There’s always a moment when an artist with a reputation for electronic music severity discovers the cheap thrill of a perfect pop song, and Chances finds Kontravoid standing over the evidence with a butcher’s knife in his hand, dripping blood-red from your severed expectations. Behind that mask, it’s difficult to tell whether Cameron Findlay looks pleased with himself, but the hook suggests he’s been planning this for some time.
Findlay has spent years making electronic music built from locked doors, hard angles, and basslines with the social instincts of a nightclub bouncer. Chances, the latest preview from Sound of the Void, due October 2 through Artoffact Records, loosens that grip without turning soft. There’s a trace of Cabaret Voltaire’s “Why Kill Time” in its marriage of electronic unease and pop temptation, the sense that a tune can slip something deeply questionable past you simply by making your hips complicit. The bassline supplies the charm, the synthesizers raise suspicions, and by the time the hook takes hold, you’re already eating a stranger’s piece of candy in the back of a white van.
The surprise is not that Kontravoid can write pop. The surprise is how naturally this thing fits this masked marvel.
The song opens with clipped, almost cryptic lines pushed through a harsh vocal treatment, Findlay’s voice sounding less sung than transmitted from some badly damaged communications device. Around him, warped synthesizers bend and smear, but the track never loses its discipline. The bass is lush and melodic, the electro beat keeps the body moving, and the arrangement has enough open space to let the hooks land cleanly. Then the verse seems to come apart at the seams. His voice gives way to a wash of effects and a series of shouts, as if the song has briefly forgotten the difference between a chorus and an alert from the Emergency Broadcast System.
This is pop music with the wiring exposed. It has the sleek economy of synthpop, but Findlay refuses to sand down the abrasion that makes Kontravoid recognizable. The sinister pads and forceful rhythms still carry the weight of coldwave and EBM, only now they are being used in service of something broader, catchier, and frankly more dangerous because it might get stuck in your head before you realize how severe it is.
That expansion also makes sense for a project that has never been as one-dimensional as the mask suggests. From Undone through Too Deep and Faceless, Findlay has always buried melody inside the machinery; Chances simply drags it forward and lets the damn thing breathe.
Listen to “Chances” below and pre-order Sound of the Void, due out October 2 via Artoffact Records, here. Sound of the Void will be available digitally, on CD, and on clear vinyl.
Following Detachment in 2024, Findlay’s second full-length for Artoffact gives melody more room to move through the Kontravoid universe, and Chances makes a persuasive case for taking the chance of leaving your doors unlocked. There’s a blade concealed beneath the song’s immaculate pop tailoring, however, and anyone attempting to call the genre police will find the phone line has been cut.
Kontravoid is currently on tour in North America, co-headlining with Australian electronic artist Buzz Kull. The run concludes October 24 at the SUBSTANCE festival in Los Angeles. The October 2 album release falls on the tour’s Kansas City stop.
Spike Hellis and Normal Bias will join the bill in Spokane, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and Sacramento. Tickets and further information are available through Kontravoid’s official website.
Tour Dates:
- September 22 — Foufounes Électriques — Montreal, QC
- September 24 — Cafeteria — Toronto, ON
- September 25 — Funhouse at Mr. Smalls — Pittsburgh, PA
- September 26 — Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. — Milwaukee, WI
- September 28 — Icehouse — Minneapolis, MN
- October 1 — The 808 — Indianapolis, IN
- October 2 — Encore at Uptown Theater — Kansas City, MO
- October 3 — HQ — Denver, CO
- October 4 — Metro Music Hall — Salt Lake City, UT
- October 6 — Big Dipper — Spokane, WA*
- October 8 — Biltmore Cabaret — Vancouver, BC*
- October 9 — El Corazon — Seattle, WA*
- October 10 — Star Theater — Portland, OR*
- October 13 — Holland Project — Reno, NV
- October 15 — Starlet Room — Sacramento, CA*
- October 16 — Backstage Bar — Las Vegas, NV
- October 23 — SUBSTANCE at Great American Music Hall — San Francisco, CA
- October 24 — SUBSTANCE at Belasco Theatre — Los Angeles, CA
*With Spike Hellis and Normal Bias.
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Featured photo by Weirdo Music Forever
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