(2024) Kaia Kater - Strange Medicine [FLAC]

    Kaia Kater – Strange Medicine (2024)        





Review:

Back in 2018, Kaia Kater's third album Grenades sent a ripple through the folk and roots music world, earning her Polaris and Juno nominations and helping to reinvigorate the mesmerizing quality of banjo-focused music. The album was raw and stripped back, employing a more traditional western folk style for Kater to sing about her Caribbean heritage and her father's struggles as a young political refugee. Now, six years later, Kater is back with Strange Medicine, which feels more like a cinematic odyssey than a straight folk album. The songs on Strange Medicine feel fully realized, featuring strings, melancholic horns, R&B synth work, frenetic jazz drumming and of course, some expert banjo playing from Kater. Kater's vocals also feel more carefully considered this time around, sometimes recorded intimately enough to sound like she's whispering to you in a darkened, single-chair room. The album begins on a strong note with "The Witch," a classic Kater tune informed by real history and somewhat rewritten as an ode to female empowerment. The story is inspired by the Salem Witch Trials, specifically the first Black woman literally branded as a witch — in Kater's version, she escapes and exacts revenge on her enemies. The banjo becomes the star of the show during "Maker Taker," a hand-plucked journey that features minimal, wistful horn waves, leaning fully into the free-form, crestfallen jazz Kater is now working in. These horns make another appearance during "Mechanics of the Mind" and "Fedon." The latter might be the heaviest-hitting track on Strange Medicine, about Grenadian revolutionary Julien Fédon, who paved the way for revolt against the Britis. It features backup vocals by American blues legend Taj Mahal, an intergenerational vocal collaboration that's one of the more captivating surprises on Strange Medicine. Kater and co-producer Joe Grass created little universes in these songs — It shouldn't be surprising to learn that Kater is now writing compositions for film and television, as the music on Strange Medicine feels like the grand soundtrack for an as-yet unwritten film of epic historical proportions.  — exclaim





   





Track List:

01 - The Witch

02 - Maker Taker

03 - Mechanics of the Mind

04 - In Montreal

05 - The Internet

06 - Fédon

07 - Floodlights

08 - Often as the Autumn

09 - History in Motion

10 - Tigers





Media Report:

Genre: indie-folk

Origin: Toronto, Ontario, Canada  

Format: FLAC

Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec

Bit rate mode: Variable

Channel(s): 2 channels

Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz

Bit depth: 16 bits

Compression mode: Lossless

Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)





Note: If you like the music, support the artist