2LP version. Islands is the second album and live project from Worldwide Award-winning producers LV, and Benin City vocalist Josh Idehen, three years on from their critically-acclaimed debut collaboration Routes. Where the Routes album saw Josh's voice used in fragments to examine themes of life in modern London, Islands sees LV move Idehen's lyrics and vocals front and center. On "Imminent," overheard whispers on an East London balcony tell the tale of an unforeseen demise, while on "Waiting for the Night" Josh drew on honest reflections of his experiences after he returned from Nigeria. "Obsessed" is about an unhealthy, social-media enabled reaction to being put in the post-coital friend-zone. Between Josh's observational eye and LV's considered yet dancefloor moving production style, with its funky hardware synth jams and live drums, delightful aesthetic contradictions abound on Islands. Lead single "Imminent" has received huge support across BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, and upon supplying the parts of the tune for a remix competition, LV were overwhelmed with over 120+ remixes. Of the album as a whole, the title-track "Island" is perhaps the most unexpected, and took some strength to find. Josh had been working on different versions of a story, until he had a moment of clarity. "I literally just thought, 'you know what? I am just going to write what I feel is the funniest, darkest story that I would be happy to read,' so that I felt comfortable with myself and not give a f*ck about what anybody else thought."
