Kate Boy = Kate Akhurst + Rocket Boy

Australian + Swedish electropop drawing audible influences from Silent Shout-era The Knife and 80s Peter Gabriel.

I've long thought they were deserving of their own thread but awaited their debut. And waited, as Fiction sat on their optimistically titled debut One for nearly a year. For long-term fans, there's a slight anticlimax as the six previously released original tracks are all reprised in the same versions (albeit with a bit hotter mastering), but 4 of 7 new tracks are great, which yields a hit ratio of around 70% with no obvious filler. Its a top-10 EOY poll LP for me, in a good year for music.

One is available on Spotify, and there's a tour to promote, which alas comes nowhere near me.

Nov 10 Toronto, Canada The Drake
Nov 11 Chicago, USA Empty Bottle
Nov 13 New York, USA Le Poisson Rouge
Nov 14 Brooklyn, USA Baby's All Right
Nov 15 Washington Dc, USA Rock & Roll Hotel
Nov 17 Vancouver, Canada Biltmore Cabaret
Nov 18 Seattle, USA The Sunset
Nov 20 San Francisco, USA Brick & Mortar Music Hall
Nov 21 Los Angeles, USA Bootleg Bar
Nov 22 San Diego, USA Soda Bar
Nov 27 Gothenburg, Sweden Yaki-Da
Nov 28 Madrid, Esp Exposiciones Y Eventos Urbanos
Nov 30 Paris, France Point Fmr
Dec 02 London, Uk Oslo
Dec 04 Amsterdam, Nl Tolhuistuin
Dec 06 Cologne, Germany Artheatre
Dec 07 Berlin, Germany Kantine Am Berghain
Dec 08 Hamburg, Germany Häkken (KLUBHAUS St. Pauli)
Dec 10 Stockholm, Sweden Göta Källare
Dec 11 Oslo, Norway John Dee
Dec 13 Copenhagen, Denmark Vega

A brief video review:

"Northern Lights" (2012)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raqxctNC04k

"In Your Eyes" (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngBwzR1ZQHE

"The Way We Are" (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1-Zl6PGjKc

"Self Control" (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFuE5R3J7sg

live in Podgorica (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62nd9Eakr70

Oops, live in Podgorica should have linked to this short set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4LG-QVMuXg

i loved northern lights when that came out, so, glad to see the album is getting a release.

would love to understand why a label sits on an album like this for so long.

surely it would have been best to have released it given they were getting a lot of blog love.

every single track on this is at least an 8/10 and most of it would make for great singles, but as an album it's quite a tough listen in how it doesn't really have any breathing room - it's just banger after banger and it could do with a little more variation. Probably still in my top ten this year though.

A Huuuuuuuu-maan Ennnnnnn-gine!
A huuu-uuuuu-uuuuuu-man engine!

Hmmm. Now where might I have heard something like that before?

Don't get me wrong, I like it a lot. But that's one of those "yes, you are trying a little too hard to make me like this" moments.

they were the last gig I went to (yeah, almost a year ago). pretty great even to tiny crowd (why?!)

this album rules

there is no such thing as "too many bangers" IMO (signed, unabashed fan of The Prodigy Experience)

I'm not sure this is good, but it's something.

https://soundcloud.com/kateboy/a-girl-like-you

(Edwyn Collins cover)

Getting away from the Gabriel-inspired "One World" lyrical platitudes is an unquestionably good move.

Listening to One for the first time in a while, and man, this is just hit after hit.

lol I just noticed that boxedjoy said "banger after banger" 4 years ago. Well, it's true.

Also, I saw them on the tour mentioned in the OP, and they were very good.

Basically, I like this album better than any Karin Dreijer material of the past decade.