Kettles of Kites are a multinational group showcasing how Europe should work together, with an Italian bass player, an English drummer and a Belgium-based guitarist. It’s just a shame that isn’t quite how it works all the time.
As a group, they move together well. The tracks are dynamic in terms of their tone and volume, keeping you interested and awake with their melodies. However, the overall package fails to stir me.
Kettle of Kites are in a difficult genre. Folk-rock is a well-trodden, perhaps over-trodden field in the last decade, so to succeed you have to be prepared to break its well-defined structures of one man, one guitar, one mandolin. If you don’t, you risk recreating the modern greats – Fleet Foxes – and sounding either uninspiring or imitative (that alliteration is starting to look suspicious…).
Kettle of Kites do begin to break down those boundaries, using an atmospheric synth in parts. But soon enough, I get the feeling that I’ve heard all of this before. As a result, the intimate delicateness of the songwriting comes across as far too safe – ‘woo’ me, guys.
I can’t help but feel the record didn’t give me much to return to over and over again. Perhaps many will love the comfortable and warm, gentle and calming qualities of this record, but I can’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed. In many respects, mixing Radiohead and Fleet Foxes also results in a sort of Elbow-effect that admittedly, I am allergic to. *sneeze* *sniff*
Haiku Review
Straight-shooting folk-rock,
Mix Radiohead / Fleet Foxes,
Needs more risk-taking.
Listen to Kettle of Kites on Spotify and Apple Music. Get the latest volume of our print magazine HERE.
