With “Slightly Higher in Canada” Kite Trio takes another step away from familiar jazz touchstones and embraces its defiantly weird, idiosyncratic, and authentic creative voice.
Produced by Dave King (of The Bad Plus), it sees the band pursuing its unusual approach with the kind of relentless energy you’d expect from a jazz trio recording an album under the hilarious, watchful eye of a creative giant like Dave.
Recorded entirely live with no edits or overdubs, they take on emotionally and rhythmically complex music with a gutsy, intuitive approach which is unmistakably “Kite”. The result is an unpredictable, messy, and rewarding album that goes places you could only expect from a band that’s been unrelentingly pursuing its group sound for almost ten years.
It’s eleven original compositions and one cover (“Milkman” by experimental rock band “Deerhoof”), chart a lot of territory. From challenging, intricately composed counterpoint to minimal, gestural improvisations, the music is alternately surreal, sentimental, subversive, ambitious, ambiguous… sometimes downright alien, but never alienating.
Kite clearly relishes occupying this unusual territory and “Slightly Higher in Canada” captures their delight and enthusiasm perfectly, all with a raw, unpredictable aesthetic for which producer Dave King no doubt bears some responsibility.
1. Slightly Higher in Canada 05:13
2. That Good Old Feeling 04:23
3. Milkman (Deerhoof) 06:01
4. Pidgin 07:01
