If you’ve been frequenting this site a bit over the past few months, you may be somewhat familiar with KC Maloney, who is perhaps best known as being one-half of renowned electro pop act Radar Cult, and his solo side project Adult Karate, which expands upon the sound that his primary project gained across the blogosphere — and while arguably being much more minimalist at times, the project’s sound clearly draws from several styles and sub-genres of electronic music including house music, acid house, techno and ambient electronica. “So Low,” a collaboration with up-and-coming Canadian singer/songwriter Adaline was the first single off Maloney’s LXII EP. And the single consists of Maloney’s sleek, hyper-modern and minimalist production featuring gentle cascading of shimmering synths, stuttering drum programming, led by finger snaps, a wobbling bass line, swirling electronics, wobbling low end and an anthemic hook featuring duetting boy-girl vocals towards the song’s last third — but with Adaline’s sultry and smoky vocals propelling the song forward.
Lyrically, the song focuses both on the elation, confusion, uncertainty and self-doubt that falling and being in love can inspire within us all. After all, love is as much about failure as it is about success — and the song’s narrator seems to recognize that and the fact that love is almost always unexpected, which makes it even more frightening and demanding.
The recently released music video features a man awkwardly preparing for a date with a beautiful woman, and an already uncomfortable meeting goes even worse when the man rebuffs his date’s advances — that is until they share a moment of some super white people dancing and some surreal lighting effects; however, the video ends with a wildly ironic twist.
