Since this is turning out to be a hard CD for me to collect my thoughts about, I'll forego the normal silliness I might use to introduce this album. Ki is the first of four albums in a series by prolific musician Devin Townsend, who is perhaps best known for Strapping Young Lad. In all honesty, I was always more into his material under the Devin Townsend Band moniker, but I liked a fair amount of his SYL output as well. I'll start off by saying I think there's more to be said about this CD than what would really go into a review, best said by Devin himself. Since actually copying that here would require me to track down the interviews again and appropriately source them, I'll leave that up to you; they really do give some interesting insights into the album. For instance, some of the musicians on the album are people who really have had no connection to heavy music, which gives an interesting effect because they're bringing in a different style to his music.
One of the things that stuck with me upon hearing the album was his comment that he'd written a lot of the music when he had to be quiet, and that there's a sort of tension to the music. This is certainly true, and is most evident on songs like "Disruptr" and "Gato" which have guitar tones on the edge of distorting. This near-distortion adds to the harmonic tension to lend a strong edge to the songs, eventually leading to a big payoff at the songs' climaxes.
Of course, Devin had also commented that this wasn't a CD for people who only liked his heavy output--even the "heavier" songs like "Disruptr," "Gato," and "Heaven Send" are not going to please people who require blastbeats--and this is clear from the get-go with the tranquil intro instrumental "A Monday." "Terminal," sandwiched by two of the heavier songs, is a long, calm ballad that wouldn't be out of place as a high school slow dance song (except, perhaps for the 7 minute length).
Not content to just trade off tension for tranquility, there are a number of other styles on this CD. "Ain't Never Gonna Win" has a funky groove before fading into swirling keys. "Trainfire" is a swinging song with a train beat on the drums, twangy guitars, and finds Devin doing his best Elvis impersonation. "Ki" is a sprawling composition with a beautiful chaos, ending in a breakdown pairing a guitar line reminiscent of the Final Fantasy theme with a heavier metal guitar chug. "Quiet Riot" is another more calm song which evokes "Dust In The Wind."
Frankly, this CD is all over the place, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Despite the disparate styles, the CD has a good flow and all of the songs work well together. In short, I'm adding this to the list of "if I could ever record one CD like this, I'd be content" (which, for the curious reader, otherwise mostly features Porcupine Tree and Opeth albums). Devin Townsend has again shown himself to be a talented composer, musician, bandleader, and whatever other roles you might want to assign him on the production of this album, and I would highly recommend it to pretty much any fan of progressive or experimental rock.
