Phew...what the...? Why on earth does my editor-in-chief throw things like this in my general direction?
The answer to that, is of course that he's simply swamped in work, and therefore cannot screen the stuff which is offered to him by download. All he has to go by, really, is his (occasionally failing) memory, his experience with the labels, and the info sheets which (usually, but not always) accompany the downloads. And so, when an album comes through a label which he has good experiences with, but which has no mention as to musical direction in the info sheet, misfortunes sometimes happen (in my personal case, this means being confronted with stuff which is normally fàr out of the normal working field of this website – something I usually tend not to complain about at all – and in the case the chief, meaning time spent on stuff not worth it). But...enough complaining, and let's get on with business as usual, starting with some history lessons.
This band from Leicestershire, UK, which describes its music as Ambient/ Electro/ Pop, was founded in 2006 by singer Nick Moon, guitarist/ keyboardist Tom Lowe, and drummer Scott Hislop. In those days, the band's music (as on 2006's self-released EP Switch Motion To The Sky) was often described as Shoegazer (or Neo-Shoegazer) and Post-Rock, but since then the music took on a shift towards a more Electro and Pop influenced sound. Success came swiftly to the band, in fact already with their 2007 debut single Planet, as the b-side song “Boundaries” was used in a US trailer for hugely popular TV series The Sopranos. Japan was way ahead of the game on Kyte, as they (through Rallye Records) had the self-titled debut album a year prior than either the UK and Europe, where it was released in 2008 (through Kids Records and Erased Tapes Records respectively) to generally positive reviews.
This enabled the band to set out on its first real tour of the UK (done between March and May 2008), and to perform at some of the bigger Summer festivals. That same year, Rallye released the Japan Tour EP to coincide with the band's tour there, and Kids Records also released the Two Sparks, Two Stars EP. Songs from the latter (alongside extra new songs) were included on the Japanese two-disc release of sophomore album Science For The Living, released in April 2009 through Rallye (the bonus disc also featured a remix of the opening track on disc 1). That year, Kyte again played in Japan, performing at the 10th Anniversary edition of the infamous Summer Sonic Festival. There was talk about Science For The Living also being released in the UK, but so far I have no confirming info sources to that effect.
Third album Dead Waves was issued in April 2010 (through Rallye in Japan, and with Kids taking on the complete European release), again to mostly positive reviews. After winning a competition on BBC's The Beat program, the band opened the main stage at Summer Sundae Weekender. Last year, the band again went to the Far Orient, playing at Hidden Agenda (Hong Kong) and Fuji Rock Festival (Japan) in July.
This bringing us up to date, and it's been 3 years since the band's previous album, the longest time ever between albums for the band! As hinted to above, it's not the band's musical direction I have problems with. In fact, I kinda like the music, which at one side focuses on piano songs with added keyboards, and on somewhat Poppy guitar songs with added keyboard-generated electronics. Nay, my beef with Kyte is in the vocal department! You see, the sighed singing (with backing vocals done in an effeminately high tone) may get an award from yours truly in the department of “most original”, but they're also incredibly limited and therefore boring to the extreme, especially after repeated listening sessions of the album! At (www.) kyteband.co.uk, you'll find videos in the News section for the album's songs “You & I” and “Scratches” (alongside some others), and in the Sounds section “You & I” as well as “Blood Anger” are featured. You'll also find links to the band's pages at facebook , iTunes , YouTube , MySpace and Last.fm , where I'm sure you'll find even more audio and video material waiting to be listened to and viewed.
So, if you're still interested, by all means visit and make up your own mind about this band! I mean, quite a lot of people dó like Kyte, and you just might be one of them. However, don't expect me to share that opinion! The “high” rating allotted to the album is mainly thanks to the music displayed on it!