Oslo-based noise-and-then-some rockers KITE release their fourth album, Currents (review here), today through Majestic Mountain Records. Tomorrow night, the three-piece comprised of vocalist/guitarist Ronny Flissundet (also Damokles, Dunderbeist), bassist/vocalist Ole Helstad (also SÂVER) and drummer Bjarne Ryen Berg (Jacqueline) celebrate the offering with a hometown set as part of the second night of the Høstsabbat festival, bringing their particular brand of chaos and Currents‘ invitation to be overwhelmed to the low-ceilinged basement of Kulturkirken Jakob, where I have no doubt it will be duly intense and crushing as an aural and visual experience. I’ve been fortunate enough to be there several times. That basement is a thing of beauty in its dinge. I can hardly think of a better setting for KITE to mark the advent of Currents.

Too thoughtful in its attack to be haphazard, and too swinging in its rhythm to be staid on any level, Currents is a fucking beast. I just don’t know another way to say it. I’d love to come at you with some artsy bullshit about it, but god damn, this record is just nasty. It takes heavy influence from post-hardcore, and you can hear that a lot in the rawness of Flissundet‘s vocals, but it lands with ferocious weight in the guitar and bass — listen to “Ravines” — and you can still hear Berg‘s drums making it move. The nine-song/50-minute entirety of the record is streaming below — can’t miss it; the player’s huge — and sure, it’s got atmosphere. It’s not all pummel by any means, but even the slower-unfurling “Infernal Trails” or the title-track have their scathing moments to fit with the gnashing of “Idle Lights” or “Turbulence” earlier on, and by the time you get to “Unveering Static” at the end, there’s little else to do but to let KITE go as they will. They earn that trust, even if they seem to use it toward inevitably destructive ends.

A portion of my heart is in Norway this weekend, being blown away by seeing this live. Unfortunately, the rest of my ass is in New Jersey, doing very much not that thing.

Nonetheless, Flissundet was kind enough to present this track-by-track look at the album as a means of digging further and coinciding with the full stream on release day. I’m not calling it a premiere, because the thing’s public already, and it’s out right now, but whatever. It’s still something I thought worth highlighting and I hope you dig it.

Enjoy:

KITE, Currents Track-by-Track with Ronny Flissundet:

1. ‘Idle Lights’

This was originally meant to be much shorter, functioning as the intro part to ‘Turbulence’, but we had such a blast droning away in the studio, we couldn’t get enough of the eerie and repetitive mood. So, we just kept going, and it ended up as a separate instrumental, noisy track.

2. ‘Turbulence’

This was the first single to be released from the album and for us an obvious choice, since we feel it really sums up the sound of the album in many ways. The main riff was written years and years ago, but I never really found a place for it until the verses came along, not long before recording the demos. The theme spins around a nightmarish vibe, describing a post-apocalyptic Oslo in a dark and merciless winter.

3. ‘Murdress’

‘Murdress’ was meant for one of my other band projects, Dunderbeist, and almost got recorded in a totally different version back in 2019, but we dropped it off that album mostly because we never found the right kind of vocals for it. So, it was picked up again when initiating the demo rounds for Currents and ended up as one of the band’s favourite tracks. Both punky and doomy in a nice ’90s hardcore blend. And yeah, it’s about an ex.

4. ‘Ravines’

Written in affection for the magnificent dark green woodlands in Norway, a place I tend to explore when looking for peace and inspiration. Apparently, it worked with ‘Ravines’, despite not sounding too peaceful, it has a frenetic diversity between post-hardcore and a more stoner/sludge assault.

5. ‘Currents’

The second single from Currents is the title-track and it has a heavy ’90s groove and attitude about it, with guest vocals from the singer of my other band Damokles, Gøran Karlsvik. He gives a special touch, nerve and madness to the track. The song is about breaking free from destructive patterns, turning fortune around and just about staying afloat instead of being dragged under by treacherous currents.

6. ‘Infernal Trails’

Yet another ode to Norwegian nature, this one has a lot more peaceful feel to it. At least in the opening. The recording of the track is also very random and not too planned. We had very little structure when we started it, except the two parts with vocals, but the version that ended up on tape was recorded at 3:00am and just felt like pure magic at the time. I can’t deny that both Neurosis and Motorpsycho was somewhere on my mind during writing/recording.

7. ‘Ferret’

Another tune about breaking free! Which I think at the time while writing the album material was occupying my mind a whole lot. Being on my way out of a long relationship that had gone stale. This was like therapy from my inner voice and longings, manifested in words and music. I love how the arrangement of the song evolves from Part 1 to Part 2, changing the mood from a straightforward post-hardcore vibe to a more floating shuffle feel.

8. ‘Heroin’

Not about drugs but using drugs as a metaphor for addiction or that urge to continually perform and deliver on one’s own expectations. I set high goals for myself in life, even to the point of putting myself in some stressful situation at times, and ‘Heroin’ is sort of the result of that. It’s dark and heavy, mixing the unpleasant and eerie with the trippier and more atmospheric.

9. ‘Unveering Static’

This is the last song we wrote before entering the studio and it also turned out to be the album closer. It was written at a time when I was spinning around in my previously mentioned life situation. This endless feeling of monotony and stagnation, to an overwhelming extent. “The static keeps repeating” are the final words on the track, and on the album, kind of summing it up both with conclusion and confusion.

Kite, “Turbulence” official video

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Tags: Currents, KITE, KITE Currents, Majestic Mountain Records, Norway, Oslo

This entry was posted on Friday, October 8th, 2021 at 6:05 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.