opal, which turned into Mazzy Star when Hope Sandoval replaced her. Leaving before excess visibility is her magic trick, and the clue to her enduring mystery and allure (hence the album title). Recorded just before she vanished into her mountain hideout (so far for good), this is handmade psych-pop from a free spirit and a luminous voice, like Nico is she was a hippie survivalist.
Try 1, 9, 13
5/5/12

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The One And Only

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Kirsty MacColl, “The One And Only” (Metro, 2001)
MacColl was a cult favorite among fellow musicians in the 1980s. Morrissey, David Byrne, Elvis Costello and the Pogues numbered among her devout admirers. Her work is similar to Costello’s in its blend of ‘50s country, ‘60s Brit-pop and punk/new wave, but her warm, piercing voice is one of a kind.
Try 1, 2
5/23/12

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Dismania

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K-Holes, “Dismania” (Hardly Art, 2012)
Garage-punk with a sewage-thick guitar attack, pummeling rhythms, and no-wavey sax blasts. This one really stands in conjuring up the sense of gutter-level nastiness and desperation of its ‘70s sources.
Try 2, 5, 7
7/12/12

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Holidays In Europe

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K.U.K.L., “Holidays In Europe” (One Little Indian, 1986)
Second album by Björk’s early band, their last before they mutated into the Sugar-cubes. The best tracks here flicker with tantalizing hints of that band’s mutant pop sense, interwoven with K.U.K.L.’s distinctive Icelandic take on postpunk/Goth grooves, stark, elliptical, gnarled, chaotic and enchantingly estranged.
Try 1, 2
5/5/12

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Time ‘n’ Place

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Kero Kero Bonito, “Time ‘n’ Place” (Polyvinyl, 2018)
Sarah is the singer of this UK group and is the daughter of a Japanese mother and British father, and while her life experience could just as well have resulted in a deep commitment to Delta blues or Flamenco, in this case she’s created a delightfully bright and snappy concoction of J-pop and C86-style UK twee, all filtered through bedroom-Casio minimalism. The sound has filled out (and gotten noisier) on this second album, but the songs are just as bewitchingly happy-melancholy (or melancholy-happy) and kaleidoscopically colorful as before.
Try 3, 4, 6
4/7/19

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Twelve Point Buck”/”Little Baby Buntin’

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Killdozer, “Twelve Point Buck”/”Little Baby Buntin’ “ (Touch & Go, 1989/1987)
From Wisconsin, they played like Midwest Kids reared on Foghat’s heavy blues grooves, then re-wired by the Birthday Party’s gnarled, shuddering Frankenstein-restructuring of those very grooves. The result was a kind of noise-rock as contemporary electric folk-blues of weird rest-belt social decay. A gargantuan racket, and funnier than hell.
Try 1, 4, 5, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19
7/11/18

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Uncompromising War On Art Under The Dictatorship Of The Proletariat

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Killdozer, “Uncompromising War On Art Under The Dictatorship Of The Proletariat” (Touch And Go, 1994) [CD includes “Burl” EP (Touch And Go, 1986)]
Killdozer were one of the Great Lakes region’s most distinguished post-punk sludge-rock behemoths – picture someone blasting Black Sabbath’s first album in a building being demolished by a wrecking ball, while the foreman hollers for them to get the hell out. This is mostly from after the departure of form-destroying guitarist Bill Hobson, so it’s a bit more straightforward, a fittingly “populist” sound to complement the are-they-serious?-who-knows? Marxist lyric slant. 2 and 10 are the funniest and catchiest of that batch. Like the subsequent tracks, 12 is from an earlier EP featuring Bill Hobson; it’s one of the most stupendously obscene songs ever recorded.

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Now

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Kim Jung Mi, “Now” (Lion Productions, 2011; original release 1973)
Written/produced by late ‘60s/early ‘70s South Korean psych guitar guru Shin Joong Hyun (see the comp in the CD New Bin), this is lush, oceanic acid-folk from a chanteuse with a tremulous but powerfully resonant voice. The Korean folk usages blend seamlessly into the Western ones for a truly sublime experience.
Try A/1, B/1
1/6/12

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Face to Face

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Kinks, “Face to Face” (Castle; original release, 1966)
Their “Rubber Soul,” i. e., the moment they definitively broke free of their chunky Maximum-Chuck-Berry Britbeat roots and headed toward something more lyrical, free-ranging and strange. But where the Beatles took their audience with them through the looking glass, the Kinks wandered off alone into their own enchanted garden, a skewed vision of an already-half-gone England, a sound-world where everything was wild and overgrown – the ballads hall-of-mirrors spectral, the satires mocking and disoriented, the remaining rockers off-kilter and unhinged. A masterpiece.
Try 1, 6, 8, 13, 14
2/21/16

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