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

new single

https://katenv.bandcamp.com/track/d-d-dont

reminds me a lot of Jean-Michel Jarre's Zoolook. right down to the Laurie Anderson vocals

sounds kinda like foodman doing watermelon man

I'm not really into it, the way she's working with this sound is kinda played out imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhceRmd2Ink

some real great concert footage. this show would be so much fun

she uh, seems to be in a really bad place right now

https://twitter.com/kattique/status/1501975566391681024

(translates to: Today I see no way out but to just kill myself.)

i was wondering how she was doing atm :(

that's so awful. i hope she can find peace (without doing anything drastic).

happier news:

Improvised music in support of "Helping to Leave" Ukraine charity

it's pretty

https://katenv.bandcamp.com/album/bouquet

yep Bouquet is crazy good more pls

this seems promising

https://www.firerecords.com/fire-signs-kate-nv-angel-deradoorians-new-project-decisive-pink/

Promising, indeed. I can't imagine what she's going through in Russia right now.

new song out, sounds like she's doing a Far Side Virtual thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86UHdsbNZKs

dunno if people saw this but there's a kate nv guest vocal on the (extremely lovely) new soyuz album...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AcEiva70hU
SOYUZ (СОЮЗ) Ft. Kate NV - I Knew It (Я так и знал)

new album, looks like it's gonna be full of the Zoolook-style digital sampling she's been doing lately. so maybe not exactly a follow up to Room for the Moon but I have liked those tracks so far

https://katenv.bandcamp.com/album/wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4euYMd4-l0

ooh i do like the new single

this is great

Video = Kateamari Damacy

(song is awesome too)

holy smokes thats a strange video

Pleasant surprise, she has a new project with Angel Deradoorian called Decisive Pink. First single is more conventional synth pop than her solo stuff but it has a nice trippy shining future vibe (via focus on dominant 7th chord): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLrdPMAguUQ

It's hitting me in my nostalgic feels. Fantastic.

Nice. She's coming to Big Ears next year, I'm intrigued.

yeah that single is nice, looking forward to the full album. it kind of sounds like a direction Stereolab could've gone in. hope they emphasize the vocal harmonies because they're damn good

in other news apparently she's also doing a show in Chicago? I might have to try to make that

new song - Meow Chat

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

meow chat has a proper video now (neow):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQf84KubJjE

kate did a mix for late junction on bbc radio 3: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hbpb

in case you can't be bothered to click on that, the tracks she played were...

Shiina Ringo - Stoicism
Urbangarde - Commercial Song
Aphex Twin - Bucephalus Bouncing Ball
Nobukazu Takemura - Murmur of the Day
Katamari Damacy - Original Video Game Soundtrack
Macdonald Duck Eclair - Ya...Pa Pa!
Momoe Yamaguchi - Koi no Hotline

wonkee formatting lol oops apols

oh wow i hadn't heard macdonald duck eclair before and they sound like a very emil.y band :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4MIe0PRA04
Macdonald Duck Eclair - Mac Teenage Riot (2004)

getting very off-topic but this track of theirs is gorgeous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE0UDfM-vm4
Macdonald Duck Eclair - The Yellow Go

yesss Macdonald Duck Eclair are excellent, plus they have a Longmont Potion Castle name

yeah i like what they got goin'!

Wow is upon us! Sounds good, if mostly back in not-actual-pop-songy territory, just as the previews were suggesting.

huge Rainbow Islands vibes from "confessions at the dinner table"

Love this

yeah it's exactly what I was hoping for given the preview tracks. no real songs but a lot of nice sounds. I know this comparison is lame but you know how all the animals and people in Katamari are only capable of making weird wordless noises? well this is like if you put together a barnyard jam band there

this is lots of fun. love the pings and pops, tho at times they did make me think i was getting a work notification lol

first album from her other project due in June

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/decisive-pink/ticket-to-fame/

that's pretty quick but I am pretty sure nearly all of WOW was recorded before Room for the Moon. in fact you can hear proto versions of those tracks on here if you listen closely. so I guess it makes sense that her actual "new project" is actually something upcoming and not this.

yeah her instagram post for Wow's release says it was made around the same time as Moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8vDsOJSpxQ

this album's gonna be real good I think. vocals remind me a bit of Stereolab

yeah, i'm more excited for this than the Kate NV album. which is saying something.

oh wow i hadn't heard macdonald duck eclair before and they sound like a very emil.y band :)

Completely missed these posts - I had not heard them before and they *are* a very emil.y band. Loving this.

xp All the Decisive Pink preview tracks so far have been great. Wish the album were coming out sooner!

Love this new project.

So Ticket to Fame is out and it's a lovely treat.

Lovely treat is exactly right, especially "Cosmic Dancer." Optimistic space-pop perfection. Also love the flute throughout--shades of early Kraftwerk.

