As many will already know, Karl Kave is the moniker created to express on first take, with no overdubs, what goes in the mind of the Swiss musician known as Carlo Onda.
With a minimal set-up of guitars, pedals, synths, drum machines and plenty of heartfelt imagination without boundaries, he dubs it ‘Existential Synthpunk’.
This time the inspiration seems to have been triggered, during recording studio sessions, by chatter and hints to shoegaze sounds, giving birth to two heartbreaking nocturnal and obsessive ballads dense with vibrant gloomy bass throbs, reverb-drenched droning and sparkling mists refracted through the groovy prism of soul and R&B, as well as haunted by an intense, somber, soulful baritone.
Both “To Close To Feel” and “Hesch Nart No Gern Lüüt?” sound like some of the bygone mysterious and intriguing kinds that used to be heard in the late 70s, early 80s, broadcast by croaking yet fascinating radio shows.
“To Close To Feel” is laced with confessional lyrics, I’m finally able to decipher, that stand in disbelief as the object of long-awaited desire has arrived.
Inexorably backed by a lashing, repetitive drum machine, a meandering pinpoint bassline sway unremittingly in a hypnotic and hallucinated slowed-down lilting pace, inoculating layers of grimy, dark lingering tension, dappled by an abrasive shimmering web of desolately quivering guitar riffs and achingly distorted echoes, to reverberate around strained, emotional male vocals tortuous drips of fear and tension into the slow-burning passions of breathless anxiety.
Just in these hours, Berlin-based Detriti Records has dropped the brand new vinyl 12″ album from Karl Kave & Durian – “Untergang und Finsternis”, described as ‘dreamy synths, dreamy lyrics, dreamy people.’
It seems this weekend we will certainly be delighted with sweet and sour delicatessen from Switzerland.
One last update to complete the Karl Kave Bacchanalia: his 4-track 7″ vinyl EP “Leg di bitte a” is definitively out on Lux Rec. Check it out!
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