What does Kessoncoda sound like?

A union of piano, keyboards and drums creates a jazz crossover into alternative music.

The review of ‘Outerstate’ by Kessoncoda

The staple sound of Gondwana Records includes piano-led jazz that refuses to stay within the boundaries of the jazz genre. Kessoncoda fit this bill. The West London duo of drummer Tom Sunney and keyboardist Filip Sowa use the piano and drums as a launch point and home base for exploring other ideas. Often, this takes them towards a cinematic alternative sound with hints of psychedelia thrown in. It is always a melodic and rhythmic treat and that’s what marks this debut album out from many others.

The album opens with ‘The Sum Of All The Parts,’ which lets Kessoncoda introduce you to their sound. Between melodic piano riffs, some wild electronics peek out to drape the acoustic nature of the ivories and skins. Kessoncoda aren’t afraid of pounding out fast rhythms, and that is paraded to the listener with the first track switching gears regularly. ‘Greyscale’ then expands on this with a stunning six-minute cinematic opus. When the skipping beats and dramatic rock band drum fills aren’t raising your heartbeat, the intertwined nature of clever piano riffs, pulsing vocal samples and nightlight synths will carry you away. Fans of Portico Quartet will be right at home listening to the expansive soundscapes.

The sound palette blossoms with the cinematic ‘KTO’. Here, tuned percussion, music boxes, gargling bass notes and dulcimer tones ring out over a mixture of organic and electronic beats. The stomping rhythm of tom drums which then fall away to the gentle cascade of music box and dulcimer notes and lonely bass drones is so poetic. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect from Michael Sterns or Philip Glass from an audiovisual time-lapse score. ‘Hammers’ is perhaps the duos most GoGo Penguin piece but it moves far more into the electronica realm than the Penguin trio has ever done. The emphasis on brushed cymbals, twinkling keyboards and hypnotic pianos-as-arpeggiators style of the song makes it oddly very danceable.

We then pause for a dreamy piano and effects piece called ‘Talk To Me I’m Sleeping’. Drifting, long-tail piano dribbles float over a whispered female poem and mechanical clunks like we are rewinding a tape or moving forward an old camera film to completion. It speaks to the overarching theme of ‘Outerstate’ as an album. Kessoncoda says the album deliberately portrays a post-Covid unease. They wanted to portray a feeling being “physically there but mentally you’re not at all”. This pops up across the album – a feeling of swelling to burst whilst instruments seem to be fading into a cacophony of sound like you’ve zoned them out. It’s incredibly clever production and it means the album ebbs and flows like slipping in and out of consciousness.

‘Spaceliminal’ soon kicks us back into touch with a blast of low-slung piano and gentle electronic synths that spiral around the meaty drums. It is big, bold and dramatic and feels like a cinematic and sonic sister to ‘Greyscale’ earlier in the album. The lines between jazz, electronic and alternative music are blurred beautifully before we take ourselves into a hedonistic turn with ‘Dreambend’. This pacey number has a strident rhythm that rarely slows down once it’s unleashed. The saxophone makes a guest appearance but emulates more of a guitar placement in the melody than a lead brass instrument. The song gallops along at pace never feeling like a jazz first piece – appealing more to my alt-rock side with its darker melodic tones.

Continuing the lean towards something more unusual is ‘X is closer to A’. This song is characterised by the detuned, tape-chewed synths. They bleed and swish into each other, washing over an electric piano as Kessoncoda play with psychedelic moods and dance motifs but with a real drum kit. The song evokes a time-and-space-is-warping sensation and the notes rarely sustain the same note for very long, pitch bending off into weirdness in the best way. This tees up the sensational ‘Reverie’ that brings me a Tori Amos grabs jazztronica by the dog collar and forces it into submission feeling. As the track grows, the triumphant piano riff rings out like church bells as the drums become more unhinged for its big climax. Leaving behind the organic, ‘Amaya’ closes out the album with style. Moving from pizzicato playful marching melodies to euphoric eruptions of freedom, it feels like the monumental catharsis the album deserves. Electric fuzz and noise seep in and bleeds the track into a distorted numb hue. Again, we’re present but the current of dread, fear, unease and surprise bubbles away underneath.

‘Outerstate’ is a tight album at just over 35 minutes but every single bar of it is brimming with purpose and intent. This is a phenomenally assured debut and one that I’ll be treasuring on repeat for years to come. The balance of catchy motifs, rhythmic trauma and bursts of euphoria and unease make for something compelling to listen to. It is also incredibly cinematic and its an album I could listen to in its entirety to tell me its narrative over and over again. Put simply, this is a 10/10 album and it will feature highly in my albums of the year list.

Recommended track: Greyscale

Support Higher Plain Music

Higher Plain Music is part of the Higher Plain Network – a one-man indie media project. If you like what I do, please consider supporting me via Patreon for as little as $1/£1 a month. In return, you’ll receive additional perks for supporting me, such as behind-the-scenes content and free downloads. You can also donate using PayPal. Sharing the website helps too or using the affiliate buy now links on reviews. I receive a few pence per Amazon sale. All your support will enable me to produce better content, more often. I’d love to make this a full-time media network and your support can make that happen. Thank you.