She’s gay and proud of it. Not that you’d have guessed as this pocket-sized instrumentalist doesn’t use it as the keystone of her existence, the bedrock of her life as an artist and nor does it provide the basis of a thousand and one songs about dungarees, landykes, rainbow holidays, unrequited muffs or a heapful of constant cravings. Members of her own sex occupy her bed and that’s about as much as you can draw from it. So why do I mention it? Just to cause trouble, I guess, that and the fact that in this day and age it’s good to see an artist relying singularly on their creative merits rather than on what kind of common-or-garden goods they’re sticking up their nose or how regularly they can flash their beaver at the tabloids whilst stepping out of a car. Kaki King plays the guitar and she plays it very well. She slaps it, she pulls it, she tickles it, she strokes it and for the 45-minute duration, at least, she actually treats it with the kind of respect and sensitivity that many of should spare for our partner. Fair enough, her early albums were a bit of drag; in fact it’s arguable whether more light and shade could have been found in wardrobe at the centre of the earth during the Winter Solstice than on previous albums like, ‘Everybody Loves You’ – but not on this album. ‘Dreaming of Revenge’ ripples with the kind of richly percussive fret-fiddling and new age rhythms that usually find their way onto records by artists whose name we can’t pronounce and an earthy animation more commonly associated with garage bands and youths with red hot blood in their veins. From the first breathless tumble of words stumbling from Kaki’s mouth on motor-mantra, ‘Pull Me Out Alive’ to the rainstick prattle and glide of, ‘So Much For So Little’ you are aware that the artist is in a keen and animated mode. It’s more intuitive than anything she’s done before, more direct, more honest, more engaging and more varied. Sure the jazz is still there but it’s absorbed into a more warm and rural setting. You are never sure entirely which way it’s going to go and ‘Saving Days In A Frozen Head’ is a case in point, kicking off with a cute, spiralling riff before collapsing into a cloud of cooing vocals, brush snares and some chiming additional licks, coming somewhere between Eliot Smith, the Mamas and Papas and Joao Gilberto.
A charming album, but made all the more charming for allowing plenty of additional headspace in which we can share those dreams.
KAI KING – ‘DREAMING OF REVENGE’ OUT 04.03.08