For a good number of years now, This is the Kit, the staple project of Kate Stables has, like fellow-Bristolian friend and singer Rachael Dadd, been building a gradual solid fanbase that has seemed at one with their laid-back off-kilter style of music.
They have both drifted along on a similar level, sharing stages and as well as joining forces as Whalebone Polly. They fitted in snuggly alongside the booming alt-folk scene artists of mid-2000 when Kate’s music caught the ear of Radio One’s Rob Da Bank whose Folk Off compilation (2006) featured her well known Two Wooden Spoons alongside the likes of James Yorkston, Micah P Hinson and Animal Collective.
Like Rachel’s last album We Resonate (2014), released on Talitres, This is the Kit’s last album, Bashed Out (2015), saw her move in an upwards trajectory when it was released on Brassland, a label whose founders include Aaron and Bryce Dressner.
With her latest album Moonshine Freeze, Rough Trade have stepped up to the mark which will surely, and deservedly, help build that audience still further. She recently performed a video session for them to showcase the title track which you can watch below. It will hook you in.
Wherever I see her performing live she draws a very enthusiastic crowd. At last year’s WOMAD, we had a double treat with a full electric set and an acoustic secret gig in a large yurt, you couldn’t move for the number of people. She’s incredibly mesmerising to watch on stage and draws her audience in around her like a storyteller, a theme which is shared on Moonshine Freeze.
Talking about the albums creation, she explained “I’ve been thinking a lot about truth and storytelling and the way that stories and truth change over time according to who’s telling them or who’s listening to them..How personal stories accidentally become representative of bigger stories. How as groups and individuals, as humans, we use and need the stories we tell.”
The title of the album takes it’s name from a childhood game from which she recalls “At the end it goes ‘moonshine, moonshine, moonshine — Freeze!’ and everyone has to stop moving. And it really pierced me somehow. I think there are certain lines and melodies and little rhythms that hook into you and send your brain in spirals.”
This is definitely one of my personal highlights of 2017.
Release Date: 7th July 2017
Order via RoughTrade Records here.