Friday, November 25, 2016

kiaro • skuro - debut tape (1990, Well Primed)

As I proceed to share another "cold case" recording with you something dawned on me.  There's a very voyeuristic aspect to this "sharity" blogging endeavor of mine.  As has been the case with dozens, if not hundreds of subjects I've featured here, I have no personal overlap with kiaro • skuro.  In short, they don't know me, or me them.  This co-ed foursome (possibly from New Jersey) go by a strictly first-name basis, so any attempt to contact them by the usual means is a non-starter.  And since this was a pre-internet offering, there are nary any vital stats to be had on them.  In summation, this elicits a bit of a moral dilemma on my part.  Then again I haven't received much protest over the years, so maybe I shouldn't fret.  Anyway...

From what I'm able to discern kiaro • skuro was actually a band, not an individual,  The moniker strikes me as a tad ethnic, but the tenor of these songs are anything but, recalling the jangly chord-wrangling prowess of such Anglophiles as Johnny Marr or David Gavurin.  Crooner Sara doesn't add a wealth of mystique to the mix, but nevertheless capably tilts her quartet to the left of the dial.  Damn fine stuff actually.  A CD apparently followed this demo a couple years later.

01. decide
02. can't think what you feel
03. stand still
04. again
05. too proud
06. when she's away

hear

6 comments:

xopher.tm said...

Took me a moment, but the name seems to be a play on "chiaroscuro"...

-Xtm

jfisk said...

Thanks for this and all of your uploads - I've gotten some great stuff on your site. FYI - they were a Rutgers University-area band that played in the early 90's. Here is a link to their album that I uploaded: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/iro9n719jaerd/Realtime

Enjoy!

spavid said...

Great, thanks jfisk. As for the play on the name, that was lost on me, as I was unfamiliar with the term. Good catch.

Mike said...

I am FB friends with Frank Bridges, who was in Kiaro Skuro and ran Well Primed Records. I've passed this along to him, so maybe he'll chime in. Only got to see the band once, but remember liking them quite a bit.

iFB said...

I blew your cover, sucka, now I know you - and you know me.

Unknown said...

I actually saw them play at Rutgers University in 1990. My recollection is that the band name means "clear yet obscure" they were pretty regular in the New Brunswick, NJ music scene so I believe local-ish. Cool alternative band at the time!