If you're searching for fresh sounds in music, this disc will delight you as wunderkind Kaki King conjures up a whirlwind of textures from just an acoustic guitar. She plays with a terrific sense of groove and unusual harmonic voicings, and frequently turns her guitar into a percussion instrument, sounding like more than one guitar player.

I have one gripe about this record. The "songs" are too loose. Not surprisingly, given King's wide palette of sounds, her songs sound like jammy home demos -- very interesting to listen to, but also somewhat shapeless. In the album notes King herself describes the recording process as very loose and casual ("recorded in various friends' studios") and this is reflected in the lack of structure in the music.

While King's instrumental vocabulary is astonishing, her expression is often vague precisely because she employs so many different voices on each song. She is good at creating grooves, but the sounds are so diverse that they lose focus, and it's hard-pressed to find some sort of emotional or expressive meaning in each individual track. So I find it hard to actively listen to this whole album through and through; there comes a point where all the myriad of sounds meld together into an innovative and intriguing, yet somewhat dissatisfying whole.

Like so many guitar virtuosos before her -- Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen -- Kaki King would work better when she applies her astonishing range of techniques to more specific applications and expressions. Until then, she is still a highly refreshing listen, showing promise aplenty, and her instrumental chops are worthy of the highest respect.


IGNORE WHAT THE REVIEW BELOW THIS ONE SAYS...   June 8, 2003
 43 out of 73 found this review helpful

It's really simple. As an accomplished acoustic guitar player myself, I can speak from relative experience that this album is nothing short of the most astonishing SOLO INSTRUMENTAL ACOUSTIC GUITAR recordings of the last 20 years. Kaki's techniques, although not necessarily groundbreaking, are very virtuosic and disciplined, to say the least. Give her a break...she's 23, and she self-produced her first album. I give her props on that basis alone.

To the point: if you enjoy Michael Hedges, Alex DeGrassi, Preston Reed, Billy McLaughlin, Pierre Bensusan, and any other acoustic guitar virtuoso that fits this bill, BUY THIS ALBUM. I own more guitar-based albums than any other type in my 1000+ album music collection, and very few of these guitar albums BLEW ME AWAY within the first 20 seconds of listening (Michael Hedges did that to me). I knew instantly that this was a genius artist, and was so thrilled that finally a woman (a very young woman) has entered this male-dominated genre with such presence, confidence and grace.

Kudos to Kaki!

Now buy this album.


I Don't See What The Big Attraction Is   June 7, 2004
 39 out of 68 found this review helpful

Kaki King isn't that great. People have been praising her and praising her. She just isn't anything to write home about. She isn't even in the same leagues as Adrian Legg, Michael Hedges, or Leo Keottke and frankly never will, because here songwriting is lousy. Hey, I know she's young, but that's just an excuse. If she wants to continue to make music, then she music realize the importance of melody, harmony, and rhythm, because without it she's got nothing. She's just another Preston Reed or some other wannabe who can't play the guitar. She needs to take some pointers from other acoustic guitarists like Adrian Legg, who not has an unbelievable technique, but also is a fantastic songwriter. In other words, he is something that she is not.


music that spoils the whole day   April 24, 2005
 33 out of 59 found this review helpful

I found this CD to be worthless. Kaki King's guitar playing is amateurish. It's sloppy. It displays all the skill of my 3 year old's finger paintings.

The songs just wander aimlessly, go nowhere, and say nothing along the way. As a listener, they leave me exasperated. Usually musicians have to try really hard to create music that makes me angry - but Kaki King has done a great job of making a CD that irritates me to no end.

And then I read reviews that compare her to everyone from Stravinski to Segovia, from Hendrix to Hedges to Satriani, and I wonder if these people have lost their minds! Segovia? This CD is the work of a third-rate remedial amateur.

If you're looking for proof of the decline of civilization, this is it.


It's OK, but give me a break   November 10, 2003
 28 out of 40 found this review helpful

Obviously no one in these reviews has ever heard of Preston Reed. Kaki sure has as most of her music is a straight "lift". I do like her song Carmine Street as that sounds original. Please listen to the true master of tapping and the "over the top" technique , Prston Reed, before you crown her queen.