KAKI KING / GLOW
Velour Recordings
Review / LOGAN BRENDT
Brooklyn-based guitar virtuoso Kaki King has worked in the past with the Foo Fighters, Timbaland, and received a Golden Globe nomination for her contribution to the music on the film Into The Wild. For her recently released sixth full-length album appropriately titled Glow, she continues to channel an abundance of color and sound. Entirely instrumental, this album seems to bring a sense of auditory-visual synesthesia to the listener.
King’s flawless guitar technique is enhanced by string arrangements from New York-based string quartet, ETHEL, and percussion that King additionally plays on the album. With song titles like “Streetlight In The Egg” and “Kelvinator, Kelvinator”, the imagination runs wild with the meanings and visions behind the arrangements. However, it is known that “Great Round Burn”, the thrilling first track on the album is a tribute to the sun. While this is fittingly uptempo and celebratory, there are also songs like “Skimming the Fractured Surface to a Place of Endless Light” which is alternatively downtempo and reflective.
Providing a potential audio backdrop for all upcoming fall and winter celebrations, King radiates with every strum, fingerpick, tap, and slap of the guitar on Glow.
