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The KVB

The KVB * Of Desire (cd 2016)

I have known this band for a while. I ran into them when digging through the ‘minimal wave scene’, but this scene is a bit wider concerning musical styles. The same can be said about The KVB, because they do not really make ‘minimal wave’, but rather some sort of ‘shoegaze’. Over the years I have read all kinds of descriptions for music from that corner. “Ghostwave”, “witch-wave” and whatnot.

Basically the music of The KVB is electronics and a (bass) guitar. What you see more often from this angle of music, it is a boy/girl duo. Music-wise you may think of The Soft Moon and in a far distance A Place To Bury Strangers. More comparable is some of the music released by Aufnahme + Wiedergabe.

“Of Desire” is an alright album. The same I can say about many releases from this ‘scene’. It is currently a type of music that I listen to quite a bit, but there is not a whole lot that I think is completely brilliant. Since it is easy music to listen to, it goes well as background music.

Should all this be new to you, The KVB is not the worst band to start your explorations with. They are big enough for this album to appear on Spotify and Deezer, so it is not difficult to give them a try.

Links: The KVB, Invada

The KVB * Immaterial Visions (lp 2013)

I am glad that when I heard about “Minus One” I also noticed that there is new material available (the music for “Minus One” is from 2011). “Immaterial Visions” contains more lively, more noisy, more pushing electronically music. Not that it comes anywhere near the raw shoegaze rock of A Place To Bury Strangers, but this lp is in sound closer to The Soft Moon than the other release. Still somewhat soft, but more lively and generally quite a bit better. If you like the wave/shoegaze sound of the bands that I mentioned and/or just the 1980’ies type of wave, The KVB might be a band to listen to.
Links: The KVB, Cititrax

The KVB * Minus One (cd 2013)

  • shoegaze

I had ran into The KVB on my hunt for shoegaze and to my surprise they played at last year’s (2013) Wave Gotik Treffen. Listening to “Minus One” the latter may not be so strange, because The KVB’s sound on this album may have shoegaze elements, but it is more wave than shoegaze. Soft rock with electronics (mostly for the rhythm), sometimes going a bit in a Suicide direction. The album is rather soft, it could have used a little more energy. The material for this cd was first released in 2011 and another album has been released together with it and it contains a sound that I prefer.
Link: The KVB