Dayton, Ohio’s own Kunt Pills is not only a singer-songwriter and producer, but they are also a visual artist, which means that any visual representation of them either as a performer or character is all curated by themself. Usually, that image is in bright, colorful clothing. And if the lively music is any indication, Kunt Pills wants to be more than your future pop superstar, but a superstar of and from the future. After five past projects under the name kunt_pills.xox, Kunt Pills is ready to introduce themselves for real with a self-titled project that blends hyperpop futurism with the soul of R&B and ambient music while leaving room for emotional transparency.
Kunt Pills’ last project Becoming can best be described as a dream pop/shoegaze project if the composer listened to a diet of music similar to FKA twigs, Beach House, and Perfume Genius. However, “Artist,” the first track from Kunt Pills: Self-Titled, is the kind of synthpop track you stomp down a hallway to. That is if you aren’t busy dancing down the hallway first. 80s-style drums bang hard through a cloud of reverb, washed-out synths glean, and synth bass stabs through the smoke of it all, but with soft yet confident vocals, they maintain both control and confidence within their voice. Kunt Pills is more ready than before to storm the gates of the music scene and prove they don’t need anyone’s help to make their image or music.
The bold Self-Titled doesn’t just visit multiple styles of music but damn near creates its own all while maintaining a spaced-out aesthetic throughout it all. “Break it Off” is a neon-colored turbo boost of a track with percussive lasers and bright synths. Blending R&B with deconstructed club and synthpop to create a potent brand of lo-fi cosmic pop, “Break it Off” bangs hard enough to tempt any DJ to throw a track on the face. “1234” blends the normally delicate and clean Afropop jazz guitar with bold, big beat drums. Even “Fire” applies 80s electro drums to a song of simmering passion—heavy rumbling bass and vocals, a layer of which is sultry and another pitched higher.
Diving into the subject matters of the songs on the project, most feel like a cycle that describes falling in love again with feelings of desire for general intimacy. “1:15” is about being infatuated with someone yet resistant to letting love in. “1:15 am and you’re running through my head / 2:14 am and I just want you in my bed,” sings Kunt Pills before later declaring they “don’t really want to fall in love again.” But, if “Fit With Each Other” is any indication, although the topic of love may be treated with aversion, they are not aversed to the idea of intimacy.
With songs chronicling the fear of being hurt and the hunger for romantic closeness, Self-Titled allows you to tear your heart wide open, while giving you space to dance away the hurt of lost love with the kind of pop that blends the expansiveness of modern-day cosmic disco, the audacity and bigness of modern hyperpop, and deconstructed club songs. And who needs an assistant for that kind of craftsmanship?
