[rating=4.00]
Two decades on from meeting while touring with their respective bands, Mike Stroud (Ratatat) and Agustin White (White Flight) have formed a new collaborative project, KUNZITE. Their debut LP, Birds Don’t Fly, came together via emails between band members across continents with spontaneous recording sessions in Hawaii, New York, California, Iceland, and even India. What is even more impressive, the album was entirely self-recorded, mixed and produced by Stroud and White.
The first track, “Vapors”, instantly brings to mind the electronic textures of Ratatat, but as more funky sounds enter the fray, the influences of Agustin’s White Flight become more obvious. The pure funkiness of the song makes it super catchy and definitely the stand out track of the album. Ultimately though, the album relies pretty heavily on reggae-type grooves beginning with the second track, “Pressure”. Heavily auto-tuned vocals sing out over grooving bass lines and electronic drum beats. This formula plays out pretty consistently across the rest of the album. One of the few exceptions is the track “Frog City”, which has more of a chill-wave vibe, with some eccentric effects layered over a nice head-bobbing beat. The album’s closer, “Anahola” also stands out on the album with multi-part harmonies being sung over minimal instrumentation.
Birds Don’t Fly ultimately sounds like the type of music that you’d expect to hear blasting out the speakers of a crowded bar or at a “chill” frat party. While there are definitely some standout tracks, like “Vapors” and “Anahola”, they are more of an exception. The remainder of the album ends up feeling like a series of filler songs book-cased between one or two successful collaborative pieces. In the age of music streaming there is no doubt a wide listening audience will latch onto the singles released from KUNZITE, and for good reason. However, in this streaming age it seems that there is less of a focus on creating an album full of excellence as artists realize that most listeners will only be listening to the most popular songs on their chosen streaming site.
