I have to admit that I’ve had this on my little pile of promos for a few weeks. Many months ago I also received a sort of ‘taster’ CD which didn’t impress, hence my reluctance to play the band’s second album. How wrong I was… Cayto is a five-piece Glaswegian band who has toured around the UK for the past three years gathering experience and material. I like ‘different’ and this album delivers it in truckloads, plus some, and I love it.

Opening track Dorothy starts with intriguing, wandering piano notes courtesy of band member Jack Henrie, and which last long enough to make one think that this is going to be a Keane type of song. Then Paul Henry’s low key vocal enters the arena, and gradually evolves into a very Radiohead-esque style. And there the comparisons (almost) end. By the middle-eight all hell is let loose with vocal, piano, drums and guitars coming together in one fabulous rush of noise that is unlike anything I’ve heard before. It’s a startling opener to this surprising album. Next track, Eye Contact, empties another barrel, but this time it’s explosive from note one and continues its rampage with an almost ‘metal’ style of vocal. Comparisons with Radiohead persist, and in the absence of a new album from that band, this is more than welcome. In fact it’s so good that it could represent the next stage in Radiohead’s evolving story. The Bastard is an incredible recipe of piano notes and heavy rock instrumentals, and I’m blown away by its adventure and originality. So far, the band has not forgotten the importance of melody, that survives the highly original and creative onslaught.

Okay, now I’m thinking that the best albums of 2005 selection which I have just posted will need amending to include this. Gargoyles is a threatening, slow, rumbling tune with a narrative style vocal, and a backdrop dominated by an ocean-deep bass line. But like just about everything here, the song changes mode several times to include heavy rock, rampant and slow pace, and some quite extraordinary guitar riffs. Wow!

The invention, ‘fuck the charts’ attitude and musical diversity continues with songs like the incredibly beautiful and haunting The Splitting-Up Song, where the band also proves to have a way with words. This is immediately followed by the epic piano-led, seven-minute opus Christmas In Russia. I promise that you will have heard nothing like this; it’s fantastic; and nails my view that this band has something very different and very special to offer the rock consumer market. In fact one is tempted to declare this is how rock should be…

5/5