trash kit: confidence

Trash Kit, formed in 2009 by Rachel Aggs, Rachel Horwood, and Ros Murray, have become the glowing core of London's DIY underground. Their music is primal yet thoughtful, affirming yet sincere, drawing on the potential of post-punk and the naturalism of an internal folk music. Although Trash Kit have their forebears in bands like X-Ray Spex, The Ex, and The Raincoats, their sound is very much their own take on facing forwards. Galloping polyrhythms, overlapping sung-spoke lyrics and wordless vocals, and entwining guitars are all drawn together into a taut unity, sounding willfully alive. Both Rachels tangle their vocals with each other while expressive drumbeats and restless guitar flurries provide the rhythmic drive. Aggs's guitar playing is as much informed by African fingerstyle patterns as the percussive attitude of various no wave shredders. Horwood approaches her drum-kit with an untamable freedom, pushing it into the realm of a vivid lead instrument. Trash Kit's music is full of pauses, woven silence, and punctuation too, and this is where Murray and her resonant, soulful bass work finds a perfect home. In 2010, Trash Kit released their self-titled debut album on Upset the Rhythm to critical applause. The Sunday Times called it "tumbling, spirited and joyously nimble," while The Quietus remarked, "female punk can sound like cocoons cracking open in full fierce sunlight." As a follow-up to their exuberant debut album, Confidence sticks with their beloved "play it all live" pluck. There's a minimal bent, a lyrical directness, an unadorned ethic that all evoke the sense that the song is being written at the same time as it's performed. Yet while the first album at times felt too fleeting, its succinct songs flashing by so fast, Confidence is startlingly more assured, allowing ideas to develop, and conclusions to be gathered. Tracks like "Hair," "Skin," and "Boredom" embrace dynamics like never before. Their clatter and chime are complemented with subtler passages of introspection and the occasional noisy breakdown, with snare and cymbals approaching roar. Ros is joined by her previous bandmate Verity Susman (of Electrelane) on a few tracks, including the adventurous "Shyness" and lead single "Medicine," lending some fluently inventive saxophone flourishes. It all adds to the heady sensation of free-falling through the album. A feeling that the horizon has become broader. Recorded at Sound Savers with Mark Jasper; mixed by Sherry Ostapovitch; mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control, etc.).