Vancouver - I’m still trying to figure out this band. Formerly known as The Lovekevins or ‘The Lovekins’ as I called them until 3 days ago, The LK Formed in 2003 in Malmö*, Sweden as an art/music collective. They released 2 EP’s of jangly indie pop reminiscent of The Lucksmiths and early The Acid House Kings (their gem of a song ’soviet.se’ has been featured on a bunch of compilations, I’ll post it below so you can listen). After a shuffle in the band line up in 2006, they felt they needed to change not only their name but their sound, focusing more on an electropop sound or ‘musique concrète’ as they mention on their myspace bio.

Much like Postal Services’ ‘Give Up’, Vs. the Snow combines lo-fi melodies and hi-tech beats and bloops, which to be honest was a genre created and killed by the Postal Service. There’s nothing original about The LK’s latest…but that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad record. If there are hipsters reading this post (and you know who you are) you must have already heard the sure fire floor stormer ‘Private Life of a Cat’. You could play this track back to back with ‘Such Great Heights’ and not notice the transition. ‘Tamagotchi Freestyle’ (and my personal favorite) sounds like a track made just for their Japanese fans, not because of the name but if you close your eyes whilst listening you could can actually see Hello Kitties going about their cutesy colorful existence. The rest of the album follows the same formula and for what it is, it’s worth at least one listen, pick your favorites, play them ad nauseum and put the album on the shelf until you meet that special hipster dude or dudette…with a hello kitty backpack.

*I had visited Malmö that same year to try and catch a Soundtrack Of Our Lives show, under the assumption that if not on tour, a band must play a show every single night in their home city. I instead was stalked by a group of hoodies after leaving a shwarma shop on my way back to the hostel.

3.5/5

I’m going to post 2 tracks - ’soviet.se’ from their earlier Max Léon EP and ‘Tamagotchi Freestyle’ from Vs. The Snow

 

 The Lovekevins - soviet.se: Play Now

 

 The LK - Tamagotchi Freestyle: Play Now