This Is Not TV

The appalling misdemeanour of being brave, independent women in rock aside – and in Kim Gordon’s case, a women in her 50’s in rock – Free Kitten have made a confident, playful, exciting and occasionally challenging return to the Sonic Youth side-project ‘spotlight’. Much of ‘Inherit’ is cut from the same cloth as latter-day SY, clanging chords and ringing guitars, a slow chug, but while those are hailed as renaisance recordings, and all Thurston has to do is tune up to recieve rave reviews, Free Kitten are definitey marginalised more than their music deserves. Without wanting to go down the route of positive discrimination, ‘Inherit’ should be treated as the work of conquering heroes, three musicians who have contributed a lot to the modern rock underground – Kim, Julie Cafritz of Pussy Galore, and Yoshimi P-We who, as one-third of the Boredoms’ drum circle, should have statues of her erected on every street corner.

The variety on show here hints at aspects of their previous work outside of Free Kitten, all brought together and harnessed. Several tracks are lengthy, and no doubt a little too meandering for some, but there are some punky, punchy numbers. ‘Bananas’, ‘Help Me’, ‘Roughshod’ are especially memorable, fuzzy floods of sound with vocals from somewhere beneath a barrage of guitars

. Of the more experimental tracks, ‘Free Kitten On The Mountain’ is perhaps the best, while ‘Monster Eye’ recalls the heyday of the original Patti Smith group. Another reference that recurs is PJ Harvey’s punked-up ‘Uh Huh Her’, although ‘Inherit’ is the stronger record.

Capable of roaring like a grungy express train, or pondering and provoking over strangled feedback, Free Kitten have delivered a strong, multi-faceted album, which might not always take itself seriously but deserves respect and attention.

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