Small yet expertly crafted, this is Kero Kero Bonito at their inventive, heartfelt best. Each song is equally ominous and optimistic, whether it's the brilliantly sprightly yet eerie 8-bit fairytale 'The Princess and the Clock,' the bittersweet realities of COVID-19 lockdown life on '21/4/20,' or the hypnotic finale 'Well Rested,' which closes with Perry intoning cryptically, 'Doomsday hasn't happened yet - you cannot stop civilization.' To say that the group packs a lot into Civilisation's six songs is an understatement, but the results are far from overwrought. Instead of getting even darker, the songs from Civilisation II respond to the first EP's cautionary tales with fables and stories that incorporate the brighter side of KKB's music and reflect how we cope with crises. Arriving just a few months before 2020 rocked the world, Civilisation I seemed prescient, but Civilisation II put Kero Kero Bonito in the unique position of being able to respond to the issues they were addressing in more or less real time. This is particularly true of Civilisation I's songs: 'Battle Lines' throws listeners into a disorienting fray of synths, polyrhythms, and Perry's vocals that owes as much to Ryuichi Sakamoto as it does to Sun Tzu's The Art of War, while 'The River' pulses along on a house-inspired beat as humanity is swept away in a cleansing flood. The trio returns to its electro-pop roots, but befitting Civilisation's subject matter, KKB adopts a much more complex style to relay the EPs' parallel history of deception, apathy, and destruction. As Sarah Midori Perry, Gus Lobban, and Jamie Bulled explore the world's urgent but deep-seated issues (war, climate change, tyranny), they encompass the past, present, and future of humanity and their music. With Civilisation - which collects 2019's Civilisation I and 2021's Civilisation II EPs - Kero Kero Bonito magnify their need to understand their place in the world to include humankind as a whole. When their hyper-pop contemporaries were trying to sound as artificial as possible, KKB humanized the style with Bonito Generation's songs about parents and graduation, and on Time 'n' Place, they used '90s alt-rock to embody the clash between nostalgia and reality that happens while growing up. The two EPs combined explore an imagined alternate universe, delving into the potential downfall of civilization and the apocalypse. Pre-order it here.Since their early days, Kero Kero Bonito have excelled at giving their musical directions an extra dose of meaning. Kero Kero Bonito brings back electronic soundscapes for its Civilisation I and II EPs, released in 20, but these records are drastically different from previous albums. Civilization II is a titanic force of a record that both expands on the original’s wondrously glitchy palette of sounds, but also elaborates on its poignant messages. Today it finally arrives, and Kero Kero Bonito have delivered big time. Listen to “The Princess And The Clock” above.Ĭivilisation II is out 4/26 via Polyvinyl. Of course, naming it Civilization I implied a forthcoming sequel. It’s a song for anyone who has ever felt trapped, lost and alone.” A legend of our own invention, ‘The Princess And The Clock’ was written before Covid emerged, though the long, lonely hours and escapist dreams its protagonist experiences will be relatable to many right now. Trapped in her chamber, she spends years dreaming of escaping, until one day she disappears. “‘The Princess And The Clock’ is the tale of a young explorer who is kidnapped while sailing the world, imprisoned at the top of a tower and worshiped as royalty by an isolated society. Speaking about “The Princess And The Clock,” the band said they wrote a fable to serve as inspiration: The upcoming three-track project was recorded using entirely vintage hardware and was inspired by art-pop pioneers like Kate Bush and Björk.

Sharing the single exuberant “The Princess And The Clock,” Kero Kero Bonito officially announce their Civilisation II EP. Now expanding on the same concept, Kero Kero Bonito return to tease a new era of music. A year later, they returned with the slow-burning, climate change-inspired EP Civilisation I. It’s been nearly three years since Kero Kero Bonito released their buoyant album Time ‘N’ Place.

Civilization ii kero kero bonito