Moments In Everglow - Koven

Ever since their first Monstercat LP "Butterfly Effect", electronic duo Koven have continued to grow into a mainstage drum n bass outfit, but they aren't quite able to shake off their commercial shackles for their second Monstercat LP "Moments In Everglow".

Well, I don't have anything in particular against commercial-oriented music, but Koven seem to have gained extreme tunnel vision in the production of this album. With the exception of "Era" and one drop of "Nervous System", every track on this project is simplistic drum n bass with simplistic leads and a notable lack of progression or stylistic nuance. And that (plot twist???) makes it pretty boring. The lack of diversity exhibited by the production is ultimately a killer for "Moments In Everglow", and it's not like Max is a bad producer or anything — quite the contrary; take a look at Koven's discography and you can see he's got some quality production on his record — but when confined to what is largely the same liquid atmosphere framed by the same DnB beat, things start to get stale rather quickly. For Katie's vocal, the story is altogether far too similar for my liking — it's obvious she has a powerful voice, and she definitely does have some evocative or otherwise impactful vocal performances on this album, with her voice probably being the highlight for me, and yet it does feel a little underutilised or otherwise not quite gelling with the backing production. That's it, really: "Moments In Everglow" is largely 43 minutes of the same song over and over again, with the only thing really changing being Katie's vocal (and even then, there's a lot more room to mix things up), and I find myself wishing Koven was able to incorporate the same diversity they were able to in "Butterfly Effect". Sure, that album wasn't breaking any boundaries either, but "Moments In Everglow" takes its flaws and stubbornly refuses to expand upon its positives. In fact, conceptually, this album could have been well-made, serving as a glimpse into different emotional moments of... well, everglow, within a relationship — and it almost achieves it, almost, but it's held back by the tracks blending together and lacking individuality. After all, if you want to capture a series of moments, you need to put in work to ensure they are distinct moments, and that's the broken foundation Koven have built the unsteady "Moments In Everglow" upon.

Just as with "Butterfly Effect", nothing about this album is truly bad, just that it wasn't quite interesting. It helps that the tracklist felt a little smoother than "Butterfly Effect", but with the added drawback of considerably less standout tracks, "Moments In Everglow" displays all its cracks proudly for all to see. Koven are a fantastic duo act, to be sure, but I just don't feel like they've quite hit the mark on their full-length album work — I find they're typically stronger with a bigger mix of genres and a little less tunnel vision, such as their "Higher Ground" EP series.