The wait is over. One year after their first release, power dance duo Kx5 have released their self-titled debut album.
The album was co-written by Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Finn Bjarnson, who also wrote Kaskade and deadmau5’s “I Remember,” Kaskade’s “Atmosphere” and “With You.”
One year ago, Kx5 dropped their first single “Escape” with Hayla.
Billboard named it as one of the “50 Best Dance Songs of 2022.” The single laid the framework for fans to prepare themselves on what to expect from the project. Future Kx5 releases would carry the essence of the duo’s masterminds’, deadmau5 and Kaskade, first collaboration together, “I Remember” and then “Move For Me” followed shortly thereafter.
The few album’s opening tracks, “Alive” and “Escape” saw a release prior to the album. The sonic tonalities are explorable, adventurous, and euphoria-inducing. While Kx5 clearly know how to drive a beat, they’re also perfectionists at crafting diaphanous melodies. These highly explorative rhythms and leads carry us through “Bright Lights,” “pwdr Blu,” and “When I Talk,” but things change when we arrive at “Eat Sleep” with Richard Walters.
We are teased into the track with a continuous stream of the light and wispy percussion and melodies, but halfway through the track, we’re instantly pulled back into a fit-to-a-tee deadmau5 sound. The rattling triplet melodies float off until the drums pounce in shortly thereafter.
“Take Me High” has some energetic gospel vocals that are complemented by a towering groove underneath, which comes pummeling down in “Avalanche” and “Unobsidian.” The album’s final track, “Unobsidian,” is a pounding progressive house anthem that plays with distorted kicks, pitched clicks, and eerie pads–and the madness ensues for the idyllic closeout.
Kx5 collaborators, AR/CO, said that their inspiration on “Bright Lights” was only a brief snapshot into their feelings about an ode to the end of summer–up in the warm mountains of Montreal.
“We wanted to write something as an ode to the end of summer,” AR/CO says in a press release shared with EDM In a Soda. “We wrote ‘Bright Lights’ last September, in the warm mountains of Montreal. It’s a snapshot of the feeling of that time for us both.”
Listen to Kx5’s self-titled debut album below.
This album follows Kx5’s explosive performance at a historic Los Angeles Coliseum. On December 10, 2022, Kx5 fans packed the LA Memorial Coliseum, breaking the record for the largest single-day concert event headlined by an electronic artist ever in North America. The event was a part of the Coliseum’s 100th anniversary celebration.
During the performance, fans were taken back to deadmau5 roots with “Faxing Berlin,” “The Veld,” “Ghosts N Stuff,” and more.
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