Kate NV

It's not playing for me either, but I assume it's the video for Lu Na. Very cute "80s art-pop" vibes. Album is on track to be my AOTY. So much fun!

is there a term for when you only know one musician from a certain country and they happen to be super eccentric so you subconsciously assume everything that comes out of that country is like that. maybe "Bjork syndrome" or something

ok I'll tell you what I dig about this: I used to go to this club that would always be projecting weird performance art videos against one of the walls while the music played. it was exactly shit like this and I loved it

been listening to Hosono's Philharmony a lot lately and I'm starting to think she's gotten a few ideas from this record

okay - this tune in particular

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKca6co0PCM

could have been translated pretty much wholesale onto any of her albums

what’s so lovely about this album is how relentlessly 20th century it seems without just being retro. It’s like some synthesis of so much that was good before digital ... or something. it seems personal but also outward looking, none of the hedonic depression synth-weed haze clogging up the proceedings

Hadn't noticed this thread but dig Room for the Moon. These observations during the 2020 poll rollout (“Telefon” at #24, w00t!) were intriguing:

Kate NV just sounds like pretty accurate soviet bloc 80s pop to me, all the way through to the kind of thin production.
― emil.y, Friday, January 29, 2021

Agreed, this sounds like very obvious pastiche of Russian schlager of bygone era. Never liked that sound too much in the original form, so this isn't impressing me either, but I guess it's nice to have pastiches of other than American genres on the list for change. :)
― Tuomas, Friday, January 29, 2021

Any soviet era pop recommendations? :)

this probably wasn't what emil.y or tuomas were referencing at all but zvuki mu ftw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1phklC8tOA

(i definitely think kate nv shares some of their absurdist tendencies btw)

lmao really love all the shots of the audience bored out of their minds

Haha I know! amazing scenes

if you didn't see the "Telefon" video posted on the countdown, I encourage you to give it a watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAFNH-V4R3s

not sure what's going on with the wardrobe here, it looks like they all just put on random stuff from old comedy sketches. I can't take my eyes off the bald clarinet wizard robe dude

Any soviet era pop recommendations? :)

― Nag! Nag! Nag!

My brain is absolutely dead right now but remind me to come back to this sometime and I will give you some.

Not Soviet pop, but Ann Steel is clearly an aesthetic touchstone here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23r5qqqVOu8

wow Telex covered this song! I had no idea

Love KATE NV, highlights like "Kata" from her first album sound a lot like 80's Japanese pop to me (can't quite put my finger on who she reminds me of... maybe Haruomi Hosono?), more than Russian pop but they're both obvious references on her music and they mix pretty well aesthetically tbh.

I definitely see Ann Steel in it, yes! I really don't know why I slept on Kate NV, not sure if there was some completely arbitrary thing that put me off at some point, because right now I'm totally getting into it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B05axTlKTKA

Роза Рымбаева гр. Арай

Love KATE NV, highlights like "Kata" from her first album sound a lot like 80's Japanese pop to me (can't quite put my finger on who she reminds me of... maybe Haruomi Hosono?)

Miharu Koshi. whose three best albums were produced/co-written by Hosono.

I posted this tune upthread, it's Hosono ft. Koshi on vocals, definitely feels like something she was very influenced by

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKca6co0PCM

yeah she's clearly drawing on hosono a lot

She did some red bull academy study placement thing in tokyo iirc, so I wouldn't be surprised if she's got a pretty good knowledge of Japanese stuff. Someone upthread mentioned mariah, I think that's a really apt comparison. Definitely hear some yasuaki shimizu in there

ok maybe I'm getting off base but she also reminds me a lot of Mecano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLujb3iwu9g

perhaps because they have the same haircuts. but its more than that

Man, that bass player has no concept of personal space. Step back, floofy boots!

he does, however, also have the same barber

lol that's Nacho Cano he's the main composer of all Mecano songs.

yeah he just wanted to make sure she was singing it right

Okay, my brain is still dead but I figured I would go for some super-obvious Ex-Yu/Soviet pop for you. None of this sounds exactly like Kate NV, but it's among the stuff that 'Telefon' reminded me of, like, a sort of 'in the blood' thing.

Sizike!
Sladjana!
Alliance!
Denis x2!

There were a couple of other things that I can't remember the name of and have disappeared from my youtube lists, blargh.

Eeep, that sizike song is amazing! Thank you!

Yeah, it kills. The other songs are good too, but I think that's the best of that little list.

Among other things, I like how embarrassed the guy doing the rap looks

lol "please get the camera off me" all over his face

The “Sizike” song is so cool! Only 12,000 listens on spotify!? How!? This sounds like a classic.

Actually emily,all songs sound great

I passed the Alliance one onto someone off-thread I thought might be appreciative. They were. :)

The one saer posted may as well BE recent Kate NV, for multiple bars at a time. Thanks everyone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaDoFH4zG3E

More Арай here, albeit without Роза Рымбаева. Vibes

Ah! this is the third time I listen to the Sizike song. At this rate it will soon become one of my favorite songs of the 80’s, where has this been all my life?

Love how this thread has basically turned into "post all the coolest music". I do miss Роза Рымбаева from that second one, though. (I'm guessing it's Rosa something?)

Thank you for all this!

