It’s always interesting to watch a band change and grow. London-based Kero Kero Bonito made its name as an ultra-catchy electro-pop act before transforming into a fuzzed-out electro-rock band focused on darker themes for their 2018 album Time ’n’ Place. A year later, the trio has evolved again for their new EP Civilisation I, by emboldening their arrangements, pulling in a broader palette of sounds, and expanding their thematic scope to explore political division, climate change, Biblical imagery, and the end of mankind. Have they lost their penchant for effervescent melodies? They have not! After all, this is still Kero Kero Bonito; it’s just a more fully developed version.

by Ben Salmon