My thoughts on “Dead End”, the latest single from Kolokol.

Release Date: September 11th 2020

Tracklist

1. Dead End
2. Strawberry Pie

First impressions are an interesting thing when you stop and think about it. Their significance pretty much depends on how essential it is that something be the best thing ever the fist time you see/hear/etc it. If you’re striving for perfection then it’s easy to write off a lot of things based off of a bad first impression but if you’re more willing to give things a chance then giving something a bit of time can really change your opinion on it. I know I’ve been like that with a few Idol groups over the years and I’d like to think that’s why I’m so open to checking out new groups, well besides the fact that I write for this website anyway.

Kolokol are a group that sort of fall into the above situation with me. They’re managed by the same people behind PassCode so it’s easy to have a bunch of preconceptions as to what their music might sound like and if you do then you’re probably going to be disappointed because they aren’t just a clone of their agency colleagues. No, in fact they’re quite different actually and at times definitely not to my personal preferences when it comes to genres or production style but considering I only just got into the group with their recent album it would be unfair of me to draw a hard personal opinion on the group at this stage.

So here we have “Dead End”, Kolokol’s most recent single and their first release since the aforementioned “WONDERLAND” album that came out earlier this year (review here). Like I said above, they’re definitely no PassCode and a few of their fuzzier, distorted tracks aren’t exactly to my tastes personally but there was plenty of stuff that I heard on that album that sounded promising and I said at the time that I needed to hear more from Kolokol. That’s why we’re here today (well, there hasn’t been a ton to write about lately either I must admit), to take another look and not let first impressions dictate our opinion of whether a group is good/bad, interesting/boring, etc. With that said, we have two tracks here to check out so let’s see what Kolokol are bringing to the table on this release shall we?

First up we have the single’s title track “Dead End”, which is kind of what this year is feeling like if I’m being honest and the single’s post-apocalyptic jacket cover is also cutting a bit too close to the bone on that front too. A nice, bright synthesizer melody opens things up before a very mild transition brings us into more of an orchestral sounding, but still heavily synthesized, composition that sort of has that built-in classy vibe to it. A little bit of mild distortion also gives things something of a Lo-fi quality as well as a bit more texture to the various instruments contributing to the piece. We kick things up a couple of notches with the introduction of vocals, with the instrumental switching to a guitar and drum dominated arrangement that has some nice intensity to it and just about the right amount of distortion so you know that it’s there but it’s not super over the top either. The vocals themselves do a pretty good job of showcasing a range of emotions as well as pitches, from the more intense and energetic style heard in much of the verses to the powerful, emotion packed Ballad treatment that they give the choruses. Both sides work well at their respective roles and the instrumental does a great job of tying it all together and I thought they also managed to keep a pretty solid undercurrent of that more orchestral element throughout too, which probably played a bigger part in what I just mentioned than most people might realize. Quite a lot to like about this track and the style that it’s done in is something that I can see appealing to quite a lot of people if they get the chance to hear it.

Okay, so I have to admit that when I saw this single’s b-side was titled “Strawberry Pie” the inner Hello! Project fan from way back in the day that’s still buried deep inside me did think “Hey, wait a minute…” for just the briefest of moments. Well, Kolokol haven’t covered the Mini Moni classic I’m afraid but what we did end up getting instead is pretty cool too in my opinion. We’ve got some nice piano to start things off and that’s a fairly large feature of the track so I’m happy about that personally and it’s accompanied by a pretty upbeat Rock arrangement too which gives the track some nice energy for its duration. The vocals find themselves moving between a fairly energetic style that matches up with the Rock side of the instrumental and a softer, more Ballad feeling delivery that plays more towards the piano elements depending on which of the two sides is being featured at any given time. The members pull both of these things off very well and have no trouble transitioning between them when required. I think it’s easy to say that the more energetic, punchier parts have the better hooks but the melodies of the ballads shouldn’t be disregarded so easily as especially in the chorus there are some particularly catchy lines that certainly caught my attention. All of this is backed by some pretty great instrumentation with a bunch of really nice piano melodies and a guitar solo or two along the way also doing their bit to make this a particularly memorable track. It’s a bit of a shame then that this is “just” a b-side as this song could quite easily have been a single in its own right I think.

Well, I wanted to hear more from Kolokol and now that I have I think I have a slightly better idea of them and their music than I did initially. Here I would definitely say that I preferred the b-side to the a-side as what was going into it definitely appealed more to my tastes but I think both tracks are pretty solid and would probably get a lot of love from the Western Idol fandom if more people knew that the group existed. They’re not exactly trying to experiment too much here granted, but a lot of Kolokol’s sound has a basis in genres that are quite popular already so with luck more people will check them out as time goes on.

As for me? While I wouldn’t say that Kolokol are my go-to as far as Idol listening is concerned but the scene is definitely much better off for them being in it and especially so given all that has happened this year. You need a group like this and plenty more besides who are putting out quality music on a consistent basis using genres that are proven to work and that people love. With that being said, hopefully you guys will give Kolokol a chance if you haven’t already and anything I’ve said in this review struck a chord with you. I really do think that you’ll like both the group and their music.