What does it mean to be big in Japan? For Leicester band Kyte, it means having this, their fourth album, hit number two in the iTunes charts there, while having almost no profile in their native UK.
Love To Be Lost is dream-pop in the truest sense, with pulsing electronica layered among washes of meticulously effected vocals and guitars. Breaking Bones is a stunning opener, and after that there’s not a weak track on here.
Showing the band’s fixation with texture and ambience, cuts like Aerials still ebb and flow, building with the same gentle determination that marked their hallmark songs like Planet. Yet the melodies are more immediate here, with Nick Moon’s vocals more pronounced. Where before their influences could have been described as a shopping-list of ambient and post-rock pioneers – from Eno to the Cocteau Twins – this time around they’ve as much in common with alternative balladeers like Death Cab For Cutie.
Those breathy vocals won’t be for everyone, but for the most part they lend an air of intimacy to the album, giving Love To Be Lost the feel of a whispered missive rather than the brash, bold pop it could have been.
