Be Kind Cadaver – The World’s Greatest Mind

Be Kind Cadaver – The World’s Greatest Mind – EP Review

Be Kind what now?  Cadaver?

Am I unaware of all the cadavers that have been misbehaving or being outright mean?

Far be it from our friends at the Analogue Trash label to release anything close to the realm of normal.

I wouldn’t have it any other way if I’m being honest with ya.  Be Kind Cadaver surely fits right in with the strange collage of sound that Analogue Trash has been brewing throughout the years…I’m sure finding their way to that label ended up feeling like they’d finally found their way home at long last.  Joining a community of highly innovative & creative minds that made for a whole bunch of wildly memorable listening experiences, like Flange Circus, Machinista, Room 1985, IIOIOIOII, and Sandi Glowe to name a few…Kat Bryan and Atomzero to name a few more…our history in listening to music from the AT label is vast & long may it run.  Welcome to the family Be Kind Cadaver; you’re assured to keep great company.

And trust me when I tell ya that any band citing The Jesus Lizard as one of their influences is definitely going to get my attention!  I’m seeing the band play LIVE in Seattle this May and I am freakin’ STOKED y’all…that’s a bucket list item being checked off for sure…but I suppose a story for another time.  I also probably shouldn’t have led with that either…it’s just something that caught my eye in reading about BKC, but admittedly, influences reveal themselves in different ways than merely being relegated to a comparable sound.  As “Welcome To The Falklands” started up with its synth-laden intro, I knew I wasn’t going to be in store for something that sounded a whole lot like The Jesus Lizard, but I was certainly intrigued by what I was hearing.  I really dig the sound of singer Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully’s voice, the thought he so clearly puts into his lyricism, and the haunting atmospheric vibes he creates overall.  It’s art-music at the end of the day, if you want to put a label on it…some of it would easily qualify as Experimental too, with a slight bend towards Post-Punk and Post-Rock…so yeah…don’t get me wrong, there are a TON of choices that are made that I love, like the way the backing vocals are so brilliantly threaded into the mix for example, or the stoic confidence they display while venturing into the beyond with their whole mythical vibe on “Welcome To The Falklands.”  I questioned things like the repeating synth sound that pops up around the 1:15-ish mark I guess – I didn’t really feel like that was an essential contribution to this first cut, but it’s arguably in the song from the very beginning…it just becomes more pronounced for some inexplicable reason.  Everything else is freakishly good and intensely listenable too for how unique it really is…I give this duo a ton of credit for their performance-minded approach – when it’s time to push record, Be Kind Cadaver is clearly 100% ready for the moment & gives everything to it.

You get a clearer idea of what Leroy Brown brings to the table on the title track that follows.  I love the grit and depth you hear in the guitars and the distance you’ll find in the drums, both elements of which Leroy is responsible for, as far as I’ve read.  You also feel that Post-Punk influence show up a lot more in the DNA of the music here too…almost as if you’d be expecting to find an early version of Depeche Mode about to work their magic on ya.  Be Kind Cadaver takes it in a different direction of course, but again, you do hear their influences they’ve cited genre-wise in what they do.  Vocally, I felt like when Daniel started signing this song, you could practically compare him to someone like Layne Staley…and then later on, around the four-minute mark, you’d be looking at something more akin to Marilyn Manson with the rage he brings to the mic, right before he switches into a blissful serenity and calm before that same minute’s even up.  How cool is that?  Obviously there’s a TON of ground to cover on the inside of a song that’s nearly nine & a half minutes long, and when you consider the fact that it ain’t exactly like BKC is designing things with the standard verse/chorus/verse type deal…I mean…it SHOULD be a recipe for outright disaster for the masses, but I stand by this all having a way higher degree of accessibility than you’d ever assume.  There IS a main hook…and while it might take them a while to get to your favorite incarnation of that part pf the song…you’ll find this is still fully loaded with enticing ideas along the way.  The “I’m on fire” part, is straight-up award-worthy in my opinion – most artists & bands would have cut and chopped their way around that one fragment of this massive song, and boom – you’d be looking at an undeniable single.  I not only salute Be Kind Cadaver for going in the opposite direction, but I respect their choice as well.  Realistically, I know it’s a gigantic gamble when it comes to what the masses will accept, because it’s tough enough to get them to click on a song like “The World’s Greatest Mind” that’s nearly as long as your average Weezer album to begin with…but…BUT…I genuinely think people will love what they find here.  You could look at parts like just past the three-minute mark, where you’re somewhat introduced to what will go on to become the main hook later on down the road in the song’s finale, as very much in the David Bowie realm.  As BKC shifts into their heaviest Industrial-esque vibes right after, then back into the dreamiest vibes they create in yet another version of the hook…you have to admire how much they retain our attention, because in a way, it’s almost like they’re refining & developing the main hook right there in front of our ears, in real time.  The instrumentation never stops being interesting…and by the time you push past the seven minute mark, you’re right in the thick of one of the most gripping moments you’ll hear in music this year.  I was more than impressed with what “The World’s Greatest Mind” eventually morphed into, and man-oh-man was I happy to find them riding this finale for a good chunk of the song’s overall length.  If you paid your fees for the weirdness that they create…fret not dear readers, dear friends…they still reserve a good minute after everybody else’s favorite part in this song for you to glitch out with…or whatever it is that you do.

