The KVB

Blending reverb-drenched production with minimalist electronics, The KVB’s constantly evolving cold wave always reflects their mastery of atmosphere. On early releases like their 2012 debut album “Always Then,” Kat Day and Nicholas Wood’s brittle rhythms and sonic explosions evoked Cabaret Voltaire and Jesus and Mary Chain in equal measure. Later, the duo’s style encompassed the lean, edgy sounds of 2018’s “Only Now Forever,” the expansive vistas of 2021’s “Unity,” and the darkly danceable atmospherics of 2024’s “Tremors.”

Singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Wood founded The KVB in 2010 as a solo project while living in Southampton, England. This incarnation of the project released a series of limited edition cassettes and vinyl that included the single “The Black Sun” on FLA Records and the June 2011 EP “Into the Night” on Downwards Records. That same year, singer/keyboardist/visual artist Day joined Wood, and The KVB released their debut album, “Always Then” in 2012 on Clan Destine Records. The duo kicked off a busy 2013 with the release of their second full-length, “Immaterial Visions,” on Minimal Wave label Cititrax in February, followed by a remix EP featuring contributions from Regis and Silent Servant in May; a reissue of the 2011 limited edition cassette “Minus One” then arrived in November on the A Records label (from the mind of Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe).

In 2014, The KVB ventured into Newcombe’s Berlin studio to record what would become the “Out of Body” EP, which A Records released later that year. This session marked The KVB’s first recordings made outside of the duo’s home studio, as well as the first time they worked with drummer Joe Dilworth, known for playing with Stereolab and Cavern of Anti-Matter. Wood and Day collected some of the most experimental work recorded in 2014 on “Mirror Being,” which Invada released the following June. The band continued to move in a more experimental and heavily electronic direction with 2016’s “Of Desire,” which The KVB recorded with vintage synths from Invada frontman Geoff Barrow’s collection. The “Fixation/White Walls” EP followed in 2017; the duo also released a remastered fifth anniversary edition of “Always Then” that year. Additionally, Wood launched his solo project Saccades with a self-titled debut album.

For 2018’s “Only Now Forever,” The KVB took a freer and more independent approach, recording alone in their Berlin apartment for much of the year. On their next album, Wood and Day shifted gears again. Taking inspiration from the stark beauty of the unfinished luxury villas they saw during a stint in Spain in 2019, Wood and Day combined retro-futuristic synths and danceable beats into their shoegaze backing track with the help of producer Andy Savors on “Unity” by November 2021. Saccades’ second album, “Flowing Fades”, was also released in the same year.

The KVB moved to Cleopatra for their next project, “Artefacts (Reimaginings from the Original Psychedelic Era)” released in May 2023. Representing a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Nuggets’ first collection, the album sees Day and Wood reworking the songs of psych-rock pioneers including the Castaways, the Troggs and the Pretty Things in their own dark electro-rock style. Later that same year, Wood released Saccades’ third album, “Land of the Hearth.” Day and Wood returned to Invada for April 2024’s “Tremors.” Revisiting The KVB’s industrial and post-punk foundations, the album’s dystopian pop was partly influenced by Jorge Luis Borges’ tales of the changing nature of truth.