One day, I was listening to music on YouTube when I came across this song:
It was just the sort of thing I had always been looking for. There was something so subterranean about it, like it really could have been from the soundtrack to an underground film. The song was a unique combination of accessible Synthpop and something a little bit more strange. I was instantly addicted, and soon found other French bands with a similar sound. Kas Product are still pretty unique, though, and manage to stand out from other Coldwave groups thanks to their distinctive style. Of course, this might be thanks to the fact that they aren’t just a Coldwave band- some would call them Electropunk, and they also have Jazz influences.
The two members of Kas Product are just as eccentric as their music. Before forming the band in 1980, Spatsz worked as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital, while Mona Soyoc was a jazz musician. The former does all the electronic, synthy…stuff, while Soyoc plays the guitar, keyboard and sings. Releasing their first EP in 1981, and their first album one year later, Kas Product originally lasted for one decade, eventually coming back together in 2005.
Kas Product have released four albums in total, the last being the wonderfully-titled Black and Noir in 1990. As well as this, there’s even been a book- So Young, But So Cold -published about them, with another one to follow.
Kas Product are an amazing band, with an idiosyncratic, eclectic sound. They’re cold, but, unlike most French Coldwave groups, there’s no sense of aloofness about them. Instead, Kas Product is like a sheet of ice that’s been smashed into an abstract sculpture in the middle of a futuristic cabaret. I guess I’d prefer other Coldwave bands a bit more, since this one lacks the usual feelings of melancholy, but Kas Product is amazing nevertheless.
