King Midas Sound is comprised of Kevin Martin (also known for his work under The Bug moniker), singer/poet Roger Robinson, and vocalist Kiki Hitomi. Their landmark 2009 debut Waiting For You on Hyperdub quickly established them as falling sonically, somewhere between sub-electronic lovers rock, dub and the bleakest, slowest mutation of narco hip hop, while on the live front they were nestled somewhere between the apocalypse and fx drenched, shoegaze laments. In both arena's they are known as a brooding sonic force. With a move over to Ninja Tune, and the release of 2013's lauded Aroo single and in particular its b-side 'Funny Love' an even deeper sense of spaciousness began to set in. That tracks dramatic tonal shift, acted as a catalyst for the idea of a conceptual collaborative project (while the next KMS proper record is being put together) to be born. Hence this first edition (of a series of four), appropriately titled Editions 1
Looking even further back it does seems fitting that the person (Kevin Martin) who once curated a compilation called Isolationism is one of the key contributors behind this truly mesmeric examination of melancholy and desolation, Editions 1 features collaborator number one, Austrian guitarist / electronic musician Fennesz. Who's 2001 album, Endless Summer, was a swirling mix of electric tonal guitars and sweeping emotional shifts which inspired and sparked an admiration within Kevin and Roger, to bring him on board. Utilizing improvised guitar tracks, samples, and unreleased material from Fennesz's archive, Editions 1 took shape with within the KMS framework. In the wake of Kevin's last Bug album Angels & Devils, he wanted to create a record focused on kaleidoscopic sonic beauty, bathed in the bluest emotional lyricism. This record reflects the groups past, present, and a truly extraordinary future.
Editions 1 is a tide coming in. A fog reaching out into nothing, and encapsulating everything. An ultimate parting note drifting into absolute loneliness, swept up in a sumptuously blurred, dronal haze. Hallucinatory tone poems of heartbreak, despair, disappearance, and displacement. Seductively spatial sketches of long goodbyes. Music to cling to or to be used to move past. Sounds set adrift on their own tonal plain and reigned back in by Roger & Kiki's complimentary, yet extremely different deliveries. Cosmic blues meets a sirens song. A zonal re-examination of 'It's Raining Today' or an audio representation of a Sugimoto 'Seascapes' photo.. A high water mark forever etched to memory.
Editions 2 through 4 to follow. With collaborators kept under wraps. Each one to be a genre stretching and boundary pushing surprise. Packaged with a geometic and abstract conceptual continuity.
