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King Midas Sound

King Midas Sound is the duo of poet Roger Robinson and Kevin Martin (aka The Bug).

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New album Solitude (out on Cosmo Rhythmatic in February) is the group's first release since their collaboration with Fennesz, Edition 1 (Ninja Tune, 2015). Solitude is a meditation on loss, one that follows increasingly desolate narratives for the isolated protagonist as he processes the irrational and incessant feelings of rejection and loneliness in the aftermath of a love affair. Collaborating with Japanese photographer Daisuke Yokota on the album's striking, monochrome sleeve art, King Midas Sound plough a lonely furrow of minimal ambience and haunting melancholia, in tone poems that radiate isolation and dread.

King Midas Sound's landmark debut Waiting For You (Hyperdub, 2009) and subsequent releases on Ninja Tune set the blueprint for the band's sound, featuring Kiki Hitomi on vocals to create a mutant blend of electronic lovers' rock, dub and narco hip-hop. The band quickly established a peerless reputation for their apocalyptic yet brooding live shows utilising extreme volume and bass pressure.

With Solitude the King Midas Sound live show turns inwards, exploring the possibilities of spoken word, deep listening and low volume ambience to create a different kind of intensity that demands total immersion.

'An album where beats are largely abandoned or absorbed far back, allowing the rule of the drone ethic. Sometimes the vocals are almost startling, demanding attention as an interuption to the tonal ecstasy, and other times voices are suspended in the mix' — The Wire

'One of the bleakest testaments to heartbreak in the annals of recorded sound '— Pitchfork

'A break-up album... that is among the most vulnerable and unsettling examples of the form' - Resident Advisor

'an exploration of the grey areas where the rawest of human emotions can be found lurking' - The Quietus