KEYAN - Gradient
Prodigal Overdrive
Written by: Rod Whitfield - Independent | Tuesday 01 March 2022
Australia, as well as the rest of the world, has been punching out ridiculously talented instrumental guitar prodigies for quite some time now, from PLINI to I BUILT THE SKY to JAMES NORBERT IVANYI and many more, and now you can add the name KEYAN HOUSHMAND to that ever-burgeoning list.
The young Adelaide seven-stringer is set to release his debut EP, and it’s a cracker.
The Review
Don’t be put off too much by the fact that there’s only three tracks and around 15 minutes of music here (although, and I very much mean this as a compliment, I would have loved to have heard more), he manages to pack some pretty serious variety and light and shade into those three tunes. So much so that it almost sounds like three different artists.
Opener Black is an intense djenty explosion with multiple twists and turns across the course of its four-and-a-half-minute length, and a real sense of dark menace to it. Then, just when you thought dark, ominous djent instrumentals was the musical road you were travelling on this particular EP, Houshmand shifts gears completely and pulls the rug right out from under your feet. White jumps out at you and takes you completely unawares. It’s a vibey, almost poppy piece that bounces along in a happy four on the floor groove and makes you feel sunny and warm, as though you’re cruising down the beach in summer in a convertible with the top down.
So now that you’re expecting the unexpected, along comes closer Grey, an expansive, exultant six-and-a-half-minute epic that alternatively pounds the listener with a massive wall of groove and pulls back to wistful ambience in typical and true dynamic fashion. It’s the gap that spans the distance between the first two tunes.
No doubt the track titles bear deliberate conceptual, even existential meaning in this instrumental setting, the ‘black’ being the dark, the ‘white’ being the light, and the ‘grey’ lying somewhere in between.
The tracks on Gradient are three very different beasts. It keeps you guessing, keeps you on your toes, but somehow manages to remain completely cohesive at the same time. It also manages to be a fun and compelling listen.
The Verdict
If you love the current crop of whizbang young guitar heroes that are running rampant across Australia and the globe, as I do, you will find plenty to enjoy on this EP.
8.5/10
Gradient is out now.