Kathryn Joseph – WE WERE MADE PREY.
On her latest album, Kathryn Joseph conjures even more delicate ways to doubt, rage and come to terms with being
It’s been ten years since Kathryn Joseph won The SAY Award and now WE WERE MADE PREY. is here. Can we still say ‘wow’? The evolution in Joseph’s work is restless and searching. This release is no different as it serves us another intuitive and unexpected turn in her style, instrumentation and vocals. The keyboard sounds like a lost Rhodes piano smothered in gentle distortion; it swirls and silences throughout the album and by the end comes out clean, shed of texture. Working alongside Lomond Campbell, the expansion into electronics and textures is a welcome backdrop to Joseph’s almost fickle voice.
The album’s first single HARBOUR. shows this new distorted rage, at in-betweens, longings, shortcomings. BEL (II). sits like a memory of Joseph’s past with the piano setting the stage for BEFORE., the track that binds the album in its direct, angry refrains – 'Before your God…' – while HOLD. is a hopeful, freeing ballad. A deep range of styles emerge. The animalistic spaces Joseph occupies are tethered to her original mix: the incongruence of tragedy told in gentle, softer tones. WE WERE MADE PREY. forgets this and conjures, eerily, even more delicate ways to doubt, rage and come to terms with being.
Listen to: BEFORE., ROADKILL., DARK.