Kontravoid
Sound Of The Void
Artoffact Records
The question of when, if at all, to mess with a good thing has likely weighed heavily on Cam Findlay’s mind of late. The Toronto to LA transplant behind Kontravoid has become a mainstay of dark electronics over the past decade, with a voluminous release schedule helping to entrench his signature sound – full of overdriven synths, classic electro rhythms, and moodily anthemic harmonics – within the larger club ecosystem and inspiring a number of other producers to try their hand at replicating the formula. New LP Sound Of The Void keeps a good portion of what brought Kontravoid to the dance, but also pushes into lighter melodic territory.
While 2021’s Faceless introduced a Steinman-esque grandeur which expanded the Kontravoid sound out into gothic cathedrals and hazy arenas, a brief but distinct portion of Sound Of The Void contracts that scope all the way back to the intimacy of bedroom synthpop. The moment “Chances” begins to bubble, chirp, and bounce its way through the middle of the album, the bellicose gloom and industrial thud which has defined the project dissipates in a mist of bubblegum sweetness and teenage nostalgia. It’s striking both for its novelty and for the fact that it, well, just works despite it being fresh territory for Findlay. Sure, if you wanted to squint at a couple of track’s on the 2012 self-titled debut, or Nuovo Testamento collab “Losing Game” you could find some slight precedents for these moves, but you’d be hard pressed to find the wistful downtempo of “Forever”, which is content to drift in a laid back European electro mode.
This isn’t to say that Sound Of The Void is a total reinvention of the wheel; the above are perhaps the exceptions which bring the rule of Kontravoid’s sound into distinct focus. The full-court squelchy press of “Mortal”, its diced and chopped vocal samples flickering between heavily flanged bass, and the melodic but hauntingly distant “Returning” are right in line with what modern clubgoers expect in new Kontravoid. There are also moments like “Subject” which split the difference, stripping a midtempo groove to the studs and allowing icy pulses to hold their own in the abstract; not insistent, but not whimsical either.
The sound Kontravoid’s cinched in on has become such a signature that breaks from it, even just the three or four featured on Sound Of The Void stand out. Thankfully their novelty doesn’t outweigh their quality, though, and a slightly more varied album experience is welcome as Kontravoid’s aesthetic continues to hold sway. Recomemended.
