YEDM introduced K4LT as a new artist in July 2023, with his pensive, ambient track called “LCPD”. It was a follow-up to his first EP, Endgame, and was two years in the making as well as a departure from his original style. Now focused more on electronic production, “LCPD” has seen an intriguing amount of buzz, both from the industry and fans. Audiences are put on notice, however, not to settle into the dreamy, celestial vibe of “LCPD”. A very different mood is incoming with K4lT’s latest track, “This Room (Reprise)”.
The Belin-based K4LT, whose artist name is a stylized version of the German word “kalt” (trans. “cold” in English), has said his new rash of songs is a reflection of the isolation created by the COVID lockdowns and the struggle of people even now to remember how to socialize. “This Room,” released early this month, with its pseudo-goth synth styling, relentless, quick-paced beat and the ennui and anxiety heavy in the lyrics, gives a disturbingly accurate picture of what many people are experiencing post-pandemic.
…the experience of more and more of your friends (and probably yourself too a bit) turn into modern day hermits, giving up on parts of life like relationships or having fun in life at all. Just trying to make it without giving any efforts into what would make them truly happy. And the songwriter being afraid how that ends (reading the “list of deaths per year”). In the end the song is about not accepting this defeats and fighting to get up, be motivated (“up to interfere”).
“This Room (Reprise)” is also meant to be throwback to a song of the same name by The Notwist, one of K4LT’s biggest influences. This is not a remix or a cover, but a complete re-imagining of the track, as The Notwist’s original is more directly shoegaze and post punk with some interesting vintage and experimental interludes, which might remind some fans of mid-era Radiohead or Death Cab for Cutie merging with Venetian Snares. Refreshingly honest about naming his influences and inspirations, K4LT’s version is both a continuation of the original tone of the track and a reversal. Where The Notwist’s original is soft, vulnerable and largely rock-based, K4LT’s reprise semi-industrial and itchy, pacing, impatient, bordering on frustrated. A contrary statement to the original, but no less impactful.
Perhaps “This Room (Reprise)” meant to show the difference in the way we manage relationships and interact with each other since the lockdown. Rather than focusing on a relationship and where it’s going, we’re constantly looking outward whilst staying inward, not satisfied but not willing to do anything about it. A tech-driven futility and an inability to process emotions through relationships – or even at all – stamps this track. That itch is there though, K4LT warns, and it’s ready to break the surface, the portends of the last line repeated before the song cuts off: “…up to interfere; up to interfere.”
“This Room (Reprise)” is out now and available to stream along with K4LT’s other works on Spotify. They can also be purchased on Bandcamp.