Cold wave duo The KVB are back with their new album ‘Tremors’ on Invada Records (Gazelle Twin, Beak, Billy Nomates). This comes after a brand new singles Labyrinths, Overload and Tremors on which The KVB return to the darker sound that embodied their earliest releases whilst retaining the infectious pop of their last album ‘Unity’ which MOJO described as having a “sense of wonderment throughout”.
The band have dubbed their new album ‘dystopian pop’, and wrote it with the live show in mind; full of energy, hooks and dynamic moments. On the album’s subject matter, the band explain that they have “expanded on previous album themes of dystopia, apocalypse and the human condition, but with a more pessimistic outlook and deeper distrust than before. It also touches on themes of loss, and the resistance, lament and acceptance of inevitable change.”
Writing the album between Manchester and Bristol, and recording alongside James Trevascus (Billy Nomates, RVG), the band have drawn on their own back catalogue and the music that inspired them at the very beginning of their artistic journey. The end result is the most complete album from The KVB to date, full of emotive impact and pop hooks presented in a uniquely shadowy atmosphere and with an idiosyncratic detachment that adds to the cinematic quality of their sound.
Formed in 2010, The KVB's music has long reflected Nicholas Wood and Kat Day’s mastery of atmosphere as their sound evolved over the course of the 2010s. Early releases dealt in brittle beats and sonic blasts that evoked Cabaret Voltaire and the Jesus and Mary Chain in equal measure, but the duo's style has gradually become more streamlined and sharp- edged on each record since.