Kate NV

Yesterday I heard Kate NV's "Plans" and was suitably impressed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_NQIwVk4MQ

Today I'm listening to the new album, "Room For The Moon" and I'm stunned. So many interesting sounds, all colliding over her multi-lingual vocals! Brings to minds bits of YMO, Laurie Anderson, Jane Siberry, and more recently Glasser - but beyond those, a real feast for the ears.

I know nothing of her earlier work, how does it compare?

Binasu is really great, I think there are a few fans here!

I haven’t heard the new one yet but Binasu and для FOR are both very good, as is her work as гш/ Glintshake.

Love Kate Nv! Excited to hear the new one - last one was lovely but quite low key and not as overtly pop as some of her previous stuff (check out the song 'Kata' for her in full pop mode). Do you know her previous band Glintshake? Fun post-punk that got a bit of exposure in western media a few years back

Xp!

I've probably said it before but Binasu is the one album I've heard that captures Haruomi Hosono's aesthetic without actually having him on it. It's frontloaded but a pretty good album.

для FOR on the other hand I wasn't so hot about, just too minimal for my tastes. like those Mark Mothersbaugh Music for Insomniacs albums.

this one sounds exciting though

yeah this is great. as much as I like Binasu this one is way more consistent. as you mention it's full of interesting sounds. and yeah rotating between Russian, English, and Japanese is pretty cool

whats neat to me about this is that it could fit into a bunch of different scenes from the last five decades. like I feel everyone on this board would dig this album in some way

didn't realise it was out already!

loved Binasu, so i'm stoked for this one! for some reason для FOR did nothing for me

the second track (Du Na) has a strong jon hassell thing going, beyond the sound of the treated trumpet

Holy crap it’s out?? I forgot completely

"Sayonara - Full Moon Version", now that's a jam. especially the back half

New album is monumental

Brings to minds bits of YMO, Laurie Anderson, Jane Siberry, and more recently Glasser

Yep, I'm also reminded of Nona Hendryx's Skindiver and Letta Mbulu's In The Music The Village Never Ends.

The new album is fantastic.

Everyone otm here--album is hitting all my pleasure centers. Picking up very strong Mariah - Utakata No Hibi vibes.

This is officially my album of the summer. It gets more interesting with each listen, I love getting bowled over out of the blue by new music!

Be sure to check out Binasu too! The new one is better (more consistent) I think, but Binasu has some great moments as well

whoa! so a couple things. first of all, i just learned there's a nicolas godin (air guy) that came out recently. some of it is really good! and some of it i don't like so much - a lot of depends on the guest singers all over the album.

but whoa, kate nv guests on one of the best tracks! i didn't realize she was on it, and when the song started i assumed my spotify had somehow jumped over to the kate nv album (which i really like but am still getting to know). it's really good imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AmYEohZIfk

I was getting Linda Di Franco vibes from this, really enjoyed it and a lot more than any of her previous music

i'm not sure any description i read of this record actually prepared me for it

yeah, i think it's a good argument against genre

i would describe this album as very cool. it sounds so cool to me

see, if "cool" was a genre then genres would be fine

https://daily.afisha.ru/music/15927-odinokaya-luna-kak-kate-nv-zapisala-samyy-optimistichnyy-russkiy-albom-goda/

Interview in Russian highlighting some of her influences. Reads fine through Google Translate.

this album is soooo gooood. "Ça Commence Par" and "Telefon" <3

It is! The influences are glaringly obvious (though i've not translated that Russian article so can only assume) but she manages to transcend them.

Just got the CD, which has a couple of bonus tracks. Like the old days!

Hour long podcast with her on Resident Advisor:

https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?exchange=523

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmbYo7ZLqck&feature=youtu.be

I assume this is what the Cats movie was like?

whatever that is, it won't play for me :(

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.

whoa -- this live video is excellent + a good reminder to revisit this record that hit me at a weird time last year.

would be rad to see this lineup the US when that is a thing again. thanks for sharing!

Damn that video is indeed excellent, wish I spoke Russian.

The bass playing is the closest thing I've heard to Mick Karn in a very long time.

is that a metal neck on the bass?

her voice is somehow even better live

another live show, kind of similar setlist. still she's always a joy to watch so click it

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