KETTLESPIDER

Last Monday, I had a rather amazing experience listening to the new album by Kettlespider. Having just moved house - and dealing with all of the stress that such a process entails, I went for a walk to the beach to unwind and de-stress. It is here that I first heard Kettlespider's new body of work, a release I have been anticipating for years. As the first song, "The Climber" drew to a close, I stopped by the lookout and watched a pod of Dolphins swim along the shoreline of Beaumaris! The second track, "Circus", started to play and I knew I was in for a journey..

At one stage, I was a mere 50m away from the Dolphins as I walked onto the rock pool to view them up close. The boppy odd-time riff of "Samsara" seemed to move and sway along with the dolphins and the waves, almost as if they could hear it and were performing a dance of sorts. The remainder of the album walked me back home - healed. "Anubis" is perhaps my favourite song that Kettlespider has ever written. The way the album is bookended with "Break the Safe 2", an acoustic guitar driven piece that conjures up a number of earlier themes explored in the album's previous songs, is just wonderful, and offers the album a sense of cohesiveness and completeness. The melodic themes throughout the album are on the whole incredibly memorable and even encourage you to want to sing along at times!

Kettlespider have been working on this new beast of an album for some years now, and I am blown away by what I've heard. Top shelf production, catchy hooks left right and centre, trumpets! And of course a ridiculously high level of musicianship that makes me question my entire existence. Do yourself a favour and check out Kettlespider's new self titled album today!

Note: album may be best heard in the presence of Dolphins.