Watching fresh-faced students Alyx Dennison and Freya Berkhout perform when Kyu formed in Sydney in 2009 was like seeing seedlings shoot up before your eyes. Limited to the instruments they could play live, Kyu’s disarming tribal pop molded snugly to their strengths. Their debut featured intuitive percussion with enough space for harmonies of spine-tingling, startling power to blossom, taking the duo’s surface-level naïveté to impressive depths.
The same nods to Bjork’s experimentation are present here, though it’s more polished and piano-lead than their first record. From the joyous schoolyard chant of ‘Quiche’ to ‘Samsara’’s homage to the familial cocoon – “Waiting for my dad to pick me, wrap me up and take me home” – Kyu 2 is just as enchanting as their debut.
[rating: 3.5]
