Folk songs in full swing – Kate Stables’ band goes on a colorful trip through the woods and meadows.
In the video for “Inside Outside” there is excellent dancing, it starts with shaking little heads, followed by kneeling in sync and hip swings, in the finale singer Kate Stables and her two comrades-in-arms perform intensive moves with arms and legs; the backdrops are forest, meadows and water. In the three and a half minutes, the folk-pop universe of Stables’ band is perfectly portrayed, in This Is The Kit the songs are set to banjo and guitar in full swing – poetry and thinking should get a run for their money.
It doesn’t matter whether tenor sax, flugelhorn, bassoon or vibraphone are added later, the arrangements of the songs are constructed in such a way that Stables’ tender, urgent voice can emerge from the warm undergrowth of sound at any moment. That stayed the same in 2023 under the aegis of Gruf Rhys (Super Furry Animals), the Welshman produced the album, sang a bit and put his hand to the synth keys.
CAREFUL Of YOUR KEEPERS is reminiscent of its predecessor MOONSHINE FREEZE (2017), the songs are thought logs and observations in irritating lines: Here dancing is linked to death (“Goodbye Bite”), human remains are turned aside and scabby body parts are dissected. Presented in a word flow that sticks to the mic, flanked by Rozi Plain’s fantastic bass playing and Neil Smith’s rather subtle jingling of guitars. Within these sometimes psychedelic forest and meadow trips, Stables also pulls out one or the other stroke of genius: “Bite of as much as you can chew / I chew chew choose you”.