Tag: The KVB

Rewind Review: The KVB – Unity (2021)

Kat Day and Nicholas Wood, otherwise known as The KVB, released their Unity album around Thanksgiving Day in 2021 as the world was undergoing separation from a lot of relatives and friends. People were missing each other, missing connections, conversations, coffee dates, and control over, well, anything in and around their lives.

Unity, with its striking cover image of giant, linked circles at the edge of a cold mountain lake, explores these themes. Even the opening instrumental track, “Sunrise Over Concrete” symbolizes hope in bleak times. “Unité” bounces and bumps with krautrock beats and called for all of us to meet at the club once the pandemic was over. I read that “Unbound” (Becoming free of the shackles of lockdown, one’s ego, or both?) harkened back to classic Slowdive and Ride tracks, and I don’t think I can put it any better than that. The dual vocals are the Slowdive part, and the soaring guitar solo is the Ride part.

Day’s breathy vocals on “Future” are an interesting new touch than I’ve heard from her before as she sings about the uncertain future ahead of her, and I suppose the rest of us. A lot of Unity was written in 2019, so the pandemic wasn’t yet here, but one can’t help thinking that The KVB had a crystal ball and saw it coming when you hear tracks like this.

“Blind” is the longest track on the album (5:35), and I’m happy for it, because Kat Day’s thick synth-bass alone could just play the entire time and I’d be delighted. The whole track is downright sexy and a bit menacing…which makes it sexier. The build-up on “Ideal Living” is outstanding. It takes its time in the first minute to get to the dance beats, which I’m sure fill the floor wherever they play. “World on Fire” was the first single from the album and it was a good choice with its bright synths, anime chase scene beats, and a guitar solo that sounds like it was played in orbit.

The synths on “Structural Index” intertwine like crystal formations and almost seem to be playing in a different song than the guitar chords. Trust me, it works. “Lumens” is, appropriately, bright and sunny. I can’t help but wonder if the closer, “Omni,” is named after the great science magazine published by Kathy Keeton and Bob Guccione. The sound of it fits in with Omni‘s science fiction-meets-paranormal aesthetic, as does all of The KVB’s work.

The album came out at the right time for a lot of people, giving them something to dance to in their living rooms or to spin while sipping tea and looking out their windows at a world that was pretty much losing its mind. It encouraged all of us to hang in there a while longer, as the reunion would be great.

Keep your mind open.

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The KVB announces U.S. tour dates for 2019.

British synthwave duo The KVB have announced several dates for a U.S. spring 2019 tour to promote their upcoming album Only Now Forever.  Don’t miss this tour if you love vintage synths, electronic beats, and having your perception altered.

Keep your mind open.

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My top 25 albums of 2016 – #’s 15-11

We’re halfway to #1 on the countdown!

#15 

The Kills released a great album for their 15th anniversary.  Ash & Ice oozes with their sweaty, smoky, whiskey-tinged rock and is one of the best albums about love and sex from 2016.

#14 

I didn’t expect a full record of shoegaze from the Duke Spirit, but Kin is the best shoegaze record I’ve heard all year (and probably of the last two or three years).

#13

All Them Witches released a live album last year (which I still need to get), teased a new album for this year, and started 2016 with Dying Surfer Meets His Maker – a great blend of stoner metal and blues voodoo rock.

#12 

Comacozer contacted me through this website and asked if I’d like to hear their record.  I’m glad I said yes, because this stoner metal album, Astra Planeta, is amazing.

#11 

The KVB make excellent dark wave and shoegaze.  It’s a bit difficult to believe at first that just two people produce that much sound.  Of Desire was recorded on vintage synthesizers and sequencers, and the rich sound produced is excellent.

Who’s made it into my top 10 for 2016?  Come back tomorrow to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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The KVB – Of Desire

I don’t remember where I first heard The KVB (Kat Day and Nicholas Wood). It was probably BBC 6 Music, but I remember immediately thinking, “Who is that?” within a few moments. Their blend of electro, shoegaze, and John Carpenter film score riffs grabs your attention right away, and their newest album, Of Desire, is a great introduction to them if you’ve never heard them before now.

“White Walls” starts with 1980’s no wave synths and somewhat distant vocals about Nicholas Wood letting a lover leave while he stays inside to do some self-imposed penance for saying some things he regrets. The synths soar and click in beautiful waves. I don’t know what will get you to like this band if this opening track doesn’t.

Peter Hook-like bass creeps throughout “Night Games.” It sounds like something Snake Plissken would be playing in his glider flight in Escape from New York. “Lower Depths” is a goth gem, both lyrically (“Don’t want the light. I see the inside. I’m lost in a hole. My head’s on fire.”) and musically with its industrial guitars, programmed simple snare beats, and synth drones. “Silent Wave” reminds me of the Knight Rider theme at first, but it’s Knight Rider with KITT being a hearse instead of a Trans Am and the hero being a 1980’s goth computer hacker instead of a guy who’s a pop star in Germany.

“Primer” is an instrumental appetizer for the lush “Never Enough.” It’s almost the opposite of “White Walls” (but the deep synths and shoegaze guitars remain the same), as Wood has now flipped the table on his lover who has ruined everything. “And it’s all too much, because it’s never enough. And it’s all your fault as it slips away,” he sings.

I’m pretty sure “In Deep” is about a ghost waiting for its lover to die so they can be together again (“Being here, not living, I see it brings you down. And I’m trying hard to help you, but I feel I’ve come too late.”). The synths are bright like the afterlife, but the electro-bass is rooted to the Earth. “Awake” brings back the John Carpenter soundtrack feel, and it’s a great song for dark nights, dark car rides, or dark rooms. “V11393” is a cool instrumental that has probably been remixed across industrial clubs across the world by now.

“Unknown,” a song that has Wood wondering about the future as he lies in bed with his lover, has some of the loudest guitar on the record, but it knows when to move out of the way and let the synth bass take the forefront. Another good instrumental, “Mirrors,” leads into “Second Encounter,” with floating synths and clear guitar that makes you wonder if the song is about a relationship coming to an end, death, heroin, depression, or all of the above.

Of Desire is aptly named because every song on the record is about lust, love, loss, or regret. It’s a gorgeous record and actually inspired me to buy DJ gear and begin making electronic music again. Let it inspire you.

Keep your mind open.

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