Kinsella & Pulse, LLC Return with Mutant Pop Epic ‘Open ing Night’
Kinsella & Pulse, LLC, the elusive American duo behind some of the most intriguing postmodern pop of the past decade, release ‘Open ing Night’ today on Kill Rock Stars.
Following 2023’s ‘Giddy Skelter,’ a meticulous and sample-spliced collage of sonic possibilities, the new record shifts perspective into a rawer, less mannered space where intuition takes the lead.
At the core of ‘Open ing Night’ is a five-part suite, recorded live in a single continuous take. It unfurls with the pacing of a well-sequenced DJ set, prioritizing mood, narrative flow, and deep listening over the compartmentalized logic of pop songcraft. There’s a sense of breath and space here, not unlike ECM jazz, but filtered through the circuitry of vintage samplers and warped synths.
The change in method comes after a four-month tour across the US and UK, joined by multi-instrumentalist Theo Katsaounis, a longtime Kinsella collaborator through Joan of Arc. That road energy informs the record’s forward momentum. It was captured in full at Sudestudio in southern Italy, where the group took advantage of analog gear and a Mediterranean air that’s subtly woven into the atmosphere of the recordings.
Back in Chicago, they rejoined Cooper Crain (Cave, Bitchin Bajas) at Electrical Audio to sculpt overdubs and reframe the sessions, even paying subtle tribute to Steve Albini’s drum work by feeding programmed rhythms through live speaker rigs—a signature tension between synthetic and physical that threads the album together.
Where ‘Giddy Skelter’ celebrated the studio as an instrument, ‘Open ing Night’ builds its own hybrid vocabulary: part collage, part performance, part séance. It pulls from a lineage that includes David Sylvian’s textural poise, Gang Gang Dance’s hallucinatory rhythm, and Shudder to Think’s melodic left turns. Imagine SST-era Sonic Youth reprogrammed with a Detroit techno chassis and a love for The Residents. The references bend under their own weight, but the sound remains surprisingly aerodynamic. This is experimental pop that moves, breathes, and feels lived in.
Kinsella & Pulse, LLC will bring this vision to European stages starting April 20, joining Karate for a series of spring performances across Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. Full dates below.
European Tour with Karate:
April 20 — Munich, DE — Strom
April 21 — Vienna, AT — Arena
April 22 — Graz, AT — Forum Stadtpark
April 23 — Budapest, HU — A38
April 25 — Prague, CZ — Meetfactory
April 26 — Dresden, DE — Jazzclub Tonne
April 27 — Berlin, DE — Festsaal Kreuzberg
April 28 — Malmö, SE — Plan B
April 29 — Copenhagen, DK — Loppen
April 30 — Hamburg, DE — Hafenklang
May 01 — Groningen, NL — Vera
May 02 — Münster, DE — Gleis 22
May 03 — The Hague, NL — Paard
May 04 — Eindhoven, NL — Effenaar
May 05 — Cologne, DE — Gebäude 9
Get your copy of their latest album here!
Headline photo: Charles Bouril
Kinsella & Pulse, LLC Official Website / Instagram / Bandcamp
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