Kilo Kish is an artist I had heard sing a few times on Vince Staples songs, though I had never listened to her proper until recently. I'm now learning that that was a pretty major mistake.
Mothe is a very dark, moody EP that's full of deeply introspective lyrics, haunting vocal performances, and absolutely immaculate production. Production clearly took inspiration from her frequent collaborator Vince Staples, who does appear on Mothe, as she featured on his album Big Fish Theory just before making this project.
I find that the songs tend to blend into each other well while still maintaining a distinct identity as themselves, leading to a listening experience that both takes no time at all and also feels like you've been listening for hours.
The EP takes no time to set its emotional tone with San Pedro, named for a neighborhood in the south of Los Angeles, which is a slow song about getting sucked down a rabbit hole. The music fits right in with the lyrics, with slow droning guitar chords, very spacey and disjointed percussion, and occasional melodies that your brain can only just catch onto for a few seconds. The lyrics feel repetitive in a very pleasant way, adding to the theme of feeling trapped in your mind. Kish's vocals almost put you in a trance where even if you can't understand what she's saying, you can still distinctly feel her emotions. The end of the track features a short monologue from Vince Staples, who she frequently works with, and while I can't quite catch all the words he's saying, he does clearly bring the same almost defeated emotion to the song.
Like honey is maybe the most upbeat song on the project, though it would be a stretch to call it a proper upbeat song. The instrumental is much louder and much more full than most of the others, and the vocals are cleaner and more in your face. This one has the most radio ready song structure, and the verses blend extremely cleanly into the chorus and back again in a way that keeps you sucked into the song. Kish takes a much more accusatory tone in her voice and lyrics, talking to likely a love interest about how she doesn't feel like she's being heard or appreciated. The title is named for the line "you'd only tempt a bee for their honey," saying that the person she's talking to only wants the good parts of being involved with someone, and instantly runs away from any difficulty. This is the track I had gotten hooked on first when I listened to the project, and it's absolutely a standout song that helps with the pacing of the project.
The first song from this project that I actually listened to, Void, had come up once in my youtube recommended when I had first been listening to a few of her songs, and I instantly knew I had to listen to the project. The instrumental could fit in perfectly with like an early 2000s arcade game, and it's a song of acceptance. Accepting that she can't control everything, accepting that relationships often have to end, and accepting that she'll be happiest by letting things go. The instrumental keeps building and building up over the course of the only 3 minute long track, making it feel much longer than it is. More synth tracks, more drums, and more noise are added on as the track goes on until it reaches its climax in the last verse, ending with a very emotional "was it really nothing?" repeated a few times as the instrumental winds down, leading directly into the next track, Alive.
And unfortunately if I had to pick a least favorite track from this project, this is probably the one. I find the instrumental to be somewhat boring and droning, and the vocal performance is technically impressive but not particularly exciting. The lyrics do fit well with the themes of the album, her trying so hard to be someone she's not and learning that she can't sustainably keep forcing herself into boxes she doesn't fit in. It's a perfectly adequate song, but I don't think it accomplishes anything special unlike the rest of this EP.
Elegance is another song with a significantly more upbeat instrumental, placed perfectly after the very emotional and slow experiences that Void and Alive provided. The percussion feels much more lively, with a constant harmony provided to the instrumental with cowbells that again make the track sound like an older video game. The vocals get a lot lower and more aggressive, almost crossing the line between singing and rapping, with a little bit of anger behind them, sounding like she's finally getting over the lover she was complaining about on previous songs. This is one of my favorite of her songs, and it's only matched on this project by the very next song.
My absolute favorite track from this project and fighting for my favorite from Kish in general, Prayer, is a very long and intense listen. It takes no time to get started, with an eerie synth melody and equally eerie and whisper-like vocals bringing back all the emotion she had throughout the EP about this failed relationship she seems to be telling us about. As the track goes on, the vocals and instrumental bring a range of emotions from sadness to emptiness to anger to acceptance, almost as if this song is taking you through the stages of grief with her. About halfway through the track the entire mood changes drastically, with first the vocals changing from singing to almost being her just talking to the listener, and the lyrics being a lot more focused on herself and her finally taking her own needs seriously and accepting her place in her life. The synths get much louder and there are these huge loud moments sprinkled into this ending section that will jerk you back to attention instantly and remind you that her lyrics are something worth paying attention to. This song is one of my favorites and serves its purpose as the conclusion to this EP flawlessly.
This is a very strong early showing from Kilo Kish's career, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes synth heavy pop or moody music in general. There's not a single song I could call bad, and while it is only a short 24 minutes, it feels like a much longer experience.
I give this EP a 9/10, it really carves out a niche for itself among all the other synth pop artists in the world and while it's not the most radio ready, it's perfect music for a late night with yourself.