Bashed out

"This is Slow Music: patiently and carefully handcrafted, as though the process were just as important as the result, and released on [Kate's] own whim rather than by industry dictate ... These new songs don't sound terribly different from Stables' first recordings nearly a decade ago, but the music is bolder and more purposeful, with a broader, richer palette of sounds. [Producer Aaron] Dessner works in a minimalist vein, placing a handful of instruments at various levels in the mix but never locking them into place. A barely audible bassline rocks softly against Stables' plaintive guitar theme on opener "Misunderstanding". "Silver John" blossoms into a swell of synths (courtesy of Thomas Bartlett a.k.a. Doveman) and builds to a chorus of odd siren vocal calls. There's a parallax quality to the music, an immersive sense of depth that makes the songs sound larger with each listen".

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"This Is The Kit are singer, songwriter and banjo player Kate Stables, her guitarist partner Jesse D Vernon and a varying cast of musicians, who bring keyboards, horns, violin and drums to the party. Recorded mainly in New York with producer Aaron Dessner (of The National) some of that city's influence can be discerned in the chugging Velvet Underground pulse of "Silver John", but it's the indestructible beat of Bristol (Portishead's Jim Barr is a sometime accomplice) that really defines the sound of these ten tracks. Stables has a huge gift for penning memorably compassionate songs ... A beautiful, beguiling record, and Kate Stables' voice is as rapturous as an angel's sigh. Instant calmer".