Album Review: KOYO by KOYO

Sometimes a band and album appear seemingly from nowhere and take you completely by surprise, much like Black Lamps album some years back.
The debut album by Leeds band KOYOThe debut album by Leeds band KOYO
The debut album by Leeds band KOYO

Tagged with the Prog genre title, but not always relevantly, Leeds KOYO’s debut is a beautiful, lush and vast work that brings the genre right into 2017.

Where Prog started to become an ego master class in over the top guitar solos and excess keyboards played by people calling themselves musical druids or falling head first into a Rick Wakeman parody, KOYO have completely subverted the old stereotypes and created something staggeringly fresh and modern.

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Musically adept and competent, this debut soars from the speakers like the very Strange Bird In The Sky the opening track speaks of. For those put off by the idea of Prog, it would be fair to say to ease listeners in that this plays in much the same vein as the aforementioned Black Lamps album in its cinematic scope and musical panoramic vistas.

A rare thing in the world of downloads and streaming to find an album that is genuinely consistent throughout and commands your attention from the outset to the final run out groove.

Tetrachromat (Parts 1 & 2), Ray Of Sunshine and Lost In The Kingdom are highlights within, but this album is a whole and to pluck at its feathers would do it a disservice.

A fully realised and accomplished work, KOYO could be a genre unto themselves.