Is black your favorite color? Do you like drum machines? Do you play jacks? Have you ever listened to Psychocandy on repeat?
If you check off any of the above boxes, you will most likely get entangled in The KVB’s web’s and frosty ambiances.
Somewhere halfway between The Soft Moon and The Go Go Darkness, Nicholas Wood and Kat Day bring sonic cathedral sounds back. Don’t get me wrong, this duo are no obscure copycats, they have retained the holy grail of shoegaze where many have failed before.
A minimalist band, they are loaded with sexual and psychological angst and thrive on mind games. This is sophisticated and intellectually-stimulating music on the razor’s edge. Don’t expect to be blown away by the lyrics as the vocals remain hazy and elusive, this is part of their mystery halo.
Like some of their illustrious mentors, this pair knows how to blow hot and cold, or rather how to reconcile chaos and bliss, which hold the key to their mojo. Either way, this is the sort of music that should definitely be played at maximum volume.
“Passing By” and “Endless” both have a spooky haunted manor vibe to them, with sinuous basslines that hang over rooms like ghosts.
The much starker “Dominance /Submission” radiates with a nefarious magnitude.
This third record but first release on Anton Newcombe’s label A Recordings has a sprawling hallucinatory dimension, imagine being lost in an English maze whilst being under the influence…The pervading atmosphere of Minus One makes it memorable, the first dive into this wall of sound calls for more.
Reverb is the new black.
Minus One was released on November 18th 2013.
