Civilisation

Civilisation is a compilation by Kero Kero Bonito, released September 10, 2021 via Polyvinyl Record Co., collecting the group's two EPs -- Civilisation I (2019) and Civilisation II (2021) -- alongside a bonus track, "Gateway." The project represents the band's most ambitious conceptual statement: a multi-year exploration of human civilization's relationship to the natural world, set against the backdrop of climate crisis and pandemic.

The Civilisation series began after the band witnessed the 2018 Camp Fire wildfires in California while on tour. The experience catalyzed a shift in the band's thematic ambitions, pulling them away from the personal scale of their 2018 album Time 'n' Place and toward questions of civilizational scope. Gus Lobban recorded much of Civilisation II during the COVID-19 lockdowns using almost exclusively a Korg DSS-1 synthesizer -- a deliberate choice that allowed the band to interrogate the cultural fetishization of vintage technology while creating a unified sonic palette.

The project draws on eclectic intellectual sources, including cultural theorist Svetlana Boym's concept of "off-modernism" and musician Jon Hassell's "Fourth World Music" framework. Polyvinyl Records described the compiled collection as "lost world junk pop" with influences ranging from Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel to the Warp Records Artificial Intelligence series. Civilisation II received an 82 on Metacritic, earning widespread critical acclaim.