This Is The Kit: Existential Moonshine

New music from This Is The Kit, Hamjam and more . .

SERvin’ Up! – w/c August 7, 2017

Jen Cloher – Jen Cloher
The Fall – New Facts Emerge
This Is The Kit – Moonshine Freeze
The Tallest Man on Earth with ymusic – The Tallest Man on Earth with ymusic
Uniq Schip – Jean
Ducktails – Daffy Duck In Hollywood
Hamjam – A/S/L?
Sachet – Portion Control
Guided By Voices – How Do You Spell Heaven?
—

Hello,

Not that I want to turn this into a ‘when I was growing up’ type of thing, but listening to the debut album from Hamjam casts me back to a time in my youth when our need for angst often turned us out as goths, hippies or part of any other number of sub-cultures. As the corridors of technology lead us into more open and democratic spaces, can we really now just truly be ourselves and not be afraid to enjoy our parents’ record collection? Hamjam and their debut A/S/L? may just be a shining exemplar of this idea. The pairing of Hamish Rahn from Methyl Ethel and James Ireland from Pond imagines a fantasy space that puts Hall & Oates and Tears For Fears in a room with demand to emerge with syrupy, narcotic love jams with shiny synth-style polish. That these tunes sit somewhere between sincerity and irony makes them fun, too.

Aldous Harding’s recent album Party continues to weave its absorbing way through my home stereo – producer John Parish’s touch of subtle invention makes its mark on Harding’s curious songs as it has done for many years now with Polly Jean Harvey. Parish has cropped up again on the latest album for British songwriter Kate Stables’ loose collective This Is The Kit, Moonshine Freeze. Stables is similarly magnetic like both Harding and Harvey, teasing out her lyrics with surreal purpose before landing lines with more direct emotional hits. On a set where pondering the fragility of existence is front and centre, Stables can turn a meditative-like groove into something more of a rousing knees-up, and while Moonshine Freeze isn’t exactly party time, it’s songwriting that rides high within the connection between life’s ups and downs.

Also, new tunes from Emma Russack, Allex Cameron with Angel Olsen, Iron & Wine, Tammy Haider, Sahida Aspara, Beaches and David Rawlings.