I like this!

oooh yeah. this is something ILX needs to hear. in the sense that it reminds me of a lot of things that ILX likes. and yeah it totally has that Ralf & Florian/Autobahn sound! would be a shame if this didn't get the attention that WOW did, I mean I'm a fan of everything she does but this one I think makes good on the promises of her best stuff

yeah this is very good stuff, easily my favourite album she's been involved with

a bunch of this album reminds me of this Telex song in particular

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dKZB09aUzI

Decisive Pink euro touro announced:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CuXGShMNCT6/

Bizarrely they're playing here in the tiniest pub (capacity 100!), just a mile away at the bottom of the hill from where i live. Am completely losing my mind about this, holy heck

i mean, this is what the stage looks like in there:

https://brightonsource.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/5-The-Rosehill-Tavern-Brighton-SOURCE-Ashley-Laurence-Time-for-Heroes-Photography.jpg

Only two UK dates and one at the Rose Hill? Bloody hell!

wow, that's crazy. I was really close to seeing her in Chicago but that's kind of a drive and I couldn't make it work. but the show seemed to just be at some bar/coffee shop, would've been super cool

Ticket booked for the Brighton show. Pumped!

Decisive Pink London show cancelled!

any idea why?

None at all. I just received a Dice notification. I was looking forward to it :(

Weird! Can't find any further info online. Still tickets available for brighton though, so don't think that's affected.

(come hang out with us if you fancy it!)

something i did find during my investigations though...

Wassily Kandinsky
Decisive Pink
1932 pic.twitter.com/Q5sYnFjUFV

— Silviavers (@Silvia39217738) November 3, 2023

Would love a trip to Brighton but can’t make it work unfortunately… have fun and report back please!

Sad to say it looks like the Rose Hill show is also cancelled. I saw visa issues mentioned.

huh. i went as surrealism for halloween and as part of that i wore a tank top with a kandinsky print on the front.

i used to have a cd called "live at the knitting, factory, vol. iii" and this piece called "kandinsky" was on it. i like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8N2CBMA6KA

Sad to say it looks like the Rose Hill show is also cancelled. I saw visa issues mentioned.

so shit, who the fuck even benefits from not granting a visa for this?

I meant to listen to this and maybe go to the gig but forgot until tonight, then I was like oh shit the gig was tonight wasn't it? but turns out it wasn't anyway. oh well. I am going to too many gigs this month already anyway. my ears still hurt from Slowdive last week

from her social media just in case any fans here missed it: "Playing at Lincoln center, nyc, march 14th, free entrance"

ok this in a surround sound environment is super cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhasBUClmC0

Kate seems to be pretty busy with Glintshake business at the moment
https://www.instagram.com/glintshake?igsh=MWc0bzNtd3YzbG45Yg==

look at these track times!

https://igetrvng.com/products/kate-nv-room-for-the-moon-live/

oh that looks great!

“The approach was something like: ‘Guys, we’re playing songs, but here we can go really wild,’” she recalls. “I had some ‘musts’ that we needed to recreate as closely as possible because it was crucial for the songs, but it was never a priority to put everyone into a cage of the originals. The tracks only gained something from this, and sound more powerful than the original versions.”

I dunno if I've seen video from this specific show but I've seen this band do Telefon and Lu Na (well, on YouTube) and indeed they get pretty far out

first track released...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcZc-pojv0k
kate nv — marafon 15 (live)

really good btw

can't even remember what the last live album i bought was but getting this one for sure

wow, incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhceRmd2Ink

this is from another show with the same band and it's transcendent so this live album's going to be the best thing she's ever put out, surely?

Already preordered the hell out of it.

oh this is sounding great. the 2 preview singles have video on YouTube, i hope the full show is put out

yeah this is the best thing she's ever done easily, her band here is incredible

another one added at least.... love this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASu3pG1YsVg

yeah, this one and "Sayonara" are my favorites so far but this whole record is great

this is crazy good, it blows the studio album out of the water, and that's saying something for me because I've probably listened to that more than anything released in the last decade at least

it sort of changes the record entirely, the studio record is fascinating instrumentally but it still feels like her pop record, while this is a full band production of which Kate is only a part. the songs themselves seem to be opened way up too. so it feels like something a lot different than the studio album, even though it's all the same songs.

in fact what it reminds me of is Sting's Bring on the Night live album, when he had that crazy good jazz band in tow and let them go buck wild on a bunch of deep cuts. except this music is way more interesting, hell on Marafon 15 they almost sound like 80s Crimson. at other points Talking Heads or even Can. was this band really assembled just for this? they sound like they've been playing together for years

i went digging and they have a fair bit of history together. the bassist & drummer play with her in glintshake, and the sax player and clarinet player both have done session work with glintshake. she met most of this band (i assume except for her glintshake bandamtes) in 2016 when they were hired by a mutual friend to be the backing band for a doug hream blunt show in moscow, and that band (without blunt) put out a single in 2017 under the name РТЫ.

https://soundcloud.com/user-817715988/sets/kuda-idti-chuma

she said she'd originally hoped to record her next album with this band but doesn't know if that will ever be possible as many of them (including her) have left russia due to the war, so getting everyone in one place again doesn't seem like it will be possible anytime soon

she goes into most of that in this interview: https://www.thefader.com/2025/07/08/kate-nv-room-with-a-moon-live-album-interview

she rules so much

On the track “Lu Na,” for instance, there's a coda that’s a bit prog rockish. Most of us in the band are huge nerds, and we love bands like Gentle Giant, so at some point during rehearsal, we finished the song and just started playing, and it turned into this crazy, funny, stupid thing. When it was over, I was like, “Let's just do it during the show,” and everyone was like, “Kate, you're crazy. It’s garbage,” but we kept it. I always wanted to play in a prog rock band, so I loved it.

This is excellent!

now in video form!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT9usp9j2zo