Plugging into The KVB's soundscapes is like entering a hall of mirrors. Such is the contorted quality of the music the London duo have been creating since 2010. Taking over new venue MOM Livehouse in North Point, Nick Wood and Kat Day arrive in Hong Kong for the first time on October 26 courtesy of Songs For Children, which is responsible for curating a large chunk of our city's best alternative music events, many of which have been in the shoegaze or post-rock vein. Now based in Singapore, SFC continues to lure fantastic names to Asia, including Yuck, Hinds and the infamous Happy Mondays.
The KVB, however, is a great SFC coup. The act launched in 2010 with Wood, under the alias Klaus Von Barrel, on his own, but he was joined by Day on keys and visuals the following year. And, since then, the duo have released seven studio albums and nine EPs. Each release has picked up more speed and critical acclaim than the last. Muffled drum loops, glitchy synths and echoing vocals distinguish a KVB track, but with an anything-goes songwriting process, the duo's extensive repertoire ranges from gritty psych drones to bubbly dream pop (although even these songs pivot on a gothic terra firma). The KVB's dark, reverb-laden live show sold out a night at Berlin's notorious nightspot Berghain in 2013 and later that year the band supported The Brian Jonestown Massacre on a tour around Australia. They've been on the up ever since.
Half the live experience lies in the visual aspect of the band, which is just as important to them as the music. Backed by a large screen of footage captured by Wood, or dug out from his family's old VCRs, The KVB's show is a sensory spectacular. Halls of mirrors and a sensory spectacular. Coming to North Point.
