New England band
Karate quickly grew out of their post-hardcore roots, starting out as a technically precise slowcore group with emo tendencies for a few albums before dramatically shifting gears to include a heavy jazz influence in their composition and overall sound.
Complete Studio Recordings thoroughly tracks the band's evolution through the mid-'90s to their initial breakup in the early 2000s, including their six studio albums but also songs from singles and EPs from the same time. Listening chronologically highlights the various shifts the band went through, from the moody, introverted perspectives and ultra-clean guitar lines of their self-titled 1995 debut to more eruptive,
Fugazi-influenced moments on 1998's
In Place of Real Insight, and the way the group dipped their toes into more complex jazz chord voicings and expanded song structures on 1998's
The Bed Is in the Ocean before embracing these elements increasingly on subsequent efforts like 2000's
Unsolved or 2004's
Pockets.
Complete Studio Recordings connects the dots somewhat with the inclusion of non-album tracks from most of
Karate's phases. This is where some of the band's more interesting auxiliary material happens, like the aching but aggressive slow punk of "Cherry Coke" from a 1996 split 7" with
the Crownhate Ruin or the two extended pieces that made up their improvisatory 2001 EP
Cancel/Sing. The 69-track collection follows the band all the way to their 2005 entry to the
In the Fishtank series, a rather creatively restless effort made up primarily of
Minutemen covers, but also tackling
Bob Dylan's "Tears of Rage" and offering a gorgeous take on "A New Jerusalem" from
Talk Talk vocalist
Mark Hollis' self-titled 1998 solo album. Moving through
Karate's entire time line reinforces how peerless they were in terms of their curious genre patchwork, but it also serves as a reminder of the ways they maintained their core songwriting voice as their delivery rapidly changed. ~ Fred Thomas
