Enigmatic Belgian trio KAT channel their inner French touch with sly nods to Daft Punk, Modjo and Cassius, utilising 70s funk, disco and house as a canvas for an upfront club cut ‘Le Weekent’, out now through Capitane Records.
“We call it lo fi hi fun; we found challenging to have a song theme played with woodblocks, while the intro was based upon some previously recorded delirium on Kool and the Gang’s celebration drum fill. Then we imagined a gang of late 80’s cat party wavers dancing on it and the mood was there.” – KAT
For years, KAT’s recordings have been shrouded in mystery. But they surfaced recently when Brussels’ renowned JAM HOTEL was transformed into a hub for local artists and musicians. There, in room 603, this new delirious music (initially made for cat rave parties) finally took shape.
KAT’s musical universe recalls the lost happiness of the simple, good life; those instances of freedom and movement that exist between nostalgia and sheer pleasure in the now, translating these sensations into music. The results are funny, dusty, glittering Electro-Funk dance pieces with a taste of candour. The sunny melodies bounce around and tease you with a kitchen sink of raw beats, jumpy kicks, playfully sportive grooves, and dirty organic percussions.
KAT evokes a madhouse marriage of Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins and Daft Punk mixed with Tom Tom Club, Gino Soccio, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Laid Back, Mr. Scruff and the DFA crew. Part vintage kids’ programming, part classic cinema, KAT’s music aims to set people free and transcend style and genre.
‘Le Weekent’ is the perfect illustration of this: a beat to make the dead dance, a slap bass loop, mischievous bells and transcendental synths. The music video for the piece, directed by artist Yoann Stehr, is a hallucinatory collage of archive images representing people in various situations (aerobics class, 90s nightclub, skatepark, etc.) who all have the common point of moving their bodies and thereby achieve a certain form of trance.
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