The KVB - Unity
Some acts operate best under the radar or in the shadows. Much to their own (probable) frustration, mainstream appreciation is out of their reach, but the freedom such a lack of pressure allows garners much more interesting results.
The KVB (in fact couple Nicholas Wood and Kat Day), officially described as an audio-visual project – broadly, Wood provides the music while Day creates the visuals – have lurked menacingly beneath the surface for over ten years and five albums, and have been afforded the space and time to develop their own soundscapes. Unity is the finest realisation of their creativity to date.
Unsurprisingly, it’s a very visual piece of work, laden with imagery that, even if the song titles weren’t giving the listener a steer, would be apposite. Opening track ‘Sunrise Over Concrete’ blinks and percolates into life, the synths building until they become all-consuming as the sun does when it announces its arrival. Pretty on the surface, the undertones of dread perfectly capture a picture of 21st century city industrial life.
Quasi-title track ‘Unite’ follows (opening line: ‘Reconstruction of a nation, unity their habitation’), throbbing and clacking in the vein of Kraftwerk, which is an obvious but inevitable comparison.