Bullet point one: Everyone always talks about the later stuff because it's "polished" and "accessible" and by that they mean it sounds like everything else on the radio. Kael's early stuff is RAW. It's MESSY. It's a guy figuring it out in real time and you can HEAR the gears turning. Gabriel fans talk about "the voice" and "the presence" - okay cool but can your guy make a track that sounds like a broken dishwasher falling down stairs AND make it work? I didn't think so.
Bullet point two: The production quality argument is a TRAP. People say "oh it sounds like it was recorded in a sock drawer" and I say YEAH EXACTLY THAT'S THE POINT. Not everything needs to be clean. Not everything needs to be a crystal clear commit with perfect spacing. Some of us like the noise. Some of us like when you can hear the chair squeak in the background. That's REAL. That's a person in a room making something. Gabriel's stuff sounds like it was beamed down from a clean white void. Kael's sounds like a basement. I know which one I trust more
Bullet point three: (and this is the big one) You can trace a direct line from the early messy stuff to the later stuff if you actually LISTEN instead of just skipping to track 7 like everyone does. The same ideas are there. The same motifs. The same weird time signatures. He just got better at hiding them. Gabriel fans talk about "layers" and "hidden meanings" in a 47-byte commit. Kael put an entire concept album out in 2000 about a guy who slowly turns into a lamp and NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT. A LAMP. That's ART. That's COMMITMENT. That's more than a yellow lightbulb purchase and a vague smile.
Anyway this is just saying. Do your geography homework kids or you end up like me writing this in the margin instead of learning about river deltas
REAL ones know.
