Kaito
Montigola Underground (Devil in the Woods) Kaito’s Nikki Colk may sing in her own incomprehensible goofball dialect (sample line: “mega-mega, chi-chi, something something something”), but this Norwich, UK, noise-pop combo is so ingratiatingly quirky and downright cute that the lyrical mystery serves only to make the jangly, distort-o-rama guitars and gone-round-the-bend schoolgirl vocals that much more inviting. Fans of Daisy Chainsaw’s Katie Jane Garside, she of the now sadly defunct saucy, silly yowl and bizarre lyrical flights, will appreciate Colk’s own unique charms. Some have compared Kaito to a Goo-era Sonic Youth, and yes, there’s more than a little of that band’s scuzzy, histrionic dissonance here. But where Kim and Thurston’s art-attack weighs heavily, Kaito plays like a spun-sugar poptones treat, albeit one crafted by a seriously daft confectioner with perhaps too many effects pedals in his meringue. The almost sing-song delivery on tracks like closer “Go,” which explodes into a shouted chorus of undecipherable fun, is typical of the CD; it’s less concerned with where it’s going than with how it gets there. Three women (and one guy, lucky him), Kaito are a bubble gum riot, half buzzsaw-silly guitars and half pixiefied waifbomb. Now bring on the plush dolls. (Thursday, March 14, Empanada Parlour, 11pm)
This article appears in March 15 • 2002.