K-X-P – IV

Svart

By the looks of the duo on the back of the cover and the long list of electronic machines that Timo Kaukolampi plays listed on the inside, with Tomi Leppänen having just drums and a Juno, I figured maybe K-X-P were some sort of twenty-first century take on Silver Apples. I was not too far off the mark, but the vocals that appear on IV are buried deep within the waves of sound and rhythm, and they owe as much to the dancefloor as they do to explorations of the mind.

This is K-X-P’s third album for Svart, whose roster is growing in ever more intriguing directions, and although the album contains only three tracks, it rolls in at over forty minutes, with opener “Nimeton Tie” clocking in at twenty-two and doing its best to fit an entire career into one track. There is an expansive swirl of electronics that merge with some smeared and wonderful vocals, and it all plays cat and mouse around an underground chamber somewhere.

There is a Gregorian scariness to the vocals that befit the dark-clad band members, but the atmosphere of cloistered depths gives way to some simple repetitive beats, driving and insistent, sitting somewhere between Autobahn and Orbital, with just a subtle nod to the dancefloor. The subtlety is completely overwhelmed by the arrival of the kick drum and it is driven completely on to the dancefloor. What happens then is pretty cool, because as the beats surge on, so the slow, sombre vocals are joined by the sounds of spaceships docking off in the distance, the metallic scrapes and scratches giving those listeners not magnetised by the post-techno beat something onto which they can latch.

This being K-X-P, the beats eventually peter out and the voices that glide on a kind of wave of electronic texture are calming and serene, but only for so long before the mood turns sinister and deep synth sounds start opening portals through which more disturbing vocals drift. At this point, reality starts to blur and you are unsure as to what has gone before. It is like chill-out time which kind of makes sense, but just as you are prepared for that, beats re-emerge and once again Tomi drags us back to the dancefloor until finally you are left limp and reeling.

To be honest, “Nimeton Tie” would be a perfect release as a one-sided LP, but K-X-P have more for us. After the enormity of what has gone before, the relative simplicity of “Hex Bag”, with its subtle synth loops and glorious ascending and descending bass-line adding texture to the insistent beats, is a bit of an antidote. This is less about the dancefloor and more about the joy of beats for beats’ sake, while the vocals once again hang in the air like discarded satellites. It also goes some way to preparing you for the space exploration of the final track and as the hi-hat kicks in, so the ascent begins. There is actual singing here, although it is tinkered with and trammelled by big blasts of horn synth that stop the song from descending to an earthly plane. It pulses then chills out, then pulses once again, the vocals becoming more prominent as the beats come back in, until it all finally begins a slow descent into a watery wash of receding sound.

It is like K-X-P went to do a twenty-first century dance album, and then became bored and decided to tinker and probe, until some sort of crazy hybrid between that and electronic soundscapism escaped from the studio and ran for the hills before anyone could stop it. Thank goodness nobody tried.

-Mr Olivetti-