Kyle Morton has literally gone from one extreme to the other—going from his twelve person band, Typhoon, to releasing a solo album called What Will Destroy You. It’s a stripped down sound, of course, without the distraction of so many instruments. But it’s still familiar. Morton’s voice still carries that similar tone of loneliness that’s harrowing and yet so alluring, especially heard on tracks “Survivalist Fantasy” and “Gestalt of Original Pain.”
Typhoon’s music was always so dynamic and layered (of course it had to be with such a huge band), especially as heard in “Young Fathers” off of White Lighter from 2013. With that song it’s like you can’t listen hard enough because there’s just so much music coming from everywhere—instruments, voices, harmonies, going from acoustic to aggressive, to an explosive last fifteen seconds, making you feel like you’ve just listened to five awesome songs at once.
But Morton’s solo album, even though so lucid, calm and serious, is somehow just as dynamic and layered—perhaps with less music, of course, but with just as much (or even more) emotion involved. He wrote the songs quickly with Portland as his muse, drenching each track with his experiences of love, a sort of bleakness and wanting. You’ll feel it in songs like “Perverse Fascination” as he sings, “If I couldn’t have your heart I would have your body. But each time I possessed you in the dark I possessed nothing.”
Kyle Morton solo is just a side project for now (as Typhoon is still together and recording another album due out next year), but it isn’t a show that should be missed—especially at such an intimate venue like Rough Trade.
Rough Trade
1/20
Doors at 8 p.m.
$15
Axs.com
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