Kazyak – ‘Happy Camping’

Kazyak – ‘Happy Camping’

URL: https://kazyak.com/

Kazyak is a five-member band that deals in the best of indie rock. Their third album is called Happy Camping, and it consists of six culture-infused tracks that will take listeners back to the woods.

The first thing one notices after sitting down to the band’s latest album is that the songs are vastly the same, yet eerily different. When the album is played track after track, you get a sense of hauntingly pure voices, perfect harmonization, and intriguing instrumentation. Song after song allows a listener delve into melancholy tunes and smooth beats that will make anyone forget that they were thinking about anything. That’s good news for those looking for meditative music.

Happy Camping also intricately links symbolism and ordinary experiences, allowing listeners to listen and just imagine. Kazyak takes its listeners to the woods where smoke clears with Happy Camping and allows them to play in the dirt with While I lived in Carolina. The band explores the deepest parts of love and regret and resonate it in Basin, Happy Camping (quite ironically) and Darker. In Sacred Cow, Kazyak uses its cacophony of hauntingly beautiful voices and complementary acoustic instrumentation to tell the tale of introspection.

Another thing that all the tracks in this album share is the bit of instrumentation that lasts for about thirty or sixty seconds. That mixing of sounds allows one to feel, to really experience the songs. It’s evident in a few of the tracks- Sundial, Happy Camping, and Sacred Cow. That cord by cord play of the instruments raises a few goosebumps, especially when the guitar and drum take over. It brings Hozier to mind.

Listening to the album, two songs really stand out. The first is Sacred Cow; the other is Darker. Kazyak gave an impressive performance of vocals and beat in both tracks, but they stand out for different reasons. Sacred Cow stands out for its beats and symbolism-packed lyrics; for the message (mostly about introspection) and the tune (faster, lighter and more memorable than the other tracks). Darker also notably has different beats from the rest of the album- darker (sounds a bit redundant, but it’s true) and harsher. Where the tone is melancholic and wistful through the other songs in the album, Darker has a more bittersweet quality to it. It is more soulful than any of the other Kazyak pieces, perfect for subdued settings and reminiscing moods. And the Friday-nights-at-the-bar notes at the end, those are just the icing on the cake.

With this album, Kazyak perfectly manages to capture the essence of discovery. Self-discovery in Sacred Cow, travel and the outdoors in Sundial and While I lived in Carolina, love and loss in Basin, Happy Camping and Darker. The album is not typically what a person would think of at the words ‘happy camping’. It’s not loud, boisterous or super catchy. Happy Camping is a happy addition for those who like smooth but intriguing lyrics and beats with a dash of imagination and soulfulness. Full disclosure: some of the lyrics are hard to make out, but you can get the occasional ‘We may never know the sacred cow’ in.

SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/kazyak

Mike Nelson