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Rating: Free Kitten, a name that may not mean much to many.
Yet the names of the members are far from unknown: none other than Kim Gordon, Julie Cafritz, already in the cult noise band Pussy Galore in the late '80s, Mark Ibold (ex-Pavement) and Yoshimi P-We, drummer of the experimental Japanese group Boredoms and also the inspiration for the Flaming Lips' album title (Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots). A noise supergroup, in short.
About eleven years after the last "Sentimental Education," Free Kitten lose Ibold and release through Ecstatic Peace at the end of May 2008 this "Inherit", already panned by several specialized magazines.
We're not at the level of "Nice Ass", indeed, but "Inherit" is pleasantly listenable and demonstrates a certain sonic maturity (Cafritz and Gordon are aging musicians by now).
Thus abandoning the foxcore and lo-fi attitudes of their early records, Free Kitten significantly soften and lengthen the duration of their tracks. Dissonant guitars, minimal drums, and lazy talk are the main ingredients of the trio's new sound. Before, there were screams, powerful distortions, decisive drums, synthesis.
The suite "Free Kitten On The Mountain" is expansive, dreamy, at times cold and detached because such is Kim Gordon's speech. The atmosphere recalls the calmer moments of "Rather Ripped," as does that of the opener "Erected Girl", and this shows that more than being Pussy Galore according to Julie Cafritz, Free Kitten were always rather Sonic Youth according to Gordon. Indeed, the sonicyouthian scent is persistent throughout the entire duration of "Inherit". "Sway" is enchanting, with its mild math-rock progression, with its sweet impotence. One of the peaks of the record, along with "Surf's Up", a noise carpet stretched out under a guitar solo by J Mascis (leader of Dinosaur Jr., for the uninitiated), who is also featured as a drummer in the crazy collage of experiments "Bananas". The visceral low-fidelity outbursts of the early works are kept alive only by Julie Cafritz in the dark and furious "Help Me", a no-wave splinter à la Lydia Lunch. "The Poet" is the track that best sums up the album: no virtuosity, no hint of melody, essential drums occasionally going wild with tribalism, shoegaze guitars.
"Inherit" is anger that becomes melancholy, the desire to change the world that turns into resignation, the girl who becomes a woman.
It is the noise that doesn't want to be heard.
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