▄▄ [ INFORMATION ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ ARTIST: Katie Kim █
█ TITLE: Cover & Flood █
█ LABEL: Flaming June █
█ GENRE: Indie █
█ BITRATE: 198kbps avg █
█ PLAYTIME: 0h 47min total █
█ RELEASE DATE: 2012-00-00 █
█ RIP DATE: 2012-03-15 █
█ URL: █
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▄▄ [ TRACKLIST ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ 01. Birds Fly Low 1:35 █
█ 02. Charlie 3:08 █
█ 03. The Feast 2:27 █
█ 04. Sugar 0:50 █
█ 05. Pause 3:55 █
█ 06. All Living Things 1:44 █
█ 07. Heavy Lighting 3:47 █
█ 08. Caught In A Sting 1:19 █
█ 09. Blood Bean 3:33 █
█ 10. Dimmer 3:10 █
█ 11. Fake Your Death 2:15 █
█ 12. Jennifer Mache 1:01 █
█ 13. Your Mountains 4:05 █
█ 14. Rabbit Paw 0:45 █
█ 15. Science Of Sleep 1:35 █
█ 16. Last Waltz 1:33 █
█ 17. Little Dragon 3:09 █
█ 18. Wines 1:11 █
█ 19. Red Plays 3:12 █
█ 20. Habits 3:09 █
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▄▄ [ NOTES ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
█ █
█ From Thump.com: █
█ It's fitting that a child's voice opens 'Birds Fly Low', the first track █
█ on Cover & Flood. The young voice is pretty much unintelligible as its █
█ word-less roving melody emerges from the noise surrounding it. It's off █
█ kilter and intriguing, innocent and unknowable. Eventually her phrases █
█ repeat and it begins to become familiar, though no more understandable █
█ than ever before. The space it exists in increases in size and density █
█ as we slowly zoom out like a camera, gradually losing the details in the █
█ distance. It is in this way that it serves as the perfect opening scene █
█ for what unravels as an irresistible and mysterious immersion in aural █
█ mis-en-scene. █
█ █
█ By the time 'Charlie' - the first song proper - starts, the prologue has █
█ done its job and you've already found your feet in this very particular █
█ landscape. The loops of ominous notes and spare percussion maintain █
█ their swamp-footed waltz throughout as the delicate and unnerving vocals █
█ creep over the top. Modal scales on brass tickle the edge of the █
█ picture. Snake rattles and chants slither out of the background for █
█ snatched half-moments of exposure before a major chord appears from the █
█ fog, the curtains get drawn back and before you know where you are, it's █
█ morning. You feel a weak ray of sunlight on your cheek. It's disarming. █
█ You're confused and happy to be out of it. You know you'll go back █
█ though; it's a charming underworld, enticing and dangerous with its █
█ edge-of-earshot temptations. █
█ █
█ This mode continues for the rest of the album, variations on a theme █
█ showing the endless depth of shadows and all the scattered beauty a █
█ glimmer of light can illuminate. It's an album of bits and pieces █
█ patched together, each imbued with the same sense of wonderment at █
█ unknown things. The sounds are small, more often than not, and the █
█ smallest elements seem as important and as loved as the greater swathes █
█ of sound to be found in the longer songs. 'Pause' is one of those █
█ longer, more obviously finished songs, a melancholic wash of heavy piano █
█ chords surrounded by swells of strings and the saddest of harmonies. █
█ Again it's in waltz time, a rhythm that suits the mood of the album as a █
█ whole. The songs that employ it come across like memories of old dances █
█ with someone loved held close. 'Pause' is the close up, the tear running █
█ down the cheek, wrinkles around the eyes captured in heart-breaking █
█ detail. ôI saw entry lines around your face, they're new and show where █
█ someone tool your place,ö go the opening lines and that sense of █
█ displacement and loss permeates the song to its core. It's the saddest █
█ moment here, a genuine pause before the light seeps back and the sepia █
█ tones are washed out in favour of something a little more colourful. █
█ █
█ The colour comes first from the surprising marimba tones of 'All Living █
█ Things'. From here to the finish, the patterns become clearer and the █
█ songs run together almost as one. The bed of each track is a darkness of █
█ chord, a harmonic heaviness that pervades almost every second of █
█ listening. While this feeling slowly makes its way into your bones, it's █
█ the melodies that will rouse and stun. The moment on 'Heavy Lightning' █
█ where the falling vocal meets the sliding guitar note searching for the █
█ sky. When she says the word ôJohannaö. When the drums first hit in the █
█ distance of 'Dimmer' and the vocals rise to meet them, a sound like some █
█ noble act of unknown bravery in the dawn light. 'Fake Your Death' walked █
█ the line between light and dark with a whistler-friendly melody relaying █
█ the darkest of thoughts, ôI'll make your bruises hurt better than your █
█ heart doesö. █
█ █
█ The part where the voices fade on 'Your Mountains'. 'Little Dragons' █
█ lives somewhere between trip-hop and Throbbing Gristle. The way 'Habits' █
█ closes things out with the simplest of melodies, building from █
█ alternating and impossibly high piano notes to tiny swells of noise, █
█ never rising beyond a whisper and keeping the vocals out front. ôI'm OK █
█ with it,ö she says at the death and the toy piano keeps those two notes █
█ going until the end. There are twenty songs on Cover & Flood, twenty █
█ pieces of sound patched together to form an overwhelmingly beautiful █
█ whole. It's a myriad of tones and shadows, an experience that rewards █
█ close listening as much as it is great to fall asleep to. It's as deep █
█ as you want or need it to be. New elements peek their way out of the █
█ dusk with each new listen and old, forgotten ones eventually return with █
█ all the joy that accompanies a meeting with an old friend. It's an album █
█ made for the four sides of vinyl it will appear on, with each flipping █
█ of side or changing of disc further building the ritual around listening █
█ to it. Noisy, small and half-hidden, it makes no grand gestures or █
█ sweeping statements. It is an album confident in itself, as it should █
█ be. It will seek no gratification, though it deserves to find it. When █
█ Katie Kim's first record, Twelves, came out, it felt like a █
█ one-of-a-kind experience, a moment in time. Cover & Flood is all that █
█ her dΘbut was and much, much more. It's stronger and more assured, with █
█ every minute detail bearing signs of the loving touch of its creator. A █
█ singular achievement and an important record. █
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