Back with the latest tease of her forthcoming EP Negotiations, Kilo Kish returns today with the enticing new single “Negotiate,” featuring Miguel. The visionary new EP from Kish is a deep and thought-provoking dive into the nuances of technology and the larger role it has within creativity. Over a bed of tech-driven synths and spellbinding melodies, Kish’s glitchy vocal work is a direct response to the EP’s theme at large. Kish and Miguel, who have become frequent collaborators over the years, come together on the visionary track to highlight the power technology has in our lives and the social impact it has.
The track also comes with another anxiety-filling visual work of art, co-directed by Kish and David Laven and produced by Even/Odd. Each video, a part of a suite of films that will accompany the entire Negotiations EP, is filmed in the same space and world. “Negotiate” sees Kish back in the office setting – this time she’s become an underappreciated and invisible office worker.
On the visuals for the EP, Kish says “Negotiations as a whole speaks to the everyday cuts and wounds that occur as a continuous result of productivity and creative-making.”
Kish spoke with Rolling Stone exclusively about the new single, who call it “an electronic spiderweb of a song” – check out the interview HERE.
WATCH “NEGOTIATE” VIDEO HERE
Negotiations is a thought-provoking exploration of the intricate interplay between the human body, technology, and the nuances of emotional and cognitive processing in a rapidly evolving world. By framing the body as a machine, Kish invites a dialogue about the transactional nature of energy expenditure, suggesting that our existence is defined by a constant exchange where every output necessitates an input, ultimately leading to both depletion and potential renewal.
At the core of Negotiations is the notion of error and glitch—a reflection of contemporary life marked by instability and uncertainty. Kish delves into the scripts we write into ourselves, questioning their efficacy in an era defined by incessant change. How we are programmed shapes our responses to these changes, illustrating that we all inevitably fall prey to our programming and patterns. This introspection resonates deeply with our collective experience of navigating a landscape rife with digital and emotional noise, global systems failure, and environmental collapse prompting a need for manual resets akin to reprogramming a malfunctioning device.
The approach to Negotiations utilizes a finite set of sonic parameters and instruments that reflect the thematic core of the work. Drawing inspiration from early hip-hop and electronic music techniques like skipping, scratching, vocal processing, vocoders, and the use of modular synthesizers, the result is a sound that balances the mechanical with moments of humanity, creating an overall ‘machine-like’ atmosphere.
PRE-ORDER NEGOTIATIONS HERE.
Kilo Kish is an interdisciplinary artist, creative director, and designer working in music, film, installation, and the written word. Her 2022 album AMERICAN GURL saw notable praise from Pitchfork, NPR, Teen Vogue, NYLON, The New York Times and features in VOGUE, Cultured, and more. The breakout record expanded into a curational project in collaboration with Zehra Zehra – the founder & curator of Womxn in Windows – which has been displayed in galleries and museums such as the Harvey B Gantt Center for African American Art, Hauser & Wirth and MOCA. Kilo Kish has collaborated with several brands including Bulgari, Levi’s, Rodarte, and more.
Kilo Kish is currently curating a residency with Womxn In Windows at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles as they celebrate the launch of American Gurl: home–land, a presentation of six short films work that negotiate land, diaspora and displacement from the following artists: Melvonna Ballenger, Shenny De Los Angeles, Ella Ezeike, Solange Knowles, Alima Lee, and Cauleen Smith. The show opened on February 15 and will run through April, with a closing performance on May 4th. Find details HERE.
Negotiations Tracklisting
when i came to myself
DCMU
enough
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