Bleep

Kate NV’s Room For The Moon runs the thoughtful approach to songcraft and texture that characterises Talk Talk’s best work through the same filter of playful irreverence often used by Haruomi Hosono. Anyone familiar with the Moscow-based artist’s 2018 LP для FOR will recognise the sonic palette that she works with here. Like its predecessor, Room For The Moon is replete with warm chords, energetic tuned percussion tones and bright synthesised strings. It’s a friendly and open sound, one that invokes Kate NV’s fellow RVNG Intl. labelmates Visible Cloaks.

However, there are two clear evolutions in Kate NV's sound present here - the increased emphasis given to rhythm, and the amount of tracks which prominently feature her vocals. Whereas для FOR was a largely drum-free record, several of the numbers here drive forward on punchy beats that lean to either no-wave disco (‘Ça Commence Par’) or post-punk reminiscent of early records by Japan and The Cure (‘Plans’). In these moments Kate NV proves a strangely charismatic presence up front, her quixotic singing scuttling around the mixes, but the times where her vocals are used texturally - for example the background harmonies on ‘Tea (Full Cup Version)’, one of the tracks here in which rhythm takes a backseat to texture - are equally compelling.

Room For The Moon is a delightful record of off-kilter pop productions from Moscow-based artist Kate NV.