Kavinsky

The smooth, lush sounds of the 80’s strongly permeates every Kavinsky song, and his live performances feel like they take you back to a time where catchy synth leads ruled the airwaves.
Kavinsky is able to create heavily orchestrated sounds on his synthesizers, which create an entrancing atmospheric quality to the performance. He has the tendency to create layers of sounds with his synths and often uses heavy chorus effects to create a larger, shimmering sound. Kavinsky is heavily influenced by the electro-pop soundtracks of 80’s movies and much of his style seems to pay homage to this. He has commonly been known to use the synthesizer, Yamaha DX7, which is an instrument that was heavily featured on many pop albums of the 1980’s and is an instrument that Kavinsky uses to get much of the washed over effects that create the lush soundscapes in his music. Kavinsky has recently gained mainstream recognition for his song “Nightcall”, which was a major song featured in the movie, Drive.
Kavinsky has been considered an integral staple in the French house music scene. He has been compared to French artists such as Daft Punk and Danger, and has toured with several notable electronic artists such as Daft Punk, Justice, and The Rapture. Like Kavinsky’s music, his appearance is also very influenced by the style of the 80’s. On stage Kavinsky can be seen wearing an athletic jacket and sunglasses like some character you might expect to see in the movie Top Gun or The Warriors. Kavinsky’s stage theatrics are immaculate. He is situated on a raised platform centered in the middle of the stage and surrounded by his synthesizers, and bright beams of light flash all over the stage, syncopated to the synth-pop music he creates.
Kavinsky’s music is the perfect type of music to listen to while driving in a car late at night. There is something undeniably cool and sleek about Kavinsky’s style and seeing him live clearly reinforces this notion.

Compared to the likes of electronic royalty, Justice and Daft Punk, French synth-pop, house and 80s electronic artist, Kavinsky is certainly not one to miss. Much like the majority of Kavinsky’s newfound fandom, I discovered him through the soundtrack to Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2001 film starring Ryan Gosling, ‘Drive.’ “Nightcall” featuring Lovefoxxx is a howling, haunting electronic track with steady snare beats and beautiful synth melodies accompanying simplistic male and female call and return style refrains; the perfect accompaniment to Winding Refn’s mysteriously slow moving action/romance storyline. Kavinsky’s debut studio album, ‘Outrun’ (2013) follows up “Nightcall” nicely, driven by steady beats and infectious electronic melodies that are sure to get you grooving, the overall sound calls up memories of 80s video games. The album is apparently inspired by its own video game inspired fictional storyline. The narrative goes along the lines of: mid 80s lovesick man has freak car accident; man turns into a robot-car; said man/robot/car makes electronic music that reflects his journey – not exactly a clear plotline but something that definitely brings to light some thematic elements and theatrical sci-fi tones to tracks such as, “Blizzard” and “Deadcruiser.”
These theatrics translate well into Kavinsky’s live performances. Standing on a raised platform with pulsating lights beaming out from behind him, casting a typical sci-fi silhouette and sporting red light emitting glasses, Kavinksy definitely does a good job at emulating the character from his album’s story. But if it’s audience interaction and communication from the artist that you want out of a live show, don’t be disappointed when Kavinsky doesn’t deliver; what he lacks in connecting with his audience personally, he more than makes up for with the quality of his sound and precision in mixing tracks.

Vincent Belorgey better known by his stage name of Kavinsky may not be as much of a recognisable name as fellow French electro exports such as Daft Punk yet his music has made an equally large impact on the scene. It seems rather fitting that Kavinsky received his commercial break of sorts after his track 'Nightcall' was featured in the 2011 international hit film 'Drive'.

As a youngster Vincent confessed to having an unmatched obsession with cinema and watched countless movies. The musician hand selected some of the best musical bites to sample within his own music and these are very noticeable this evening. The whole show appears to have a level of cinematic gloss, with pristine visuals and impressive lighting displays adding to the overall textural element of Kavinsky's electro sounds. I think it would be fair to say that Belorgey is without a doubt one of the most sophisticated musicians working the circuit and although he is yet to achieve the same commercial success as his contemporaries, his career is still young so there is a lot of time and a startling amount of potential.