Kllo’s “Virtue” Video Captures The Romance Of Staying Up All Night

Kllo first caught our attention last year with their Well Worn EP, and now, the Australian two-piece is back with a video for “Virtue,” the lead single off of their debut record Backwater, out this October. It’s the most danceable track yet from cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam, matching syncopated 2-step percussion with yearning vocals and a devastating hook. Ecstatic and melancholic by turn, “Virtue” is a striking introduction to the duo’s most cohesive body of work yet. “‘Virtue’ is about not knowing what you’ve got until it’s gone,” Kaul says, “whether that be a part of yourself or somebody else. It’s the present moment of finally coming to that realization.”

Sonically, the track fits perfectly with Caribou's and Jamie xx’s more emotional dance floor exercises, but the video, directed by Homer & Farley, is pure rave aesthetics. Shifting between late-night euphoria and early morning comedown, it sees Kaul and Lam superimposed against the London skyline as strobing neon lights fade into the gentle palette of dawn. Concentric rectangles flit in and out of vision in an apparent nod to Mark Leckey’s club-inspired video art, inducing the production with a hazy, psychotropic vibe. With a first hit as intoxicating as this, we're ready to get fully hooked on the rest of the album.

Backwater is out October 20 on Ghostly.