The Reign of Kindo – Self Titled

I have an eclectic taste in music and I’m a firm believer is listening to things with an open mind. I love pop-punk, I love ska, I love screamo and skate punk and so forth and so on. Basically, I love punk and it’s many off shoots. At the same time, I also love bands that fall out of that spectrum. James Blunt, Tegan & Sara, Tom Waits (at least his older stuff, I’m not so sure about his newer material), Johnny Cash, hell, I even like a few Avril Lavigne songs and the list goes on. However, punk is where my heart lies – that’s why I started thepunksite, because I think that punk is the best type of music there is. That’s why I get annoyed when publicists and bands try to swivel their way under the punk or alternative banner when they are suited so much better somewhere else; and that’s why I find The Reign of Kindo‘s self-titled EP so unimaginably boring.

While very technically sound, The Reign Of Kindo are just not the right style of music for me or many of this site’s readers. The six song EP opens up with a minute and a half long instrumental, Set The Stage, Cue The Music, which does just what it’s supposed to: lead the listener into the album. But the album the listener is lead into is not a punk or ska or emo album despite the fact that four of the five members used to be in This Day And Age (who’s first One Eleven release, Always Leave The Ground, was actually rather pleasing). No, instead of that, The Reign Of Kindo have released six songs that are knee deep in jazz and pop tendencies.

Heavily led by Kelly Sciandra’s piano and trumpet, the album has an old timey jazz feel to it as if it’s a record that would be nice to hear in a dimly lit bar while sipping a few beers with friends. It’s relaxing background music, and nothing more. The vocals, however, do not convey that same kind of relaxing vibe to them as they try to escape the boundaries of jazz and go for a more poppy outlook which just ruins the flow of the album and become grating after a while.

I will admit, once again, that The Reign Of Kindo are talented musicians. Songs like Just Wait and Needle & Thread prove that. It’s very well produced and very slick as the sound quality is superb. But in the end, it all falls short to my ears. It feels bland and boring with no real hook to it as it doesn’t fit into my wide idea of what punk can be – and that is saying something considering my idea of punk isn’t exactly limited.

The short of it is this: One Eleven are stuck with a fairly talented band but without the right audience to market it to and will, unfortunately, fall on deaf ears for the most part.