DATE ARCHIVES : March 2013

Kid Karate – ‘This City’

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2013 looks like it could be a big year for Dublin duo Kid Karate. The release of their debut album Night Terrors, is only around the corner and closer on the horizon is their trip to SXSW.

With SXSW in mind Kid Karate have released a brand new track, ‘This City’. Offering a slightly different side to their usual snarl, Kevin Breen’s recognizable vocal screams and Steven Gannon’s pounding rhythms are met and matched by a bassline of Gang of Four proportions from Squarehead/Tieranniesaur bassist Ian McFarlane. Easily one of the most, if the most, written about artist on the blog over the past two years, it’s hardly a surprise that Kid Karate’s forthcoming album is one of my Irish albums to watch out for this year. 

You can download ‘This City’ for free below & if you’re going to SXSW, Kid Karate have two shows. On Wednesday the 13th of March they’re in the Gibson Room of Maggie Mae’s at 8pm and on Friday the 15th of March they’ll be playing the Full Irish Breakfast in BD Reilly’s at 1:20pm. Go and say hi, tell them uncle Barry sent you.

Album of the Week: Eva Petersen – ‘Emerald Green Eyes’

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Remember The Little Flames? Apart from a couple of great singles the Wirral band are now known best as the band Miles Kane cut his teeth with. But from the ashes of The Little Flames another solo career has emerged, that of Eva Peterson.

Petersen has been proclaimed ‘the greatest singer to come out of Liverpool in the 21st century’ by Will Sergeant of Echo & The Bunnymen (who co-wrote and produced the album). It is a claim not without merit, you will be hard pushed to find a finer voice than hers on Merseyside, or elsewhere. It is from this union that places her debut solo album Emerald Green Eyes, somewhere between post-punk and Northern Soul, as Petersen’s rich soulful voice drifts over Will’s recognizable guitar playing, cinematic tones and spectral synths.

It is this, that makes the record, like opener ‘Jewelled Moon’, ‘Emerald Green Eyes’ and emphatic closer ‘Melody’, familiar yet utterly distinctive. The whole record is glossed with a stylish ’60s lick which aids this air, especially ‘Too Late For Tears’, ‘Don’t Be Shy’, and superb Velvet Underground cover ‘Femme Fatale’. The foray through genres and styles is always secondary, ultimately it’s Petersen’s sultry voice which gives Emerald Green Eyes its star quality.

Petersen’s decision to take her time with this album, and to go in a different direction, has paid dividend. A trim eight songs it may be but Emerald Green Eyes, is a wonderful record of beguiling quality.