Kate NV Breaks Conventions to Maximize Fun on WOW
The Russian polymath follows her curious sensibilities in pursuit of joy on colorful fourth studio LP
In the video for the single “oni (they),” a digital Kate Shilonosova, marching forward always, waddles across an undulating landscape in which everyday objects are suspended in the thin air. She collides with levitating rubbish bags, synthesizers, street signs, palettes, televisions, taxicabs, even cats (they’ll show up again later). If she ambles straight into them, they’ll latch on to her as she trudges forward; despite the cumbersome fact of it all, Shilonosova remains unphased: after all, if it gets to be too much, they’ll all fall off at once. She can keep on keeping on. She can stop and admire whatever she wants to, whenever she wants.
In essence, that’s the premise of the song and the record. Shilonosova teamed up with Japanese footwork producer Foodman to pen lyrics touching on lost fruits and vegetables strewn about the road. They’re pops of colors we might miss if we don’t let ourselves get delighted. On WOW, Shilonosova’s latest album as Kate NV, she assembles a panoply of curious sounds and visions to delight beyond what typical music can do.
WOW isn’t fun like a class clown, per se, but more like a clown with class. Over the years, Shilonosova’s toying with busted instruments, manipulated vocals and everyday objects has led her to amass a treasure trove of recordings of all things spontaneous. Drawing on the boundless curiosity of her hero Nobukazu Takemura, Shilonosova’s own love for all things fun and vibrant has her eschewing traditional structures in order to construct pop songs so stimulating and multifaceted that they can be hard to keep track of. Her songs ask a lot of listeners not because they are overdetermined works of art but because they require dropping all pretense and submitting oneself to forbidden levels of whimsy. It’s a difficult exercise, but oh so rewarding.