I’m conflicted! For Halloween 2019 I have quite the conundrum to work out: On the one hand I’ve never seen The KVB live, having been a fan for a few years now, yet I also love watching scary movies with my kiddo. Regardless of my indecision, The KVB will be playing Great Scott in support of last year’s Only Now Forever AND this year’s Submersion EP (And the Boston date will actually be a make up from a missed March date).
But I digress.
The new music in question comes out on October 4th and features two tracks unreleased from the ONF sessions alongside three alternate and remix tracks also from that album. The title track glistens and basks in post-rock excellence with equal parts New Order, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, and SURVIVE thrown into a blender as Nicholas Wood and Kat Day’s voices and instruments merge and concoct another classic from The KVB.
“Outlands” pulsates and builds off these lush otherworldly textures that compile upon one another to form a synthetic comfort blanket while elsewhere, “Into Life” (Originally heard on 2018’s Only Now Forever) gets new, ahem, life with an alternate take that goes lo-fi and bass-heavy.
The best opener ever, “Above Us” (Besides “White Walls”, of course), gets “The Holydrug Couple Remix” which takes the song into ominous territory and gives it a very Massive Attack feel overall (Think something 3D-fronted from 100th Window) and later, the “Minami Deutsch Remix” of “On My Skin” plays off a single synth line and ditches the vocals for an UNKLE meets John Hughes ’80’s-tinged soundscape you didn’t know you needed to hear.
Submersion is out digitally on October 4th through Invada Records with physical copies available on vinyl as a tour-only exclusive. For more on The KVB, including upcoming live appearances so you can get your vinyl, watch the socials here and here.