KOYO’s third album, ‘Onism’, (released November 1st) saw the experimental band evolving. The featured material captured many of the complexities of past works, but by introducing a heavier edge in places, the band’s alternative sound embraced more of a post-rock aesthetic. Despite the confident changes and the fact that bits of the material drew from a huge pool of influences, the record proved that KOYO were keen to forge their own musical path.

As part of the ongoing promotion for the record, they’ve just issued ‘Stoneman’ as a digital single with accompanying video. In terms of melody, the track isn’t necessarily representative of the album as a whole, but since the material takes so many turns, it’s hard to say what would be truly representative of the KOYO sound as 2024 draws to a close. There’s little doubt that it’s a brilliant tune; one that stands a good chance of attracting an adventurous ear.

The track works a fat bass groove against a spoken vocal. Although the end result comes with a huge, funk driven swagger, you could never call it funk. It’s more of a groove laden post-rock banger, but even labelling it as such would be to sell it short, since there’s certainly more at stake. Once the guitars rise, KOYO work their way through a much smoother set of riffs, and there are traces of Lenny Kravitz within their huge tones. Returning to the funkier influences, Layth Ibrahim continues to share a bass riff with a hugely confident sound, but the main melody branches out even further with the help of a choir of vocals, ensuring that this rather long track maintains a feeling of constant motion rather than merely repeating the same musical phrases. At almost seven minutes, it’s epic without resorting to the self-indulgence of prog. It’s definitely an offering that’s grand without feeling grandiose.

Check out the video below. [Warning: contains flashing images]