Well if this is the unofficial thread for cool 80’s music that is not similar to KATE NV but you think KATE NV fans might also like:

Mecano - hawaii bombay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XzoOK2GZF8

Pete Brand’s Method - what you are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY320Jk82i4

Rare Silk - storm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNNqWGb_vCc

These might be closer to balearic but I think the genre is also referenced in some of her songs.

nicely shot live video in a guitar shop/balloon store. only four songs and the clarinet dude is **not** wearing his wizard robe but still, worth a watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckArue3m29E

Excellent - thanks frogs! :)

anyone know what the official name of that boingy instrument she plays at the start of the second song - and also at the end of 'telefon' - is?

i believe that's a form of Flexatone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexatone

• "Weird Al" Yankovic used the flexatone during his performance of "Another One Rides the Bus" live on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder (1982).
• "The Simpsons Theme" by Danny Elfman (1990).

Aha - thanks Mr malone! Will always associate that sound with maggot brain. Bah-doinggg!

Man, Room for the Moon is amazing. Way outside my usual wheelhouse but I put it on for a stoned, snowy dog walk a few nights ago based on the EOY rollout, and have been all Kate NV, all the time, ever since (interspersed with the Chick Corea fest going on in my house).

She does not fuck around filling every little space in the music with creative and unexpected sounds. Having dug back into this thread and schooled myself a little in Russian synth pop and her other influences, I now see that her mix of electronic and synthy stuff with flutes and clarinets and saxes and such is not quite as idiosyncratic as I initially heard it, but so what. Love how quickly and aggressively she builds her soundscapes while still keeping them warm and engaging. Love those thick, meaty bass lines that propel the music forward magnificently but are just unusual and complex enough to keep me alert to their role in the mix. And love the sequencing on the album, drifting farther out into experimentation than most pop albums I'm familiar with and then pulling back to dance/pop at just the right times. I think my fav tracks are Ça Commence Par and Plans, and I have a special affection for Du Na, which is seriously evocative of mid-90s Tortoise to me, one of my all-time favorite sounds (there are moments where it really sounds like it could be lifted right from Djed).

What a gem. Thanks ilm for putting it on my radar!

:)

otm

Are there any good compilations that cover the Russian scenes that influenced her?

finally got around to watching some Glintshake on YouTube and wow, hard to believe it's the same person. almost like a Jun Togawa thing going on there.

look at these track times!

https://igetrvng.com/products/kate-nv-room-for-the-moon-live/

oh that looks great!

“The approach was something like: ‘Guys, we’re playing songs, but here we can go really wild,’” she recalls. “I had some ‘musts’ that we needed to recreate as closely as possible because it was crucial for the songs, but it was never a priority to put everyone into a cage of the originals. The tracks only gained something from this, and sound more powerful than the original versions.”

I dunno if I've seen video from this specific show but I've seen this band do Telefon and Lu Na (well, on YouTube) and indeed they get pretty far out

first track released...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcZc-pojv0k
kate nv — marafon 15 (live)

really good btw

can't even remember what the last live album i bought was but getting this one for sure

wow, incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhceRmd2Ink

this is from another show with the same band and it's transcendent so this live album's going to be the best thing she's ever put out, surely?

Already preordered the hell out of it.

oh this is sounding great. the 2 preview singles have video on YouTube, i hope the full show is put out

yeah this is the best thing she's ever done easily, her band here is incredible

another one added at least.... love this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASu3pG1YsVg

yeah, this one and "Sayonara" are my favorites so far but this whole record is great

this is crazy good, it blows the studio album out of the water, and that's saying something for me because I've probably listened to that more than anything released in the last decade at least

it sort of changes the record entirely, the studio record is fascinating instrumentally but it still feels like her pop record, while this is a full band production of which Kate is only a part. the songs themselves seem to be opened way up too. so it feels like something a lot different than the studio album, even though it's all the same songs.

in fact what it reminds me of is Sting's Bring on the Night live album, when he had that crazy good jazz band in tow and let them go buck wild on a bunch of deep cuts. except this music is way more interesting, hell on Marafon 15 they almost sound like 80s Crimson. at other points Talking Heads or even Can. was this band really assembled just for this? they sound like they've been playing together for years

i went digging and they have a fair bit of history together. the bassist & drummer play with her in glintshake, and the sax player and clarinet player both have done session work with glintshake. she met most of this band (i assume except for her glintshake bandamtes) in 2016 when they were hired by a mutual friend to be the backing band for a doug hream blunt show in moscow, and that band (without blunt) put out a single in 2017 under the name РТЫ.

https://soundcloud.com/user-817715988/sets/kuda-idti-chuma

she said she'd originally hoped to record her next album with this band but doesn't know if that will ever be possible as many of them (including her) have left russia due to the war, so getting everyone in one place again doesn't seem like it will be possible anytime soon

she goes into most of that in this interview: https://www.thefader.com/2025/07/08/kate-nv-room-with-a-moon-live-album-interview

she rules so much

On the track “Lu Na,” for instance, there's a coda that’s a bit prog rockish. Most of us in the band are huge nerds, and we love bands like Gentle Giant, so at some point during rehearsal, we finished the song and just started playing, and it turned into this crazy, funny, stupid thing. When it was over, I was like, “Let's just do it during the show,” and everyone was like, “Kate, you're crazy. It’s garbage,” but we kept it. I always wanted to play in a prog rock band, so I loved it.

This is excellent!

now in video form!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT9usp9j2zo

live record is still incredible, honestly my favorite album of last year, I think being played live really does add a lot to the songs. makes 'em more multidimensional and uh...alive

I compared it previously to Sting's Bring on the Night live album but one key difference is Kate just lets the band go buckwild and double the length of the songs if they want to, it doesn't sound like a great band that has to operate under a tight framework

yeah it's such an improvement, the band adds so much energy and they stretch out all the songs in the best way, the "lu na" coda is fantastic

Really just a totally amazing album