Down Below It’s Chaos

Kinski is the most underrated band in underground rock today. While Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai may steal the headlines, this Seattle quartet proves time and again its value as that rare band capable of expanding its aural lexicon and maintaining its core identity all the while. Early albums moved freely between Shoegazer space tones and Ameri-indie quiet-to-loud guitar crescendos. 1995’s Alpine Static exposed a band unearthing a visceral spirit furiously blazing beside ambient hum and stasis. Down Below It’s Chaos is Kinski at its most direct, leaving no room to breathe beneath speaker-cone-shredding fuzz tones and growling guitar leads spiraling free of the ’70s psychedelic primordial ooze. This is the album that captures how monumentally huge the band can sound. “Passwords and Alcohol” is Kinski at its most anthemic and melodic, yielding finally to a whirling, numbing cacophony. With its marching snare drum and lashing rhythms, “Child Had to Catch a Train” champions the band’s talent at knowing the lines to cross and mind in ecstatic repetition. With seven spectacular albums to its credit—Kinski is a band you need to know.