Genuine creativity and fascinating conceptual value rings loudly and without fear – there’s instantly a clear reason why this project became the number-one spoken word album for the USA on iTunes and Apple Music.
Ken Tran and his team have built a uniquely engaging set of tracks, with colourful backdrops supporting a bold but intimate vocal thread, fusing visual instructions with images, ideas, scenes, marches and implications that feel both surface level in clarity and intricately complex in equal parts.
Out Of Camo begins with a fascinating, compelling title-track, and we march with Ken Tran through these memories, through the literal and the metaphorical, and we ride these waves of varying intensity – sometimes optimistic, sometimes dark and uncertain.
It’s inspiring, captivating, and completely unlike anything else you’re likely to listen to. The music and the varied vocal flows gift Out Of Camo a cinematic quality, which naturally elevates the escapism potential of the whole album. ‘Time moves slow…‘
Thirteen original spoken-word tracks line the walls of Out Of Camo, with lo-fi rhythms, industrial beats, piano, keys, synths and vocal adlibs all softly supporting the focused depth of Ken Tran’s voice. These works begin as poems, later evolving into diary entries or letters somewhat, but always there’s a purpose to the journey – subtle repetitions of words add power, such as within Adrift, and remind you to stay grounded. At the same time, the words and the atmospheric music lift you up, nudging the mind to wander, and that imaginative quality is beautiful.
Made up of stories and poems by military veterans, the conceptual weight of Out Of Camo is fascinating, and really takes you to the centre of this experience of leaving the camouflage behind and re-entering the ‘normality’ of modern life.
Black Under Fire is soulful, deeply evocative, melodic, a touch of hip hop from MAC Woods adding a whole new dynamic to the project. Adversity is all the more soulful, breath-taking even, striking, and followed effectively by the second feature of the album, Letter To A Moving Target – a phenomenal highlight for both the production creativity and the intelligent framing and delivery of Mike Guinn.
“Your heritage is more than rope burns around history’s black neck.”
Leader is stunning, stylistically similar to the likes of Sunscreen, but with a whole new poetic depth and story to hold your attention. The Veteran afterwards is gritty, spacious and heavy, impossible to ignore – raw in delivery and topic alike, and incredibly passionate.
The subsequent Interlude – The Cost Of War – is intensely powerful afterward, and Purpose then seems beautifully placed for its echoing, atmospheric suggestiveness and inspiring yet dark impact; a definite highlight that begs for you to listen more than once, reflecting with stark realism on the true contrast between the turmoil of life at war and the struggle to then adapt to life at peace.
Promising real-life recordings from the peace demonstration in Washington D.C on April 20th, 2026, Out Of Camo features the implied presence of 120 US military veterans, and all proceeds from the album go to Veterans For Peace, Wounded Warrior, and About Face.
Out Of Camo is truly something else – a project that sadly feels poignant regardless of generation or geography. The pain of war has stained our past and present alike, but for the soldier, the consequences and aftereffects are profoundly unsettling. Though creatively brilliant, Out Of Camo is also uncomfortable, heart-breaking, and boldly eye-opening.
Find Ken Tran via his Website.
