Am I ever so happy to have clicked 'play' :)

Dark Dark Dark - Wild Goose Chase (live At Le Poisson Rouge)

"Silver John" is the first proper single from This Is The Kit's new album BASHED OUT--produced by The National's Aaron Dessner and released in April 2015. The band are already omnipresent on the BBC 6 airwaves and on August 6th were featured on the debut season of the BBC iPlayer documentary series Guy Garvey's Music Box. They being hotly tipped as a possible Mercury Prize nominees for Bashed Out. 

Directed by This Is The Kit
Filmed & edited by Jesse D. Vernon

Kate says of the track: “’Silver John’ talks about how we see things. The end of the work that we’re bringing about ourselves. Putting the blame on other forces. Being let down by people. The things we grab at in times of panic. It’s just mulling over the way of the human.” 

On Bashed Out, the band continue their musical evolution into a synesthetic, shape-shifting entity—rooted in folk but encompassing elements of psychedelia, alternative rock, and electronic textures and sensibilities. The Line of Best Fit has called Kate's and TITK and "essential fixture of British folk music for the past 10 years…one of a handful of truly innovate songwriters working with the British folk template today."

Buy This Is the Kit's new album Bashed Out:
- Bandcamp: https://thisisthekit.bandcamp.com/album/bashed-out
- iTunes: http://radi.al/BashedOutiTunes
- Amazon: http://radi.al/BashedOutAmazon
- Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/track/38cRRZuUiwoJ4J19a2UT2U


This Is The Kit: "Silver John"

you been there, i guess we all have, one time or more. cheers

Morning for a Date (nonameyet)

Nadia Reid - Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs comes out Nov. 27 on Scissor Tail (U.S.) and Spunk (New Zealand).

Pitchfork -
Love is sold on the promise that it's better than any solitary satisfaction, so you might as well bet everything on it, time and time again. On "Call the Days", New Zealand songwriter Nadia Reid cuts to the heart of this deception: "I was happy on my own," she sings in a plainspoken lilt. "I would call the days as they were known." Yet there's no trace of vengeance in her deep, capable voice, and the surface of her gorgeous song remains steady, as a raga-like drone anchors rolling acoustic guitar and languid cello. Instead, like Laura Marling or Joan Shelley, the self-assurance Reid had once cultivated acts as its own safe harbor, turning the event into a meditation rather than a rupture. For a new artist, her confident grace is all the more remarkable.

NPR - 
Love is knowing what's best for yourself. We grasp at straws trying understand what that is, but even in that knowledge, we betray our best intentions to get stupid about another person. On "Call the Days," New Zealand folk artist Nadia Reid sings, "I was happy on my own / I would call the days as they were known" with a knowing yip, against a droning backdrop of closely mic'd acoustic guitars and longing cello. It's a heartbroken song, but made self-assured by Reid's warm, marbled alto.

Phoebe Mackenzie and Emily Berryman direct this beautifully shot video for "Call the Days," as the characters Nadia and Ross travel through New Zealand roads, forests and countrysides. Its muted palette is in keeping with the song's calm, yet gray skies; they betray the days ahead.

Nadia Reid - "Call The Days" (album excerpt)

This the an alternate take on This Is The Kit's "Magic Spell" recorded in Paris. 

It's also available on YouTube as a video (https://youtu.be/-ZaLLomkr2o) directed, created &  hand-drawn by Sam Wisternoff.

Buy This Is the Kit's new album Bashed Out:
- Bandcamp: https://thisisthekit.bandcamp.com/album/bashed-out
- iTunes: http://radi.al/BashedOutiTunes
- Amazon: http://radi.al/BashedOutAmazon
- Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/track/38cRRZuUiwoJ4J19a2UT2U

Kate Stables on 'Magic Spell:
"Magic Spell" is wee step in a more foot-tapping direction to what some people have come to expect from This Is The Kit. It’s the result of tours all crammed in the car and listening to re-releases of old African groove compilations and Hugh Tracey field recordings. That and a summer or two playing to festival crowds who were well-up for a bit of a dance.

One year at Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire the generator cut out right in the middle of "Magic Spell" and the whole audience started chanting the chorus and spontaneously formed a conga line. They proceeded to chant and conga their way around until they finally got the generator up and running again about 7 minutes later.

Musically, this song is particularly influenced by “Twer Nyame" by Ebo Taylor, a song with a magic spell of a trumpet hook that made it's altered way into the chorus of the song. “Twer Nyame" was an important soundtrack to the journey I sing about in “Magic Spell,” hence its use in the song.

What was that journey about? It’s the story of an unexpected adventure of self-discovery and growth between friends. But also about spells and incantations and other inexplicable things that make you feel a certain way, or perhaps even make things happen in reality. A melody. A rhythm. A nonsensical sentence spoken by a child. Words and notes and beats carry different magics and intentions.


Thoughts on the video from director Sam Wisternoff:

I wanted the video to have a distinctly organic, handmade quality which I associate with This Is The Kit’s music so I decided to draw everything by hand,  adding up, in the end to 1940 drawings.  An initial idea was to incorporate the kind of doodles you might draw absentmindedly while on the phone and for these to come alive and morph into characters while the texture of each sheet of paper is magnified, creating a cloud-like atmosphere.  

With colouring pencils, I traced over footage shot with the band, using the computer monitor as a light box, changing colour for each drawing to reflect the bouncy, technicolour feel of the track.  For the parts of the song which increase in density and energy, with the synth and distorted guitars, the colours are reversed which makes the paper texture become more energentic and stormy reflecting the dynamics of the song.

This Is The Kit "Magic Spell  (Paris Sessions)

Transfiguration of Vincent

Let’s Dance

Sleepwalker

01 Fools Rush In

Brassland is an artist-operated label started in 2001 by The National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner (http://brycedessner.com) and writer Alec Hanley Bemis (soundcloud.com/a-h-b). We encourage collaboration and creation among an evolving assortment of creative folks.

We are NOT actively seeking demos. But if you'd like to message us try http://brassland.org/contact.php

This Is The Kit: "Silver John"

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