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Album Details

• Artist: Kaki King
• Album: Legs To Make Us Longer
• Label: Epic/Red Ink
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: bbuckingham on 2005-01-04

With the acoustic guitar enjoying a renaissance (what with all the faux-Fahey efforts by the likes of Jack Rose, Sir Richard Bishop and Harris Newman), it was only a matter of time before someone kicked off the "new" new age of acoustic tom-pluckery.

Kaki King, a 25-year-old transplanted Georgian who has been plying her trade in the subways of New York for the past few years, is leading the charge with her sophomore effort, Legs To Make Us Longer.

Part Michael Hedges and Preston Reed, part Ani Difranco, and part emo-indie texturalist (guitar alchemist Victor Villareal from Ghosts And Vodka springs to mind), King builds detailed, dense instrumentals on her Ovation acoustic - percussive effects, finger-tangling fingerpicking and a two-handed approach that allows her to play complex countermelodies and basslines. A pinch of dissonance inspired by 20th century classical music is put to effective use.

Sounds gross? It isn't. There's an organic, spellbinding beauty to Legs. From the proggy, chugging "Playing With Pink Noise" to the gorgeous string-laden "Doing The Wrong Thing", King's technique acts in service of the song. Other highlights include the unorthodox slide playing weaving through "Can The Gwot Save Us" and the sole vocal number, album closer "My Insect Life", which recalls the dreamier moments of Red House Painters.

King proves to be an innovative, superbly musical guitarist, and Legs is a stand out recording that proves new life can still be wrung out of the ubiquitous guitar.

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