search for something...

search for something you might like...

Silencer Kit Jay Lewis is blown gently but devastatingly away by This Is The Kit's new long player, Moonshine Freeze

Silencer Kit

Jay Lewis is blown gently but devastatingly away by This Is The Kit's new long player, Moonshine Freeze

by Jay Lewis, Reviews Editor
first published: July, 2017

approximate reading time: minutes

 On each song the warm layers of instrumentation slowly open up and melt into you

This Is The Kit
Moonshine Freeze
Rough Trade Records


One of the rare delights of attending music festivals is the experience of falling under the spell of a band that you had no prior knowledge of. The ones whose magic slowly seeps into you without you being consciously aware of it. The ones that you end up raving about instead of the bands you’d forked out your money to see.

When This is the Kit performed at the Moseley Folk Festival last year I was busy taking photographs and waiting for Songhoy Blues. Gradually, the sound of Kate Stables gently plucking her guitars and banjo, together with her pure and unaffected vocals began wrap around me, until I was transfixed. By the following Monday, they were the only band at the festival that I was talking about.

This Is The Kit's ability to delicately get under your skin is apparent throughout their fourth album  ‘Moonshine Freeze'. The opener 'Bullet Proof’ sets the tone,  a sweet banjo melody underlines Kate’s aching, melancholy lyrics '...bullet proof, they never loved you, you let too many bullets through...', then gentle strings and lines like  'all the things we broke today, needed breaking anyway' allude to something even sadder. 

Produced by PJ Harvey collaborator John Parrish, Moonshine Freeze is an slow – burning, intimate experience.  On each song the warm layers of instrumentation slowly open up and melt into you.  The title track (and first single), makes a modest entrance with strummed guitars and an unobtrusive bass line before Kate delivers her beguiling,  poetic lyrics.  ‘Cycles of three triangles are tricky'  runs the chorus which, however enigmatic it may be, is a joy to sing along with.  Even better, the gorgeous ‘By My Demon Eye' discreetly slips a chorus in Croatian into a reflective song about relationships without ever sounding conspicuous and sounding like a well loved nursery rhyme. 

The most affecting song on the album is ‘Riddled with Ticks’ a stripped back acoustic number.  'And I will fight you' Kate repeats throughout the chorus, concluding '... And you will lose.' It’s an alarming metaphor for what is, probably, another song about the frailty of relationships. It’s one of the most intimate moments here.  

'Moonshine Freeze' concludes with the enveloping ‘Solid Grease’, which starts with an unaccompanied vocal and builds up to a mesmerising minute-long piano solo.  It’s a glorious way to bring This Is The Kit's finest album to date to an end. I look forward to being entranced by them at another festival soon.

Jay Lewis
Reviews Editor

Jay Lewis is a Birmingham based poet. He's also a music, movie and arts obsessive. Jay's encyclopedic knowledge of 80s/90s Arts films is a debt to his embedded status in the Triangle Arts Centre trenches back then.


about Jay Lewis »»

Book week web banner

RECENT STORIES

RANDOM READS

All About and Contributors

HELP OUTSIDELEFT

Outsideleft exists on a precarious no budget budget. We are interested in hearing from deep and deeper pocket types willing to underwrite our cultural vulture activity. We're not so interested in plastering your product all over our stories, but something more subtle and dignified for all parties concerned. Contact us and let's talk. [HELP OUTSIDELEFT]

WRITE FOR OUTSIDELEFT

If Outsideleft had arms they would always be wide open and welcoming to new writers and new ideas. If you've got something to say, something a small dank corner of the world needs to know about, a poem to publish, a book review, a short story, if you love music or the arts or anything else, write something about it and send it along. Of course we don't have anything as conformist as a budget here. But we'd love to see what you can do. Write for Outsideleft, do. [SUBMISSIONS FORM HERE]

OUTSIDELEFT UNIVERSE

Ooh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha May 29th
OUTSIDELEFT Night Out
weekend

outsideleft content is not for everyone