KUNZITE

Kunzite pairs Mike Stroud, once of Ratatat, with Agustin White, formerly of White Flight, to fuse electric guitars, hip-hop rhythms, and effervescent electronics beneath floating, hallucinatory vocals. The pair had crossed paths decades earlier in their early twenties, when Stroud performed with Cherry and White, then billed as Justin Roelofs, played in the emo-pop band the Anniversary. Stroud later launched Ratatat, while White, after exiting the Anniversary, formed White Flight to pursue his interest in hallucinatory electronic textures. In 2013 White joined forces with Ratatat’s other member, Evan Mast (E*vax), to create ABUELA, which issued a single that year and the EP True Colors in early 2014. A 2015 reunion with Stroud at Coachella prompted White to realign with his old acquaintance, and the two began recording as Kunzite. Their sessions took place across India, California, and Iceland as well as in their home bases of Hawaii and New York. The resulting debut, Birds Don’t Fly, appeared on Sol Systems Records in 2018 and delivered a sound reminiscent of Ratatat yet colored by White’s expansive vocals and a stronger psychedelic hue. Work on the follow-up, Visuals, started in White’s Hawaii studio and concluded at Stroud’s barn studio in New York; the album, released by Lowly Records in 2021, maintained the same widescreen approach and featured a guest turn from Lee “Scratch” Perry.