KEN MODE – Success – April 1, 2015

Power trio KEN mode recently revealed that their forthcoming sixth full-length is entitled ‘Success’. The release date has been scheduled for June 15th (one day later in the US) and the album can already be pre-ordered in various formats through the Season of Mist shop. View the brilliant artwork and a video for the opening track “Blessed” below!

‘Success’ is a bold move towards sounds that originally inspired the band at the beginning sixteen years ago. KEN mode are proving this claim by releasing a video for the opening track “Blessed”, which has been premiered internationally by Noisey:

France
Germany
UK

The clip can also be viewed here.

“Blessed” features no guitar, only bass. The clip directed by Christopher Mills (TEGAN & SARA, RUSH, METRIC, MODEST MOUSE) boasts guest appearances from vocalist Eugene Robinson (OXBOW), cello by Natanielle Felicitas, and noise by Dylan Walker (FULL OF HELL).

KEN mode recorded ‘Success’ with legendary engineer Steve Albini (NIRVANA, THE JESUS LIZARD, PJ HARVEY) to capture the material in a fully live and analogue session in the band’s hometown in November 2014. This set-up brought to fruition the most raw, rock and roll sound this band has ever put forth.

KEN mode furthermore reveal the cover of ‘Success’, which was created by acclaimed Winnipeg based fine artist Randy Ortiz and can now be viewed below, along with the tracklist.

Blessed These Tight Jeans The Owl I Just Liked Fire Management Control A Passive Disaster Failing At Fun Since 1981 A Catalog Of Small Disappointments Dead Actors

Frontman Jesse Matthewson describes his upcoming work as being “a decidedly stripped down northern noise rock apocalypse to be unleashed on the world. Time to take this back to our roots.”

KEN mode have previously announced a European tour with Swiss post-hardcore act Cortez this April and additional dates in May and June. The Canadians will embark on their road-trip today, April 1st in Fribourg, Switzerland. A list of all shows including additional European and North American dates can be viewed below.

Tour with CORTEZ
01 Apr 15 Fribourg (CH) Fri-Son
02 Apr 15 Lyon (FR) Sonic
03 Apr 15 Frankfurt (DE) Elfer Club
04 Apr 15 Delemont (CH) Sas
05 Apr 15 Ceské Budejovice (CZ) Velbloud
06 Apr 15 Praha (CZ) 007
08 Apr 15 Geneva (CH) Usine
09 Apr 15 Tilburg (NL) Roadburn Festival
10 Apr 15 Rouen (FR) L’Oreille Qui Traine
11 Apr 15 Winterthur (CH) Gaswerk

Additional European shows
25 May 15 La Louviere (BE) Taverne Du Theatre
27 May 15 Copenhagen (DK) Kb18
28 May 15 Hamburg (DE) Astra Stube
29 May 15 Paris (FR) OTB Festival
31 May 15 Bristol (UK) Temples Festival
01 Jun 15 London (UK) Macbeth
02 Jun 15 Lille (FR) Peniche
03 Jun 15 Sint (BE) Jeugdhuis Job
04 Jun 15 Caen (FR) TBA
06 Jun 15 Poitiers (FR ) Less Playboy Is More Cowboy Fest

North American shows
16 Jun 15 Toronto, ON (CA) The Shop (Parts & Labour) (+Fight Amp +The Great Sabatini)
17 Jun 15 Montreal, QC (CA) Turbo Haus (+Fight Amp +The Great Sabatini)
18 Jun 15 Brooklyn, NY (US) St. Vitus (+Fight Amp +Pyrrhon +Couch Slut)
19 Jun 15 Philadelphia, PA (US) Kung Fu Necktie (+Fight Amp)
20 Jun 15 Columbus, OH (US) Ace of Cups (+Fight Amp +Lo-Pan)
21 Jun 15 Chicago, IL (US) The Burlington (+Fight Amp +Gobo’s Cvit)
26 Jun 15 Winnipeg, MB (CA) The Goodwill (+Pop Crimes +Teethmarks)

Rock, noise, math, indie – KEN mode offer a root to it all on ‘Success’, locating a common ancestor that’s behind all that they do and have done as a band. It’s one seriously fermented sound that pervades these recordings, a goldrush of skewed rhythms, corrosive riffs and scorching pickup abuse, so diligently pulled off and inherently important to the band. Their path first appears to be one of complex inspiration, but a lineage soon becomes clear, lighting up a way through concentric circles of legacy that encompasses the full spread of inventive heavinesses that fed in to the grunge estuary, and out in to the open sea of independent labels in the final decade of the last century, where KEN mode first appeared.

‘Success’ is a funny concept; in its rawest, most pure form, it is entirely relative, and this was the subject KEN mode chose to approach their new album with. Sonically, and lyrically, a shift has been made from the classic spitting of metallic hardcore tinged vitriol, that the band has become known for, to a rawer, more mature, even humourous indie rock aesthetic. In April 2014, the band set out to pay tribute to where they’ve come from: a salute to both their Canadian Prairie roots, and a time when they first started to care about making music; the burgeoning ‘grunge’ and Touch & Go/Dischord scenes of the late 80s/early 90s, with bands like NIRVANA, BIG BLACK, COP SHOOT COP, THE COWS, CIRCUS LUPUS, and DRIVE LIKE JEHU warping their teenage minds. Lyrically, the band’s fascination with comedy spirals around classical western concepts of “success” – from employment, sex, marriage, religion, socio-economic standing, and particularly the many perceptions people have of how they, and those around them, happen to fit into the world.

Frontman Jesse Matthewson describes his upcoming work as being “a decidedly stripped down northern noise rock apocalypse to be unleashed on the world. Time to take this back to our roots.”

KEN mode have released a trailer for ‘Success’. which can be viewed here.