''Time 'n' Place'' is the second studio album by British

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

band

Kero Kero Bonito Kero Kero Bonito (KKB) are a British indie pop band formed in South London in 2011. The band consists of vocalist Sarah Midori Perry and producers and multi-instrumentalists Gus Lobban and Jamie Bulled. Their musical style consists of indie po ...

, released on 1 October 2018 through

Polyvinyl Record Co Polyvinyl Record Co. is an American independent record label headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. The label also has satellite offices in New York, Austin, and the Bay Area. Polyvinyl has put out over 400 releases to date. The Polyvinyl roster ...

in North America and self-released worldwide. It is their first album released under Polyvinyl. Produced by the band's

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...

Gus Lobban, it includes the previously released singles "Only Acting" (which was also featured on their '' TOTEP''), "Time Today", and "Make Believe". Musically, the album marks a stylistic departure from the band's previous

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

musical efforts, showcasing a mix of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...

experimental pop Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental techniques such as musique concrète, al ...

, and

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

musical styles.

Background

The album represents a departure from the band's sound showcased in their debut album, '' Bonito Generation''. During the tour of the album, the band played in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, where, in producer and drummer Gus Lobban's words, "the band experienced things we didn't even appreciate existed." After the tour, the band returned to their homes in the suburbs of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and when the band regrouped they decided to "do whatever the fuck we want." Moreover, after Lobban heard the album ''Beyond the Fleeting Gales'' by the

band

Crying Crying is the dropping of tears (or welling of tears in the eyes) in response to an emotional state, or pain. Emotions that can lead to crying include sadness, anger, and even happiness. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretom ...

, he was inspired to start creating music with

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

and

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

again, as he felt that album seamlessly combined Kero Kero Bonito's various influences with modern indie rock. Jamie Bulled and Lobban began to play on the instruments they first learned music on (

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

and drums, respectively), and Sarah Perry was moved to write lyrics inspired by images recalling her childhood memories following her discovery that her childhood home in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

had been demolished. Thematically, the album touches on the loss of loved ones, physical objects and environments and loss of innocence. The song "Visiting Hours" features lyrics written by Lobban about his frequent visits to his hospitalised father, and "If I'd Known", written by Lobban and Bulled, was inspired by their frequent indecision. Lobban described the album as being inspired by the suburbs, as well as the physical rather than the virtual. Stylistically, as opposed to the rise of

trap music Trap is a subgenre of hip hop music that originated in the Southern United States during the 1990s. The genre gets its name from the Atlanta slang word "trap", a house used exclusively to sell drugs. Trap music uses synthesized drums and is ch ...

in suburban London, the album's sound is influenced by suburban guitar bands, such as My Bloody Valentine,

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...

, Lush and

Sweet Trip Sweet Trip was an American electronic music, electronic/experimental rock act formed in 1993 in the Bay Area of California, United States, by musicians Valerie Cooper and Roberto Burgos. They are known for their dreamy soundscapes and dense prod ...

Critical reception

Tshepo Mokoena of ''

Noisey ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...

'' lauded ''Time 'n' Place'', writing, "Somehow, Kero Kero Bonito have managed to squash so many textures of suburbia—

inertia Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...

, comfort, a content sleepiness, something you want to resist because it's boring as hell—into a new album." She additionally stated that the album "feels like a rebirth" and "like an album about coming into your own as a person, without strictly being an album about

adolescence Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the t ...

." Luke Pearson of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'' awarded the album a score of 8 out of 10, writing that "there is nothing on ''Time 'n' Place'' that even remotely approaches the mainline sugar-rush of tracks like '

Trampoline A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched between a steel frame using many coiled spring (device), springs. Not all trampolines have springs, as the Springfree Trampoline uses glass-reinforced plastic rods. ...

' or 'Picture This' rom ''Bonito Generation''and frankly it's hard not to miss that style," but later stating that "won over you'll be, as long as you keep an open mind, as this is still a KKB album, full of great melodies,

kitschy Kitsch ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly-eccentric, gratuitous, or of banal taste. The avant-garde opposed kitsch as melodramatic and superficial affiliation with ...

one-off

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

flourishes, and amusing lyrical tangents." He concluded by calling it the band's most cohesive album, "with a real ebb and flow, as opposed to 2016's ''Bonito Generation'', which, excellent as it was, sounded more like a collection of singles or

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

posts."

Track listing

All songs written by Gus Lobban except where noted.

Personnel

Credits adapted from Kero Kero Bonito's and their label's official websites. Kero Kero Bonito * Sarah Midori Perry – vocals * Gus Lobban – drums, keyboards, backing vocals , production * Jamie Bulled – bass, vocals Additional musicians * James Rowland – guitar, noise * The Parakeets (

Cecile Believe Cecile Believe (formerly known as Mozart's Sister) is a solo project by Montreal-based Canadian musician Caila Thompson-Hannant. Biography Thompson-Hannant's musical beginnings are much accredited to the electropop introduced to her by her uncle ...

, Elaiza Santos & Oscar) – backing vocals * Jennifer Walton – noise * The Sometimes Singers (George, Yasmin,

bo en Calum Thomas Bowen (born 26 February 1991), also known professionally as Bo En (stylized as bo en), is an English musician and video game producer based in London. Career Bowen released his debut album titled ''Pale Machine'' in 2013. In 2014, B ...

, Aggie & Oscar) – extra vocals * Calum "Bo-En" Bowen – string arrangement * Cindy Foster & Greta Mutlu – violins * Alex Plant-Smith – cello Technical * Jimmy Robertson – band recording * Andy Ramsay – engineering, additional recording * Anthony Lim – mixing, mastering

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2018 albums Kero Kero Bonito albums Polyvinyl Record Co. albums