trash kit: horizon

Trash Kit are Rachel Aggs (guitar, vocals), Rachel Horwood (drums, vocals), and Gill Partington (bass). Three deeply creative individuals who play in a multitude of other groups including Bas Jan, Sacred Paws, Shopping, and Bamboo. Although Trash Kit have their forebears in bands like Sleater-Kinney, The Ex, and The Raincoats, their sound is still very much their own take on facing forwards and relies as much on the naturalism of an internalized folk music as on their sincerity of vision. For Horizon, carefully crafted through years of playing out live, the band have chased down the distance between what they wanted the record to sound like and its realization. They've augmented these songs with choral arrangements, piano, saxophone, harp, viola, and cello. Horizon finds itself full of themes, especially the notion of looking to the future. "Coasting", which opens the album, is concerned with "the end of the world and also the afterlife" and was written after Aggs read The Parable of the Sower (1993) by the Afro futurist sci-fi writer Octavia Butler, a novel set in an apocalyptic California and featuring a protagonist in search of change and renewal. "Sunset" draws on similar themes of ending and salvation, and proves equally ruminative. "Dislocate" on the other hand is an upbeat sprint of spinning guitar and piano riffs showcasing both Rachels's overlapping vocal magnetism. "Horizon" is a sleeping giant of a title track, forever reaching out and intensifying throughout its lively five-minute lesson in reinforcement. "Every Second" was written in the aftershock of Trash Kit's tour with The Ex on their big convoy anniversary tour. "See Through" sounds pointed and surly, urging you to "transcend, break down" outdated categories and patterns of thought that only restrict. Partington's bassline plummets heavily to hammer this home, making it one of the most affecting songs from the album. Meanwhile "Get Out of Bed" deals with "being an overachiever and the struggle to overcome self-doubt, get motivated, never feeling like you've done enough" Aggs admits. A strong undercurrent throughout Horizon concerns itself with the freeing up of power to make your own definitions, in this case how you can decide what truly makes you feel like you've achieved something. 180gm yellow vinyl. edition of 300.