Koyo

You Said It 88 WATT

Second album from Leeds band who give indie rock an excellent name.

Fronted by Huw Edwards (lead vocals, guitar) and Jacob Price (sampling, synthesisers), Koyo could have emerged at any point from the early 1990s onwards but are no less fine for that. They remind at various points, albeit only ever fleetingly, of the Chili Peppers, AC Acoustics, The Invisible. Yet their identity, their signature, is very much their own. Unabashed, impassioned, epic, there is nonetheless a nuance, a graft, a textural thoughtfulness lacking in the predictable, anthemic blare of regular stadium rock.

The title track shows the emotional nerve ends at which

they’re operating: ‘I don’t mind what you said, you said it/I don’t mind, can’t get it outta my head,’ with the turmoil illustrated by showers of guitar, hoving and blackening the skies like swallows. Koyo are versatile, juxtaposing the Tangerine Dreamlike instrumental Murmur with the concussive headgrind/ sweetly imploring Confused.

A gem of a group. ■■■■■■■■■■