Introducing k And The Surreal New Single ‘laugh till i’m crying’
k’s fragmented approach to music and video-making puts him on our watchlist for this year
You can’t really separate k’s music from his videos: it might be because of the whole secret identity thing, but the visual aspect is so fundamental in experiencing the artist. Or maybe it’s the other way around: the aesthetic concept of the project is so important that a real name and surname would only hinder it, break the spell. After all, isn’t the point of a hidden identity to conceal the person and put the persona and the content on the forefront?
This is why I don’t want to spoil too much about “laugh till i'm crying”: it works better if you experience it with little preparation. I will just say that in “Chemo”, k’s previous song, he was attacked by four mysterious enemies who stole his tv. The story continues in this new video, in which k wants to get revenge on the gang. It’s epic and there’s twists and badassery and gunfights (sort of).
I must admit that I tried to gather clues from the context about k’s identity, his history, at least to understand where he comes from. It’s pointless, of course: not because it’s impossible, but because everything you need to enjoy his project is in his captivating videos and songs. I quickly gave up playing detective and I just observed him. k (it’s always written lowercase, so it seems violent to write it otherwise) is a musician and a singer. He’s always dressed in black and always wears a knit cap or a black, sort of western-style hat. And he wears a mask: a white plague doctor mask with a long bird-like nose and hand-drawn tattoos that covers his entire face. k is curious, clumsy and easily distracted; often some secret enemy will attack him from behind and knock him out. He will wake up someplace else, confused and unable to understand what happened. Something new will catch his attention and he will find himself in a new situation, more incredible than the first. k’s world is surreal, suburban, deserted, abandoned; only rarely he will find friendly faces, like c, the similarly masked character of “cupid {wave around his handgun}”.
If his videos play heavily on juxtaposition of imagery, k’s music is even cubist in its assembly: in “laugh till i'm crying” his high pitched vocals roll down an uneven slope of glitchy, super-synthetic boombap beats that also vary speed as they flow one after the other. The result is highly emotional, despite the complexity. Or maybe because of it? Every section is so charged with feeling that you barely have any time to process any emotion before a new one is thrown in your face, leaving you in a constant stream of blurry, all-encompassing sentiments. I’m not sure if the contrast makes me feel uneasy or if it creates a feeling that I can relate to, but am afraid to unearth. In either case, even if it makes me slightly jittery, I am drawn to it like a moth to a flame.
k is one of the most surprising artists to come out of these uncommon times: the project is only one year old. “laugh till i’m crying” represents the first time that k makes a direct sequel to one of his songs, and signs towards the potential for more evolution in scope and concept. I look forward to k’s next single and hope it will continue this storyline… also because I need to know where the dinosaur disappeared to.
Words by Alessandro Cebrian Cobos
