KALO - Wild Change (2017)

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Written by Stephen Bailey, posted by blog admin

Wild Change is the fourth overall release from the Oklahoma-based power trio KALO and marks a new high point in the band’s songwriting and recording career. Led by vocalist and guitarist Bat-Or Kalo, the band has co-opted the sound of electric blues and other American forms like funk and R&B, filtered it through their own consciousness and experience, before re-emerging with tremendous individual flair that many of their contemporaries lack. This is never blues by the numbers. The eleven songs on Wild Change go far beyond merely hitting some customary genre marks – instead, KALO reinvents while paying proper deference to tradition. The band’s voluminous live experience and the bonds forged from touring together over countless miles no doubt contributes much to their presentation, but it’s equally clear that there are musical fireworks innate to this particular configuration and time has only deepened their explosive potential.

“One Mississippi”, “Isabel”, the title song, “Only Love”, and the album’s second to last track overall “Bad Girl” constitute the band’s most outright blues variants on the album. The first song opens Wild Change with a quasi-boogie that swings so hard it’s difficult to believe this lineup has only played together for a short time. The majority of KALO’s efforts in this area are devoted to blazing, loud, and dramatic blues rock originals like “Isabel”, “Wild Change”, and “Bad Girl”. Despite the assertive sound and instrumental attack on these songs, however, you never get the feeling that Kalo and her band mates are overplaying and weighing the material down with excessive baggage. The title track is propelled by a particularly biting, memorable guitar riff while “Bad Girl” underlines the atmosphere of live playing and spontaneity that hangs over the entire album. “Only Love” is the album’s sole concession to slow blues and is pulled off with a lot of credibility and immense stylishness.

KALO ventures off the blues path at key moments. “Upside Down” is an ultra confident strut of sorts with great horn arrangements mingling in very nicely with a more restrained instrumental performance than what we’ve yet heard from the musicians on this album. The later “Pay to Play” goes even further and drops some straight forward funk into the band’s mix. KALO never abandons the guitar entirely, despite its more orchestral role here, and comes brilliantly alive during the second half. “Smile and Blush” covers in part the band’s penchant for more muted, introspective point of view, but it isn’t, unlike the last song :”Calling All Dreamers”, an essentially solo performance. It is the most vulnerable moment on the release, but also the most inspiring and listeners will be grateful she has ended it on this note. Wild Change shows the continuing evolution of one of the nation’s best guitar driven acts, regardless of genre. KALO will likely build to even greater heights than before with this new release.