[$5 // Edition of 40 // https://roklokrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hot-trash]
I like the music of Kkidss because it isn't afraid to mix it up within the same home recording/bedroom/lo-fi type of feel, but when I first listened to it, through those first couple of songs, all I could hear was EFS and Daniel Johnston which of course made me think, "Oh no, it's going to be one of those". You know the type- someone sees the musical career of Daniel Johnston and decides to copy it on the off chance they can have similar success. Here's a tip for all of those people: Carve your own path. Anyway, these songs do have some pretty melodies which can almost go towards a surf sound as well and they get far enough away from my initial assumption that I can really get into them.
The musical style sort of varies from song to song, while staying in the same genre. It's worth mentioning as well that Side A of this cassette is ten songs and Side B is eight songs. It's only called "Hot Trash", but it does feel like it could be a double album, as each side seems to take on the presence of an entire album itself. So to get an idea of all of aspects of this music and what is going on, you really have to think of this as two albums and not one.
A song such as "Black Velvet" brings out notions of Blind Melon and The Rocket Summer, and then The Rocket Summer does make other appearances on the cassette just as well. There is an audio clip or just someone speaking within guitar notes at one point and then the twelfth song channels Hole. Drum machines abound and there is a hint of Nada Surf on track fourteen. (It feels weird to call them "tracks" on a cassette) By the end, the sometimes electric sometimes acoustic guitars which bring about an all around pleasant feel can turn to a drum machine and layered vocals which, yes, can be a bit trippy.
Lyrically the songs are about what any songs are about really- personal tales of life and love. I don't have that essential list of lines to pull or anything because I feel like a lot of the lyrics are part of the bigger picture of the songs so pulling them would be futile, but there is one song where he sings a lot about "I hate myself but I love you" and that concept fascinates me. On one hand I always have adhered to the idea that you must love yourself before you can truly love anyone else, yet at the same time love and hate are opposites so any amount of "hate" people have for something can just as easily be turned to love because it's just that strong of an emotion. Think about it.
And in a lot of ways that is the theme of this cassette called "Hot Trash", which makes its way heard at several different times. Think about it. The music might seem like something you've heard before, but the more you think about it the more that familiarity just seems to leave you enjoying it overall rather than comparing it. To have these sort of soul searching lyrics on top of that, well, this is just a fine example of what music should be.
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