What I think I might even like more than anything else about Be Kind Cadaver, is that I doubt ANYONE knows exactly what we’ve got here.  Not me, not their fans, not our good friends at Analogue Trash, not even THEMSELVES – you know what I mean?  With the sheer depth of their creativity and sonic diversity they possess, it’s absolutely impossible to predict where BKC would go with their music next.  They’ve proven they can completely tackle the non-conformist side of sound, but they’ve also demonstrated, in smaller doses, that they could easily find ways to appeal to all kinds of listeners if that was the direction they wanted to choose.  LISTEN to the atmospheric genius they’ve got goin’ on during “Settlers, Colonists” and try to convince me they don’t have something extremely cool happening in their band.  This is the cut that adds yet another dimension to their potential, and has you wondering what it would be like to hear this duo go on to provide the score for some kind of film.  I bet they’d be freakin’ great at it!  “I wanna be a force of nature, but I’m barely a gust of wind,” says Daniel…but we’ll see about that.  “Settlers, Colonists,” is like what you’d get when you cross the mystical moments of Jane’s Addiction with what Faith No More did in the middle of their Songs To Make Love To EP…think more of the way that their take on “Midnight Cowboy” drifted in through your speakers and less of the craziness of “Das Schutzenfest” though.  Anyhow.  I dig this track…it’s got this vibrantly alive intensity to it mixed with this acutely aware & devastating point of view…it makes for one hell of a listen that’ll have the hairs on your neck standing straight up with its insightful combination of sensory sound shared in the music & vocals.

A lot of what BKC does sounds like they’d sure make for a great touring partner with Flange Circus…just sayin.’  I love all of the eeriness they create at the start of their final track “Lights Out On The Reservation” before they shift the whole mood of this last cut with the guitars and percussion coming in.  They go on to continue to diversify the sonic landscape with orchestral elements added in, a distinct vocal melody, and what seems to be a signature aspect of really well thought-out lyricism.  At a gigantic 12:23, “Lights Out On The Reservation” is even larger than what you previously experienced on “The World’s Greatest Mind” in the lineup earlier, but once again, it truly seems like Be Kind Cadaver has a real knack for achieving one of the most impossible things in music…they can make massively long songs feel like they fly right by and like they’re way shorter than they actually are.  Be Kind Cadaver is like the audio equivalent of how ‘objects in the mirror are closer than they appear’ – it’s like they’re audible illusionists, capable of showing us exactly who they are with the ultra-ambitious lengths of their longest songs, while revealing a palette of sound that continually entices you in bit by bit.  Color me impressed!  For real folks, what they’re doing is by no means easy and it’s no small achievement…like I was saying, it’s practically impossible.  Believe me when I tell ya, if this was an easy thing to pull off, every Prog band under the sun would have figured out how to do it by now…and yet here we are.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely enjoyed “Settlers, Colonists,” and I liked “Welcome To The Falklands” too – but it’s the longer cuts on The World’s Greatest Mind that I found to be the most accomplished, complete, and thrilling all around.  Which is awesome if you ask me…I probably look at most twelve-minute-plus-long songs in the exact same way that you do with my eyes all glazed over and shit, because the usual routine ends up being that they’re half-stuffed with crap they don’t need & ideas that don’t warrant the length.  This is exactly where Be Kind Cadaver shines its dark light the brightest – give them more time, and they’ll go on to proceed to wow you even more – simple as that.  “Lights Out On The Reservation” is haunting, it’s mysterious, and it’s humbly tribal without seeming pretentious at all…it’s the kind of song that’ll cling to your bones long after the music has stopped playing, and provide a seriously memorable highlight on this record at the very end of its lineup.  Love the guitars in this tune from Leroy…love the vocals & lyrics from Daniel…the authenticity in this last track is at an all-time high for Be Kind Cadaver.  From their inherent knack for complex composition, to the commitment in the execution of their concept-driven creativity –  if you like the different side of sound…if you like intellectually stimulating art in the music you’re listening to…this is a band you should definitely keep on your radar, and snugly on your playlists.

Find out more about Be Kind Cadaver from their official page at Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/bekindcadaver

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