Concert Review: Kasbo Shapes Rhythms At Bowery

Hearing Kasbo at Bowery, I kept on thinking of shapes. How they form, break apart, reunite, and make other shapes. In essence, like a cell, his music flows in shape to make something else. Yet, no matter where the rhythm takes you, it feels sourced in life.

Kasbo’s style aims for kaleidoscopic pop. Ethereal enough to make you think you are in Heaven, but strange enough to surprise you that Heaven holds its tricks or trap doors. Like Pop, his songs go for that “only two people in the world” dynamic, where lovers and friends are made to feel that the club is the final, blissful place left in an Apocalyptic world. Perhaps that is why his current tour is called Places We Don’t Know; simultaneously referencing what our relationships have to teach us and the darkness the world hides from us. This forms a “ying/yang” dynamic that allows his set to cast over you like a magical fog, of which each cloud foams into a solid dream.

Kasbo’s continuous rise in the electronic scene does not only derive in the misting abstractions of his sound. It also comes from another rising trend. Kasbo, Youngr, Ayokay, and even Craig David are revealing DJ’s and record production are an art, which means they also come off like full-blown artists. By playing their instruments, singing, and moving across their mixes with the energy of Beyonce at the turntable they, inadvertently, combat notions that DJ’s just “sit at a table and mix.” Instead, Kasbo has turned their set into a process; publicly constructing and deconstructing his songs as if they carry nuclear codes. Thus, no matter what his “rhythmic choice,” the attraction to him is more than just sonic, it is also style.

As I watched Kasbo, I had to smile at the one, bouncing guy staring at him and feeling his sound with rock n’ roll hands. In a club/concert hall, it always strange to see someone SO invested in the surrounding sound, but even though his reaction felt slightly off, at the same time, it was right. To his crowd, Kasbo is a “rock star” for those that enjoy Swedish electronica, and how its tempos hit you like the northern lights during Sweden’s fresh winter. For More Information on Kasbo Click Here.