New Single Release: Kyanos - Fool’s Blue

The latest single from Kyanos untangles the foliage that threatened to block out the sun and leads us into a safe space reserved for daydreams and tranquility...

Even before the world stopped turning, music had provided us with quick fixes. When searching for happiness, it would often give us the dopamine deposit we needed, often tightly packaged into a three-minute pop song. Music supplied scores to birthdays, weddings and funerals that we could attend. It soundtracked films that we used to watch for pleasure and not as part of a formality to pass the time. In recent history, music has demonstrated it’s shape-shifting qualities, doubling up as the motivator on a 5k run or assuming the role as familiar company when things have felt pretty unfamiliar. 

But perhaps most importantly, in a year of flightless planes and static trains, a year where the seven continents of the world have been swapped for the four corners of our kitchen, music has been masquerading as our last remaining mode of transport, our one palpable escape route out of this.

As many of us try to ease ourselves into what we hope is a new world in 2021, praying that the battle scars of the last twelve months will fade, it’s fitting that a young band release a song that feels like a very deliberate sonic voyage into calmer waters. This week saw Suffolk-based band Kyanos release their latest single “Fool’s Blue”; a track that feels like a perfect encapsulation of their work up until this point - layered soundscapes that transcend the monotony of everyday life and sweep you up and place you into a planet of psychedelia.

This trading of dimensions, the feeling of an invitation into more serene settings is evident from the opening exchanges. A rhythmic drum beat surrenders itself as the song’s protagonist in just shy of ten seconds, to a kaleidoscopic guitar riff that repeats and begins to scale itself until you’re not sure whether it’s working on its own accord or has a partner. The effect is dizzying and anaesthetizing in equal measure. With the drums working away beneath the surface, the guitars continue to circle over-head and they’re joined by vocals that feel as if being narrated through a daydream state, wistful and elongated, sliding seamlessly into the production. It all gives the impression of parts slotting into place and a new world taking shape around you.

What’s evident with Kyanos’ music is their fearlessness when it comes to observing structure. “Fool’s Blue” doesn’t follow the conventional format of songwriting where opening verses usually transition into a bridge, then back into a second verse before reaching a timely chorus before the process is repeated. There’s scope for expansive musicality within this looser framework. But this isn’t new, especially given the alternative, psych genre they occupy. What is, however, is their ability to condense complex ideas into a bite-sized, two-minutes, fifty-eight seconds accessible portion. This is no easy feat given the nature of most psych musicians’ constant desire to broaden sequences and experiment.

Instead, “Fool’s Blue” feels like a record that whilst soaked in psychotropic origins, feels within reach to larger audiences. It’s a considered carousel ride. Either side of vocally-occupied verses, there’s excellently crafted guitar riffs that are reminiscent of that early math-rock style first adopted by Foals, but at other times, they sound like Mild High Club. Its experimentation, with tone and tempo, and it is layered to constantly feel as if something is building whilst trumpets simultaneously convey the drowsy, other-worldly atmosphere of the song that had been so cleverly constructed from the start, and are an astute addition.

The song reaches the crescendo it had threatened throughout, playing us out to angsty, war-cry vocals washed up amongst waves and waves of all-encompassing percussive elements. It builds and then we’re spat out and returned to the familiar hypnotism of the opening guitar riff and left to reflect on our brief escape and our first trip of 2021.

Fool’s Blue was released on March 19th, 2021 and is available to listen to on Spotify.