I saw New Brunswick’s KoAk play Hell’s Kitchen a few years ago, meekly announce it was their first Halifax show and captivate the audience with a performance that far exceeded the band’s confidence. They’ve cropped up equally unassumingly a few times since, and this album, available for free (koakrecordings.blogspot.com), featuring waves of mostly instrumental, lo-fi psychedelic sound. This sounds so intimate and tangible you can feel the click of the tape recorder, the guitar strings under your fingers and the loneliness of a quiet, empty room. At moments it’s almost upbeat, sombre and moody overall, but never flat-out depressed.
This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2010.