Flyin' South For Winter

Bit of a different post this time around, a leftover from the Submithub roundups that didn't fit in any of the other ones. So instead I did some digging and instead of picking one track got my dannies on the full EP (with Kin Klavé's permission of course. And what a generous EP offering it is, more recently I've been used to 2-3 track EPs with maybe a remix if you're lucky, so to have Volare clock in with 6 tunes of decent length is a breath of fresh air. More on that after the embedded EP itself, note the superb cover art, that printed style is very evocative of Sigur Rós' Takk... era, with the added bonus of if you pick it up on CD each cover being different and printed personally by Kin Klavé (more info on that at the bandcamp page)



So let's breakdown the EP shall we? There is an intro track but I will be skipping onto track 2, Isola, it was the one I first heard via submithub and I think is the default first play over on the bandcamp page. And a pretty listen it is, I do always appreciate some downtempo in my inbox which is part of the reason I went digging. That and I do always like a smidgen of strings in my electronic from time to time, and the eastern styled ones on show here are a treat to listen to.

Mantissa is also an early highlight, a much more hip-hop influenced piece than the previous that takes me back to many a bleary-eyed night up searching for the bump music from [adult swim], where it would have probably been right at home. Speaking of nostalgia, towards the end I get that same warm and fuzzy vibe as I do from Röyksopp's Sparks too. Which is followed by even more variety, with Helvellyn having more than a bit of a house streak to it. It almost reminds me of the Salt City Orchestra remix of Marshall Jefferson's Mushrooms, I always love hearing having that slow layering of elements over time.

Overall, a very refreshing change. And it came at an opportune time too, just as I was digging through old Rephlex stuff like Global Goon and Cylob to scratch my mellow IDM-style itch. Granted, Volare is probably closer to The Flashbulb in tone, particularly on Drums & Sounds 1 but that's not a bad thing at all either. I'm not sure I can make my mind up about the variety though; on one hand it's nice to hear, and taking on so many genres competently is impressive within itself, but at times I'd catch myself wanting to hear a full EP of one particular style, but saying that there's a fair degree of consistency between them all so in the long run I suppose isn't too big of an issue.

Very strong for a debut EP, I don't even have any mastering gripes like I ocassionally have with debuts, it's just up to Kin Klavé where they take their sounds from here!

You can find more Kin Klavé on:
Twitter
Soundcloud
Facebook
Bandcamp

-Claude Van Foxbat