KISS KISS KING KONG

B/B APOLLON Caught in a jam: the Norwegians’ monstrous return.

By now, it should be clear to most that jam bands are responsible for the majority of society’s ills. However, when they work – and we very much mean this with an emphasis is on work – the effect is electrifying. Prog and rock’s old bones get stretched and pulled in their arthritic sockets, the blood starts pumping through those crisp veins and something resembling audacity emanates from the skeleton’s jerking cartilage. Bergen’s Kiss Kiss King Kong offer a little of that sensation. Their second album makes us think of White Denim. It is outrageous, in-thepocket and builds to tottering constructions of distortion, fuzz and rapacious rhythmic hammering – garage rock in its aesthetic, but much more jazzily ambitious in its aims. Be Gone turns-up Cream’s galloping psychedelia, Tensions could, nay should, land them a Black Keys – or better yet, Black Angels – support slot. While closer Past Times has no right – no right, we tell you – to make eight minutes and 51 seconds of dynamic desert rock pass in a blur of trippy hum and cymbal thrash, the prime primates deliver the record’s clearest vocal, ringing out just before its close.