(((O))) Review: K’mono – Mind Out of Mind

Hailing from Minneapolis, K’mono is a progressive rock trio which considers Jeffrey Carlson on guitars, vocals, and Keyboards, Timothy Java on drums, and Chad Fjerstad on bass guitar, vocals, and keyboards. For a band to come out of Minneapolis and during the pandemic when the world came to a screeching halt four years ago, there’s something eerie, but mesmerising about this band.

Two years after unleashing their debut album Return to the ‘E’, they come in with a huge amount of ammunition with their second album, Mind out of Mind. When you hear a title like that, you think of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, the Alan Wake universe of Night Springs, or, the 1962 horror cult classic, Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls. The music blends in well to tell those stories with unbelievable results.

Most of the time, they reminded me of Ring Van Mobius, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Wobbler, early Yes, 10cc, and the Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots-era of The Flaming Lips that comes to mind. But K’mono are the masters when it comes to prog-rock by keeping the flaming fires burning brighter than ever.

‘Time Well Tell’ is a 2-minute dreamy psych-pop lullaby with a rain-drop vocal loop, the double-tracking sermon inside a church with mellotrons floating across the clear blue skies, and monk-like ascending choirs to fill in the blanks. ‘Good Looking’ does bear reference to a train-chugging guitar riff, new wave arrangements which speak of the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, Andy Summers-sque guitar textures during The Police’s Synchronicity-era, and dance beats that becomes a call-and-response in between measures.

‘In The Lost & Found’ has this film-noir mystery that goes in for the kill with some pounding electric Rhodes-like groove before the trio transform the sound into a cat-and-mouse chase that transforms itself into a chorus. K’mono know their source material very well. And then, just as they make a soft landing, the synthesizers come into the picture as they portray the nightmare coming to life in all of its glory.

From its sing-along folk-like vocal melodies to its tidal-waving organ effect, ‘Tell Me The Lore’ goes in for the kill. There are some nods to Yes’ Close to the Edge-era, but there’s one band that comes to mind, and that’s the Silent Dance period of fellow neo-prog legends Solstice.

And it becomes this joyful beauty as you walk into the worlds of Roger Dean’s art work, followed by Arik Roper who had done covers for Astra’s The Weirding, Sleep’s Dopesmoker, and Windhand’s 2012 sole self-titled debut. Next, we get down and funky as K’Mono call in the mothership with a Bootsy Collins vibe that Chad envisions with the ‘Millipede Man’ while the trio honour Ring Van Mobius’ arrangements on the opening title-track.

Mind out of Mind may take a while to get into, but you have to give K’mono a huge amount of credit for pushing the boundaries a bit further by taking a leap forward into the oceans below to see what kind of mysteries they would find. And despite its challenges, they have accomplished their mission with a well-received handshake.