Free Kitten / Inherit

Jun 24 2008

GARAGE supergroup Free Kitten make a predictably leftfield comeback with their fourth album, Inherit.

Fronted by Sonic Youth veteran Kim Gordon and Pussy Galore’s Julie Cafritz, the band also features Yoshimi, drummer with The Boredom.

Returning after an 11-year absence, nothing much has really changed for Free Kitten, with Ms Gordon’s relentless and seemingly never-ending pursuit of her original slacker punk aesthetic prevailing once again.

The album is full of the sort of lo-fi, fuzzy guitars that helped make the Youth so influential in many eyes, with plenty of shouty vocals giving matters an edgy, confessional air.

Legendary Dinosaur Jr axeman J Mascis helps out with an electric turn on Surf’s Up but the highlight of a ragged set is Monster Eye, an 11-minute-plus psychedelic epic that includes a bizarre spoken-word narrative from Gordon.

Whether it’s performance poetry or art-rock, only Julian Cope’s antics on Reynard The Fox could possibly be considered a rival for sheer loopiness.